30. What Did 300 Get Wrong? w/ Talia

Hey hey look at that, we're at number 30 and what a fitting coincidence in that we're going to talk about the movie 300. History buff and former comic Talia joins me on the show and we have a chat about what the film got right and what they got wrong about the battle of Thermopylae. I was and still am a massive fan of the movie so this was a great opportunity to ask many questions I've had for years. I even ended up reading the comic a few weeks ago and really enjoyed that, highly recommend you do too!

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Transcript

Hello once again friends, it is me the Rudler back for another episode of Ruddle Me This. Today's episode is a very exciting one for me as I am a big fan of the movie 300. And my guest and sort of expert that I bring on to the show today is Talia. We met a few years ago now. Talia used to do stand up is not currently doing it anymore but was keen to come on the podcast and talk about history with me. In this particular case, Talia suggested we could talk about the movie 300 and where it was accurate and not so accurate compared to what actually happened at the Battle of Thermopylae. Now I'm quite a big fan of history. I've been listening to a podcast called The Rest is History lately, which is a lot of fun. So this was a great little excuse for me to pretend that I'm someone with a history podcast. So thank you to Talia for allowing me to indulge in that fantasy for an episode. So without further ado, let's get right on with the interview and welcome to the show, Talia. Talia, welcome to the podcast. Thank you very much, Taylor. How are you? I am doing quite well, actually. I just moved a set of dumbbells inside, so that's maybe somewhat related to the Spartans. They were quite known for their physical fitness, weren't they? Yeah, they were. And I think that moving dumbbells does count as physical exercise. Yeah, so I'll take that. So for the listener out there today, we are gonna be talking about the movie 300. And Talia is going to tell us what they got right and then what they got wrong. I think Talia, you have an interest in sort of military history in general. That would be correct to say, right? Yes, that's a very true, I'd say a lifelong love of military history. And going back to when I was a little girl. Yeah. I was going to say, what kind of was the impetus that got you interested in learning about military history in the first place? My grandfather was served in World War II. Oh, wow. he had a big pictorial history of World War II that I would look through when I was little. It was just like, what's going on? Why are these people doing this? It just spilled out from there. From World War II, it was back to the interwar period, and then World War I in Europe during the 19th century. Eventually, I got back to the ancient Greeks. So... Yeah. So here we are today. And you don't really have a particular favorite area, you said, right? You sort of just done to everything. Yeah, I have a condition called Asperger's Syndrome, which gives me one of our characteristics is a very deep interest in certain areas. And instead of Is that typical for Asperger's and that it's a general interest in things? Not really. I have a good friend who is extremely interested in the K-pop boy band BTS. Oh yeah, I'm familiar with BTS. And does not care about any other. Now she can sit there for two hours and talk about BTS without stopping. Interesting. Yeah, but it just depends on the person. Yeah. Is that what people refer to when they say hyperfixation? Yes. OK, yeah. And is that something that's unique to Asperger's? Or can anyone kind of get locked onto something like that? I think anyone can. I think that it's also common with other neurodivergent conditions. Yeah. Like maybe ADHD, I think they can be real interested in something. That would make sense. Yeah. I have some friends that have just had sort of like quite a late diet, like they're kind of in their thirties and they've just been diagnosed with it. And they mentioned hyperfixation as one of their things, but I think maybe with ADHD it comes and goes or something. They get really into something for a bit and then lose interest in it. Um, sort of without being able to predict why. Yeah. They call it following the serotonin. Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. So yeah, back to the military history. We are going to talk about 300 today and there is a movie. I'm not sure who the director is, but I think everyone kind of knows the movie. I think we've all kind of seen it. Shall we start with what they kind of got right about the whole, maybe for the people that haven't seen the movie, would you like to give a quick overview of what kind of what the movie is about? Sure. The film was directed by Zack Snyder. and is based on a graphic novel by Frank Miller, who also did the Dark Knight Returns, which is really terrific. But it's based on an actual historical event where Xerxes, the king of Persia, was invading Greece with an army between 120 and 300,000 men. And to get into Greece, he had to pass through this one particular geographic location called Thermopylae, which is Greek for the hot gates because there were mineral springs there, right? And they had modified it so that it was basically a bottleneck. And the fact that Xerxes had a massive army did him no good. And the Greeks were able to hold them off for two days. And on the night of the second day, they found that they'd been betrayed and that the Persians were taking a mountain trail to come out behind them. And so there were about 7,000 Greeks there. And the Spartan king, Leonidas, told the others, you know, go home, let them know that we've held them for a little while, get ready, they're coming. And then they held for one more day. Wow. And it's one of the most famous last stands in history. It really is, isn't it? One thing about Leonidas that I remember reading somewhere, you might better verify this, I remember reading that Sparta actually had two kings at a time, is that right? So was there another king when Leonidas marched to the hot gates? Interesting. That was specifically so that when one king fell in battle, there would still be a king. That makes sense. I remember reading as well that in the Spartan society, when someone died, I think, I don't know if it was specifically gender, but when young men died in battle, all of their positions went to their wife. So a lot of the young Spartan women actually had quite a lot of money because Spartan being kind of warmonger is like they were. That tends to result in death quite a lot, right? Yeah, I do know that there were only two ways that you could get your name on a tombstone. in Sparta and one was if a man fell in battle and the other was if a woman died in childbirth because both had died in service of the city-state. Because Spartans were quite brutal when it came to children, weren't they? They left them out in the elements if they weren't deemed like perfect or that kind of thing, right? Yeah. When the baby was born, the elders would examine it. and if it showed any sign of defects, it was left out to die of exposure. Wow. I also remember reading that the Spartans also, this could get quite heavy quick, but they had quite a lot of slaves as well, right? Yes. Yeah, that's a good point. I was going to bring that up because one of the points that they don't talk about is, yeah, the Spartans were elite heavy infantry, and they spent all their time getting ready for war. Yeah. But you can't do that if somebody's not doing all the work. Of course. Yeah. That's a very sad reality about the Spartans. But... It gets worse. Yeah. It gets worse. Yeah. They actually enslaved a neighboring tribe. Oh, okay. Yeah. And they were the group property of Sparta. Yeah. And to keep the slaves living in a state of terror, the Spartans declared war on them every year. What? So this was a separate kind of, was it a city or was it kind of like just a circle of kind of huts and things like that? Yes. Yeah, it was more like that. Yeah. And that gave the warriors permission to harass and kill the elites. Yeah. If I remember correctly, Spartans almost didn't see themselves as being Greek. Have I got that correct? They felt they were from somewhere else, so they felt like they were descended from something different. Maybe I've misread that, though. Well, they were from a different part of Greece. So that may have been part of it, but I don't know about that. Yeah, because back in those days, people had less of an allegiance to the country and more to their city and kind of state, weren't they? Yeah. Just so that I can, you might know this, do you know what were the kind of big players in Greece around that time? Obviously, Sparta and Athens, were there any other big ones? Troy, was that a big one? Troy was not a Greek city. Oh, were they not? Yeah, and that had been destroyed by that point. Oh, okay. Yeah. But Thebes was a big city state. and they had a group of warriors known as the Sacred Band of Thebes, which was a group of 300 warriors made up of basically male partners. Right. Yeah. I've heard that was fairly common back for the Greek military back then, wasn't it? Yep. And Thespia was another big one. They were allies of the Spartans. Right. Yeah. And Those were the biggest ones, I think. Yeah. OK, that's really interesting. And so we'll get back to, I think I've led us on a tangent there, Leonidas marching off. He left a king. He left a king behind. I've also read that, I guess it's one of those cases of the history being written by the winners, where I've heard that Xerxes wasn't maybe as tyrannical as he was portrayed by the Greeks. Would you say that's fair? Yeah, I'd say that's fair. And he's nowhere near as tyrannical as Zack Snyder makes him look in the movie. Yeah, I can imagine. He was just a man. He wasn't a giant bald, dimmy guy. With little piercings and stuff. Yeah. Yeah, that was weird. Especially in the sequel when he goes into that golden pool and then just comes back out like he's the Hulk or Captain America or something. That was the weirdest movie. So weird. Yeah, the second one. weird ones. The second one was a whole other thing. So yeah, the army would be big even by today's standards. You said it was about 120,000 people. 120 to 300,000 by modern estimate. That's gigantic. And he would have basically put out the call to the various regions saying, I am going to war, send me X amount of warriors. And each warrior, each district or area would send, like one would be good at cavalry and one would be good at light infantry and one would be good at heavy cavalry, and he would pull them together and march off. Do you know how many different regions that Xerxes had in his empire at that point? I'm sure there was a heaps of little ones but kind of just the broad strokes of it. No, it was huge though. It stretched from what's now Turkey to basically... Afghanistan. Huge. Yeah. And so he would have had soldiers who were used to fighting in the desert, soldiers that were used to fighting in the mountains. Lots of cavalry. And he had a Navy too. Were they? I just remember knowing about Hannibal crossing the, what did Hannibal do? He crossed the Alps on elephants or something like that? Would they have had it? Oh, go ahead. No, I don't think they had elephants. Yeah. Hannibal brought like 24, wore elephants over the Alps and scared the shit out of the Romans. Yeah. I remember listening to a podcast about the whole, because it was Hannibal, where was he from? He was- He was from Carthage. Carthage, that was him. And Carthage and Rome kind of had a whole, they were enemies for years, weren't they? Yeah. They fought three wars. Wow. So, Zerxes, yeah, he has a big... Is there anything else in the setup of this that you feel like people... It's important for people to know about like what really happened when they... Just when the kind of gears were turning and he was marching on Greece. It is true that the Spartans threw the Persian ambassador down a well. Oh, really? Yes. Ah. Yeah. The ambassador came and demanded a gift of... Soil and water, which would have shown submission. And the Spartans basically said, screw that and threw him down a well. I imagine the, um, the big dramatic kick and the, this is Sparta, probably a little bit exaggerated for the movie though, right? Might not be too much from the truth. Really? Yeah. Uh, the Athenians put the Persian ambassadors on trial, found them guilty and then executed them. And how was that received? When Spartans... Not terribly well. Sorry, they didn't... Okay, yeah. When, I was going to say as well, with the don't kill the messenger thing, that was presumably kind of established by that point. Yeah, but this was a message to Xerxes. It was basically in middle finger. I read that about the Spartans that they are sort of masters at giving very laconic one-liners back to two people. Yeah. Maybe that'll come back when we get to that point. Um, yeah, I think the most famous was the enemy that said, if we conquer you, we will march on Sparta. We will enslave your women and we will kill your children. And the Spartans sent back a one word, a reply, if. Isn't that the best? Yeah. I got to love that there was a historical people that were sort of renowned for being snarky. Like I just have to respect that. And yeah, so they all, and the real number of people was more closer to 7,300. Yeah. Was that all Spartans or was that, because in the movie, I know they showed two kind of groups coming together. That was Spartans, thespians, Thebans, and a bunch of smaller city-states. So in real life, it was more of a mix of people, but the Spartans somehow got the credit for it. Well, they did stay for the last stand, but the They did not fight in a helmet and loin cloth. That would have been a really bad idea. As practical as that seems, right? No, that's not practical at all. They had greaves, which were bronze shingards. And they wore body armor, which was either a linen or bronze cuirass over their chest and heavy bronze helmet. And then the most important piece of equipment was the hoplon or shield. Yeah. Which was wood and covered with bronze. Big part of their, big part of their tactics, I suppose. So they wouldn't have typically, did you say they had anything on the arms? No. The left arm would have held the shield and the right arm was stabbing with the spear. Yeah. That's interesting because I had been picturing almost like a big juggernaut covered in armor when I'd sort of read that they're actually quite heavily armored, but I suppose that makes more sense. And the Persian army probably wouldn't have been as well armored, would they? No. Their infantry carried wicker shields, which weren't anywhere near as effective as wood covered with rocks. No, I can imagine that. Yeah, that's... Would they have been wearing any body armor or anything like that when they marched out? Very light. Very light, very light. I suppose they're all from the mix. And they didn't have big scary giants that they would turn loose. Oh yeah, they're like, the big dude that they've got chained up and he's got like shark teeth and he just like doesn't feel pain or something. Yeah. It's like, what the hell is this? They did show off some characters called Immortals, which I imagine maybe were a real troop, but probably not as- Yep. Bempiric as they're portrayed in the movie? No, they were a force of 10,000 light to medium infantry and they were called the immortals because as soon as one fell, one step forward takes place. Yeah, so not necessarily literally immortal, but you just can't kind of... No. Were they, like, would they presumably would have been okay at fighting? Like they wouldn't just be your typical... Oh yeah. Yeah, so they'd be quite sort of skilled fighters? Yeah, the immortals would have been, it's possible that they may have raised levies out in the countryside. Oh yeah, okay. You know, we need to raise 500 cavalry, you know, find me 500 men with a horse. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then so I was going to ask as well, with the mixture of troops that would have came out from the other Greek... city-states, would they have been as heavily armored as the Spartans? Yes. So that was kind of a Greek thing, more or less than a Spartan thing? Yeah, they were called Hot Lights. Yes, I remember those from Age of Empires. Yep, and the basic tactic was they would stand shoulder to shoulder and lock shields, and they would either stab over the shield with their spear, which is called a dory, was about two and a half meters long. and they could also stab underhanded through the gap. Yeah. And it was getting stabbed with a razor sharp. Yeah, that's not very comfortable. Spear's not good, no. And I understand that, so that formation was called the Phalanx? That's correct. And then the Romans kind of modified it many years later, didn't they? Yeah, and so did the Macedonians under Alexander the Great. Oh, of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Roman one was slightly different, though, wasn't it? They had square or boxy shields, didn't they? And instead of a spear, it was a gladius? Was that the Roman sword? That's correct. That's the Roman short sword. Yeah. They had a javelin that they would throw right before they got into distance. And then they would draw their short swords Yeah, yeah, the Roman Legion was basically a meat grinder. Yeah. I remember reading somewhere that they would also time it so that they would rotate their soldiers and you wouldn't actually have to fight for that long before you got a rest. Well that's a really good point. You couldn't fight for very long. It was exhausting. No. So what they would have done at Thermopylae was they would have sent in, you know, send in the thespians. So there'd be 300 or 400 thespians that would go into the gap and hold the gap against the Persians. And when that group was exhausted, they would rotate out and the Spartans would go in and the Persians would send in a fresh group of infantry. This one, that's a great point about you can't fight for long. Have you ever done any kind of, you know, like, what is it called? HEPA, that kind of live action sort of thing. But you've done that before. Yes. Yes, it is absolutely exhausting. I, yeah, I haven't done that as such, but I've done boxing and kickboxing before and it's ruined movies for me because I'll see characters getting, you know, some one character will clear a whole hallway of people, single punch each time. And then when you, when I'm boxing someone in the ring, I'm like, I've hit him like 50 times, he's not falling down. Like it's just people are, yeah, but it's, it is absolutely knackering to, um, to fight someone, especially one-on-one. But yeah, kind of in the case, can you just imagine if that was your life where you go to bed in the camps and then you wake up the next morning knowing that we are gonna try and march and kill these people. Just how different of a human experience is that to what we have nowadays, right? Yeah. Another point is that the Spartans were not jacked, but they weren't very fit. Yeah, I heard they would have been lean. Yeah. And they were, I remember reading that one of the Persian scouts sort of had to look at their camp and they were doing push ups and brushing each other's hair and sort of getting ready. And there was quite a nice image. I thought sort of wholesome before the battle. Right. Yeah, it was the morning of the last day. And the Spartans and the other. you know, or, you know, doing calisthenics and, you know, loosening up and grooming their hair. Yeah. And he went back and he reported it and they were, what are, what are they doing? And there was a former Spartan general in the Persian camp who said they're preparing themselves for death. Cause they honestly believed they were going to kind of meet Hades when they died, didn't they? Yeah. And you know, first impressions count, right? So you want to get a good pump on the muscles, get the hair nice. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. And then put on your armor and go get killed. Yeah, exactly. Cause that was the thing with, I think we've had a lot of societies that sort of like a beautiful death was their kind of goal, but the Sparrens are sort of the most famous for it, aren't they? Yeah. Them and the samurai, I would say. And then I guess as well, maybe the Norths. What an honorable death. Yeah, the Norse was going to Valhalla and stuff. It's very interesting that all these different cultures have kind of all had the same idea about what happens after we go away. So I guess, yeah, well, chronologically, we'd sort of just gotten up to the battle. Did they really build a wall like they depict in the movie? So why did they have to do that? Was that blocking off another path that the enemy could sort of flank them on? There were three places where the path through the gates got thin. And another group before them had built a partial wall. And the Greeks, when they got there, they strengthened it and extended it a bit to create a smaller space to fight in. Because again, that took away the numerical strength that the Persians had. I was going to say as well, have you ever been, the idea of a wall seems quite funny, but you think, how can that really stop people? But then I've been, I haven't been to castles and stuff before, but I went to the Osaka castle in Japan and I just remember looking up at the walls and just thinking like, yeah, I want to earth them. Like if I had to get up there, how would I do it? You know, it's funny until you think, oh, bloody wall that couldn't stop us until you actually see it. And then you're like, actually, how would I get over this? It's funny to me how simple the idea of a wall is, but I mean, people wouldn't do it if it didn't work, right? Exactly. Were there any siege engines or anything like that on either side of this battle? Probably not, right? Not on the Greeks, no. After they killed all of the Greeks and made it through the pass, they did go to Athens and lay siege to Athens. Oh, right. Yeah, of course. And. and they did sack it. Right. So yeah. What actually happened to Athens after that? Was it just, did it just become a Persian vassal state or yeah what? No, after they burned Athens, there was a big battle and the Greeks had brought together a much bigger army and they beat the Oh, okay. And instead of 300 Spartans, they were facing 5,000. Yeah. So that, even though they were all city states, was Athens, I'm not even sure, is that the capital city of Greece now? Yes. And would it have been at the time? No. That was a point of contention. You know, because Athens is going, we're the biggest, we're the most important. No, you're not. So the Spartans and the Athens both thought they should be the top. Oh, yeah. Oh, that's really interesting. Yeah, that lasted for a couple of centuries. Yeah, I can imagine it would. So then back to the battle, I'm just trying to think at the start, they sort of get into the thing with the arrows. Did that really happen? Yeah. The Spartans loathed archers. That's a great way to put it. Because they would not come in and fight. Yeah, yeah, of course. .. distance. Yeah, yeah. And on the last day, they were still fighting so hard that they just brought in archers and poured arrows on them. Yeah, I suppose that's the one way to deal with them, isn't it? Did the Spartans have any kind of, I suppose they could huck their spears at them if they needed to, but they didn't have any kind of ranged technology that they would use? No. Wow. No. That's really interesting. Yeah. good for throwing. They had a big broadhead on them didn't they? I suppose the movie ones were fairly accurate? About, this spear was about two and a half meters long. Yeah, yeah. And they also carried a short sword. Right, yeah, yeah. I remember they preferred the spear. I can imagine nice and safe behind your shield right? I would imagine as well the pieces where they kind of broke formation and just ran out and... you know, we're all kind of individual, that wouldn't have been real, right? It would have been one big mass against one big mass. Exactly. The strength of the hoplite was the phalanx formation. They did not jump around like a bunch of, you know, kindergarteners who'd gotten into the sugar. Yeah, exactly. And we were talking earlier about, you know, you know, high intensity interval training. Yeah. How long could you... hop around with a heavy shield and the spear like that. You just couldn't do it. No, you have to stay protected, don't you? For two days? Yeah, that's not possible. So then the other thing I was going to ask you is, they had those moments where Xerxes came to sort of like, I guess it was like a truce or like a peace talks kind of thing. Did that really happen with Leonidas? Not that I'm aware of. They did send an ambassador. to try to talk the Greeks into leaving. And that's where the famous line comes from, you know, lay down your arms and they shouted back, come take them. That's right. That's a great line. That is. Yeah, and that happened. Yeah, I've heard that the Greek language, the connotation of them was kind of saying like, you know, come and pick them up out of our hands kind of thing. Such a good line. Is there anything else? like that really stuck out to you about that kind of movie or that battle? Well, it was, I mean, the battle would have been fought in phases, like I said. And at the end, when Leonidas discovered that they had been betrayed, he sent the rest of the forces back, but the thespians, about 700 thespians refused. That's good. Ride or die as the kids say. Exactly. You know, Sparta is our ally. We are not leaving you. Yeah. Well, good on them. Yeah. And it was pretty hairy. The ancient sources say that the Persians lost 20,000 while the Greeks lost four. Just while that last, just on that last day of fighting? Over the whole three days. Gotcha. Right. I suppose that's not massive numbers for that army, but that's a lot of soldiers, isn't it? Yeah. I mean, that would have been a lot more than Xerxes would have been expecting to lose. Of course. Yeah. And he very much was, you know, who are these men? How have they done this? This is impossible. Would he have had much knowledge of the Greeks before that, or was it a bit like, um, encountering, were they kind of encountering each other for the first time? No. They had fought a big battle at Marathon. Oh, yeah. But that time it was just Athens. Sparta was basically through a hissy fit and said, deal with it yourselves. And the Athenians did beat the Persians at that battle. And like I said earlier, there was a Spartan general in the Persian camp. Oh, of course. Yeah. He tried to tell Xerxes what the, you know, what the, what fighting the hoplites was going to be like. Of course. Yeah. He refused to believe it. Yeah. The absolutely refused. How did that guy end up joining the Persians? He was a disgraced Spartan general. Oh, okay. And it's like, well, I got to do something. Yeah. I'm a soldier. I got mouths to feed, right? I need to eat. Yeah, exactly. So he went east to Persia and volunteered his services to the king. Yeah, because even in Alexander's time, the Persians and the Greeks have kind of been always at war, haven't they? Yeah, and for Alexander the Great, defeating the Persians was proving that he was a better general than his father. because his father had been unable to defeat the Persians. Yeah. By the time that he was fighting the Persians, did they have a big figurehead of a king or a general? Which era are we talking about? Let's say when they first kind of took Babylon, because that was the actually this. Yeah, there would have been a. Yeah. But I mean, Cyrus the Great was the first really big one that we know about. Yeah. And. I think he's the only one non-Jew that's earned the title of Messiah because he released Jews from Babylon. Right. Wow. I definitely heard all that stuff, but I never realized it was all sort of connected to that kind of area. That's really interesting. So yeah, we've got about four minutes left. Anything else you'd like to cover in this last little bit? Yeah. Living under the Persians really wasn't that bad. I have heard that. As long as you paid your taxes, they left you alone. Yeah. And you know, the Spartans and the Greeks said they were fighting for liberty. And I guess they were as long as you weren't a slave. Yeah, that does seem kind of hypocritical, doesn't it, now that we think about it? Just a smidge. Yeah. As my Nana would have said. Exactly. But I suppose, yeah, that's a whole, almost more like a pride kind of thing, isn't it? I've sort of read that Romans and the Greeks historically were quite stubborn, like they really weren't going to be under anybody's thumb. And I heard a great quote about something to the, I don't know who said it, but it was a quote that, you know, your enemy's not defeated until he knows that he is. And they attributed that as to why the Romans lost so few times is because they just didn't accept it. Yeah, there's a famous story about a Roman diplomat who was sent with an ultimatum to a neighboring king and he delivered the terms of the ultimatum and the king said, let me think about it, the Roman ambassador drew a circle in the dust around the king and said, decide before you step over this line. Oh my god. He was there to pick a fight, you know. I'm kidding, right? Yeah, but that's about it, yeah. There's a really good book if anyone's interested in learning more, it's called Gates of Fire. It's a historical novel by Steven Pressfield. Awesome. It's very good, very accessible, very easy to read. I think I'll probably go and check that out myself. Well, this has been really fun, actually. I've quite enjoyed chatting with you about history. Well, thank you. I've enjoyed it too. Well, maybe we could do this again in a few weeks or something if you've got another historical thing you'd like to talk about. You told me you were going to tell me about South Dakota stopping. government from... Do you recall what you're talking about? Yeah, we can talk about this next time. You know how in 2020 on January 6th they tried to get the government to change the election results? I'm not super familiar with this, I'm afraid. This was quite a recent story then, was it? Yeah, that was Trump. They actually did that back in the 1870s. They were successful. They were successful. Oh my goodness. Yeah. Maybe we can talk about that next time. Yeah, that sounds great. I will thank you so much for joining me. I hope you have a great weekend. Um, thank you, Taylor. Thank you. Bye. And we are back. That was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed that conversation. If I remember correctly, it was a Friday evening, which, uh, you know, just a couple of party animals discussing history on a podcast on a Friday evening is, uh, Yeah, I saw that as a Friday evening well spent. It was a fun podcast because outside of comedy, Talia and I hadn't really interacted that much so it was good to see that we had quite a nice conversation and we got on really well. So thanks again to Talia for coming on the podcast. That was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it. And I'm sure we'll do something else history related in the future. A couple of extra things on the end is I actually read the comic of 300 quite recently, a couple of weeks ago now. And if you've never checked it out and you're into comic books or graphic novels, I highly recommend you go and check it out. It's really, really well done. The artwork is just like so unique and it's created this whole distinctive style that the movies were able to emulate pretty accurately. And after I'd read the comic, I actually went on to look up the making of 300 the movie and you could see how much passion was put into recreating the specific panels from the comic and making sure that all of the poses and the colors and the sky and everything was pretty much exactly how it would been in the comic. There is a few differences like most of you are familiar with the this is Sparta kick that wasn't nearly as dramatic in the comic book as well as a few bits and pieces. The comic is not actually that long as well I don't know why but I initially thought the comic book was this big, long, monthly running thing like Watchmen or something like that. If you've ever tried to read the comic Watchmen, it's long. But it's not. You can easily knock it out in like one session reading 300. I think I might have done two because I was reading it late at night and I got tired. But it's definitely worth checking out. I highly recommend it. This also segues quite nicely into my next thing, which is, I think as of this podcast dropping... I will be officially on tour with David Corrios. We are beginning our South Island tour. It's a new material comedy tour. You've probably heard me plugging it before on the podcast. And actually, I am going to be doing a joke that references 300. I won't give away too much about it because I probably will post it online eventually, but it is involving the scene where Leonidas meets the Akkadians and the Spartans give their delightful ha'u chant. So if you want to see what that joke is, come along to one of our shows. We've got about 21 or 22 shows throughout the South Island. And you can get tickets for those by visiting www.davidcoriost.com, and that will redirect you to Humanitix where you can pick up tickets. The shows are selling really well. I would say they'll probably sell out. It's always hard to judge because South Island people tend to not book tickets until like the afternoon of the show. We've had a couple of them sell out already. I think the first session in Christchurch at the Austin Club has sold out and I think possibly one of the nights at Inch Bar have sold out as well. So they are going, so definitely get in quick if you would like to secure yourself a spot at one of these shows. It's going to be an absolutely awesome tour. It's all new stuff, totally fresh material. I just cannot wait to get underway. So with that, I'm not quite sure what I'm going to be doing at the podcast. I might miss a week or two. of my Monday uploads depending on how tired I am from all the driving and stuff. So if you don't hear from me for a couple of weeks then I'm not dead. It's just, you know, I'm probably miles away somewhere doing stuff for this show. Although I believe we will have a release for the following week as I recently put a poster on my comedian Facebook page asking other comedians if they'd be interested in practical steps involved in leaving your day job and turning your side hustle or your passion into your full-time job. And Steven Lyons, a previous guest who those of you who have been listening from the start will recognize that name, he actually very graciously offered to interview me for that podcast. I was initially just going to do it as me talking to the microphone, but I'm absolutely delighted to bring Steven back in. So that will be our next week's release. And then it's... possible we might have a couple of weeks off. I'm not entirely sure yet. It depends on how like I said, yeah how tired I'm gonna be from all the tour stuff. I'm definitely gonna do a tour debrief podcast, talk about what I learnt and what the experience of doing so many shows basically back-to-back. What that was like. It's pretty much the closest thing I think I'm gonna get to experience to the Edinburgh. People always mock me for pronouncing that wrong. Edinburgh I think is the correct one. The Ed French, doing a lot of shows for that. I think the stuff that I'm writing now is gonna turn into my friend's show for the next year. Me and Craig Westenberg are hoping to do like a sort of double decade show, where I do my show first, he does his show second. Not quite sure what Craig's doing, I think he's gonna bring Craigslist, which is his, it's like an award winning show or something, an award nominated show, it's a very good show. So definitely. keep an eye out for that. Just as a little teaser for what I'm working on, I'll tell you some of the names I have in mind for my one. As of this stage, me having just written a lot of the stuff and not quite knowing what the show is going to end up as, the titles I have in mind are I'll Try My Best, another one could be Dumb Voice or I've Got Dumb Voice, and then a third option would be either something to do with Cowboys or Ram Rating, so I'm going to need to think of some puns for that. Ramp Raid Rattle is not a bad name for a show I guess. So those might give you a little hint as to what the kind of material I'm going to be working on this tour with David about as well as my friend's show for the next year. All right I think I've rambled enough. As usual, the usual plugs Taylor Rattle comedy on all the social medias. Talia didn't have anything she wants me to plug so I'm just yeah again thanks to Talia for joining me on the podcast. Quiz night at Black Pearl Tavern every Tuesday 6.30 and then every Wednesday at 7 o'clock at Moi and the CBD, both run by G Quiz. I think by the time this podcast goes live we will also be doing it on Tuesdays at Bridie's on the east side of town. That is, Henry Hickman is going to be looking after that one. And then of course every Thursday except for the last, Laugh Seller at Austin Club. Fantastic little show. One of my favourite things I've ever worked on. A big passion project for me. And then on the last Thursday of the month, a show that I'm actually getting ready to go to fairly soon as I record this, is the Spriggan Furn Merrivale, another fantastic show, great little room, lovely warm atmosphere, dog-friendly place, great food and beverages there, just 10 bucks to get into that show, pay on the night. So thank you once again for listening, I really appreciate it. The support for this podcast has been really ramping up, which just warms my cold, dead heart. Yeah, I just don't have words. Everyone that listens every week, I appreciate you. I hope you keep listening and I hope I can keep delivering you a podcast that is worthy of your time. You can help me out by giving me a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Leave a fair number of what you think the podcast deserves and that will help me climb up in the ranks. I'm actually just now realizing I don't have a song of the week queued up. So apologies, we're going to take the song of the week off until I get back from the tour as I have got a lot of coming through my inbox to find some delightful cry stretch tracks for you to listen to. So with that, thank you very much for listening. Catch you next week. Ruddler out.