[00:00:00] Hi, I'm Chrissy Mack from Radio Northern Beaches and you've just tuned in to the Listen & Chat With Chrissy Mack podcast. This is the space where we pull no punches, sometimes a little controversial, sometimes downright outrageous and sometimes just packed full of information that is interesting to know. Listeners today we're in the studio with Aunty Rozzy, which is Roz Tesoriero and she's been in the studio before.
[00:00:25] We've interviewed about her books and her singing and her songwriting. So she's been on a trip over to the UK and she's back in Australia and she will be presenting some shows here. Hi Roz, welcome to Radio Northern Beaches. Thank you Chrissy, lovely to be here. Now Roz, tell us about your trip and what you achieved over there and what's happening now you're back in Australia.
[00:00:49] Well, we were actually having a family trip but we also touched base with Puffin and had a quick little chat with her about the books. So that's a thing in process at the moment and she wanted to hear about the possibility of us living in the UK. My husband's a Brit so we could actually be there for six months of the year to do promotions if we do manage to get a contract. So that's very hopeful and very exciting. How exciting is that?
[00:01:19] I know. Puffin, wow. Yep, in the UK, it's headquarters. Wow. Yes. Okay, so and where do you go from there? How does that sort of travel work out from here? Well, we'd be there for six months of the year and I don't know much more to say about that at the moment because that's just a thing in process. But yeah, we'd live there for half the year and as I said, my husband's a Brit so he's got three adult children and we have three grandchildren there.
[00:01:49] So that makes it very nice for us to be able to be there and interact with the kids and the families a bit more but also to be able to be working with Aunty Rosie at the same time. So how was your family trip? What did you do and where did you go and who did you visit? Oh, we had a lovely time. We caught up with all of Paul's families. Holly and Jonathan have got two children, Theo and Riley and then Will and Kirsten have got a little boy called Joey and then the third daughter, Daisy.
[00:02:19] We caught up with all three of them. We all went away to a place called Centre Parks where it's as large as like a big suburb of Sydney and the woods were kept there and they've just cleared the area to put cabins in. You're not allowed to drive your car. You park your car outside and everybody rides bikes. And it was great. We had a long weekend there together with everybody, caught up with the rest of them, well all of them individually as well.
[00:02:45] And then at the end of all that, Paul and I had a lovely holiday on a river cruise. Oh, how nice. It was except that the rivers didn't have enough water in them so we had to keep changing ships. Oh, wow. Yes. That's climate change for you. That's climate change for you. That's incredible. That's very real. And we wouldn't even understand that that was happening over there. No, no, no. So that wasn't the best thing.
[00:03:15] So how many ships did you end up on? We changed four times. Wow. Wow. And then from Vienna to get to Budapest, we had to take a bus, which was, I think it was a three or four hour drive. But the traffic coming out of Budapest towards Vienna was gridlocked and there were loads of trucks. There was also roadworks on both sides, but they couldn't use the rivers to move industrial stuff.
[00:03:42] And everything was on trucks and everything was on the road. Oh, wow. So it was a different version of the river cruise. And those roads are quite slim. They're not really wide, are they? Oh, no. They had about four. Oh, this was on a big freeway. Oh, right. Coming into and coming out of Budapest. And they were doing more work to make it even bigger. But, yeah, it was pretty full on. Wow. Well, that gives you an idea of what climate change is doing to the world. Wow.
[00:04:11] Now, you're back in Australia. Back in Australia. And you've been doing some shows in some of the kindergartens or preschools. Yes, we've got them coming up in November and December. We're doing Christmas shows. And you've got a big show at the Man and Leigh Club. Tell us about what you're planning there. Well, you know our CD and DVD, it's Yummy Tummy Time. So we're doing all our songs, all original songs. And for those of you that don't know Aunty Rozzy, Aunty Rozzy is happy music with a healthy message.
[00:04:41] So all those songs are around food. But it's not, it doesn't preach. It's just happy, fun music. And we've got our two major characters, Perry the Parrot and Harriet the Rabbit. And the two life-sized versions of them will be with me at the Mountie Leagues Club on Saturday, the 5th of December. So we're doing all of that. And then we're finishing up with the new song that we've done, the 12 Days of Christmas Aunty Rosie version, which is foods and stuff.
[00:05:11] Remind us about the background and the story of the songs and the vegetables and teaching the children how to eat. The first song was Nana's Carrots, which came out of a dinner at home. And then at the time, I went round to my parents' place and I had a sister there with her two little kids at the time. And my mother had made chicken broth and put that down in front of my nephew. And he looked and he said, oh Nana, I don't eat carrots.
[00:05:38] And I said, oh, well, these are Nana's carrots. You'll be fine. You think they're your mum's carrots. Then it was two weeks later, same place, same dinner, same night of the week. And he says, oh, Nana, I don't eat carrots. And my father says, you'll be fine. These are Nana's carrots. And I went, bingo. There's a good name for a song. And then I realised I should stick with food. So the next song was The Incredible Edible Alphabet.
[00:06:06] And I wanted to keep it so that they're learning stuff. So they're, you know, getting their letters. My husband and I were living in New York at the time. And it was my husband's suggestion. Come on, you should write a song on the alphabet. And we went and took a look in Barnes & Noble, which is a huge bookstoring in New York, and checked out all the alphabet books. And there was nothing on food. So we started with The Incredible Edible Alphabet. And from there have gone on and done The Family Tree of the Broccoli.
[00:06:36] So, and that song just recently has been in the International Song Competition in Nashville and made it into the finals. Congratulations. Thank you. That was very, very exciting. The Incredible Edible Alphabet has been in the semifinals about four times, which has also been very, very exciting. Well done. And the other one that has made it into the semifinals was the Auntie Rosie theme song. So, yeah, just it's fun music. It doesn't tell you you should eat your vegetables.
[00:07:05] It just makes it a fun and positive experience. Recently, I caught up with a friend from the cafe and she videoed her son. And he's gone absolutely mad. She said, well, right at three o'clock in the morning and we are watching the medley of the videos and then go to sleep. But he would not eat broccoli. And she kept putting broccoli on the plate. And then he'd been singing all these songs and he knew which song was the next song. So, he'd just go carrots.
[00:07:34] And then with the next one, he'd go broccoli. The next one, zucchinis. And then, so she puts the broccoli on the plate again and he just ate them. Oh, well, no fighting, no discussion, no arguing. And she was like, it's because he's been watching the songs and dancing along and having a good experience.
[00:07:56] So, my take was if you give them a fun, positive experience, a fun, positive association, you've got a much better chance of getting them to just go with it instead of fighting you and saying, I don't want to do that. That's incredible. That's a great experience for the kids too. Yeah. Yeah, it's been great.
[00:08:19] So, you'll be at the Manly Leagues Club and we expect to have a lot of fun there because you've got the mascots there as well. So, they can actually come in and meet the mascots and take photos with the mascots. And take photos with them. Yep. And have a lot of fun dancing around and playing to the songs. What are your expectations for that day? Well, I'm hoping that we just have a good turnout and just have lots of fun. It's got to be fun. Oh, my God.
[00:08:48] I'm being serious. I can't be serious about it. It's got to be fun. And so, what's your experience with your preschoolers? Because that's a much smaller group. Yeah. Well, with the smaller group, we also have hand puppets of our main characters, Perry the parrot and Harriet the rabbit. So, the two characters filter through a lot of the songs. But they're little hand puppets so that it's very – because, you know, preschools are much closer, smaller, intimate environment.
[00:09:16] So, you couldn't have a mascot in the big room because that would take up the whole room and possibly be a bit scary for them. So, that's lovely. They really enjoy interacting with the little puppets. And sometimes I can ask – you know, I chat with the puppets and – well, of course, they chat back. But there is actually two puppets of Harriet. Harriet.
[00:09:37] And the second puppet of Harriet is – when we went to get it made to just use, it ended up – the person that made them, I don't know, didn't use the fabrics that we'd said and the colours. And we looked at it and she didn't look very well. So, we figured that that's Harriet when she's eaten the wrong foods.
[00:09:57] So, we could also talk about Harriet who looks good when she's eaten healthy and Harriet who doesn't look quite so good when she's been eating too much ice cream or too much chocolate or too much of a sometimes food. That's an excellent association. It was. It turned out – Especially for preschoolers. Yeah. It turned out very well. It wasn't a plan. It wasn't part of the plan. It's just what happened. Okay.
[00:10:22] So, where can people go to find out more about you, your songs, your CDs, your books and also the shows? Well, you can go visit the website www.auntierosie.com and you can see a medley of the videos. You can see – you've got the opportunity there to book a show with us and we're just in the northern beaches at this point. So, yeah, at the website. And where do they get the tickets for the Manly League show?
[00:10:50] You can get them from the northernbeachesentertainment.com.au and you can get them also – I think you can get them from Auntie Rosie as well, can't you? I'll have to have a look. That's just coming together. Yeah, and there will be tickets at the door. All right. What are your plans going forward into next year? Into next year, we have got – we've recorded – I've recorded three new songs this year, one being the 12 Days of Christmas.
[00:11:18] I've started writing more songs, but now we're looking at the various characters that have come through in the book The Incredible Lettable Alphabet. And one – there was a dinosaur. He was a Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur on the T page. G is for Tasty Tomatoes. And that song is Dave the Dinosaur. So, that's going to be released on New Year's Eve. And then another song. I've always found ladybirds interesting with little kids because little kids see the little things.
[00:11:48] They see the little twigs. They see the little ladybird. And, you know, we're bigger and we're not noticing those. So, I thought, oh, ladybird, that'd be lovely. So, I wrote a song, Sleep Little Ladybird. Now, the reason I did the ladybird as a sleep song is because I Googled and just did a bit of research to see was there a backstory to ladybirds.
[00:12:11] And it comes out that in many old cultures, the ladybirds are considered to be the one that protects the little children at night when they go to sleep. So, I thought, okay. Beautiful. Beautiful. So, there's a lovely little song coming up there. Yeah. So, new releases with songs and more shows, basically. Yeah. Getting more back into all of those sorts of things. So, tell me about your new book.
[00:12:38] Well, a lot of the books, well, we've got two books currently, Nana's Carrots and The Incredible Lettable Alphabet. And with each book comes the CD or, well, then it was a CD. So, now we have a QR code on the back of the book that you can access a song. So, after recording the 12 days of Christmas and having these Christmas shows coming up in the preschool, we also created a book. It's lovely. It's the 12 days at, you know, 12 delicious dates.
[00:13:05] So, 12 delicious dates, 11 yummy yogurts, 10 hip honeydew, 9 tasty tomatoes, blah, blah, blah. And so, we've got a lovely picture book of the 12 days of Christmas and Aunty Rosie and what happens on each day. And it's all the fruits and vegetables again that we had in The Incredible Lettable. It's gorgeous. We were in Melbourne when we created a lot more of the, well, when we created It's Yummy Tummy Time.
[00:13:33] And then we moved to Sydney and in that time I ended up running a music school and thought that I would still have time to do more with Aunty Rosie. But the music school took a lot of time and energy, so it didn't. And then as I sold the school, that's when the first time that The Incredible Lettable Alphabet came in. And literally, on the day I took the 10% deposit to sell the school as a semi-finalist in the international song competition.
[00:14:00] And then you're approaching me for interviews. It's all my fault. It was your fault. All these things are happening and I'm like, oh, I was trying, I was going to retire. So, I did a bit of resting and then, yeah, got back on. Well, I'm glad that I could start up another small business. Yeah, you got us going. And help the kids as well. Yeah. No, it's been a lot of fun talking to you, Roz. And we really enjoy having you back and good luck with your shows.
[00:14:29] And I'm really looking forward to the one at Manly Leagues. Yes. That's going to be a lot of fun for the kids. It will be lots of fun. And, yeah, parents, don't forget to bring your cameras and get your photos with the mascots. They'll be there ready to have their photos taken. Yep, yep. They'll be very happy to be interacting with the kids. Okay. It's great talking to you, Roz. Thank you, Chrissie. Bye. Bye. I've been talking to Aunty Rozzy, Roz Tesoriero, who will be presenting the 12 Days of Christmas
[00:14:59] with Aunty Rozzy, which is a live show, on Saturday, the 5th of December at Manly Leagues Club, 2pm. Don't forget to follow, like and share. Stay safe and I'll catch you next time. Bye.