Hi everyone, I'm Katie Kuric and welcome to next question today, the comedian who is gleefully shattering Instagram's illusion of the perfect self and the perfect life. So much of what we say is BS like, there's something in that, there's a real funny idea behind the fact that this is all b S. I talked with thee Less Barber, an Australian actress and comedian who has become famous for her Instagram feed, a stream of not particularly flattering photos and videos of herself. That feed, which is seen by six point eight million people, got her a TV special, a world tour, a book deal, and yes, a podcast, but Instagram is still her go to destination for comedy. Because I am Australian, I leave in Australia. I don't have to be on the road all the time. I feel as though I can put out a sketch or a post and it's seen as a show, a stand up show. So my next question for Celeste and this highly curated hashtag no filter world, what does it take to be real when we're all just faking it? A social media only has the power you give it. You can turn it off, you can physically and literally turn it off and walk away from it, or you can use it. Use it if you want to use it to talk to someone. If you don't want to see something, you can turn it off or use it as powerfully as you want to. Celeste Barbara realized a long time ago that our culture feeds on a certain level of artifice. I remember before social media, when we'd get you know, magazines. I'm a big fan of magazines always. I love fashion InStyle was always my bible. And you know, you'd see a photo of a model in their cape Moss for example, or whatever, Cindy Crawford a gorgeous model in there. But you well, for me, I knew that that was for them to do. That was that was Cindy Crawford on a motorbike on a rooftop in a bikini on a Wednesday, because that's all that that's Cindy Crawford's thing to do. And we kind of knew that there was photoshop and that it was just very heightened reality. It was. It was art, if you will, and I've always respected kind of that art form. But then when social media came around and it was being sold that similar image, for example, was being sold as an attainable life or as something that just actually does happen on a Wednesday for everyone, right, and something that was truly authentic, yeah, and living my best life or living my best self. And I was like, oh, this isn't real. But the thing, the scary thing is it was getting to a point where like, oh, people don't know that though, people are thinking that this is real. And it was like a bit of a snake in the grass for me because it kind of steeps in when you're at your at your weakest. I guess you know, you have three in the morning and your breastfeeding and you haven't slept for what feels like fifteen years, and you're flicking through your phone and you see these images and you're like, oh, that hurts. In two thousand fifteen, Celesque posted a photo on her Instagram. On one side was a picture of a model in a ballet studio wearing sleek athletic wear, her hair elegantly pulled back, doing an incredibly flexible yoga pose. On the other side a picture of Celeste on the floor of her home. You can even see a baby in the background. She's wearing gray sweats and is also trying to do the same yoga pose but getting nowhere close. She tagged the photo hashtag challenge accepted, and then I posted it with the caption underneath it, I'm starting something because I just I just knew, I knew it was funny, and it hadn't been tapped into I might take the pisce out of people all the time. It was a visual joke Celeste had with her sister and on Instagram. It was an immediate hit. Celest did another, and then another, and by now she's created hundreds of these photos and video parodies. The best way I describe it is I take inappropriate, half naked, unflattering photos of myself and put them next to models and celebrities. But first comes the models. I see a photo that they have posted, and then I do my version of it. But it's a parody, so something's added to it. It's not I'm not mimicking them, I'm I'm adding to it. I'm doing a satire. Give me some example, Celest, of some of the funny posts you've done. Well. The first one that comes to mind, which I think is probably the easiest to describe, is Cindy Crawford doing her Pepsi commercial where she's so beautifully opens a can of pepsi. Oh, she's so beautiful and has a drink of it, and I think it was a Super Bowl ad. Yeah, but then she's done a reboot right exactly for I think Vogue seventy three questions she did it. Can you show me how Cindy Crawford drinks pepsi? Well, I'll sure try. So what I did was I had like a massive bottle of pepsi and I opened it and so the pepsi then spread all over me because that's what happens. And usually do this in a split screen. Yeah, I use it in a split screen or with a fear with a video. I go forward and back um, and then yes, so the pepsi goes all over me. Then I try and sip up and I'm burping because it's fizzy and it's all through. But then at the end I just try and be really sexy and like Cyndy and yet that I actually interviewed Cindy on my podcast and she was such a good sport. She loved it. Yeah, she loved it, And I was like, can you let PEPSI know? And we can do something together. I'm still waiting for that call. And then you take sort of fashion spreads and it might be somebody in this ridiculous situation posing in a beating suit, like on a some kind of contraption on the be each, and then you do it on a little rickety wagon. Bring I bring on my wagon like that was one of um IRENA's shake. I think the beautiful model where she's just she's got a gorgeous chair down by the beach and she's in like these amazing like little swimmers and she's just putting the chair out and sitting down and flicking her hair around and being gorgeous. And then cut to me and I'm trying to put up a beach umbrella and it's trapping me underneath it and I'm kicking it, and there's a wagon that's in the sands in my face, and then at the end, I just got to stand next to it, defeated. It's funny, but it's also I think, you know, you're you're tapping into how many women feel when they do look at these images that are unattainable and unrealistic. And it's been shown that social media really does contribute to anxiety and depression, not only for adults, but particularly for for kids. And um, is that something that that you yourself, we're thinking about and worried about in the back of your head as you kind of poked a hole in all this manufacturing of an image. Well, that was a very long winded question. It was good though. I like to thank you arms and everything it was. It was lovely. Um, I to be completely honest with you, I did this because I thought it was funny. My I primarily just want to make people laugh, always have and the fact that I am cutting through all and I've always just cut through crap. People are never unsure of where they stand with me because I don't fluff around and go people. I'm always very honest and I've just kind of always been like that. So to tie that in with wanting to make people laugh, I think that's why it hit a nerve, because it was kind of truth talking and calling it out and really funny. I think that's how it kind of cut through. It also seemed to dovetail Celeste with the body positivity movement. You know that that women can be beautiful and be great and all sheeps and sizes, so you almost actually cut that trend as well. Yeah, and that that was unintentional as well. I never started this to be a body positive thing. I'm very happy to be caught up in that movement or whatever, like, very very happy to be but it was never an intention of mine. Because when we talk about beauty, it seems so much of how we see beauty is literally how we see it and what it looks like. How I look makes up a very very small percentage of who I am. I believe that for a lot of us, and I so like, you know, some of the things I post I won't look at again because I'm like, oh, that's that's a lot. But most of the time I see it for the funny joke that it is. I feel like people are laughing with me. There are people who are laughing at me and hate it and then again go nuts, whatever blows your hair back. But for me it was just not even a celebration of how I looked, But it's a celebration of something else, your spirit, other, my sense of humor, my understanding of what's funny, my understanding of knowing that that is unattainable lifestyle that we need to stop trying to strive for and how funny is it if I try and do it? That's that's the main main point to it. I mean I do get if I lose weight or whatever, I do get comments going You're looking too good now for this to work, And I'm like, no, no, comedy, beauty, not oil and water, smush that all in together and it makes up who we are and saying with you know, smart and beautiful. Where it just just showing the other the other side of social media as well, trying to use it for good and so you said that you are using it in a positive way. But also two I think get more opportunities. Have other people reached out to you, celest and said, we think you're really funny. We'd like to talk to you about a absolutely yeah. Well tom Ford is a fine example. Yes, exactly when we made out and now we're a boyfriend and girlfriend forever and always tell the story of tom Ford and what happened. Well, he emailed, well, his people emailed me three years ago maybe and it was the subject line was tom Ford for tom Ford and Seleste or something like that, and in the email it said tom Ford adores you. He thinks that you are amazing and would love to collaborate one day best And you know the sound and email makes when it comes into your inboxes. That sound had barely finished by the time I wrote, yes, what does you need? When does he want it? On my way? Like I just and see seed, my publicist, my publicist, publicist, my mom, my dad, my nana, everyone that bullied me at school, Like I just see seed. Everyone in on it and sent it back and went, yes, what do you need? And we collaborate before a show where it was a campaign that he has for Boys and Girls Lipstick where two incredibly offensively attractive models are sitting at an airport and then they just make out and there's lipstick all over them. And tom Ford said to me, I thought we could do one of it where you and I make out. And I was like, yeah, that works for me. That's fine, that's that's that's fine for me. So we did it with them. I just did a parody of being a model and walking down to tom Ford catwalk, So we need to just walk here do it again so I can tell you what you need to change. It's just liquid sunshine. That man, he really is. He had all the models come down and me come down as well, and they got in my way and I was like, get them out of the way, and you know, and then when we were doing a fitting three sucking, I'm cramping. It's on, it's on. Just we had some tape. Do we have some duct take? We cut it together in a way that hey, win, okay, thank you so last and he walked out and I then just started to try and steal things. It's almost like a tom Forde smaller sport. I think you're going to take your things, and then we cut it that. He came back in and he was like, Selest, as someone trying to steal things. And I've got like eighteen pairs of sunglasses on and handbags with like one shoe in it. Well, it's so exciting to have all of this happened to you. And when we come back, I want to find out about your childhood how you got into this crazy line of work, but we'll talk about that right after this. You grew up in New South Wales far North coast. Good, Yes, we did our research, Selest, So what was your childhood like? Was that a very sort of quaint, remote, rugged, beautiful place to grow up? What was it like all of those things, but not rugged. No. I grew up. I grew up right on the border of New South Wales and Queensland, so right on the beach Rainbow Bay, Kira or um Dieba, Like that's where all some of the best surfers in the world come from. Joel Parkinson, Mick Fanning, Stephanie Gilmour, Michael Klupo, Rabbit buff follow me. They're all world champion surfers and they've come from there. Um And I never surfed in my life. I was a dancer when I was little, so um. But it was just a really beautiful area. I grew up in it, specifically in a place called Terranora, beautiful house that my dad built and my mom designed. So. I have an older sister, Olivia, who was three and a half years older than me. That people always ask who's older, and I'm like, she is older, she's three and out she loves it. Um. Yeah, And I danced a lot as a kid and just was always quite atmatic. And it sounds like your parents. I read a sweet story about how they didn't want to medicate you even though because I've got a d and that they and Eldan you a certain confidence and loving who you are for who you are, and not wanting to alter kind of your your thing, your chemistry, your persona, your spirit. Yeah. And um, I also don't really think they had much of a choice because I was I'm a lot and I like being a lot. Is your sister a lot? Yeah? Both of you. Yeah, we are a lot, But so is my mom, and then when she's not, so is my dad. So we're all it's a lot, big personality. Yeah, I mean my dad's a lot more kind of quiet and subtle with his humor. And my mom is so funny when she knows she has an audience and she knows people are listening. She's a bit sassy like that. But um, yeah, I remember hearing them talk to the doctor. So I was diagnosed with a d D. And they were talking to the doctor about me being medicated. And I was sixteen when I was diagnosed. That's quite late to be medicated for a d D. It usually happens young. Go well, I think, so, you know, younger in your life, earlier in your life. I'm quite grateful that it didn't for me because I struggled a bit. I struggled. I was bullied a little bit at school, and I, like I say, I was a lot. I couldn't sit still for five minutes. And it got to a point where teachers when I'd go to walk into class and go, let's just not worry about it today, and I go sure, and I'd just sit outside. Really yeah, because it was I was distracting and disruptive. Yeah, absolutely, So I heard my parents saying, well, you know, when we did the test and I was very much had um and I had to sit in the waiting room. I heard my mom saying, we just don't want her to change. We don't want drugs to change her. We just wanted to be a bit easier for her at school. And the doctor's like, you know, this won't change her in any way. And I remember my mom saying, we know she's full on, but we like that about her. I'm getting emotional thinking about it, and I'll never forget that as a sixteen year old girl hearing at it was so lovely. And then, honestly, I took the first tablet of Writtlan different like a sorry, same person, just I could. I sat and read a paragraph in this book about a d D and mom and dad just watched me and they cried because I've never sat and read anything in my life. When this was around the same time that your your mom said, we like the way she is, but yeah, they put you on medication anywhere. Well, yes, but they put me on medication. And sorry, they put me on medication because the doctor said it all it will It's not going to change her. It's just going to make her focus, and it's going to make up that chemical in her brain that she doesn't have that will help her to sit and listen in class and know how to read a story or write a story. It's just going to help her. And exactly what happened, I didn't change at all. I could just focus, and that's when I started writing jokes, and that's when I could kind of sit and really get into what it is I wanted to do. So tell me what it is you wanted to do and how you did it. Um. I went to drama school, so I've always written jokes and just always been funny and loud, and I always thought it's not really because I think comedy comes quite easily to me. I find it quite easy. So for some silly reason, I think, well, that's not acting. It needs to be hard and torturous and really you know the challenge every night or every day on set. So I went to drama school for three years, graduated and started doing it like a few little comedy shows, not stand up but acting, because I'm a trained actor first and foremost an actor. And then um, I got a role on a television show in Australia called All Saints, which was kind of like The Gray's Anatomy without the doctor, without the McDreamy. Um unfortunately. Yeah. And then I was on that for five years and kind of played a bit of a lighter character to everyone else, but it was a drama. It was a d on the show absolutely. And then it was my beautiful friend Mark Priestley, who has since passed away. He's so sad. I read about that. He was a very very close friend of your tattoo to his took his own life. Yeah, he killed himself. Yeah, it was that was a lot to deal with that. He was he an actor, yes, one, I thought, I tell his name. I'm sure he was quite well known in Australia. He was. Yeah, this is before all Ozzie started coming over and taking over Hollywood. Um, he was incredible, and he was the one. He used to just come around to my house. I'd like three am with a video camera and go, let's just shoot stuff. And I'm like, yes, let's do that. And we just ship stupid sketches and we think they were the funniest things in the world. And I always thought he was so funny and so wonderful, and then and so did everyone. He was very well known in the industry and loved and sought after. And then the fact that he said to me, I'll never forget this conversation. We're sitting on set in between takes of you know, someone's dying on their hospital bed and this show really dramatic, but in between you know, lighting setups or something, Mark, and I was saying there just like writing, like a little sketch, and he went, maybe you should say and then you just stopped, looked at me, went no, you know what you're doing and I was like, no, no write. He goes, no, you know what you're doing, and then he went, you know that, right, You're you're amazing at comedy. No one can do what you do. And He's like, because I was always like, ohm, whatever, it's just boring, and he goes, no, that's boring. You not understanding what you can do is boring now, so just get on with it, and that chang bang that day on at least lent into it, lent into my strengths, lent into what I loved and kind of knew I was good at. So where did your career take you after that? Unemployment? For a little while, I was then a writer on a show, a really bad show that we don't need to talk about, and then um, I had babies, and then it was when I had my second son, first time, first son. But my friend called me and said she's doing some stand up and I was like, good on you, because I'd always been told I should do stand up. And I was like, yes, you are, tell me where you're doing it. I'll send flowers. I'm so excited. And I was like, I know what's happening, I know what's coming. And she said, I want you to open for me, and I was she got me at a good time because I was sleep deprived. I had a newborn, and I went. She goes, it's like five minutes, it's in a small space. It's in the Sydney Fringe Festival five minutes and I went okay, no, yeah, no, I wan't shut yeah, yes, hang up, and she just hung up because the last thing I said was yes. And so then I went dad, And so I had five minutes and I got up and I did it. And it was one of you know, I hear those stories like Shirley Temple or whatever. You're terrified, but then you open the curtain and you see the microphone and the spotlight and you think, I'm never leaving. I will die up here. This is amazing. And I was supposed to be five minutes. And after fifteen minutes she was kind of side stage going get off. And then that was it. That was me done, and and and obviously you wouldn't feel this way if the reception wasn't incredible to your humor, and you did you and then did you sort of transition to stand up? Well? No. Then Instagram started coming more and more, like I did more, and I was posting twice a day every day on Instagram because I knew it was good. I knew I wanted it out there. I wanted people. I sent to some of my friends who had like ten thousand followers, who were well known actors. I was like, can you repost this for me? I really want to. I think it's something good and it's fine. All my friends thought it was hilarious, and so I had, you know, excellent friends going shock, this is my friend Celeste and posting out for me. And then I kind of got to a point where I was like, I'm very I'm very proactive, always have been. I'm a hustler. I mean, I'm a hustler. And I remember sitting at my computer and just went, well, there's nothing really coming in, and I'm there's a lot I'm putting out and I'm getting a lot of people wanted to interview me about it, and it was really great instant gratification, and I was like cracking. I mean, I may have been at a million followers by now. It grew really quickly, and I went, I want to I want to prove myself. I'm I know what I'm doing. And I just in that moment, went to and just booked a theater in Sydney in Australia. I was living just out of Sydney at that time. I had just had my second baby, and I was like, I want to book a theater. So I booked two nights at this theater called the Giant Dwarf in Red Phone in Sydney, and then went shit, oh god, Now it was three months from that date when I've got nothing on, I want to do a show, and I didn't assault it out and it killed and I toured it and now I'm making out tom Ford when we come back. How Celesque gave back to her native land in its time of need. Now to Australia, where they're facing those massive fires already among the worst in that country's history. Haunting images flames, plumes of smoke, and firefighters desperately battling walls of fire. Another costly and deadly day in this month longer testrophe, the terrifying scale of Australia's Bush five as Austro is beginning to image. Bush Fires are not new to Australia, but this fire season has proved to be one of the country's worst ever. By some estimates, as many as twenty eight people have died, more than twelve million acres that burned to the ground, and thousands of homes have been destroyed. And then, of course there were all the animals. Because the devastation was so personal for Celest, she did the only thing she could think of. She turned to her Instagram following, you raised, I believe and correct me if I'm wrong, Celest, thirty million dollars maybe more. Well, I raised fifty one and a half million dollars Australian, so that might be like forty eight American dollars. I don't know, because well it's it's an amazing amount of money because of the wildfires in Australia and this this affected you very personally, not only because you're from Australia, but you had friends and family members and you watched their homes go up and small. Right, Well, so my mother in law. It is in Eden, which is the complete other end of the state from where we live. It's the far South coast of New South Wales and we're on the far North coast, and so it's where RP my husband is France his home and we were there for Christmas and I remember going up up the street or something and going, God, this some smile and everyone we knew there were fires kind of around and then it was terrible and terrible like in Canberra, our capital in South Australia and over on Kangaroo Island, like it wasn't good. But I was like, oh, what is bad? And then kind of going the smoke's really full on here. And then we left. After Christmas, I went home and it swung. It came really really badly, and my husband's cousin lost her home. We've lost a billion wildlife. So I saw my mother in law, who was a very very strong woman, like I had sixteen years with this excellent woman and she is a strong lady, and she was not okay and she was panicking, and that really it really struck me. And the thing is she's so she's so well informed and so hands on joy that she was like, no one's here. There isn't a helicopter in the sky, there isn't any a d F on the on the ground, which is not the fault of the a d F. It's a it's a government thing. There's no one here, and and I that's when I went, oh my gosh. And that's when I started the fundraiser and I just said, please help anyway you can. This is terrifying, and started a goal of thirty dollars. Because I also saw people internationally going how can we help because I've got a big following, especially internationally, people I don't people wanted to they didn't know what to do exactly. And I mean there's obviously other ways they are the places they could have donated to it, but the way I ended up doing it was just really straightforward. It was just a kind of so I click, donate, done, and I think that's kind of what people needed as well. Um. And then yet we also my husband and I kept everyone very updated on my Instagram stories, which we're getting millions of views my stories because people like this is how we're staying updated, which is a really daunting thing because you're like, god, I need to make sure I know what I'm talking about. And it's a big responsibility, absolutely, but it does show how media consumption has changed absolute ramatically. It's instantaneous. It's it's um, you know what do they call it, uh, citizen created? You know it's not you're not a journalist, no, And it's power to the people. I keep saying that I keep with the amount of money raised, and also I would post about it. I had so many people going, oh, this is also happening. I'm like Okay, cool, that's good to know. When I'll make sure that people know about that, or you'll add that to your story exactly, and then you could give a very much a three sixty view of the country. And I was also acutely aware of letting people know that I am not the face of this, I'm not the savior of this. I'm I'm you. I'm that person over there. I'm scared, and this is my kind of experience of the whole thing. And then we end up getting to, oh my god, fifty one and a half million dollars. That's amazing. And then it turns out I've saved the world. No, that's not true. Well, but I mean, I'm sure you you helped a great deal. Well, it was extraordinary as in Australia, our firefighters, majority of our firefighters a volunteer, and there were stories coming through of I'm talking eighty foot flames in the sky coming that will go through over a few kilometers in fifteen minutes and you can't. You can't put that out of human being. Can't put that out that has to burn, You can't. But they're standing there in shoes that I've got on, just sneakers, and like some of them putting just putting their hand over their mouth because they don't have the equipment. So that's why I that's why I chose the New South Wales RFS to it was the trust of RFS, the yeah, New South Wales Rural Fire Service, um, so the volunteers can. Then all the money then goes to the brigade, so then they go out and get the equipment that they need. Hopefully finally the fires got under control and are now out. Celest they're out because now we're underwater. Well tell everyone listening what has replaced the problem, because now it's flooding. Obviously we're flooded in I showed you a photo before we started middle of Sydney. The sea he and water is up to the windows of the cars were flooded. The fires are all out, but now we're flash flooding. It's it's the deforestation and nothing there to kind of I think. So I haven't I've been here since. I mean, it was torrential rain when I left to fly here to the States, so I haven't been home to see exactly what it is. But it looks as though, yeah, that's that's what it is. It's it's terrifying. It's terrifying, and I'm all, I now goes all right, I'll start another fundraiser. I'll raise another fifty one million dollars, and said, I don't know what to do. I really don't. It's quite scary. Do you feel like the world is a scary place right now? I mean, obviously it's it's great to have moments of levity and relief through people like you and your humor, but so many friends of mine feel that we're in such dire streets in so many different ways. I agree. I think it's a very scary time. I do. However, I feel that there is a bit of a ground swell going on at home in Australia, and I'm here a lot, and I've been here a lot in the past few years when you now have a different president and everything. And when I first came over when he was first in office, I was like, oh, this is terrifying, this is a this is a real you just feel it was very hostile. But since coming back more and going home, you know, back and forth and over to the UK as well, I feel like there's a real ground swell happening. And I think the Internet has a lot to do with that because we can all you and I can sit here and talk now, and we can all reach out to each other more. But I'm just having this thing where I'm like, like I said before, power to the people, and I feel like that's really starting to bubble, which it needs to bubble quicker. So before we go, what is your dream man? Where do you want to go from here? Celeste Barber? My goal in life is to play the King in Hamilton's. I would love to play. I can't think um and I'm not a man, but I want to. I want to try and find a way to make that a character choice for that character to play the King, and I think it's the most incredible role ever. And everything I do I do from the ground up, and that's really exciting and and amazing and exhausting. So I'm really like the idea of just being given a script and a call sheet now and just turning up to a film that would be lovely. And because you have a busy life and two little boys that are still seven and eight and nearly six, eight and six, so you've got a you've got a busy life. With your hashtag hard husband. It's so hot he is isn't heat? It makes me people come and say to you, like, good on your for a snag, and yeah, well done, congratulations because he's hot. Yeah. But it's also interesting when my husband drops our sons at school, when someone in grade three walks paston guys, hi hot husband. My husband's like, no, no, that's weird. That's it's appy or it's Mr Robin. Please don't say that. That's very weird for me, like you know, a ten year old saying it. Yeah, so funny. Well, I'm really happy to meet you. Thank you so much for doing this. Thank you so much for having me. This trait for me, an absolute trait. Well, thank you, thank you. And that does it for this week's episode of Next Question Everyone. I have to say I it's so much fun talking with Celeste Barber. She's so delightful and if you like a laugh, she's a must follow on Instagram, especially during these troubling times. Oh and so Less also interviewed me for her podcast called Celeste and Her Best I love her friend Tom by the way, who does this podcast with her. You can find that on the Luminary podcast app. I'm not sure when that's coming out, but keep a listen out for it, and while you're at it, keep an eye on Next Question. We've got a lot of good stuff coming, so make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, the I Heart Radio app, or really wherever you listen. And if you'd like some help keeping up with all the news, check out my morning newsletter. It's called Wake Up Call. Just go to Katie Currek dot com to subscribe. And of course you can find me on Instagram, just like Celeste and all the other social media channels. Although I'm not nearly funny, she is. Until next time and my Next question, I'm Katie Curic. Thanks for listening. Next Question with Katie Couric is a production of I Heart Radio and Katie Currik Media. The executive producers are Katie Currik, Courtney Litz, and Tyler Klang. The supervising producer is Lauren Hansen. Our show producer is Bethan Macaluso. The associate producers are Emily Pinto and Derek Clemens. Editing by Derrek Clements, Dylan Fagin and Lowell Berlante, Mixing by Dylan Fagan. Our researcher is Gabriel Lo Sir For more information on today's episode, go to Katie Couric dot com and follow us on Twitter and Instagram at Katie Couric. For more podcasts for My Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

Hi everyone, I'm Katie Kuric and welcome to next question today, the comedian who is gleefully shattering Instagram's illusion of the perfect self and the perfect life. So much of what we say is BS like, there's something in that, there's a real funny idea behind the fact that this is all b S. I talked with thee Less Barber, an Australian actress and comedian who has become famous for her Instagram feed, a stream of not particularly flattering photos and videos of herself. That feed, which is seen by six point eight million people, got her a TV special, a world tour, a book deal, and yes, a podcast, but Instagram is still her go to destination for comedy. Because I am Australian, I leave in Australia. I don't have to be on the road all the time. I feel as though I can put out a sketch or a post and it's seen as a show, a stand up show. So my next question for Celeste and this highly curated hashtag no filter world, what does it take to be real when we're all just faking it? A social media only has the power you give it. You can turn it off, you can physically and literally turn it off and walk away from it, or you can use it. Use it if you want to use it to talk to someone. If you don't want to see something, you can turn it off or use it as powerfully as you want to. Celeste Barbara realized a long time ago that our culture feeds on a certain level of artifice. I remember before social media, when we'd get you know, magazines. I'm a big fan of magazines always. I love fashion InStyle was always my bible. And you know, you'd see a photo of a model in their cape Moss for example, or whatever, Cindy Crawford a gorgeous model in there. But you well, for me, I knew that that was for them to do. That was that was Cindy Crawford on a motorbike on a rooftop in a bikini on a Wednesday, because that's all that that's Cindy Crawford's thing to do. And we kind of knew that there was photoshop and that it was just very heightened reality. It was. It was art, if you will, and I've always respected kind of that art form. But then when social media came around and it was being sold that similar image, for example, was being sold as an attainable life or as something that just actually does happen on a Wednesday for everyone, right, and something that was truly authentic, yeah, and living my best life or living my best self. And I was like, oh, this isn't real. But the thing, the scary thing is it was getting to a point where like, oh, people don't know that though, people are thinking that this is real. And it was like a bit of a snake in the grass for me because it kind of steeps in when you're at your at your weakest. I guess you know, you have three in the morning and your breastfeeding and you haven't slept for what feels like fifteen years, and you're flicking through your phone and you see these images and you're like, oh, that hurts. In two thousand fifteen, Celesque posted a photo on her Instagram. On one side was a picture of a model in a ballet studio wearing sleek athletic wear, her hair elegantly pulled back, doing an incredibly flexible yoga pose. On the other side a picture of Celeste on the floor of her home. You can even see a baby in the background. She's wearing gray sweats and is also trying to do the same yoga pose but getting nowhere close. She tagged the photo hashtag challenge accepted, and then I posted it with the caption underneath it, I'm starting something because I just I just knew, I knew it was funny, and it hadn't been tapped into I might take the pisce out of people all the time. It was a visual joke Celeste had with her sister and on Instagram. It was an immediate hit. Celest did another, and then another, and by now she's created hundreds of these photos and video parodies. The best way I describe it is I take inappropriate, half naked, unflattering photos of myself and put them next to models and celebrities. But first comes the models. I see a photo that they have posted, and then I do my version of it. But it's a parody, so something's added to it. It's not I'm not mimicking them, I'm I'm adding to it. I'm doing a satire. Give me some example, Celest, of some of the funny posts you've done. Well. The first one that comes to mind, which I think is probably the easiest to describe, is Cindy Crawford doing her Pepsi commercial where she's so beautifully opens a can of pepsi. Oh, she's so beautiful and has a drink of it, and I think it was a Super Bowl ad. Yeah, but then she's done a reboot right exactly for I think Vogue seventy three questions she did it. Can you show me how Cindy Crawford drinks pepsi? Well, I'll sure try. So what I did was I had like a massive bottle of pepsi and I opened it and so the pepsi then spread all over me because that's what happens. And usually do this in a split screen. Yeah, I use it in a split screen or with a fear with a video. I go forward and back um, and then yes, so the pepsi goes all over me. Then I try and sip up and I'm burping because it's fizzy and it's all through. But then at the end I just try and be really sexy and like Cyndy and yet that I actually interviewed Cindy on my podcast and she was such a good sport. She loved it. Yeah, she loved it, And I was like, can you let PEPSI know? And we can do something together. I'm still waiting for that call. And then you take sort of fashion spreads and it might be somebody in this ridiculous situation posing in a beating suit, like on a some kind of contraption on the be each, and then you do it on a little rickety wagon. Bring I bring on my wagon like that was one of um IRENA's shake. I think the beautiful model where she's just she's got a gorgeous chair down by the beach and she's in like these amazing like little swimmers and she's just putting the chair out and sitting down and flicking her hair around and being gorgeous. And then cut to me and I'm trying to put up a beach umbrella and it's trapping me underneath it and I'm kicking it, and there's a wagon that's in the sands in my face, and then at the end, I just got to stand next to it, defeated. It's funny, but it's also I think, you know, you're you're tapping into how many women feel when they do look at these images that are unattainable and unrealistic. And it's been shown that social media really does contribute to anxiety and depression, not only for adults, but particularly for for kids. And um, is that something that that you yourself, we're thinking about and worried about in the back of your head as you kind of poked a hole in all this manufacturing of an image. Well, that was a very long winded question. It was good though. I like to thank you arms and everything it was. It was lovely. Um, I to be completely honest with you, I did this because I thought it was funny. My I primarily just want to make people laugh, always have and the fact that I am cutting through all and I've always just cut through crap. People are never unsure of where they stand with me because I don't fluff around and go people. I'm always very honest and I've just kind of always been like that. So to tie that in with wanting to make people laugh, I think that's why it hit a nerve, because it was kind of truth talking and calling it out and really funny. I think that's how it kind of cut through. It also seemed to dovetail Celeste with the body positivity movement. You know that that women can be beautiful and be great and all sheeps and sizes, so you almost actually cut that trend as well. Yeah, and that that was unintentional as well. I never started this to be a body positive thing. I'm very happy to be caught up in that movement or whatever, like, very very happy to be but it was never an intention of mine. Because when we talk about beauty, it seems so much of how we see beauty is literally how we see it and what it looks like. How I look makes up a very very small percentage of who I am. I believe that for a lot of us, and I so like, you know, some of the things I post I won't look at again because I'm like, oh, that's that's a lot. But most of the time I see it for the funny joke that it is. I feel like people are laughing with me. There are people who are laughing at me and hate it and then again go nuts, whatever blows your hair back. But for me it was just not even a celebration of how I looked, But it's a celebration of something else, your spirit, other, my sense of humor, my understanding of what's funny, my understanding of knowing that that is unattainable lifestyle that we need to stop trying to strive for and how funny is it if I try and do it? That's that's the main main point to it. I mean I do get if I lose weight or whatever, I do get comments going You're looking too good now for this to work, And I'm like, no, no, comedy, beauty, not oil and water, smush that all in together and it makes up who we are and saying with you know, smart and beautiful. Where it just just showing the other the other side of social media as well, trying to use it for good and so you said that you are using it in a positive way. But also two I think get more opportunities. Have other people reached out to you, celest and said, we think you're really funny. We'd like to talk to you about a absolutely yeah. Well tom Ford is a fine example. Yes, exactly when we made out and now we're a boyfriend and girlfriend forever and always tell the story of tom Ford and what happened. Well, he emailed, well, his people emailed me three years ago maybe and it was the subject line was tom Ford for tom Ford and Seleste or something like that, and in the email it said tom Ford adores you. He thinks that you are amazing and would love to collaborate one day best And you know the sound and email makes when it comes into your inboxes. That sound had barely finished by the time I wrote, yes, what does you need? When does he want it? On my way? Like I just and see seed, my publicist, my publicist, publicist, my mom, my dad, my nana, everyone that bullied me at school, Like I just see seed. Everyone in on it and sent it back and went, yes, what do you need? And we collaborate before a show where it was a campaign that he has for Boys and Girls Lipstick where two incredibly offensively attractive models are sitting at an airport and then they just make out and there's lipstick all over them. And tom Ford said to me, I thought we could do one of it where you and I make out. And I was like, yeah, that works for me. That's fine, that's that's that's fine for me. So we did it with them. I just did a parody of being a model and walking down to tom Ford catwalk, So we need to just walk here do it again so I can tell you what you need to change. It's just liquid sunshine. That man, he really is. He had all the models come down and me come down as well, and they got in my way and I was like, get them out of the way, and you know, and then when we were doing a fitting three sucking, I'm cramping. It's on, it's on. Just we had some tape. Do we have some duct take? We cut it together in a way that hey, win, okay, thank you so last and he walked out and I then just started to try and steal things. It's almost like a tom Forde smaller sport. I think you're going to take your things, and then we cut it that. He came back in and he was like, Selest, as someone trying to steal things. And I've got like eighteen pairs of sunglasses on and handbags with like one shoe in it. Well, it's so exciting to have all of this happened to you. And when we come back, I want to find out about your childhood how you got into this crazy line of work, but we'll talk about that right after this. You grew up in New South Wales far North coast. Good, Yes, we did our research, Selest, So what was your childhood like? Was that a very sort of quaint, remote, rugged, beautiful place to grow up? What was it like all of those things, but not rugged. No. I grew up. I grew up right on the border of New South Wales and Queensland, so right on the beach Rainbow Bay, Kira or um Dieba, Like that's where all some of the best surfers in the world come from. Joel Parkinson, Mick Fanning, Stephanie Gilmour, Michael Klupo, Rabbit buff follow me. They're all world champion surfers and they've come from there. Um And I never surfed in my life. I was a dancer when I was little, so um. But it was just a really beautiful area. I grew up in it, specifically in a place called Terranora, beautiful house that my dad built and my mom designed. So. I have an older sister, Olivia, who was three and a half years older than me. That people always ask who's older, and I'm like, she is older, she's three and out she loves it. Um. Yeah, And I danced a lot as a kid and just was always quite atmatic. And it sounds like your parents. I read a sweet story about how they didn't want to medicate you even though because I've got a d and that they and Eldan you a certain confidence and loving who you are for who you are, and not wanting to alter kind of your your thing, your chemistry, your persona, your spirit. Yeah. And um, I also don't really think they had much of a choice because I was I'm a lot and I like being a lot. Is your sister a lot? Yeah? Both of you. Yeah, we are a lot, But so is my mom, and then when she's not, so is my dad. So we're all it's a lot, big personality. Yeah, I mean my dad's a lot more kind of quiet and subtle with his humor. And my mom is so funny when she knows she has an audience and she knows people are listening. She's a bit sassy like that. But um, yeah, I remember hearing them talk to the doctor. So I was diagnosed with a d D. And they were talking to the doctor about me being medicated. And I was sixteen when I was diagnosed. That's quite late to be medicated for a d D. It usually happens young. Go well, I think, so, you know, younger in your life, earlier in your life. I'm quite grateful that it didn't for me because I struggled a bit. I struggled. I was bullied a little bit at school, and I, like I say, I was a lot. I couldn't sit still for five minutes. And it got to a point where teachers when I'd go to walk into class and go, let's just not worry about it today, and I go sure, and I'd just sit outside. Really yeah, because it was I was distracting and disruptive. Yeah, absolutely, So I heard my parents saying, well, you know, when we did the test and I was very much had um and I had to sit in the waiting room. I heard my mom saying, we just don't want her to change. We don't want drugs to change her. We just wanted to be a bit easier for her at school. And the doctor's like, you know, this won't change her in any way. And I remember my mom saying, we know she's full on, but we like that about her. I'm getting emotional thinking about it, and I'll never forget that as a sixteen year old girl hearing at it was so lovely. And then, honestly, I took the first tablet of Writtlan different like a sorry, same person, just I could. I sat and read a paragraph in this book about a d D and mom and dad just watched me and they cried because I've never sat and read anything in my life. When this was around the same time that your your mom said, we like the way she is, but yeah, they put you on medication anywhere. Well, yes, but they put me on medication. And sorry, they put me on medication because the doctor said it all it will It's not going to change her. It's just going to make her focus, and it's going to make up that chemical in her brain that she doesn't have that will help her to sit and listen in class and know how to read a story or write a story. It's just going to help her. And exactly what happened, I didn't change at all. I could just focus, and that's when I started writing jokes, and that's when I could kind of sit and really get into what it is I wanted to do. So tell me what it is you wanted to do and how you did it. Um. I went to drama school, so I've always written jokes and just always been funny and loud, and I always thought it's not really because I think comedy comes quite easily to me. I find it quite easy. So for some silly reason, I think, well, that's not acting. It needs to be hard and torturous and really you know the challenge every night or every day on set. So I went to drama school for three years, graduated and started doing it like a few little comedy shows, not stand up but acting, because I'm a trained actor first and foremost an actor. And then um, I got a role on a television show in Australia called All Saints, which was kind of like The Gray's Anatomy without the doctor, without the McDreamy. Um unfortunately. Yeah. And then I was on that for five years and kind of played a bit of a lighter character to everyone else, but it was a drama. It was a d on the show absolutely. And then it was my beautiful friend Mark Priestley, who has since passed away. He's so sad. I read about that. He was a very very close friend of your tattoo to his took his own life. Yeah, he killed himself. Yeah, it was that was a lot to deal with that. He was he an actor, yes, one, I thought, I tell his name. I'm sure he was quite well known in Australia. He was. Yeah, this is before all Ozzie started coming over and taking over Hollywood. Um, he was incredible, and he was the one. He used to just come around to my house. I'd like three am with a video camera and go, let's just shoot stuff. And I'm like, yes, let's do that. And we just ship stupid sketches and we think they were the funniest things in the world. And I always thought he was so funny and so wonderful, and then and so did everyone. He was very well known in the industry and loved and sought after. And then the fact that he said to me, I'll never forget this conversation. We're sitting on set in between takes of you know, someone's dying on their hospital bed and this show really dramatic, but in between you know, lighting setups or something, Mark, and I was saying there just like writing, like a little sketch, and he went, maybe you should say and then you just stopped, looked at me, went no, you know what you're doing and I was like, no, no write. He goes, no, you know what you're doing, and then he went, you know that, right, You're you're amazing at comedy. No one can do what you do. And He's like, because I was always like, ohm, whatever, it's just boring, and he goes, no, that's boring. You not understanding what you can do is boring now, so just get on with it, and that chang bang that day on at least lent into it, lent into my strengths, lent into what I loved and kind of knew I was good at. So where did your career take you after that? Unemployment? For a little while, I was then a writer on a show, a really bad show that we don't need to talk about, and then um, I had babies, and then it was when I had my second son, first time, first son. But my friend called me and said she's doing some stand up and I was like, good on you, because I'd always been told I should do stand up. And I was like, yes, you are, tell me where you're doing it. I'll send flowers. I'm so excited. And I was like, I know what's happening, I know what's coming. And she said, I want you to open for me, and I was she got me at a good time because I was sleep deprived. I had a newborn, and I went. She goes, it's like five minutes, it's in a small space. It's in the Sydney Fringe Festival five minutes and I went okay, no, yeah, no, I wan't shut yeah, yes, hang up, and she just hung up because the last thing I said was yes. And so then I went dad, And so I had five minutes and I got up and I did it. And it was one of you know, I hear those stories like Shirley Temple or whatever. You're terrified, but then you open the curtain and you see the microphone and the spotlight and you think, I'm never leaving. I will die up here. This is amazing. And I was supposed to be five minutes. And after fifteen minutes she was kind of side stage going get off. And then that was it. That was me done, and and and obviously you wouldn't feel this way if the reception wasn't incredible to your humor, and you did you and then did you sort of transition to stand up? Well? No. Then Instagram started coming more and more, like I did more, and I was posting twice a day every day on Instagram because I knew it was good. I knew I wanted it out there. I wanted people. I sent to some of my friends who had like ten thousand followers, who were well known actors. I was like, can you repost this for me? I really want to. I think it's something good and it's fine. All my friends thought it was hilarious, and so I had, you know, excellent friends going shock, this is my friend Celeste and posting out for me. And then I kind of got to a point where I was like, I'm very I'm very proactive, always have been. I'm a hustler. I mean, I'm a hustler. And I remember sitting at my computer and just went, well, there's nothing really coming in, and I'm there's a lot I'm putting out and I'm getting a lot of people wanted to interview me about it, and it was really great instant gratification, and I was like cracking. I mean, I may have been at a million followers by now. It grew really quickly, and I went, I want to I want to prove myself. I'm I know what I'm doing. And I just in that moment, went to and just booked a theater in Sydney in Australia. I was living just out of Sydney at that time. I had just had my second baby, and I was like, I want to book a theater. So I booked two nights at this theater called the Giant Dwarf in Red Phone in Sydney, and then went shit, oh god, Now it was three months from that date when I've got nothing on, I want to do a show, and I didn't assault it out and it killed and I toured it and now I'm making out tom Ford when we come back. How Celesque gave back to her native land in its time of need. Now to Australia, where they're facing those massive fires already among the worst in that country's history. Haunting images flames, plumes of smoke, and firefighters desperately battling walls of fire. Another costly and deadly day in this month longer testrophe, the terrifying scale of Australia's Bush five as Austro is beginning to image. Bush Fires are not new to Australia, but this fire season has proved to be one of the country's worst ever. By some estimates, as many as twenty eight people have died, more than twelve million acres that burned to the ground, and thousands of homes have been destroyed. And then, of course there were all the animals. Because the devastation was so personal for Celest, she did the only thing she could think of. She turned to her Instagram following, you raised, I believe and correct me if I'm wrong, Celest, thirty million dollars maybe more. Well, I raised fifty one and a half million dollars Australian, so that might be like forty eight American dollars. I don't know, because well it's it's an amazing amount of money because of the wildfires in Australia and this this affected you very personally, not only because you're from Australia, but you had friends and family members and you watched their homes go up and small. Right, Well, so my mother in law. It is in Eden, which is the complete other end of the state from where we live. It's the far South coast of New South Wales and we're on the far North coast, and so it's where RP my husband is France his home and we were there for Christmas and I remember going up up the street or something and going, God, this some smile and everyone we knew there were fires kind of around and then it was terrible and terrible like in Canberra, our capital in South Australia and over on Kangaroo Island, like it wasn't good. But I was like, oh, what is bad? And then kind of going the smoke's really full on here. And then we left. After Christmas, I went home and it swung. It came really really badly, and my husband's cousin lost her home. We've lost a billion wildlife. So I saw my mother in law, who was a very very strong woman, like I had sixteen years with this excellent woman and she is a strong lady, and she was not okay and she was panicking, and that really it really struck me. And the thing is she's so she's so well informed and so hands on joy that she was like, no one's here. There isn't a helicopter in the sky, there isn't any a d F on the on the ground, which is not the fault of the a d F. It's a it's a government thing. There's no one here, and and I that's when I went, oh my gosh. And that's when I started the fundraiser and I just said, please help anyway you can. This is terrifying, and started a goal of thirty dollars. Because I also saw people internationally going how can we help because I've got a big following, especially internationally, people I don't people wanted to they didn't know what to do exactly. And I mean there's obviously other ways they are the places they could have donated to it, but the way I ended up doing it was just really straightforward. It was just a kind of so I click, donate, done, and I think that's kind of what people needed as well. Um. And then yet we also my husband and I kept everyone very updated on my Instagram stories, which we're getting millions of views my stories because people like this is how we're staying updated, which is a really daunting thing because you're like, god, I need to make sure I know what I'm talking about. And it's a big responsibility, absolutely, but it does show how media consumption has changed absolute ramatically. It's instantaneous. It's it's um, you know what do they call it, uh, citizen created? You know it's not you're not a journalist, no, And it's power to the people. I keep saying that I keep with the amount of money raised, and also I would post about it. I had so many people going, oh, this is also happening. I'm like Okay, cool, that's good to know. When I'll make sure that people know about that, or you'll add that to your story exactly, and then you could give a very much a three sixty view of the country. And I was also acutely aware of letting people know that I am not the face of this, I'm not the savior of this. I'm I'm you. I'm that person over there. I'm scared, and this is my kind of experience of the whole thing. And then we end up getting to, oh my god, fifty one and a half million dollars. That's amazing. And then it turns out I've saved the world. No, that's not true. Well, but I mean, I'm sure you you helped a great deal. Well, it was extraordinary as in Australia, our firefighters, majority of our firefighters a volunteer, and there were stories coming through of I'm talking eighty foot flames in the sky coming that will go through over a few kilometers in fifteen minutes and you can't. You can't put that out of human being. Can't put that out that has to burn, You can't. But they're standing there in shoes that I've got on, just sneakers, and like some of them putting just putting their hand over their mouth because they don't have the equipment. So that's why I that's why I chose the New South Wales RFS to it was the trust of RFS, the yeah, New South Wales Rural Fire Service, um, so the volunteers can. Then all the money then goes to the brigade, so then they go out and get the equipment that they need. Hopefully finally the fires got under control and are now out. Celest they're out because now we're underwater. Well tell everyone listening what has replaced the problem, because now it's flooding. Obviously we're flooded in I showed you a photo before we started middle of Sydney. The sea he and water is up to the windows of the cars were flooded. The fires are all out, but now we're flash flooding. It's it's the deforestation and nothing there to kind of I think. So I haven't I've been here since. I mean, it was torrential rain when I left to fly here to the States, so I haven't been home to see exactly what it is. But it looks as though, yeah, that's that's what it is. It's it's terrifying. It's terrifying, and I'm all, I now goes all right, I'll start another fundraiser. I'll raise another fifty one million dollars, and said, I don't know what to do. I really don't. It's quite scary. Do you feel like the world is a scary place right now? I mean, obviously it's it's great to have moments of levity and relief through people like you and your humor, but so many friends of mine feel that we're in such dire streets in so many different ways. I agree. I think it's a very scary time. I do. However, I feel that there is a bit of a ground swell going on at home in Australia, and I'm here a lot, and I've been here a lot in the past few years when you now have a different president and everything. And when I first came over when he was first in office, I was like, oh, this is terrifying, this is a this is a real you just feel it was very hostile. But since coming back more and going home, you know, back and forth and over to the UK as well, I feel like there's a real ground swell happening. And I think the Internet has a lot to do with that because we can all you and I can sit here and talk now, and we can all reach out to each other more. But I'm just having this thing where I'm like, like I said before, power to the people, and I feel like that's really starting to bubble, which it needs to bubble quicker. So before we go, what is your dream man? Where do you want to go from here? Celeste Barber? My goal in life is to play the King in Hamilton's. I would love to play. I can't think um and I'm not a man, but I want to. I want to try and find a way to make that a character choice for that character to play the King, and I think it's the most incredible role ever. And everything I do I do from the ground up, and that's really exciting and and amazing and exhausting. So I'm really like the idea of just being given a script and a call sheet now and just turning up to a film that would be lovely. And because you have a busy life and two little boys that are still seven and eight and nearly six, eight and six, so you've got a you've got a busy life. With your hashtag hard husband. It's so hot he is isn't heat? It makes me people come and say to you, like, good on your for a snag, and yeah, well done, congratulations because he's hot. Yeah. But it's also interesting when my husband drops our sons at school, when someone in grade three walks paston guys, hi hot husband. My husband's like, no, no, that's weird. That's it's appy or it's Mr Robin. Please don't say that. That's very weird for me, like you know, a ten year old saying it. Yeah, so funny. Well, I'm really happy to meet you. Thank you so much for doing this. Thank you so much for having me. This trait for me, an absolute trait. Well, thank you, thank you. And that does it for this week's episode of Next Question Everyone. I have to say I it's so much fun talking with Celeste Barber. She's so delightful and if you like a laugh, she's a must follow on Instagram, especially during these troubling times. Oh and so Less also interviewed me for her podcast called Celeste and Her Best I love her friend Tom by the way, who does this podcast with her. You can find that on the Luminary podcast app. I'm not sure when that's coming out, but keep a listen out for it, and while you're at it, keep an eye on Next Question. We've got a lot of good stuff coming, so make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, the I Heart Radio app, or really wherever you listen. And if you'd like some help keeping up with all the news, check out my morning newsletter. It's called Wake Up Call. Just go to Katie Currek dot com to subscribe. And of course you can find me on Instagram, just like Celeste and all the other social media channels. Although I'm not nearly funny, she is. Until next time and my Next question, I'm Katie Curic. Thanks for listening. Next Question with Katie Couric is a production of I Heart Radio and Katie Currik Media. The executive producers are Katie Currik, Courtney Litz, and Tyler Klang. The supervising producer is Lauren Hansen. Our show producer is Bethan Macaluso. The associate producers are Emily Pinto and Derek Clemens. Editing by Derrek Clements, Dylan Fagin and Lowell Berlante, Mixing by Dylan Fagan. Our researcher is Gabriel Lo Sir For more information on today's episode, go to Katie Couric dot com and follow us on Twitter and Instagram at Katie Couric. For more podcasts for My Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.