Can Host – This is Your Pilot Speaking

This is the pilot episode, the one before episode one…

This is Your Pilot Speaking podcast TRANSCRIPT

McCarthy-Wood: Thank you very much for your company. I’m Andrew McCarthy Wood. Now, we have a very special friend with us. He’s a personality. Some would call him a celebrity because he’s been up on plenty of stages.

Paul Wheeler: They’re my favourite kind of people. I would take that.

McCarthy-Wood: There you go. He’s jumped right in. Now the way that we came into contact with him was through- there’s an organisation called Morton Bay region industry, tourism MBrit, and they run a lot of events across the Morton Bay region and the MC that they get for a lot of their events is Paul Wheeler. Paul Wheeler is with us. How are you going Paul?

Paul Wheeler: I’m really good. Thank you. I’m excited to be here.

McCarthy-Wood: Yeah. Now, here, is at your place. We’ve brought the mobile studio to you and this is the start of some pretty big things to come.

Paul Wheeler: Yes, we are hoping.

McCarthy-Wood: I think it will be.
Now just tell us a little bit about you.

Paul Wheeler: Okay, my name is Paul Wheeler. I am a host/MC, mostly in the Brisbane area, sometimes up to Redcliffe, sometimes down to the Gold Coast. So it’s always been my dream to be a host again/MC, so I’ve been really working on that here for the last few years actually. And I’ve been really lucky to do some really massive gigs. And I’m a really good rage of gigs as well as hear loads of stuff with MBrit who I absolutely love. And I get to go out and speak to families and get hundreds or thousands of kids excited about seeing Santa. And then sometimes the next day I’m hosting an event more in within a different community. So big events like Big Gay Day that’s hosted at the Wickham. Really good this year to host Brisbane pride festival, which is like a family fair day.
And that’s the kind of another really big target audience of mine that I’m really working towards as well. So yeah, I’ve been really lucky to do it.
I should explain now, I’m originally from England, which is why I’ve got this messed up accent. Australians think I sound really English. English people think I sound really Australian. And I’m a bit of a combo.

McCarthy-Wood: So, you have an accent battle. It doesn’t matter where you are.

Paul Wheeler: My phone voice is very Australian. Like if I speak to my family, they’re like stop putting on that voice, in Essex accent. But just can’t switch it off.

McCarthy-Wood: So we’re going to talk about why we’re doing this right now and where it’s going to lead. But just quickly, we find we do a bit of production with you. That’s how we’ve come into contact with your [inaudible] events.
And for us it’s a big thing. When you’ve got an MC, they can carry it when there are things that aren’t going so great, it makes our job so much easier. And just working with you has been fantastic and you’re a very engaging person. Now leading onto this, what is it that you’re wanting to do?

Paul Wheeler: Well, my ultimate goal has always been to- I would love to be on the radio one day, too ugly for TV and probably a little bit too old to make a start.But yet, radio would be my dream cause I love bouncing off each other and other people. So I listen to the radio every day, driving to work or to the train station. And the channel that I listened to, I feel like I’m listening to my mates every day, so I feel like I could join in their conversation.

McCarthy-Wood: Which channel do you listen to?

Paul Wheeler: Am I allowed to say? 105 Stav, Abby and Matt. I think of them as my best friends. They don’t know. We’re probably even never even met, but I love them. But yeah, that would be my dream.

McCarthy-Wood: When I see where this podcast series goes, they will be your best friends. Tell us about the podcast series.

Paul Wheeler: So my podcast series. I listened to them all the time and I’ve got some that I listen to every time there’s a new episode, listen to them, absolutely love them. I also got into listening to podcasts where I thought I would love them and I don’t so much. Like this things I listened to thinking, Oh I thought it might be based around a musical group that I love, and they will sometimes talk and they’ve not done their fact checks.
And I’m like, Oh well who are you to talk about the Spice Girls? No, not really. It’s not the Spice Girls. It is. Yeah. So I was really trying to find my, I knew I wanted to do a podcast, always have by, but also know lots of people want to do them and will rush into it and not have done their research. And that was really important to me. And I didn’t just listen to podcasts. Like as I said, I’ve done a lot of hosting so I know I can talk.

McCarthy-Wood: Oh we know you can do it.

Paul Wheeler: I just really wanted to work out what I should be talking about. I don’t talk about something I’m not qualified to talk about or I don’t have the background knowledge. And the way it came around, now I am a 35 year old gay guy living in Brisbane and I kind of accidentally realised that that’s what I am qualified to talk about, like my age, the community that I live in and it all started one day.
I’m going to be very honest. I got hair shamed, which I know sounds ridiculous and I’ve always been really sensitive about my terrible hairline. I don’t get me wrong, my hairline is mostly great, but that’s on my arms and my chest. My head didn’t get the memos. I’ve always had, well me and my sister referred to as a fivehead, and the older I get the bigger the forehead gets. And then I was actually the gym and I was doing my hair and some guys said to me, what’s the point of doing that? You’ve not got much there. And I was a man scorn. I was devastated. When you can’t relate, you guys can’t say Andrew’s hair, he’s got loads of it. I’m really jealous. On his head. Yeah.

McCarthy-Wood: He’s right here, so I can say whatever.

Paul Wheeler: That’s right. [inaudible] my house. I was going to say we’re in Hollywood or something.

McCarthy-Wood: Oh okay. Hang on. So this is where we dropped the sound effects scene. We’re in Hollywood. Just really good. We’re talking on a Boulevard.

Paul Wheeler: Yeah, it’s really nice. Yeah.

McCarthy-Wood: Okay. What accent are you going to get accused of?Yeah, like podcasts wise, so then that night.

Paul Wheeler: -that’s when I really started to have the idea of I can’t be the only person who’s a bit conscious about things like this. So I reached out on my Facebook and Instagram page, put up a picture of me actually taken at one of the events. I think I was working with you guys at, where one of the awesome photographers took a picture of me and I was showing off my chest and I’ve got a dad bod and I completely embrace that.
That’s fine. And I put up a poster saying about what happened to me and I was like, has anyone ever been really conscious of their hair, body hair? Cause I used to, as a younger gay guy, I think I wasn’t allowed to have a heavy chest and stuff. So I used to like vape that, wax that all the other brands. But now I’ve got a bit older and started to embrace it. So I just put something up and was like, has anyone else ever felt this way? I wasn’t going to pretend I’m a psychologist that’s going to help them, but I just want you to know is anyone else. And I actually got quite emotional the next day because I had so many messages from people and I think I assumed it would just be guys my age. But it was a full range of people. I had girls who’ve liked stories, guys with have stories.
Some of them were hilarious and I told them, look, the reason why I’ve asked is because eventually I’d love to do a podcast and this is an area I’d really like to talk about. And some stories, as I said, were hilarious. People having accidents. With like, you know, the hair removal cream will burn from leaving it too long. But then there are also some that were really sad. Some people were really affected by this and won’t go somewhere they can take their shirt off. Like you’re in Australia, won’t go to a swimming pool. And that’s when I realised I kind of found by accident what my podcast needs to be about. And then I kind of started thinking about loads of more topics that people and, although when I say it’s aimed for the queer community, I also want anyone to be able to listen to it and relate to it.
And what was great after that is I come up with about eight episode ideas and I’m really lucky to work in an office during the day, feel good, full diverse range of people. And we were talking about some episodes that were a big thing. And I’ve been in a relationship for six years and we often get asked, so do you guys want kids? And the answer is yeah, we would absolutely love to. But in Australia, how are we going to do that? And I was talking about that episode idea and a lady actually turned around and said, well, I’m in my forties I’ve worked my whole life as a lawyer. I’ve done all these things. So I get asked the same questions that you do and I get just as like not irritated by it, but how are you supposed to answer? Like someone innocently asked you that question and you say, well, yeah, I am, but how am I going to do this?
So I think what I want people to be able to do is listen to it. Either associate with it or realise that, you know what, I do ask people those questions and maybe I shouldn’t. I want people to realise that we all kind of get asked the same thing, if that makes any sense.

McCarthy-Wood: So to find out a little bit more about EUPOL because as you mentioned, the podcast that you’re doing, you are going to be an authority on it because it’s a lot of it’s about your life experiences and surely it sounds like you’re going to come across a lot of other experiences along the way. And you’ll bring other experts in. And we were talking just before this kicked off, you’ve already got a friends and people that want to get involved in this near reserving podcast numbers.

Paul Wheeler: Yes, that’s, that’s very true. I really want you to format because I think that it’s been, as I said, I done a lot of research of what I needed to do and there was this one day once I decided, once I got all that feedback about that thing I’d put out about the hair stuff. I was inspired when I bought a microphone, watched maybe two YouTube channels and clips about how to make a podcast and realise I don’t know how to do this. So I did a lot more research, found some people willing to help me. But what I knew I could do is work on my format. So yeah, I don’t know how to record and edit, but how do I want it to be? So what I would love to have and what is looking like is going to happen, at least for the first few, is have two guests with me every week.

McCarthy-Wood: Brilliant.
From different walks of life and ideally still from the queer community, who have had experience within what the topics about. Now a segment I’m really excited about every episode is called Give It To Me Straight, where we have a straight person come in because I’ve met someone, some are actually really nice, like I’ve had some in my house and they eat like normal people and they don’t smell weird now. But yeah. So Give It To Me Straight will always having a straight person’s take on things. Generally, it will probably be really lighthearted. And I guess a good example is the episode about having children. Cause I’ve had some friends, gay friends who have now been foster in children and now they’re kind of guardians and stuff. Just like they probably don’t think about how things are for me, I don’t think about how things are for them.
So that’s a segment I’m really excited about. So all in all three guests in total. Now as I said, each episode’s going to have a theme. And if I find an expert in that theme, then great. Like if we ever did one about health for instance, do I know any health practitioners that are able to come on and talk about how they feel, or if I am talking about body hair for example, I know there’s a great group of guys in Brisbane called the Bris Bears and they’re all about embracing the way they look. You can be hairy, you can still be hot, that’s fine. So yeah, definitely experts. But I really want this to be community based. So my idea would be, so the first episode, well the official episode cause this is our pilot.

Paul Wheeler: Yeah, that’s right.
Is going to be called Hair There and Everywhere. Where we going to focus on stuff. I’ve already got the material. My two first guests that come in are actually going to read out some of the responses that we got, but talk about their experience. Then once we’ve done, Give It To Me Straight, cause I’m really excited about including that, at the end of the episode we will be announcing what the following episodes going to be called. And I’ve actually just finalised the Ken host podcast, Facebook page and Instagram page. So I would love for listeners, I probably shouldn’t be so ambitious and say listen to this. Shoot we might only have one.

McCarthy-Wood: No no no, look hit 105, they’re going to be making the phone calls. Now friend.

Paul Wheeler: I would love for people to get in contact and share their stories. So then the star of the next episode will be us recapping on the previous one, which hopefully is a really smart idea that if you’ve listened to my podcast, now you know you’ve got listen to the second one and find out what other people have said and so on.
So format wise, I know exactly what I want and you don’t even have to be from Brisbane. Like the team that I’ve got on board can take phone calls and stuff. So if you’re listening from anywhere else in the world, Essex, this is for you to support an Essex [inaudible] in Australia. Call in, message in. So that’s how I’m really dreaming that this is going to work.

McCarthy-Wood: That sounds really, really exciting. Are you going to have any restrictions on the way people sound or anything like that, depending on which country they are from and all of that sort of stuff?

Paul Wheeler: Look, I guess, I mean I’m not an interpreter. I’m not going to pretend I can. I am English speaking, but in terms of accents, like I’ve got friends from all over the world and anyone is welcome to have their say like I would love to- because again- our take on how things are in Australia, over certain and topics. For instance, if we’re talking about adoption and fostering and things like that, I know 100% that in other countries it’s completely different and they’ve got different rules. So if there’s someone out there that’s got a story that our target audience is listening to and they think, Oh, you know what? Yeah, it is different now. Or maybe I do have other options and that is the absolute goal.
Like I said, I’m not going to take over the world. I know very much so that the topic of each episode is pretty much a third world problem. Like I know people go through biggest struggle than that, but I would love people to listen and learn something.

McCarthy-Wood: So you may or may not take over the world, but it sounds like, would it be fair to say that you want the community to not just learn but also grow?

Paul Wheeler: Yeah, yeah.

McCarthy-Wood: But you’re expecting to get quite a bit out of it as well, growing along.

Paul Wheeler: Yeah, 100% like I said, I’ve said from the beginning, and I know I’m not an expert in many things, so there would certainly be areas that I probably believe would, when I say avoid, not because I would, I don’t want to pretend it’s there. I know things are there, but who am I to talk about how certain people had been treated and how they feel. But if I have someone reach out, this is a community based thing hopefully. And I’ve already got quite a few episodes planned out, but I’m more than happy to add new episodes or to cut some off my list. And if someone’s got a big enough thing, where you know what? `People need to hear this then, 100% come in and I’ll just probably be a bit quieter on the episode, you know?

McCarthy-Wood: And so I can’t imagine that.

Paul Wheeler: That’s what editing is for. Right.

McCarthy-Wood: So this being a pilot, for the audience, the community that hear this first of all, or they may have come in a number of episodes along and want to know a little bit more about you. Can we go right back to Paul, the child growing up?

Paul Wheeler: Yeah, of course we can.

McCarthy-Wood: So look, the subject is going to be, and you’ve, you’ve said it, you’re gay, and you’re in a gay relationship. One of the questions that does get asked, I’m sure you’ve been asked a number of times is when did you find out?

Paul Wheeler: That I was gay?

McCarthy-Wood: Yeah.

Paul Wheeler: It was one of those things where obviously I guess I’ve always known. So child porn was a real show off.

McCarthy-Wood: I can’t imagine that.

Paul Wheeler: Yeah, I know. All of a sudden changed. I just woke up one day. It was like, Hey, I love attention now.

McCarthy-Wood: What happened?

Paul Wheeler: Dropped on the head recently. So I was that boy at school always doing musicals and for some reason had no shame getting up in front of my year of like 200 people, in Essex and thinking they want to hear me sing a song. And I was always really supported. I’ve had some really great friends. I grew up in England, two amazing sisters who I love and I’m the baby. So I’d probably was-

McCarthy-Wood: Did you play on that?

Paul Wheeler: I’d like to pretend I didn’t. I’m sure I did. I’ve always got on with them.

McCarthy-Wood: We’re going to be looking for their comments.

Paul Wheeler: I’ve actually very lucky, I’ve never really argued with my sisters and they’re great. So we’ve got a really good relationship. But yeah, I think I was actually got stuck in a rut and probably a lot of people’s stories. I kind of didn’t want to admit it to myself cause I felt like once I said it, it was really final.
So I got really into my job back in England and worked really long hours. And then I actually come to visit my family over here. So I was very lucky, I wasn’t actually a backpacker cause I came in for massive cigarettes to be honest. But I’ve got an aunt here and three cousins who are just extra siblings to me. So yeah, my mom died when I was 15, so then when I was 24 my grandparents also passed away within a year.
They gave us grandkids or some money to do something that they would want us to do with. And with mine, I literally, I think it was after my Nan passed away, last out the two of them, and she had always said to me, she wants me to visit my Auntie Sue who lives over here. So that was her other daughter.
So yeah, I think after her funeral, and it sounds like I’m really cold hearted, but I’ve got changed that I’ve liked the black tie and white shirt. Went down to a travel agent cause this was that many years ago where you didn’t really do it online and booked a ticket to Australia, came for three weeks and absolutely fell in love with the place.
And I got back to England and was like, ah, I need to go back there for a little bit longer. So then I did come back nine months later and within a few weeks I was actually already kind of seeing a guy that I kept secret from my whole family and then I was like, Oh yeah, the weekend I’m going to go and stay with some mates to do all these things. But really I was starting to be my first ever relationship with a guy and then eventually told my cousins, told my aunt who were ridiculously supportive. Which I never doubted they would be.
And then it was a day after my 25th birthday, it would have been, my sister, the middle one who I lived with back in England, actually messaged me and was like, so I know you’ve got a boyfriend. And the only thing I’m upset about is that you couldn’t tell me. And once she knew, I told absolutely everybody. I’m very, very lucky. I don’t have a sad coming out story, like I had full support. A couple of people took a bit of a while to come around thinking I had lied to them my whole life. And you know what, I probably did, but I actually will back up, I lied to myself. And I know a lot of people did that. I hadn’t done anything, so going back a little bit, finished school, did all the school plays in the world I could do.
Then I went to performing arts school, which I absolutely loved. Still really good friends of a lot of people from there. But it was there I realised in England it’s really competitive because Australia is very talented. Make sure you keep that there. In England, I think we were kind of maybe pushed a bit more into the Arts, so you’ve always got so much competition. So I think within my first few weeks, that’s when I was like, okay, I love acting. I’m not the best singer in the world. I’m definitely not the best dancer in the world. And that’s when I really started to take an interest into actually, what we call it, presenting, back home, which in gay world means something completely different. Just it, just to clarify. Yeah. But I did finish. I finished performing art school, done loads of acting and shows in that, and absolutely loved it.
And then just got stuck into the grind. Like I said. So it wasn’t until the year I turned 30. So I met Brendan when I was 29 ,so I always tell him he’s lucky to catch a guy in his twenties he was the one saying to me, the year I turned 30 you need to start performing. And I think it’s because I know I’m hard to live with if I’m not doing something entertaining wise. Cause I always seeing the house down and I said I’m not great. So he encouraged me and encouraged me to audition for something. So I secretly auditioned for a company called Quiz Meisters, which is a awesome trivia company who nationwide was definitely the best around. And I didn’t think I’d it, I got up, I had to do a stand up piece for it. I think it was about two minutes. And then they asked us some trivia questions.
And there was a lot of people in the room. And I’d got home Brendan thought I was at the gym and he was, Oh, you’re not dressed for the gym. And I said, Oh, I actually just auditioned for something. I didn’t get it, but I’ve done it now and got it out of my system. But they called me back the next day and he invited me back for some training. And yes that was, I had just turned 30 I’m now 35 and I host still for them cause they’re a great company to work for, every Thursday at the beer garden in the Wickham. So I started off at a few different venues and they kind of match me to the venue and I still do that every week. And that’s led to so many other hosting gigs. It’s a lot of right people at the right time. And from there I host every, well, most weekends I’m doing something also throughout the week I do stuff too.
So podcast was the next step. Did I forget the question? I’ve just been talking at you for 25 minutes.

McCarthy-Wood: No no no, I just want to pull you out for a second.

Paul Wheeler: Yeah please do.

McCarthy-Wood: Your audition. Do you remember your stand up routine at all?

Paul Wheeler: Yeah.

McCarthy-Wood: Come on. We want to hear it.

Paul Wheeler: Well I wake up first and they did say that you can kind of say whatever you want.

McCarthy-Wood: It’s radio but let’s give it a go.

Paul Wheeler: Yeah. Well okay. I’m going to tell you how I opened the joke and I feel really bad cause usually just for our listeners, when I host with these two, it’s family shows. So I don’t ever say these kinds of things. Now I know, I know. So all I knew is that this was the audition I was doing is in like an adult bar environment, and there was supposed to be 25 of us, but there were 24 and Stephan who’s now my boss announced that just before and he’s like, Hey, so what’s going to happen?
Is this supposed to be 25 of us? But somebody pulled out. And then he pulled the first name out of the hat to go first. And it was me and I opened into this room full of strangers by saying, yep, sorry, someone else pulled out. But lucky for you. I never do. How disgusting is that? Yeah, that’s how gross I was, but it got me a job. I got the job. But so that’s sometimes when I’m hosting, I have to remember my crowd, but I might be doing a family event until 10 o’clock one day. Then I’m on a stage completely different the next morning.

McCarthy-Wood: I’ve seen you do that. Yeah, absolutely. Shoot out a one and into the other.

Paul Wheeler: Yeah. You’ve seen me do quick changes into [inaudible]. Rompers into seats, but yeah, I feel like this is taking a real term, sorry.

McCarthy-Wood: No, but this is what it’s all about. So that the audience is going to stay with you and continue to grow and become more and more engaged, can actually learn about you as the host.
Yeah. So I’ve got a couple of other questions. We’re in Australia through the Yes vote, as we call it. What was your perspective on that?

Paul Wheeler: Yeah. Do you know what? Firstly, I obviously thought it needed to be done, but you needed to be able to do it in this country. But I kind of took a bit of a, not a back step, like I would obviously support things, but at the time I wasn’t a citizen. I couldn’t vote in this country. So I didn’t feel like it was my place to say too much. Like obviously if anyone else I would say, yep, you should be voting Yes. But I was very aware of who I was around and I just kind of felt like, although I lived here, I didn’t know if I was going to be living here forever. So obviously I wanted it to happen and, but I didn’t campaign or anything as such, unless I was in a venue where I could.
But I was so happy for the country when it came through. And actually the night the Yes vote came through, I was lined up to host trivia at the Wickham. Yeah, right. And it was one of the best experiences of my life because Brisbane went off as you can probably imagine. And I remember messaging my contact at the Wickham saying, Hey, are we still going to be doing trivia tonight? Cause almost everyone in my feed is saying head to the Wickham, head to the Wickham and they’re not going to want to play trivia and it is a great trivia. And they said, yep, still come anyway. So I got there and then yeah, the beer garden was absolutely full and obviously trivia was cut and it was just one of the best celebrations I’ve ever been to. Again, although I’d been in Australia for quite a few years, I felt like it wasn’t my thing to celebrate.
Obviously I’m a gay guy here, but I’ve always been really lucky. For years, I’ve been able to get married in England if I wanted to. Brendan, my partner, is from New Zealand. So we both knew that we had the rights in our own countries. So who are we to act like poor me when neither of us prefer citizens at the time, where I am now. So now if he went back, I bet, yeah, this is my fight and everyone listened and read on my Facebook posts and this is what I want for my country. But yet I felt like it wasn’t my battle as such.

McCarthy-Wood: So you mentioned that you’re now a citizen of Australia, like when you think of home? How does that work for you?

Paul Wheeler: It’s a weird concept because whenever I’m back in England, which isn’t as often as it probably should be, when I talk about Australia, I call Australia hor they’re like this is your home and it is, because when I’m here, England is my home and I always say, this year I’m going home for Christmas.
Home is where I grew up. That’s where my siblings are. So my dad is and all the people that I’d been around my whole life. But I also live in a house with my boyfriend of six years almost. I’m jumping heads, five and a half years. We’ve got three dogs. And my best thing to do at the end of the day is to come home to my dog. So my home is where I live. I don’t know. Wherever I lay my hat, that’s my home. Right. I might have to say that to get re [inaudible].

McCarthy-Wood: So you’ve had, or at least you definitely articulate it, as having such a positive experience through life. You come across as being a very positive person, even though you may have some challenges within as you go through. What about like you’re in the community. What about for friends in that, have you had experiences with them where maybe they haven’t had such a great?

Paul Wheeler: Oh yeah, 100%. like I said earlier on, I know I’ve got a really happy coming out story and I’ve got a lot of friends who identify as gay, bi, trasy. There are so many different friends and I know some of my friends have really struggled before, and I guess moving here at 25 and my friends at the time or around my same kind of age, they had already had their story as well, so I wasn’t really there for that, if that makes sense.
But I definitely, I’ve always said I’m, I was very lucky. I know a lot of people haven’t been. And what I do love about hosting some events is that younger people do come up to me sometimes, and thank me when that sounds really cheesy. It doesn’t sound cheesy, but like I felt like I’m bragging when I say that, but I’ve just recently, actually this Friday I hosted at Brisbane town hall, Brisbane Pride. On this event called the queer formal. It’s a formal for kids who, when I say kids, they’re obviously young adults or adults, but they don’t feel like they can go to their own formal for many different reasons. And it’s by the pride committee. So it’s a free event for them and they get a two course meal, they get entertainment by some of Brisbane’s best drag Queens.
There was a massive DJ there who like everybody knows, and it’s such a rewarding thing. So I’ve done that for the last two years and that was great. But probably the best thing for me is I was once hosting at the Wikham, where I am in Big Gay Day a few weeks before and I had someone come up to me and thank me for being a bit body positive about myself. I know I’m not a skinny guy, I’m not ripped and I own the fact that I’ve got this amazing beard, hairy chest and things like that where I think as I said growing up, for me it wasn’t really like that back home. I don’t look like the gay guys on TV look like. And I had someone come up to me and I’d had a few drinks actually. I wasn’t hosting. I’d had a night off. This guy come up to me and thanked me for being so positive and he was like, Oh, it’s really inspiring to see you getting up on stage and being you and that’s amazing.
To me that is the best thing ever because now you know, I think stereotypes have really changed. Again I don’t look like the stereotypical gay or queer person you would have seen 10 years ago on TV.

McCarthy-Wood: And does that make you want to break like a stereotype? Like you do, you actually become self aware, maybe you are falling into a stereotype and you intentionally try and break out of it?

Paul Wheeler: I think stereotypes can actually end up being a good thing, especially if you don’t stop thinking of the one. And I did, I’ve said stereotype a few times, but also think of like categories. Like what I do love about the community is that it’s becoming more and more inclusive. And don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there is still so many people out there that don’t feel like yet they belong somewhere.
But it could be that they do, they just don’t know about this place yet. So I remember the first time I went to a Bris Bears event, I was a bit, okay, this might be my crowd. And you know you can go there, you can take your shirt off at the bar. It’s nothing seedy. But you’d say you certainly can. And I remember before a couple of drinks I was like, no, I’ll keep my shot. And then by the end I was like, look how hairy I am.

McCarthy-Wood: Put your shit back on.

Paul Wheeler: Yeah. So I do think it’s not good. Yeah there’s still are stereotypes. I don’t think it’s about breaking them. I just think people were really learning more now to embrace what you’ve got and I think that’s amazing.

McCarthy-Wood: Yeah. Is there anything else that you want to discuss in as pilot? Just to set the tone for the future podcasts that are coming up?

Paul Wheeler: Yeah, I really do want people to tune in. Always take a look at the name of the episode as well. Cause it might be something you don’t want to hear about. Or you might be something you’d feel really passionate about. And like you mentioned earlier on, if someone comes in, let’s just say we’re lucky enough to get like 10 episodes in and you liked the one that you listen to, please go back and listen from the start. Cause I think my, I think how would work out that this podcast had been successful, is I’m going to listen back to this pilot in a year’s time and think, Paul, what were you talking about? You had no idea and know how much I’ve learned from that time. And I just want people to, yeah, just feel like they can contact me about anything.
Like if there’s anything they do want to bring up an idea for an episode, please tell me and we can do it for sure. And ideally you would come in and be one of my guests. Yeah. I just want you to love it. I think the goal would be, to me the ultimate goal would be to have a following, local following or anywhere where one day we can kind of go live as well, and do like a best man show. That would be amazing for me.

McCarthy-Wood: Phone calls, five, messages, all of that sort of stuff. Yeah, that’s the ultimate in engagement.

Paul Wheeler: Yeah. But yeah, I do want to be educated. I am very aware of the fact that, and I know I’m not old by all means, but being 35 there are things going on in the community now that I still need education on because I’m not hanging around as much with the younger crowds. But I love learning more and it’s my job to know more.
If I’m putting myself out. There is a host on events like Brisbane Pride and Big Gay Day. I need to know these things like it’s really, and I want to as well. It’s just been, I’ve learned so much in the last year already that it’s been really eye opening and my new eyes could be wider.

McCarthy-Wood: I thought you were about to start at another stand up [inaudible].

Paul Wheeler: I probably should’ve even said what I did earlier on about that. So, yeah, I guess also as well, I do want people to think they can contact me and I can take it negative stuff as well if you don’t like what you heard. But I have set up a Facebook and Instagram account for now so people can follow me through that. Okay, well I don’t know why it’s that fresh. Let me just make sure I remember the names for.
Yeah, so firstly the insta page, hang on, that’s my one. So on insta, so the podcast by the way is called Can Hosts, now that’s a bit of a play on words on the gay scene. A lot of gay people hear the name and kind of giggle thinking. Have you thought about that? And I definitely have, but also it’s because I know I can host. I said, I know I can talk. So yeah.

McCarthy-Wood: So can you explain it to us?

Paul Wheeler: Do you want to know?
So basically on gay apps, I’m going to call them dating apps, but you can imagine sometimes there’s more than dating going on. If you say can host it means, yeah, the coast is clear. I’ve got a free house, you should come to my house. And if you don’t, you say can’t host can travel means that I still live with my parents, but I can drive to your house.
So when I knew that what I want you to do as I, it has to be called Can Host because that’s 100% what it needs to be called. So that’s what we are. Yeah.

McCarthy-Wood: There you go. There you go. You learned something.

Paul Wheeler: So the Instagram is Can Host underscore podcasts. I Can Host being one word and you’ll see a picture of me. We have a really cool, it’s not a romper, it’s a two piece. But also we have a clipboard that I customised myself, which I take everywhere with me now. And the Facebook page is actually the same. So it’s can host podcast. Yeah. And the two of them are linked as well. So if there’s anything, even if you listen to the pilot and think, Hey Paul, maybe reel this in or maybe talk about this, send something through. It’s ready, it’s ready to go now.

McCarthy-Wood: Connect up and get into the conversation and engage.

Paul Wheeler: Yeah, so the idea is we are going to be, we are in my house today but they won’t be doing that every week. We hopefully have got a really cool venue set up in the Valley, Fortitude Valley in Brisbane. If you are listening from anywhere else, which I hope you are, that’d be cool. Let me know if you are.

McCarthy-Wood: That’s it. There’s some finer details being taken care of. So for you to find out where that venue is and what is all about, you need to tune in and you know, follow these podcasts and I’m sure that that story will play out.

Paul Wheeler: Yes. Let’s see where we are in 12 months time. I might be like, can you delete that pilot of what was I thinking?

McCarthy-Wood: `They had it. You’ve said that and it’s in pilot cause we won’t cut this. What usually happens on the internet when somebody thinks or a community thinks that something could get deleted. It ends up viral everywhere.

Paul Wheeler: This is exciting.

McCarthy-Wood: Paul Wheeler.

Paul Wheeler: We’ve never be viral before.

McCarthy-Wood: Thank you very much for your time.

Paul Wheeler: Thank you for yours.

McCarthy-Wood: And let’s take a forward as a community.

Paul Wheeler: Yes, we are down. Hit us up.