QUICKFIRE ROUND - Surprising Sketches

Two red buttons on the screen, one shuts it off, one records, okay, it's 50-50.

Right, first things first, I wanted to issue a frank and complete apology for the slight mess up with publication of last week's episode.

It is entirely my fault.

So, any early birds who felt that they were catching the worm and listening to the episode within a couple of hours of it being published would have noticed that it was just Jono's track that you were listening to.

There's no music, there's no Tommy and I kind of giving context to anything.

 

Jono Hey:

It wasn't so bad, was it?

 

Rob Bell:

It was great.

It was a real improvement.

 

Tom Pellereau:

There's a lot of silence, long silences.

 

Rob Bell:

Long silences.

I apologize for that.

I hope if you did, if you were one of those early downloaders that you did go back and listen to it and that your faith has been restored.

 

Sorry about that.

 

It won't happen again.

 

Maybe.

 

Here's the podcast.

 

Something that I love about the sketch that I noticed when I took a closer look when I was skizzing through is that there's a bum.

 

Jono's included an ass in one of his sketches of the guy running around naked.

 

And that was the surprise to me.

 

And I loved it.

 

Tom Pellereau:

My dad does this a lot, because he goes, and then he has to look, and my sister's saying they have to look at a bright light, and then they'll either sneeze or they won't sneeze.

 

Why is that, Jono?

 

Jono Hey:

A terrific, giant, old, circular, grey, Scottish stone throwing tool.

 

Rob Bell:

You've got to look at the sketch for this one.

 

Tom Pellereau:

So what I'm trying to work out is, A, if you're just winding me up on this one side.

 

Jono Hey:

It's a sketch.

 

B3.

 

Because you guys do a lot of exercise.

 

Rob Bell:

Right.

 

Good.

 

I'm glad you bring this up.

 

Tom Pellereau:

And so really burn through your beets.

 

Rob Bell:

Well, this is a concern.

 

Hello and welcome to Sketchplanations, The Podcast, where the door is always open, where you can check in at any time, where the showers are hot, the beds are cosy, and where breakfast is served until late into the morning, but with a hard finish at 11.30.

 

I mean, come on, a lion's all well and good, but let's not waste a day, guys.

 

I'm Rob Bell, and this week's episode comes to you slightly differently because sat immediately to my left and to my right and not on a screen perched in front of me on my desk are, respectively, Jono Hey and Tom Pellereau.

 

We're in the same room, guys.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Yeah!

 

Jono Hey:

Good afternoon.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Recording.

 

Yeah, we've been in the same room before.

 

To be clear.

 

Rob Bell:

Thanks, Tommy.

 

As it turns out, being in the same room together brings about a couple of technical difficulties.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Significant.

 

An hour's left, if you mean.

 

 

Rob Bell:

Who'd have thought?

 

It does allow for a different type of communication, doesn't it?

 

Tom Pellereau:

Yeah.

 

I can poke you, for example.

 

Rob Bell:

Well, there's that.

 

Because screen, you know, when...

 

And we've talked about this before in the podcast, that, you know, you...

 

Because we're so used to it now with Zoom calls and meetings online and everything, but you can't beat being in the same room.

 

Tom Pellereau:

It's brilliant.

 

It's really cool.

 

Rob Bell:

But I'm aware as well, it might sound a bit different as well.

 

It might sound like we're in a bigger room because we're not all in the smallest rooms of our house, surrounded by pillows and everything else that we do to try and improve the acoustics as much as we can.

 

Tom Pellereau:

With microphones three inches from our nose as they usually are.

 

Rob Bell:

I mean, I guess what the listeners don't know is that we've worked quite hard on trying to make our...

 

What we record sound as good as we possibly can, right?

 

It's not come easy.

 

Jono Hey:

We have tried.

 

It's still getting there.

 

Where are these professionals?

 

Where we need them?

 

Tom Pellereau:

And you've tried incredibly hard to get past the awful microphones that certainly I've had along the way.

 

Rob Bell:

Obviously, there are some downsides.

 

We talked about the technical issues, but we all actually have to wear trousers as well now instead of being at home when, you know, it doesn't really matter what you've got on the bottom half.

 

Jono Hey:

Dress up specially for a podcast what?

 

Rob Bell:

And the other thing, it's your birthday, Tom.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Yeah, what better way to spend a birthday?

 

Happy birthday.

 

It's slightly disconcerting because you keep looking at me when you're talking to me.

 

It's like, it's very lovely.

 

Thank you.

 

Rob Bell:

Okay, well, look, we need to get going with this week's sketch discussion in earnest because not only do we have a deadline to be out of this room, we also potentially have quite a lot to get through because this week we're doing our first ever Bumper Pack, quick fire episode.

 

This week, instead of concentrating on one topic, we're gonna get through as many sketches as we can that fit the theme, those we've found the most surprising.

 

Now we've each spent a little bit of time this week browsing through the collection of hundreds of Jono sketches to come here today armed with examples of where, I guess our reactions were along the lines of, oh, I didn't know that.

 

And what, that can't be true.

 

Or I've been getting that wrong my entire life.

 

We'll list all of the sketches that we cover in the episode description.

 

And depending on which podcast player you use, you should be able to follow links directly to those sketches on sketchplanations.com so you can check them out a little bit further.

 

And so you can see them there in front of you as we go through the episode, if you like.

 

And I'd recommend doing that if possible because they're all brilliant.

 

But understandable if not, if you're perhaps listening to this whilst you're driving or operating heavy machinery.

 

In fact, you probably shouldn't be listening to a podcast if you are operating heavy machinery.

 

Stop, do your work.

 

Listen to us when you're finished.

 

Tom Pellereau:

I love that whole operating heavy machinery.

 

Rob Bell:

It's such a standard phrase.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Oh, when does that actually come up?

 

Yeah, I'm driving my JCB.

 

Well, then maybe you are.

 

And I love driving JCBs.

 

That is my idea of a great weekend.

 

But it doesn't, oh.

 

Rob Bell:

Yeah.

 

We got, listen, we've got, I've said we've got to get on.

 

And please do keep all of your comments and messages coming in on social media about the different topics we've discussed in previous episodes or sketches you'd like us to cover in the future.

 

Anything really.

 

We love hearing from you.

 

And as always, we'll get stuck into our listener correspondence at the very end of this episode.

 

Right, so how do we want to do this, guys?

 

We're going to try and get through as many of these as we can in, well, I don't know, as long as we feel we can.

 

Do you want to set a time limit or do an order of things or just kind of crack on?

 

Tom Pellereau:

I think you just say when we move on.

 

You've got to be brutal.

 

I know you can do it, Bell.

 

Come on, you've just got to be brutal and say ah, like ah, ah, maybe and then move on.

 

Or something positive noise.

 

Rob Bell:

I think, so the only thing I will say is that when you bring one to the table, it would be great if you say why you found this one surprising, why it fits our theme.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Okay.

 

Yeah?

 

Yes.

 

Rob Bell:

And then we'll talk about it and move on.

 

Jono Hey:

Sounds good.

 

Rob Bell:

Who wants to start then?

 

Tom Pellereau:

Jono.

 

Rob Bell:

Okay.

 

Jono Hey:

Oh, good.

 

Me, yeah, good.

 

I've been waiting for this.

 

It's a funny one to say.

 

I was thinking like picking out ones that surprised me because I did them all.

 

So it's funny, isn't it?

 

I remember going through the French way of saying, surprise yourself.

 

And somebody was explaining all the bits and he got to je me surprise.

 

And I was like, it's funny, you don't often surprise yourself.

 

But actually.

 

Yeah, because it's quite hard because you know what you're going to do.

 

Or you would think so.

 

Anyway, the first one I thought I'd bring to the table was a moon pool.

 

Guys know what a moon pool is?

 

You know what a moon pool?

 

Rob Bell:

I'm wrecking, no, crack on.

 

Jono Hey:

So moon pool, when you can go check out the sketch of it, I put it as like having a beach underwater.

 

I kind of vaguely remember it from films of my youth.

 

There was one like Cocoon or something like that, where they were basically on an underwater base.

 

But it's a way of having an entrance to the water, like you're getting into a swimming pool, when you are already underwater.

 

Does that make any sense?

 

Tom Pellereau:

For those who have kids, do the Octonauts have a moon pool in their base?

 

Jono Hey:

They could well do, yeah, absolutely, yeah.

 

So a way to get into the water, when you're already in a building, a ship, or in fact, underwater.

 

Rob Bell:

Oh, I'm with you, I'm with you, I'm with you.

 

So can you bring up the sketch so I can see it?

 

Tom Pellereau:

Yeah.

 

Rob Bell:

Because I'm recording on my computer.

 

Okay.

 

Jono Hey:

So at Moonpool, I remember, and I saw a bit of information in the aquarium the first time, where I've actually, like, when you think about it, you're like, how on earth does this make sense?

 

And you might have all sat in the bath sometimes and you get a cup and you put the cup and you push it down.

 

Rob Bell:

Yeah.

 

Jono Hey:

And if you keep it perfectly level, you can have an air pocket underwater.

 

And I remember, like, as a kid, you put your finger into this space in the cup.

 

Rob Bell:

It was dry.

 

Jono Hey:

It was dry, but you're underwater.

 

How is this possible?

 

Anyway, so it is possible, and not even just having to keep a cup level by using something called a moon pool.

 

And the way they do it, it can be open to the air.

 

So apparently it used to come from, originally came from oil drilling.

 

So they needed to get, you need to be parked in the ocean and you need to get your drilling materials down to the bottom, but you've got a massive storm raging around you, so it's difficult to do.

 

So you basically have a perimeter around your pool, or it can be covered, and then you can go do what you want in this space.

 

But it can also be, and there is actually some underwater bases where they train astronauts, and it sounds a bit crazy, but they're training for extreme environments, right?

 

And it's about as close as you get.

 

So it's underwater, a base sat on the seafloor off Florida, and they have, it's also called a wet porch.

 

So basically you take the room where you're gonna get into the water and you pump up as much air in there as you can to meet the pressure of the water at that depth.

 

And that stops the water from coming up and filling the space, which you would normally do.

 

Rob Bell:

Even though it's right there, there's like a hole that would allow you to access it.

 

It's right there.

 

Jono Hey:

Exactly, you can just step into the water and it's not gonna flood your whole ship.

 

And so they do that by raising the pressure, the air pressure so much that the water stays out and you can just slip in and out of the water.

 

So you can be off, go do your dive, come back out, stick your head up, but you're still 60 feet underwater.

 

Rob Bell:

That's amazing.

 

Yes, that's very cool.

 

Jono Hey:

So anyway, that was a moon pool and I was thinking, I still think about it now and I think this is amazing.

 

How cool is that?

 

I'm desperate to get to use a moon pool one day.

 

Rob Bell:

So when building bridges, have you heard of caissons?

 

Jono Hey:

Yes.

 

Rob Bell:

So when you're building foundations for bridges that are underwater, you need this pressurized container so that people can be there doing their jobs or you send them down in the gear.

 

But, Victorian times, building lots of bridges, caissons were the way of doing it.

 

And it's about having a pressurized container within which you can move about and access the environment around you, i.e.

 

digging foundations.

 

Jono Hey:

The sand at the bottom of the river bed.

 

Rob Bell:

Exactly.

 

Jono Hey:

In the air.

 

Rob Bell:

In the dry.

 

Brilliant.

 

Moon pool.

 

Right, we're gonna move on to my first one, which is entitled To It To Ooh.

 

So this was the fact in nature, so as far as I can remember, before seeing this sketch, the noise an owl makes is to it too, to it too.

 

We all know that, we learned that as kids, right?

 

Turns out, yeah, see, Tommy's seen it for the first time.

 

Turns out that's not an owl, that's a pair of owls, specifically tawny owls, who would make that to it too sound.

 

Other owls make slightly different kind of screechy noises, but that doesn't matter.

 

The twit, toowoo comes from two separate owls, a pair.

 

So I think the female goes to it, and the male goes toowoo.

 

And that's what you hear when you hear what you think is an owl.

 

Tom Pellereau:

So the female is calling a male a twit.

 

Rob Bell:

See, it all makes sense.

 

Tom Pellereau:

And the male is going back going toowoo.

 

Jono Hey:

Isn't that, yeah, isn't that amazing?

 

Rob Bell:

That's nuts.

 

Jono Hey:

All the time you think it's one owl, but it's actually two owls.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Are you making this up, Jono, is that real?

 

Jono Hey:

It's real.

 

It's absolutely real.

 

Rob Bell:

So what I found incredibly surprising about that is that that's something that I've been assuming.

 

No, I thought I knew, but I knew it wrong my entire life.

 

But I'm sure I'm not the only one.

 

I'm sure that our parents tell us that when you're learning animals as a kid.

 

Oh, what noise does a pig make?

 

What noise does a cow make?

 

What noise does an owl make?

 

It's probably backed up in primary school, especially throughout your entire life.

 

Kids' books probably go, have animations of an owl going, toot, toot, it's all wrong, it's a lie.

 

Tom Pellereau:

So if you hear just a, toot, you know, it's a poor person, they're put there, she's alone.

 

Rob Bell:

Lone owl.

 

Jono Hey:

It's a female looking for the male.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Rob, as you say, that is very surprising.

 

And that's crazy.

 

Let's tell my kids that.

 

Rob Bell:

Yeah.

 

Tom Pellereau:

They won't believe me.

 

Rob Bell:

No, they'll call you a liar.

 

Tommy.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Right.

 

Rob Bell:

This is going really well, crack off.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Thank you very much.

 

So this is a really unexpected one in the fact that it is better to be interested than be interesting.

 

So in a dinner party or in a formal occasion, when you're meeting new people, it is really weird, but the more you are interested in what someone else has to say, it's been proven that afterwards, they will think you are more interesting.

 

So if I'm meeting someone and I start talking about myself and talking about this and talking about that, but if I was like, oh, and you kind of drag information out of them, bit like you always do on your programmes, Rob, you're brilliant at doing it.

 

When you're interviewing people, they will honestly say that you are more interesting afterwards.

 

And I remember learning this for the first time, and I think it's really difficult to do the younger you are, because when you're younger, you kind of feel that you need to impress people.

 

But honestly, try it.

 

It works brilliantly.

 

And thank you, Jono, for making this into a Sketchplanation.

 

Rob Bell:

So was that a surprise for you to learn that, kind of formally have that explained, or set out, not explained, set out?

 

Tom Pellereau:

I think it's just very contradictory.

 

You think that to impress someone, you've got to talk about yourself and how impressive you are and all the stuff that you've done.

 

Was actually possibly the best way to impress someone is to ask them good questions, leading questions about themselves, learn about them, listen to them.

 

And I think you get better at that when you're older, certainly when you're young, all you want to do is impress people.

 

Rob Bell:

Can you imagine in an interview situation, where you go in and you think, right, I need to come across as interesting as possible here.

 

So every question they ask me, I'm gonna ask one right back at them.

 

Tom Pellereau:

There's possibly situations where it's not the best tactic, and maybe in an interview it's not, but if you can have the opportunity to ask people.

 

But certainly in dinner parties, in conferences, in networking, at university, at school, that sort of stuff, it works really, really well.

 

Rob Bell:

I think you're right.

 

I think you're right.

 

Jono, you've had opportunities for when you've tried to portray yourself as more interesting than perhaps you are by asking lots of questions.

 

Tom Pellereau:

It's not possible.

 

Jono Hey:

I think as you grow up, you see what you think are interesting people.

 

So you think to be interesting, you have to be as interesting as them.

 

So it's very counterintuitive, I think, to have this the other way around.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Yeah.

 

Jono Hey:

I mean, it's probably why I even bothered writing it down, isn't it?

 

It's probably why what makes anything noteworthy is it sort of surprises you in a way, right?

 

It takes a little gap in your knowledge and goes, oh.

 

Rob Bell:

Do you remember where that research came from?

 

Jono Hey:

Well, the one I was quoting was not research.

 

It was from a book from Charles, it's actually from Charles Sarchie.

 

He was the one, and actually I think it was advice from his wife, Nigella Dawson.

 

Rob Bell:

Yes, it is.

 

Jono Hey:

But there is also all sorts of research around this as a phenomenon, but yeah.

 

That's where I learned it.

 

Tom Pellereau:

I think Carnegie talks about it, doesn't he, in How to Win Friends and Influence People.

 

He does, he does that.

 

That we're quoting for the second or third time.

 

Jono Hey:

Yeah.

 

Tom Pellereau:

It's good.

 

It's like a hundred year old book, isn't it, that one?

 

Jono Hey:

It's quite old.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Is it?

 

Yeah, it's really, really old.

 

It's quite difficult to get in print.

 

You have to find old copies of it.

 

Rob Bell:

I always assumed it was a fairly contemporary book from like the 80s, 90s.

 

Tom Pellereau:

I think it's.

 

Rob Bell:

No.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Yeah.

 

Rob Bell:

That in itself, I find surprising.

 

Surprising.

 

Tom Pellereau:

There we go, next.

 

Rob Bell:

Right, Jono, back round to you.

 

Jono Hey:

Okay, cool.

 

So, one I really like and sort of blew my mind when I was first shared.

 

I was shared an article by a really good friend and it's cool.

 

It's all about ordering adjectives and actually it's still remarkable.

 

So basically, the idea is that English adjectives almost always follow a set order when you say them in a row.

 

And so, I'll give a little example as I put in the description which was compare, for example, a super little Italian coffee to an Italian little super coffee.

 

And they're just totally different things and one of them sounds weird and a bit strange and the other one just sounds completely natural.

 

Or the other one was, this was from a book called The Elements of Eloquence, is that you can have a great green dragon but not a green great one.

 

And you're like, what?

 

That doesn't make it.

 

Rob Bell:

It's the same words.

 

Jono Hey:

It's the same words and green and great, but great green sounds natural and green great sounds bizarre.

 

Rob Bell:

Yeah.

 

Jono Hey:

But if you would learn in English, how do you string these all together?

 

Tom Pellereau:

So how do you teach that?

 

Is there something?

 

Jono Hey:

Well, so the order, apparently, this was my example for the sketch was a terrific giant old circular grey Scottish stone throwing toy, which is, so I've got some guys throwing a giant stone, it's crispy.

 

Rob Bell:

You got to look at the sketch for this one.

 

Jono Hey:

So the thing is, it goes opinion, which is, I think this is terrific, size, giant, age, old, shape, circular, colour, grey, origin, Scottish, material, stone, purpose, throwing, and then your noun.

 

And so the adjectives, we naturally, without thinking about it, put them in this order when we string adjectives together.

 

I can just see Tom's face here, he's like, he's like, no way.

 

Rob Bell:

And the order again is opinion, size, age, shape, colour, origin, material, purpose.

 

Now when you're describing something with adjectives, you don't have to use all of them.

 

But if you are using more than one, naturally in English, that is the order in which you will go through them.

 

I found this astounding when I saw your sketch, however long ago that was, because it's something that I've been doing without knowing and I had no idea there was a, I don't know, is it a grammatical rule, or is it just a culture, a culture, yeah, I don't know, but it's amazing that we've all got this ingrained within us and if you hear it another way, it sounds completely wrong.

 

Jono Hey:

So as an example, Tom, with the material and the purpose, so if you went a plastic cricket cricket bat, or you went a cricket plastic bat, you're like, it's horrific, yeah, completely different, isn't it?

 

Completely different.

 

But anyway, so apparently we're all doing this, we're all doing this all the time.

 

Tom Pellereau:

And a plastic big cricket bat, yeah, a big plastic cricket, what?

 

Jono Hey:

This great yellow recording room we're sat in, or this yellow recording great room, what?

 

Rob Bell:

And we will automatically just do that, it must happen all the time.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Will the French do this as well?

 

Rob Bell:

They will.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Is it a Latin thing?

 

Rob Bell:

Do you know?

 

Jono Hey:

I don't know.

 

Rob Bell:

Let's, we'll think of a French, a big brown, no, a different colour, no, no, no, I know, but then I'll translate it.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Do the cricket bat.

 

Rob Bell:

A big red book.

 

I don't know where you'd put red in that.

 

Jono Hey:

It's after the grand.

 

You keep putting that first.

 

Rob Bell:

Yeah.

 

So size is in there.

 

Jono Hey:

We need to go study some other languages.

 

Rob Bell:

I don't know in French.

 

I don't know.

 

It's just nuts, isn't it?

 

Tom Pellereau:

That is completely nuts.

 

Rob Bell:

So I'm going to move us on to my second one, which is a blout reduplication.

 

Is that right?

 

A blout.

 

A blout.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Excuse me?

 

Jono Hey:

I would say a blout, but I don't know.

 

A blout.

 

A blout.

 

Rob Bell:

Right.

 

It links very much to what we've just been talking about.

 

A blout reduplication, and I had to write this down to try and keep it as simple as possible, is a pattern in the English language where we can have a term that repeats the same word apart from one vowel within those words that changes.

 

And there's an order in which the vowel will change.

 

Right.

 

So the example is, and this is where I'll hopefully stop talking gobbledygook, an example I've got is splish, splash, splosh from the sketch.

 

So you've got the same formation of the word, s-p-l-i-s-h, splish, but then in the next one you change it to an a, splash, and then splosh.

 

And where you have those kinds of things, like with zigzag or hip hop, all in the sketch, you will go from i to a to o, and you will change them in that order.

 

Now you don't always have all of them in there, but one thing I did notice is that they always start with an i.

 

So you've got things like flip-flop, tick-tock, criss-cross, jibber-jabber, ding-dong, chit-chat, dilly-dally, zigzag, tip-tock, riff-raff, ping-pong, sing-song.

 

They all start with the i, and they will even move to an a or an o.

 

Tom Pellereau:

So it was never going to be toctic?

 

Rob Bell:

No.

 

Or it wouldn't be...

 

Zag-zig.

 

Zag-zig.

 

Or dally-dilly.

 

Tom Pellereau:

But it could be tack-tock.

 

Yeah.

 

Rob Bell:

What?

 

Tack-tock?

 

Jono Hey:

You don't often have those, though.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Yeah.

 

Jono Hey:

It almost always starts with the i.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Oh, yes.

 

As in for tic-tock.

 

Is that why it's iPad?

 

Rob Bell:

No, because that's not a reduplication of the word, right?

 

So it's where you've got the same word.

 

Jono Hey:

Yeah, yeah.

 

Rob Bell:

So it'd be pid-pad.

 

Jono Hey:

A-pid.

 

Rob Bell:

But I was really trying to find one that didn't start with an i.

 

Jono Hey:

Yeah, they pretty much all do.

 

Rob Bell:

Yeah.

 

But the splish-splash-splosh is a lovely one, because it's got all three of them in that order.

 

Tom Pellereau:

What happened to the u?

 

Because they're all the vowels.

 

Jono Hey:

Yeah, we just don't do it.

 

Rob Bell:

Hush-push-pish-pish.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Does the y come in as an i sometimes?

 

My pie.

 

I can't think of many examples.

 

Rob Bell:

No, it's not about rhyming.

 

It's about all the letters are the same.

 

Look, zigzag.

 

Tom Pellereau:

It doesn't rhyme.

 

Rob Bell:

Z and G are exactly the same.

 

Z and G.

 

So you're replicating everything in that word apart from that one vowel.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Okay, so pad thai is not that.

 

Rob Bell:

Not at all, because pad is a completely different word to thai.

 

Jono Hey:

It's also a different language.

 

I love the way you're minding it.

 

Rob Bell:

Again, as with Sketchplanations, time again, look at the sketch, you'll get it straight away.

 

But it's absolutely fascinating.

 

All this stuff's going on in our minds without knowing about it.

 

We subconsciously do all this.

 

That, again, is a surprise for me.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Our culture, our life has meant that we know this.

 

All this hidden stuff.

 

Jono Hey:

I've just put it out there.

 

A few people have pointed out to me, because there wasn't any particularly agreed upon obvious explanation for this, except for perhaps that as you make the sounds, and you can try it, zig, zag, zog, it goes sort of from the back of your throat, back of your mouth to the front.

 

And so when you end in a zog, your lips are sort of pursed to the front.

 

And it's a bit weird to go back, zog, zig.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Yes.

 

Because you have to breathe in at the beginning.

 

Jono Hey:

So it could be that it's just the natural way that our mouths go as we're making these sounds.

 

Rob Bell:

It feels like you use less energy, less muscle to go from the back to the front of your mouth when you're speaking then from the front to the back.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Because to say something, you've got to breathe in first and then exhale to say it.

 

Rob Bell:

So I'll bring in a quick example from French there.

 

Aero, as in aeroplane, which we say in English, the French pronounce the A, then the E, then the O.

 

Aero.

 

So you go A, start kind of in the middle, right to the back, Aero.

 

So there's all sorts of movement going on with where you're saying that word from in your mouth.

 

It's quite hard to get your mouth around it if you're an English speaker.

 

I've found anyway.

 

Yeah, you're doing a big old loop.

 

Whereas this is very much linear from the back to the front.

 

I like that explanation.

 

Jono Hey:

Could be.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Talking about very surprising things, bright light to free your sneeze.

 

My dad does this a lot, and then he has to look, and my sister's saying, they have to look at a bright light, and then they'll either sneeze or they won't sneeze.

 

Why is that, Jono?

 

Jono Hey:

Well, I'm glad you asked this, because I didn't know, and I wrote to Science Focus magazine, because they had this Q&A, where you ask these scientists, and they'll go answer all your questions.

 

And I said, why is it that if I've got a sneeze coming, I can look at a bright light, and it comes out?

 

And they said, oh, that's very interesting.

 

It's called the photic sneeze, which I guess photic from light, and nobody really knows why it happens.

 

But it's there every single day.

 

If you're about to sneeze, well, actually, I might not be everybody.

 

But if you look at a bright light, for me, it will help me get the sneeze out.

 

Tom Pellereau:

And sometimes if I go out into a bright environment, suddenly I'm really sneezy.

 

It's always like, oh.

 

Jono Hey:

When our kids wake up in the morning, they'll often come out of the bedroom and sneeze as the light hits them.

 

Isn't that funny?

 

Yeah, anyway, the photic sneeze.

 

But there wasn't any clear explanation as to why this happens.

 

Rob Bell:

I think I've just kind of worked this out through life and through sneezing when you've got a sneeze there.

 

I've just discovered that by looking at bright light, you did it.

 

So I was aware of this, but I don't think I'd ever kind of consciously talked about it or spoken to others or even asked for a scientific explanation, which it turns out there isn't one as far as we know.

 

Jono Hey:

Yeah, as far as I know.

 

Rob Bell:

I love stuff like that.

 

Maybe the surprise for me on this one is that as far as we know, there is no scientific explanation because it really feels like there must be.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Someone must have worked this out.

 

Rob Bell:

Everything's linked.

 

There's an explanation for everything, isn't there?

 

Jono Hey:

It is odd, doesn't it?

 

Looking, like letting bright light come into your eyes should make you sneeze.

 

Rob Bell:

I think it's about looking up to bright light in my personal experience as well.

 

So, instead of cricking your neck back to look up at it, if you kind of roll your eyeballs up, I find I think that helps me bring out a sneeze as well.

 

Jono Hey:

Yeah, nice.

 

Tom Pellereau:

It's all connected in there.

 

Because the eyes aren't totally round, I wonder if they like doing it.

 

Rob Bell:

I feel like his muscles are pulling your sneeze switch or something.

 

Tom Pellereau:

We could just make up reasons.

 

Rob Bell:

Well, we'll start publishing it.

 

Jono Hey:

Can I do a related one then?

 

Rob Bell:

Yeah.

 

Jono Hey:

And a lot of these are old ones where the sketch is maybe more or less higher.

 

Rob Bell:

Don't excuse yourself.

 

Listen, Jono, you started out as a little kind of pet project for fun.

 

Jono Hey:

All right, so this one, actually genuinely quite a good tip.

 

And again, a lot of these were surprising to me because I only learned them when I was in my 30s and onwards.

 

This one I learned from a film, but it's basically if you want to keep your night vision at night, let's say you're getting up to go for a pee in the night.

 

Rob Bell:

Yeah.

 

Which becomes increasingly frequent.

 

Jono Hey:

Potentially.

 

And you need to turn the light on, but you don't want to crash into stuff on your way back.

 

If you shut just one eye, you keep the night vision in the one eye while sacrificing the other eye to get the bright light.

 

So one of your pupils can go really small and the other pupil will stay really big.

 

And it really works.

 

You turn the light off, switch eyes, and you're all right again.

 

Rob Bell:

So then you won't bump into the bed on your way back into the dark room because you then flip the eyes around.

 

Jono Hey:

Flip the eyes around.

 

Tom Pellereau:

If you want to sneeze, can you just do two eyes?

 

Or can you just do one?

 

If you do one, do you just sneeze out of one side?

 

Rob Bell:

And wake up everyone else in the house.

 

I discovered that through your...

 

I learnt it through Sketchplanations.

 

I'd never thought about that before.

 

Jono Hey:

I saw it in a film.

 

It was a war film.

 

And they were crawling through no man's land.

 

And somebody set up, shot up a big flare.

 

They're like, shut one eye, so that when the flare goes, you can still operate.

 

It's quite important, then.

 

It helps going for a pee in the night.

 

If you're in no man's land, try sitting here with one eye closed.

 

Trust me.

 

Rob Bell:

If we're talking about tips for going for a wee in the middle of the night, I mean, the sit down wee is such a great discovery.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Well, for me, it's a discovery.

 

Rob Bell:

For me, I just feel so liberated.

 

It's amazing.

 

I mean, that is my preferred way now.

 

Jono Hey:

Shall we move on?

 

Rob Bell:

It's good, though.

 

Right, how are we doing?

 

We're smashing through them, actually, guys.

 

This is good.

 

The next one I wanted to bring up was one called One and a Half Billion Heartbeats.

 

Right, so this is the phenomena in nature that roughly whatever the expected lifespan and whatever the typical size, for almost all mammals, one and a half billion heartbeats is more or less what you get in your lifetime.

 

So the sketch shows the scale from the teeniest of mammals, like the shrew that Jono's got there in the sketch, right through to a massive great big elephant.

 

And even though the shrew will live for roughly two years and the elephant will live for around 75 years, give or take, they'll both have in the region of one and a half billion heartbeats throughout their lifetime.

 

Jono Hey:

It's sort of like almost intuitive.

 

You think of like little creatures as, you know, living fast, dying young, and old creatures, or being big and going slowly.

 

And yeah, so in that sense, it's kind of intuitive, isn't it?

 

Elephants don't really do anything fast.

 

Rob Bell:

Yeah, they're slow movers.

 

I mean, they can run, but you don't see it often, right?

 

Jono Hey:

And the smaller you get, apart from, I don't know, a sloth or something, they're going faster and faster, and having young really quick and all that stuff.

 

Rob Bell:

I think the word we're looking for in the realm of those tiny mammals is scurrying.

 

Jono Hey:

Scurrying, exactly.

 

Scurrying in and out, yeah.

 

Rob Bell:

Yeah?

 

Jono Hey:

All the time, their hearts are going, and I think if you have young kids as well, like their hearts, if you listen to their hearts, it's just like, it's amazing how much faster they're going.

 

Rob Bell:

And this is what it comes down to, right?

 

So even though there's a massive difference in the timescale for something small and something big, typically, two years for the shrew, 75 years for the elephant, it's the fact that on average their heart rates will be very, very different.

 

So shrew, I think, Jono, typically in the sketch you talk about, a heart rate of 1500 BPM beats per minute versus an elephant, which would be about 30 beats per minute.

 

Very different.

 

So then when you combine those heart rates and the length of life, roughly you're looking at one and a half billion heartbeats.

 

And that applies to us as mammals as well, or does it?

 

Because I think you also talk about in the sketch, Jono, that we're becoming, humans are becoming a bit of an outlier because there's so much that goes into healthcare now.

 

So we live for longer, so we'll have more heartbeats.

 

Jono Hey:

Sort of artificially compared to if we were just mammals living in nature.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Yeah, cheating.

 

Jono Hey:

Yeah, increased our lifespan.

 

But you can think about, you know, like, whales are mammals and, you know, the blue whale, that stat about having a heart the size of a car and certainly not going up 1,500 beats per minute.

 

And yet they live a really long time.

 

Big whales do.

 

So yeah, is it just sort of remarkable, this thing that ties us together?

 

Tom's still processing this.

 

Tom Pellereau:

So what I'm trying to work out is, A, if you're just winding me up on this podcast.

 

Rob Bell:

It's a sketch!

 

Tom Pellereau:

Is therefore, because you guys do a lot of exercise.

 

Rob Bell:

Right, yeah, good.

 

I'm glad you bring this up.

 

Tom Pellereau:

And so really burn through your beats.

 

Rob Bell:

Well, this is a concern.

 

Tom Pellereau:

So when you're going for a marathon, do you think, oh, I could well be taking a couple of years off here?

 

Rob Bell:

Well, it's more when we do things like hill sprints, where I'm hitting my max heart rate and you're going, oh, is this a good idea?

 

Jono Hey:

Taking hours off our lives.

 

Sprinting up this hill.

 

Rob Bell:

But then apparently, the fitter you, well, yeah, apparently not the fitter you are, but, you know, fit people typically last a bit longer.

 

Jono Hey:

I think it keeps you healthy.

 

Rob Bell:

Here's the outlier.

 

I hope.

 

Maybe this is part of that outlier.

 

So whilst there's all the development and research gone into medical ways of helping us live longer, the fact that we're consciously trying to be fit to last longer as well, is that what we're trying to be fit?

 

I don't know.

 

Tom Pellereau:

The quality of life, isn't it?

 

Rob Bell:

The quality of life.

 

Tom Pellereau:

You want to have an extended quality.

 

Like, we don't all want to be vegetables sitting around till we're 150.

 

We want to just have this longer period of time where we can do fun stuff.

 

Rob Bell:

Whereas other mammals aren't necessarily thinking that way.

 

Tom Pellereau:

They're not mainly trying to watch TV.

 

Rob Bell:

Yeah.

 

When dogs are running around in the park, they're not thinking like, oh, I deserve a bit of extra dinner tonight.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Dogs are definitely fun-scared, aren't they?

 

Rob Bell:

Yeah.

 

Tom Pellereau:

All day at one.

 

Rob Bell:

Yeah, so there you go.

 

So another little add-on to that is that if you want to calculate your maximum heart rate, it's 220 beats per minute minus your age, there or thereabouts.

 

220 beats per minute minus your age.

 

So your maximum heart rate does get lower the older you get.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Yeah, which cycling with you, Jono, a couple of weekends ago was slightly terrifying me because I kept on hitting like 190, 200.

 

Really?

 

Yeah.

 

Rob Bell:

And it's your birthday today.

 

Tom Pellereau:

I should be on like 176.

 

Rob Bell:

Have you been lying?

 

Are you actually 20?

 

Tom Pellereau:

I'd love it to be that way, Rob, or I've just got a dangerously high heart rate.

 

Rob Bell:

Right, move on.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Right.

 

So this one really, really changed my life.

 

I learnt it from Jono, who is it?

 

Jono Hey:

Mary Condon.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Thank you very much.

 

Stack shirts vertically and the joy and that's so, I'm going to bludgeon this, but have a look at the sketch.

 

Stacking shirts, especially T-shirts, you fold them in this way and then you can stack them vertically and you get so much more.

 

Rob Bell:

In your drawer.

 

Tom Pellereau:

In a small space and then you can really clearly see every single one of them.

 

So when I was young, I was very much grab the laundry, stuff it in the drawer.

 

Rob Bell:

This is your ongoing hate of dealing with laundry.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Exactly.

 

And I think it's now five years ago, someone was talking about this book, I listened to it and I've done this method ever since and I love it and my drawers are really, really neat and it sort of fills me with joy when I open it.

 

Oh, look how neat that is.

 

It takes a bit of time, but also you get so much more in and you can see all the different, in my case, mainly all white t-shirts that I wear.

 

And so it's very, it's very, very clear.

 

I know I'm wearing it back, it's my birthday.

 

A day off.

 

A day off.

 

Jono Hey:

So for me, this is exactly why I had to do, I have to do this project because I have to teach people about these things which have been amazing and transformative for me.

 

I know this is only stacking shirts, but I learned this from my wife years ago when for years and years and years, I'd just been putting shirts on top of each other and pulling one out the bottom and they just completely mess up the whole pile.

 

And it was such a simple change to turn the sheet, the shirts, by 90 degrees.

 

Tom Pellereau:

And it really works.

 

Jono Hey:

And it transforms things, and it really works.

 

And so, yeah, we need, yeah, people need to know this stuff.

 

Rob Bell:

I do this as well now, because you told me about it, because Maria told you about it.

 

So now, I like thinking about it as like flicking through files in a filing cabinet.

 

I'm going to go with that one.

 

And, you know, it's been noticed, and I've had the mickey taken out of me for it, but I love it.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Are yours colour coordinated to go through?

 

Because I think Maria's are.

 

Rob Bell:

A little bit.

 

Jono Hey:

Yeah.

 

It's like a little bookshelf, isn't it?

 

It's a little bookshelf of T-shirts or something.

 

Rob Bell:

Yeah.

 

Jono Hey:

Marie Kondo has a thing, which is, I've not done a sketch of, but it's an interesting one, where she talks about the colours.

 

This is about hanging shirts and stuff.

 

And so she says, or go, I think it's white on the right.

 

And so start from a dark colour on the left and gradually get lighter to the right.

 

And she doesn't really provide any explanation as to why this feels good, but she says, try it.

 

You'll find that it feels good.

 

So I've been sort of doing that with my shirt.

 

To try and determine whether it actually feels better, but it's a bit of an effort to keep it in sync.

 

Rob Bell:

Who is Mary Kondo?

 

Jono Hey:

She became famous for basically teaching people how to tidy and how to declutter.

 

Tom Pellereau:

It's brilliant.

 

Her Netflix series, I think, is actually awesome to watch.

 

And Sarah and I have done it a couple of times through the house of just getting rid of stuff, decluttering stuff, and it's so liberating.

 

It's quite hard work, but it's really liberating.

 

Rob Bell:

Yeah, but you know, when you do do a clear out, it does feel good, doesn't it?

 

And this is very much along those lines.

 

It's about being more efficient.

 

I sometimes feel it creates more space in the drawers as well.

 

Tom Pellereau:

You feel like you've got a bigger house.

 

Rob Bell:

Yeah, great.

 

Jono Hey:

There are some other slightly curious recommendations she has where, like, make sure your clothes don't feel the stress.

 

So, for example, instead of taking your socks and folding them over each other, just lay them flat, gently on top of each other, next to each other.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Into a little sort of ball.

 

Jono Hey:

And they'll appreciate it.

 

Interesting recommendations.

 

There is actually another sketch which was exactly her thing, which was when you're, like, clearing out or deciding if you need something in your life, ask yourself this question, does this spark joy?

 

Rob Bell:

Yes.

 

Jono Hey:

And if it doesn't spark joy, time to move it on.

 

And if it does, you're surrounding yourself with all the things that spark joy in your life, which is nice.

 

Rob Bell:

Rather than shoving things in a bag and putting them in the attic.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Exactly that.

 

Jono Hey:

That's another way to do it.

 

Tom Pellereau:

And you kind of, she recommends to sort of hold it in both hands and sort of feel it.

 

Rob Bell:

Really examine it, look at it, yeah, feel it.

 

Tom Pellereau:

And there's a lot of mistake because of that.

 

So a lot of people know her as either the shirt folding lady or the does it bring you joy lady sort of stuff.

 

But it's actually really worth taking on and trying it.

 

Rob Bell:

Try it.

 

One more each?

 

Tom Pellereau:

Yes.

 

Rob Bell:

Yeah, quick fire, quick fire round.

 

Jono Hey:

Quick fire, all right, right.

 

My quick fire one, surprising things.

 

This one we learned when we were traveling in South Africa and we stayed a little pub in the middle of nowhere and they had a pizza called a Wayne's World Pizza.

 

And the pizza flavor is jalapeno, anchovy and banana.

 

Rob Bell:

Yes, those are surprising ingredients for me for a pizza.

 

Jono Hey:

And I did a sketch of it because it's random.

 

And actually partly because also I just think that people, recipes would benefit from being more visual.

 

And so I should think there's something like, I was just going to do visual recipe maps, you know, basically when it's all coming together.

 

But anyway, jalapeno, anchovy and banana, I think it's amazing.

 

You got spicy and you got salty and you got sweet all in one.

 

So it has all those three magic flavors.

 

It sounds ridiculous.

 

I get it.

 

But maybe give it a try.

 

Rob Bell:

Why is it called Wayne's World Pizza?

 

Is it a reference to Wayne's World, the movie, and they order that?

 

Jono Hey:

That's a good question.

 

I'd have to go watch the film again.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Is the banana cooked?

 

Presume so.

 

Jono Hey:

Yeah, you stick it in the oven.

 

Tom Pellereau:

It's not like cold banana you put on afterwards.

 

Rob Bell:

I'm reluctant to try it.

 

Tom Pellereau:

He feels like he's going to ruin a pizza.

 

Rob Bell:

That's the point, isn't it?

 

Jono Hey:

That's why I put it out there.

 

It's a surprising one.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Hey!

 

Rob Bell:

And what do you want?

 

Do you want all your food to be predictable?

 

That's boring.

 

Surprise yourself.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Surprise someone else.

 

Rob Bell:

Surprise someone else?

 

Tom Pellereau:

Put them underneath the cheese.

 

Rob Bell:

Babe, should we get a pizza tonight?

 

Yeah, leave it with me.

 

I'll order it in.

 

I'll order it.

 

Right.

 

Yeah.

 

This is going to sound strange, but...

 

And some people have got a problem with pineapple.

 

Well, yeah, it's similar principle.

 

My final contribution to the quick fire round is one of Jono's sketches called Enjoy Your Hotel Room More.

 

And the sketch...

 

And so what Jono suggests is that you should bounce on the bed, you should take a long bath, and you should walk around naked.

 

And I spend quite a bit of time in hotels when I'm away with work.

 

And they don't tend to be fancy hotels.

 

They're just your kind of standard plain room.

 

And I can absolutely relate to all three of those suggestions.

 

I think they're absolutely brilliant.

 

But the reason why I included this as surprising is something that I love about the sketch that I noticed when I took a closer look when I was skizzing through, is that there's a bum.

 

Jono's included an arse in one of his sketches of the guy running around naked.

 

And that was the surprise to me.

 

And I loved it.

 

I absolutely loved it.

 

And I will continue to do all three of those things when I spend time in hotel rooms because I think it's brilliant.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Bounce on the bed.

 

I was interested to know where you were going to go here and enjoy your hotel room at first.

 

Rob Bell:

And I was trying to think of anything else that I might add to that.

 

But I don't think there was.

 

I don't think there was anything.

 

That's it.

 

Jono Hey:

That's it.

 

That's all we need.

 

Rob Bell:

Tommy, round us off.

 

Round us off.

 

One final sketch.

 

You just stop looking at the bum.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Well, it's related, I suppose.

 

That person in the sketch, he would have been using both sides of the towel because he's Jono, probably, and that was yourself you're drawing there.

 

I don't know about that.

 

Which is...

 

Rob Bell:

It's a nice bum.

 

It is a nice bum.

 

Tom Pellereau:

So when you're using a towel, you often come out and you're really wet and then you get the towel wet and you never think that the other side of the towel is completely dry.

 

So once you sort of dry yourself a bit, turn it over and then you have a nice warm dry towel to continue drying yourself.

 

Rob Bell:

Or at least drier.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Dryer.

 

Is it always completely dry, Jono?

 

Rob Bell:

It's definitely drier.

 

Jono Hey:

It's definitely drier.

 

Yeah, it is genuinely a really simple way.

 

Dry yourself on one side of the towel and then turn it around and wrap the dry side around you, if you want to wear it around your waist or something.

 

Rob Bell:

Feels much nicer.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Especially travel towels.

 

Jono Hey:

It's another one of those ones where I...

 

I know, it's so ridiculous.

 

It's just so long ago.

 

And yet, it was literally decades before I kind of twigged that there are two separate sides to a towel.

 

Which, you know, how is that possible?

 

And you can use them differently.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Dry yourself, wrap yourself.

 

Rob Bell:

And so I get the surprising element of this is that it's things that are possibly so obvious.

 

They're obvious when they're pointed out to you, but up to that point, you just don't think of it.

 

Or maybe you do.

 

Jono Hey:

Yeah, I mean, everybody listening might be like, oh yeah, of course.

 

Rob Bell:

Come on, maybe.

 

Jono Hey:

What are you talking about?

 

By the way, they were new to me at the time.

 

Rob Bell:

Is that it?

 

Have we gone round?

 

Jono Hey:

We've gone round.

 

Rob Bell:

Well done.

 

Well done.

 

How many have we covered there?

 

Four each?

 

12?

 

Jono Hey:

I think so.

 

Rob Bell:

12 quickfire sketches, guys.

 

There you go.

 

What do we think of the Bumper Pack quickfire episodes?

 

Do they work?

 

Jono Hey:

I like it.

 

It's a chance to actually share a lot of the little ones, which are still good.

 

I quite like them.

 

I love them all.

 

I'm talking about the ideas here are good.

 

Rob Bell:

Well, I like the sketches as well.

 

Good.

 

I mean, keep coming back to the Bumper.

 

I really like the sketches.

 

I think there's possibly scope for future quickfire episodes, do you think, along different themes?

 

Jono Hey:

Yeah.

 

I mean, we've got plenty to go through.

 

Rob Bell:

Yeah, we do.

 

And to your point, ages ago, Tommy, this is perhaps a way of catching up with Jono a little bit and trying to catch up with the number of sketches he's done.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Get him to go quicker.

 

Rob Bell:

Yeah.

 

Well, him to slow down and us to go quicker.

 

Any favourites in there?

 

Tom Pellereau:

Like, Twitwo is still possibly the most surprising to me.

 

Rob Bell:

You're still questioning that one.

 

Tom Pellereau:

I'm still really questioning it.

 

Jono Hey:

It doesn't mean it.

 

Rob Bell:

So this is what I love about Sketchplanations.

 

You learn and it makes you think about things completely differently.

 

Tom Pellereau:

The 1.5 billion heartbeats, that feels a bit of a downer.

 

Jono Hey:

That's quite a lot.

 

Rob Bell:

Yeah, it's a bit billion.

 

I don't remember, not million.

 

Well, we hope you, our beloved listeners, have found some, if not all, of the sketches we've covered here to have an element of surprise about them.

 

Facts and tips you can share and impress your friends with, perhaps.

 

I mean, use them sparingly.

 

Nobody likes a smarty pants.

 

Have fun with it.

 

Go on then, off you go.

 

Thank you all very much for listening.

 

We're 10 episodes in now.

 

And you know what?

 

I think we really quite enjoy doing this.

 

We'd love for you to try and help us spread the word about the podcast as well.

 

Online, on social media, or by just bringing it up in the pub or a family dinner.

 

That would be brilliant.

 

Thank you.

 

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We'll be dipping into this week's post bag in just a few moments at the end of the episode, but next week we'll be back to the standard single sketch format where we'll be exploring Good Heart's Law.

 

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Until then, go well, stay well.

 

Cheers.

 

Goodbye.

 

Right.

 

Well, let's get into this week's post bag, which is a reflection on last week's episode, front stage versus back stage behaviour.

 

And we've had even more than usual correspondence on this.

 

It's fantastic.

 

So thank you everyone for commenting or sending us an email or messages, but we're going to crack on because there's a few to get through.

 

I'll read out the first one.

 

This is from Richard on Instagram, who says, This was really fascinating, especially the notion of keeping things in when we're observing others in a public setting.

 

I have a great friend with whom I have a completely simpatico relationship.

 

When we're out and see or hear something off the wall, we just have to look at each other to know we're thinking the exact same thing and have to immediately break eye contact or start to laugh.

 

Yeah.

 

Yeah.

 

And I guess that relationship to have that is keeping in.

 

And it's lovely, isn't it?

 

You both know you're keeping in your backstage behavior, keeping a very fright stage.

 

Tom Pellereau:

Hopefully it's that way around.

 

Rob Bell:

Yes.

 

But the brilliant thing is about it that you can go backstage later and have a right old laugh about whatever it was.

 

Thank you very much, Richard.

 

Toby messages to say, Another good podcast.

 

When I was listening, I thought the problem I sometimes have is working out if the situation requires backstage or front stage, e.g.

 

with other parents at school.

 

Should you try to be a bit reserved and not show your hands straight away or just be yourself?

 

I pass this one over to you boys as parents who have obviously met a lot of people, a lot of maybe now close friends through the schools that you send your kids to.

 

Jono Hey:

It's very matter, isn't it?

 

Trying to decide if you need to be backstage or front.

 

I think be yourself.

 

Be yourself.

 

It's a good environment.

 

You be yourself.

 

You're not.

 

It's no interview, is it?

 

Tom Pellereau:

Not too much of yourself, Jono.

 

Rob Bell:

What is the pressure?

 

What is the situation?

 

Are there any pressures at the school gate about you as a parent in front of other parents?

 

Because that's what you're, that's what's brought you there, right?

 

Jono Hey:

I feel like as a parent, there's probably always like a little bit in the back of your mind about being a good parent and maybe a little bit about how others perceive your parenting.

 

Rob Bell:

Yeah.

 

Jono Hey:

But, you know, we're all friends.

 

It's a great chance to get on the level with people, isn't it?

 

It's hard for everybody.

 

Tom Pellereau:

My kids have recently changed school, and so I'm meeting a whole load of new parents quite rapidly.

 

Having known the previous school parents really well, had been, you know, known people for almost 10 years, some of them.

 

And now a new school where it's new relationships, new beginnings, and it is a little bit...

 

I certainly feel Toby's pain, as you never quite know where to gauge it.

 

We were at prize giving on this Saturday, and that was very front stage because everyone was also really, really dressed up.

 

And yeah, so it's like being back at school.

 

It is very, in some respects, because you are in a school environment, so you feel almost like yourself back at school, and you're trying not to kind of embarrass your kids in some respects.

 

Rob Bell:

Is that a conscious thing?

 

It sounds like you were quite conscious of that, Tom, at this event last week.

 

Tom Pellereau:

A little bit, because there's hundreds of parents for that one.

 

And you've met people a few times, you try to remember everybody's names and not mess that up.

 

And that, but no, yeah, I understand what Toby's saying, for sure.

 

Rob Bell:

Jono, do you want to take one?

 

Jono Hey:

We had a really nice email from Jez, saying front stage, back stage is really interesting, particularly in a work context.

 

And he shared the term spillage when a bit of back stage or real life accidentally comes out at work when the professional mask slips.

 

But also that he thinks a small bit of spillage is as good as it shows who we really are and that we're human, particularly if you're in a leadership position, although it's worth avoiding the career limiting spillage, should it get close to that.

 

Back to totally resonant, I really like it actually.

 

It's the sort of thing where, it's the sort of thing that happens like when the dog barks in the background or the cat walks across the keyboard, it's like a bit of real life comes into work context is really nice.

 

I think it's a funny metaphor, isn't it, Spillage?

 

It sort of intuitively makes sense, but it sort of has this idea that your backstage is sort of bottled up, a bit spilled out.

 

Rob Bell:

It's got nowhere to go.

 

It's got to go somewhere.

 

It's all spilled in the office.

 

I mean, I've definitely, there's a very clear example I have of this when I did work in an office environment and I'd been away on like a two week holiday with the boys and you've been playing drinking games a lot of the time.

 

This was decades ago.

 

And with drinking, there were things like double tap your glass when you've finished your drink on the table or no pointing.

 

So you either point with a fist or with a kind of crooked finger and you end up doing presentations with pointing at the screen with a fist or with a crooked finger because there's no pointing or you double tap your coffee mug when you finish it on your desk.

 

Just weird, silly things that spill out.

 

So yeah, that spillage resonated.

 

Jono Hey:

If you had Richard's simpatico relationship, somebody else in the office would crack you up, wouldn't it, when you double tap your coffee in the morning.

 

Rob Bell:

Or if you don't and then someone goes, right, neck it.

 

Yeah, that was a nice one.

 

I like that.

 

That's a great observation.

 

Love that.

 

That was from Jez, was it?

 

Yeah.

 

Thank you, Jez.

 

That's lovely.

 

I've got another comment left on Instagram from ladynanaofmeme.

 

So they say, in corporate life, I had to look like I fit in as I should have.

 

As soon as I retired, I shaved my head.

 

My hair was thick and beautiful, but very hot.

 

So it was mostly in a ponytail.

 

Now I wear jeans, shorts and Joe Boxer lounge pants.

 

I always thought I'd be a classy, well-dressed senior citizen.

 

That's not me.

 

I'm free to be me.

 

I joined our Reader's Theatre group and love performing.

 

My first role, I put on a wig, glasses and used a southern draw.

 

No one recognized me.

 

At the final bow, I took off my glasses, yanked off my wig.

 

The audience of residence exploded.

 

The real me had finally and unapologetically arrived.

 

I'm not a classy grandmother.

 

I'm wild and wacky.

 

And finally me.

 

What a lovely, lovely message.

 

Tom Pellereau:

That's beautiful.

 

Rob Bell:

That is exactly what we're talking about.

 

Jono Hey:

It's a great opportunity for a fresh start again, isn't it?

 

Rob Bell:

I'm obviously just reading this in very 2D text because it was left as a comment.

 

But what I read into that is this joy of talking about who she is now.

 

Why can't we do that?

 

Why can't we experience that joy more in what are traditional front stage environments?

 

Why not bring a bit more back in, Steve?

 

Great question.

 

We have a mutual friend who does this, and I notice it quite a bit.

 

And I love it when he does it.

 

Let's say we're going into a shop or, I don't know, a cafe or a restaurant or something, so there's a stranger there who doesn't know us and you're going to go into your front stage behaviour.

 

He will chuck in backstage behaviour, just in the way he acts and the language he uses, the kind of thing that you'd, the kind of chat that you'd have, it was just amongst us.

 

And it always makes me laugh, and it always takes me by surprise.

 

And that stranger, whoever it is as well, usually they react really well to it because it makes them laugh as well.

 

Sometimes they're a bit bemused, but I love it when he does it.

 

I absolutely love it.

 

I don't think he does it consciously.

 

As soon as he sees other people laugh, he's like, oh yeah, I see what I've done there.

 

I love it.

 

Jono Hey:

It's a great way to connect, isn't it?

 

Rob Bell:

Yeah, it is, isn't it?

 

Step out of the...

 

I don't know.

 

I was going to say the clothing that we all put on, but don't do that.

 

Jono Hey:

Step off the stage.

 

Rob Bell:

Thank you.

 

Thank you.

 

That's a much more appropriate metaphor.

 

Thank you for all of those messages and comments.

 

Of course, keep them coming in.

 

We'll be back with you next week.

 

Till then, cheerio.

 

All music on this podcast series is sourced from the very talented Franc Cinelli.

 

And you can find loads more tracks at franccinelli.com.