If you’re like us, you’ve probably wondered what everyday stuff famous people add to their carts, like hair spray or an electric toothbrush. We asked singer and actor Simon Pryce — whom you may know best as the Red Wiggle from the Wiggles music group — about the custom running shoes, giftable fountain pen, and morning-ritual coffee machine he can’t live without.
I have an orange one, and it’s got my name on it. First of all, my wife Lauren bought herself a green one of these with her name on it, and then my 3-year-old said, “Well, man, if you’ve got one, I need one.” So he’s got one, which is gray. And I said, “Well, if you both got one, then come on … I need one too!” So that’s how the whole family got these three Frank Green water bottles. They’re just the go-to. I’m always insisting on trying to drink water all day, so it keeps me going, and it’s always by my side.
I do type a lot — but on a creative level, if we’re writing in the studio, I always have a notebook with me because it’s easy just to jot it down. I tend to get clearer thoughts when I’m actually writing — that’s probably an age thing. The Moleskine notebooks I’ve had for years; you can buy them in little packs, and I just have them around.
This Montblanc pen was actually a gift. Many years ago, I did Phantom of the Opera in Australia and in various parts, but this was a gift from the producers to say “thank you for your work.” So I’ve kept that pen, and I’ve done refill after refill.
Years ago, a friend told me this was good for keeping hair strong and healthy. As a guy, you want to try to hang on to your hair, and I still got a full head of hair. I don’t know if it’s genes, I don’t know if it’s shampoo, but it was sent to me years ago. I’ve used it ever since, and I’m not changing it. It comes with me whenever we’re on tour.
This is the first year of my life, at the age of 52, that I’ve had to wear glasses. They said to me when I had my eyes tested that if you were to start to wear glasses, that your eyesight started to get worse. I always thought, No, no, that’s not true. But I’ll tell you now that I’ve started, now I take them off and everything’s getting a bit blurry, much blurrier than it was, and I don’t know if that’s just a natural progression. But now I really, actually can’t do without them. Particularly when I’m writing as much as I do, when we’re reading scripts and writing scripts, it’s it’s definitely a necessity.
We have the one at home, which is a bit more heavy-duty and froths the milk, but we also do have the smaller travel one. If we’re down in Melbourne or somewhere traveling in Australia for more than a few days, I will actually put it in my road case and travel with it. I tend to just have a double espresso in the morning and then maybe one other in the day — so it’s not really like I’m living my life by my coffee machine. But it is just part of my morning routine, a morning ritual. It’s that moment where, and now with my little boy, we all sit at our little breakfast bar. He has his breakfast and we have our coffee and we’ll sit there together looking out the window, and he’ll say, “Daddy, are we watching the world go by?”
The bedtime routine. We’ve got this kind of routine that’s working. And if that book went missing, it could be a disaster. Because at the moment, we go through our process of dinner, shower, read the book, get ready for bed, chat, read a book, and go to sleep, and this is working. And so at the moment, this book he’s, he’s obsessed with, it’s about the world. It’s about who we are, about all the different cultures in the world. It’s a really beautiful book, actually. And he loves it, and it’s become a big part of our nighttime routine. And he goes to sleep, which makes everything better.
This was a birthday present from my wife when I turned 50. We had a few friends who had some heart issues, and she had heard that the Apple Watch has helped people tell them when their heart rate is going low, or when they have issues with their heart. She went, “You’re turning 50, I’m buying you an Apple Watch just in case.” I actually don’t know anything else that it does. People are obsessed with it — I know that it’s got all these apps, it’s got everything that my phone has on it. But I just look at the time.
I’ve been golfing all my life, ever since I was little. I really don’t get a chance to play much the last few years, but it’s more of a comfort knowing that they’re there. The thing I find about golf is when I’m hitting a little white ball around the golf park, I’m not thinking about anything else. That’s all I focus on: It’s actually a mindfulness thing. I also always wanted these Callaway golf clubs, but I could never justify it because I played too little to purchase them. But when I felt like I could justify it, I bought them, and it was a big moment to achieve that. That was always something I wanted to do. They’re very special to me, and it’s always special when I get to play golf.
I’ve always been very physically active, which has been a bit tricky because I recently had knee surgery. But the Pegasus were the shoes I always wore. We also wear all-black shoes as the Wiggles during touring, and those shoes are the same Nike Pegasus that I used to run in. You know when you find something that works and works for you, you’re trying to wear them wherever you can. So I’ve always been active, always been a runner. And then I also had these shoes custom-made all-black for Wiggles shows.
The Strategist is designed to surface useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. Every product is independently selected by our team of editors, whom you can read about here. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change.
