Culture Club - TikTok Fame & Queerness With Comedian Samantha Andrew

00:00:00.000 turning tiktok into a career her journey with sexuality and exploring whether brands pink

00:00:13.360 wash with comedian samantha andrew we're jasmine and maggie and you're listening to culture club

00:00:20.000 our weekly chat about pop culture current affairs the internet and our lives

00:00:25.060 we acknowledge that the Wurundjeri and Boon Wurrung people are the traditional custodians

00:00:33.680 of the land upon which we live work and record this interview we would like to pay our respects

00:00:40.120 to elders past present and emerging always was always will be aboriginal land

00:00:46.680 today we're speaking with the hilarious and super talented samantha andrew if you've been on tiktok

00:00:55.940 over the past year you've probably seen her comedy sketches where she creates up personas

00:01:00.080 for classic australian brands or reminisces on what it was like to shop at a mall in the mid

00:01:04.780 2000s as a 12 year old with over 150 000 tiktok followers and a wealth of experience performing

00:01:10.880 on stages across australia sam is now heading to the bright lights of the melbourne comedy festival

00:01:15.780 in 2021 with her show No Hat, No Play, The Cabaret with creative partner Mel O'Brien.

00:01:23.200 Apart from being one of Australia's best new comedians, Sam is also creating conversations

00:01:28.740 around LGBTQI plus rights and the experience of freezing her partner Cody's eggs to have

00:01:35.420 children in the future.

00:01:36.720 Thanks for joining us today, Sam.

00:01:38.300 So I guess most of our listeners know you because you've blown up on TikTok over the

00:01:42.780 past year but this hasn't been your first foray into performing or comedy so can you tell us a

00:01:48.660 little bit about what you do? Of course I am a composer and performer and writer kind of in the

00:01:58.120 not kind of actually in the musical theatre and cabaret world. I love performing, I love acting

00:02:04.660 but my training was in jazz voice at the Victorian College of the Arts so absolutely adore writing

00:02:11.940 music. And yeah, I've been performing and writing my own comedy cabarets since I graduated. So I

00:02:19.500 had a lot of success with a cabaret that I wrote with two of my creative, fantastic friends,

00:02:25.340 Belle and Erin. We wrote Baby Bye Bye Bye, which was a cabaret about bisexuality. And that kind of

00:02:31.180 blew up in a really fantastic way. We toured it around Australia. We won a whole bunch of awards.

00:02:37.560 that was the cabaret that won me a green room which was truly a highlight of my life I may

00:02:44.780 have peaked too soon but yeah that's the kind of thing that I do and then on the side I really like

00:02:51.160 writing children's music which is a random little extra bit about me and yeah that's me. Tell us

00:02:58.080 about the children's music. Oh it's I've probably built it up to be it's I just really like writing

00:03:04.560 songs for kids. So I write them both in an educational sense and sell them to companies

00:03:11.120 for teaching in classroom, uh, classroom music. And then I also have worked in the past writing

00:03:17.020 with some kind of children's performers and writing silly songs. So there's the songs that

00:03:21.600 exist and are more about like music education. And then there are the stupid songs about like 0.99

00:03:26.820 using an invisible pen and farting on your friend and making sandwiches out of disgusting 1.00

00:03:32.160 ingredients. So there's two kinds of worlds, but that's not a huge part of my life. That's just a

00:03:38.800 little side project. Yeah. So I first saw your video about Diva and JJ's and all those like

00:03:46.560 Aussie shops we used to go to when we were 12. Obviously that's really resonated with audiences,

00:03:51.600 which is so funny, but why do you think that is? Why is the nostalgia resonating so much?

00:03:57.280 Yeah. Well, first of all, hats off to you, Jazz, because you've been there since the OG

00:04:00.980 first viral video. Um, I, I think, well, truly in, in the year that was especially 2020, it was a

00:04:10.900 very, it was a year of being stuck. It was just one long headache. And I feel like people, I kind

00:04:17.620 of came in at the perfect time with all this nostalgic content, because I think people just

00:04:22.360 wanted to escape. They wanted to go back to a time where they probably felt happier and things

00:04:27.260 were sillier and not so serious and crappy. Yeah. To put it frankly. So I think the nostalgia side

00:04:35.000 really worked well in the environment of 2020. And I think people love finding little bits in

00:04:42.600 videos that where they can be like, that's me or that's my friend. And from an actual, um,

00:04:48.860 from gaining success on the platform, if I'm looking at it from that way and looking at

00:04:52.340 engagement and views and likes people videos that where people can relate to it and tag their

00:04:58.460 friends will be like that's me or that's you or you're this one and I'm this person that does

00:05:03.480 really well in the algorithm and it gets boosted so it's just kind of um it kind of works in both

00:05:09.780 ways I think yeah nostalgia brings people together people were ready to escape my videos you know

00:05:16.600 they're just silly and I hope that they're fun and I'm still, you know, forever fascinated by

00:05:23.800 the app in the sense that the videos are honestly less than 60 seconds, which is just such a new

00:05:31.320 way of consuming content that I'm still wrapping my head around. But that's, that's for another

00:05:37.120 time. But yeah. And then, you know, when I started to incorporate, you know, LGBTQIA plus topics,

00:05:45.760 I think that happened organically and, um, not that, not that I would have been disappointed

00:05:52.440 in myself if I went the other way, but I feel like I liked that. I started being like, no, I,

00:05:58.400 I'm a comedian and I do comedy. I just happened to be queer and my partner happens to be, um,

00:06:05.160 you know, queer as well. So I think then it just kind of started coming out and I,

00:06:09.940 I said, okay, you're, you're lucky. You're, um, you're very lucky to have a platform now and an

00:06:17.000 audience. How can you go further than just, you know, dressing up in an outfit from Supre and

00:06:23.000 doing a skit about being 12? How can you go further? You're 25. Let's, you know, let's think

00:06:29.340 about this a bit more. It's so funny. It's such a new app that the algorithm really likes

00:06:34.860 personality tests like astrology and the Maya Briggs and that kind of content I'm always sending

00:06:40.440 those types of TikToks to my friends absolutely I'm also really intrigued to see if it's going

00:06:46.420 to change the way like it already is so immensely impacting Instagram and the way that functions as a

00:06:52.260 social media app um but yeah one thing I just thought of then as we were talking is I love

00:06:58.140 even if someone's wearing an outfit I love seeing I love seeing someone in motion as opposed to

00:07:04.600 seeing a still frozen image on a grid on Instagram I think you get such an insight into people but

00:07:11.180 it would have been weird on Instagram to just upload you know a four second video or boomerang

00:07:16.900 of your outfit and put that in your grid whereas I feel like TikTok has now allowed people to show

00:07:21.460 more of themselves I don't know would you agree with that yeah but on the flip side of that we

00:07:26.780 I mean I feel like we're drilled into from such a young age we're always told about the dangers of

00:07:32.140 social media um we we honestly had police come to our school and tell us about the strangers of

00:07:37.180 stranger danger I don't know if you remember that but I just keep flashing back to that moment

00:07:41.500 because it was so intense and we're really told about how dangerous it is and we know about the

00:07:47.000 dangers of TikTok but has that been your experience what what are your thoughts on that yeah I feel

00:07:53.440 like I said before I'm very lucky that I am the age I am dealing with if I'm dealing with any hate

00:08:00.660 because I'm you know I'm mid-20s I'm not 19 I'm not 16 some of these TikTok celebrities that are

00:08:08.100 just thrust into such intense fame and you know scrutiny and they're honestly children like this

00:08:15.340 they would be in year 11 or year 10 right now right now sorry um I have been lucky that I don't

00:08:22.220 receive a lot of hate and the hate that I get it's just so easy to look at it and be like well

00:08:27.280 I'm not going to listen to that because you know that's a comment about my appearance and I'm not

00:08:32.580 on not that I think that I'm ugly but I'm not on TikTok for my appearance I'm on TikTok for my

00:08:37.580 for making funny videos so commenting about my appearance I always it's so funny I because I can

00:08:43.620 laugh about it because it's so silly and I need to like put it in a stand-up set or something I just

00:08:48.920 constantly get comments from it's definitely 12 year old boys from checking out their accounts 0.99

00:08:54.860 I always get comments from 12 year old boys and they'll just comment they'll be like this bitch 0.99

00:09:00.640 has a square head and I'll go and I'm just like what an oddly specific insult yes for the listeners 0.99

00:09:08.960 that haven't seen me I have a bit of a square jawline but it's just so funny that that's the

00:09:14.280 thing um that's the thing they comment but I of course you know from being a bit older I'm also

00:09:22.140 So it's important to me to stand up for other creators when I feel like they're being unfairly, you know, victimized or bullied because it's, you know, you've got a band together.

00:09:32.700 And, yeah, I think as well, the verified tick, not that I think it's the best thing in the world or the be all and end all, but I think if someone sees someone with a verified tick standing up for someone, maybe it gives it a little bit more legitimacy.

00:09:48.000 Yeah, exactly.

00:09:48.600 I don't know.

00:09:48.980 not that I think the tick. Yeah. I don't want to sound like I've got the tick. So what I have to

00:09:54.100 say is my royalty. While we're still on the topic of this app, could you tell us some of your tips

00:10:01.580 and tricks for writing TikToks and getting seen? Yeah. I think it's that frustrating advice where

00:10:09.100 you're like, no, I want it to be easier than that. But I think don't just don't do things

00:10:15.140 that everyone's doing don't do the exact same don't you know if you're going to post a viral

00:10:21.640 dance or you're going to you know do a viral trend do your own spin on it because then you'll

00:10:27.060 find an audience because obviously there's already an audience for people that are doing a don't do a

00:10:32.320 try and do b or a hybrid of a b what a bloody weird way of saying it what a rambly reason but

00:10:39.760 yeah I just think try and do try and do something new and if the following doesn't come straight

00:10:47.040 away um I read a great thing the other day and let's see if I can remember it it was um your

00:10:53.020 success uh not specific to TikTok but your success is how you show up for you know the small amount

00:11:00.660 of followers you have at the start and then you'll gain success that's absolutely not the quote I've

00:11:06.080 just reworded it it's really true I think people can get quite um they expect a bit too much when

00:11:13.320 they've got no following and they're like why aren't the followers coming and it's like put out

00:11:17.240 content that you've worked really hard on and you know hopefully an audience will come I think as

00:11:24.060 well it's easy to get um because TikTok is so broad in the videos that do well there's the really kind

00:11:30.160 of messy fun organic quick chat to cameras that are then just uploaded without a second thought

00:11:35.300 and they can blow up because they're so authentic and funny and oh my gosh we just caught you

00:11:40.080 you know chatting about this topic and it's in the TikTok vortex and it's hilarious but then I also

00:11:45.980 think there's people and um I like to say that I fit more into this category um I work really hard

00:11:52.860 on the videos that I make I spend sometimes an hour writing a script and then an hour filming

00:11:59.460 That's two hours of my day plus, you know, putting on costumes and everything for usually

00:12:05.400 a 45 to 60 second video.

00:12:07.320 Sometimes it does take time.

00:12:09.360 And I think last year I was just lucky because we were in a pandemic and I had time.

00:12:14.220 But yeah, I don't know.

00:12:16.720 I've got on a huge tangent, but I feel like TikTok can sometimes give off the vibe that

00:12:23.220 you don't have to work super hard and you just have to film something really quickly

00:12:27.840 then upload it and it'll either go viral or it won't you can be you can have a method and you

00:12:32.580 can be quite calculated in the way you do it um and just to switch gears a bit actually on our

00:12:39.100 podcast jasmine and i had a heart to heart the other week um where we did open up about our own

00:12:45.160 journeys of sexuality and you know we're talking about exploring that we probably aren't straight

00:12:50.600 and we had a chat about bisexuality um you've been very open about your own sexuality online

00:12:56.540 do you mind telling us about your journey? Yeah of course so I came out as bisexual I think in

00:13:08.060 2013 in high school and for people that don't know Maggie and I we actually went to the same high

00:13:15.160 school a few years apart but I wanted to speak about this because I thought it was important.

00:13:19.660 back in 2013 it things were really quite different not a lot of people were out um and I was really

00:13:30.760 grateful for the school that we went to there's a brilliant teacher um you're probably going to

00:13:37.420 nod as soon as I say it Maggie yeah before you even said his name I was like yeah exactly who

00:13:43.340 was just um he is a queer man himself and you know he started an lgbtqia plus like anti-homophobia

00:13:51.880 collective where people would just meet at lunchtime and eat pizza and have a safe space

00:13:58.200 and even in 2013 I look back that's bloody awesome that he did that and it just made me feel like

00:14:06.440 you know even from just every now and again popping into that room I knew that there was a

00:14:10.860 safe space for me to come out at school. I did. And then I exclusively dated women for seven years

00:14:19.800 and was very convinced that I was a lesbian. It's very in my personality, which is not a good thing

00:14:26.280 to be all or nothing in this scenario. It's not a good thing because I was like, no, you have,

00:14:30.800 well, you're a lesbian pick. So you're a lesbian. And I think that was just so silly that I did that 1.00

00:14:36.460 to myself and because I was exclusively dating women and you know only seeing women I very much

00:14:44.320 thought that I was no I'm I'm only attracted to women and I'm gay or I'm I'm a lesbian and then

00:14:49.460 you know it took me um meeting my now partner Cody who is a trans man I had a real like I had

00:14:59.800 had to step back and be like oh my goodness no you would you are so obviously attracted to just

00:15:06.600 to more than women like that's just the truth of it and you know it I've we speak about it often

00:15:12.980 Cody and I it was really important for me to kind of take a step back and really you know

00:15:17.960 analyze and self-reflect because I said to myself if you see Cody as any in any way as a you know 0.99

00:15:26.220 a butch lesbian you can't do this that's not fair because you know Cody is male and it's it's not 0.94

00:15:34.540 fair on him it's not fair on you it's not fair on the queer community so yeah I kind of did um 0.98

00:15:41.540 a bit of a 360 and I I I kind of just used the term queer because I'm just attracted to

00:15:47.460 who I'm attracted to and I've spoken to Cody about this and I don't think it's

00:15:52.140 it's bad to admit that I am more attracted to women than men that's just the truth and

00:15:57.480 bisexuality and queerness is definitely a spectrum and you can move on the spectrum I yeah I don't

00:16:04.520 know about um both of you but I I did feel nervous for a while even admitting that I was more

00:16:10.200 attracted to women I was like you can't say that that's really like harmful but I I don't think it

00:16:15.420 is everyone's sexuality is is their own and I'm not trying to be hurtful it's just the truth I'm

00:16:23.260 more attracted to women than men but I'm so in love with and attracted to Cody and I have been

00:16:28.700 attracted to men and and dated men in the past yeah that's kind of me that's so lovely to hear

00:16:34.580 and it is so refreshing as you know people figuring themselves out to hear that and just know

00:16:40.440 that there's always room for growth it's always a gray area you're not locked into a label I think

00:16:45.880 that's what we really grappled with and that like having to define ourselves was really quite

00:16:51.020 I don't know scary so yeah that was that's that's really reassuring to hear as well

00:16:57.640 yeah so I like men more than women and this is something that Maggie and I spoke about a few

00:17:03.580 weeks ago which was that like internalized biphobia have you grappled with that yourself

00:17:08.600 oof. Absolutely. I feel as well in the queer community, you can be excluded, which is really

00:17:14.100 disappointing, but it happens. You know, I've had conversations with, um, with lesbians that are

00:17:21.000 like, you're, you know, you're too femme to be attracted to women. You don't look gay. You're 0.98

00:17:26.740 going to end up with a man. And it's bloody frustrating because we'll technically I have 0.96

00:17:31.960 ended up with a man, but that's got nothing to do with it. But those things that you hear in those

00:17:35.940 early, you know, stages of exploring and discovering your queerness, they burn in your brain and they

00:17:41.840 stick with you. And I know that I shouldn't be thinking that, but I, I can't help it. And yeah,

00:17:47.040 it's, it's really, it's that whole, you know, it's the catch 22 of, you know, too, um, too gay to be

00:17:53.000 straight and too straight to be gay. And I just feel, yeah, I feel like being bi, it's so okay

00:17:59.400 to be more attracted to one gender there's just nothing nothing wrong with admitting that and you

00:18:06.360 could go your entire life and have never even kissed a woman and still be queer and I think

00:18:13.760 people need to understand understand that yeah you don't have to prove yourself or do anything

00:18:18.880 you don't want to do to prove your sexuality and as you mentioned I love it when I hear you talk 0.96

00:18:24.720 about Cody you can just hear your love for him just ooze out of you and we're a sucker for a

00:18:30.540 good love story so can you please tell us about um like how you met and all that jazz of course

00:18:37.220 so I had just gotten back from touring baby bye bye bye Adelaide no yes Adelaide fringe

00:18:43.440 um and I hadn't been out on out on the town if you will because I'd been on tour for a while

00:18:50.080 So I went out to ye olde faithful, I shouldn't be laughing, Thursgay, which is on Smith Street.

00:19:00.580 And you're a true Thursgay attendee if you say it without the S because some people call 0.95

00:19:06.220 it Thursgays now and I'm like, oh, I'm fucking old now. 0.98

00:19:11.040 Singular. 0.51

00:19:11.600 But anyway, we, I was at the bar, um, ordering a wine and then I truly just turned to Cody

00:19:20.540 didn't even give it a second thought.

00:19:22.060 And I was just like, I really like your jumper.

00:19:23.980 And I love complimenting people on, you know, everything.

00:19:28.100 So I'm just love your jumper.

00:19:29.740 And he's like, oh, thanks so much.

00:19:31.120 And then all of a sudden as it happens, it was like, and then we were just in a corner,

00:19:35.660 just chatting about star signs and Myers-Briggs and all those things.

00:19:40.280 I'm like read me for filth I'm obsessed with this he was straight away he goes are you a fire sign

00:19:47.700 and I was like how dare you yes and he's like please tell me you're not was it a Leo or a Sag

00:19:53.340 apologies if are either of you a Leo or a Sag no no that's and I'm an Aries I was like no I'm an

00:20:01.440 Aries and then we just ended up like chatting on the couch for a while and then yeah we ended up

00:20:08.880 going on a date and then going on another day. And then we never, we just like never stopped.

00:20:15.480 And I'm really not that it's anything to, to celebrate. Like I'm so proud of myself that I

00:20:22.160 gave it a chance, but you know, if I, it really could have been, I could have gone the other way

00:20:28.080 and there could have been something in me as a knee jerk reaction where I went, no, I'm gay. No.

00:20:32.960 And then just didn't pursue it. And I think that's so, I think about that often, but I just was like,

00:20:38.880 no like one you are so fucking hot two your brain is brilliant three I am so into this and so I just

00:20:46.580 kind of kept kind of kept going and then here we are we've been dating for nearly two years now 0.88

00:20:52.700 so we've seen over your content and your videos that you're also in the process of freezing Cody's

00:20:59.020 eggs what has that and sharing it with the internet been like it's going really well thank you for

00:21:04.800 asking. I, one of the reasons I went, you have to put this on your channel, Sam, is because I,

00:21:12.640 and I'm comfortable enough to admit it. I didn't know that you could do that once you were on

00:21:18.060 testosterone. I didn't know that if you were taking tea that you could go off it in order to

00:21:25.280 then, you know, store your eggs and freeze them. I just didn't know that was a thing. So I went,

00:21:29.460 cool well let's let's put this let's put our journey on TikTok why not it was so well received

00:21:36.920 and you know for me especially with with this kind of stuff because it's personal I didn't

00:21:42.760 care if it got one view but the one view was someone that went oh interesting and then learned

00:21:48.600 something new you know but it just so happened that it it did really well and people have been

00:21:53.380 gorgeous in they'll comment on my other random comedy TikToks how's the egg freezing going

00:21:58.640 thinking of Cody he's so strong he's so brave and people are just gorgeous and I feel as well

00:22:06.160 really glad that we did it especially because TikTok has such a young audience you know such

00:22:12.460 a huge of its market of the platform is 14 to 24 year olds so I just think great um but yes

00:22:19.220 aside from TikTok it's going it's going really well it's kind of it's kind of funny when you

00:22:25.680 know when he had the first appointment and then it's like right i'm going off testosterone so for

00:22:29.480 anyone that doesn't know um cody takes testosterone as a trans man um but now he's off it for six

00:22:35.660 months um so he's just basically on no hormones apart from the hormones that are naturally in

00:22:41.860 his body and then at the end of the six month mark so i i think we're just over halfway now

00:22:49.140 he is just over halfway now um and then they will be giving Cody um estrogen and then being able to

00:22:56.560 take um the eggs out in that way I think they take and I I might be slightly incorrect around 20-ish

00:23:03.260 eggs it's going really well um nothing has changed that dramatically the only thing that you know

00:23:10.500 we've spoken about on my channel is fat redistribution happens so Cody's got more um

00:23:17.440 fat around his hips um he is a lot more tired than usual um so by the end of the day he'll just

00:23:26.520 be quite exhausted and and he's usually so like so much energy could just you know run a million

00:23:34.100 miles about say miles a million kilometers a day it's madness um but he described it to me

00:23:40.960 as he feels like he's in a constant state of restlessness like he just doesn't feel

00:23:46.360 settled he feels like he's like floating in a way um but yeah we we check in and it's really

00:23:53.920 important to to check in with him and just ask how he's going and and you know the everyone at

00:24:00.200 melbourne ivf has been has been really lovely but we're also using it as you know um cody has felt

00:24:07.000 in times like i don't want to speak for him but he's told me he's felt in times like a bit of

00:24:10.940 elaborate in a lot of medical situations and i think sometimes you know when we're having the

00:24:15.840 check-ins with these nurses and they're asking how we're going it's very easy to be like yeah

00:24:19.720 it's going okay blah blah blah paperwork paperwork logistics logistics but you know I was really

00:24:25.340 proud of him the other day he just there was just a kind of a lull in the conversation and he's like

00:24:29.960 well I'm experiencing this and um my fat around my you know hips feels like this and I feel tired

00:24:36.260 and he just used it as a real opportunity to educate the nurses as well which I think is so

00:24:43.540 you know gorgeous and lovely and very in his nature but yes long story short it's all it's

00:24:50.880 all going well and he said to me he's like I don't want to freak you out we're not having a baby like

00:24:56.020 next year no this is just what you it's just what you have to do like you you want to have a kid

00:25:02.560 that's biologically yours you got to do it now and that's and that's okay just randomly I've

00:25:08.220 thought of it off the top of my head there's a brilliant documentary that Cody and I saw as part

00:25:13.340 of a queer film festival last year or the year before and it's called Seahorse and it follows

00:25:19.180 a trans man's journey through having a child and it's absolutely brilliant and if you're wanting

00:25:26.440 something to watch that'll make you cry and make you learn so much in the hour to hour and a half

00:25:32.780 that it is I would just highly recommend it opened my eyes in a really profound way. Yeah that sounds

00:25:38.460 super interesting. We'll put a link to that in the show notes if anyone is interested in watching

00:25:44.580 that one as well. I also want to ask you about pink washing. So I've loved that I've been able

00:25:50.620 to see you and also Cody partner with a lot of big brands. I even saw recently, I think you did

00:25:56.520 a volley campaign. How do you feel about brands engaging with political issues and LGBTQ plus

00:26:03.840 right. Have you ever felt it's performative? Yes. I think some brands are definitely performative

00:26:11.900 and I think it's all about a learning process for these brands. So sometimes you don't know

00:26:20.320 or don't realize that they are being performative until you say yes to the brief or until you're

00:26:26.900 there or until you see the finished product so I think yeah the the journey from from the brief

00:26:33.860 that you get um to the finished product can be quite messy and you know the brief might be really

00:26:39.540 wholesome and or it might be really vague and you're just not sure what they want and then

00:26:44.340 you'll see the finished product and it won't be what you thought it was going to be uh I think

00:26:49.280 the biggest thing and I'm just such an, I just pay people. It's really important to pay queer 0.98

00:26:56.620 voices. I don't think that brands should be able to profit off people's trauma. I just don't think 0.73

00:27:03.540 that's fair. I think a brand that constantly checks in with you is really important that

00:27:10.380 hires or has someone on their team that is queer or a queer consultant. And so they know and use

00:27:17.340 the right language with you and don't make it a space where you're having to educate them you're

00:27:21.980 not there to educate them you're there as quote unquote you know the talent or or for whatever

00:27:28.260 reason that they want you I just yeah I am a really big pay people pay people pay people pay

00:27:35.040 people um and yeah if you really value queer people's input then pay us and I I also think

00:27:42.180 you know, some brands may come to me and, or they'll come through my agency and be like,

00:27:47.620 we're really interested in working with Sam for blah, X, Y, and Z. And then my agent would be

00:27:52.180 like, brilliant. And then I'll, you know, get to be doing the campaign and they'll go, could,

00:27:58.260 could we get Cody involved? And I'm like, wait a minute, one, you're going to pay him the exact

00:28:04.580 same that you're going to pay me. And second of all, if I, I could be wrong, but I'm assuming

00:28:10.080 you knew this all along that you wanted Cody involved just be transparent and say it or I am

00:28:16.280 also I've spoken to Cody about this if you just want Cody for a campaign just ask him go through

00:28:23.480 my agency and and ask for him that is absolutely fine I feel like as well um there haven't been a

00:28:30.000 lot but there's just been a few moments with with briefs that have fallen through where it's been

00:28:34.440 quite obvious that they're not actually interested in me they're interested in Cody but they just go

00:28:38.560 about it in a really weird way and I'm like you you can just say if you want Cody like I support

00:28:45.040 his individual career as well I'm not like wear a package deal um but yeah that's a big one and

00:28:51.320 you know especially with with Mardi Gras coming up and all of those things it's it's easy to see

00:28:59.540 who um what brands are being performative and what brands actually really care there's been

00:29:06.480 brands that I've worked with that you can see on my channel that have been brilliant but there's

00:29:10.400 just been others that are yeah and obviously freezing your eggs is quite expensive so for

00:29:17.060 brands to make money off your story like that is just so rude exactly exactly what I've learned in

00:29:23.540 from you know because I I really did last year I had a complete career shift like now my income

00:29:29.820 is through TikTok which is just bizarre and crazy and I never thought that 14 year old girls would

00:29:34.740 be the reason that I make money, but they are them commenting first on my video, which boosts

00:29:41.080 in the algorithm is me, part of me getting paid. But, um, what I learned in 2020 is brands have

00:29:48.880 money and they just do like, I'm sorry, you know, and not that I've worked with this brand and this

00:29:55.480 is not, um, I'm just using them as a random example. If you're Nike, you've got money,

00:29:59.940 you can just pay people you know um yeah that's where i'm at love you nike though no no personal

00:30:07.420 vendetta against nike never worked with them i think all the points that you brought up was so

00:30:12.020 important so valid but how would you kind of recommend like us as the audience us looking

00:30:17.960 at this content where it's kind of hard to figure out if someone's doing things properly if it's by

00:30:23.760 the books is there a way that we can kind of suss it out like you have pink washing goggles that

00:30:28.140 you put on um god it's hard I think if I think if the brand this is something just comes to mind 0.77

00:30:37.880 I don't know take with it what you will I think if the brand has queer faces that are part of the

00:30:43.520 campaign and queer like quotes that you can tell haven't been like weirdly edited like it's a

00:30:49.520 chunky enough quote to really be them and not do you know what I mean as opposed to just taking

00:30:54.140 like a really small bit that someone said and then pasting it with something else that someone said

00:30:57.920 and then tying that to the brand's message but if you're seeing actual stories from queer people

00:31:03.580 I think yes if it's just a rainbow splattered on a billboard with nothing else and it's just

00:31:09.280 you know I'm just gonna make up a because of my ring lights in front of me hear it ring lights

00:31:15.080 express we love love and then it's just a rainbow you're like but but but how and why and and where's

00:31:22.260 the proof yeah I don't know I don't know do you have any suggestions I feel like it's hard it's

00:31:30.440 really hard to know I mean yeah we totally put you on the spot right there and I feel like one

00:31:36.740 good thing about social media is that you do have access to like contact a brand directly through 1.00

00:31:41.860 like dms and whatnot I think it's very hard to be like who's in your team are they queer like 1.00

00:31:48.680 demanding answers so there's also that kind of like privacy issue but i think 1.00

00:31:53.880 yeah yeah bloody hell it is hard and i think as well it's really important if a brand is going to

00:32:00.340 be um you know using a certain amount of people for their campaign i think it's really important

00:32:06.300 for them to look at the lineup of people that they have and go okay are we are we representing

00:32:11.060 you know a really nice broad range of people here do we have people of color do we have people that

00:32:16.040 are disabled do we have people that are mature do we have you know younger kids like let's actually

00:32:22.220 think about this and let's not make every single person in our campaign like a cis white gay man 0.68

00:32:29.060 you've just announced your melbourne comedy festival show no hat no play the cabaret

00:32:34.920 can you tell us more about that and what else 2021 will hold for you of course so as soon as

00:32:42.220 you said the show name I like I have a huge grin on my face for everyone listening at home I'm so

00:32:47.780 freaking proud of this show so myself and my creative partner Mel O'Brien we have been working

00:32:55.140 on this show and we came up with the concept during lockdown it's got nothing to do with

00:32:59.620 the pandemic so don't stress it's not a cabaret about COVID it's basically a one hour jam we call

00:33:08.560 a jam-packed, glad-wrapped cabaret all about life in public Aussie primary school in like

00:33:15.940 the early 2000s. So it's, you know, based off like personal experience, but it's high energy.

00:33:22.200 It's silly. You know, there's like songs about sunny boys and glue sticks and art class and,

00:33:28.880 you know, being in love with a boy that's allergic to carpet. So they have to sit on a chair and

00:33:33.700 you're like wow that's amazing look at them sitting up there they're famous so it's it's very silly

00:33:39.820 we wrote all the it's all original soundtrack that myself I've been working on the track production

00:33:45.360 and myself and Mel have been writing the songs together Mel's producing it we're truly like a

00:33:51.160 two-woman team it's yeah very very proud of it it's we're playing at oh my gosh Sam okay I'm just

00:33:58.260 going to get up my dates for this show me just going into like a passionate ramble and then

00:34:03.500 being like couldn't tell you when it's on um so we're at the tough in town we're at the tough in

00:34:09.720 town which is just a few um levels below rooftop bar before you're like i don't know that yes you

00:34:15.860 do if you know rooftop bar and we are performing from the 6th to the 18th of april at the tough

00:34:22.680 in town and just follow my Instagram and you'll be seeing more there. I've got the link for the

00:34:28.300 tickets in my bio. My Instagram is Samantha Andrew, um, with the A doubling at the, as the end of my

00:34:35.780 first name and start of my last. And yeah, I'm really fricking proud of it. It's, it's a funny

00:34:41.560 show. I love how our generation is finally old enough to make shows and art about our childhood

00:34:46.640 experiences like no hat no play is fully ingrained in my mind oh I know I think the name came first

00:34:55.400 before we even thought about what the show I was like we were just talking in the car and I was

00:35:00.620 like what should we do and it was cabaret and we're like you know maybe about like prime school I was

00:35:04.460 like oh no hat no play the cabaret and then we're like wait a damn minute pause and then yeah we

00:35:11.080 even working tirelessly I can't wait to show it to people magic yeah I've already um got a group

00:35:18.180 of friends together we're all gonna go see it you're very excited we're on at 9 45 which is

00:35:24.420 actually a really cool time because um you know we're very um we're very mindful of the show is

00:35:32.200 not a kid's show and because we're wearing like primary school outfits I think some people might

00:35:36.640 be like look at these two children's performers I mean like no it's really it's not like disgustingly

00:35:43.140 crude where we're trying to go too far the other way but it's it's a show for our age for 20 year

00:35:48.260 olds and up and um yeah 9 45 we're really excited and like ready for a bit of a tipsy audience to

00:35:55.680 kind of stumble in each night and be like yeah and we'll be like we haven't even we've just stood on

00:36:01.140 stage in the bucket hats and people be like I know that I know the bucket hats and we'll be like

00:36:05.320 or just you wait just falling down the stairs from rooftop god dangerous exactly yeah so apart 1.00

00:36:13.380 from the show just like making more content putting more tiktoks out there yes and obviously

00:36:19.620 the the goal is to tour no hat no play and then i'm you know i i really take tiktok seriously and

00:36:27.500 it's it is truly like a big chunk of my career now so just i just want to keep pumping out the

00:36:33.780 wrong word because it sounds like I'm just throwing it out and not really caring about it I just want

00:36:37.560 to keep you know giving um my followers like what they want um and stuff that I think is funny and

00:36:44.580 keep making art and hopefully this pandemic can piss off because I'm bloody over it well you know

00:36:53.940 we'll be on the other side of the little phone screen laughing along double tapping giving you

00:36:58.820 likes um it's been such a joy to talk to you today sam we really truly appreciate it you've

00:37:04.820 honestly brightened up our morning so thank you again thank you so much for having me it was so

00:37:10.300 lovely to speak to you both we'll have to meet after the show or sometime and get a wine or a

00:37:14.560 coffee that'll be lovely oh we're so excited for your show we can't wait to see it thanks so much

00:37:20.740 for coming on the show and chatting with us it's been so much fun beautiful thank you so much bye

00:37:28.820 You

Culture Club - February 22, 2021

TikTok Fame & Queerness With Comedian Samantha Andrew

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