Thursday 27 October 2016

8 Times Geelong Proved It's Actually a Town based on 'Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory'


Geelong.  My hometown.  Referred to by some as "the 'Danni Minogue' to Melbourne's 'Kylie'" and referred to by others as "that place the ring road now allows you to bypass on the way to the beach."  If Hong Kong can be labelled 'The Pearl of the Orient', Geelong could at least lay claim to being 'The high-end nipple ring of the Continent'.  But it's so much more than that!  Well, I mean... it's at least a little bit more than that!  We're a wonderous townfolk with a museum that's dedicated to wool, a jail with no inmates and a stadium that's home to cats.  Added to that, (and allow me to explain myself below) I've made a possibly earth-shattering discovery - [wait for it.... wait for it] - it appears that this quaint little city/town/settlement is actually based on the 1971 film 'Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory'!


*CUE DRAMATIC "DUN DUN DUN" SOUND EFFECT*


You'll notice how I've now changed paragraphs, both for dramatic effect and to allow your freshly blown minds to absorb what they've just been dealt.  That's right, parallels between the 'City of Greater Geelong' and the film that gives you diabetes just by watching it.  Like an American version of 'The Ring'; you watch it and then you get fat.  So I want you to prepare yourselves because I'm about to drop some properly amusing Wonka-related similarities on you.  And I mean proper similarities, not just "six degrees of separation" type stuff.  That means I'm even overlooking the fact that a popular nickname for Geelong is "Sleepy Hollow", which was also the title of a Tim Burton film starring Johnny Depp, and both men respectively directed and starred in the film 'Charlie & the Chocolate Factory', which was a remake of 'Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory'!


Therefore, to coincide with the 45th anniversary of the film's release (yep I can hear some of you groaning about how old you just realised you are) and to give you all a reason to visit this fine place of ours, here are 8 times Geelong proved it's actually a town based on 'Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory'.


1.  Our most recent mayor, Darryn Lyons' appearance.


Wonka and Lyons.  Lyons' wardrobe shows they share a fondness for flare, his physique shows they share a fondness for chocolate.  It's really just missing Jade Jagger jumping up and proclaiming though her scrumdiddlyumptious gap teeth, "get the Wonka look!"






2.  Both men had 'tickets on themselves'.



Willy And Darryn. Both men in charge.  Both men with double-consonants in the middle of their first names.  Both men who ran highly popular campaigns based around issuing citizens a limited number of tickets.





3.  We have a river of chocolate.



What else can I say execpt this; it's our Barwon river, it's never claimed the life of an obnoxious chubby German and as you can see, it's our own personal 'chocolate river'.





4.  The busiest 'factory' in the city.



On the left; the brown brick factory and smoke stack that captured the imagination of an unnamed town.  On the right; the brown brick factory and smoke stack that's captured the attention of a nicknamed town.  Its gates were also shut for years only to reopen to much fanfare.  The one on the left is home to little orange Oompa Loompas and the one on the right is also literally home to "Little Creatures".  Sound and look familiar?




5.  And what goes on inside that factory?



Well just like in 'Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory'' as you can see from the photos above, inside this factory you can also find the young and the elderly getting stuck into the consumption of "Fizzy Lifting Drinks".







6.  The appearance of the factory workers.



Inside this and many of our big factories (as you can see above) you'll also find little orange workers.  The only difference being that the main threat to the ones on the left is a combination of "Wangdoodles, Hornswogglers, Snozzwangers, and rotten, Vermicious Knids", while the main threat to the ones on the right is cheap off-shore labour and OH&S officers.





7.  What brings all the boys (and girls) to the yard.


The most popular event in the town's social calendar is a place where children over-indulge in chocolates and lollies, before going on rides that are both nauseating and traumatic.  'The Geelong Show': basically a Wonka factory tour that can be cancelled due to bad weather and is less selective about admission.




8.  Waterslides or just fat kid catchers?


Finally, we're home to a sealed tube system built in the 1970s where overweight children run the risk of getting stuck when passing through them.  The only difference is that if you see brown liquid coming down it behind you, it's not chocolate, someone's had a horrible accident and you should pray you don't get stuck before it gets to you.




So with summer holidays drawing closer, why wouldn't pay this place a visit!?  A trip to Geelong's going to be cheaper than a trip to Disneyland, it's easier to get to than Gumbuya Park, it's still in operation unlike Wobbie's World and unlike Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, it's non-fictional!  I don't recommend you lick the walls, eat the giant mushrooms growing in the park or take lollies from a stranger, but I do recommend you hop in your "glass elevator" coupe, get the family down here, stop in for a pint of 'fizzy lifting drink' and wander along our chocolate water system.




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Thursday 20 October 2016

Electile Dysfunction: A 'Trump VS Clinton' Voter’s Guide


'U.S election 2016'.  Or as it’s also known; 'the weirdest custody battle in world history'.  Where two crappy parents are fighting for custody of a fat child that doesn’t want to live with either of them.  I’m not going to take either side but I will say this, I know at least four people who are talking about the dangers of choosing Trump, yet I know for a fact that even after seeing the TV commercials, those four people opted to go with Coles insurance as their main insurance provider.  I say this because I think it’s important to establish where some people’s decision making abilities are at.  This year’s presidential election has basically been like watching a season of ‘X Factor’ in reverse; we started out with a pool of talent but ended-up with some unfavourable competitors whose families gave them an unwarranted amount of self-confidence.  So given that, here’s a pre-election voter's guide to take with you into the polling booth… or at the very least, into the toilet cubicle at work when you need reading material.


Longest. Cinematic run. Ever.

First things first; we need to stop expecting someone sane and normal to be elected U.S president.  Here’s why (and this goes for both candidates)  the job of U.S president pays $500,000 a year. Hillary’s already spent almost $1 billion on her campaign and Donald’s spent almost $500 million trying to get the job.  Now to put that into perspective, if you were going to a job interview for a managerial position at McDonald’s that paid $50,000 a year, but to get it you had to spend $100 million trying to persuade the interviewer to give you the job, how quickly would you be folding the application form into a paper plane instead of submitting it?  And on the off chance that you were still considering applying for the job, I can assure you that your family would already be fitting you for a "special jacket", throwing out all the metal cutlery in the house and padding your room.  When you understand that, you understand Hillary’s fashion sense and Donald’s hairstyle.


The U.S Presidency - when you're even too crazy for certain lines at Centrelink.

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Secondly  dear ‘Murica, no offence and I know you might not want to admit it, but Trump pretty accurately represents the majority of you.  He’s the selfie you take without make-up and decide not to post on social media.  Hillary’s just the selfie you take after you let Maybelline special forces perform a bombing campaign on your face and then put it through several Instagram filters before posting to social media.


Thirdly, voters need to decide what they’d prefer; a president they like or a president they can trust?  Sure Trump’s been accused of doing things that are inappropriate but Clinton’s been subpoenaed for doing things that are illegal.  It’s like this; metaphorically speaking in a social scenario, Clinton’s the person that urinates in public while Trump’s the person that uses the public bathroom but doesn’t wash their hands.  As distasteful as both of them are, one’s getting arrested and the other’s just getting a fist bump instead of a handshake when you greet them for dinner.  In a local context for my Australian readers  by ignoring the actions of Clinton and only focusing on the comments of Trump, essentially you’re suggesting that you’d rather be alone in a room with Ivan Milat than Nick Kyrgios.  Yes, both are pretty shitty individuals, but you’d still have to admit that one is distinctly more shitty than the other.



Mary Anne reminds us that not all heroes wear capes.


The real difficulty in making a decision between the two lies in the fact that he’s seen as a buffoon and she’s seen as evil.  And anyone that’s on the fence about whether Hillary’s evil should go watch the interview where she’s laughing like a sociopath in heat about how she helped orchestrate the killing of Gaddafi.  Regardless of your stance on Gaddafi, I point this out because if your mum cackled that hard after killing a spider in your kitchen, you’d have her committed before you considered getting her elected.  The other problem is that good decision-making is a massive part of the presidential gig, and it’s kind of hard to have faith in the decision-making ability of someone who not only married Bill Clinton but also stayed married to Bill Clinton.  With that in mind, women shouldn’t assume that just because Hillary’s a woman, she'll be better for women either. If anything, that could be worse because if there’s one thing I’ve learned from hearing women gossip over the years, it's that some of the biggest grievances women have, are in fact with other women! She'll probably want to invade North Korea just because she thinks their leader's name 'Kim' is short for 'Kimberley'.


For when your march into battle begins on a catwalk.

The other problem is that the whole situation's so confusing. On one hand, Trump’s being accused of indiscretions without evidence and it’s being presented as fact.  On the other hand, Hillary isn’t being charged with crimes despite the fact there’s evidence.  That being said, Donald’s been accused of inappropriate behaviour towards women while Hillary’s been involved in discrediting women who make such accusations.  Looking at it objectively, if they weren’t rivals it could be a great common ground for them to find and might even be a presidential and vice-presidential match made in heaven!  That’s obviously not going to happen so perhaps the solution is that there be no election.  The third debate should just be the decider.  And it shouldn’t be a debate, it should be a rap battle.  If both candidates are going to keep berating each other and trying to discredit one another, it should at least have to rhyme.  If it’s done to a beat and a melody, it’s not slander!  *Don’t quote me on that.


Alternatively, seeing as I already compared this to essentially a job that two individuals are applying for and given that the American public are the ones hiring their boss, it seems only fair that we weigh-up the two applicants based on a number of criteria and questions that I’ve put together, which one might be judged against on the most basic of job application forms.





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So here’s the thing ‘Murica, it’s time to face facts.  The facts are, of the last three presidents you’ve elected, the first cheated on his wife literally while inside the White House, the second started a war abroad in a quest to look for weapons that didn’t exist and the most recent got a Nobel Peace Prize while he had your country involved in two wars simultaneously and was spending hundreds of billions of dollars on defence.  The characters in ‘Sex & the City’ have a less volatile history with men, and at least they had a chance of ending-up with Mr. Big.

There are a lot of us who have relatives that were made refugees because of the presidents you've selected and the fact that you're generally so pro-war would be tolerable, if only you'd agree to host one at your place for once.



Most departing U.S presidents'resumes read like a 'How-to Guide' for how to make foreign people hate you.









Therefore maybe the issue then isn’t who you’ll elect president, maybe it’s that you shouldn’t be allowed to elect your president.  Like when your dysfunctional friend Karen keeps dating a string of losers and you decide to take over control of her love life and set her up with a nice guy from your office… who’s possibly more interested in weekend antiquing than foreign invasion.  Someone who’s not going to hide their emails from you and someone who’s going to grab your hand rather than grabbing your… "pet cat".  Well that’s what I think you need to let the rest of the world do for you from now on.  Maybe that way we can finally help find you someone who's going to stop trying to make a move on the rest of us and is instead just genuinely into “YOU…..S.A.”

So if it's okay with you, I'd like to give your number to two people I think you'll be really happy with. Here they are...


They're really great guys.

















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Wednesday 5 October 2016

Tall Story: The Biography (Part 3)


2011 


  • Start using ‘Twitter’.  It reminds me of Facebook with a word limit or a friend that stops you when you’ve said too much.  Am pleased to see hashtags getting some long overdue recognition.

  • Become a presenter for the Seven Network.  Another audition that takes place in front of a lotto machine.  I come to the conclusion that ‘Tattslotto’ clearly brings me better luck than ‘Keno’.

  • I travel overseas through Europe visiting countries including Turkey, Hungary and Greece.  For this reason, when talking about my travel, it sounds like I’m just talking about cooking and food. *Fans of dad jokes will get this gag and appreciate its brilliance.

  • Create the blog ‘The Daily Male’.  A place for me to share funny articles and stories that I create.  The name is a play on words that I only later realise will also be used by an Instagram account that posts photos of gay males… daily.  *Insert 'awkward teethy emoji face' here.

  • Start using ‘Instagram’.  Reminds me that holiday photos, like Frankston tap water, are much better through a filter.  The hashtags continue their world domination.  Can’t help but feel for the asterisk, which has failed to make the same leap from phone keypad to pop-culture.


The top-middle photo is me presenting the lotto on the Seven Network and making someone rich.  The rest of the photos are me travelling the world and sending myself broke.  Both brilliant fun though.




2013

     
  • Buy and move into my first home.  Some call it a sign of growing-up.  I call it all the joy of moving into the most expensive cubby house I’ll ever buy, combined with the discovery that I’m now a part-time unpaid cleaner.  The house is also immediately behind my parents’ block.  There’s not a speedometer big enough to measure how quickly I cut a hole between the adjoining fences and establish an ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ dynamic.

  • Melbourne Victory FC asks me to be their official ground-announcer.  It means I can combine a couple of my true loves; working on camera and sports.  No Victoria’s Secret Angels agree to come on board as co-hosts to help me complete a trifecta.


Left; Jumping for joy after purchasing my first home.  My back is turned away from it and I can't see how much renovation work needs to be done, hence the joy.  Right; Around the ground and behind the microphone for the mighty Melbourne Victory.


    2014


  • During a routine visit to my travel agent for a check-up, I discover a large European flight and am told that it’s Terminal… number 3 that I’ll be departing from at Tullamarine airport.  I’m told I have 2 months to travel.  I don’t seek a second opinion.


  • In a half-court shoot-out against NBA legend, Vlade Divac, I beat Vlade with a behind the back shot.  It’s a weird moment beating one of your heroes in anything.  Like someone beating Roger Federer in a tennis final or someone else knocking out Mike Tyson in a boxing match.  Unlike those two guys, Vlade neither cries nor bites part of my ear off.


  • I become an uncle for the first time and hopefully not the last.  He’s called ‘Aleks’ and he’s already infinitely more mature at his age than I am at my age.  I get to play with him, tire him out and then give him back to his parents so he can wake them up throughout the night.  It’s like a “parenting test drive” really.


  • Get a part in a movie called ‘Bićemo Prvaci Sveta’ (We’ll Be World Champions) while in Serbia.  It means I get to claim my trip on tax and get paid to perform, play basketball and meet incredibly talented people.  I’m pretty much a Serbian version of Michael Jordan in the movie ‘Space Jam’.


  • After returning to Australia, I write an article about my adventure entitled 'All Aboard the Balkan Express!  10 Reasons to Set off on a Serbian Adventure!' and it becomes a viral hit.  It leads to some great accolades, including being named one of the ‘Top 20 Serbs of 2014’ by Serbian media, alongside faces such as Novak Djoković and Marina Abramović.  It also pleases me that this is the only viral thing I bring back with me after months of travel through Eastern Europe.





The article in question and a couple of articles about the article in question.  Also some stills from my feature film debut in 'We'll Be World Champions'.


2015


  • The year starts with me getting the gig as a presenter at the Asian Cup 2015.  I can now include on my resume that I can comfortably and correctly pronounce over 25 Uzbekistani names in under a minute and that I’ve been 50% of an interview with Mel McLaughlin without her coming out of it uncomfortable and without me coming out of it with a $10,000 fine.  Stefan Popovic – 1, Chris Gayle – 0.


  • While a part of the Seven Network’s ‘Good Friday Appeal’ coverage, I get to meet Agro.  This might not seem noteworthy to some of you, but there was a generation of us for whom Ranger Stacey was our ‘first lady’, Plucka Duck was a household name and Agro was a funnier puppet/muppet than any of today’s AFL footballers.  For me it’s like meeting a Sesame Street muppet that’s gone on a Gap Year to Australia.


  • After several months of research and writing, I complete my first screenplay.  The mission then begins to get it made into a film while at the same time keeping the subject matter secret.  It’s 275 pages long and is one of my proudest moments when I finally finish it.  I ask my parents if they’d like to read it but they say it’s too long and are happy to wait until the movie is released.  It’s a fine line between being concerned about their disinterest and being flattered by their confidence in the project and the script’s potential.


  • I buy a new bicycle.  My dad buys a new motorcycle.  In doing so, we come to an unspoken mutual understanding that he is infinitely cooler than me.



  • My website stefanpopovic.com.au goes live.  It’s like final step on the evolutionary chart of social media.  I kind of wish that Drake is around to rap something along the lines of “Started off with MySpace now we’re here”.  He isn’t, so I take the opportunity to do it for myself.

Left; meeting Agro.  Right; completed first feature film script.  Both major achievements in their own right.


2016


  • I get to interview Novak Djoković live in front of over 20,000 people at AAMI Park ahead of the Australian Open.  It’s like an entire small country town eavesdropping on a conversation between a guy and his man crush.  I’m really excited to interview someone who’s close to my height as well as the chance to show it is possible to both interview Djoković and still correctly pronounce his name.  I will later claim that the quality of the interview inspires Djoković to go on to win his next two Grand Slams.


  • I become a wine-drinker.  I hear that consumption of a large glass of fermented grapes is a sign of being a grown-up.  It doesn’t really make sense to me and honestly I’m more comfortable with consuming a small box of dried grapes and being told I’m behaving like a child.



  • My track record of disappearing from Australia during the winter in and going into hibernation in Europe during their summer continues.  I’m like a tall, blonde-haired, sort of German-looking bear really.  I meet lots of Serbian Olympians, actors and musicians, hang out with friends, jump across borders, oh and I sneak into many first-class lounges at airports while in transit.  Quite an adventure!



  • Most recently though, I turn ‘twenty-ten’.  Yep that’s a number now.  It’s for all of us who have the benefits and wisdom that come with reaching the age of thirty, combined with the immature inner-child (that’s quickly becoming an outer-child) that many people have lost by the time they were ten.  It’s real and it’s totally a thing.  I’m giving you all another year of your twenties.  You’re welcome! 


                    To be continued…

I leave you with this collage of some of my highlights of 2016.  Hopefully you spot yourself in some pics and even more hopefully, you're not annoyed at me for using a photo of you on here.




*Ending a bio can always be awkward and boring.  So to avoid that, here are a couple of pics of me as a child just generally being cute and waving goodbye to all you readers!*


The End of Part Three.


** For more info, updates and photos, follow me on Twitter & Instagram **




Tuesday 4 October 2016

Tall Story: The Biography (Part 2)


2000 


  • Do work experience at GTV 9 in Melbourne, which sparks my interest in Journalism and working on TV.  It also gives me a chance to get Glenn Ridge, Nicki Buckley and Pete Smith from 'Sale of The Century' to sign headshots for my grandmother.  This might not seem like a big deal to some of you, but anyone with a Serbian, Italian, Spanish, etc grandmother in Australia knows this is huge brownie points.  Like a catholic getting a signed pic from the Pope where he leaves his Pope lipstick stamp on it.

  • That work experience gets me quite excited about the workforce... until I get my first job.  It's a paper round that involves me collecting, folding and delivering newspapers and pamphlets to 175 homes.  From start to finish, it takes me around 5 hours and pays a total of $7.60.  Given the distance I'm having to cover on foot and the money I'm earning, I consider exploring the possibility of becoming someone's sponsor child.  World Vision does not answer my phone calls.  Mum and dad aren't open to the idea.

  • Relatives come to visit from overseas.  I'm excited because I get to see my cousins. Mum's excited because it's apparently all the reason she needs to organise a long overdue Sovereign Hill day out and our 11th "olden days" photoshoot.  If you don't have even one of these, then your parents must have loved you just the right amount.

  • I get to meet the Serbian National Basketball team when they come to Australia for the Sydney Olympics and play a warm-up tournament in Melbourne.  I'm a tall kid already but have this awkward babyface, so it's a great opportunity for me to have evidence years later of me meeting people I really admire, while at the same time looking a bit average.  It all looks very 'Make-A-Wish' Foundation to be quite honest.

  • Start swimming for the school swimming team and put my flipper feet to good use.  I have to wear Speedos again… along with the rest of the team.  A fact which is made all the more difficult when one of the other boys on the team spots the dark hairs on either side of the ‘budgie smugglers’ of another team member and says to him one day at training “Woah, you’ve got spider legs!”  The team member is embarrassed, leaves the team and our relay events are thrown into disarray.  Not sure what happened to the douchebag bully that made the comment, but to this day I hope he got a job cleaning bikie clubhouse urinals with no gloves for minimum wage.

  • On a family trip to Queensland, I win $4 on each of four consecutive scratchies that I buy from the Mossman local newsagency.  Neither I nor the newsagent can believe my luck.  He’s convinced I’m an 'Ocean's 11' level con-artist and I’m convinced the win is enough to put him out of business.

Clockwise from top-left; Meeting basketball legend Predrag Danilovic, looking chuffed as hell to meet Dejan Tomasevic, what it looked like in 1865 when the common cold took your father's life while panning for gold and you had to assume the role of 'master of the manor'', my sister and I ready to start classes in the new millennium - same uniforms, new hair.



2001

     

  • I enter ‘Class Clowns Comedy Competition’ with my friend, James Robertson as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and we reach the National Finals.  Despite winning the audience vote, the judges deem our material too ‘politically incorrect’.

  • We then come second in a school talent show to a family of slow motion athletes, spitting ‘Tic-Tacs’ to make it look like they are losing teeth.  We are disappointed.  Then we find out we each get $200, so we’re okay with it.  It's basically a lifetime gift voucher for the high school canteen or a lot of subway footlong meal deals in the real world.

James and I called ourselves "Mus-edy" because we combined music and comedy in our act.  The outfits we're wearing relate to a gag in our act about misinterpreting the dress code "semi-formal".  Champagne comedy.



    2003



  • Graduate High School.  Despite warnings from teachers and school staff against “joking around” at the graduation ceremony, I ‘bear hug’ the principal and kiss his cheek upon receiving my certificate.  He seems to enjoy it.  His wife glares at me.


  • I finally grow into my enormous head.  Still refuse to wear hats though, as I look like I have a terminal illness.  Not sure which of these two points are my biggest achievement of the year.

The 'Bear Hug affair' of 2003.  Sure he's the principal, but I'm the 'big spoon'.



2004



  • I start exercising, with the goal of losing weight and getting in shape in time for my 18th birthday.  I continue exercising even after that, I love it so much... even though it hurts me.  It’s kind of like a dysfunctional long-term relationship.


  • Start my university studies at Deakin University in Geelong.  It's like what I imagine many rougher public schools to have always been like; no school uniform, attendance is up to the student and alcohol's available on campus.  Pretty happy time in life I must admit.

  • James and I audition for both 'Big Brother' and 'Australian Idol', the latter just for the sake of getting on TV and doing our impersonation of Shaggy's song 'Angel', which is so on point that blind Jamaican members of the Shaggy fan club couldn't tell the difference.  As for 'Big Brother', I make it through to the second round of auditions. Still unsure what that says about me as a human being.


  • I turn 18 and can finally drive, drink, go out clubbing and vote.  I do three of those in the same day.  That same year, my cousin does all four in the same day and forever blames himself for John Howard’s re-election.


  • Begin performing stand-up comedy solo.  My first ever gig is at the Armadale hotel as a part of ‘Champagne Comedy’.  The comedy room there closes shortly after.  The streak continues.

Clockwise from top-left; My 18th birthday party, meeting James Mathison at Idol auditions, with James and Jase snorkelling in Port Douglas, then with James and Jase about to almost seriously injure ourselves with a golf buggy 'Jackass' style.  What a time for wet-look gel, long denim shorts and chubby faces though!



2005


  • Head overseas to Long Beach, California on study exchange through my university.  I meet celebrities, girls like my accent, and guys think I’m cool.  I drop more Aussie slang in my first 6 months there than Steve Irwin in his entire life.  I never want to leave.

Probably the best thing I've done in my life - study abroad 2005.  A tiny collection of only a few moments from a big part of my life and people who are still very important to me.  From Long Beach to San Diego to Halloween in Santa Barbara.



2007



  • Graduate University with a ‘Bachelor of Arts’ degree, Majoring in Journalism – with Distinction.  I compare it to an ornately decorated macaroni artwork; I’ve put a lot of work into it and it looks great on the fridge, but I’m not entirely confident it’ll help me get a job.


  • Enter a national comedy competition for Nova Radio and after several weeks of public voting, I am announced as the winner.  I am happy and keep getting more involved in writing and performing.


  • Former Miss Universe, Jennifer Hawkins attends one of my gigs, laughs loudly at my jokes and chats to me after the show.  I think it’s the best example of complete satisfaction with having prime real estate in the friend zone.

On the left is a photo of university diploma.  On the right is a pic with Jennifer Hawkins after my gig.  Guess which one got posted to social media first.



2008



  • Perform my first solo-stand-up comedy show at the Melbourne Town Hall for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.  It sells out multiple nights and is highly successful, except for one bad review from a disgruntled reviewer I will later refer to as “Hitler and Germaine Greer’s love-child”.  Even after my performance, the Town Hall is still in operation… the streak ends!


  • Spend six months back-packing and travelling across Europe and America on my own.  The experience is difficult, but I learn a lot and meet some amazing friends.  I also go to Oktoberfest, La Tomatina and Guča Music Festival.  I keep a diary so I never forget the experiences I had drinking beer, throwing tomatoes and listening to trumpets.


Clockwise from left: My Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2008 poster, chatting to Wil Anderson after the show, on-stage overseas while back-packing.



2009



  • Write for ‘Rove’ and ‘Good News Week’, thus fulfilling a lifelong dream of writing for TV.  Certainly feel like I've come a long way creatively; today a 22-year old getting experience writing for TV, yet it seems like just yesterday I was a 3-year old getting smacked for drawing on the couch.  Life certainly happened.


  • Start writing and performing a segment called ‘Sunday Roast’ for SYN Radio comedy show ‘In Joke’ in Melbourne and I eventually take over as host of the show.  It's awesome fun and great radio training.  There's no stress because it's like a spin on that life philosophy of "dance like nobody's watching", in that sometimes when you're on-air, you feel like you're "talking while no-one's listening."


  • Put my Serbian language skills to good use as I start hosting the ‘Serbian Youth Radio Program’ on Pulse 94.7FM.  It’s an excellent opportunity to play the music I like, while feeling like a Eurovision audience member week in, week out.


Clockwise from bottom-left: Backpacking through Denmark, Italy, Greece, and at the radio station behind the microphone.



The End of Part Two.


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