The Imposter Podcast AU

#48 Balconies, Breakouts, and Arm Wrestling Trophies with Pete O'Hanlon (Part 3)

• Chris Burson • Season 1 • Episode 48

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In this episode of The Imposter Podcast AU, Burso and Fitzy bring on their guest, Pete O'Hanlon, for an action-packed and hilarious conversation that dives into the unpredictable world of indie filmmaking and competitive arm wrestling. Along the way, the trio discusses everything from behind-the-scenes chaos on film sets to breaking into the world of professional arm wrestling.

What happens when an explosion rocks a Brisbane apartment complex? That’s one of the key moments Pete recounts from his experience working on the indie film Kane, which was shot in just two weeks. Pete describes the mayhem that ensued when a massive balcony explosion, orchestrated for a scene in the movie, sent ashes and pyrotechnics raining down on neighboring buildings. With firefighters and police showing up, people mistook the blast for a real terrorist attack! The podcast gives listeners a taste of the intense, no-budget world of indie films and the improvisation required to make the project a success. It’s a wild ride full of unplanned moments and tense confrontations with furious neighbors.

Pete also shares what it’s like to move from being a military extra to a cast member in films. He reveals the highs of working with big names like Tom Hanks and Baz Luhrmann, to the occasional ego-clash on set. How do you go from being an extra to sharing the screen with Hollywood stars? The answer lies in persistence, a bit of luck, and knowing the right people. Pete breaks down the networking aspect of the industry, explaining how important it is to be reliable and professional—traits that helped him move from the background to cast roles.

In a surprising twist, Pete switches gears to talk about his passion for competitive arm wrestling. As the 7th-ranked arm wrestler in Australia, Pete has some battle-hardened stories to share. How does one transition from the battlefield to the arm-wrestling table? Pete credits a combination of military grit and a desire for new challenges. He talks about the highly strategic nature of the sport, which is more technical than the average pub arm-wrestle. He also delves into the ups and downs of the competition circuit, including the taxing wait times and the brutal reality of facing a top-ranked opponent right out of the gate.

Listeners will also enjoy Pete’s anecdotes about the arm-wrestling community, including the camaraderie that exists in a sport where breaking bones isn’t unheard of. What does it take to compete in a sport where one wrong move could leave you with a broken arm? Pete explains the importance of technique and the sense of adrenaline that keeps him coming back.

Anecdotes to look forward to:

  • Pete’s wild story of having his apartment blown up for a movie scene.
  • Shaun Barry’s cameo in every film he’s part of, channeling his inner Stan Lee.
  • The thrill of having your name on a trailer for the first time—and working with Tom Hanks!
  • A behind-the-scenes look at arm wrestling, including why chalk is key and what goes into a regulation table match.

From explosions to arm wrestling, this episode

Matty Morris of https://www.zerolimitspodcast.com/ helps us out with a banger of a tune. If you want to hear about some real intense moments from Veterans and First Responders. Check out Zero Limits Podcast. 

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Fitzy:

What are you looking at me for?

Burso:

Look to be fair, I love the intros. I don't really care. Now, all right, people have told me it's unprofessional. Like, where's your intros?

Fitzy:

We're supposed to not talk during the no.

Burso:

No, most of them start with a Are you good, yeah, the tune's the same. All right, it's like it's a shampoos. Everybody knows Shampoos, shampoos. It's yeah, it's like champagne, but it's a shampoos, so it's like champagne shampoos. It's a new thing. We're starting Yet again. We've gone 35 seconds without introducing who we're speaking to again. I think we made it clear on the last episode who we're speaking to. Yeah, but you can't just say that that's where we're at now. Okay, because what about some random person?

Burso:

comes in when are we at then? Well, peter Helen, Get around him. Yeah, yeah, back with Pete. We did an army talk. To be fair, I don't think we've asked Pete too many questions. No, we just talked shit while Pete was here. We have just talked shit while Pete was here.

Fitzy:

So this time we're going to deep dive, aren't we Chris?

Burso:

Yeah, okay, good.

Fitzy:

Now ask a question.

Burso:

In the interim between the last episode and this one. I like the way you've managed to do that off camera but yet still in front of the microphone. I like the way you've managed to do that off camera but yet still in front of the microphone. We've stopped screaming. I'm sad too. Pete's literally written the whole thing. Read the whole thing in the meantime.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Yeah it's a small book.

Burso:

It's not many pages he just scrolls through to find his name in it. I'm still yet to find mine. If someone points out that I'm in this book, I'll read it.

Fitzy:

So book two.

Burso:

Oh yeah, pete's written a book, that's right we forgot Book two.

Fitzy:

is it a continuation of book one or is it something?

Pete O'Hanlon:

completely new. No, something completely different.

Burso:

When did you start writing this one Fiction?

Pete O'Hanlon:

non-fiction Fiction. Three years ago.

Burso:

I love it Anyway. Fiction.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Yeah.

Burso:

Three years ago.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Three years, about three years, yeah.

Burso:

Were you talking about that on LaBriar?

Pete O'Hanlon:

Probably.

Fitzy:

Yeah maybe Were you on LaBriar Chris.

Burso:

Yeah, it was one of the. One of the many movies I've been in.

Fitzy:

Actually, it wasn't a movie, it was a series. Were you in a movie Called Living Space. It's one of my One of my favourites.

Burso:

That was actually my breakout role, was it? Yeah, steven, steven Spiel, the director.

Fitzy:

Mate, I was lucky enough to go to the advanced screening of that. It was amazing Was it premiere or advanced screening? What was it? Oh, I don't know what they call it.

Burso:

Mate, we all dressed up. Was it sold?

Fitzy:

out. They had all the talent there. Was it sold out?

Burso:

No, so a mate of mine I used to work with on the debut event, Steven Spiel. He's so close to Steven Spielberg, I so close to Steven Spielberg.

Fitzy:

I was just going to say yeah, I know.

Burso:

All right, but not Steven Spielberg.

Fitzy:

Well, let's not rag on his movie. Is he coming on?

Burso:

Look, I should probably hit him up.

Fitzy:

Not Steven Spielberg. We can rag on him until he decides he's going to come on then. Yeah, true that.

Burso:

True that, well, I mean know who am I insulting? Though, if I haven't got me, who am I going to go with Now? To be fair, he actually had a decent cast. Like hats off to him. Far ahead of this podcast. Anyway, dig up, stupid. So I saw him. He advertised on Facebook. He said he had a thing coming out. This is before.

Burso:

Sean advertised that he needed like AXAJs and stuff to come on. But he was like oh, I'm coming and doing a movie. And I was like, oh, you're speely, I don't get me on. He was like, oh, I can't really just give you a role. I was like, no, dickhead, I just want to be walking past in the background or something Like just get me in a movie, like who cares? And so he got me on as an extra and he's oh, try and get your speaking part, try and get your speaking part. And then I had a part where I was supposed to come out and say something lewd on the upstairs balcony, but the thing was like condemned. And they're like no, no, no one's allowed to. You can't even go under this balcony. Now he's like oh, mate, I had. So anyway, I'm sure he could have, but he was probably like trying to be professional because it was his first movie and stuff.

Burso:

So he got me on and we were extras and I was supposed to be a backpacker. And then so like they had this top-down shot where we were all playing cards and stuff like that, and then I like fist-bumped someone, I'm like my breakout role. That's where it all started. And then he got me back in because he was like, oh, I'll get you back in as well. You did so well, mate, yeah, yeah, yeah, he's like you did so well at that role. And then I'm going to get you to do the next part, and the next part was flipping burgers on the barbie. There you go, yeah, yeah, it's multi-role, like I could. I was actually. Were you just cooking dinner for the actual talent? No, I don't think they had. But so the top down part was the top of my head, the other one was the back of my head.

Burso:

I knew it was you. Yeah, well, look to be. And to his credit he goes look, we can't pay you for anything. I was like just chill. And then I said, as long as you put my name in the credits, mate, that's all that matters. That's 90% of my films. To his credit, he put my name in the credits extra number, number one. And we celebrated when it came up Burger flipper two.

Burso:

Because I was actually in the movie longer in the credits than I was in the movie, as my name was going up on the screen. That was the most air time I got. But yeah, didn't lie to me, he put me in the credits. Good on him, Anyway. So you're the guest, so let's talk about you. This is a rock show, so producing.

Fitzy:

What, what, what a segue.

Burso:

So you were a producer at one point. What stuff have you produced? People are like they've been drinking in the meantime.

Fitzy:

Savvy 17% off. Yeah.

Burso:

You can't just say. You've got to say use code imposter.

Fitzy:

Oh, use code imposter To get 17% off. Is it code imposter?

Burso:

Coke imposter no. Code imposter yeah, code imposter, are you? No, just imposter. So you've produced. Yeah, so Pete, pete back to you. Oh, having to you, having another savvy. He's counting past, 17% off. Wow, I told you we should have stopped at two. Pete. Where's this going? All right, going downhill Producing. You said you're all about it last time you were getting into it and you were happy to talk about doing a script and stuff like that, and your stories that should be told from Australian.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Yeah, great, well done, berso. Way to bring it back Well done, bring it back. Yeah, I mean, I haven't seen any, I haven't been offered any, but that's kind of the goal, I think.

Burso:

Have you seen Buffalo Soldiers? Old school movie yeah, but it's like the boys.

Pete O'Hanlon:

In the tank or something. No, it's like Fury.

Fitzy:

There might be, another, there may be another tank movie at some point, I guess.

Burso:

I don't know what you're talking about. So Buffalo Soldiers are like a bunch of clerks and they're in Germany. Yes, I know, I love that, yeah, but that's what I mean. So that's more like the World War Timor story, where there's like it's actual stuff that happens, where people are fucking, just yeah.

Fitzy:

Have you seen?

Burso:

it. I think I have, so I think it's Ewan McGregor, and I can't remember who else is in it.

Pete O'Hanlon:

The guy from Joker.

Burso:

Yeah, yeah, I think those two boys are in it. Yeah, yeah, but they just end up being like mad drug dealers, like they're just moving coke around the place because they're bored out of their brain. But they're actually quite bright, so it's like standard practice. If you get a bright dude in the army, he's bored out of his brain. He's going to do some dumb shit. That's a good depiction of it. But that's the thing. Like I watched that and I was just like oh, I can actually associate more with this movie than a lot of the other ones. Yep, and that'd be interesting to do a Timor one.

Pete O'Hanlon:

It would be. I think no one's. It's like the book, like I knew there was a gap in the market. Well, no one had written about Timor. Like a lot of the books you go into the store and read, there was a chapter on Timor and then they went on to the gang and stuff and it was all SF throwing grenades and bayonet charges. You know so.

Burso:

Yep, like I lost my leg and then I had to crawl 14 months to get back, to get back. And everyone thought I was dead. And you know, yeah, yeah.

Pete O'Hanlon:

So I think there's so many stories like that to be told. I think everyone's got a story and like, yeah, like so many people, as we said before, deployed to Timor different periods, different experiences, and it's part of Australian history, like you know, it's just been. It was knocked off the top pretty early because of Afghan and Iraq.

Burso:

If those campaigns hadn't happened, we'd still be, you know, we'd still be talking about Timor to this day in a different way, I think Well, it is funny with like Indefat and stuff and stuff, because I'm pretty sure Rod talks about it as well when he was in Timor at the start as infantry, when he was three area and he was like most of the stuff that he's seen and been exposed to was Timor.

Burso:

Yeah right, like just cruising around, like trying to find stuff, and there's, like you know, all the bodies in the well, and then there's um, just finding people in different states of yeah, um, deterioration. After they've been, you know, they're like, oh, something's happened here. You're like, okay, cool, and they cruise around. Nick minute, there's like 20 people in a hole out the back and they're like what's going on here?

Pete O'Hanlon:

but it never gets it reminds me of, like, the guys who deployed to rwanda and somalia and stuff. Like, when I first arrived to the battalion, a couple of the older guys, more senior guys, were telling me about these Rwanda and Somalia stories and being a new soldier, I didn't really understand, because I was waiting for them to talk about the bullets flying and the grenades and all this military stuff that you're so used to hearing. But they were talking about, you know, the humanitarian side of it and thousands of people just dying around them and all this sort of stuff. And I was waiting for the bullets to fly and they never talked about that.

Burso:

And the ROE that they had there, yeah, because the guys knew the rules so well there that they were like like Afghanistan and stuff. They wanted to kill us, yeah, but like Rwanda they're like hey, rules are we, don't shoot at them, you can do whatever you want. I remember that's why they leave you alone.

Pete O'Hanlon:

My section 2IC. I think it was at the time Billy Ockman legend. He was telling me about how young 14-year-olds with machete people in front of them while they're on picket and then call them out, say what are you going to do? Or whatever you know, come and get us. We just chopped his arm off. Yep, and there was nothing they could do. Yep, I mean imagine that.

Burso:

Yeah, just Rwanda, somalia stuff is some of the worst stuff I've heard and it's so under-spoken about. I think there's one movie, isn't it literally just called Rwanda? I think it's about that. But besides that, I've spoken to people at RSLs about it. Yeah, and yeah, they're way happier to talk about other stuff. Even the Vietnam boys are just like. At least we're in a war.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Yeah.

Burso:

Rwanda was just watching massacres and not being able to do anything about it.

Pete O'Hanlon:

And no one like the general public wouldn't even know we went there or we had those campaigns. You know, they just know about Afghan and Iraq.

Burso:

A lot of your Dawn Service stuff they'll go through like they'll mention Rwanda and Somalia, yeah, but that's literally in passing.

Pete O'Hanlon:

I think it comes under the peacekeeping banner as well. Yeah, so people don't regard it as a conflict.

Burso:

Yeah, wasn't there like 5,000 people murdered in a refugee camp one time and the guys just had to go there and ID body parts. Yeah, pick up bodies and stuff. Yeah, it camp one time and the guys just had to go there and like id, pick up bodies and stuff.

Fitzy:

It was nuts um, so you've got book two coming out.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Oh, I don't know if it's coming out yet. It's still in, uh, still with the publisher so it's finished, though it's with the.

Fitzy:

Yeah, it's finished.

Pete O'Hanlon:

It's fully edited. Um, there's a couple of things I need to do to it, but I've I've already spoken with them and said you know, if it is accepted, then I'd like to do this. I had some recent feedback which looked promising, but I haven't I haven't had that completed yet, so I'm still waiting for the next.

Burso:

I spoke when I was back to feed about it before I was like I hear this book coming along and goes. It told me I have to lighten up a little bit. So like it's because, because your last one's obviously a story about you, yeah, why did you go from that to fiction?

Pete O'Hanlon:

Well, I'd written that and I'd been successful with my story and I didn't really think that I would be successful. Honestly, I didn't back myself. So I couldn't write about that story again and I had no other story to tell but my military story. So I thought well if I was successful in telling my military story. Maybe there is something here I can look into and I'll just try my hand at writing just a normal novel and see how I go. And it just, you know, it just flowed, the information just came out.

Burso:

What's the genre and stuff?

Pete O'Hanlon:

It's a military fictional thriller. It's pretty brutal and again I was looking for gaps in the market and everything. Everything these days is toned down. You know you can't say certain things and I thought I'll put it out there as brutal as I can and I guarantee you there's a market for that kind of stuff.

Burso:

You know people, All the people that used to be on Live Lake and yeah. What was that other site that you just?

Pete O'Hanlon:

Well, yeah, it's kind of, and at the end of the day, the publishers can tone it down. So I set the bar and they can bring it down or not. I'd like to leave it as it is if I want to get into Big W.

Burso:

I asked him what's happening.

Fitzy:

I thought I'd start here this one's not going to be a Father's Day special it might be not a healthy minded father.

Pete O'Hanlon:

I look at those true crime novels.

Burso:

This one's not going to be a Father's Day special, it might be Not a healthy-minded father.

Pete O'Hanlon:

You know I look at those true crime novels and they are brutal and everyone loves a true crime novel. You see the documentaries on Netflix and they're pretty brutal. So I've just written the same type of thing, but in a fictional capacity.

Burso:

Yep, it's funny, though, because Saw, for example, saw's got a massive cult following. 100% People are mad for that. The true crime one's a bit easier to pass off because it's actual, yeah, true crime. Better call Saul. No, no, no.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Saul, oh Saul. I think the good thing I did with this, which is helping me, is I made it real locations, real kind of situations that may happen. Even though it's far-fetched, it's a real location, real people, real situations. So it does verge into that crude true crime.

Fitzy:

It's just some truth to it, yeah I read a lot of fiction and, to be honest, if, if it doesn't have yep, well researched yep, um, you know, talking about places, talking about history, whatever it is, then it kind of loses me. But 100 and it can be so far-fetched, but if you, but if you've got those things… and that's what I've got …working in, then I'm all about it.

Burso:

Like, yeah, that's great, that could have happened. So is it fictional as in? It's not a real story.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Yeah, it's not a real story.

Burso:

But is everything else based in reality?

Pete O'Hanlon:

Yeah, oh, so Like orcs and no, no, it's true crime type thing.

Burso:

That's New Zealand. Yeah, is that? They're real people over in New Zealand? That's what they're called.

Pete O'Hanlon:

And again, I don't know how it's going to be received, because it's written from my head, so I'm like I wonder what are people going to think of that part? You know it's like Well, there's two sides to that.

Burso:

I wonder if I'm the of home, though there's the institution they put you in, but then there's like they're like what's going on with that bloke? But you know it's funny when you we spoke to Jared about it and he was like he goes once you've written it. That's your job done.

Fitzy:

Yeah, how it's received that's up to them, because everybody like if.

Burso:

If you're happy with what you've put out there, then that's realistically, your job done.

Pete O'Hanlon:

It's a three-part series, so I've left myself open. I've already written a fair bit of the second book, so I'm just waiting for them to give me the green light on this one, and I can continue to smash it up, because I don't want to keep going with it. I want to push on that one a bit.

Burso:

You haven't thought about releasing it through. Yeah, that'll a bit so you haven't thought about like releasing it through, like so like yeah we have SJ on here and she

Pete O'Hanlon:

she has like ink it yeah. Yeah, there's, there's options. I've already spoken to people who can help me with Amazon and other places like that so yeah, there's, there's backup options for sure.

Burso:

Cause there's other, there's another. If publishers are like, nah, you've got to censor yourself and you've got to do this and do that, and you're like, well, no, I want it out there as this, like, yeah, the self-published thing can, but you know who's going to read it if it's not backed by a publisher?

Pete O'Hanlon:

It's all marketing from their perspective. Can they make money? Is the market that I'm going into, you know, is that as a new author, even though I've published a book, I'm going into the fictional genre as a new author, basically. So who's going to pick it up? Is there enough backing for that type of story? Will there be enough audience to read it? They look at all the numbers and crunch the numbers and if it works, it works.

Burso:

If not, they don't care. Like how fictional is it? Are we talking like people are using?

Pete O'Hanlon:

lasers and stuff like that. No, it's just, it's.

Burso:

Just like a war movie that could happen.

Pete O'Hanlon:

No, it's just. It's more like you're um, you ever seen those uh movies where you know someone's running through the woods and you've got people chasing them and it's just brutal. It's like you know, like, check texas, chainsaw, massacres type stuff, yeah, but that in a military perspective. So you got soldiers going out after people and another soldier's trying to help them and it's just they meet up and it's just chaos.

Burso:

Yeah, um, I'm pretty proud of it, like yeah, I love it but I think that I mean, like if you're mad for it, then there's obviously going to be some sort of genre. I'll read it.

Fitzy:

I already know, I'll read it. Yeah, I mean, I've read a lot of those sorts of books and as much as I know it's bullshit, I'm okay with that. I'm okay, sort of, with a lot of the fiction. And I think a lot of people are in the same boat, because I know that a lot of the books that I read they're highly published people that write them and it's all sort of far-fetched but at the same time, it's like yeah, that could happen.

Burso:

You look at like Stephen King. Yeah, stephen King's got some brutal stuff out there, but a lot of it's based in reality and it's almost he's more scary because it's based in reality. There's other stuff where it's so far-fetched that you can read it and you're like ah, whatever.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Lizard. People aren't real, so don't worry. Movies these days no one wants to think outside the box and do a do a random story that might not work. They all want to follow the formula. Yeah, it's the same with writing. Everyone's following the formula that works. The books that work, you know, but they're those areas are saturated with everything. And then there's these other areas where, yeah, they don't get read, but you know, you might, you might get lucky, and if you do, then you're a winner know.

Fitzy:

I think that's the fun of some of the movies though that if you watch some of the, there is like plenty of those movies that are out there but it's hard to find them.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Yeah.

Fitzy:

So I mean you can get on Netflix or one of those streaming services and just start looking and going, yeah, I'll give this a run. And sometimes you really surprise yourself with, you know, something that doesn't sort of seem like much and it's a really good laugh, or it's like I was not expecting that yeah, 100%. So yeah, like I mean, there's always a market there, it's just whether someone's willing to pick it up and run with it.

Burso:

Some of the people I feel real bad for are ones that made a movie and then, 10 years later, it blows up. Yeah. And you're like oh, that Paul Bassett gave up because he was like no, that was it?

Fitzy:

I put everything into it. They're dead. Is that a movie idea?

Burso:

What they're dead.

Fitzy:

Yeah, what? That's a whole book idea right there.

Burso:

Yeah, just about people being dead.

Fitzy:

Someone who wrote a book put it into a movie. They die ten years later and it turns into this huge thing and they would have got royalties, but they're dead.

Burso:

Well, I mean Picasso did. Yeah, no, but it's like off the top of my head, I don't know. But there's a movie that's come out and then you know, like Ace Ventura was great at the time. But there's other movies that came out. Who went, zoolander, for example, just through the time that it came out? It was nothing, because it was like at the same time the Twin Towers got smashed into it.

Burso:

So obviously nobody was. Everyone was just like I'm a little bit preoccupied at the moment and then afterwards like kicked off and then went crazy. But those guys were doing like you know time and place. It didn't kick off. But it was well received later on down the track.

Pete O'Hanlon:

It's all about that timing later, yeah, when the audience is welcoming to that type of comedy or something you know.

Burso:

Bad Boy Bubby. Oh, Bad Boy Bubby. Yeah, but would that have kicked off at the time? You know like I dare say it probably would, If it's released now.

Pete O'Hanlon:

There was a short period where that was you know. Now I don't know if you could show that now.

Burso:

But even just other movies like Frozen. Like Frozen started off. Obviously it was, like you know, for the genre, it was for it, and now it's like played on bases in Afghanistan and everyone's singing the songs. I guarantee, if people didn't think that was where that was going to go. You know you have three blokes now that you see that are singing Frozen before they go. You're like where did this come from?

Pete O'Hanlon:

And.

Burso:

I can guarantee you the directors weren't thinking that. But they're like this is cool. No, and that's the thing that Jared was talking about. With art, it's like you don't know where it's going to go. No, so like your book could come out and it could crash and burn, but then somebody might be like hey, you might want to read this book and some punner who reviews books or whatever. This is one of the best books I've written in a long time. Nick Minnett 500,000 copies.

Pete O'Hanlon:

It's a very tough place to be successful. I think only 1% or 2% of books make actually any money over $500 or something like that. So the percentage that makes a lot of money through a book is very small. But those books that do make tons and tons of money and success, yeah, it's very hard. There's people out there who have written 20, 30 books and, you know, sold no more than 10 copies.

Burso:

Well, you're actually on one of the most successful podcasts at the moment. There you go.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Look at that.

Fitzy:

The fact that you're coming with military experience, though, puts a bit of credibility to your book. Yeah so there's a writer again that I pretty much read so much of his stuff. Yeah, and it's because of the way that he writes, you know, when you're reading it you're going okay, it's bullshit.

Fitzy:

Yeah, he also knows what he's talking about, and I think that there's something about that as well. That will, I think, help when people read your books. We'll go okay, we know it's bullshit, but this guy knows what he's talking about, and there's something about the way you write it.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Yeah, I hope so.

Fitzy:

So, yeah, hopefully that's something that will kick that book off, and you don't know until you put it out there 100% yeah and yeah.

Pete O'Hanlon:

it's up to the publishers if they think it's going to make money. That's what they're looking at. That's all they're looking at.

Burso:

The other thing that's interesting like I spoke to SJ about her books, like she wrote her first one and then just kept editing it, re-editing it.

Fitzy:

She's like, oh, this and that, but then I was like SJ look, she also got smashed when she was a kid, so she's never going to be good enough.

Burso:

She wrote something one time and somebody was like, nah, that's shit. And then that was her done for like 25 years, so she stopped. She stopped. But now she wrote her first lot of books and they were she sort of used like real world sort of stuff. I mean there's still like Faye and stuff like that. But now her new one that she's writing, which she's like over the moon about this one because it's so far ahead of where she started. So she wrote like I can't even remember how it's like seven in that first series.

Burso:

But each one of them obviously was a progression and to like each one of those books is better than the one beforehand just because she got more comfortable with it and whatever. But now the new series that she's got, she's like started from scratch. She's building a whole new world and you know I mean whether the laws of gravity apply or whatever else.

Burso:

It is like it's just everything she's rewriting, so there's different races, there's different this and that. So she's gone full crazy about writing this whole thing herself and she's really mad for it because everything is not really it doesn't sound like. She's like the other genre that she was writing was sort of based off the book she's reading. So it's sort of same sort of based off the book she's reading. So it's sort of same sort of world stuff, whereas now she's just like starting everything from scratch and writing whatever which has a potential for people to go. Oh, this is a little bit new. Like it's risky to go outside of what you're saying before.

Burso:

People want cookie-cutter movies, whereas she's now going out on a limb and doing stuff. But she wouldn't have got there without doing seven books beforehand. So like if you have this book and then the publisher like the one publisher that you're speaking to or whatever, he's like not for us, it doesn't mean there's not another publisher. So, for example, rod went to a bunch of other publishers with his book and they're like no, we don't give a shit, but Big Sky are obviously pro-military and stuff. So they're obviously the guys to go to. Are you going to? I don't want to get you in trouble with publishers, but maybe if you're doing a different genre, that's not their bag If you go elsewhere and do it.

Pete O'Hanlon:

I mean I keep my options open, but also my loyalty to Big Sky. I offered them first and I've got other options.

Burso:

Yeah yeah, because it's interesting, like even if you went to like with movies and stuff going to Netflix or Stan or whatever, they'd all have different ideas of what they're into. So it's funny where you've got. On the one hand, you've got loyalty, but then on the other hand, you've got. Well, if you know, I offered it to you and if you don't want to do it that way, yeah.

Pete O'Hanlon:

And it could just be not their genre, it's not their what they're focused on. Focused on it could be they're going through a phase of just military and, yeah, you know they they'll look at it in another six months to a year. Yeah, you can't take it's like acting, it's like auditioning for a role. You can't take it personally if you don't get it, no matter how good your audition is, if, if you're not what they're looking for. Yeah, and I talk to a lot of actors who you know they get so wound up in the fact that they haven't had work or they went for this perfect role and they didn't get it. And I'm like it's just a numbers game, mate, there's going to be a film that comes up where your look and your character and your aura or whatever about you is going to hit with the producers and the directors and stuff. So just keep going. It's a numbers game. Do seven auditions, get one.

Burso:

That was one thing. Sarah, who's one of the agents that's on the thing at the moment? She was like a lot of the time. It's not even whether your audition was any good. It's like the main role is five foot four. You're six two. They don't want you.

Pete O'Hanlon:

They already know what they're looking for. They already know what they want.

Burso:

Yeah, it's so simple, like for example so on this movie 50, I got dragged.

Fitzy:

It's like I can tell I'm not perfect for your role. Already you guys are like I'm not both of you are much bigger than me yeah, but I'm not either.

Burso:

I got dragged so, like I was in, I'm running up this hill. Right it for something. Rudely, it's like my third or fourth run up this stupid hill that I'm doing. They, the director, walks up past everyone. I can't remember what number I am, 71 or whatever I was. He's like you out of here or you're getting worried. He's like you over here.

Fitzy:

He goes, mate, I'm going to need you to sit this one out.

Burso:

I just jumped down the back. I'm like I would rather his head sit it out, because I didn't want to run up this hill anymore and I know if I'm literally last. Now that's where he put me like last. I know I'm not in the shot. So I'm literally running up this hill for no reason and I'm doing more distance than everyone else and he's just kind of he's like look, mate, I'm 42.

Burso:

I get it. What's the story here? And he goes we might get make-up to like I don't know if they can paint your head or do whatever, but the sun's obviously glistening and making my hair white. He's like look.

Fitzy:

He goes, we can't, we can't pretend.

Burso:

Come on, we're not going to pay for CGI to make your head look like you're 25. Alright, go down and get to the back. Come on right here. Come on, young fella get out there but on the upside.

Burso:

I then used that on the next one where I was on the bus and I was like hey spoke to the AD. I'm like, how much, how close do I? He goes, oh, it's pretty close up on this. I'm like, oh, they said I'm too old and they asked what do you want me to do? Because I was printing up some hills. I did hills once already today, mate, that's me done. He goes, yeah, and then he comes on, he's looking through and he goes all right, we need you, you, you and you.

Pete O'Hanlon:

You're too old, you, you, I'm like then yeah, so now you should have been one of the. The other extras I applied. I don't know why they didn't get you. Is that?

Burso:

it would have been much more, much more suitable there's some, there's some punters on there and they're weighing about, they're supposed to be like instructors and they're like yeah, anyway, we'll talk. We'll talk about that later anyway.

Fitzy:

So I'm just wondering, you know, for some reason, just after what you just talked about there, there's a scene out of the Simpsons where they get Mo in for something and they said you said you wanted ugly.

Burso:

Yeah, on screen ugly, not ugly ugly, ugly Betty or whatever it was. They've just gone out of their way To make her look better. I love that, all those movies when they start off as ugly duckling and you've literally slapped.

Fitzy:

Glasses you put some glasses on Someone who's extremely good looking. Glasses.

Burso:

And some ponytails. It's always the same, yep, but yeah, so You've got to look the part. So don't feel bad if you apply for something and they don't do it, because they might be like, well, we wanted a brunette, or we wanted a….

Pete O'Hanlon:

Can't take that industry personally.

Burso:

Yeah, they're like you know, just….

Burso:

And some real lame stuff like this oh, we needed a brunette or we needed blue eyes or we needed whatever. And you're like, well, hang on a minute, I put 15 hours into auditioning and doing these lines and stuff and you won't even know that that's why you've been. You'd just be like, oh, I wasn't good enough or what. There's no feedback, there's no anything about why you weren't picked. And then if somebody actually told you that, oh, you actually just were too tall, like they couldn't be bothered putting old mate on a box the whole time, and you're like really, so I'll put all my's all into that. And then, yeah, whatever, but that's acting mate.

Burso:

But I think the fact that you can realize that you're not going to get a role based purely off the fact that your hair's too white, that you can probably not take it to heart as much. But I didn't even realize that at the start until it was when I realized how petty it was on how and like. I mean I say petty, like it is petty that your hair is like too grey or whatever, because they can fix that. But at the same time it's like they've literally got 400 people that they're looking at and they'll look at it and go that one. That's the punner I want to look at. In this movie. You might be playing a body that's in a coma, so that's 100%. You've already done your audition. You're on the board in a comatose position position, but you know so it's, it's funny where you know, but I mean getting to commercials and stuff.

Burso:

Just apply for literally everything.

Fitzy:

Yeah, pretty much, because have you been in any commercials?

Burso:

no, that's gonna be. That's that's gonna be my thing this year. I'm gonna be no commercials. I'm gonna smash commercials. And well, at least try.

Fitzy:

I can't guarantee you they're gonna get them. But I see so many ads like oh, we need on those ones where they say this man's a dentist.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, oh no, actually I did a CUA commercial, but I'd never seen it.

Burso:

I tried to get in a Bupa one. It was people in wheelchairs were playing basketball. I was like, do you have to look like you're in a wheelchair or do you just have to be in a wheelchair?

Fitzy:

And they're like oh, I'll get back to you on that one like now, they wouldn't believe that you're in a wheelchair. I was like, even even that you're like to be fair, I think. If they're doing that, I think that's probably just they should just use people that are in a wheelchair yeah, but it was so.

Burso:

So, for example, in my job I have now we do adaptive sports so everybody can play wheelchair basketball, for example, so it's like if that's what you're doing, then it shows everybody's togetherness and stuff like that, which is literally just all it was, was just like playing basketball, but they wanted it to look like people should be in wheelchairs, so I played, we can go do it. There's a wheelchair basketball every Tuesday over there and it's fun. But also, like I'm able-bodied and I'm not better than these people that have been doing this for a long time. There's one kid in like this I don't know how he used to use the thing without even using his hands, like he's just anyway.

Fitzy:

whatever, I don't know why we're talking about it.

Burso:

Talented, yeah, but it's funny that they just pick roles based on that. But, yeah, commercials is going to be. Commercials is good money.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Oh craziness. If you're chasing the coin, commercials are where you should be.

Burso:

I did a photo ad and I got two and a half grand or a photo.

Fitzy:

There is one actor. That's all he seems to do. He came up first of all on those bloody the jocks ads where he's like my legs are like tree stumps Remember that guy, that guy is on everything now On everything. There's an ad that's on. He's on there. So, I'm like this guy must be making some good coin just doing this, but. I feel like.

Burso:

He's on so many commercials these days. If you were going to do it as an actual full-time job, I think commercials would probably be a better option, because it's better money and you're only doing like a weekend.

Fitzy:

Well, didn't I reckon that guy from Pizza Hut.

Burso:

I'm thinking what's her name? Rhonda from oh, with the guy from Indonesia. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Fitzy:

So she's a major actor now.

Burso:

Yeah, she did well.

Fitzy:

She's literally she's like in a lot of things as well, and does.

Burso:

yeah, but you'll see like ex-neighbours and home and away planners just hanging out in the back of a. It's like I just need an extra 10 grand. I'll just jump in the back of that there's, and especially for our demographic now. So I've got there's like Star. Now there's the other ones that they've got. Yeah.

Burso:

Anyway they've got different companies, but they come up. So mine's like, just your age group. If you come into that age group, they send you these ones. They're like, oh, you might want to apply for this or get like BMW, mercedes, whatever. So my age group obviously people are supposed to have money. I missed that memo, but yeah, so they want you to do that. But it's like they'll fly you to Sydney to do a two-day event and pay you like 25K for this ad, because you're just going to be in this ad that they'll use for however long. So that's why you get the money for it, because it's like, how many times are they going to show it? Whereas with the movie you know they might show it and then pay you again when it goes to Netflix or pay you again when it gets sold to Channel 7 or whatever, but on the ads they're going to be showing it 24-7.

Fitzy:

So if they're like, we're going to smash this ad and it's going to be international as well well, like you're gonna get like 30k, so pete the movies and the um, the series, stuff that you've done at the moment. Is that all sort of through the same agency, or is it sort of all connected to netflix? Or does it work like that or is it? Can it just sort of go anywhere? Um, or is it because I said you said before about kane that was the same thing and then when it came up too, they already knew you when it was like right, you're in yeah, I think it's just um.

Pete O'Hanlon:

As I've come up through the industry, I've just met different people, um, and then I've been able to make those connections and then a lot of opportunities come from that. I do have an agent. I do have an agent um. Plus I got sean barry, who Sean Barry, he runs the extra specialist. He gets a lot of veterans, ex-police paramedics, spireys, soldiers, and he puts them into film as special abilities. If a film's looking for extras to play military, rather than get civilians who don't understand how a military person moves or operates, he gets military in there. They pay a little bit higher price, but they you don't have to train them, you don't have to. You know, go too deep into the thing and you'll get a good, a good quality extra. So he's given me a lot of opportunity and then my agent's given me and just searching my own, like I've gotten a lot of opportunity just through putting myself out there and trying to, you know, find those opportunities.

Fitzy:

Any good travel.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Hopefully soon.

Fitzy:

Some stuff coming up. Yeah, okay, can't talk about that one either. Yeah.

Pete O'Hanlon:

I've had opportunities where I've been told, you know, there's a gig over in Canada or something, but none of that's ever happened. I've flown domestically, mostly for some of the roles, which is pretty good.

Fitzy:

And is Australia becoming one of those places? I know they talked about it a lot. Yeah massive. They were sort of fixing studios to be able to do everything in-house, yeah. Have you noticed that over the last sort of years how that's changed?

Pete O'Hanlon:

Yep, big time. Melbourne's massive, now Queensland. Baz Loman's just put out something and he's going to build a studio up there.

Burso:

Netflix has Dockland Studios, so down at Dockland is a massive big place there I was talking to Sean and some of the other punters about it. There's like heaps of subsidies and stuff now. So the Australian government will subsidise people to get them over here because it's a massive employment. Like the amount of employment like people get employed is huge.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Yeah.

Burso:

It's also money wise, like the exchange rate and stuff.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Yeah, the exchange rate is really good for them to come over here and film. There's a lot of opportunity. A lot of opportunity, yeah, and for big films. Not just there's opportunity for indie Australian films, which is great, but there's also opportunity for big American films. You're not going to get the lead role, but you will get on screen and you will have lines. Um, so and that's. You know, the difference between an extra and and you with one line is a massive jump. Like you might not think it, you've only got one scene in the movie and you've only got one line. But going, getting to that position is extremely hard, you know, unless you're you're lucky on your first go or something.

Burso:

Tommy's got one or two lines.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Yeah, that one or two lines in what is it? Boy Swallows Universe or something. That's a big jump from a background extra to a featured extra, to a cast member.

Fitzy:

So once you've got a line, you're a cast member.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Once you've got a line, you're a cast. Yeah.

Pete O'Hanlon:

And then there's levels inside that cast the main actor, you've got supporting actor. And then you know, once you're in that cast role and you're treated like a cast, like I've been put up in trailers I've had my own trailer um, my name on the on the trailer. Like it's pretty amazing from going from a background extra to see your name on a trailer. And then you're working with baz loman and tom hanks and you're just an ex-army infantry AJ and you're rubbing shoulders with Tom Hanks and stuff. You're like holy shit.

Fitzy:

To be fair, what's he, though? He's just a guy.

Burso:

Yeah, he's just another human In the film world.

Fitzy:

Yeah, I get that, but I mean, yeah, yeah he's just a human.

Pete O'Hanlon:

I don't see him as anything different. But when you're in that industry it's like anything. When you're in the military you look up to the SAS guys or something. It's kind of like the top tier of where your industry, I suppose.

Burso:

Yeah, like if Michael Jordan walked past somebody that has never seen him play, they'd be like oh who is he? But yeah, like each industry, like obviously Tom's a massive deal, and then you've got the other, like the SF boys are massive for us, jordan, basketball, etc. Etc.

Fitzy:

Like it's nothing to someone else, but Tom's definitely spent a bit of time out here. Hanks, yeah, tom Hanks, didn't he make everyone?

Burso:

smoke or something. On one movie they were like everyone should be smoking by the end of this. It was like Saving Private Ryan or something.

Fitzy:

Yeah so he's got Saving Private Ryan. Then he did the series with. Was it Brand of Brothers and then the other one I think they shot just out here at the UYANGS. Pacific Pacific yeah, so yeah, he spent a bit of time out here and I think he's.

Pete O'Hanlon:

He's not scared of Australia. No, he's obviously not scared of Australia. No, a lot of them are coming to Australia which is great opportunities for us.

Fitzy:

So this latest role that you're in at the moment are you a cast member? Are you allowed to say that I don't know what?

Pete O'Hanlon:

they'd call that yeah. So I've got different roles Are you? Crew. I've got different roles.

Burso:

Would you be crew this?

Pete O'Hanlon:

time Crew cast. Yeah, I can't say too much, yeah, right.

Burso:

So it's interesting, say too much. Yeah, so it's interesting, you've got different. It's funny with the level. So, like with Extra, you've got and they call you background as well sometimes All right background, which is literally just props. But then you go from that to featured Extra, which is sort of where Sean's people come into it because they want them closer to the camera, because they're actually good at the job, so they're realistic.

Burso:

So if you had an actual fiery playing a fiery, you'd have him as a featured extra because he's closer, because it's more realistic and people will believe it. Same as like actual coppers, you'd have them doing cop stuff, soldiers, et cetera. But then you've got and then we were non-speaking bit part that was up above featured extra, because we were being told to do stuff by the actual director. So like you've got third AD, second AD, like oh, these are all assistant directors. Then you've got the actual director. So the actual director was speaking to us on the braille, which then jumped us from that to non-speaking bit part and we still weren't speaking but we were miles ahead of the other punters doing everything. But then you would have had people that had one line that would have been miles ahead of us and then you've got actual supporting cast would have been above them and then you would have had lead.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Like there's so much rank structure on what you were doing and the one I'm on now is evolving, so my position is set and I've added other positions to that and then there might be future positions to that as it evolves.

Burso:

So yeah, like you do. Like as much as I say, the extras thing doesn't get you in as being an actor. There are opportunities where somebody will see you. Like with the non-speaking bit part, they literally just grabbed us and went we like the look of these two and then put them on. We didn't have to do anything extra, they just saw us and liked us. But that's the same as if you were to audition for everything. Eventually you'll get a role because somebody will like the look of you. So it's just a yeah, it's literally just a shotgun. You just scattergun it, something will stick. But, um, you do. Also, it's very, very networky. So, if you but it can go, they also look pretty much for a reason to not hire you next time. So, if you like, on LeBron, one of the partners clearly had a drug problem. Oh, really yeah, and they were like One of the talents no no.

Burso:

An extra. Oh really, yeah, yeah, which. They're like featured extra though, but you're just like come Talents, no, no An extra. Oh really, yeah, you're unnecessary. They're like featured extra though, but you're just like come on now. You can't be. Don't live the rock star life when you're not even a rock star Mate. I've seen it so many times, oh God.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Yeah, the egos at one line casting levels you're like holy shit, dude, rain it back, like it back. Yeah, like there was this one dude I won't mention his name, but I've.

Pete O'Hanlon:

I've worked with him as an extra before, um, and then I worked with him as a cast member and the difference was light and day like the. The ego had jumped so far, like he was talking down to extras, and he was just an extra before, previously, and now he's he's come up to me, irish, one of the extras, come up to me today. I'll fucking tell it in the fuck off. I'm like oh yeah, good on you bro, you fucking wanker yeah.

Burso:

But like this girl, like we were trying to cover for her because she obviously had an issue. It wasn't like she was just partying heaps. It got to a point where it's like this is an issue here, but you're trying to cover for her and stuff. But I shouldn't have to prop you up whilst we're doing a scene. And she had a line would have been cooked. She was just like scattered. I'm like I know what this is. I've seen this in my old job. I know what's going on here.

Burso:

But that'll cost her massively because now they're like an extra rocked up because she wants to get into it and do acting and stuff. It's like well, as an extra if you have to get sent home because you have an issue, like they're going to be like fuck, I can't run the gauntlet on this, because if you're going to do some weird shit and it costs them a day or whatever else, it is like the amount of money that every, because they're paying for like 300 people to be on here ready to go and they can't wait for you because you're not doing it or whatever. It's just not a thing. So you run the bar On the flip side of that, if you turn up and you're 15 minutes early every time and you do what you're told. When you're told, you don't suck up about hurry up and wait, which is a lot of people do. It's like then at least you get a reputation of being you've done a bunch of different things and nobody has a bad word to say about you. Then at least you've got that. So, like Sean, for example, before he puts you up for something he'll be like what have you done? And he'll put it all down. And he writes it all down. He's done. He's already done 13 shows. Yeah, with nil issues. He's turned up every time. No one's ever had a complaint about him. He's. You know people have said good stuff.

Burso:

We can sort of because somebody has to at some point, take a gamble on the fact that you are going to be able to do your job. That's what the breakout role or whatever it is. It's like literally somebody has had a go. So even if you've had a role in something else, then when you apply for it, they're almost taking. They're well old mate's already taken a chance on him and he was there. So if it goes pear-shaped, you're like, well, blame it on the other producer because he said he was. Okay, it's almost like a handball, but the first one. If you're taking a like, if Pete was going to produce a movie and he was going to put you and me on there, he's putting his reputation on us. So it's like that's why it's really hard to get your first shot at it, even though you might be killing it and you might be great, but at some point some producer has to back you enough to know that you're going to do it. And that's where the networking part comes into it. So if you're speaking to a military advisor on the scene, if you're talking to the makeup, the hair, the assistant directors and whatever else it is, if you speak to them and they're like you know what, this dude, I'm going to remember that dude and then when that AD jumps up and does his first directing thing, he'll be like I'm going to grab Pete. Pete would be great for this and I know him, I know what's good and I'm going to take a chance on him. I'm still going to roll him for cash because he's new, and then I'll move out Like it's so much, it's not even what.

Burso:

Was it the guy that we were speaking, the military advisor on the current one he was explaining to me. He goes it's not even about who you know, it's about who knows you. So if somebody who knows me like if Steven Spielberg knows me and then he wants to put me in a movie, awesome. If no one's ever heard of, like if I know Steven Spielberg, that doesn't mean anything you know. So it's about who knows you in the industry. So if you network with a bunch of people and you continue to apply for every job, then you'll probably do it. But so many people along the way are just like I give up, I'll apply for 300, whatever.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Yeah, they've got different expectations. They're looking to be Hollywood superstarwood, superstar, when you know they're still networking, they're still trying to get that credibility behind them and if you don't have that cred, it's just like the military. If you get a new operator who comes in and he's got no credibility and is he going to fit into the team, you know, if he comes in and he's got good cred behind him, then he might be a good operator and you give him a shot.

Fitzy:

How long have you been doing this for now?

Pete O'Hanlon:

I think I started around 2016. It had been roughly when I sort of got into it.

Fitzy:

Yep, yep. So you've got a bit of street cred now.

Pete O'Hanlon:

I'd hope to think so, but it's still a long way to go.

Fitzy:

Still a long way to go, but it could be just one of those things now where someone comes along and says hey, we've got something for you.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Yeah, um, and that's really where you sort of your hopes are, I suppose, where you like get a supporting role, I think, in the military community. I'm, I'm definitely up there, I think. Mark wales, uh, he's, he's doing really well as well, he's just a fury.

Burso:

What's it?

Pete O'Hanlon:

furious or something. Yeah, one of them, um. Plus, he's got books out as well. So, um, I think I'm up there in the military community, but not so much up there in the acting community yet. Hopefully, if they were to think I need a military man, hopefully my name comes to their mind. That's what I'd be hoping.

Burso:

Yeah, can you give us a yarn about? Because, like I watched Kane Yep, what did you think? I actually loved it. Oh, good Boys, you sound surprised.

Pete O'Hanlon:

It's just.

Burso:

It's got mixed reviews.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Yeah, I've had mixed feelings about it mixed reviews.

Burso:

It's funny because, after being on stuff where I've seen big budget films and how long they take, how many takes there are this and that, to know that Kane was done in two weeks.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Two weeks yeah.

Burso:

So this whole movie's filmed in two weeks. If you haven't been to a set and you realise that, like I just spent days of my life for a montage that I probably won't even be appearing in, it's like that'll go for all of 13 seconds on the TV. But that's days. That'll go for all of 13 seconds on the TV. Yeah, but like that. That's days, literally been days. Hundreds of people, this and that to film a feature. It's like a feature length isn't it.

Fitzy:

Yeah, it's an hour and a half. It's like 90 minutes, it's feature film yeah Like to do that in two weeks.

Pete O'Hanlon:

We did have a big crew.

Burso:

Yeah, and it's not half-assed. Like you look at it, the lighting's great.

Fitzy:

Everyone was doing multiple jobs. The dialogue's really good.

Burso:

The actors. I was higher than I thought it was just going to be. I didn't have high expectations going into it, but the actors were a higher level than I thought it was going to be because I was like the budget's going to be low, who are they going to get for it? Whatever else it's going to be low, who are they going to get for it? Whatever else? To be fair, I was actually hoping it was just going to be like you and Tommy and a bunch of the boys. I was keen for that. But yeah, I was pleasantly surprised with the level of it. It's funny. At some point I was just like, oh, maybe it just finished early because I ran out of cash or time or whatever else. It was Like that was, but it wasn't unfinished. It just sort of almost seemed a little bit rushed at the end.

Burso:

That was literally probably the only thing I would have said. But up till then, like the acting was great, the cinematography was great, like the script seemed really good, even like the idea behind it was great. That scene where, like it gets a bit loose at the end there, I love that. That's so good. It's good feedback. Yeah, no, it was cool. I paid $7 to watch it.

Fitzy:

Yeah sweet.

Burso:

Thanks, mate. I'm like I don't know why. Well, it was on Amazon. They were like you're going to pay. I was like cool. I don't care, I'll watch it. You're paying. You get a pint of beer for bloody $17. Why would I not pay like six bucks to go and watch the boys? But it was great. It's also different for me because I knew the people in it.

Fitzy:

I was like there's Pete.

Burso:

I'm like what is Tommy doing in here? I'm like I'm just waiting.

Fitzy:

I'm like at some point Sean's going to Anything Sean's in.

Burso:

Sean does cameos right. He thinks he's Stan Lee, this bloke. He just appears in a movie, so you drive past oh where are you going, mate? Yeah, oh, yeah, right, and just walks up, you're like, yeah right, I get it. Sean, your name's on it, you don't need to jump in. But I actually do love it when I know Sean's involved. I but did you guys all stay together? What sort of hours you work in we were doing long hours.

Pete O'Hanlon:

There was no, I don't know it was long hours.

Burso:

When was this All through the night? When was this? How long ago? I'm not going to say.

Pete O'Hanlon:

You're going to play the music.

Burso:

Take me back to.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Cairn. It was long hours. I remember four in the morning type finishes and stuff like that. Yeah, it was hard for the actors too because they didn't have the usual comfort of trailers and all that sort of stuff. You know, we just kind of said just got to do it, mate. You know.

Burso:

But they all. Was it different? Because you've been on a few sets now. What was the vibe like compared to?

Pete O'Hanlon:

It was tough.

Burso:

I thought you were going to go mate. Everyone was a team.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Oh, everyone was professional and stuff, but you got a smaller team, like things were, like they filmed in my apartment, so I had to kick my roommate out. I had to change my whole apartment up. I had to hide my cat. I had to. They were, you know, in my closet on my bed. Yeah, and that was a last-minute change, and I had to.

Pete O'Hanlon:

they were you know in my closet on my bed like yeah, and that was a last minute change and I had to tell management about it. And then I had, uh, other residents kicking off going. You know, sean sean blew up his, up his apartment with bloody pyros, like we had. We had fireys and cops rock up because there was an explosion. People were coming up to the building and calling uh triple zero, saying it was a terrorist attack, because the whole balcony we blew it up.

Pete O'Hanlon:

We exploded it without permission, we just had to do it. So we just went and just do it and Sean, I remember the poor guy he was peaking.

Burso:

Easier to ask for forgiveness.

Pete O'Hanlon:

This manager come up to me and he was threatening to bash me and all this stuff that's an interesting choice. Yeah, I was just like this other dude. He was shaking, he was knocking on door and he he's like what's going on? He was shaking. I'm like calm down, champion but, they're not used to it.

Burso:

You know ex-army with explosions and stuff we don't be fair if someone I'm not used to it. No, but I'm in apartment and someone blows their balcony up next to me. That's….

Pete O'Hanlon:

It was… you could see it across the Brisbane River. So there was a pub across the Brisbane River with hundreds of patrons and they're sitting outside. Yeah, and across the river is a massive explosion on the top apartment. Imagine seeing that as a…. You know, and you're at the pub across the road. They were… it was… across the road they were.

Burso:

it was, yeah, like I get that, but as a neighbour with an explosion.

Pete O'Hanlon:

It rained down, ash and pyros Sean had a thousand dollar cleaning bill to clean other people's apartments because the pyros and the ash landed on their balconies.

Fitzy:

Did you tell the neighbours at least?

Pete O'Hanlon:

I did letter drops. We had a little pamphlet and I put it in every letterbox. But no one reads those stupid little things at the bottom of the letterbox.

Burso:

Yeah, but at least you did it.

Pete O'Hanlon:

We teed up the coppers, we teed up the fireys. They knew about it.

Burso:

Did Sean tell the coppers and the fireys that there was going to be an explosion? I don't know if he said it like that.

Pete O'Hanlon:

I think he said we're filming a movie.

Burso:

We're going to have a bit of a party mate, actually Just filming a movie up here guys. If you hear anything, just don't worry about coming. Yeah, if you watch Kane and you see that balcony explosion, that was actually a proper pyro I love that Because he's on Channel 9 or something.

Pete O'Hanlon:

I think the last… I think it was Channel 9 and Steam or something. Yeah, because it was on Amazon.

Burso:

That's where I saw it, but then yeah, yeah, I love that you can make a product and then continue to sell it after you've done it, like that's ideally he'll make some money in the future, but it's yeah, it's funny watching it when you know people.

Fitzy:

Well, now I'm going to go and watch it, yeah.

Burso:

And be surprised that it's done in two weeks. With long days, yeah.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Small budget yeah, small budget yeah.

Burso:

Like hats off to everyone who was involved in that. And it's funny because if you don't know the backstory, you're just going to compare it to yeah, saving Private Ryan.

Pete O'Hanlon:

And you're like yeah, it's not comparable to something like that with a massive budget.

Burso:

But I was, but you like you did well, cause I was guessing the happy with it. I thought you did a good job, thank you. I'll show you Tommy's six-minute thing as well, afterwards. Okay, you're going to love his Off safe.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Tommy.

Burso:

Yeah, Tommy Archer.

Pete O'Hanlon:

What a clown, yeah, second time caring.

Burso:

Yeah, would you do something like? We haven't even been talking about arm wrestling. We're 55 minutes in.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Anyway, five minutes. Get into it.

Fitzy:

That was something else that's on your Instagram you and arm wrestling. So you're some kind of Instagram you and arm wrestling. Yeah so you're some kind of big deal with arm wrestling right here.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Not really a big deal.

Burso:

No, don't reckon. 7th in Australia, not a big deal.

Fitzy:

Is there only 8 of them competing or something? You're outside the top 5. Yeah, I'm outside.

Burso:

There's actually only 8 competitors, so it's not really. Yeah, well, that's the thing.

Pete O'Hanlon:

You've got to look at numbers and how popular is the sport Competitive?

Fitzy:

arm wrestling.

Pete O'Hanlon:

How many people are doing it's massive now, like when I first started. I think I first started 2018 or something. Yeah, it was a very small community. There was one club in Brisbane Would have had about five to ten people rocking up once a week max. You had to buy your own chalk. It was at the top of a nutrition warehouse.

Fitzy:

I've arm wrestled quite a few people and chalk has never been involved Chalk's professional. So that's what my next part was. Is this American arm wrestling, where you've got like that whole set up apparatus thing where you can cheat, or is it?

Pete O'Hanlon:

like…. No, it's a proper sport. Professional arm wrestling is different from you know. Obviously, your pub arm wrestling it's very different. There's a lot of technique, a lot of strategy involved.

Burso:

There's a regulation table, though isn't there, yeah proper regulation table.

Fitzy:

Are you going to challenge your?

Burso:

arm wrestle now. No, okay, if he gets injuries.

Pete O'Hanlon:

I'll be right, mate you can have a go Righto, come on. It's massive now in Australia and around the world. All the top strong men are getting into it, like Eddie Hall and those guys.

Burso:

He's doing everything now though.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Yeah, there's a guy called Devon Latter, he's a world champion. He's an ex though yeah, there's a guy called Devin Latter who's a world champion. He's an ex-Canadian special forces. He was who got me into it. I actually watched him on YouTube and I was like who's this guy? And I found out he was special forces, seven tours of Afghanistan and he's a world arm wrestling champion. Just an absolute weapon. And just watching him on the table, I was just mesmerized by his ability and his skill and I just went I want to be that guy. And then I found out he was, you know, military, and I was like oh man, I want to be more like him.

Burso:

So did you get into going arm wrestling first? Or did you go past and you're like, oh, there's an arm wrestling club here, I'll give it a run and see what happens?

Pete O'Hanlon:

No, I looked it up. I looked it up so I saw him on YouTube.

Burso:

So the algorithm said you're going to be into arm wrestling.

Pete O'Hanlon:

I don't know, I think I was looking up MMA or something or some sort of sports. You know, I think that slapping sport was started. Oh yeah, so I was getting a lot of those slapping sports. Is that actually a sport?

Fitzy:

Yeah, oh mate, it's full on. I've seen like games and stuff that come up.

Burso:

That's proper sports.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Through that, I think, arm wrestling came up, and that's when I saw him and I just went. That's me, that's me.

Fitzy:

How often are you doing this stuff?

Pete O'Hanlon:

I train twice a week and compete. There's a few regular competitions that happen around Australia.

Burso:

You said you had this year off, though.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Yeah, it's one area of my life that I haven't been put in the right attention into. Like I'm sponsored by a company called homefront, who's a veteran organization, and they they help support veterans in in um in the community with household services and things like that, and I'm their um, I'm their kind of um sponsored arm wrestler um, because, uh, those guys are obviously veterans, they want to kind of get into that sport as well. So that's been good. That's given me a bit of exposure with the arm wrestling through them.

Fitzy:

Where do they have the competitions for it?

Pete O'Hanlon:

All over Australia. So you have like the state level is at the ECCA in Brisbane. You have like the exhibition there. That's usually a big competition. Then you have the national titles.

Fitzy:

How many people are sort of rocking out to this thing?

Pete O'Hanlon:

You're getting probably 200 athletes.

Fitzy:

Okay, so how many of them do you have to arm wrestle?

Pete O'Hanlon:

So I usually compete in the heavyweight division left and right arm. So you'll probably have 30, 20 to 30. Depending At a national level, you might have 20 to 30 athletes in each arm.

Fitzy:

How long is this over? Because I mean like one arm wrestle. Like you know, you're pretty cooked oh yeah, it's, it's taxing, um how much is it the drawer as well?

Burso:

like if you've got 30 of them and you're like I've got all my straight up, I'm gonna be cooked, yeah that.

Pete O'Hanlon:

That's the worst thing. You'll get the, the number one ranked athlete in your division, straight up and then you're out. Yeah, you get. Usually you get a second chance, so you'll come back. So your loser will take a loser.

Fitzy:

Rep a charge.

Pete O'Hanlon:

So if you've got the number one and number two and number one picks number two, then two falls into the loser's category.

Fitzy:

But he's a world-class athlete.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Yeah, yeah, and you rock up and you're fighting the number two in Australia. Oh, the draw is massive.

Burso:

You're done.

Pete O'Hanlon:

So I'll sit there for six hours throughout the day waiting for the heavyweight division. I'll get up there, take them one and two and I'll be out five minutes later and my comp's over.

Fitzy:

Yeah, my missus is looking at me like dude. Has that happened before? Or is it like oh yeah, it happens all the time, when you first start you just get smashed yeah.

Pete O'Hanlon:

How do they do it? Just like out of a draw, or is it like a? Yeah, it's usually out of a draw. Sometimes they'll make it so an amateur might take on an amateur, but usually it's just like in a draw You'll get further through the divisions if you don't take on bigger guys, what's the biggest comp that you've won? I won the Queensland. I didn't win it. I got third in Queensland during COVID-22 or something. I was third in Queensland on the left arm.

Fitzy:

What did you get for that A?

Pete O'Hanlon:

little trophy. Okay, that's it.

Fitzy:

On one arm, just the left arm, okay, yeah.

Pete O'Hanlon:

And I got put on the ranking system in Queensland, but then I got kicked off later.

Burso:

So you can be like the right arm champ, the left arm champ yeah, different weight, so the the lighter weights can step up.

Pete O'Hanlon:

So if you get top three in, say the 75 kilo division, you can step up and take on the 85 kilos what's the? Heavy weight? Uh depends, usually it's 95 plus, but you got some dudes in there. Some dudes are 160, 160. So you know 150. The top dudes are in the 140s to 160s.

Burso:

Is there any like weird Popeye-looking dudes, just with no legs and massive arms?

Pete O'Hanlon:

The number one Australian champion, lachlan Adair. He's an absolute weapon. You look at the arms and the forearms on this guy.

Fitzy:

Yeah.

Pete O'Hanlon:

And you will just sit there and think what the hell is he doing?

Burso:

Like it is, but has he just got twigs for legs?

Pete O'Hanlon:

No, no, he's a power lifter, I think.

Fitzy:

Is it a water-approved sport? What's?

Burso:

that as in, is it drug?

Pete O'Hanlon:

tested Depending on the level of competition. Oh really, yeah, nationals is drug tested. Yeah, have you ever been pee tested?

Fitzy:

Well, nationals is drug tested yeah, have you ever been p-tested?

Pete O'Hanlon:

Well, you've got to win.

Burso:

I can juice all I want. I'm below third.

Pete O'Hanlon:

They are testing you. If you're not winning, I want to meet someone else who's been p-tested.

Fitzy:

I hate it.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Not nice. No, the top guys get tested. I've never p-tested at work Does that count?

Fitzy:

No, no, no work does that count? I don't know. This is different?

Burso:

oh, because someone's going to watch. You do it oh yeah, yeah, it's humiliating yeah, no, there's the federation.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Um, yeah, phil rasmussen. He's been working through the federation for a few years now. He's he's really on to that. He's a brilliant guy. He, uh, he pushes the sport and it's grown, you know, massively around the world yeah especially in australia. So yeah, as was saying, we have one club, now you're probably looking at six, seven clubs just in Queensland alone.

Fitzy:

now, have you done any international stuff? Has it all been in Queensland?

Pete O'Hanlon:

No, I'd really like to take that journey a bit further. I don't know if it's my age or something, or I don't know what's going on, but I need to put more into it to get the better results.

Fitzy:

Obviously you've got to put the work in. To me it sounds very much like there's a Texas sort of place would be the place for this. It just sounds like Texas, yeah, no it's….

Burso:

Yeah, like what's the mecca? Texas no, it's more of your…. I feel like it's like Scandinavia no, it's more of your. I feel like it's like Scandinavia.

Pete O'Hanlon:

No more of your European countries. Really, yeah, the Europeans, the Georgians, the top guys in the world are all overseas In those Russia those types of places?

Fitzy:

Yeah, Russia.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Yeah, and they do it when they're kids. It's a national sport.

Burso:

Yeah, like that's the thing You've got all these. They don't have CrossFit gyms and all that sort of stuff I mean some of them do, obviously, but generally it would just be like, yeah, let's arm wrestle.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Yeah, it's massive over there. They have arm wrestling schools. As a kid, instead of doing what do we do here cricket or something they go to arm wrestling, yeah, so it's hard to compete with those guys. Australia's a developing nation in that area. We haven't had a world champ yet. We've got some guys who are doing well on the international stage, but we aren't at that level yet. There's a lot of guys coming up, though, which is good.

Fitzy:

I was going to say like pretty much like most things.

Pete O'Hanlon:

We probably bat well above what we should be doing. Yeah, and we'll get there, we'll catch up.

Burso:

It's just a process, it's a level of interest, Like if your sponsors are all of a sudden interested. If it starts getting traction or whatever else it is, then people money into it and then that gets ahead 100% and the top guys are getting a lot more views on YouTube and they're becoming actually well-known athletes now. Okay.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Whereas before, like our goat in the sport, was a guy called John Brzezink. He was in the movie Over the Top from the 80s I wanted to bring up Over the Top, have you seen? It yeah good, he was the greatest arm wrestler for 20-odd years.

Fitzy:

Everybody knows what Over the Top is.

Burso:

Such a cheap move, but no one knew who he was until the sport grew and now everyone's like oh, that guy, you know yeah.

Pete O'Hanlon:

I just love. I love when sly's oh, it's on, now the caps turns around goes backwards. I'm like, yeah, it's funny. I I look, I looked at it back then I thought it was the technique and that they were using that movie was amazing. Now I watch it I'm going oh, that's so bad sorry, that's so cringe it's just bad technique.

Burso:

it's bad everything, but it might have actually been the technique back then too. That's the other thing.

Fitzy:

No, at no point was it ever a technique? It just looked better for camera.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Yeah, better for camera.

Fitzy:

I did watch one of your things today on Insta and I mean I've only ever seen traditional sort of arm wrestling where it's like you know, all the way arms up and then all the way down. You know this was this.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Yeah, it's a different.

Burso:

People are like horizontal. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Fitzy:

Like someone was like leaning over and touching the ground.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Yeah, it's like wow, it's regulated and there's rules to it, things we can and can't do.

Burso:

But I love it.

Pete O'Hanlon:

I, just as I get older, I can't do certain sports anymore. I don't think or I don't want to. So yeah, that's going to keep me going, I think it's.

Burso:

It's funny with the arm wrestling, though, like there's a lot there'd be injuries in it.

Pete O'Hanlon:

People get injured all the time well, the thing is, everyone's scared of it because the arm break let's you know that wendell sailor arm break, or whatever it was years ago on the footy show.

Burso:

Oh, I never saw an arm break, but I've seen dudes shoulders get ripped. Oh yeah, you look up, you look up yeah, he snapped some dude's arm.

Fitzy:

I was gonna say whose arm did he break?

Pete O'Hanlon:

because he's a big boy but that scared everyone and the sport went back 10 years because of that incident um, but thanks, wendell yeah, but it's all technique like.

Pete O'Hanlon:

it's like if I um, you know if I, if you play footy, there's certain ways you position your head in a tackle and stuff like that. There's certain ways, like if you're outside your shoulder in arm wrestling, like if I position my shoulder like that and someone puts all their pressure on it, it only takes about 9 to 10 kilos to snap that bone. But if my shoulder's outside that, then you're not going to break it, no matter how hard you try.

Fitzy:

I'm just seeing the way that when you just sort of gave it a bit of a, I'm like, yeah, no, maybe run 100K and then do an arm wrestle.

Burso:

See what I'm doing.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Probably much the same. No, I have a lot of power here. Do you reckon there's room for?

Burso:

another over the top, they're always talking about it, are they?

Pete O'Hanlon:

Yeah, I've spoken to Phil. We've talked about doing some sort of thing.

Fitzy:

Over the top. What crazy stuff could we throw in there now?

Pete O'Hanlon:

We had a massive Australian competition called Over the Top.

Burso:

And that.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Lachlan guy won it. I think he won $10,000 or something.

Burso:

Yeah.

Pete O'Hanlon:

It was huge. It was great for Australian arm wrestling. Yeah, that's sick.

Burso:

Yeah, it's just, we need new stories. I love obscure stuff. My favorite part with dodgeball was like the Ocho, where there's a whole bunch of random sports and, like we talked about doing it before, we were just going to go around and just take part in like random sports. There's like fistball. He's literally just a dude who made the Australian team because he wanted to go and I'm trying to get him on. So basically, he's literally just a dude who made the Australian team because he wanted to go and I'm trying to get him on. So basically, he's got a YouTube chip where it goes through his thought process on getting behind Fistball and he's like oh, I always wanted to represent Australia, but I was crap at everything.

Burso:

So he went out and found he looked up international events that we didn't have a thing in and Fistball was one of them. Fistball, he's an agent I think he's Air Force actually, but he's ex-Defense. Yeah, and there's him and like eight other dudes who are all ex-Defense, like mates of his, and they went hey, lads, we're on here. So they had to make a federation, so they had to meet all the criteria, so they made their own uniform and stuff he did like isn't it like 2014 or something. He started this and he's now, but now, unfortunately, like some AFL players, have started playing and stuff, so it's it's beyond him now, but he got like seven years out of it. Yeah, good, amazing, like representing Australia playing fistball, but we were like you know, there's dodgeball, there's all many other random sports that are like that are mad. That would be great to get on board.

Pete O'Hanlon:

It's good social media, because you get exposure through the social media and they're like, yeah, people will have these different interests and they search for it. And that's where the slapping and that come into it, those slap sports, you know, people watch it. Hundreds of thousands of people watch it. I definitely like I completely. I get it. Boots and cars, what they have seatbelts on and they're in a car.

Pete O'Hanlon:

You've got cameras all around the car and referees in each window and they try to take the seatbelt off and go at each other in the car. It's awesome.

Burso:

See, I'm not against that. Like the slap sport, I get it. I wouldn't play it, no, but I'm happy to watch other people do that dumb stuff 100% and like the seatbelt sport. I get it. I wouldn't play it, no, but I'm happy to watch other people do that dumb stuff. 100% and like the seatbelt sport.

Burso:

Whatever, this is sounds great too Car jiu-jitsu or something but there's also one of the boys was telling me about like there's like forklift competitions, yeah right, so there's like a time so they've got to pick up a certain load, right, no-transcript. It's like I remember Gladiator back in the day. So good, I'm so glad they brought that back, yeah, but it hasn't really seemed to have got the same traction that it had last time around. Yeah, good, I hope it does.

Pete O'Hanlon:

When I was in the studio, when we used to Back in the day, yeah, no, no for the extra special stuff, I thought you were going to tell me you were like Thunder or something. No, no, but we used to have the guys in the armoured suits come in and have them do the sword fights and stuff, and they're wearing proper.

Fitzy:

Is that called Boo Hut?

Burso:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't know. That was what I was telling you about before when Fizzy just got saw shiny stuff on the table. Yeah, oh, that's yeah. So Sam Sam Ride came on here and he he's just been to Finland.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Yeah right.

Fitzy:

And he went over there and he's just like smacking each other with axes and stuff like that yeah, waits until people turn their back and then smacks them on the head.

Burso:

Yeah.

Pete O'Hanlon:

Legitimately. Yeah, they go hard. Yeah, but like he's just, a cheap bloke?

Burso:

Yeah right, he's. Yeah, like it's just funny, though, because he runs around. Come at me, sam. Well, he knows where I live, he's been here.

Fitzy:

He doesn't know where I am. Though, yeah, true, and I will run.

Burso:

But I was watching one of his YouTube clips. It was funny he was doing how fast are you in the gear versus out of it? He's a warm-up runner. He just pulled the hammy straight up. It's good luck. The drone's following him. It's like epic music and stuff. He's like, oh, but it's good that he takes the piss out of himself. He's not like a gunshot and all that sort of stuff. So I've actually got no idea how fast he can run 100 metres in.

Fitzy:

He is actually quite a lad. He's very funny. He was great.

Burso:

Mate, if you're here for a month, we'll probably have you back. Get him on, because he's come back now. So we'll have to do a debrief with him about everything he's been doing.

Fitzy:

Whose arm did he break or chop off?

Burso:

God knows, did you see that one? I, I don't want to he breaks a bloke's arm with an axe. Oh my God, so like they've got all of that, he's got no regrets.

Fitzy:

He's like, well, he shouldn't have had it there. Yeah, like legitimately what he said.

Burso:

So like they've all got the plate, armour and stuff, but on the wrist there's only a certain point. So if your wrist is over the top. It's covering it, but if it's, and the metal's just not sharp. Yeah, it's still an axe, it's just a blunt flushed axe. Yeah, and he just like he just hacks his dude arm and it just he gets two elbows and then the guys like everyone else is still fighting this guy. So it's real cheap.

Burso:

There's like two guys will hold you and then third man just comes in and starts wailing on you and this poor dude's got his arm held back here and then the other guy's got his leg, and then Sam just breaks this guy's arm.

Pete O'Hanlon:

You wouldn't really feel it until the adrenaline wore off.

Burso:

I know I may have felt it, but the other two guys couldn't tell what was going on, so they're still wailing on this other dude while his arm's got two elbows. And then Sam's like why are you making so much racket, are you all right, mate? And he's like oh, you see him going. Hey, broken arm, let's just cut this. I'm like, oh God, this sport's brutal, cool, crazy, righto. Well, you're here all month, so we might do another one if we can think of something else, but otherwise talk about.

Burso:

Fitzy's return to racing next time. Oh, you'll have to listen to Nick first so you know what the trash he's talking. Then we can do a debrief.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Chris Burson

Co-host
Contributor

Dan Caruana

Co-host
Contributor

Fitzy

Co-host
Contributor

Mark McConnell

Co-host
Contributor

SJ Brand

Co-host

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