Last Friday REMORANDOM relived the massive crowd farming project designed to feed the 2,500 people who attended TEDxSydney at the Sydney Opera House in 2013.
Something else remarkable happened at that same event – or rather someone else.
In those early days of TEDxSydney the day’s schedule would be peppered with performances, and for 2013 our then music curator Top Shelf director Jordan Verzar had decided to include a young beat boxer from Queensland named Tom Horn aka “Tom Thum”.
Tom took to the Concert Hall stage early in the final session, all crumpled shirt and Brissie charm – and the rest (as they say) is history. To this day Tom’s 11 minute “talk” remains the most viral and watched TEDx talk of all time. Across all platforms (including YouTube and TED’s own TED.com) the talk has been viewed in excess of 130 million times.
The talk changed Tom’s life. In a letter of support that he supplied to accompany a TEDxSydney Australian Government grant application in May 2021 he wrote:
“Without a doubt that specific performance completely transformed my life. The amount of opportunities that opened up before me that I had never had access to was incredible. TEDxSydney helped me grow from an underpaid-over-touring musician to a fully fledged financially free artist who has built a career and a steady following from the opportunities that TEDxSydney has afforded me.”
It was certainly a good impact story for us.
But wait – there’s more:
Five years later, for TEDSydney 2018 at Sydney’s International Convention Centre, Tom retook the stage, but this time with world renowned Ear Nose & Throat Surgeon, Dr Matthew Broadhurst, who proceeded to film his vocal chords as he was doing his thing. It's wet, it's gooey, it's strange, it's amazing – and surely a world first.
If you’re up for that second somewhat stomach-churning video, here it is:
We are still in touch with Tom. Indeed, he was kind enough to “voice” the REMORANDOM theme music that we use in all manner of ways. Listen to that here:
Tom’s website HERE – and you can follow him on YouTube, Instagram or TikTok.
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