Welcome to blind guys chat. Where this guy? Or an O'Neill.

Hello.

And this guy yan Bloom.

Hello.

And this guy, Stuart Lawler.

Hello.

Talk about the A to Z of life.

Well, hello and welcome to episode 63 of Blind Guys. Chad, thanks so much for joining us again. How are you doing? How are you all doing?

I'm fine, thank you very much. Yeah.

Later on I just have some.

Bad news I have to tell you.

Bad news? I'm serious with Larry.

Larry's fine. He's a sleeper at my feet.

Okay.

Sam stewart. Stewart is sick, I'm afraid.

He's sick.

That's disgraceful.

He's very sick.

Yeah. You can't be messing with that. That's not funny forever. Stewart, he has sick.

Is he here?

No, he's really sick. He's very, very sick. And he can't do the podcast. And he said he's very sorry.

He has an injury or something. No, he's opening.

I don't know. I didn't want to get into the details in case it was of a personal nature.

He broke a nail opening a bag of crisps.

But he's not well enough to be able to do the podcast. Guys, a little sympathy for your friends.

Oh, sorry. Yeah. When I'm not here, then you must hear them.

He doesn't do this about you guys.

No.

We never get sick.

No, that's true.

We're always here for recording.

You haven't missed a recording yet or have you?

No, I haven't.

No.

Yellow has a legitimate reason for missing a recording.

Well, to be honest, speaking of football, last Friday, I was in the football stadium with Tiho and yeah. We are not the local team. Yeah, local team. Local team in here in our town Denhag. And they are not playing the highest edition yet. They are in the sub fields. But we are making progress. And we did not lose any match in 2023.

Wow, that's amazing. But it's only February.

But they broke up the whole competition in four periods. And probably if we are this is the third period, and if we can well, we are now the first in this third period. And if we can maintain that for the coming free games, then we won also one period. And the beauty of that is that you can then play a kind of competition afterwards when the real competition has gone, and then you have the option to promote to the highest kind of.

League or whatever is it?

Exactly. And that is the highest that's the Premier League of Holland. We are now in the secondary league, but then we have an option to promote to the Premier League.

Good.

Yeah. So we played against the number one of the whole competition and they are quite far. We are playing at I think we are now at place 1213 or something. But we beat them with three to one. No, we had actually a quite nice time here. Yeah, it was quite good. We are playing next this weekend. Dembosch, and that is out. And it's not allowed to be there. So we have three matches to go, but I'll keep you updated because we hope to have the Unbeatable team in 2020. Free.

The unbeatable team. Yeah.

But we will keep up the good mood.

High energy.

High energy. But it is fair to say poor Stewart. We wish him a lot of recovery, of course, because we are the free blind guys I know.

And I'm not blind. I'm going to go off and leave you guys, too. At yeah, okay.

Of course. Well, listen, stick with us later, because later on we're going to be talking to Aidan column and from Turnpin Duck Productions, and also Bonnie, who's the main character in a fantastic podcast called Maddie and Triggs. And they're going to tell us all about the podcast, Maddie Intrigues, which is a brilliant podcast.

It's really good. It's designed for kids, but there's a.

Lot in it for us.

And we put it all in the show notes, of course.

I was just thinking, well, it's not the other day, but I was thinking this week, this is coming up to isn't it tomorrow, is it? 24th is going to be the first anniversary of the war in Ukraine.

Yeah, it's a sad situation, to be honest. Or I learned even today that Biden was in.

Yeah, I heard he made a secret visit.

Yeah, secrets. He was there. And now he's going to continue to Poland or whatever.

I wonder, does he have to do that thing? Remember what to do in was it Afghanistan, in Iraq? Do you remember where they get out of Air Force One and then they get into like a transporter transporter plane. And then another way, it has to do this dive, this mad dive down to the runway so don't get shot down. Yeah. So literally kind of a nose dive down and then just before it's about to hit the ground, the pilot just pitches up and just like so I wonder, does he have to do that when he goes into Ukraine?

Sounds very good. But anyway, it's the 24th, isn't it, this Friday.

I think it's the 24th even.

Expect now that it will last longer since also that China is now also a little bit playing. Well, they are now going to be also officially, or what is officially, but in public, they will also step behind Mr Putin and also to really support them.

They're going to rap.

At least not to say or to stay independent in a way, or neutral, but even to stand up and to say, well, we are behind him. And then when China will do that, then you have also other countries who then also officially say, well, probably we are also behind Mr. Putin, and then what?

Forcing people to take sides kind of thing.

Yeah. And then, you know, the situation, us, China, it is so critical also with these balloons. Did you hear that maybe China is.

Going to send Russia a lot of balloons. Happy birthday.

Happy birthday. With a 24 on it. 24 on it or a one? Not Air Force One, but Balloon One. Oh, my God.

It's so sad, isn't it? Because it's changed millions of people's lives and taken so many lives and it's just we were with friends of ours who they came over from Ukraine. They left Kiev, where they lived the day after the first bomb sold. So I don't know how long it took them to get to Ireland, but they were living close to us and they moved. Then they invited us to their new place in Canoe Cabin, which is up further north from Dublin. And we went to see them yesterday and it was lovely. It was so lovely to see them. But, like, just hearing them, how do they feel?

Very grateful of the support and help them be given.

Yeah, but also I get the impression they're exhausted from it all. They have so many family and friends still, and every so often they hear about somebody being injured or somebody being killed that they know it's trauma. Basically, it's extended trauma. And even if they're grateful that they're somewhere safe and their child is safe and is in school and all that, it's not home.

They canceled on Roots.

But can you imagine after a couple of years or whatever, when your kid has grown up primary till grade six or whatever, he or she doesn't want to go back, or I don't know. And the parents want to go back because they have their roots, but the kids, they don't have their roots anymore. There how many in total of Ukraine? 80 million or something. It's such a big country.

43.79 million in 2021. It's massive.

We have only 18 here in this small country.

Well, we have what, five?

Five, yeah.

There's 2.8, nearly 3 million people in Kiev in 2017. So it's probably more than that now. But it's just when you think about it, you know, like, it's a such a massive city and now they're living in the back of beyond, in cavern.

Like it's such a change to go something when you talk about 16, 70 million, that is a complete Lagos. That is only one time, because I spoke to our friend Don Lame, who was always in the place. He's always great, he is always happy.

He's a lovely man.

He is a lovely man. But he said, well, we have no money. There is no money. Well, there is no cash money or no available notes. And that is so stupid. When you go to the bank, the banks are closed, they are locked down with police and military in front of them that you cannot go inside. And the ATMs, they are all gone or no, they are not gone. But they're empty. Yeah, they're empty. And you know what? The government, because the government is always the main cause of it. Of course, they are telling the situation has gone bad due to the war, due to the crisis, energy crisis and grain situation headed that Ukraine could not export all the grain and herbal products, et cetera. But the president of Nigeria, he doesn't want to allow the little notes anymore. From 1020, 51 hundred naira naira is the local currency in Nigeria. Well, the smallest coupon they want to have is 200.

Is it that they're devaluing the currency? Is that what it is?

Well, that's probably what they want. But Nigeria, when I was there, was 160,000,000 people, and especially in the little villages, et cetera, they live from the small money. When I was there as a volunteer, I had a month salary of 15,000 naira. And then you think, Whoa, that's a lot. But okay, it's a lot of money, it's a lot of coupons. Even if you get the money in cash, in notes of 20 naira, can you imagine? Then you have a full bag when you go to collect your salary, then you need to carry a bag, otherwise you cannot carry. Yeah, that's terrible. But these 20 naira notes, they are not allowed anymore. Ten IRA is not allowed 5100. But can you imagine, in the local villages, everything is done with those small notes.

So how are they buying stuff? How are they?

If you want to buy an apple.

Or something, how much would an apple be?

A normal food would be 100 naira. Then you have a dinner or a breakfast, 150 naira, you have a decent meal.

So how are they coping? They have no money, so they can't go to a shop and buy.

Exactly.

Would people have credit cards? Or is that.

For example, Victoria Island, Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, where all those big companies are, et cetera? You have some ATMs and you can pay with credit card, et cetera. But can you imagine when you go down local in the villages, there's nothing. And the Fulani people, they are nomads, they are going from one place to another, et cetera. Well, they don't carry their ATM machine with them.

And would it go back to a bartering system? Would that work for some of those people? It's harder to be fair, though, isn't it?

Yeah. But since a while it was here also on the local news here in the Netherlands, that there was no money at all and they're queuing people in front of the banks, et cetera, and to want to get in, but there seem to be no money. How do you call them to press notes? They are way behind. That is the official statement of the presidency, that they cannot print the 200 naira notes anymore. But yeah, because they don't allow the other ones. But so far it is a big trick that will be of everything. Yeah.

And so many people affected by it.

Yeah, everyone.

No, but I mean, it's a huge population, isn't it?

Yeah, 160,000,000. Can you imagine when I went out with the girlfriend of Chef Fifi? That's a neighboring dog.

Can't we remember?

There's also a big story. She murdered Little Rabbit.

And we thought she was a nice girl.

I fought as well. But see, in front of her boss, Frank, my neighbor, he saw that she put her leg on this animal and then she bid it and then the head fell off.

Oh, my God.

And then she swallowed the other part this is really terrible.

On a pan. And put some vegetables in there and just cook it up.

No vegetarian. No vegetarian. Can you imagine this awful dog?

Shocking.

It's shocking. And she showed a nice animal.

About all this.

Terrible. Yeah, I know. Chef was looking at it and he said, I'm walking away. That was the right thing to do. And probably when he went home does he taste nice? Hopefully that's that crush over. He'll drop seafood and have to look.

Somewhere else for a new friend.

Exactly. But let's talk about something positive.

Yeah, that would be nice.

Yes.

Later this week, Claude and I are going and Larry are going to London.

Really? What are you going to do? Are you going to fly or walk or bus?

Well, we were going to walk, but we've only got three days. By the time we get there, we don't have to come back. We're going to fly because it's somebody's special birthday. It's not a big rounding birthday. The positive news that I have, and I also just want to say that recently we were gifted some sterling, which is lovely.

Did you win the lottery or something?

We did, yeah. Who knows this? Because these are these new notes.

I think they might not be new to them, but they're new to me.

They only came out recently, though, these new notes. Yeah, of course. Well, maybe the old king is not. Maybe they just haven't printed yet. Maybe it's the same nigeria.

Nigeria.

But the first positive thing I'd say about them is that the notes themselves, they don't feel great, but they do have indicators on them of how much each note is. I think it's was it two braille cells.

No, it feels like braille, but it's not, because I think they can't kind of not everyone uses braille. So it's it's basically a braille g. It's one, two, four and five.

And five. Yeah.

And they've got one of them for five pound note, two of the GS, so they're down the side of the short side of the note. Two of them are for a ten pound note, three of them for a 24 of them for a 50. And we don't have any more than that. So I presume it keeps going up in the denominations. But I think it's very interesting because it will make it easier for people.

To note for sure.

And they are all at the same shape. Size?

I think they're slightly bigger. Are they? I don't know. Is each note slightly bigger than the next? I don't know. Maybe wrong about dollars are the same size.

They're a different size, yeah. But the size of the not the braille, but the g, the letter G. Yeah, of course.

But it's very easy to feel, so if you're not so sensitive with fingertips, you can still feel it. And it's kind of a plasticky note and it's really interesting. So they used to be paper with a little silver kind of foil thing that went through it, but now they're pretty much plastic. You can't tear them, or at least you can't tear them as easily. Okay. And there's kind of sections of it that are completely see through as well. Yeah, very interesting.

So the other positive news that I.

Did, first of all, you are going to London. Are you staying in what hotel?

Buckingham palace. Staying. Cool.

So they are changing the guard for you, then?

Oh, yeah. Larry is going to be the guard.

Exactly.

What do we call them? The beef eaters. They're getting a couple of days off. Harris is going to be outside. No, you're not coming in. No, you're not coming in.

Larry is actually annoyed at me at the moment because he's giving me such a dirty look right now. I ate an apple earlier and he's very close because he wants to eat the apple more than I won't bless him.

Yeah, sorry.

Anyway, the other positive news, which is I'm passing on to our dear listeners. If you don't live in the UK and you're thinking about going to the UK, I was booking tickets for a show for musical. Stewart would be very happy, he would approve. But while I was booking the tickets and I didn't do through a website there's Larry Shaken didn't do through a website, but did it by a very old method for some of you young people. I actually called somebody on you feel.

Good at home in the old English.

This woman you had also this dial.

That you could turn.

Anyway, I was booking the tickets with said to me, oh, do you have an access card? And I said no. I said, what's the access card? So she said, well, the tickets are very expensive. And I said, yeah, it's birthday, whatever, you should be able to get a reduction on this. I said, yeah, but I don't live in the UK. There's a thing called an access card and it's available to anybody. And I said, okay, so tell me more. So she was very good. She booked the tickets for the theater and she said, So you go to this address and contact these people and tell them you want an access card, and then they'll give you a number and then you call me back and you'll get your tickets at a reduced rate. And I thought, okay, maybe yeah, I'll do it, but I don't think she actually knows what she's what she's on about. And actually, this is for people who just live in the UK. I was proven wrong and immediately called. She gave you the number. So I made another standby, folks. I made another phone call with a separate line. With a separate line. They made a phone call to the number and they said, I've heard about an access card, I moved to a theater. Oh yeah, that's right. And I said, But I don't live in the UK. And they said, no, that's fine, that's okay, you're eligible. I said, okay, I'm blind, I'm a guide dog. And they said, okay, that's fine. So we'll send you a little form, you fill that out and then you'll get your access card number. And I said, okay, this is brilliant. And it was so how much do.

You pay for it?

This is the beauty of it. Cloda did the filling app because it's not an accessible form and that's grand. Okay, whatever it should be, but it's not okay. We were getting discounts, so it wasn't going to complain. Better than slap on the face with a wet fish. Anyway, so you get this access card which will allow you either get in for free to certain museums or events or at a reduced price, and it costs €15 for three years. Pounds, sorry, £15 sterling for three years. Then you just reapply and you can use it again. I won't tell Claudia because it's a special present, but I got quite a considerable reduction when I rang back with so we filled out the form, I sent it back to them, and within a few hours, this would probably took about 2 hours in total. And I got an email to say, you've been approved and your access number is and you can call if you're doing anything online or you can call. So I rang back to the woman at the ticket office and said, I have my access number. And she said, yes, that's been registered and we can see your name and you've got a discount of such and such for the.

If you need a site, a guide or whatever, it can give you discounts for that as well. And also there's other things like if you have problems at steps or if.

You need wheelchair or something, whatever.

Yeah, it's really good. It's really good. So it covers all sorts of things. So even kind of invisible disabilities like autism, so if you've got somebody who has sensory issues, they can't handle noise or they need to kind of not queue for something. There's little symbols that go on the card for all of that and they post the card out to you, but you don't actually need it. And then when you want to use it, you can do it by map in terms of what area you're in, or you can do it by what kind of thing you're looking for. So transport or entertainment.

And it's for all England or only London?

No. It's all of England. Yeah. Wales and Scotland as well. And also there's some non UK and New Zealand.

New Zealand.

So there is a thing for Amsterdam.

Like the First World or something. Or is it European?

No, I think it's UK.

But they cover it. So, for instance, you can get into the Royal Palace in Amsterdam. You can use it in the Royal Palace.

Can you share then the link on.

Access card online and you'll find all the information there. Really good.

That's very easy. You can call them, you can pull that form. I was really surprised because now, in fairness, we haven't got a physical card yet. But as long as I have the number I'm uploaded, if we go to so let's say we want to go, I don't know, Tara London, I think once we tell them I have an access card, may not have a physical card, and they say, okay, give us the number. If I give them the number, they just look on their computer and say, yes, Mr. O'Neill does have an access, and we can go in for at a discount or in for free, or whatever way it is.

I'm reading here you can use it on Amtrak trains in the States.

So it's super international. Yeah.

Well, what they do is they give you an opportunity to what they call name and fame. So if you have used it somewhere, you can write in and say, I used it in this place and it was great. So the Louvre in Paris.

Louvre, Disneyland in Paris. Oh, and the tour of the Eiffel Charleston airport.

Miserace. One of my favorites. I love that. Loads of places.

But may I ask, I don't know if it's of cloud and nose. What kind of musical you're going? I do.

Oh, you do know.

Give a clue or sing a clue there.

Stewart is not here.

Can you feel the Lord?

No, please go on. But this was my first musical. I think I shared it once with Audio Description. Audio Description, there, in that theater. Because then it is exceptional. True. Because then oh, my God, it is so nice to have those.

Description or.

In I don't know, actually, I got to check it. I think it might do. So you saw this did you see.

This evening.

In the theater?

I was really crying in that time.

It's very moving. I am a bit worried because I'm a bit of a crier.

Oh, my God.

There's a really sad bit, isn't there?

There's a few really sad bits, actually.

The line dies.

I'm really looking forward to that.

It's going to be brilliant.

But it was really good. Also with the audio scripts, we had a presentation in advance of the whole show where they explained what was on the podium or what you could expect, et cetera. And then during the show, it was all explained, et cetera. You were wearing a headset and it was really afterwards I could tell the kids in Chantal more things. Did you see that? And did you also notice that one? No. I was very happy that I could also bring in something. Normally I'm sitting relaxed and you wait for the cheering and the gearing, et cetera, but now it was really that I was contributing and that was really cool. That's amazing.

It'd be interesting to see if it will have.

You would have a nice time and then you will have nice dinner for two, et cetera. Oh, no, for free, of course, with free.

Larry's still not talking to me now.

Yeah, we'll have that when we go back to Booking Palace.

We have the Rolls Royce.

Where's the queen?

She died.

Seriously? Not funny. He's such a twisted seizure.

Okay, now, guys, I wish you a nice time and we hope to hear from you.

Really looking forward to it. I wonder how Larry's going to react to seeing all these animals running around on the stage.

It'd be interesting because the underground is really a little bit well, Larry is not allowed with the Escalators.

No, but hopefully most of them will have lifts. That's what I'm hoping anyway.

Are they equipped now already?

We don't know.

Some of them are very deep, aren't they?

Yeah, I don't go there all the time. When I'm now going to Sight Village or whatever, then I go luxury with taxi. But with the underground, I used to do it when I was having no Doork. But they are really and you have even those old wooden that's right.

Really old noisy ones. I haven't been to London for quite years.

My God.

Yeah. And I'm not great with heights, but it's all good. But we'll have to see. I'm sure there's a way of finding out which ones which ones don't people do that?

I'll throw them over my shoulder.

You see these videos on YouTube of people picking up their giant dogs like babies and carrying them up the Escalator.

Even what was a guide dog system they had? That was a guide horse. This little horse, the miniature ponies are so yeah, they were walking next to you and they had no problems with doing the Escalators. Their nails are not so small.

You'd wonder if they can train them to poop.

Yeah, no, you're right, Clauda, because you can train your guide dog for so when you have done the training for Escalators, then you're allowed to do that because then the guide dog knows how to step on it.

So you can't train it.

Really so the particular way, so their little clothes don't get exactly stand sideways or something.

I really don't you should use the orange way that you put them on your shoulder.

No, I don't think so. Now, ladies and gentlemen, I cannot wait to do this interview. We've been trying to get these people for months and months and months, and they're just too expensive. But they've eventually decided that they would do the gig for free. So we're really happy. Well, I say free. Yeah. We're paying them in bananas and also in cheese, nun and crisps. But I want to welcome Column, Aidan, and the most important person in this interview is Bonnie, and they're from a podcast called Maddie and Triggs, which I absolutely love.

So do I. Yay. It's brilliant.

Hello, folks. Hey, guys.

It's great to be here. How are you doing?

Hey, Warren, how are you doing? Hey, Loda.

Hi, Bunny.

Hi.

How are you?

Bonnie's the star.

Bonnie is the star. But we have to kind of pick up something right from the start, just so we know where we stand. Okay, I just got an email from the Irish Podcast Awards, Bonnie, and apparently the award that you guys got for best podcast that's actually belonged to blind guys chaff.

No, it doesn't.

So we'd like that back, please.

You're such a measure.

I'll send you an envelope and you can put the award in the envelope.

They wanted fair and square.

No, they did. They wanted fair and square.

Congratulations, by the way.

Yeah, well done.

Exciting.

Thank you.

I'm going to start back at the top because I know Aidan and Column from their producing of a wonderful program on Orchid Jr that I got to watch a few years ago called Critters TV, which is brilliant. And I got to ask the guys, first of all, where did the idea for Critters TV come from? How did it manifest itself?

And do you want to explain it? Because not everyone might know it.

Oh, yeah, explain it.

You know what? I'm not quite sure where the actual nugget of the idea came from, but the idea is that it's 2D animated animals watching live action nature documentaries. So it's a little bit like the Goggle box show crossed over a little bit with, like, an old show called Creature Comforts. That's what we often pitch it as. It's like Gogglebox crossed with creature comforts. So I think we just were retickled by the idea of animals watching nature documentaries and what they might say about themselves or the other animals. And we thought that was comedically, quite intriguing and interesting.

It's so funny, actually. It really is. There's loads of little funny, throw away, little funny things, yet it's brilliant. And it's funny for parents as well.

I think, myself and Clara clara Murray, who does the audio description for for Creators TV, when we saw the first series and she was writing the 80, we were just having so much fun every day because Clara was writing the 80 in the same room that I was working away. And every now and again I'd hear, God, that's so funny. And I'd say, that's so funny, she'd play it for me, and then she'd explain what's happening. Oh, this is just brilliant.

Can I say one word that came out of that that I thought it's my favorite word ever.

Punami or Punami.

Yeah.

That'S probably an example of when people say, write what you know. I think that was reflective of maybe where a column was at Inheriting Life.

At the time with a little person.

Yeah, just to confirm that it was a little person.

All right. It wasn't you having a bad day.

Come.

Good to hear. We wouldn't wish that on anyone. But listen, we do love Critters, but we're here to talk about Maddie and Triggs.

Yeah.

Do you want to explain what that is?

Well, I think, funnily enough, it was towards the tail end of Critters when we were delivering the audio description and we were talking to you or and about going through that process. And it was very much at the end of the production, where, in reality, this was something we were contracted to do when we were discussing it, by how much the show engaged you or how you warm to it so much, but also how much of an afterthought it was for us. And it was like, oh, God, this is an add on for this audience. And it kind of sparked in us. It was like, well, imagine if we made a show that was built in the opposite way, that was built in the ground up with vision impaired viewers or audience in mind. So that's kind of where the spark of it came from, that conversation, literally from that phone conversation with you, oran and then we started myself and Aiden just started to think about, well, what would a show like that look like? And very, very, very broad, sort of when we're in development, it's just a very broad zone or an area that we start to kind of play around in. So that was kind of the starting point of it.

I'd say you're very sorry you had that conversation with me, but you guys.

Are both sided, right?

Yes.

Yeah. So you kind of had to start thinking about how to approach things or how something might be for somebody who maybe didn't have their full site or maybe didn't have any eyesight. And is that what you did? You kind of sat back and thought about how that would be and how to approach it?

Yeah, I think initially we felt there was something well, there was something interesting to us in the idea of, as column said, starting to kind of hone a series from that place and how might that be different? But we were really aware that that's not our story to tell and that we wouldn't be the right people for it. But I think we knew from our experience in the industry that there was something interesting there and there was a gap there. So I think just with our own kind of instincts, we sort of drummed up what would be a one page or a two page or in our industry where you get the essence of what you think an idea might be. You get it down in a few paragraphs. And we like the idea that it was a little girl might be the hero and maybe a dog best friend. I mean, again, we were really gone from our own very basic knowledge and guide dogs. What are the immediate associations? We kind of had no knowledge. But the name of the geo, Maddie Intrigues, that's where that came from. It roy Keane was still very much in the psyche at the time and his work with the guide dogs. So that's literally where the name Trigs came from.

Oh, really?

Pay him a royalty, do we, for saying that.

Sorry, does he have a dog called Triggers? I'm very slow about these things not.

Being yes, at the time when Saipan when all the controversy and it was 2002, it was a long, long time ago. But yeah, when he was I think it was Antonio Garmin when they were trying to interview Roy Keane host all the bus stop of that, and Roy Keen was just out walking his dog.

Oh, right.

Have I recounted that accurately?

Yeah, you're right. You're spot on.

We got it to that stage, but we didn't really know what to do with it. We didn't know what the right next step was. So it kind of sat in the drawer for a few years and it wasn't until maybe column, you can pick it up here, it wasn't until a new radio producer with RTE kids kind of found us and a pandemic happened, which meant we were locked in our rooms. And it sort of opened up a new way to explore it then.

Yeah, I guess we had thought about maybe if audio first was a route to go because I guess just to explain a bit about who we are, we work a lot in animation. Traditionally we've done a lot of animated TV shows and produced those, but actually audio and music and writing and comedy is our background. So we had looked at a way of, well, maybe audio is an interesting avenue for this, maybe something sound led because the show could require this. So it was a producer called Nicki Cochrane and RTE had read the one or two pages that we had sent in and this was like a good twelve months later we got an email saying, oh, I really like this. I think there's something in it. Which kind of inspired us to take it up again and have a look at, well, what could this be in podcast format? At that point we're like, well, if we're going to investigate this and get a little bit of funding maybe to make it, then we need to actually consult with people who know about this world. And so we got directly in touch with the ncbi at that stage, and we spoke with child vision as well. With the ncbi, we're really amazing in terms of just setting up some focus groups with us and giving us a chance to meet some kids in this area. Giving us a sense of the world, giving us a little bit more confidence ourselves, just to speak about this world. We were coming to it from a complete point of ignorance, really, but I think we felt, really, that there was a real welcoming attitude to us wanting to do something in the space.

But I think that's because it basically has never been done before, so it's brilliant to have people talk about it because, I mean, I think often in the world of disability, you're othered to use that term, and sorry, this is very boring for poor Bonnie, but it's you and everybody else, you're not part of the gang. And so it's lovely to be included. And that whole idea of making it start with audio, thinking about the audio first, which in fairness, is what you do with animation anyway, I think. But it's so lovely and that you made the effort to kind of reach out and talk to people and ask them how does their life work, how do they do things? And just so that you can kind of learn about it. I just think it's amazing and it's lovely that you were so open to all of that.

How did Bonnie get involved? Bonnie, it's your turn to talk now. The adults will be quiet for a while.

Yes.

How did you get involved in this project?

Well, I guess one day, I guess my mom had just called me and said there was a place for Maddie and Triggs, and I said that I'd like to try an audition for it. And being really lucky, I got the part. And it's been an amazing experience recording and doing all the singing with Aden and Cullen. It's been amazing. Really.

Wow.

And yeah, I'm really enjoying it.

Do you like the acting bit? Is that what you want to do? Is that what you'll do in the future?

Yeah, I really enjoyed it. I really like the acting, I really like the singing. I enjoyed the whole experience and everything to do with it. It was it's really good. I love it and I'm really glad that I I went for it. And I was actually only seven. Was it what age was it? Was it eight to 14, this thing? Yeah, it was eight to 14 and I was actually only seven when I auditioned.

Wow.

So I was extra lucky with that.

That's amazing. Bunny?

Am I just adding Bonnie? You're being very humble there, saying that you were lucky because we should point out we got a load of auditions through the Ncbi. There was 15 to 20, I think, young kids around Bonnie's age with vision impairments from all over the country got in touch and we had given them little samples of the script and a little bit of a melody, so a short little bit of the song. So everyone kind of sent in their audition with the help of their parents. And Bonnie's, she got the gig because she stood out. They were all of immense quality. But Bonnie's, we could just tell that she afterwards, we realized she had never acted before. But her there was a magic about what she had. And you'll get this. People who are real audio people will get this. We kind of thought that, well, look, we may be lucky enough to find the right actor for this, but this actor also needs to be able to sing. And we were going, okay, well, maybe we'll need to get someone else who's singing. And we'll kind of cheat it a bit. It's kind of like the TV production side of things. But Bonnie just had both skills, even down to her pitch. I think she's pitched perfect. She was better pitched than any of us. So we were absolutely blown away. It couldn't I mean, Bonnie, if you think you're lucky, we're the ones who feel lucky to have found you.

That's so lovely.

Thank you.

That's so cool. So, Bonnie, you hadn't acted before. That's amazing.

I hadn't. And for my first time, I think it was absolutely extraordinary. I really enjoyed it.

Tell me about a typical day when you're recording for Maddie and Triggs. First of all, does Triggers generally behave himself when you're recording?

Yes, Triggs is very good. It's very good.

So what happens then? Does column and they send you a script and then you read through the script and you make all your changes because you don't like it, then you decide to record. So what happens when you're actually recording it?

Yeah, well, they sent me the script and me and my dad and my mom would help me. We'd go over it at home. And then when we come in, I'd stand beside the mic and it's normally Aidan at the computer that calls at the tent sentence to me, like, Trigs, look at this. That kind of thing.

All right.

Yeah. So I just do that. And then after I've done a few episodes at the end, once I've recorded all the episodes, then I do all the singing after that in one day. So all the songs and I'd learn all the songs off. But, yeah, I guess I just kind of stand with the mic. They'd call out the sentences and then I'll do the sentences.

So I guess pretty well, we figured.

It out as we went along a bit, didn't we? We definitely started like that, where I would kind of I'd say the line and you'd repeat the line, which would be standard enough with young actors in our game. But remember, the more we went along, I found because you would come in and you were so well prepared coming in that we kind of had to do well, I felt, at least from the engineering perspective, that I had to do that less and less. You already you knew what was required, or you were even suggesting, like you were going, oh, do you mean like this? Is she kind of feeling like this? So by the end of it, we were almost it was less me saying a line and you repeating it, and it was more you just taking ownership of the character, which is exactly what we wanted. I mean, that's much more meaningful all around.

I think it must be a very long day for you, Bonnie. Well, because you got to maintain that kind of energy all day and just be happy.

Yeah, it's kind of hard to I guess it's kind of a mix of things. Sometimes you need a little break because sometimes it gets a bit tiring standing all the time, but yeah. And you need to stay happy in that kind of thing, which that's pretty easy.

We kind of did them in smaller sessions, didn't we, Bonnie? So orin we wouldn't have done full studio days, which might be more standard. And again, we were really lucky because we all happened to live near each other, so we had that flexibility. And also because Bonnie was in school and we were working around her schedule, so there's probably a sweet spot Bonnie wasn't there, where we do maybe two episodes worked. And it's kind of at that point, I'm sure you would have kept going and going and going. But obviously we're trying to capture a certain level of energy. So luckily we didn't end up in that position where we were like recording to Midnight or anything.

We didn't go.

And what's going to happen now with Maddie and Tricks? Is it going to be another series? Is it going to be going to TV? Are you going to go to Radio? What's going to happen? Is it going to be a film?

No, I don't think it's going to be a film. I think we're doing another series, aren't we?

Yeah, I think the plan is to do another series and I think we will be on TV also very soon.

Yeah, brilliant. Which would be amazing.

Oh, that would be so cool, wouldn't it?

We can't exactly say yet because of various reasons, but yeah, we're very confident that we will have a TV version on our screens next year.

Amazing. Will you have to come back and tell us about that when that happens?

Yes, absolutely.

If you're going into the kind of television area, I presume you've got many other ideas. Would you appreciate people getting in contact with maybe with visual impairments or disabilities, or are you looking for any assistance that way? I'm wondering, can blind guys jack get a gig here?

In all seriousness, that is very much part of the next stage of the process for us is to make sure that there is representation on the mic, but also behind the camera in terms of the animation crew and how we work with the Ncbi and various bodies to make that happen and to have a really meaningfully, inclusive leg to the production. Also, I guess we'll be looking at the writer's room in terms of scripting and getting real insight from people from that world with real experiences to feed into the storylines. So that will all be part of the, I guess, what we call the pre production process over the next few months as we line everything up. But yeah, we're definitely all ears and very open to hearing. There's already a list of kids who auditioned originally for the role, who we hope to bring in in other roles on the series as it goes on, too. So that's very much something we're really excited about doing as well because it's so fun for us to work that.

Way because Jan and I have a storyline that we've been writing about two guide dogs, both of who like to sleep a lot.

So it'll be quite a boring show, but still. So if people want to catch up with the existing Maddie and Tricks episodes, how do they do that?

I know it's on spotify.

Okay.

I don't know where else.

It's on all the podcast networks. It's on apple as well. It's on the RTE Player also, and they run it occasionally. Also on RT Junior radio.

That's lovely.

Quite a bit.

So you're all over the place, bunny can hear you on any podcasting app or platform. Fantastic.

Well, listen, we said we wouldn't keep you too long, Bunny, because I know you need to get your beauty sleep and go back to your trailer and eat all the M and Ms and you can and have bananas and all that, but we really do appreciate you coming on the show. Thank you so much. We can't wait for the TV series.

That's going to be pretty exciting.

We're going to start writing in those two new sleepy guide dogs into that.

Okay, thanks very much.

Thanks very much. Bye bye.

You can email blindguys [email protected] or tweet us at blind Guides chat. If you have any comments or questions.

We do a few emails.

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

I'm not playing the tune in for sure.

Sing it for us. Okay, here we go. That's the old one. Don't worry about it. Now let me scroll up to the top.

There's one reason why we need Stewart.

Every time you do that falsetto. People think it's me, but it's not me. This is why I don't ever sing along to the thing. Because people think it's me with the high voice. Anyway. Do people remember we had a chap.

Called when we met?

Got him. Stuart, come back. Aaron Linson. Or was it Aaron? Is it Aaron Lindsay? Aaron Linson. Yeah, he emailed in. Was it the last episode as well? Anyway, he's emailed again. And he's saying, hey, guys, and Cloda, sorry, I forgot your name wrong. You did? Aaron. Aaron. Sorry, but I got your name wrong. So we're quits. I think it's all right. Don't worry about us. Yeah, it's a weird name, in fairness. He says there was a discussion on the last podcast about how accessibility of Google Meet was a nightmare. I can say I have experience with this. I'm currently taking a 16 week course on becoming a Digital Accessibility analyst. That sounds interesting, isn't it?

Sorry, say that again.

He says, I'm currently taking a 16 week course on becoming a Digital Accessibility analyst. See, I think they do things over there that we don't have over here.

That'S in the US.

He's going to be checking for wokehag and things like that, I presume.

Yeah. Well, wait, please explain, aaron, explain.

Yeah, you'll have to tell us more about the Digital Accessibility analyst and then apply as well. Yeah. He says, I will then sit for my CPAC. And was, he says, certified Professional in Accessibility, Core Competencies and Web Accessibility Specialist.

Certs, you should have digital in your business card and then embroile. Can you imagine?

Sure he will.

How many do you have?

I don't think all that will fit on a business card. He'll need a business page.

Exactly.

I can't wait to see what Aaron thinks of wilcag, because I think it's very vague.

Yeah, very vague.

You can have a whole chat about Wcag with him. Not everyone knows what Wcag is, by the way, so maybe you should explain that.

Web content, accessible guidelines, w three C.

W three C is yeah, that's the organization, isn't it?

Yeah. Anyway, I think it's work. AG 2.2.1 at the moment.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's yeah, it's extremely vague in the way it's written, but anyway, it's.

Guidelines, really, isn't it?

Really? Yeah.

Well or success criteria and how websites should behave when used by somebody with a disability, whether that person be blind or have a cognitive disability, et cetera. So it deals with everything that a website should be completely accessible to anybody with a disability. What's? Eric one.

He says this program uses Google meet. This the course he's doing uses Google Meet for the participants. I wasn't really worried about accessible accessibility. Yeah. And I found it to be quite accessible. Yeah. He wants to know what other problems, other than integration, setup, et cetera, that you had, as all the buttons and navigation was clearly labeled for him. So what were the problems he had? Because you were talking about this last time, weren't he?

Yeah, no, we had an example of Mr. Stewart.

Stewart only didn't like it, in fairness. It's been a couple of years, probably because it was definitely during culvert at the early stage of COVID when I was doing it. And I think just to find the even just to find the I think you had to put in your name, first of all, and then there was no kind of join or it was very hard to find the join button when you're tagging around or it wasn't labeled as a button.

Maybe we shouldn't give out about things unless we've checked it recently.

It's a good thing.

Maybe we should consider checking the current version before giving out about things. Maybe that's an idea.

That's extra work.

Sorry, we don't like working anyway, I haven't used it.

We can ask for a more explanation about this. Accessibility. Whatever.

Got another one.

So. No, I'm not finished.

I thought he was finished.

He goes on, he still doesn't send.

Me any bourbon from Kentucky, by the way.

He's got better things to be doing, unfortunately. I was part of the Mass layoffs with 350 of my contract brothers and sisters. Yeah. Plus plus 18,000 corporate employees being let go see in Amazon.

Yeah, yeah, he was working.

18,000 corporate employees were let go. So his entire team has been let go, unfortunately.

Oh, gosh.

So that is purely accessibility.

I don't know.

He was a recruitment so he was HR. He was a recruitment specialist. So I think he was he was looking at the things like LinkedIn at people.

Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, that's true.

Other qualifications and etc. And see if they be suitable for roles. So that is a huge number to.

18, but I presume that's slowly.

Twitter did not even reach that number when Ian Musk did fire, I think oh, yeah. When he took over Twitter, he also fired a lot of people.

A lot of people, yeah.

But not 18.

Sorry to hear that.

Yeah. Aaron, sorry, but he's asking, how would one get into Audio Description as a career? So you've sold them on Audio Description or any guidance, connections or advice would be appreciated. Or since you use Reaper, I need to pick your brain on using it.

That email will be coming your way shortly.

We've never had as much singing in.

Our life, so we should have done that anyway. Audio Description. I'm happy to answer any questions on Reaper that you have. Of course, just send me that email.

How do you get into Description?

Okay, so this is a bit of a tough one because I'm not going to give you the answer that you want, Aaron, because I can't remember if you're fully blind or you're low vision. But the first problem with getting into Audio Description for anybody with a disability but the main problem is let me put myself as an example. The main reason I couldn't be an audio describer is because I can't see the picture, and that's vital. In order to describe something, you have to be able to see exactly what's happening on screen. Now, even if you have some, let's say, low vision, you have to get the details right.

Colors and all that.

Yeah. And facial expressions and what somebody's wearing. If you have the opportunity to say what a particular character looks like and what they're wearing, the looks they might be giving at an end of a scene. So to be honest, it's extremely difficult. I don't know any audio describer, who is blind, who is an audio describer, what I do. I am unique in where I work in ort in that I am blind. So the panel of describers that write audio description for the programs that we show on orte are fully cited, but all the scripts that they write come to me. So I proofread those scripts and make sure that what has been said, what they want to say, what they've recorded, sounds right and is appropriate and is relevant. So I would say that rather than looking to be an audio describer, perhaps you should look at being an audio description reviewer, because there are like and this used to happen years ago in Germany. And Veronica talked about this, I think in her first interview with US. That in Germany, the broadcasters in Germany used to hire people who are blind to sit with an audio describer, and they would say, as they're writing the piece that works, that doesn't work. I don't know what you mean. I don't understand that. And that's more or less what I do day in, day out. So I would kind of shy away from the actual audio description end of it because of the visual aspect and it's not just the fact that you're doing everything yourself. So not only you're writing the script within a piece of software that's been designed specifically to create audio description. So there's a lot going on visually from the technical perspective, let alone, yeah, I wonder what that picture is, how do I record now? How do I play it back? And then I have to mix it all in, balance it all in.

And the software isn't designed. It is absolutely not accessible.

It's absolutely not accessible. And yeah, the software that we use is not accessible. And it would be very hard and I've been working with the developer developers a lot over the last few years, it would be very hard to make it accessible. And then you'd have to say, well, who's going to use it? And I would say, well, I'm going to use it. How are you going to use it if you can't see the picture? So that's the very first thing is if you can't see the picture and it's not like, oh, I can see some images or some things on the screen, that's no good. You have to be Archer because you've got to remember you're writing a script, you're writing the narration for somebody like ourselves who is blind. And then we're not going to accept something that says, oh, I think that guy got hit with a brick.

But it's not to say that he couldn't do maybe voiceover work or something.

No, yeah, there are. Yes, we know, and we know there's a continuity announcer here in Ireland that does voiceovers for continuity and that's very possible. I wouldn't dismiss that type of radio. Radio is great. You could be reading the news, you could be reading sports results.

There was one on Fscast, a lady who was reading the news in Australia. Do you remember that's?

Right, yeah. I think she had the amazing ability that she could timing, she could listen to and listen to the producer at the same time. Speak at the same time.

He's also a woman and also a woman.

She's multitasking normal for us.

Sorry to be a downer there, Arun, but I often think it might be more be practical about these things and there could be a role for you in audio description, but I might shy away a little bit from the physical doing of the audio description. Think of it, maybe other roles within that, and believe me, I think I'm blowing our own trumpet here. We produce high quality audio description because.

When he says me, he's talking about art.

But with RT, we produce high quality audio description because we have a great audio description panels that understand what we need. And also the fact that I'm there reviewing everything and not to be kind of beating them around the place and say you're not doing a good enough job, they do a fantastic job. But there are little things here and there that we change and they are genuinely quite grateful that I'm there. As the blind guy who says, you know, and they can say, you know, what do you think? I write this? And I say, yeah, that sounds good, or maybe we'll change it a little bit. So think about that. Think about advocating for yourself and going to one of the companies in the US and say, as I am blind, so I know what good audio description should sound like. So maybe there's roles there. Anyway, there you are. Shut up now.

That's okay. That's a great explanation of what might work and what might not. And just to wrap up, he says, thanks guys, for an awesome podcast. If Stewart has ever gone again, and this is from the last time, I think, and in brackets, he says, let's face it, it will happen. Well, it happened this week. Please don't hesitate to tag me in as a guest or a permanent replacement of Stewart's. Voice would be happy to do it.

Evil permanent.

Oh, deadly.

Permanent replacement. There you go. Now, Stewart, you better watch out.

Yeah. Maybe Aaron maybe Arin would do a new stone for Gary hoff Santa.

I'll tell you, fingers in it. So there you go. Thanks, Aaron, for that. I appreciate that.

Yeah, we're going. Thank, thank you. You listen. Thank you very much for joining the show, ladies. Or listening to the show ladies.

You need to get your train to London.

Feel better. Thanks. Remember, blind guys, [email protected] if you want to email us, we'd love to. The Twitter machine is applied. Guys, chat. Okay, folks, see you two weeks. OK. Bye bye. Busybizzyproductions.com.