Transcript
Speaker: G'day, I'm Trent Maxwell.
Speaker: And I'm Lee Mason.
Speaker: And we want to welcome you to our Live, Learn, Survive podcast.
Speaker: Since 2018, Lee and I travel the globe and met face-to-face over 36,500 children in six countries across three continents.
Speaker: We've created a series of award-winning children's books, a global online education program, and are founders of the Live, Learn, Survive charity, all focused on teaching children and young adults life skills that will not only help themselves, but help others too.
Speaker: We're on a mission to spread awareness about fire, water, and first aid education to inspire the next generation of first responders.
Speaker: So join us for the next half an hour with some fun, inspiration and kindness and we'll try and learn something too.
Speaker: How are you this week, Lee?
Speaker: Welcome aboard.
Speaker: Maxie, I am good.
Speaker: How are you?
Speaker: I'm good.
Speaker: I'm good.
Speaker: It's been a crazy couple of weeks, but I'm sure we can catch up on that soon.
Speaker: But yeah, how are you going?
Speaker: No, no, it's been good.
Speaker: It's been an interesting few days up here in South East Queensland, but...
Speaker: think we're all okay so um back on back on the uh what do they say back on the bike back on the and um back on the wagon and getting on with it and um getting busy so um but we've got a special guest today maxi one of our very very special guests a very special guest someone that's actually a part of the live and survive family absolutely i can't believe it's taken this long to actually interview this person but in hindsight um
Speaker: You know, the longer we leave it, the more and more great things the great person is doing.
Speaker: He's looking very nervous now.
Speaker: We've put him under pressure.
Speaker: So we better introduce him, hey, for the people that are not on YouTube and can't see him yet.
Speaker: So Maxie, today we are joined by our very, very special friend, Mr. Paul Doran.
Speaker: So Paul is Station Commander with Fire and Rescue New South Wales and in 2024 received
Speaker: the Australian Fire Service Medal in the King's Birthday Honours List for more than 30 years service as a senior New South Wales firefighter.
Speaker: Based at Colomal Fire Station, which is in regional New South Wales, Paul has a passion for helping others and has become a role model for his peers and local community.
Speaker: And they've seen him develop many safety initiatives.
Speaker: Firstly, the Home Care Disability Fire Safety Programme in which he promoted fire safety efforts
Speaker: involving clients and their carers.
Speaker: And secondly, the Winter's Smoke Alarm Action Day project, known as SAD.
Speaker: I hope I said that right.
Speaker: Paul, we're going to talk about this anyway.
Speaker: It takes place on the June 1st every year.
Speaker: And as I said, we're going to talk about it.
Speaker: When not at the fire station, Paul is an incredible cartoonist and illustrator.
Speaker: And we are really proud to say
Speaker: He is the illustrator behind all of our books, which has brought the stories to life in such a spectacular way.
Speaker: Paul began drawing cartoons when he was very young, back at school, but before drawing, had a passion for modelling things out of plasticine, which I didn't know.
Speaker: Paul's late brother Stephen was his inspiration, and he eventually swapped the plasticine for pen and ink,
Speaker: and the family Louvre Kitchen Gallery eventually led Paul to getting his first published cartoon in the Bulletin magazine back in 1984.
Speaker: Today's cartoons appear in suburban and regional newspapers all around Australia and different parts of the world, and of course, in our books, for which we could not be more grateful.
Speaker: Over the years, Paul has supported the Jeans for Jeans charity, raising money for the Children's Medical Research Institute,
Speaker: by painting on the genes of celebrities, such as Mike Tyson, actor Robin Williams, Jonah Hill, Jim Belushi, Kevin Kline, Francis McDormand, David Hasselhoff, the Hoff Maxi, to name a few.
Speaker: So let's give an incredible welcome to our very special friend of Live and Survive, Paul, we are thrilled to have you here.
Speaker: Welcome, Paul.
Speaker: Thanks, Maxie.
Speaker: How are we going?
Speaker: Good, mate.
Speaker: Good.
Speaker: How are you, Max?
Speaker: Just for people on YouTube, explain the scene.
Speaker: Where are you, Paul?
Speaker: I'm actually in my office at the fire station, so I'm ready to go in case we get a fire call.
Speaker: So it's a little quiet room and the guys aren't around, so that's the main thing.
Speaker: That's good.
Speaker: It's good to see you, mate.
Speaker: Obviously, we both work in the same organisation as well as doing parts for Live, Learn, Survive.
Speaker: I've had the chance to work alongside you at a couple of big jobs over time.
Speaker: But yeah, within the fire world, mate, you're very well respected.
Speaker: And again, I'll say to you before this podcast, they don't hand out AFSMs, Australian Fire Service Medals, out of cereal boxes.
Speaker: So you should be very proud of that medal, mate.
Speaker: It's something that a lot of firefighters do aspire to hopefully achieve and to get that is so prestigious.
Speaker: So you should be very proud of that.
Speaker: No, thanks, Maxie.
Speaker: Like yourself, you know, we don't do this job for awards or medals.
Speaker: But, no, it was a lovely honour to receive it.
Speaker: And it's the king's birthday, so it wasn't the queen.
Speaker: The funny thing is, on the medal, they've still got the queen's face.
Speaker: So it might be old stock medals, I don't know.
Speaker: There you go.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Do you know what?
Speaker: It's a lovely year.
Speaker: That's going to make it very, very rare in years to come because it will be the one where there was probably the transition.
Speaker: Transition, exactly.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So it was a lovely experience.
Speaker: Going up to Government House to receive it was, I was a nervous little boy, but yeah, the royal kind of sort of communal of it all was spectacular and the Commissioner was there as well in the day.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: And it was lovely too, sitting amongst other people receiving awards for things they've done in the community and
Speaker: There are some amazing people out there doing some amazing things for the community.
Speaker: It's just amazing.
Speaker: Awesome, mate.
Speaker: Congratulations.
Speaker: So we've got about 15 questions here.
Speaker: Lee, we'll start it off and then we'll just go through and learn more about you.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: So let's start it off.
Speaker: Firefighter, how long?
Speaker: How did that start?
Speaker: How did you get into it, Paul?
Speaker: Well, as a little kid, you always want to be a firefighter.
Speaker: And when I was about 15, I was going to Sydney with my mum and we drove through a bushfire and we saw all the fire trucks there.
Speaker: And I thought, oh, this sounds exciting.
Speaker: And when I was at school, a friend's dad was in the bushfire brigade, now the rural fire service.
Speaker: And when I was over at his place, we got talking about the fire brigade and about... And I just sounded really interested and excited.
Speaker: And he invited me to come down to one of their Saturday drill days.
Speaker: And I did that.
Speaker: And so before I joined Fire and Rescue New South Wales,
Speaker: I was with the Rural Fire Service for about eight years.
Speaker: And I always say it's probably one of the best things I ever did.
Speaker: The people that were at the fire station I was at were fantastic role models.
Speaker: And I attribute who I am today
Speaker: partly because of the time I spent around them and grew up with them as great mentors.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's funny you say that, you know, with the professional lifeguarding that I've done for firefighting, I was part of the volunteer organisation of Surf Lifeslam Australia.
Speaker: So the RFS is very similar.
Speaker: that's a volunteer aspect to firefighting.
Speaker: So it does pave so many paths for people to aspire to become permanent firefighters, the skills, the community, the charity stuff that you guys do.
Speaker: It's all about giving back.
Speaker: And when we do our talks and we talk to a lot of people, volunteering is such a good thing to have on your resume.
Speaker: It's a good thing to do for the community.
Speaker: And you always reminisce and think about those good times because you did have, because you know that people are in that room or in the engine bay or,
Speaker: in the in the hall they're all there off their own bat and they're there because they care and they want to learn so and i totally agree it's um the main word there is community just the uh the community aspect of it is is just remarkable and it's like having just a big group of friends and uh and it becomes a family and it doesn't matter what i i think um
Speaker: involuntary capacity that you do in the community.
Speaker: There's always a family community connection to it, which is brilliant.
Speaker: And I recommend anybody to join a volunteer organisation, whether it's SES, it's the Royal Fire Service, if it's Mills on Wheels.
Speaker: But there's so many volunteering organisations that we can get involved with.
Speaker: You've just got to pick one that suits you and suits your life balance as well.
Speaker: And those organisations are crying out for volunteers as well.
Speaker: You know, it's not, it's like, it's a win-win.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Well, I remember when my mum was in hospital when she broke her wrist, the amount of volunteers that were in there, even retired nurses, that were just helping out along the moors was just fantastic.
Speaker: It was just uplifting to know that people are volunteering their service to actually be there.
Speaker: Yeah, having a purpose, absolutely.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Mate, you touched on how you became a firefighter, but what is your role currently as a firefighter?
Speaker: Can you explain that?
Speaker: Yeah, I'm a captain, also known as a station commander.
Speaker: So, again, a little bit different to you, Maxie.
Speaker: I'm a retained station, not a permanent station.
Speaker: So our station is not...
Speaker: Not me and 24-7, but we are available 24-7.
Speaker: And I've got a crew of about 16 firefighters that I look after.
Speaker: And out of that 16, we've always got to have four available.
Speaker: So we've got ship workers.
Speaker: We've got people that work for themselves.
Speaker: Actually, we've got a whole variety of people with their...
Speaker: their careers that at certain times that make themselves available.
Speaker: If they're at work, they can't be available.
Speaker: But some of those might be on ship work, they might be doing nicely, but they become available through the day.
Speaker: So they're available through the day.
Speaker: Someone like myself who sits at the desk drawing all day, I'm always available.
Speaker: So, you know, someone that's got the daytime availability is extra handy because it's the toughest time of the day to get people to be available.
Speaker: Yeah, and how far away do you live from the station?
Speaker: Give a context for people.
Speaker: If the page or the phone was to go off, how quick can you get to the station and what's the turnout like?
Speaker: Yeah, our turnout time is pretty good.
Speaker: We've got to be at the door in six minutes and we try and beat that.
Speaker: It's a bit of a challenge for us every call.
Speaker: We get to try and beat that six-minute turnout.
Speaker: So we've got to live in a reasonable distance to the station and you can be shopping, you can be down at the park with the kids, you can be doing anything in the page that goes off.
Speaker: But you've got to do things within a reasonable distance to the station to get there.
Speaker: So, again, we like to be at the door in six minutes with the bells going off.
Speaker: So that's the truck out of the fire station door within six minutes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So we're going to come to our home, get unchanged, get dressed, jump in the fire truck, go back here, jump in the fire truck and out the door within six minutes.
Speaker: So you're probably no one is more than three or four minutes away?
Speaker: About three to four kilometres.
Speaker: I probably live the second furthest away from the station and I've got a pretty good run with traffic lights.
Speaker: So, yeah, in reasonable distance, but, yeah, you wouldn't launch only 15, 20 kilometres away and take the station.
Speaker: Awesome, mate.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: I've got a fantastic crew.
Speaker: I've got a mixture of people and they've got quite a range of jobs.
Speaker: We've got bus drivers, we've got sign riders, we've got people that work for BHP Steel, a couple of miners, we've got electricians.
Speaker: So there's a whole variety.
Speaker: But the best thing is it's definitely a family and a family.
Speaker: I think the most important thing that I sort of, I've got myself at the station is our camaraderie.
Speaker: And it's just, yeah, it's a real bonding sort of a group.
Speaker: And it's funny because we might get a fire call that might only be about five minutes, but we spend an hour chatting away afterwards before we head home.
Speaker: Yeah, so important.
Speaker: Brilliant, brilliant.
Speaker: So one of the things that we just talked about as we intro'd you, Paul, and we know how passionate you are about this, so we want to make sure you really get every opportunity to talk about it.
Speaker: The SAD initiative, which is the Smoke Alarm Action Day project.
Speaker: Tell us about it and, you know, how it came about.
Speaker: Yeah, that's something I'm really, really proud of, Smoke on Action Day.
Speaker: This is our second year.
Speaker: This will be in June, first of June, this will be our second year.
Speaker: It was an idea that came about with regards to, I suppose, well, one program led to another program.
Speaker: My Home Care and Disability Support Program kicked off as I was a full-time carer for my mother and my association with the carers that came in and helped myself and my mother out.
Speaker: And from that, it just sort of made me aware of the amount of vulnerable members of our community out there that don't have a smoke alarm.
Speaker: Or we say now a working smoke alarm.
Speaker: They might have an old smoke alarm that's not working and surprising the amount of people that don't have a smoke alarm at all.
Speaker: So change your clocks, change your batteries is something that was kind of, I suppose, it's lost its impact.
Speaker: And we need something new, something fresh.
Speaker: And these days smoke alarms are 10-year-old smoke alarms.
Speaker: So they come as a computer.
Speaker: So you're not... Sorry, that's my phone.
Speaker: So... I don't know if it's a call.
Speaker: We're on.
Speaker: I was going to say, are we on?
Speaker: No.
Speaker: It's off.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: So, so smoke alarms now come as a complete unit, a 10 year, sort of 10 year battery.
Speaker: And once it's had its 10 year lifespan, well, we just changed the whole unit.
Speaker: So we needed something a bit more fresher and came along smoke alarm action day last year.
Speaker: It was something that was sort of just going to develop in New South Wales.
Speaker: But because through my connections with the Home Care and Disability Program, we were in touch with Canberra Fire Service because there's a lot of home care providers that have got clients on the outskirts of Canberra.
Speaker: So they wanted to get involved as well.
Speaker: And from there, I thought I'd sort of introduce Canberra to it.
Speaker: And then we introduced Melbourne to the idea of Smegelomax on Day.
Speaker: And from there, it just sort of grew and grew.
Speaker: And knowing me and how I get passionate about it, if I get something passionate about,
Speaker: something I'm involved with, I just go sort of 100%, and it led to contacting the other states.
Speaker: That was the hardest thing is getting everybody involved.
Speaker: So we started to get a few of the other states and territories involved in the fire services.
Speaker: And I'm really glad to say that this year we've got, I think, every state and territory fire service in Australia involved.
Speaker: That's amazing, mate.
Speaker: It's a huge effort within two years of operating.
Speaker: Amazing.
Speaker: We're all different fire services.
Speaker: We've all got different protocols and different things that we do.
Speaker: But the fact that we could all come together on common ground
Speaker: and get this great initiative out there to have working smoke alarms in homes.
Speaker: You've been a firefighter for a long time, been a firefighter for nearly 10 years, and we've had a number of jobs, fatalities where people haven't had working smoke alarms and they've died during their sleep from not having a working smoke alarm.
Speaker: So you are saving lives and it's something you should be very proud of.
Speaker: And adding on to that, talking about different fire services, how can people at home listening or watching this podcast right now, how can they get involved with the SAD Fire Safety Initiative?
Speaker: Well, Smoke Alarm Action Day, it's one day.
Speaker: It's a day that we want residents to take action and be responsible for their own safety and their family's safety.
Speaker: So all we're asking on June the 1st is just to test the smoke alarm.
Speaker: I think we've become a little bit complacent because there's this little device that sits on our ceiling and we can walk past it every day but forget it's there.
Speaker: And unless you're a bad cook and burn the toast or you burn dinner, the smoke alarm, you know, you may never hear the smoke alarm going off.
Speaker: So it's, and some people, you know, you'll think that little lights
Speaker: showing that there's power going to it, but does it actually work?
Speaker: So on June 1st, we just want everybody, it takes a couple of minutes just to test their smoke alarm.
Speaker: We don't want people climbing ladders.
Speaker: They can use a broom handle, turn it upside down, and just test to make sure it's working.
Speaker: Because you're surprised the amount of homes that we go into that we test the smoke alarms and they're not working.
Speaker: They don't work or they're in the wrong spot.
Speaker: And then adding onto that, they need to make sure they're in your hallway, outside your bedroom on all levels.
Speaker: A lot of the time people put them in their kitchens.
Speaker: And yeah, if you have multiple detectors, you could have one near the kitchen or in the kitchen.
Speaker: However, a lot of people just have the one in the kitchen.
Speaker: If you're a bad cook, like you were saying before, set some off.
Speaker: you've got to find yourself in a situation where they get annoying, you've got to take them down, you forget about them, they become complacent.
Speaker: But not having them outside your bedroom or in your hallways, they're designed to alert you when you sound asleep.
Speaker: As you know, Paul and Lee, when that smoke creeps into that bedroom, that early detection is going to save your life.
Speaker: Yeah, and I always say, if you haven't got a smoke alarm, especially at night time, you should be sleeping with one eye open.
Speaker: because you're pushing more to sleep a lot of people don't realize smoke and fire or you know the fire but the smoke puts you more to sleep and you won't wake up um in the movies where people get burnt from the fire it's the smoke that actually kills you yeah yeah i love that tip that you just said paul about the broom handle because you know like people think oh can't reach not got a ladder elderly people you just said you know don't
Speaker: necessarily want them climbing ladders.
Speaker: That's a really good tip, just the broom handle.
Speaker: Just, you know, yeah, that's, you know, brilliant.
Speaker: Well, it's interesting because we went into a gentleman's home a couple of months ago and, well, we're across the road doing someone's putting some smoke alarms in the early lady's house and he was out the front and he said, oh, what are you doing?
Speaker: I said, oh, we're here just changing the lady's smoke alarms for her.
Speaker: She had old sort of smoke alarms.
Speaker: And I said, would you like us to do yours?
Speaker: He said, no, I'm okay.
Speaker: I said, well, we're here.
Speaker: We can do smoke alarms for you.
Speaker: He said, no, I've got my smoke alarm.
Speaker: It went off the other day.
Speaker: I know it's working.
Speaker: It's all fine.
Speaker: And I said, well, this is an opportunity.
Speaker: We can drop in.
Speaker: So he allowed us to come in and we went to check his smoke alarms.
Speaker: And I said, okay, yes, sir.
Speaker: So where's your smoke alarm?
Speaker: He said, there it is, up there.
Speaker: And I said to him, well, that's not a smoke alarm.
Speaker: That's a burglar one.
Speaker: It's not a stag alarm.
Speaker: Yeah, and I said, well, if it went off, I said, the other night you had a burglar in your house.
Speaker: Oh, wow.
Speaker: There's two lately in Maxie, and it's camper vans, it's caravans.
Speaker: You know, you can do a smoke alarm in them as well.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Oh, definitely.
Speaker: And the other thing, too, that more people die in house fires than the natural disasters put together in Australia.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Again, and adding on to that, I know we're talking about fire safety here, but more people drown inland in waterways than they do on the coast here in Australia.
Speaker: Yet the media and, you know, a lot of the initiatives are around the coastal areas, which is great, but, you know, a lot of people do drown inland and same sort of thing, what they say, you just said, more people die in house fires.
Speaker: And natural disasters.
Speaker: I'm just writing that down.
Speaker: I'm going to put that as one of our, we do a statistic,
Speaker: every Monday that goes with our quote.
Speaker: So I just jotted that one down.
Speaker: And Paul, I'm going to use that in one of our statistics.
Speaker: Because, you know, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: Is this me?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Sorry.
Speaker: Had to think then.
Speaker: Brain's a bit slow.
Speaker: So you kind of alluded to that in that last answer, Paul, but have you got another story where you know, and I'm sure you've got multiple as Maxie, how like having a working smoke alarm saves a life?
Speaker: Yeah, well, we're very fortunate in New South Wales that we will install smoke alarms free of charge.
Speaker: We used to have a program for Sabre, which is smoke replacement, battery replacement for the Aldi, which doesn't exist now.
Speaker: We sort of will install a smoke alarm in anyone's home free of charge.
Speaker: And we've had an incident, and it's happened quite a few times.
Speaker: You've heard the stories where someone's worn
Speaker: A firefighter had gone in, changed the smoke alarms for all installed smoke alarms into someone's home.
Speaker: And we had this where we did probably a couple of years ago now.
Speaker: And a week later, we had a fire call at their place.
Speaker: And had it not been the smoke alarm that we installed, they wouldn't have been alerted to it.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Yeah, it just goes to show.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: It's like we out in Western Maranoa, we won't say the town, out in Western Maranoa when the kids in the school put their hand up and said, no, we don't have a smoke alarm.
Speaker: The fire keeps setting off.
Speaker: Yeah, we don't need one.
Speaker: You saw the teacher just suddenly looked her eyes as if to say, what?
Speaker: So the teacher said, well, I know what's going in the newsletter this week.
Speaker: You know, just people don't realise and don't sleep with one eye open.
Speaker: Even something recent, Paul, last Friday I went and visited the Air Force cadets out at Naui, which is in southwest Sydney.
Speaker: And it's kind of like scouts, you know, they've got the hall and they catch up every Friday and they do their drills and their marching and stuff like that.
Speaker: And I did a bit of a talk.
Speaker: They did a donation to the charity, which was awesome.
Speaker: And I mentioned about smoke alarms.
Speaker: I finished on fire safety and smoke alarms.
Speaker: And I'm looking around and I usually do this a lot.
Speaker: I look around the rooms or I kind of like to point out, you know, and they actually didn't have one.
Speaker: And I know, you know, maybe a public place, they're probably thinking, you know, it's just a kind of one big room.
Speaker: They probably don't need it.
Speaker: But one of the secretaries come up to me and she's like,
Speaker: I have to, after hearing how they work and what they do, I had no idea.
Speaker: We're gonna put one in the hall.
Speaker: And then they said, yeah, we spent a lot of time in this hall.
Speaker: And, you know, so it just goes to show you, you just don't know who you impact or who you're thinking.
Speaker: And we're talking about a hall that's been there for 60 plus years.
Speaker: You've got members from eight years old up to 80 years old, and they've never been a smoke alarm.
Speaker: You've got retired police inspectors, retired ambulance inspectors.
Speaker: You've got people from all walks of life, bankers that have their kids in there and they didn't have smoke alarms.
Speaker: So you just never know.
Speaker: what impact you have.
Speaker: I know, absolutely.
Speaker: And we're sort of connecting with a lot of politicians at the moment and their newsletters or their e-newsletters, they've been putting out the smoke alarm or the fire safety message in their mail outs.
Speaker: And we're getting quite a lot of feedback from that.
Speaker: And I'm just absolutely surprised at the home fire safety visits we're doing lately.
Speaker: The amount of people that have never had a smoke alarm
Speaker: in store, never.
Speaker: And it's just amazing.
Speaker: And it's been in legislation since 2006, May 2006, that I'm surprised it's not yet.
Speaker: It's just something that I think people easily forget about.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's like the, you hear it, oh, yeah, you know, maybe, oh, I'm going to, you know, next week, next week becomes next month, next month becomes, you know, and so on.
Speaker: And it's like,
Speaker: where it falls on the priority list, but really it kind of needs to be top.
Speaker: Yeah, and there's nothing worse than, and Max would know this, Lee, that there's nothing worse for a firefighter jumping on the fire truck and knowing it's a person's reported fire or the house fire.
Speaker: It's just a horrible feeling in your chest.
Speaker: when that comes up and you get a notice that that's the case.
Speaker: So when you're getting a fire call and it comes across that everyone's out of the house, it's just such a relief for a firefighter knowing that's the case.
Speaker: And this is what a smoke alarm will do.
Speaker: It will...
Speaker: The thing is, too, we've just not got to sort of think that smoke alarms are there to protect us during the night.
Speaker: They're there to protect us 24-7.
Speaker: So seven days, 24 hours a day, they're there to alert us.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: At that time of call.
Speaker: Mate, that's amazing about all the fire safety and the SAAD initiative you've done.
Speaker: We're going to kind of change a few of the questions up now and talk about your illustrating career.
Speaker: Tell us how you became a talented illustrator.
Speaker: Well, that's, like I said, I think I was very fortunate to be in a creative family.
Speaker: growing up in a creative family.
Speaker: Our home was definitely a gallery.
Speaker: It was like, it was just littered with artwork.
Speaker: And the kitchen at home was from, there was one particular wall that was just plastered with all my brother's artwork.
Speaker: It was just.
Speaker: The Louvre, as you called it, the Louvre, the gallery.
Speaker: It was, and it was pretty like, I wish I took photos of it back then.
Speaker: As you're a kid, you don't need to take photos of it.
Speaker: And I was creative, but I was creative in the plasticine, you know, modelling and making things.
Speaker: And I'd always be sitting in my room with my plasticine board modelling.
Speaker: And everyone that would come into the house would just focus on the kitchen wall with all the artwork.
Speaker: And I'd be sitting in my room and listen to all these great accolades that my brother were getting, like, oh, look what Stephen's done today or this week or what Stephen's done, look at his work.
Speaker: And I'd be in there playing my plasticine and Paul Scott is getting nothing.
Speaker: Paul's are sitting there playing plasticine, no accolades.
Speaker: So one day I thought, yeah, I want a taste of this.
Speaker: I wouldn't mind getting a few accolades myself.
Speaker: So I started to draw a couple of characters and I went to the kitchen and took one of the pride places on that kitchen.
Speaker: Remember, my brother had his artwork and I stuck one of mine.
Speaker: As brothers would, yeah.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: I wasn't in the corner.
Speaker: I wasn't in an empty spot.
Speaker: It was right speck in the middle of the
Speaker: where are you going get it on there yes i started from one and then the second one came and then the third one until i practiced half the kitchen wall myself by that time and um and then i suppose i just anyway again it was everyone was so excited that with the kitchen wall and um and and then i started to draw for um obviously that led to drawing to the school newspaper so i started with the school newspapers doing a few more drawings here and there and
Speaker: And had I not, I sort of destined at that age, I was about probably 13.
Speaker: I was sort of 14.
Speaker: I was kind of under the impression on myself I was going to be a bricklayer because my dad was a bricklayer.
Speaker: And when I was younger, I just followed him around with a trowel.
Speaker: picking up bricks and laying, you know, it always had, being a bricklayer, it always had bricks laying there in the house and big tins of mortar and that.
Speaker: So I'd always be playing with bricks.
Speaker: So it was something, I picked the right career.
Speaker: I've still got some nice soft equipment, but not being a bricklayer.
Speaker: And so from,
Speaker: From school doing the school newspapers, I then thought, yeah, I wouldn't mind doing this as a career.
Speaker: And so I sort of started to, I wanted to go down the editorial path of political stuff.
Speaker: My brother was at that stage friends with the Cnetti family, Paul Cnetti, who was an editorial cartoonist for many, many years and one of Australia's best editorial cartoonists.
Speaker: We knew the family and,
Speaker: And obviously that association with Paul Cennetti, I would sort of admire of his work as well.
Speaker: And I thought, yeah, that's the track I want to go down doing the editorial stuff.
Speaker: And so then I thought, I did a couple of cartoons and at that stage I thought I was the best.
Speaker: I thought my cartoons were, I was going to make it, I was going to make it in the world of being a cartoonist.
Speaker: And I look back now and I go, oh, gosh, how naive was this kid?
Speaker: You know, like this kid had big dreams, but my work was terrible back then.
Speaker: I look at it now.
Speaker: But...
Speaker: It was about probably a year after I left school, I started to submit cartoons because I had to sort of make a decision what I wanted to do with my life.
Speaker: And I started to syndicate a couple of cartoons to the Bulletin magazine and then from the Bulletin magazine that led to Australasian Post magazine and Women's Weekly and Women's Days.
Speaker: And it sort of grew and grew and grew.
Speaker: Did you have any training, Paul?
Speaker: No, no, that's the thing.
Speaker: Pure from yourself?
Speaker: There's always been a little bit of the family, obviously, a little bit of a gift in the genes of the family.
Speaker: But it's just something I had to teach myself.
Speaker: I think if I went to art school, I'd be a lot better than I am today, surely.
Speaker: But I would just watch other cartoonists.
Speaker: I'd go and visit other cartoonists.
Speaker: Roger Fletcher, who used to draw a comic strip's Tolkien and Staria, again, was a fantastic role model for me growing up as a young kid.
Speaker: wanting to get into the field of cartooning.
Speaker: He taught me so many things just by watching and going to visit Paul Sonetti when he was working at The Telegraph.
Speaker: Ellen Moyer was another cartoonist.
Speaker: And Bill Leake, who I thought was a real role model for myself.
Speaker: And I was very fond of...
Speaker: of Bill Leak and he taught me so much again as a young kid just just just chatting with him and just talking to him just watching him just spending half an hour and just just seeing how they did things and I'd go home and I'd definitely go home and sort of put that into my own work.
Speaker: So before we talk about the books I've just got where does the inspiration come from because I see your work and I was like what comes first is it the
Speaker: idea or do you kind of get a visual and then you put the, just tell me with some of your, you know, the editorial.
Speaker: How does it come together?
Speaker: It's interesting because sometimes you'll have the eye, the caption, a lot of the time the caption comes first, but then it can reverse the other way.
Speaker: I always say that if I, a picture says a thousand words, and if you can do a cartoon without a caption, that's, you know, that's the best cartoon.
Speaker: But I always try and do my artwork that it needs the caption for the artwork to be funny and vice versa, that the artwork needs to be there to make the caption funny.
Speaker: So they work in tandem.
Speaker: You just don't get a joke and you can do a picture to a joke.
Speaker: I like them to sort of marry up and...
Speaker: work together yeah no you've done some great great stuff that you've sent to us over time um even the last couple of days with uh with the the illustrations um you know you're very talented mate very talented no thank you and the thing is uh um actually you're a bit like a movie a movie uh you're making a movie because you've got auditioned people in your head um
Speaker: You've got to then, what's my background going to be?
Speaker: You've got to then sort of, am I going to do it in the outside?
Speaker: Am I going to do it inside?
Speaker: And then you've got to colour it up and then you've got to do the caption.
Speaker: Like, if you look at my early stuff, like, yeah, you would have thought, oh, this kid's going nowhere.
Speaker: But, yeah.
Speaker: You've always got to start somewhere.
Speaker: You've got to start somewhere, and the fact that you stuck with it and you chipped away and there was that passion there and that drive, you know, look how far you've come.
Speaker: And, you know, you don't get all the eggs in the basket off the bat.
Speaker: So the fact that you started and you chipped away, yeah, you should be very proud.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Yeah, it's amazing my passion can get you, that's for sure.
Speaker: Yeah, 100%.
Speaker: So do the magazines and things, do they give you a brief or do you submit what you've got?
Speaker: Do they say we need X, Y, and Z?
Speaker: Or do you get a brief or do you just submit...
Speaker: No, my editors are really good.
Speaker: Sometimes that will happen.
Speaker: Sometimes an editor will say, oh, we've got this particular issue happening in our area.
Speaker: Could you do a specific cartoon relating to that issue?
Speaker: But mostly, because I syndicate right around the country, what I try and do is that a cartoon that's going to be topical in Queensland will be topical in Canberra, will be topical in Victoria, will be topical in New South Wales.
Speaker: So I try and I might do about four or five cartoons a week and then be on editorial base, which is obviously the recent storm in Queensland and top of New South Wales, that everyone knows that's going on.
Speaker: So that's quite topical.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But with regards to, I guess, the politicians write my material for me.
Speaker: I think Australia over the years have had, we've had, cartoonists have been very fortunate that we've had.
Speaker: So,
Speaker: They do the things that make my cartoons funny.
Speaker: So a lot of the time I go straight away, they'll just get on and they'll start talking.
Speaker: I go, okay, I bet that's crazy.
Speaker: That's going to make a great cartoon.
Speaker: And, you know, look at Trump's, I guess, what he's provided for cartoonists as well and over the years.
Speaker: But Australia, ever since I can remember, and you'll hear a lot of cartoonists, editorial cartoonists say this, that
Speaker: Australia's been very fortunate to have the politicians we have to write out, to give us material.
Speaker: Comedians sometimes say that, don't they?
Speaker: Comedians have got a tour coming up.
Speaker: And I remember, I think I heard Billy Connolly saying this once, I've got a tour and he didn't know what he would talk about.
Speaker: And then there was suddenly a election and a royal wedding.
Speaker: And he was like, thank you.
Speaker: You know, it was like he was away.
Speaker: He'd got his stuff.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: And that's the thing too.
Speaker: With my cartoons, I don't like to be too heavy handed.
Speaker: I
Speaker: I'm a little bit, I'm not a confrontational person in my nature anyway, but I, as long as they're funny, so long as they, I'll be serious.
Speaker: The cartoons that need to be serious, I'll be serious.
Speaker: Most of my cartoons will be kind of light humour.
Speaker: So long as it gets a giggle, a little laugh, that's important to me.
Speaker: And as I say, if you're offending one side and you're offending the other side at the same time, well, you're doing your job.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Exactly, exactly.
Speaker: Sorry, I snuck a couple of extra questions in there.
Speaker: I was just intrigued with the process of it, Paul.
Speaker: So talking about illustrating the books.
Speaker: So first one that you did with us was Max's Beach Rescued, the picture book.
Speaker: And then you're, as we're going through the process,
Speaker: bring in the Maxie the Life God series back to life for second editions.
Speaker: How was the process of that for you?
Speaker: How did you go about that?
Speaker: Yeah, well, the picture book's definitely different to the chapter book.
Speaker: The chapter book, again, I was quite fortunate that I could follow what was in the previous edition, so I was just following that.
Speaker: It's just that I guess I put my style towards it and the way I do my, I guess, my style, I guess.
Speaker: Yeah, and we changed kind of, we changed all the illustrations so that it made it, you know,
Speaker: you know, new for the reader as well.
Speaker: So our story stayed the same.
Speaker: The actual pictures were completely different.
Speaker: So I understand that there was a bit of a guide there.
Speaker: So with the picture book.
Speaker: The picture book was a completely different story.
Speaker: The picture book, I had to sort of, again, audition the characters and put them to you and Maxie to sort of go, yeah, we like this character.
Speaker: Like I think Maxie, there might have been two versions or three versions of Maxie before you picked
Speaker: the one that you liked.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: And Felix and the other characters, I think, again, I think I did a couple of different how I would have envisioned that they would have looked at that age.
Speaker: And so I had to create every page.
Speaker: And so obviously I've got the brief from you.
Speaker: Then I had to interpret your brief to be into, I suppose, a visual picture.
Speaker: Some were more detailed and more difficult than others, but that's a challenge, I guess, an artist always enjoys.
Speaker: Trying to get me to interpret the vision of someone else into a picture.
Speaker: They were just incredible.
Speaker: They were, and the fact that you didn't really mention, but until after the fact, once you did the illustrations in the picture book,
Speaker: you put secret fish on each page.
Speaker: And I must say the kids, especially the litterlies that have the picture books, they love trying to locate the fish.
Speaker: And then you've carried that over into the illustrations in books one and two, the second edition.
Speaker: We're yet to get three, but we have done the brief for three, but we'll get two first and then we'll reassess that.
Speaker: But yeah, when it comes to the little fish, just that little add-on was such a great thing to do.
Speaker: It's amazing because I don't do the little hidden character.
Speaker: I used to have a little dog.
Speaker: And ever since I did the book Maxi, it turned from a little dog to a fish because the fish obviously was more relevant to the beach scene.
Speaker: So in all my very detailed artworks, whether it's from newspapers or
Speaker: or magazines or whatever the case I might be using it for.
Speaker: The ones that I've got in really detail, I'll hide the little fish.
Speaker: Because you can hide it.
Speaker: If I was to do it in a lot of my editorials, because they're done fairly quickly and I don't put as much detail in my editorials, it can be easily found.
Speaker: So it's not so much of a challenge for people to look for.
Speaker: But it's funny.
Speaker: amazing uh like if i was to do it if i've done calendars before and i've had the little character in there it becomes the highlight of the uh of that month or that week absolutely something so small but it's something that has a big impact and gets people excited so if we have we got a little fish in here paul it's like where's wally i guess
Speaker: I'd have to go back to the original, but can I tell you a story just quickly?
Speaker: Please.
Speaker: With one of my calendars where I used to, I hid the dog.
Speaker: Growing up, I had a kelpie foxy, a little black and white kelpie foxy.
Speaker: That looked like foot rock flats, the dog.
Speaker: And I had him in a lot of my artworks.
Speaker: And I had this calendar.
Speaker: And I had the dogs in all of them and the calendar was printed and up it went and got sold.
Speaker: And then the publishing company were getting a lot of letters saying they could not find the dog in one of the months.
Speaker: And they said, could you please ask the artist?
Speaker: We can't find it.
Speaker: We really need to find it where the dog is.
Speaker: And I sent you and I come back to all my, and I looked and I looked and I looked and I could not find the dog myself.
Speaker: And when I'm doing air, because I airbrush a lot of my backgrounds and I have like, it's called crisp feel, but it's like contact that I put over areas where I don't want to protect the area where I'm spraying.
Speaker: And when I was doing that particular page, I'd forgotten to remove the little bit of contact to reveal the dog hiding.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I only found that out later and I finally got back to the publishing company and I said, look, I cannot tell you where it is because I'll be giving up.
Speaker: I can't tell you where it is.
Speaker: They've got to just look for it.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: If someone has that calendar, I think it was back in 98 or 2001, I can't remember which month, which one of you, that if you still got that artwork, obviously you wouldn't have been hanging it up, but you've got it in your cupboard, you've kept it or framed it.
Speaker: Yeah, there was no job to be found in that month.
Speaker: I'm in the middle of going crazy trying to find... Isn't it in the picture book, Maxie, one of the fish ended up in the... Oh, it's very close to the binding.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And we've had several times in the crease of the book, you know, several times the kids, and it's like, yeah, it is there.
Speaker: We know it's there.
Speaker: So I think for people to know that...
Speaker: The illustrations and the work you do, Paul, is like hand-drawn.
Speaker: These are not computer, you know, they're not like digital.
Speaker: It's not, you know, this is your hand-drawn artwork makes it so, so unique, so special in this day where everything's just computer generated.
Speaker: And I think people...
Speaker: forget that there is somebody actually drawing this and colouring it all in and bringing it to life and the hours that that takes you.
Speaker: I'm old school.
Speaker: I'm still very old school.
Speaker: I still get the paper out and draw and colour and airbrush and ink and paint.
Speaker: So, yeah, so I'm still very old school with my style.
Speaker: And I like it like that.
Speaker: Look, it's amazing.
Speaker: some of the creative people out there with the new technology doing it on laptops and computers is just brilliant work and i get jealous mate when i see some of the how talented some of these people are um but again i'm still old school uh yeah the way i've been there you go right yeah it's awesome um and now more of the serious side of the chat um best piece of advice you've been given
Speaker: Do you know what?
Speaker: It's funny.
Speaker: I give advice to myself all the time.
Speaker: I'm always encouraging myself.
Speaker: If I've got a challenge, I'll say, come on, Paul, you can do this.
Speaker: Come on, let's just get stuck and let's just do it.
Speaker: I'm always talking to myself if I have a challenge when guys are getting...
Speaker: to getting something done or to build my motivation up.
Speaker: So I would say I've always myself, a lot of doing myself, but something I did receive a long time ago was, you know, nothing's awkward until you convince yourself it is.
Speaker: And I find that with regards to, like, if I get, especially with my drawing side, if I get a challenging artwork and I know I'm going to struggle with it,
Speaker: I've just got to get in and get it done because once I get started and I get into it, it'll just be easier and easier and easier.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: And it's, yeah, it's interesting that, isn't it?
Speaker: You've just got to get started and things like that.
Speaker: So two parallels.
Speaker: So you've got two careers, firefighting, high, you know, stress, and then you've got this lovely idealistic, I've got this image of, you know, calmly drawing away.
Speaker: How do you deal with this?
Speaker: Is there a message in there?
Speaker: Because how do you deal with the stress that you have?
Speaker: I think I strive on stress.
Speaker: I think I like stress to a certain degree.
Speaker: The balance, like my work-life balance is pretty bad.
Speaker: So, you know, if anything, I need to get that better.
Speaker: But the firefighting and the car training works so well together.
Speaker: Like, it can be quite lonely sitting at a desk drawing all day by yourself.
Speaker: You're sitting there, you're not getting exercise.
Speaker: And once the bells go off and I get a fire call, you know, I'm using energy.
Speaker: I'm sort of moving my lens and my body and then... Yeah, you can't, aren't there?
Speaker: I'm talking to the crew, I'm telling you the crew, I'm laughing with the crew.
Speaker: And so I can, so I can chase, you go from zero to a hundred and it can be at any time of the day.
Speaker: And I think that's just, that's a great balance for me.
Speaker: fire call in a couple of days, which we don't like fire calls because fire calls means someone's not having a great day.
Speaker: But when you do get the fire call, it's definitely a great time for me to sort of get in and talk to people and, you know, just have that person sort of
Speaker: connection yeah definitely so important and for the community as well you know having um that familiar face someone that's keen and and ready to have a chat and to comfort and to look after it's a skill in itself you know people are suffering the worst possible day at a fire or a car accident or any sort of incident and um you know that reassurance is so important and having that passion it goes a long way yeah exactly and i'm terrible you know i always say you know
Speaker: to help them stress and get up and go for a walk, sleep better, diet better.
Speaker: And that's advice I would give, but I'm terrible because I don't take my own advice, so to speak.
Speaker: As many of us are the same, Paul.
Speaker: Maxie, I stole your question there.
Speaker: Do you want to pinch mine's back?
Speaker: No, it's all good.
Speaker: You answered both of those anyway, but the stress, it's all good.
Speaker: You know, it's good that you thrive a little bit on stress and you obviously have your good and bad days, but, you know, you have ways of dealing with that, which is so important in this day and age.
Speaker: It's so important to know and be aware of it and do things about it.
Speaker: So kudos to you, Paul.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm someone that suffers from anxiety, you know, and, um,
Speaker: And I always say, if I'm going for a bit of a trot myself, laughter is the best medicine I find.
Speaker: And I'm lucky I'm in that kind of career as well where, you know, I love making other people laugh.
Speaker: And I love when someone can make me laugh as well because I know...
Speaker: yeah you can get so much out of no definitely yeah a good laugh definitely helps lots of situations for sure and I was just gonna say so the next next one here we have next career goal I know you got your hands full with the the sad and the initiatives and stuff like that but have you got a next career goal
Speaker: Look, I think the things I'm doing now, I'd like to just make sure I keep doing them better as a goal.
Speaker: I think a career goal would be also to, again, improve my work-life balance.
Speaker: I think I need to do that.
Speaker: And I don't know how much longer I've got even with the Fire Brigade and, you know,
Speaker: I just want to enjoy every day or every opportunity I have been with Fire and Rescue New South Wales because I've really got to start really enjoying what time I have left because I know when the time comes that I've got to hang up my helmet, it'll be a sad day for me.
Speaker: And I just want to make sure I can just enjoy the things I'm really enjoying now.
Speaker: And look, if Smoke Alarm Action Day goes worldwide, well, you know, that would be a great goal, that's for sure.
Speaker: Oh, definitely.
Speaker: That could be the future, Paul.
Speaker: Yeah, I can see you doing firefighter conferences and getting that initiative out there, you know, especially those lower socioeconomic countries or third world countries where they don't even know probably what fire safety is, you know.
Speaker: There's so much opportunity there.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: So important.
Speaker: So, so important.
Speaker: so important and you know what paul you know it's like you say there may be the day that you're not on the truck but still having the passion and the purpose like that it could be that that is um absolutely you know where your next steps are so um i can see that for sure so if you weren't a firefighter and a cartoonist illustrator
Speaker: What do you think you would have been?
Speaker: Maybe not Bricklayer?
Speaker: We're crossing.
Speaker: You've both got Bricky Dads, so maybe not Bricklayer.
Speaker: So what would you have done?
Speaker: I definitely think I probably would have been a bricklayer.
Speaker: Again, I don't know, Maxie, if you were out playing with bricks when you were younger.
Speaker: Yeah, I was definitely playing with bricks.
Speaker: And that was actually my option when I finished school.
Speaker: If I didn't get the traineeship as a lifeguard, I was going to do a bricklaying apprenticeship with my dad.
Speaker: And as soon as I turned 18, I was going to use the apprenticeship to be able to apply for the fireys.
Speaker: So I had a bit of a backup plan.
Speaker: Yeah, that's absolutely fantastic.
Speaker: Well, unfortunately, my father passed away when I was five turning six.
Speaker: So I never got that opportunity.
Speaker: But had he been still around at that time, I would have definitely become a bit of bricklayer.
Speaker: And I think my brother would have been a bricklayer as well.
Speaker: But he ended up being a sign writer, so he used his creative talents as a sign writer and I went more to the cartooning.
Speaker: Again, I'm glad I did the cartooning because I know now being creative that if I'm not creating for a week, I start to get withdrawal symptoms.
Speaker: So not only do drawing, like I love writing poems.
Speaker: I love writing stories.
Speaker: That's one of my hobbies.
Speaker: I enjoy writing books.
Speaker: opinion pieces.
Speaker: And again, it's just using another part of just being creative.
Speaker: So I think it really shows that I love being creative.
Speaker: And again, yeah.
Speaker: So if it wasn't bricklaying, it would be definitely something creative.
Speaker: I love that the fact we've been able to showcase a creative career because I think so often creatives are not given, you know, we're all pushed down this academic road and whatever.
Speaker: And to be able to showcase a creative career, I think is just, you know, fantastic because there'll be so many kids that will connect with that and see that there is a different path.
Speaker: There's more than one opportunity.
Speaker: So absolutely.
Speaker: There's so many creative people out there, Lee, that, you know, that might only be a hobby or they mightn't realise they're creative.
Speaker: But I think everyone, every one of us has got something we can do, something creative, whether it's cooking, you know, maybe plate food.
Speaker: I've seen some family, friends where they create fruit platters.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's amazing some of the stuff they can do.
Speaker: Incredible.
Speaker: Very creative.
Speaker: Mates, we're towards the back end of the podcast.
Speaker: There's three more to go, but we did touch about the Encore Retain Fireies.
Speaker: Can you tell us how someone in the community can join the Retain Fire Service and learn more about what you do in the community?
Speaker: Yeah, well, we do a lot within the community.
Speaker: I think we're very community engaged kind of a service.
Speaker: But to become a real on-call firefighter, you kind of need to live within a reasonable distance to a retained fire station in the first place.
Speaker: And you've just got to be very community-minded person.
Speaker: And I think most of us are anyway.
Speaker: A retained station loves someone who has daytime availability.
Speaker: So if you're a stay-at-home mum and the kids are at school, if you're a ship worker, fire and rescue, love those kind of people.
Speaker: Even people starting university that have the time to put in to be available.
Speaker: And also too, that the station needs to have those vacancies available.
Speaker: So a lot of stations might be station of 14, 16, 18, 20, depends on, you know, if there's two appliances to that station.
Speaker: So as long as there's a position available, I suggest anyone who leaves near a retaining station to go.
Speaker: Because once you get the bug, once you're in and you get the bug and it comes in, it gets to your blood, you just love it.
Speaker: It's just the best thing.
Speaker: Being a firefighter and especially being, and I'm biased, Fire and Rescue New South Wales, it's just an absolute joy.
Speaker: It's an absolute fantastic organisation.
Speaker: And the comrade, I just sort of, I just thrive on the comrade you get from Fire and Rescue.
Speaker: So, but a lot of people don't have that luxury of living near a Fire and Rescue retained station in New South Wales.
Speaker: So I suggest even joining the Rural Fire Service, again, like we mentioned before, you know, the SES.
Speaker: It's a great start to where it can lead you.
Speaker: And the networking connections you have,
Speaker: within these organisations is fantastic as well.
Speaker: Yeah, and I think while this is on, this will go up this Friday, but on Monday the 17th is when the application is closed for this year's fire recruitment for Fire Rescue NSW.
Speaker: So if anyone's listened to this over the weekend and you do want to become a firefighter, you can jump on to Fire Rescue NSW website and follow the prompts and get your application in.
Speaker: Yeah, it's a great job.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Fantastic job.
Speaker: Fantastic organisation.
Speaker: So you're just saying about people getting involved and joining up.
Speaker: What advice would you have given to your 16-year-old self, Paul?
Speaker: I think, I think, like,
Speaker: Don't let the world intimidate you.
Speaker: Again, like I said, I think I've always had a little bit of anxiety and I haven't let that sort of get in the way.
Speaker: I've pushed through and I've always been so, like some of the things I get myself into, I go, why did I ask for that?
Speaker: Or why did I suggest to do this?
Speaker: Or why did I say yes?
Speaker: But once you've done it, it's just such a joy and relief.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's a big wide world out there.
Speaker: It can be scary, but just don't let it intimidate you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Good advice, Paul.
Speaker: You probably thought that after we came knocking on your door.
Speaker: I'm like, what was I thinking?
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: So we thank you that you said yes, even if, you know, in the midst of it you thought, what was I thinking?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it's because someone mentioned to me, oh, Maxie's kind of looking for an illustrator.
Speaker: And I forget who mentioned it to me.
Speaker: And I said, oh, yeah, well, get him to give me a call if you ever cross paths with him.
Speaker: So I don't know how that came about.
Speaker: But, yeah.
Speaker: I think we had a conversation, didn't we?
Speaker: I think I saw one of your...
Speaker: illustrations on fire and rescue.
Speaker: And then I said to Maxie, do you know this guy?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then there was the ship fire.
Speaker: And I think that, yeah.
Speaker: So I think that's how they, absolutely.
Speaker: Brilliant.
Speaker: I'll always remember that ship fire and when we saw Maxie and his crew come down because Maxie was just, when he came over and said hello to us, he was just the perfect person, the perfect gentleman.
Speaker: And he's so accommodating and such a well-spoken person that we just thought, yeah, what a fantastic guy this person was.
Speaker: Yes, indeed.
Speaker: It's interesting.
Speaker: It's so funny because I've always said to the crew, like, let's get something.
Speaker: Like, if we're going on a strike team, let's get something pumping and let's motivate ourselves up.
Speaker: Let's get ourselves ready to go to fight this beast.
Speaker: But, like, I do love anything Queen.
Speaker: Queen's probably my number one.
Speaker: I love Queen.
Speaker: Well, can I tell you a song that I'm about to paint at home and my favourite Queen song is Under Pressure.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yes, but the song I sometimes play when I, because I also paint as well as cartoon.
Speaker: I paint Australianist themed kind of paintings.
Speaker: One that I love to do, I paint, I have, sorry, I put on just before I go to paint, is funny enough, it's from the greatest showman, Never Enough.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: What was the girl's name?
Speaker: Somebody's... Yes, I know exactly.
Speaker: Oh, no, no.
Speaker: Yes, love that song.
Speaker: Lauren Aldred.
Speaker: That's it.
Speaker: Lauren Alfred.
Speaker: Oh, don't say Alfred this weekend.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Beautiful song, Paul.
Speaker: I put that on and I'll go and put the jug on and make a cup of tea and I'll sort of limber myself up because I paint on the knees or if I'm doing my paintings.
Speaker: It's just to inspire me.
Speaker: It's amazing what music does.
Speaker: It can inspire you so much.
Speaker: Isn't it the ultimate mood changer music?
Speaker: You can, you know, put the right tune on in the car and you can...
Speaker: It literally is the ultimate, yeah, so important.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Yeah, so important.
Speaker: Music, yeah.
Speaker: As much as, you know, we need to laugh, I think music's the same thing.
Speaker: It's a lovely thing.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Yay.
Speaker: Brilliant.
Speaker: Thank you so much, Paul.
Speaker: And thank you for what you've done for us because, you know, you coming on board gave these books a second lease of life meant that the picture book came to fruition and, you know, we are so, so happy.
Speaker: very grateful and um your energy and enthusiasm you are the ultimate um team player and um you know i can imagine there is incredible energy in your room station because of um all that you bring to it so um that thank you from from me and magazine live and survive no thanks guys and it's so funny because like i live in a beach suburb um down on the south coast and um
Speaker: When I do go down to the beach, it's so funny.
Speaker: I think of really Maxie every time I go when I'm down the beach.
Speaker: I get this inspiration of this little Maxie running around my head.
Speaker: It's amazing.
Speaker: It's funny.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Live, learn, survive, guys.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: And remember, June the 1st, Smoke Alarm Action Day.
Speaker: We're going to get behind that and we'll see if we can, you know, wrangle in to get on board to support your campaign.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: It's my working smoke alarm saves lives and it's got the QR code and on the back I've got the QR code.
Speaker: So if I'm shopping, out shopping, people can scan me.
Speaker: And it has happened.
Speaker: People have, we've turned up, we've rocked up to someone's home and I said, I had you find out about us.
Speaker: They said, oh, I scanned you when you were shopping at Woolies the other day.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Legend.
Speaker: Brilliant.
Speaker: And the thing is, working smoke alarms definitely save lives.
Speaker: 100%.
Speaker: And the bells were kind to us, Paul, because we just got through an hour and almost four minutes and you didn't get called away from the desk.
Speaker: Well, we didn't jinx it, so that's great.
Speaker: Didn't jinx it.
Speaker: So I think it's time now.
Speaker: Go and get the jug on.
Speaker: Cup of tea time.
Speaker: And we hope your shift is a nice, peaceful, quiet one.
Speaker: Thank you, guys.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: I'm off to Melbourne tomorrow for the F1.
Speaker: That's my annual holiday.
Speaker: Yeah, it's my only, yeah.
Speaker: All my travelling overseas, all just been for Formula One.
Speaker: So this is my little annual.
Speaker: I don't really do a lot for holidays, but this is where I get to go away for a couple of days and just get away from home.
Speaker: Play.
Speaker: Brilliant.
Speaker: Brilliant, brilliant.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: So we'll wave goodbye to the people and then we'll just make sure we've got your audio.
Speaker: So don't go anywhere.
Speaker: No, no, we're still recording.
Speaker: We're just say goodbye to the people and then we'll come back and we'll talk about Formula One.
Speaker: Thanks, everyone.
Speaker: Have a great week and we'll see you all next week.
Speaker: Bye.
