‘IT CAN’T GO ON FOREVER’
Jamie Morton on his My Dad Wrote a Porno podcast
If you’ve ever seen someone laughing out loud at seemingly nothing in public, there’s a good chance they’re listening to My Dad Wrote a Porno.
With more than 180 million downloads, a sell-out world tour and an HBO special under their belts, three best friends – Jamie Morton, James Cooper and Alice Levine – have been splitting sides since 2015.
After discovering his dad had been writing erotica in his garden shed, Morton (a TV director) and two university friends decided the sexual adventures of Belinda Blumenthal were too funny not to share.
Giving a little peek into their dynamic, Morton admits, “our WhatsApp group is lit”.
With their second live tour set to kick off in Sydney in January and the fifth season of the podcast due out later this year, many have been asking the question – what’s next for the talented trio?
Catching up with Morton over a coffee in Sydney, he reveals to WHO how much money they make from his dad’s porn, if we will ever meet his dad – AKA Rocky Flintstone – and if there is a final season in sight.
Is this your full-time job now?
Not 100 per cent, kind of. I try and make it not because it’s my dad’s porno! I don’t want it to be my whole life. I don’t want to do porn every day.
What else do you work on?
I was a TV director, so I kind of still do bits, but not really. And what’s been nice is that I get to pick and choose more than I ever could, but before it was just like, “give me a job”.
How involved are you all in the show? Is it still completely your product?
Yeah. We’re so anal about that. There was a point in Season 2 and people were just a bit like, “Oh, we can give you this recording studio. We can get you a really great editor.” But I just love making a show. It’s not that I want to be in it particularly. I want to make it. And that’s the most fun part. I’m such a geek! We turned down a few TV projects before HBO and they were just like, “We want to work with you. So whatever you want to do, you do.” That was lovely and refreshing.
What’s next?
Season 5 is the immediate next thing. We need to start recording that. We’re so lazy, honestly. We’ll just bosh it out.
It sounds like actually recording the podcast is the least of your worries.
That’s the thing – it is! Because it’s just us being together.
Do you have an end date for the show?
Our thing has always been – and it sounds so trite but it’s so true – we just want to do it for as long as we keep doing it. We have so much fun. We get to hang and make something that people want to hear; we are so lucky.
So not any time soon, is what you’re saying?
Who knows? We’re always so dependent on the next series. If suddenly everyone’s a bit like, “Oh that was really s--t,” then we’ll be like, “OK then. Thank you, good night!”
It’s not like you’re going to run out of material anytime soon.
Oh, Dad will never stop writing. One thing I do love about the show is how we pace it. We do only one season a year, which people are annoyed by, but we wouldn’t still be doing it if we came out every week. You want to be away for long enough for people to miss you.
Are you guys making good money from the podcast now?
Oh my God, people are obsessed! I got asked that this morning! Podcasting is such a new space but to answer your question, frankly, yes we do! But we didn’t for the first two-anda-half years.
Will we ever find out who your dad is?
He has always been so clear that he wrote the book under a pseudonym. We’re the ones who made a podcast out of it! Which he loves and he’s part of the business, which is obviously as it should be, but he just doesn’t have that kind of ego. He has the best of both worlds. So, he gets to go on Twitter and be Rocky and he can chat to the fans. And then he can go back to being with my mum and my three sisters as a normal dad, husband and have a life. We have a family that aren’t involved in this. We’ve always been quite careful about respecting that.
What happens when you’re with them and someone recognises you?
Oh, people have met my dad. If I’m having a drink with Dad and someone comes up and says they like the show, I’ll be like, “This is Rocky.” They can meet Rocky.
So no-one’s taken photos?
He won’t have his picture taken. And if he does have a picture, he just turns so it’s the back of his head, which is hilarious. What’s nice about the listenership, they are so respectful of that. No-one’s ever been like, “Oh, I want to out him”.