About Chat 10 Looks 3

In 2014, two of Australia’s most high-profile journalists sat at a kitchen table, hit record on a phone and started a rambling conversation that’s still going on (and on). From books to TV, music to cooking, friendship to films, there’s little cultural terrain Annabel Crabb and Leigh Sales haven’t traversed in their oddly named but nonetheless wildly popular podcast Chat 10 Looks 3.

Now in its awkward tweenager era, Chat 10 Looks 3 is almost certainly the only podcast in Australia whose audience has:

Delivered a cabbage to a lady with breast cancer at Moruya Hospital in less than half an hour.

Found a pair of glasses when someone left them in Broome one time.

Comforted with a warm group hug countless people who have found themselves frightened or friendless.

Boosted national sales of the Salada cracker thanks to one weird recipe.

What the heck is with the stupid podcast name?

Well, thanks for asking, you and almost every single listener we have! In the musical A Chorus Line, there’s a showstopper of a song called ‘Dance: 10; Looks: 3’. It’s sung by aspiring star Val, who tells the tale of constantly auditioning and missing out. One day, she swipes a look at her dance card and notes the casting folk give her a 10 for her dance skills, but only a 3 for looks. So she heads off to a plastic surgeon for ‘tits and ass’ and then, ‘Suddenly I’m getting national tours!’

Sales, and Crabb’s partner, Jeremy, are giant fans of A Chorus Line and around the time the podcast was hatching they’d dragged a bunch of people to see a production of it in Sydney. One of those was Miranda Murphy, who was later sitting at Crabb’s kitchen table when options for the podcast name were being brainstormed. Fresh from A Chorus Line, she said, ‘How about Chat 10, Looks 3?’ and everybody fell about laughing . . . and it stuck. Would Crabb and Sales have gone with that ludicrously obscure name had they known their podcast would amount to a lot more than a dodgy recording listened to by only themselves and their immediate families?

Hard to know, but, like fellow branding giants Coke or Nike, it would seem foolhardy to change it now.

How Chat 10 Looks 3 started (Crabb’s version)

“Unsurprisingly, we disagree on how the podcast got started. We had multiple small children at that point, and were doing the typical thing that many working parents of young kids do, which is forgo pleasant, non-essential child-free activities. I seem to recall that we decided to do a podcast because it would mean we’d be less likely to neglect catching up.

“But either way, we did start a podcast, and we couldn’t work out if anyone was listening to it at first, and then we suddenly realised that HEAPS of people were listening to it.

“Since then, it’s grown like a bizarre and fabulous weed. We’ve had live shows, written a book, made countless new friends and I still can’t quite believe that people would download and listen to the audio of two fiftysomething slappers crapping on in an entirely unstructured fashion. It’s never boring, and it never feels like work. And by far the best thing is when we hear from people who are in hospital, or far away from their friends and family, or looking after someone who’s unwell, or spending long hours on the road or working night shifts, who get in touch to say we’ve made them feel a bit less lonely, or a shade less downcast.

“That is even more rewarding than annoying Leigh Sales.”