Latest news with #TreeOfWisdom
The Guardian
01-08-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The Wiggles' Tree of Wisdom: ‘When you're singing about hot potatoes, it's really hard to have a bad day'
The band has yet to come on, but the crowd is deafening. A lot of screaming, a few criers, a lot of punters standing on their seats. Within the sanctuary of the sound desk, one of the crew hands me some earplugs. 'Protect your ears – a lot of squealers in today,' he says, with a wink. The Wiggles' audiences are not known to hold back their enthusiasm, or ever put down the bubble guns, but there is a noticeably loud roar when a certain green man comes on stage: 31-year-old Dominic Field, AKA the Tree of Wisdom. After the show ends – their second of three that day alone, all sold out – Field shakes my hand as he's wiping himself off. 'I am a big sweater,' he says, affably. It is easy to see why. As the Tree of Wisdom, Field's wild dancing, with hip thrusts, mad shimmying and the occasional worm, has taken both the world's stages and TikTok by storm, inspiring thousands of copycats – from giggling parents to US college kids on a night out. On their recent tour of the US, Canada and the UK, Field spotted 'like 10 trees in every audience – that was when I was like, I've made it'. He has unexpected fans in Khloé Kardashian, Jessie J and Robert De Niro – an ardent Wiggles fan of many years, who recently hugged Field backstage at one of their New York City shows. 'He's very softly spoken,' Field recalls. 'He sat next to me and said in a very gentle tone, 'I really appreciate what you do'.' This article includes content provided by TikTok. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'. Field is now so famous for his moves, he's sometimes recognised even without the big green wig and leafy costume. 'Usually playing the tree is a bad thing, you know what I mean?' he says. 'Standing at the back in the school play. This is the complete opposite.' Why the Wiggles have a tree in their lineup might be mystifying to some, until you remember that their entourage includes a pirate, a dinosaur, a dog and an octopus in a boater hat. How the tree became both wise and such a good dancer takes some explaining, but Field does his best: A couple years ago, the Wiggles were on tour in Newfoundland, Canada, an island with strong cultural ties to Ireland, Scotland and Celtic traditions. The locals seemed to love it when they played folk songs – the Wiggles are big on covers – so Anthony Field, the OG blue Wiggle and Field's uncle, suggested they perform Rattlin' Bog, an Irish song that speeds up with each verse and, most crucially for this story, is about a tree. The group's musicians were so intently focused on learning to play the notoriously difficult song that Anthony only gave his nephew brief instructions: you're the tree, dance onstage, do whatever you want. 'And I was like, 'Great,'' Field says, laughing. At first Field's moves were 'quite tame'. But as he got used to Rattlin' Bog's fast pace he began performing moves he had, in his words, perfected in Sydney's nightclubs. 'As I got comfortable with the song and started having more fun, the more phones I started to see come out,' he says. On YouTube alone, Rattlin' Bog has now been watched 9m times. So Field was now a tree and his uncle had big plans for him. 'Anthony called and said, 'We're going to expand the tree character!'' Field remembers. 'Who knows how his brain works, but he was like 'You're the Tree of Wisdom! You are this all-knowing tree! So that's how it started – then it just got bigger and bigger, and funnier and funnier.' Field has never had any professional dance training – which shows, but not in a negative way; I suspect it is his buzzed uncle vibe that people love so much. 'I'm always that guy at a wedding who needs to get the dancefloor started,' he says. I suspect you knew how to do the worm before you joined the Wiggles, I say. 'Oh, I was worming before I was walking,' he says. Field's career trajectory has inspired the birth of the term 'nepo tree', but the Wiggles is very much a family business, albeit one worth an estimated $50m. His father, Paul, was in rock band the Cockroaches with two of the four original Wiggles – his brother Anthony and Jeff Fatt. But in 1988, Paul's first child, Bernadette, died of SIDS at eight months, which devastated the group. Anthony left the band to study early education, then founded the Wiggles, bringing in Fatt, Murray Cook and Greg Page; their first album was dedicated to Bernadette. Paul became their manager in 1996. These days, Field's older brother, Luke, is the Wiggles' manager, while his cousin Lucia is a blue Wiggle like her father, Anthony, and his wife, Stephanie, is a Wiggles dancer who occasionally plays Dorothy the Dinosaur and Bubbles the Mermaid. Field himself made his first Wiggles appearance when he was just two, in the Wiggles video Wake Up Jeff!. The Wiggles have been part of his life for 30 years and counting. 'When I was a kid, I didn't see Anthony as a Wiggle. He was always just my uncle but everyone knew him, which was cool,' he recalls. Did he ever find the Wiggles uncool? 'No, I loved it. Actually, on my first day at high school, dad dropped me off while listening to a new album because it was his job. The Wiggles were pumping out the car and that was the only moment I've ever been like, 'Can you just turn that down a bit?'' At 19, Field began working as a stage technician for the Wiggles. Over the years, Anthony would encourage his nephew to sing and join them on stage; eventually he was stepping in for Anthony and Simon the red Wiggle at live shows or filling in as Captain Feathersword. And now he's beloved by children and parents around the world for playing a groovy tree – an unexpected, but welcome outcome. Can you ever have a bad day as a dancing, singing tree? 'Life happens, of course – but as soon as you get to work and you're singing about hot potatoes, it's really, really, really hard to have a bad day,' he says. In fact, the Tree of Wisdom is now so big that the Wiggles next arena tour is named for him, with an album to go with – and yes, it is all tree-related songs and yes, it includes a cover of Tina Turner's Nutbush City Limits. 'We're gonna make sure that every year nine dance in every world is doing the Nutbush,' Field says. 'We're trying to get some tree-nagers.' Is it strange getting so much attention now? 'No, I love it. I encourage it all. Honestly, people with little ones are probably watching the Wiggles 24 hours a day. When we met De Niro, his partner said, 'I feel like I know you guys, but I've never met you.'' And these days, he's loved for a character that has become entirely his own. 'I'm just being myself – dressed as a tree. And people seem to be connecting with it. I'm proud of that. It's been really cool to see it grow,' he pauses, then adds, cheekily: 'Pun intended.' The Wiggles' Tree of Wisdom Big Show Arena Spectacular! tour goes on sale to the general public on 1 August at 2pm.
The Guardian
31-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The Wiggles' Tree of Wisdom: ‘When you're singing about hot potatoes, it's really hard to have a bad day'
The band has yet to come on, but the crowd is deafening. A lot of screaming, a few criers, a lot of punters standing on their seats. Within the sanctuary of the sound desk, one of the crew hands me some earplugs. 'Protect your ears – a lot of squealers in today,' he says, with a wink. The Wiggles' audiences are not known to hold back their enthusiasm, or ever put down the bubble guns, but there is a noticeably loud roar when a certain green man comes on stage: 31-year-old Dominic Field, AKA the Tree of Wisdom. After the show ends – their second of three that day alone, all sold out – Field shakes my hand as he's wiping himself off. 'I am a big sweater,' he says, affably. It is easy to see why. As the Tree of Wisdom, Field's wild dancing, with hip thrusts, mad shimmying and the occasional worm, has taken both the world's stages and TikTok by storm, inspiring thousands of copycats – from giggling parents to US college kids on a night out. On their recent tour of the US, Canada and the UK, Field spotted 'like 10 trees in every audience – that was when I was like, I've made it.' He has unexpected fans in Khloé Kardashian, Jessie J and Robert De Niro – an ardent Wiggles fan of many years, who recently hugged Field backstage at one of their New York City shows. 'He's very softly spoken,' Field recalls. 'He sat next to me and said in a very gentle tone, 'I really appreciate what you do'.' This article includes content provided by TikTok. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'. Field is now so famous for his moves, he's sometimes recognised even without the big green wig and leafy costume. 'Usually playing the tree is a bad thing, you know what I mean?' he says. 'Standing at the back in the school play. This is the complete opposite.' Why the Wiggles have a tree in their lineup might be mystifying to some, until you remember that their entourage includes a pirate, a dinosaur, a dog and an octopus in a boater hat. How the tree became both wise and such a good dancer takes some explaining, but Field does his best: A couple years ago, the Wiggles were on tour in Newfoundland, Canada, an island with strong cultural ties to Ireland, Scotland and Celtic traditions. The locals seemed to love it when they played folk songs – the Wiggles are big on covers – so Anthony Field, the OG blue Wiggle and Field's uncle, suggested they perform Rattlin' Bog, an Irish song that speeds up with each verse and, most crucially for this story, is about a tree. The group's musicians were so intently focused on learning to play the notoriously difficult song that Anthony only gave his nephew brief instructions: you're the tree, dance onstage, do whatever you want. 'And I was like, 'Great,'' Field says, laughing. At first Field's moves were 'quite tame'. But as he got used to Rattlin' Bog's fast pace he began performing moves he had, in his words, perfected in Sydney's nightclubs. 'As I got comfortable with the song and started having more fun, the more phones I started to see come out,' he says. On YouTube alone, Rattlin' Bog has now been watched 9m times. So Field was now a tree and his uncle had big plans for him. 'Anthony called and said, 'We're going to expand the tree character!'' Field remembers. 'Who knows how his brain works, but he was like 'You're the Tree of Wisdom! You are this all-knowing tree! So that's how it started – then it just got bigger and bigger, and funnier and funnier.' Field has never had any professional dance training – which shows, but not in a negative way; I suspect it is his buzzed uncle vibe that people love so much. 'I'm always that guy at a wedding who needs to get the dancefloor started,' he says. I suspect you knew how to do the worm before you joined the Wiggles, I say. 'Oh, I was worming before I was walking,' he says. Field's career trajectory has inspired the birth of the term 'nepo tree', but the Wiggles is very much a family business, albeit one worth an estimated $50m. His father, Paul, was in rock band the Cockroaches with two of the four original Wiggles – his brother Anthony and Jeff Fatt. But in 1988, Paul's first child Bernadette died of SIDS at eight months, which devastated the group. Anthony left the band to study early education, then founded the Wiggles, bringing in Fatt, Murray Cook and Greg Page; their first album was dedicated to Bernadette. Paul became their manager in 1996. These days, Field's older brother Luke is the Wiggles' manager, while his cousin Lucia is a blue Wiggle like her father, Anthony, and his wife, Stephanie, is a Wiggles dancer who occasionally plays Dorothy the Dinosaur and Bubbles the Mermaid. Field himself made his first Wiggles appearance when he was just two, in the Wiggles video Wake Up Jeff!. The Wiggles have been part of his life for 30 years and counting. 'When I was a kid, I didn't see Anthony as a Wiggle. He was always just my uncle but everyone knew him, which was cool,' he recalls. Did he ever find the Wiggles uncool? 'No, I loved it. Actually, on my first day at high school, dad dropped me off while listening to a new album because it was his job. The Wiggles were pumping out the car and that was the only moment I've ever been like, 'Can you just turn that down a bit?'' At 19, Field began working as a stage technician for the Wiggles. Over the years, Anthony would encourage his nephew to sing and join them on stage; eventually he was stepping in for Anthony and Simon the red Wiggle at live shows or filling in as Captain Feathersword. And now he's beloved by children and parents around the world for playing a groovy tree – an unexpected, but welcome outcome. Can you ever have a bad day as a dancing, singing tree? 'Life happens, of course – but as soon as you get to work and you're singing about hot potatoes, it's really, really, really hard to have a bad day,' he says. In fact, the Tree of Wisdom is now so big that the Wiggles next arena tour is named for him, with an album to go with – and yes, it is all tree-related songs and yes, it includes a cover of Tina Turner's Nutbush City Limits. 'We're gonna make sure that every year nine dance in every world is doing the Nutbush,' says Field. 'We're trying to get some tree-nagers.' Is it strange getting so much attention now? 'No, I love it. I encourage it all. Honestly, people with little ones are probably watching the Wiggles 24 hours a day. When we met De Niro, his partner said, 'I feel like I know you guys, but I've never met you.'' And these days, he's loved for a character that has become entirely his own. 'I'm just being myself – dressed as a tree. And people seem to be connecting with it. I'm proud of that. It's been really cool to see it grow,' he pauses, then adds, cheekily: 'Pun intended.' The Wiggles' Tree of Wisdom Big Show Arena Spectacular! tour goes on sale to the general public on 1 August at 2pm.
News.com.au
29-07-2025
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
The Wiggles' breakout star ‘Tree of Wisdom' lands own headline tour, to release new album
Yes, the Tree of Wisdom did catch The Wiggles cast off-guard when he pulled out those dance moves during filming. Dominic Field, as he's known out of his vibrant green leafy costume, has exploded in popularity over the past year thanks to his signature set of chaotic routines on the Australian children's program, which have made him a bona fide social media sensation with more than 200 million views. And just months after finding viral fame, Field is slated to headline his own national tour, with The Wiggles today announcing the upcoming 'Tree of Wisdom Arena Spectacular Tour' kicking off in November, as well as his own studio album to be released in October. Field's public favour all stems back to The Wiggles' recent reimagining of the catchy Irish folk song Rattlin' Bog. In the music video, he breaks out into a series of chaotic dance moves that progressively get more and more adventurous. Among the hundreds of re-shares on TikTok, including from US reality star Khloe Kardashian, the general consensus has been: 'I want whatever the Tree of Wisdom is having.' Aside from that, many viewers have also been eager to understand what went down on-set when it was filmed, with a flurry of comments pointing to a visibly mystified Purple Wiggle Lachy, who attempts to hold character as Field lets loose. Speaking to Field confirmed no-one knew just how hard he was going to go. 'The way we work at The Wiggles … it wasn't on the schedule four months in advance. You know? It was very much just like, we've got a week of filming and we'll see what we can fit in,' Field says. 'And so it was very much just, 'OK next we're doing the Rattlin' Bog.' It's such difficult song to sing. There's so many words. So it was a matter of, they're [the core cast] locked into to what they need to do, and I've pretty much got free range, and my ultimate goal was to try to slip up Lachy, or slip up someone in the background. 'Every time I'm dancing, I'm trying to catch someone off guard. I'm also thinking, 'OK, what can I do next?' And whatever comes out when it comes out. That's what happens, and it always seems to get bigger and faster.' Fans can expect that signature energy for Field's upcoming tour, with the set list comprising of Wiggles classics and music from the upcoming Tree of Wisdom album. Two tracks have been unveiled early today, including Field's cover of Tina Turner's iconic Nutbush City Limits featuring Yellow Wiggle Tsehay Hawkins. Field has a grand goal with the iconic dancefloor earworm, revealing The Wiggles have discovered the song is only a staple in Australia, despite Turner's US roots. 'We've realised recently that Australia is the only one who does the dance,' Field says. 'We've been touring the world and we play this song and we just get these looks. Even in New Zealand, our close neighbours. It's not much of a thing there. 'No one knows the nutbush dance. So we've taken it on ourselves. We are going to be the international teachers of the nutbush dance.' Field, the youngest child of former Wiggles manager Paul Field and nephew of OG Blue Wiggle Anthony Field, who first appeared in the beloved group as a one-year-old in 1995, has also managed to transcend the target youth market, assembling a fanbase of what he coins 'tree-nagers' and parents alike. Just weeks ago, Field set the Old Mates pub in New York alight when he whipped out his signature moves for dozens of adults, yet again, going viral on the platform. He's chuffed by the admiration, mostly because he's quietly been 'that guy' on wedding dance floors for years. 'I think it just really reminds everyone of that one guy at a wedding, or that one guy on the dance floor, who doesn't really care what's going on around him,' Field says. 'I think the thing I'm proudest of the most is … What you see of the Tree is very much who I am. I am that guy at the wedding who's just having the best time. 'I'm the youngest of five children. So I've always been trying to get the attention of my parents and all that stuff. So it's just me just having the most fun. And I think that resonates with people.' Presale tickets for 'The Wiggles' Tree of Wisdom Big Show Arena Spectacular Tour', sponsored by the Australian Fruit and Vegetable Industry, will be available from 1pm AEDT Tuesday July 29 for Amex Card members. General public tickets go on sale this Friday August 1 at 2pm. 'It's going to be in the round, which we haven't done for quite some time. The original Wiggles did it way back in the day, but this new generation of Wiggles, we're doing it in the round, in the arena. It's gonna be spectacular,' Field says. 'Of course, we'll have the classic songs that everyone knows and loves from The Wiggles, but we're throwing in some new stuff. There's gonna be balls flying around, and of course, there's gonna be some new stuff from the Tree of Wisdom album as well. It's going to get people dancing and it's going to bring that energy up.' THE WIGGLES' TREE OF WISDOM ARENA TOUR DATES RAC Arena, Perth – Saturday, November 1 Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide – Sunday, November 9 Hobart Entertainment Centre, Hobart – Saturday, November 15 AIS Arena, Canberra – Saturday, November 22 John Cain Arena, Melbourne – Saturday, November 29 Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Brisbane – Saturday, December 6 Newcastle Entertainment Centre, Newcastle – Wednesday, December 10 Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney – Saturday, December 13 ICC, Sydney – Saturday, December 20 TRECC, Tamworth at Toyota 54th Tamworth Country Music Festival 2026 – Sunday, January 25, 2026
