Listen: Dan & Laura chat with Josh Hawkins.

Sydney, meet your new favourite comedian, Josh Hawkins. 

He’s best known (a little reluctantly) as “the guy who throws things”, and he’s gained worldwide internet fame for a series of videos showing himself throwing various items into containers – backwards, over his shoulder.

Comedian and pastor Josh Hawkins
The Facebook brand image of comic Josh Hawkins, aka ‘Hi Josh’

More recently, Josh gained international media attention for a video he made with friend Rhys Keir demonstrating a series of Aussie slang words.

Watch: The viral Aussie slang video

Just A Kid From Castle Hill Who Loves Jesus

When Hope 103.2 discovered that Josh lives just up the road in Castle Hill, we invited him in for a chat – and claimed him as our own.

We also discovered he’s a pretty outspoken Christian, and a young adults’ pastor at local church St Paul’s Anglican with some serious life values.

In fact his Facebook ‘About’ page proclaims that his “two” main goals in life are to “1. Introduce people to Jesus, 2. Make people laugh, 3. Get better at maths”.

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His profile picture is a cartoon Josh wearing a WWJD bracelet, and one of his videos explains from a Biblical, Christian viewpoint, why he believes the Tinder dating website is a bad idea.

Josh told breakfast announcers Dan and Laura that he was just having fun when he started making comical videos, and never expected them to go viral and get him interviews with 2Day FM’s Dan & Maz, Channel 7’s Sunrise, and BBC World News.

Watch: The ‘throwing’ videos, aka the Thug Life Chose Me series.

“The throwing videos started out as Snapchats,” he said, “so anyone who was on my Snapchat saw it and thought they were cool.

“And then I started posting them individually on Facebook, and people liked them, but then I was like, “OK I’ve got to do a compilation”.

“I didn’t realise the whole world would like it. Didn’t realise Shaquille O’neal would like it. He’s the man, if he says somethings good, it’s good.”

So Where Does He Get His Ideas?

Josh Hawkins of 'Hi Josh' fame with Hope 103.2's Dan Widdowson and Laura Bennett
Josh Hawkins, the Castle Hill guy behind the viral Aussie slang videos, meets Dan and Laura

Josh, known as “Hi Josh” on his Facebook page, has also made videos involving girls with Afro hair, shopping lists of strange items in supermarkets, and himself singing along to favourite songs.

He’s also published a fetching series of photos of himself titled “High Josh“, imitating Mary Poppins, hovering in mid-air, and hinted that his next video may involve defusing an awkward moment by breaking into an R&B-style rap about the situation.

Josh told Dan and Laura that his best ideas come in the most mundane of places.

“On the toilet, in the shower, or just before you’re trying to get to sleep,” he said. “There’s no magic behind it, it’s just what am I thinking right now.”

He said the “#throwing” videos, which have also become known as the “Thug Life” series, taught him a lot of patience.

“I already had good patience,” he said, “I feel like that’s my ‘spiritual gift’ – it’s like I’ve always had to wait, I was always patient. But the knife throw was very testing. I feel like I went to the next level of patience.

“I filmed that over two weeks, because it was so frustrating. But overall it probably took about 6, maybe 7 hours, just for one split second of video.”

Making History: The Biggest Item Josh Has Thrown So Far

As part of the breakfast interview at Hope 103.2, Dan came up with the biggest item Josh has had to throw yet – the seat of an unrepairably broken office chair.

The video on Facebook shows their efforts, and proves that Josh is not only a true professional but a one-take-wonder when it comes to backwards throwing.

Watch Dan and Laura in slow motion below and laugh…

 

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