DJ and artist an club auteur Levi Cross - also known by the club moniker Salvador Darling - is riding a wave of Melbourne nightlife renaissance. 

In a time when Sydney and Brisbane struggle to find their dancing feet amidst increasing government restriction, Melbourne’s nightlife is ever-diversifying, ever expanding.

Levi has been a part of the Melbourne night-life scene for over ten years - since he was 16. In previous of this podcast episodes I have spoken to creatives whose canvas was the photograph, the TV series, the mantle-piece or the workshop. This week I speak to someone who’s platform is the dancefloor. A place very near and dar to my heart. 

For those that have little tolerance to Melbournians talking about how great Melbourne is, this podcast is not for you. You have been warned. For those that are mutually sympathetic: come on in, and enjoy my chat with Levi Cross AKA Salvador Darling.

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You may know her from her work as a national radio host on both KIIS and Nova FM (right now she hosts the 3PM pickup on KIIS with Meshel Laurie) or you may have seen on the ABC quiz show Tractor Monkeys or through guest appearances on shows like Talkin’ Bout Your Generation, The Project, The Today Show, Weekend Today orThe Circle. However, the endeavour I was most looking forward to talking to Monty about was a creation that was all her own: Show and Tell Online, which is a website, a podcast and a youtube series, which - in a world of click-bait and trial by likes -  has been steadily building its viewership on content that is inline with its values as 'the home of conversations that connect women'.   This is a great episode to listen to if you’re looking to build your own brand or platform - whether that be on radio, on TV - or in podcast or via Youtube, and a great reminder for those heartbroken by a creative industry to use the experience as fuel to your fire to turn it into something great.

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2016 has been a 'tipping point’ year for documentary maker and content creator Kirk Docker. After years of producing clever and subversive video and TV as a gun for hire, he has championed his own projects, making not one but two series for ABC.

Earlier this year ‘Hello Stranger’, a beautifully shot vox-pops series, asked everyday Australians personal yet universal questions and then followed one of them home to document their life. This was followed by the release of 'You Can’t Ask That’, where in each episode, groups of marginalised Australians - like Indigenous people, transgender people, Muslims, obese people, disabled people and sex workers - answer audience-submitted questions traditionally deemed too un-PC. The intention: to de-stigmatise, to open a space for conversation and to give mainstream audiences a chance to see someone other than those that look just like them on TV. 

It’s interesting to note also that You Can’t Ask That was originally created for the digital streaming platform iView, but ABC decided to screen it on ABCTV.

To top it off, Kirk is currently in post production on the third TV series he conceived, Demolition Man, reality series for Foxtel’s A&E channel - and he already has an entirely different series in the early stages of development with another network.

As a longtime friend, I have been an observer of Kirk’s process for some time, and I loved talking to Kirk about his attitude towards cultivating a career in an industry where nothing is certain. How do you carve out a career in television? How do you support your dreams for the work you want to create while still earning an income? 

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Shannon Dooley's weekly aerobics class Retrosweat gives patrons an authentic 80s aerobics workout - in multiple locations across Sydney each week.   Every class is an utterly immersive experience, from the choice of mirrored-wall dance studios where the classes take place, to the height of Shannon’s blonde mullet to the array of high-cut G-string leotards worn by teacher and punters alike.   Over the four years she has been leading the retro revival, Shannon has expanded her offering into collectible clothing, an international social media following, corporate and pop-up events and a regular spot on The Morning Show.   I talk to Shannon about her background studying at NIDA, and how her emergence from three years at drama school into a career landscape where she didn’t find she had a place, forced her to create one for herself.   This is a great interview for anyone who feels like they just want to dance their own steps.

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  My guest is Lewis Hobba, whom some of you may know as one part of Veronica and Lewis - of the Triple J drivetime show. Lewis is a friend of mine, and the thing I enjoy most about him is his ability to balance his wit and cynicism with being absolute delight. In Lewis’ hands, humour is a sport where offers are returned with increasing abstraction. He is so quick, so innately funny - I love talking to him as much about philosophies as I do trivialities.  He is another candidate for someone I know who’s doing what many would consider to be a 'dream job’, so I wanted to find out what got him there and, now that he’s there, the process that allows him to continue mastering his skill in turning out a two-and-half-hour comedy radio show every day.   Not surprisingly there is a brilliant mind at work behind the lightness of his humour and although he wouldn’t recommend his own process to anyone, there is a lot to be learned from my conversation with Lewis Hobba.  

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Emeli Paulo is a creative, but in different way to anyone else I’ve spoken to for The Naked Creative so far. She is the founder of Collective Potential – a social enterprise intent on creating change for individuals - and the world. Emily Paulo uses creativity as a tool to facilitate expression, exploration and breakthrough.

This podcast was recorded before she launched the wildly successful ‘Collective Potential Podcast’, which has topped iTunes charts and not only shared the ideas of many dynamic disrupters within the personal development, wellness and spirituality fields, but also  given Emeli a platform to boldly shareso much of herself. In a recent podcast she broadcast a late night admission of grief that she had recorded while questioning her own self worth while home alone on a Saturday night.

Like the name of one of her workshops suggests, she is Raw. She is bold and brave and unapologetically real - and in her workshops she creates a space for others to do the same. In a lot of ways, she is the reason I am here talking to you now, it was her ’30 days of real’ podcast challenge that threw down the gauntlet for me to do the same. That led me to my daily midday video blog which in turn led me to formalise my exploration of creativity through this very channel.

It seemed only right then, to sit down and examine the process and practice of Emeli Paulo. 

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Kupono is a dancer for Madonna. I know.

He has performed with through two world tours, three major music videos and her monumental SuperBowl performance of 2012, which is where it all began for his working relationship with one of the world’s longest standing, most successful pop stars.

Kupono - or Pono for short – has finally landed back home in Hawaii after 15 months on the road with Madonna’s Rebel Heart Tour, in which he performed over 80 shows in over 25 countries.

I was interested in what it was like to be in the coveted roll of ‘back up dancer’ for an international popstar – since for so many it is a ‘dream job’ - and what it was about his process that he believes got him there.

There is so much legacy surrounding the Madonna world, I just wanted to know what it was like for him to be working so closely with someone who so many people – myself included – admire so greatly.

 

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My guest is Natalie Harris, a stand up comedian who has been making a name for herself on the Melbourne comedy scene.

For her comedy wasn’t a latent discovery - she has long thought it was “the only thing she was good at” - but the decision to act on that impulse to follow her creative pursuits has only come about towards the end of her twenties - and only now, a few years in, is she discovering her voice. 

Nat is one of a handful of people in the world that makes me literally LOL whenever I am in her presence. We first got to really know each other while working behind the scenes on the ABC TV series Twentysomething around the time she was beginning to make inroads into stand-up.

An ongoing theme - one that seems to have popped with my last couple of guests - is the discovery of passions either later than they expected or while in the pursuit of something else entirely. For Nat, it was as if she always knew this is what she wanted to be doing, but she was just waiting for… permission, a sign, for it to seem like she was allowed to step into the ring and attempt it. Due to changing like circumstances, her attitude shifted towards one of “why not” - well, those weren’t exactly he words - and lucky for us now she is well and truly on a path of discovery.

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Lachy Rose is the singer/songwriter and core member of the band Cousin Tony's Brand New Firebird which has been feted by Triple J and currently playing shows around Melbourne.    Lachy is someone who I love to get together with to talk about creative process. He is a master of observing and fostering his artistry and it’s evident in his music: which is rich, varied and textured and wise beyond it’s years. It was conversations like the ones I would have with him that made me want to start this podcast in the first place - where I would think: people could benefit from hearing us talk like this: about what we are inspired by or consuming, how our work flow has been affected by different influences - it’s the first thing I want to talk about when I get together with most of my friends -  so it is my absolute pleasure to sit down and make it offical with Lachy Rose, who is truly a Naked Creative.  

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Greg Waters has been an executive producer, writer and show-runner on a number of great Australian drama series. His credits include: Rake, Anzac Girls, Janet King, Paper Giants, Devil’s Dust, An Accidental Soldier, The Straights, Crownies and Dance Academy. Yet up until his early thirties he was working in politics - until he decided to defect to study at AFTRS, the Australian Film Television and Radio School.

His most recent achievements are the second series of the tripped-out sketch comedy series ‘Soulmates’ starring Christiaan Van Vuuren and Nick Boshier (aka The Bondi Hipsters) as well as what is sure to be one of the countries biggest TV events of the year, the political drama Secret City which premier’s on Foxtel’s Showcase this Sunday, June 5.

Though he is incredibly modest, I did get him to open up about his process - some of which I witnessed first-hand as Greg and I have been housemates over the past few years.

An absolute culture vulture, Greg is constantly absorbing information and inspiration around what he is interested in – or about the world that is relevant to what he is creating. He sees every play, every major TV drama, and every time I asked him if he’d heard of a podcast, he was all over it. He is also an indie music boffin and a regular attendee of alt music festival ‘Splendour in the Grass’. Talk about ‘filling your well’!

I was very happy to sit down with my friend and reluctant mentor, Greg Waters.

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