Kelly Fisher - Part 3 (From Billiards to the Big Break)

Mike Gonzalez 0:14

Just to tick off some of the wins, we talked about uh we talked about our first one in '98. The second one was Karen Korr 4-2. You won in 2000 against Lisa Ingall 4-1. You skipped a year, beat Lisa Quick 4-1, and then again Lisa Quick in 2003-4-1. Interspersed amongst there a whole lot of other wins, the European championships and and and and a lot of lot of tournament wins. But I think coincident with that, you were competing at English Billiards as well, right?

Kelly Fisher 0:53

Well, not really.

Mike Gonzalez 0:55

Well, you won a few tournaments.

Kelly Fisher 0:58

Yeah, but if the truth be told, there were only three or four or five people in it.

Mike Gonzalez 1:03

I remember that. You don't need to say that.

Allison Fisher 1:06

Yeah. All right.

Mike Gonzalez 1:07

Well, we can edit that out then. Yeah, well, you might let the cat out of the bag, you know.

Allison Fisher 1:11

Wasn't that Jean Jeannie? What was her name? No, I forget her name. I can picture her, I just can't remember her name. Emma Bonnie.

Mike Gonzalez 1:18

Emma Bonnie.

Allison Fisher 1:19

She was Karen played it, right? Karen. And then the lady with short dark hair. I've forgotten her name. It wasn't Janet Handley. Oh, Gay Jones played. Well, Gay Jones, and then there was another one who did a lot of stuff for the WPBA back then. WLBSI.

Kelly Fisher 1:34

I can't remember.

Allison Fisher 1:35

I can't remember her name. Jane O'Neill.

Kelly Fisher 1:37

Jane O'Neill, you're right. Good grief, yeah. Name Colin. Or Osbund Colin, the referee. The referee. Yeah. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 1:45

So for our pool fans, explain to them what English billiards is all about because this is something uh I was introduced to.

Allison Fisher 1:58

It's a game with three balls, right? It's a red ball and two white balls. Yeah, I do remember. I'm on a joke. Go on, carry on then. Carry on.

Kelly Fisher 2:06

No, no. Yeah, you uh basically you caraming off to try and scratch. Right? And you get so many cats.

Mike Gonzalez 2:15

That's one way to score. Yeah.

Kelly Fisher 2:16

Yeah, and if you pot the ball, you you can only pot so many consecutively, I believe. I think so. And then you do it, yeah, and then you do in caroms pretty much, aren't you? And yes, you are.

Mike Gonzalez 2:27

And then you're just carry them off one ball into another ball and score a point, right? There's something's called a cannon, something's called a carum, right?

Allison Fisher 2:35

You get like I can't remember all the names of the points, but well, you only score when you oh, or if you hit the other ball, right? Or you make a ball, but the red really can be the re-spotted ball, but if you make the opponent's white ball, that stays off the table. Right? So then you can.

Mike Gonzalez 2:50

You don't want to do that, right? Yeah. Yeah.

Allison Fisher 2:52

Because then you've got less chances to make your car cannons.

Mike Gonzalez 2:55

And you'd rather not carry them off a ball and pot your ball because then you've got to go behind the head string, right? On a stucker-sized table.

Allison Fisher 3:02

Length of a table, yeah. Did you ever play alley? Not really, no.

Kelly Fisher 3:07

No. Not me.

Allison Fisher 3:10

I probably would have.

Kelly Fisher 3:11

That's why I did it. Let's be real.

Allison Fisher 3:16

Yeah, let's be real.

Mike Gonzalez 3:18

You didn't play a lot, which says it doesn't really rate high in terms of your your likes of various pools.

Allison Fisher 3:23

There was only that tournament, wasn't there, Kelly? Here's what I think. I think that if we played in a snooker tournament and then for half of a day there was a billiard tournament, we probably it would have had a lot more players if we were there at the snooker tournament and then just had a little, you know, whatever races to 50 or something, we probably all would have done that. But it just wasn't that right.

Kelly Fisher 3:46

Yeah.

Allison Fisher 3:46

I wasn't going to make a trip to go and play billiards.

Kelly Fisher 3:49

No, no, no.

Allison Fisher 3:50

For 50 quid or something. Right?

Kelly Fisher 3:53

What was your prize? What was your prize? 50 quid.

Allison Fisher 3:58

And a little cup.

Kelly Fisher 4:00

A little cup. But the thing was, it back then, yet it really didn't mean anything. But nowadays, I'll put it, it's on my resume. Put it on your resume. It means everything now. It means everything now.

Allison Fisher 4:14

So that wouldn't be on this question of take us through your first significant tournament victory. What do you remember most vividly about that experience? It wouldn't be the billiard world championship.

Kelly Fisher 4:24

No. No, it wouldn't. No, I can't remember who I played the first one.

Allison Fisher 4:28

First significant victory. The Conigoff Memorial. So it's getting over the hurdle, isn't it?

Kelly Fisher 4:38

Yeah. Yeah. That was the first one. And again, I just I remember funnily enough, the trophy.

Allison Fisher 4:46

Yeah.

Kelly Fisher 4:46

That I it was, I remember the trophy, and I remember Connie Goff was a lady that was involved in the snooker and she'd passed away. And her daughter was the treasurer of the WLBSA, Julie, Julie Hemingway. And I remember I rem yeah, I remember her presenting it to me and holding the trophy, and it was pure silver and it was heavy. I don't remember the last ball I potted. I don't remember I remember being presented with a trophy more than anything. And then obviously that that first world title does shine above that, but and the fact more so the way I won it, really, which was very I was more surprised than anybody.

Mike Gonzalez 5:28

Right, you know Ali, I think you talked about you kind of remember a couple of your favourite trophies too, right?

Allison Fisher 5:36

Uh yeah, I was all I always played for trophies. I loved if I liked the look of a trophy, it gave me a little bit more, you know, instinct to really grit the grit to win it. I really wanted it. So I loved trophies. But yeah, there are certain ones that are more special than others for sure.

Mike Gonzalez 5:54

And you know, golfers remember the same thing, particularly the lady golfers, they remember it could be a beautiful artistic, maybe carved stone or a beautiful glass or something trophy. They tend to remember that and and use that as incentive as well.

Allison Fisher 6:10

Yeah, it's always incentivizing because we certainly weren't playing for much money, so it had to be about the trophy.

Kelly Fisher 6:16

Well, funny enough, I I've never looked at it like that. I've never looked at the trophy. I'm gonna start doing that now on.

Allison Fisher 6:21

The trophy. Look at the trophy.

Kelly Fisher 6:23

Yeah, look at the healthy. If you get a chance to see it before you compete. No, it's true. Look at the trophy. If I if I win the next event, I'll thank all th four of you, three of you.

Allison Fisher 6:32

Yeah, whoever, however many's here.

Kelly Fisher 6:35

Yeah, however many.

Mike Gonzalez 6:36

That's been Allie's key all these years, and you're just now learning this.

Kelly Fisher 6:40

I knew there was something missing to my plan.

Allison Fisher 6:44

And it's medals now, Kelly. That's what we care about. Medals, what we'll come to later. Greatest comeback. Do you have a greatest comeback that you can remember?

Kelly Fisher 6:54

I remember one better than that, which was a somebody coming back on me, the greatest reverse comeback, shall we call it? And that's come straight to my mind as soon as you said it.

Allison Fisher 7:06

I didn't ask a question for that answer, by the way. I just want you to know that.

Kelly Fisher 7:10

No, I know you didn't know.

Mike Gonzalez 7:11

A leading question, we called it.

Kelly Fisher 7:13

Because it's the it's the opposite, but it really sticks out in my memory like a big sore thumb. Yes, I moved to America 2004, qualified onto the WPBA, 2005, but I got won a spot into Windsor, playing Windsor in Canada. I can't remember the name of the event, the Canadian, whatever. And I drew Allison first match. Now, and I'm like, bearing in mind, I'd not seen her for how long? I mean, we've gone through years. So we'd not stayed in touch because I was very young when she left. We'd not really stayed in touch. So this is the first time I've seen her, but again, I I know I know her, so it's not like we're like, hi, you're alright, just you know, kind of catching up. I'm a lot older now, and here we are. So we played first match. I was potting everything off the lampshades, not a clue what I'm doing, but just potting them from anywhere. Didn't care about, didn't know how to break, didn't did not know how to jump, nothing, but just potting. I was eight-one up on the Allison Fisher, and I remember I missed a one.

Allison Fisher 8:21

I remember the ball you missed down the rail.

Kelly Fisher 8:23

Yeah, me too.

Allison Fisher 8:23

I remember it.

Kelly Fisher 8:24

One ball, wasn't it? Yeah, the one ball. Yeah, seven. Was it nine?

Allison Fisher 8:27

I thought it was a seven, but anyway. But I remember the show.

Kelly Fisher 8:30

No, that was in the US Open, you bugger. That seven ball. Another leading. Anyway, yeah, I see. Well, she likes she's got it all written down, Mark. I'm telling you, yeah, it's the light right here.

Mike Gonzalez 8:41

It's in her diary.

Kelly Fisher 8:44

Let me ask Kelly this one. No, so yeah, so I missed a one ball into the top left corner, remember it specifically. And um, yeah, let's just say I got a lesson taught to me there for sure. She tied me up in knots, Mark. Honest to God, I didn't know how to kick, I didn't know any parallel shifting or mirror pockets or whatever. You know, I knew nothing. And I'm just whacking it, you know, hitting it, hoping I hit the ball. Yeah, and I lost nine-eight. We'll just leave it at that, shall we? But she tied me up in knots and taught me a lesson. I was already in the next round in my head. I was already in the room. Yeah, you were like, Who's next? I'm out of here. I was done, yeah. I was already through. But yeah, yeah, it taught me a lot that very, very first event.

Mike Gonzalez 9:30

She's pretty darn competitive.

Allison Fisher 9:32

Well, yeah. Oh, yeah. Just a little. I was never give up.

Mike Gonzalez 9:39

So before we we get you over to America to start your pool career, one question I gotta ask you is is as you think back on all of your matches in Snooker, particularly in Europe, do you remember them all?

Allison Fisher 9:55

No. No.

Mike Gonzalez 9:57

Is there any one in particular that you absolutely have no recollection of?

Kelly Fisher 10:03

I wouldn't remember it if I don't have a recollection of it, would I? Stop to answer.

Mike Gonzalez 10:08

It's another it's another leading.

Kelly Fisher 10:10

Yeah, where are you going with this one?

Allison Fisher 10:15

Do you remember getting to the getting to the fight? There was a match, wasn't there, in Europe? And something happened.

Kelly Fisher 10:24

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. I know exactly what you're talking about.

Mike Gonzalez 10:29

You do?

Kelly Fisher 10:29

I think I should say I don't remember. I think I should stick to not remembering. Well, you didn't remember at the time, did you?

Mike Gonzalez 10:35

It's my story and I'll say that.

Allison Fisher 10:36

You didn't remember it. You've got to tell that one.

Kelly Fisher 10:39

Uh-huh. All right, all right. I'm not proud of it. I'll start the center, the the first line of- We've all done it.

Mike Gonzalez 10:46

We've all done it.

Kelly Fisher 10:47

This is something I'm not proud of. However, yes, don't do this at home, children. Don't don't copy or follow this. But no, I was at the European Championships. It was the same year. No, it wasn't. Yeah, it was. I think it was 1998, same year after I'd won the world championships. I call it my celebratory mode.

Mike Gonzalez 11:11

You're only 20, maybe 19, right?

Kelly Fisher 11:13

Yeah, but it's legal in England, you're okay. It is, yeah, you're allowed, yeah. And also, like I'd explained, I'd lost for a year and a half, and I was going through a really tough time personally at the time in a relationship, and I'd basically got out of the tough situation after the world championship win, strangely, and then I've gone to the European Championship, and now I've kind of just I'm free and exploded. So, anyway, the story goes, I'm going around the houses, but the story goes gone drinking the night before, which we all did many times in snooker. I've just went drinking the night before and got very drunk to a point of going to breakfast with an alcoholic beverage, let's say, and then going back after breakfast to my room. I was sharing with Kim, and I know it was about well, I was at six o'clock breakfast opened, so I don't know what time I got back to my room, but my match was at 10 a.m. And all I know is is that I woke up and it was 3 p.m. And I jumped up and Kim was sitting on her bed awake, and I'm like, Kim, I said, What? Why didn't you wake me up? She's like, What? I said, Why didn't you wake me up? I had a match at 10 o'clock this morning. I said, I've missed my match, I can't believe it. She says, What are you talking about, Kelly? You've played your match. I said, What? I've played my match. Did I win? Did I win? She said, Yeah, you won. I said, What was the score? She said, 3-0. I'm like, what? I said, who did I play? She says, I don't know who she was. I said, well, can you tell me what does she look like? Blonde hair to you. And I'm like, I have no recollection. What are you talking about? I have still to this day, I have no recollection apart from three things. And one was I don't remember getting there, nothing like that. I remember that I fell off the chair. I was getting off the chair to break the balls because I'd apparently I'd won the toss, so it's my break. I'm the current world champion. I went to get off the high chair to break the balls and I stumbled, let's say. The second thing I remember is as the world champion, the current world champion, I hit the pink off the break.

Allison Fisher 13:55

I've missed the rock before. I've missed the round. The whole round.

Mike Gonzalez 13:59

For our foreign listeners, the the pink is the pink is placed just on the top of the rack, right?

Kelly Fisher 14:04

Yeah, just on the top, just one ball on the top.

Mike Gonzalez 14:07

Big old wide triangle of reds there.

Kelly Fisher 14:10

15 reds and a big triangle, and I just, yeah, have no idea. And I've no other recollection. And all I know is is after that, Kim were walking, and she says, That's the girl you've played. Nah. Still to this day, can't remember a thing. No, never met her. Never seen her before in my life. Never seen her before in my life. And yeah, I can't. And then the second thing that consequently happened was I got a warning from the British uh English Federation because I could smell alcohol on me. And uh I was put it this way, I wasn't very stable on my feet. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 14:53

Other than that, it was a great day.

Kelly Fisher 14:55

Great day. Oh, great, great night before, but I don't remember the day, but great night before. But yes, I've never done it quite since. I've never done it since, and I will never do it again. Well, you're gonna say never.

Mike Gonzalez 15:10

You can thank Big Sister for all prompting on this one.

Allison Fisher 15:13

Well, the prompting. Yeah, I was gonna say I wasn't present when that happened. No, she wasn't. Otherwise, it'd be pictures. Indeed.

Mike Gonzalez 15:23

Okay, so let's go back to you know your your, I guess, early 20s or so. And sponsorship of Snooker for women's championships in England. Why don't you guys talk a little bit about that? Because tobacco companies were heavily involved, right, in some of the sponsorship opportunities at the time, probably for men too.

Kelly Fisher 15:44

Well, predominantly men. But it what happened, Alison had already left at this point. So basically, what what really happened was the WLBSA was on it when you were there, Allie, was its own, right? It was run by it was yeah, it's his own entity. Own entity. But in the coming years, after Ali had gone, we went under the umbrella of the men's W S P W PBSA, isn't it? Yeah, WPSA.

Allison Fisher 16:15

No, the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. That's right. PBSA.

Kelly Fisher 16:20

That's right, yeah. And then it's recently changed as we know. So but yeah, we went under the umbrella of the of the men's, shall we say, and that's where the finals would always the try and fit it in with a men's venue. That was kind of what what we all thought would open the doors to get us, because we got television coverage, and we really thought that that would open the doors for women's snooker. But then we had tobacco sponsorship, and it was thriving for the men. The women were always secondary, if not even if the you know, even a little further down than that, but it was very much secondary, and we just fitted in if you like, but it was something better than we already had, and then sponsorship personally. I don't know about you, Ali, but for me it was apart from Kirby Vacuum Cleaner, I was sponsored by Kirby Vacuum Cleaner. Really?

Allison Fisher 17:20

Yeah, you could have to be able to get it. I had to move to Wales. You had to move to Wales to get it. What so what tell us what that entailed if you had to move to Wales?

Kelly Fisher 17:29

I don't know if I had to or if I just did. I think I had to, but basically, this guy was was the owner of the franchise in Newport in Wales, and somehow I I ended up there. I think I had to move, but I'll tell maybe it was because of his ulterior motive. So he sponsored me. I wore the Kirby, Kirby patch, and he paid me, and and that was good. And he asked me to do a motivational speech at one of the regional get-togethers or whatever, and there I am standing telling people how to motivate yourself to learn and practice and discipline and you know the way you think to be a champion and be the best. And these were all Kirby vacuum cleaner sales reps.

Allison Fisher 18:16

Yeah, yeah.

Kelly Fisher 18:18

I was standing in front of 300 people telling them about how to sell vacuum cleaners, I suppose. I don't know. And after that, after that, he asked me if I'd go with one of his best shining through workers, or a new one, if I'd go on a where you go to somebody's house and show them and try and sell them a vacuum cleaner. And you vacuum the bed, the mattress.

Allison Fisher 18:43

So you're part of the sales team.

Kelly Fisher 18:45

Well, Nick, I didn't I was only young, I was thought I didn't realise what was really happening. So there I am, you know, vacuuming dogs' hairs up. I'm not actually pushing it, she is, but I'm talking the talk. And yeah, you know how you say I can talk a lot. Well, obviously, he must have liked that about me. And now I'm trying I'm part of the sales team of selling vacuum cleaner. And he asked me to work and actually do do it, do be a full-time sales rep, but you think I'd be great at it, he said.

Allison Fisher 19:15

Yeah, I believe that.

Kelly Fisher 19:18

I do too. I probably could have meant more money than I meant at Snooker, yeah. But anyway, I said no, thank you. And there's the sponsorship diluted from there.

Allison Fisher 19:29

Let's just say that. So you didn't get like 10 vacuums to sell part of the deal.

Kelly Fisher 19:35

No, not part of the deal.

Allison Fisher 19:37

Not like cues or something.

Kelly Fisher 19:38

He actually paid me money, which was great. It was great, but I um I had to pay a percentage back out of my prize money, which really, but you know, I I must say it was I got a bit unlucky because I won the world championships and I ended up he broke even.

Allison Fisher 19:54

So in the end, when it ended up, and you finally made a bit of money and then you had to share it.

Mike Gonzalez 19:59

Well, you probably told him that his product sucks, but it did.

Kelly Fisher 20:04

Literally, yeah, literally, it did. It did. Excellent. Actually, Kirby Kirby vacuum cleaners was the best vacuum cleaner for businesses and commercial use.

Mike Gonzalez 20:13

I could hear the pitch, yeah. Yeah, you remember your lines.

Kelly Fisher 20:17

I know. Can't remember when when I won that billiard event, but I can remember the Kirby vacuum cleaner line. Certain things in life.

Mike Gonzalez 20:25

So take our listeners through the career change you were about to embark on. And you know, it's it's parallels Allie's path, I suppose, right? I mean, you get to a point where you devote your life to practice and work, and and now you got a lot to show for it in terms of titles and trophies, but not much in the bank account.

Allison Fisher 20:43

No.

Mike Gonzalez 20:44

Uh sponsorships are drying up, and you say, wait a minute, this ain't working. And then, of course, you both had to deal with all the chauvinistic BS that went on with with Snooker, probably in the UK, with the men getting, you know, 50 times more purses than the women for the same play and so forth, right?

Kelly Fisher 21:03

Well, in 2003, I won the world championships at the Crucible. This was the same for all the other wins there. I took home, I won £5,500. And 1998 I won £5,500. Right? 1998 the same week, John Higgins won £270,000 and in 2003, I believe it had gone up to 300 about £300,000. Yeah. On the same table at the same venue. But yeah, so there's a slight difference. Well, then what happened in 2003? Won the world championships. We always had a gap, that was the end of the season. And during that time, that was May, always finished in May, April, May, and then we didn't come back until the end of August. Well, back then we didn't really. Do emails that much, it was all letters by post. Funny, isn't it? And it yeah, and it was July, June or July. I received a letter stating that due to the government banning all tobacco sponsorship for sport, the the world snooker men, the world snooker umbrella have had to let go of the women's. So all our events stopped. We had no calendar. So I'm like, oh, what am I gonna do now? So my current personal situation wasn't just as easy as to I'm just gonna I'm on my own and I'm gonna fly off to America to see Allie. Yeah, it wasn't as easy as that. I had ties, I had many things going on, and all good, but it was just like I say, not as easy as just to get up and go. So I had a property and different things. So I went to try and get a job until I figured something out. And I applied and applied for courier service, like driver jobs, things like that. Couldn't get a job. I then applied for anything, and I ended up having to temp, which means you go to an agency, they just shove you in any job, put you into any job. I my first one was a vegetable factory.

Mike Gonzalez 23:24

So which vegetable?

Kelly Fisher 23:28

Well, I started off, look at her face. I could see your face. I started off on the spring onions, right?

Mike Gonzalez 23:38

Where basically are these the long, are these the long ones that they would use like in Spain at the Consultada?

Allison Fisher 23:48

Start off on the spring onions.

Mike Gonzalez 23:51

I mean, where else you where else are you gonna start?

Kelly Fisher 23:56

Start off on the spring. Spring onions, cool. And chop them all up. Green. It's gonna get better.

Mike Gonzalez 24:08

I'm sure it will.

Kelly Fisher 24:10

She don't want to be all that one.

Allison Fisher 24:17

She wasn't for tears of softness. She wasn't for tears of laughter.

Kelly Fisher 24:29

And uh yeah, the long thin ones, but they'd already pre-cut them up and they come in a big tongue drum basket thing. And one person, which was my job some days, was to have a big scoop and scoop them on the conveyor belt one after the other all day. Practicing your stroke. Yeah, exactly. And the other job with the spring onions, well, you had to look at the conveyor belt coming with these spring onions chopped and pick out all the bad bits, any dark bits, any.

Allison Fisher 25:00

Oh, that suits you then.

Kelly Fisher 25:02

Oh, yeah, OCD, right? Right. So are you ready? These get worse. So then that the next day could be peppers, which it was. The next day was peppers, red and green and yellow peppers. And they're already pre-cut, halved, okay, and no stalk. And my job, I had a little knife, and my job was to cut out the what would you call it? Seeds in the seeds, the inner seeds, yeah. Yeah, the seeds and the inner inner part of it, the flesh part of it inside. Well, like Alice said, I've got OCD. So with my little knife, I was scooping out every bit of the flesh that shouldn't be there, and trying to get every single seed out of there. Well, this conveyor belt's just going past where, and I'm missing so many of the so many of the peppers are going by, and I'm still on my one pepper, you know. And then I'll put that one down and and I'm still on the next pepper as everybody else has done. Everybody else has done 10 to my one, and I'm trying to flick off every seed, you know. Anyway, I got demoted. I got demoted to scrubbing carrots on the carrot line.

Mike Gonzalez 26:24

I'm just I'm picturing this I Love Lucy episode, right? With Lucy, Ricardo, and Ethel at the chocolate factory picking out all the chocolates on the conveyor belt.

Kelly Fisher 26:33

Yeah, and the the carrot line, the carrot thing was this big machine that dropped all these carrots down, this big thing. And I had to grab to grab a carrot with my knife again, and I had to scrub it like that with the knife to get off all the skin in the black. And I thought I better not be OCD here because I'm good. I don't know where else to go after the carrots.

Allison Fisher 27:01

How demoted can you get? Amount of vegetables, there's no more vegetables. You couldn't find it.

Kelly Fisher 27:08

I wonder what vegetable would be next. Oh, but that's a true story. That's 100% true. I got demoted. Anyway, I only lasted there less than a week. I left. No surprise. They didn't fire me. I left. I weren't very good at that. You said I can't do it. Yeah, I chose to leave. Yeah, I can't do this. Well, you went home smelling of vegetable soup. It was awful when you got in the bath. It was like vegetable soup, it was terrible. And then the next job I got temp in was in a seatbelt factory. And I lasted a month here, maybe a bit longer. But you know, when you put the seatbelt on and you click it into that box, well, I met them. Yeah, and it was it was gone.

Allison Fisher 27:58

I was thinking of that time you and me were driving along, we rented a car, and you got stuck in the seatbelt. And you were giggling, weren't we? Oh and she said it, I put it on Facebook, it's ages ago. Yeah, and she's laughing and giggling away, and she said, Can you believe I used to make these and I can't get out of it?

Kelly Fisher 28:18

My zipper got stuck in it. I do. My zipper got stuck in the box, and I'm young trying to yank it out, and she's taking a video and I'm laughing, I'm crying because I said, I used to make these and I don't know how to get them my zip out. But yeah, it's true. I did make them and I had a machine that it was eight hours a day picking the box, the first part, the side of the box, putting the spring in it, putting a blob of gel in it with your feet doing this to make all these machines. Yeah, and the you know, the cuts on my hands from the spring springing off.

Mike Gonzalez 28:51

That'll make you love those drills.

Kelly Fisher 28:53

Yeah, some love, yeah. I love the long blues and going up and down the spots then. Yeah, so yeah, yeah. So basically, after my partner at the time came over, we both were doing it and said, Right, I've had enough. I said, Yeah, let's go. It was a bit like in that movie, you know, where you just come over and just Tom Tom Cruise comes over and picks her up out of the factory. It was a bit what was that movie? I don't know which was that.

Mike Gonzalez 29:20

I don't remember.

Kelly Fisher 29:21

It was a bit like that. Val tapped me on the back, she says, Come on, let's get out of here. I said, Yeah, you're right. And off we went. And I made a phone call to Kim, who was in America too. And I said, Kim, I said, you know, I don't know.

Allison Fisher 29:34

There's nothing to do, yeah.

Kelly Fisher 29:36

Nothing to do, nothing to play him. She said, Left, leave it with me. And in the meantime, I tried to get a job in Tesco's, which is like a Walmart, like a supermarket. And I got the second interview, and the lady who was interviewing me said, uh, it says here you're a world champion snooker player. I said, Yeah. I was very innocent, like, yeah, yeah. She says, Right? And she looked at me in the most like she didn't believe me like she thought I was lying. And I said, Yeah. She says, and you're coming for a job here, why? And I tried to explain it to her. Anyway, I never got a third interview. And I shopped in this particular supermarket, and I went in a week later, and there's this tall, young, young guy, student looky like, and he's got new employee on the badge on. So I knew he'd got my job, right? So on purpose, my bill come to 17 pounds 24, let's say. So on purpose, I gave him 22 pounds 74.

Mike Gonzalez 30:35

Yeah.

Kelly Fisher 30:36

Right? Yeah. And he and he didn't know what to do. And I'm like, You've got my job. Wow, and you're not good at math. You're not good at math. Well, I think I was furious.

Allison Fisher 30:50

Did you march up to that lady? Did you find her?

Kelly Fisher 30:52

I should have done. I should have done. I was furious. I did it on purpose. That was terrible, right? But anyway.

Mike Gonzalez 30:58

No, she she did find her, and the lady said, Well, I could tell you had vegetable soup for lunch that day.

Kelly Fisher 31:04

Exactly. I must do it. Yes. Indeed. Terrible. That's that's below the belt. Hey, my dad! Look at that.

Mike Gonzalez 31:15

Click, click.

Kelly Fisher 31:16

Boom, boom. Click. But yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 31:19

Did you not do a whole lot of advanced planning then? Uh the plotting this move to America, like consulting with Ali or other people who were over here getting a lay of the land and where you're gonna land, you know, where you're gonna be?

Kelly Fisher 31:30

No, I had no choice. I was behind on my mortgage payments. I was behind on a credit card payment, anything else, bills, everything. I basically put the house on the market. We, me and Val, put the house on the market and took the plunge to move to America before the house sold. So I had no money. We Kim helped, and I weren't, like I said, in contact with Ali then at that time. Kim helped me and she got me a sponsor that I would be the house pro. So anyway, she just can stay with us and no problem. So me and Val, we packed up six luggage. The house was like we were going on vacation instead of actually moving out. The knives and forks were still there, everything. The house went up as is, and we got I had no money, zero money. I mean, to a point of to pay, put gas and electric on, counting change, really, and could put a pound or two pounds on, and then you know, until got the next bit of sponsorship money because sponsorship money was still going with £100 or whatever it was. It was crazy. And there's more stories to all that, but I think we'd be here a week. But yes, so it was like I asked my parents if they my parents were great, and so were Val's, but I asked my parents uh if they could lend us some money to go to America, they knew all about it, and they gave us a £400, which turned into $700, and we got on a plane with our luggage, closed the door, left it in the um estate agents' hands to sell, and got on a plane to America and the rest is history.

Allison Fisher 33:15

Great decision. Thank you for listening to another episode of Legends of the Queue. If you like what you hear, wherever you listen to your podcast, including Apple and Spotify, please follow, subscribe, and spread the word. Give our podcast a five-star rating and share your thoughts. Visit our website and support our Paul History project. Until our next golden break with more Legends of the Q, so long, everybody.