David Farrier’s new life: An audience of 20 million, Hollywood mates and an obsession with conspiracy nuts – Stuff.co.nz

Its weird, right? says David Farrier, who knows all about the unusual. I dont quite know how it happened, and I find the whole thing bizarre too its outrageous.

A year ago, Farrier the former TV3 journalist who found fame with his film Tickled and the Netflix series Dark Tourist had never heard of a podcast called Armchair Expert.

Actually, he sheepishly admits, he hadnt heard of its host, a Hollywood actor named Dax Shepard.

But now Farrier is living in Los Angeles, has become great mates with Shepard (and his even better-known wife, Kristen Bell of Frozen, Bad Moms and The Good Place), and is cemented with Shepards following as their authority on conspiracy theorists.

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Hes carved quite the niche with two distinct audiences: the 20 million, mainly American audience of passionate Arm Cherries that tune into Shepard, and the smaller, but equally enthusiastic Kiwi crowd following his online newsletter Webworm, where he has unmasked anti-vax doctors and charted the red-pilling of Billy Te Kahika Jr.

Farrier grew up admiring Louis Theroux, was obsessed with making documentaries, and his goal was to deliver one for the big screen, which he did in 2016 with Tickled - the sordid tale of the darkness behind televised competitive tickling.

But the world has changed, and Farrier is quite comfortable in what once would have been considered two obscure mediums: a podcast, and a newsletter. While the world is chaotic, he says, it feels like a nice place to be.

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David Farrier recording the Armchaired and Dangerous podcast at Dax Shepards home in LA.

The attraction was immediate. After 29 minutes into Farriers appearance on Armchair Expert last September, Shepard declared: Im so sad you live in New Zealand: I want to hang out with David so bad. Im on the next plane to the f...... North Island.

Farrier was mainly meant to talk Tickled and Dark Tourist, which Shepard had just watched, but was quickly and enthusiastically diverted into explaining the origins of the QAnon movement and the bizarre Pizzagate and Wayfairgate conspiracies (google them) to an enthralled Shepard.

Soon afterwards, Farrier was, rather appropriately, walking past the Auckland headquarters of the Church of Scientology when his phone rang: it was Shepard, wanting to FaceTime for a yarn.

Then Shepard emailed with the invitation to do a weekly spin-off podcast, Armchaired and Dangerous, in which Farrier would explore conspiracists and other oddities (theyve since recorded episodes on cannibals, cryptozoology and serial killers).

Shepard, who acted in films like Employee of the Month, the CHiPS remake he also wrote and directed, and the Candid Camera-style TV show Punk'd, began the podcast on a whim.

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Dax Shepard records Armchair Expert from a converted space above his garage.

In the past three years, it has featured guests such as Jason Bateman, Amy Schumer, Gwyneth Paltrow, Norah Jones, Will Ferrell, Monica Lewinsky, Richard Dawkins and Judd Apatow, and Forbes magazine declared it the fourth-highest earning podcast in the United States, estimating its annual earnings at $US9 million (NZ$13 million).

It dawned on me how big his network is [and] how powerful and global a podcast can be, says Farrier. Youve got these big personality podcasts, where Joe Rogan is at one end of things, and Dax and [co-host] Monica [Padman] are at the other.

By May this year, Farrier had decided to travel up to Los Angeles, with the knowledge I may not be able to get back, to work on some unspecified projects he wont talk about, but principally, it seems the podcast, which is recorded in an improvised studio above Shepards garage in Los Angeles.

Shepard offered him a spare room (politely declined; he didnt want to be an imposition), while Padman offered the loan of her car (gratefully accepted). Hes just very friendly, and for whatever reason, I dont know why, he likes me! Its like this incredible little family that Ive lucked into its deeply unusual, but I am deeply into it.

Shepards producer Rob Holysz says they trust Farriers storytelling and research work and the intellectual clout he brings to our show.

Holysz says one reason why Armchaired and Dangerous is launching a series of live shows is that the audience love Farrier. So next month, Farrier, Shepard and Padman will record before a live theatre audience in, of all places, Salt Lake City, Utah. Given his interest in evangelical movements, Farrier is duly excited to get some education on Mormonism in the world home of the Church of the Latter-Day Saints.

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Farrier filming Tickled.

The last time he was in the mid-West state was to launch Tickled at the Sundance Film Festival. The five years since, he says, have been a blur, shuffling between New Zealand and the US, with a year touring the well-received Tickled, then a year making Dark Tourist, the Netflix-commissioned series about visiting places like Chernobyl. (Hes equivocal about a second series: I feel dark tourism is stepping out of the front door of the house these days.)

When the pandemic came, Farrier was finishing another dark tale of the unusual - a feature-length piece derived from a 2017 series of articles he did on the bizarre antics of Grey Lynn antique salesman Michael Organ, who would clamp anything illegally parked in his car park and charge release fees of up to $760 in cash.

Typical of Farrier, the final film, due early next year, has morphed into a whole other thing. Tickleds focus, the late David DAmato, was very much a non-participatory (and litigious) star. Is Organ, who once claimed he was a prince, a willing protagonist? A very good question, he laughs. And I hate to do this and be a real a..hole and answer that by not answering it ... but his presence is felt.

Chris McKeen/Stuff

Billy Te Kahika being arrested at an anti-lockdown protest in Aotea Square.

Farrier had always been fascinated by conspiracy theories, but his interest was reignited by last years worldwide wave of vandalism of 5G cellphone towers (driven by the belief that 5G spread coronavirus).

Such theories had been around well before someone decided Stanley Kubrick had faked the moon landing, but now, Farrier says, we are surrounded by ever-more-crazy variants, and the current crop are a life-or-death thing. For that reason, people are incredibly interested.

In turn, he finds it absurd, ridiculous, frustrating, angering, but always intriguing; a rabbit hole hes happy to keep digging down into. Anyone getting into storytelling, he says, needs to double down on that strange little thing you find interesting, because there is no better person to chase it.

He thinks he now understands their adherents - he likens them to the followers of a cult: something is missing in your life, and you find this belief system that fills everything in and gives you a really passionate purpose it helps the world make sense.

Red-pilling the process of becoming a believer happens quickly, he says, and its hard to unwind. If you try to argue with a friend on that path, you are dismissed as a shill. The only way is to ask questions how did they plant all those explosives in the World Trade Center when the building was fully functional? and hope a slow-growing seed of doubt has been planted.

Farrier is optimistic that as our lockdown lengthens, the conspiracists will be shown up. Look, he says, at Te Kahika, from when he was trying to be considered a serious political figure during the election campaign, to his arrest in Aucklands Aotea Square during anti-lockdown protests at the start of Level Four restrictions.

It is a fall, an embarrassing fall, and I think he will be embarrassed at how much he has fallen, he says. People with extreme views will yell and scream and like the attention, but increasingly, what I hope, is the rest of New Zealand will see it is all a bit embarrassing and pathetic.

As soon as I saw Te Kahika and another well-known conspiracy theorist, Vinny Eastwood, being arrested, I thought of Farrier.

Hes written extensively about both; he produced a study of Te Kahikas social media posts, to diagnose his red-pilling, and he also wrote a piece mainly composed of abusive emails he had received from Eastwoods followers.

In his line of work, he says, abuse is constant, and tonally very similar it feels like the same archetype has written each one.

Hes entirely unruffled by it: Anyone getting intense abuse, I tell them this: if you were on K Rd pre-lockdown at 2am, and some drunk a-.hole is screaming at me from the gutter, saying youre a piece of s..., you dont stop and engage, and say no sir, I need to give you my side of it, and make you understand Im not a piece of s.... You just walk on, because its just a guy whos had a terrible night, who is drunk.

The counter to that is the devotees of Webworm, which began during the first New Zealand lockdown when Farrier was bored and had a few unfinished stories he could polish up.

David White/Stuff

Farrier outside the Auckland HQ of the Church of Scientology.

The invitation came from Hamish McKenzie, the Kiwi founder of the $US650m (NZ$937m) start-up Substack, which recruits writers with followings, offering sign-up fees worth $3,000 to $100,000, to produce online subscription-based newsletters. Substack reportedly has somewhere around 500,000 subscribers and its top ten writers collectively bring in $US7m (NZ$10m) in revenue.

Farrier quickly found the format suited his trademark storytelling style, of starting with some oddity, then taking a weird, personal journey to end up somewhere else. Hes spending increasing amounts of time on it, its begun to pay its way, tips are flooding in, and among his subscribers is one D. Shepard. Hes cracked some significant tales, including exposing the conspiracy theorist beliefs of the founders of Kiwi lingerie firm Lonely. Last week, it was writing about how the giant Auckland evangelical church City Impact had preached an anti-vax sermon to its faithful.

Farrier runs a paywall model which functions in reverse to most media companies: he gives away his biggest, investigative stories, stuff I would say is public interest [journalism], but subscribers, paying $US6.99 a month, get the lighter, more personal stories, like a piece he wrote about would be included in a putative second season of Dark Tourist.

It has led, he says, to a little community who have a really nice time. Its weird how pleasant it is its a utopia of a comments section Ive not seen since maybe in 2000, when I first got on the internet.

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Shepard, left, and Farrier, right, have become close friends.

Farrier isnt sure when he will be home. He routinely refreshes the MIQ waiting list, but admits its more from journalistic curiosity, having written about the flaws in the system, than a desperation to come home. Its a moral question because if I get a spot in MIQ, because I would like to come back and see my family and my country, there are people who need to come back infinitely more than I do that then cant.

He can work from anywhere, and he likes being here when Trump isnt.

And hes been made welcome in California. Hes been recognised by his voice a few times. The Arm Cherries have even made some attempts to pair him off with Padman.

Dax and Monica have a really special chemistry and their fans love and adore them and if they OK someone, give you the thumbs up, then I am cleared, everything is OK, he concludes.

Its a very warm environment: their fans are not like what the f... is this New Zealand journalist doing on the show? Theyve warmed to me, and its a very nice environment to step into.

And behind it is this unusual, but deep friendship. They are weirdly friendly, he jokes. Maybe they are a cult?

After the offers of car and couch, theres one hurdle left to leap in the relationship: an opening to a network of celebrity friends. I keep hinting to Dax: where are the big parties? The part of town they live in, I can sense other famous people around I am angling for it, I am waiting for my invite to the big parties. I think Taikas got that sealed up.

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David Farrier's new life: An audience of 20 million, Hollywood mates and an obsession with conspiracy nuts - Stuff.co.nz