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1:21

Hello, and welcome to Good1A Podcasts

1:23

About Jokes. I am your host, Jesse

1:25

David Fox. This week's guest is Jack

1:27

Whitehall, one of England's absolute

1:30

biggest comedians touring arenas, starring

1:33

in co-creating hit TV shows. In

1:35

America, however, he is

1:38

not one of the biggest comedians. Look,

1:41

don't get me wrong. He does pretty well for himself. But

1:43

at the same time, if he was out with his family here, more

1:46

people might recognize his dad. You

1:48

know, that's because Jack has done five hit seasons on

1:50

Netflix of Travels With My Father, a show

1:53

about his well travels with his

1:55

older, very proper father. The

1:57

disconnect between how big he is there and how big he

1:59

is here is fascinating. How do you go from playing 20,000

2:01

people to playing 200 people or even a

2:04

thousand people? It's interesting. Though

2:07

you will be able to see Jack in the new season of The Afterparty

2:09

which premieres on July 12th on Apple TV+.

2:12

So the joke we're going to start with comes from Jack's 2017 Netflix

2:15

special At Large. To give you a sense

2:17

of how famous and fancy he is in England, the

2:20

joke does involve interacting with the royal

2:22

family.

2:23

So here is Jack Whitehall.

2:30

This is the thing, okay? I have had these

2:32

scandals in my career and I always feel like I'm on

2:34

the verge of another one because I put my foot in it.

2:37

I can't help it, right? I nearly did

2:39

it on a big scale last year. Last

2:41

year I was asked to host the Royal

2:43

Variety Show, the prestigious annual

2:45

charity gala attended by a member of the royal

2:48

family. The year that I hosted

2:50

it, it was attended by Prince Harry. So

2:52

I was like, you know what? I'm going to start the evening off by

2:54

paying Prince Harry a compliment. Get him

2:57

on side. So I walked out, 5,000 people,

2:59

black tie,

3:00

Royal Albert Hall. I was like, your Royal

3:02

Highness, Prince Harry, I would like to start by

3:04

complimenting you on the bravery

3:06

and the courage that you showed in

3:09

Afghanistan. A ginger

3:11

in that heat. Woo, fuck me.

3:13

I'm

3:16

glad you laughed because on the night that one went

3:18

down like a dead corgi, okay? From

3:22

there on in, hard work, okay? End

3:25

of the show, the one thing you've got to remember to do

3:27

is host of the Royal Variety Show is lead

3:29

the cast in a bow to the Royal

3:31

box, okay? So I'm stood

3:33

on stage, end of the show, next to Sir

3:36

Elton John, National Treasure and

3:38

One Direction Regional Trinkets.

3:41

And there then,

3:44

and you know why I didn't do the

3:46

bow to the Royal box? Because Elton

3:48

John, Sir Elton John, National Treasure,

3:50

a man who I have never met before in my

3:52

life, thought it would be funny live

3:55

on TV in front of 5,000 people at the Royal

3:57

Albert Hall as I was about to bow

3:59

to the Royal.

3:59

the royal box he lent in and

4:02

whispered in my ear I wouldn't

4:04

bend over in front of me love and

4:12

there's cameras everywhere they caught

4:15

me exact moment he said it look

4:24

pulled out through the vowel so

4:26

that was quite bad okay act of treason live

4:29

on stage afterwards it gets even

4:31

worse afterwards they have this black

4:33

tie charity reception

4:36

god these stories are so relatable so

4:40

I stupidly decided that I would invite with me

4:42

as my plus one to the charity reception my

4:44

mate Dave okay

4:46

I'm laughing Jack you do not have a

4:48

friend called Dave it's

4:51

short for the Earl of Daffentry okay

4:57

it's a fake name he's not actually called Dave I've given

4:59

him a fake name for this story because he doesn't

5:01

come out of it great now

5:04

what Dave is Dave is your dickhead friend

5:06

so I'm hanging out

5:09

with dickhead friend at the bar not hanging out you don't

5:11

hang out with a dickhead friend you man

5:13

mark him so I'm

5:15

man marking dickhead friend at the bar prince

5:18

Harry walks over prince Harry walks over with

5:20

two armed security personnel just

5:22

remember that for later on in the story these

5:25

guys have guns all right

5:27

so walks over me and Gabe stood here at the bar

5:30

Dave not Gabe that

5:33

went well give

5:35

him the fake name and then just say his

5:38

actual name out loud

5:38

what

5:42

do I do do I start again I

5:46

can't believe

5:55

I've done that because I just wanted

5:57

to do that story and I just say his name

5:59

and Flick's lawyer was like, you have to give him a faint

6:02

name for the special. So

6:04

I made up the name and then I just said his actual

6:06

name. Can

6:09

I beep it? What

6:13

have I done?

6:17

My name isn't Dave, his

6:19

name is Gabe. So I guess we're

6:21

going with

6:23

Dave. Gabe Turner is his full name. He's

6:25

on Twitter. This goes out all over the world. He's

6:29

going to kill me. Okay

6:32

sorry, I was going to stop crying. Okay,

6:37

right. Okay, so Prince Harry

6:42

walks over to me and Gabe is like, you're

6:45

going to get me. I'm going to get you.

6:47

Okay, so you're

6:49

going to get me. I'm going to get you. I'm

6:53

going to get you. Okay, so he walks

6:55

over to me and Gabe Emmanuel Turner.

7:00

It's like Gabe,

7:02

Dave, whatever. I've forgotten

7:04

his name. Gabe, okay, is a big guy. He's

7:07

got cauliflower-shaped head, like big

7:09

rugby player, alright. Kind

7:12

of guy you wouldn't want to throw under the bus. Anyway,

7:17

so Gabe's a big guy. Prince Harry walks over. He

7:19

decides he's going to do a little joke. So

7:21

Prince Harry walks over. He's

7:23

like, is this your bodyguard? I

7:25

was like, that's so funny. He's very tall.

7:30

Harry,

7:30

you're so amusing. Probably

7:39

cut that bit out as well. So,

7:47

no, the problem is I was so

7:49

busy laughing at Harry's little joke,

7:52

I didn't realize what was unfolding next to me.

7:55

It was like one of those moments in life where everything

7:57

happens in slow motion.

7:59

I turned to my left, I could see

8:02

that my dickhead friend was gearing up

8:04

to drop a clanger, but there was nothing

8:07

that I could do to stop it from happening.

8:10

Do you know what his response was? To getting

8:12

called a bodyguard by

8:14

the fifth in line to the throne

8:17

at a black tie charity reception.

8:20

He went, Oi oi! F*** off

8:22

Ron Weasley!

8:23

Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!

8:27

Oh! Oh! Oh!

8:31

Oh! Oh! Oh!

8:34

Oh! Shots

8:37

fired! Shots fired!

8:44

To be fair to Harry, he leaves

8:46

it just long enough for me to think that my friend is

8:48

about to be executed by the security services,

8:51

and then cool as you like goes,

8:53

Well, I'd rather look like Ron Weasley than

8:56

Shrek. I'm

9:00

here with Jack Whitehall, thank you for joining me. Thank

9:02

you very much for having me. So, you

9:05

know, what does writing stand up mean

9:07

to you? You know, when you say I'm writing

9:10

my stand up, what does writing look like? How

9:12

do you write? How much

9:14

is it on pen to paper? How much is it live? What

9:16

is your process?

9:17

Yeah, my process is very

9:19

gradual. It's jotting down notes

9:22

in my phone when I have a thought

9:24

or writing it down on a little piece of paper

9:26

and then coming back to it and

9:28

then, you

9:30

know, taking the nub of an idea and

9:33

I do write it all out, actually. You

9:35

know, we'll see it on my laptop and write every

9:38

word of it and then we'll do it on stage and then

9:41

do a little bit of writing on stage as well and

9:43

tweak and alter things

9:45

and sort of improvise around

9:47

it. But, yeah,

9:51

I seldom will sit down with

9:53

a blank page in front of me and go, Yeah, I'm going to

9:55

write some material today.

9:59

It has to sort of... have come to you. You know,

10:01

when I talk to British comedians, I'm interested

10:04

how the sort of way

10:07

British comedians start and American comedians are sort of similar

10:09

and different, but like, were you oriented

10:11

around shows? Like, especially starting out,

10:13

did

10:14

you do a lot of Edinburgh and as a result that

10:16

shape how you think of like building a set?

10:19

Yeah, Edinburgh was definitely the first place

10:21

that I went to as a comedian and saw it and thought,

10:23

oh yeah, this is a viable

10:25

kind of career path for me and something that

10:28

I kind of adore and would

10:30

love to be involved in this world

10:32

and saw shows and, you know,

10:36

there's a kind of like disparity, I guess, between the

10:38

comedy that I grew up with and the comedy

10:41

that I then saw at Edinburgh, which was more like,

10:44

you know,

10:45

personal and alternative,

10:49

you know, stylistically. And then the stuff that I probably

10:51

was brought up with was a little bit more tried and

10:54

was things like the Royal Variety Show, which would

10:56

have like quite old school, you

10:58

know, comedians and TV presenters

11:01

coming on and telling kind

11:04

of hand-me-down jokes. And it was, you

11:06

know, very mainstream.

11:08

And then seeing this other version at

11:11

Edinburgh that was, you know, completely different

11:14

to that. Although, weirdly, I feel like probably

11:16

with my career, I've told a line somewhere in between,

11:18

like, lurching between personal material

11:21

and having a little bit more of a

11:23

mainstream sensibility than maybe some of my

11:25

peers. Yeah, I think that's fair. The

11:27

other thing I was curious, I was watching your last special and in the credits

11:30

you thank Alex Edelman as a stand-up consultant.

11:32

Yeah. I'm friendly with Alex. Can you talk

11:34

about what a stand-up consultant does?

11:37

Literally, he came

11:39

in and watched my show. So

11:42

it was at the end of my tour before

11:45

I did my special.

11:48

And like, he's great. And

11:50

I love Alex and I just trust his

11:52

judgement so much. And he just,

11:55

yeah, he just watched my show and like gave me

11:57

some notes on it. And like,

11:59

I don't

11:59

know. I don't know, like sometimes I think it's good

12:01

to have a little bit of a steer and Alex is

12:04

like a really good critical eye

12:06

and he's like that joke could be more original or

12:08

you

12:10

know, that subject matter is a bit hack. You

12:12

probably want to drop that for your special

12:14

and he's amazing at that because like I

12:16

do think

12:18

for me as well, especially when I'm

12:20

doing like a big arena tour around

12:22

the country and doing it to like a very,

12:24

yeah,

12:25

like a very kind of broad audience

12:28

that have maybe seen me on TV and have come along

12:30

and I put on like a two hour show,

12:32

like of that two hour show, I would

12:34

say some of it is not like special material,

12:36

but it's just for the room. And

12:38

so he's also quite good at like taking

12:41

the scalpel out and being like, yeah, maybe you

12:43

don't want to do that bit of like,

12:45

I don't know, audience banter or

12:48

whatever it is. So it's that he's

12:50

like a critical eye. Yeah, that's interesting. Yeah.

12:53

And the hack police as well. Yeah. Well,

12:55

I imagine you know stuff gets passed in there probably. If

12:57

you're seeing people who don't see much stand up, you

13:00

need have some material because they're coming

13:02

partly because they have an idea of stand up in some ways.

13:05

If you're trying to

13:07

almost wrangle that many people,

13:09

you need to like make sure you're playing

13:11

to everyone. Otherwise you can lose that you're

13:13

playing tens of thousands of people. Yeah, you

13:15

definitely have to.

13:17

It's a very, very different show

13:19

in an arena to a

13:22

theater or a comedy club. And I

13:24

think that's definitely something I learned between the sort

13:27

of the specials that I've shot there. The

13:29

first one I did, I just did the arena show as

13:32

well as it was. And then I watched

13:34

it back in it and it didn't work as well as

13:36

a special because I was playing

13:39

to an arena in the round as well, which

13:41

is really challenging. And

13:44

the second one, I tried to tailor it a little bit more

13:46

and play to the camera and know that I was

13:48

doing it for people watching it on a laptop screen.

13:51

So I had to alter my performance

13:53

and tweak the material ever

13:55

so slightly, I think, to make sure that it works

13:58

better as a special.

13:59

And then the next one that I do,

14:02

I feel like maybe I won't do it. And I know I might

14:04

try doing it in the theater because it might be a

14:07

better room to record a special in.

14:09

Yeah, so I wanted to get into this joke. So let's

14:11

start with the writing of the first joke pre

14:14

this joke, the joke that exists

14:16

the first time, the joke that you told at the Royal Variety

14:19

Show, which the wording is slightly different

14:21

in the Royal Variety version than the one you

14:24

tell the special, but generally it's the same

14:26

idea about being a ginger in the heat. Can you talk

14:28

about when you had that thought? What do you thought

14:30

when you were like, can I

14:32

tell that joke, how are people gonna receive it? Well,

14:34

I'll tell you exactly the

14:36

sort of origin of it. So the first time

14:39

I ever did the Royal Variety Show, I had

14:41

five minutes set to do and it was

14:44

Prince Charles and Camilla, who are the royals

14:46

in attendance. And I'd worked out all of my

14:48

jokes. And then I was like, I'll do

14:50

a little bit at the beginning where I refer to them and

14:53

I'll write some jokes specifically about them.

14:56

And this is 2010? I think 2010.

14:59

So I was pretty new and fresh

15:01

and hadn't done a lot of stuff on TV.

15:04

Most of the audience probably wouldn't have known who I was. So

15:06

it's a really, really hard gig. And I

15:08

think the other comedian on the night, I'm

15:10

not gonna mention his name, but he's a very successful comedian

15:13

now in the States and he had had a tough gig. And

15:16

so I was like, this is a hard room. And

15:18

so I then had my set

15:21

and

15:23

practiced it over and over again. And they're very

15:26

regimented about what you can and can't say as well,

15:28

because obviously you're performing on like

15:32

television and in front of the royal family. So

15:34

there's extra kind of like stakes to it.

15:36

And so I was like, I'll do a little bit at the beginning about

15:38

Charles. And so I did

15:41

a thing, I think it was a

15:43

little bit about

15:45

talking about the flag on Buckingham

15:47

Palace and how you

15:49

always knew if the queen was in residence by

15:51

the flag being up. And then me saying that must've been

15:53

amazing when you were like my age

15:56

and you were sneaking out to have drinks with your mates and

15:58

trying to bring women back because you.

15:59

know whether mommy was in or not and

16:02

that got a massive reaction and he laughed and

16:04

then the whole audience laughed and then as soon

16:06

as I get into my actual material

16:09

it was straight back to being a

16:11

really tough gig and I was like well that's

16:13

the key to this show is to acknowledge

16:15

the fact that there are two very

16:17

very famous people in the room and make the whole

16:19

of your routine about them because there's no point in then

16:22

going into like prepared jokes because they're

16:24

gonna die and that's not what they want they want

16:26

you to talk about the weirdness of the situation

16:28

so that was a really good learning curve that if I

16:30

was ever gonna do it again then I had to talk about

16:33

the royals that were in attendance and just throw

16:35

them under the bus because that's the only way

16:37

you can win that gig so then when I was asked to host

16:39

it and I didn't know who the Royal Family

16:42

member was gonna be that was gonna attend and

16:44

I was told that it was Prince

16:47

Harry I was like it was the first time I think he'd ever

16:49

done it yeah it had always been other members of the

16:51

Royal Family and then I was the first year that it was Prince

16:53

Harry I was like thank you God this is

16:55

perfect it's ideal

16:57

for me and it was when he was single as well and he was

16:59

still sort of like Jack the lad and that was

17:02

his kind of public reputation

17:04

and so it was just like a treasure

17:06

trove to the point where on the night I remember

17:08

like I did that first joke where I you

17:12

know did a ginger joke for all intents and purposes

17:15

and then I did what was

17:18

the other joke I did I kept throwing him under

17:20

the bus oh yeah because he was single at the time

17:22

and he was like obviously the most eligible bachelor in the country

17:25

and I made a joke about bringing out the band Little

17:27

Mix and doing a live tinder with him and

17:29

then trying to set him up with one of the acrobats

17:32

in Cirque du Soleil and it was just like relentless

17:35

to the point where I remember

17:36

halfway through the evening I came backstage and

17:38

one of my writers and the producer were in the dressing

17:41

room I was like I think I've probably got to like rein

17:43

it in now I think I've gone into I've steamed

17:45

in too hard I've got overexcited and we're

17:47

about to get to the point where I think I will

17:49

cross the line and he will stop laughing

17:52

at all of these jokes but it was amazing

17:54

and it was like it was a great gig

17:56

and and again like yeah every

17:58

time I was like like,

18:00

chucking barbs off at him, the audience were

18:02

on side with me and then the minute I was doing actual

18:05

jokes it was like, tough

18:07

again. So when did you have the Afghanistan

18:09

joke part of it? Like, did you, and were you

18:11

nervous about it? Do you think?

18:13

Well, no, no, it was just one of those perfect ones

18:15

where it, because also all those people

18:18

are so like prim and proper and the audience, the

18:20

Royal Variety Show is like, all like

18:22

very well to do,

18:24

like cross the old

18:26

white dudes sat there in their suits

18:28

and like, you know, looking

18:30

down their nose at you, I knew that if I did a

18:32

little bit of like, nationalism

18:35

and a bit of baiting of like, you

18:38

know, British exceptionalism

18:40

and applauding him for being a

18:42

veteran that they would be right on side

18:45

and then reel them in. So the minute

18:47

I went, I'd like to commend you for your

18:49

service in Afghanistan. I was

18:51

like, I've got them now. Yeah.

18:55

Yeah. Because you got them paying attention and then you're

18:57

like, oh, now they bought into the premise.

19:00

Yeah, they really, they really

19:02

were sold on the dummy. Yeah. So,

19:05

you know, in the then retelling, you say the joke

19:07

didn't do well that night, but

19:09

it seemed like, as you told me, now it did well in the recording,

19:12

it seems like it did well. Did it feel

19:14

like it didn't well? Is that just because you wanted to set

19:16

up didn't well? Like, what was the thinking? You

19:19

know, you say it went

19:21

down like a dead corgi.

19:23

Oh, yeah, I think it went down like a dead corgi

19:25

with like the people in the Royal

19:27

Box and all of the organizers

19:30

and the people that it said, just watch it like

19:32

there and like completely

19:34

ashen faced and because that's

19:36

what happens. The minute you make a joke about one of them, everyone's

19:39

looking to see that they laugh. So

19:41

all of the like the people and

19:44

the head of the Royal Variety Show and all

19:46

of the like the suits basically, it's

19:48

like cannot stand it. And like to

19:51

the point where also you like

19:53

slightly have to lie about what you're going to say

19:55

on stage to get it round the sensors.

19:58

And so, you know, I had and told them

20:01

the extent of how far I was gonna push

20:03

it. I just said I'm gonna do some references to him, but

20:05

don't worry, it won't go too far.

20:07

And then I do that joke and

20:10

like, yeah, everyone

20:12

is then, the minute I walk off stage, because I then

20:14

introduced them when I came off stage and I'm like surrounded

20:17

by all of the producers

20:19

and the person who's like the

20:21

royal liaison and they're all

20:24

like absolutely terrified because they think,

20:26

oh no, you've overstepped a lot. This is not what you're meant

20:28

to do at this show, it's

20:30

all about deference and duty and

20:35

how dare you. So in that

20:37

respect, like I think to them

20:39

it went down.

20:40

Like a dead copy.

20:42

That makes sense. I also

20:44

wanna ask you mentioned, you also have a story about performing

20:47

at Kensington Palace for Charles and Camilla

20:49

and that's show not going well. Yeah. And

20:52

all these stories mixed together. Can you tell us just

20:54

to get a sense of your relationship to doing comedy

20:56

with the royals? Yeah, I got booked

20:58

for that one basically off the back of having done quite

21:01

well at the Royal Variety Show when they were there. So they

21:03

booked me to go and do their Christmas party

21:05

and it was at Kensington Palace for all of their

21:07

staff and they were in the front row, Charles

21:10

and Camilla and they were literally in thrones. It

21:12

was like big high back chairs and they were sat

21:14

there. And again, toughest

21:17

gig, 20 minutes, no

21:19

warm up, no other acts, just you doing

21:22

comedy for the royals. Every

21:24

joke you do, they just look to see whether they've laughed a

21:26

lot. And again, the same. My

21:29

actual material didn't really land, but

21:32

I did a load of jokes about

21:35

how I'd been at school with Kate Middleton and my mom always referred

21:38

to her as the one that got away and stuff like that, which

21:40

people found funny because I guess there was so

21:43

much tension in the room. That

21:45

breaking it with a- An

21:47

acknowledgement of the situation. An acknowledgement of the situation,

21:49

yeah. I think they enjoyed. So

21:52

yeah, that gig

21:54

was genuinely tough and he did make a joke afterwards

21:56

about

21:58

next year, maybe trying out. a magician

22:01

and also someone told me because

22:03

I had known Michael McIntyre did that gig

22:05

and Omid Jillilly did that gig

22:08

he's another the two comedians are friends

22:10

of mine and Omid Jillilly told

22:12

me that the year before he'd done it and he'd had a guy

22:14

who had an acrobat who

22:17

had climbed through a tennis racket

22:20

and that's what they'd booked as the entertainment

22:23

and then after that they'd gone gone

22:25

to having comedians but I did think

22:27

at the time I was like well this is bad for

22:29

me but it could be worse I could be clambering through a tennis

22:32

racket right now I don't

22:34

suspect that would have gone down particularly

22:36

with Camille there. I played with the

22:38

creator of wine as well. Oh really? Yeah. Probably

22:41

nice wine. No payment you just get a case of wine. Is

22:43

it nice wine? Is it like special? I think it was quite nice

22:45

wine. I only did it as well because my dad really

22:47

wanted it. I was like no it's a free gate

22:49

it's gonna be really tough as I said

22:51

like is I don't really

22:54

see it as like that prestigious

22:56

and my dad was like you're bloody doing

22:59

it I want to meet Charles so I had to do it

23:01

so that they could come along and

23:03

he could meet us here. So the

23:05

next part of the joke is that the Elton John bit and

23:07

it's that's like a thing where it's like you know you have the

23:09

punch line of what he actually says but you can't just

23:11

be like one time Elton John said that when

23:14

and I think a lot of this story you

23:16

have these sort of funny lines and you have to sort of do the

23:18

ramp up how do you think about the sort of ramp

23:20

up to build when

23:22

you know you have that funny part coming

23:25

how do you like approach the telling of story

23:27

that way? I don't know I think yeah it's great

23:29

when it's like when you know you have that big punch

23:31

and you know you've got the the hardest

23:33

bit of the joke and then

23:35

I think from there

23:37

I always just extrapolate and

23:40

it starts off as just a simple punch

23:42

line and then I just keep adding more

23:45

and keep building it up as much as I

23:47

can get away with. Yeah yeah. And I love doing that

23:49

I love having a big performance bit

23:51

that kind of gears

23:53

up to a nice big punch line and

23:56

that one's great because he literally

23:59

gave me the I whispered it in my ear on

24:02

the night. And yeah,

24:05

no need for embellishment as well. He literally

24:08

delivered the line perfectly. And

24:12

on national television. People

24:14

can hear it. It was just too. No, they couldn't hear

24:16

it. Yeah, it was just to me.

24:19

Because I'd been warned as well that he had

24:22

a really wicked sense of humor. He

24:25

had to be warned. Yeah, and

24:27

he didn't disappoint. He

24:29

was very mischievous

24:33

and very, very funny and very, very inappropriate.

24:35

And has

24:38

been whenever I've sort of crossed paths with

24:40

him, which has been always a

24:42

delight. That someone like that doesn't take himself

24:45

too seriously.

24:47

In the rehearsal, it was, I remember

24:49

it so good as well. Cause

24:52

he turned up to rehearsal. I wasn't necessarily expecting

24:54

him to be in the rehearsal. And he was literally writing

24:57

my high line when I was doing all of these

24:59

like jokes on his intro, speaking

25:01

jokes about his shell suits and stuff like that. And

25:05

then feeling a little

25:07

bit nervous that maybe he wasn't going to go with him. And

25:10

he was like, oh, that's bloody hilarious. I

25:12

was like, oh, great. Think I can get away with

25:14

a lot with you. You then cut to

25:16

the screen, we show the face you made. What,

25:19

which is interesting. What made you, you can do that

25:21

throughout that special. What made you think to have these

25:23

sort of visual proof of

25:25

the joke? Yeah,

25:27

that was probably just cause I couldn't get the rights

25:30

to show the clip. Got it. Cause the

25:32

reaction on the video probably

25:34

was even better. But why even include

25:36

it all? Like obviously the joke works. People probably

25:39

would say, why have this sort of extra

25:41

proof?

25:42

I don't know. I think with something like that, A it helps

25:45

because a line like that and a moment

25:47

like that almost feels like too good to be true.

25:49

And that moment is the exact

25:51

moment that he said it. And to have it captured

25:53

as a picture, I think is

25:56

like really delightful and the audience really

25:58

enjoy it because it's like.

27:59

because the public is boarding

28:02

school and private school. It's very

28:05

confusing. But yeah, so all

28:07

of that is projected onto me

28:09

correctly. So it's not projected,

28:12

that is the truth. So

28:14

certain assumptions are made. And it's

28:17

been one of the hardest things in

28:19

terms of transitioning my comedy to work

28:22

in the States is remembering that an audience

28:24

doesn't have that preconception about me and

28:26

having to work to sort of fill in the

28:30

blanks a

28:32

little bit more. Whereas there's, yeah,

28:36

this unsaid thing in Britain that

28:38

I can sort of rely on and take

28:40

as read. And

28:44

that has been a struggle

28:47

at times over here, remembering that that's not

28:49

the case in the States. So yeah, a

28:51

name like Dave is a pretty

28:53

traditional working class British

28:56

name. And therefore it

28:58

might be unlikely that I would have a friend called

29:00

Dave. You would more associate

29:03

my friendship group with the Ruppets

29:05

of this world, with the Archibalds

29:08

names such as that.

29:10

And Noah, Digby, two

29:12

of my best friends. So again,

29:14

yeah, it's very much

29:17

based in truth and fact. That's

29:19

interesting. So how do you do it when you play in American

29:21

odds? Do you just tell them up front? Do you have to be like?

29:24

I just rewrite it and drop a load of stuff basically.

29:27

I mean, I've tried to sort of crowbar

29:30

some of that stuff in and occasionally

29:32

you can sort of get away with it being like a British

29:34

thing rather than a posh thing. But on the

29:36

whole, you just have to sort of slightly,

29:40

yeah, a lot

29:42

of it is that where

29:44

the punch line becomes about, oh, this is a

29:46

British thing rather than a posh thing. British people

29:48

are fancy, not you're fancy. Exactly.

29:51

And in England, yeah, you have to

29:53

sort of recalibrate it. But yeah,

29:56

I definitely lose a bit of material when I come over

29:58

here. So.

29:59

The class thing is interesting because doing research,

30:02

it seems like at first you try

30:04

to hide from it, you talked about that you tried different

30:06

voices at first, and then it seems like especially

30:08

a lot of your act has been actively

30:10

sort of pushing against the expectations of

30:13

it. Can you talk about the sort of how you

30:15

learn to evolve with it and make

30:18

an asset out of it? Well, it

30:20

had to become an asset as well because I soon realized

30:23

so many like

30:25

straight white male comedians

30:28

and so many straight white male comedians when I was

30:30

coming up, all of the same, I had age.

30:33

That was a little bit of a USP when I saw, because

30:35

I was so young, I was like, well, that's an angle,

30:37

but I did soon realize that that's an angle

30:39

that I will very rapidly lose. So I

30:41

need to find another angle rather than just being

30:44

prepubescent. So then I

30:46

realized, well, actually, the one thing that

30:48

slightly marks me out from all of the other

30:52

guys with the same haircut talking about

30:54

the same stuff on stage

30:55

is that I come from a very ridiculous

31:00

background. I went to a boarding

31:02

school and have this sort of

31:05

like

31:08

existence and

31:10

family and background and all of that.

31:12

And that's something that I could use

31:14

as material and I could

31:18

bend that to my advantage. And so then

31:20

it became like the thing that

31:22

sort of slightly marked me out, I guess, from all

31:24

of the other acts that

31:26

were coming

31:28

at comedy from a similar angle to me when I was just doing

31:30

it, sort of without a leaning

31:32

into that. And so, yeah, it definitely

31:35

became something that became

31:36

part of my act very quickly. And then,

31:39

yeah, I guess probably once

31:41

it became part of my act, then you have the

31:44

flip side of that, which is you don't want it to all be about

31:46

that. And

31:47

maybe I've been guilty sometimes of leading

31:51

into it too much. And now maybe

31:54

as I've matured a bit as a comedian, I'm trying

31:56

to find a slightly

31:59

new. version of my voice so it's not all about that

32:01

because that jake does wear a little

32:04

thin eventually. Sure, yeah. So

32:06

we get to the dave into gave part

32:08

and this may be bold to say but I

32:10

believe this this is a put on.

32:13

So yes this is a put on yeah

32:15

yeah yeah. One

32:17

night it wasn't. So yeah so let's talk

32:19

yeah that's what I guess so let's talk about fleshing

32:22

it out what happened how how we got to where

32:24

it is.

32:24

I did it yeah so I did it one night I

32:27

was like I'll because I at the beginning I was like

32:29

this is what I do when I do a joke about someone

32:31

else is that I make sure that it works

32:33

first before I ask permission because

32:36

I don't want to ask permission for a joke that then

32:39

doesn't work because then I've wasted

32:41

that opportunity and potentially

32:44

jeopardized a friendship or relationship

32:47

over a joke that I'm not even going to use so I make

32:49

sure that I do it first and so I was like well I'm going

32:51

to do it a couple of times road test

32:54

it make sure this joke works then I will ask

32:56

Gabe if I can use it and if I can use his name

32:58

and talk talk to him about it.

33:01

So I was like I'll give him a fake name just whilst I'm

33:03

road testing it and whilst I was road testing it

33:05

and using the fake name I got very confused

33:08

one night because I was not

33:10

like you know comfortable

33:14

yet with the with the joke and the wording of it all that

33:16

I just said his name out loud and it was very

33:18

very funny in the moment and people

33:21

enjoyed the slip up and so

33:25

because I got that laugh I was like oh

33:28

it's going to be really hard not to try and get that

33:30

laugh again so then I was like I think

33:32

I'm going to have to do that every night so then yeah

33:35

it was it happened once yeah and then I was

33:37

like I'm going to do it again

33:40

and so I mean and

33:42

yeah I guess that's also like slightly my like I

33:46

don't know I like doing things like that

33:48

which I know probably a little bit

33:50

like trad I don't know it's because

33:52

I grew up watching as I say like lots

33:54

of

33:55

lots of theatre and lots of farce

33:58

like lots of my heroes were people like, you

34:01

know, like weird music hall outs

34:03

like Norman Wisdom and things like

34:05

that. And so

34:06

I have a real

34:09

love for that. And I love watching

34:11

corpses. And I used to go and watch lots

34:14

of, you know, theater with my

34:16

mum and dad when I was growing up and watching like Brian

34:18

Ricks Farses and stuff like that where like

34:21

masterful, like,

34:23

corpses and corpses, people breaking,

34:26

people breaking. And you know, I'm trying

34:29

to think of other like, I mean,

34:31

I don't know why I say I'm trying to think of other

34:34

the all of the names that I mentioned are probably flying over

34:36

everyone's head anyway. We know the word fires.

34:39

We're twee niche British

34:42

comedians. But like, yeah, I do have an appreciation

34:44

for that. So that's maybe where my love

34:46

of that comes from. And so yeah, I built that

34:48

into that routine, because it also makes

34:51

it a little bit messier. And I

34:53

think,

34:54

um, yeah, the audience enjoy

34:57

and they enjoy seeing me sort of fraying and

35:00

it feeling. Yeah, I mean, what is it like to play

35:03

it? Because it keeps on I assume you didn't, you know,

35:05

it grows. It's quite a large part. It's like the centerpiece

35:07

of this joke is the part of it not working. Yeah.

35:10

How did it evolve? Did any part

35:12

of you? Because around

35:15

when you're doing this joke, there are some comedians, at least in

35:17

the States, that had something similar, but would

35:19

then

35:20

do a part where they're like, then acknowledging

35:22

that this all was a lie, like you

35:25

sort of don't you just sort of play it as is. Talk

35:28

about sort of that approach and how you sort of

35:30

built it out and decided not to reveal that

35:32

this was sort of all a put on.

35:34

Well, until right

35:36

now, I guess. Yeah, until right now, I guess. It's

35:39

far enough away that we've

35:42

got some distance from it. But I don't know. I

35:44

don't know. I didn't know. Maybe it's, I

35:46

mean, other people would be of a different opinion, but I'm

35:49

kind of like

35:51

I was like a magician not reading his trick.

35:53

I do feel it's a little bit like that. I

35:55

think people buy into it and some

35:57

people. people

36:01

maybe would want to, I don't know, would

36:03

want to know, but I think, and

36:05

a lot of people do realize, but don't care.

36:09

And so, yeah, I don't know,

36:11

I didn't feel the need to kind

36:14

of like puncture it or take people

36:16

out of it because they think they

36:19

enjoy it. The other funny one

36:21

that I did, there

36:23

was a, again, a moment

36:26

that happened and I was like, it's too good not

36:28

to give every audience

36:30

this moment, was I did a

36:32

show where I came on a horse at

36:35

the beginning of the show because I was like, come on, I'm in

36:37

an arena, I need to give them a proper night out,

36:39

they've booked a babysitter. The last

36:41

time they were in this venue, they were probably seeing

36:43

Lady Gaga, so I need to put

36:45

on a show, so I'm going to come on on a horse.

36:48

So I came on on a horse and on night

36:51

two, as I came on on the horse and dismounted

36:53

the horse and made my triumphant entrance,

36:56

the horse unloaded its bowels onto the stage

36:59

and then trotted off.

37:01

It was hilarious and we had to deal with

37:03

it in the moment and the stage manager had to

37:05

come on and I had to shovel it and anyway,

37:08

they loved it. And so I was like,

37:10

we've probably got to manufacture that every night because

37:12

that would be brilliant. And so we did it

37:15

every night and people absolutely loved it.

37:19

It was my poor tour manager,

37:22

Johnny, having to create

37:24

the perfect fake. Get out of here.

37:26

I was like, did you have to figure out feeding the horse? And

37:29

then there was whipping off a little

37:33

cloth that he had hidden over it

37:35

from underneath the wings. It

37:38

truly then becomes a magic trick. Yeah, it literally

37:40

became a magic trick and it was just a bit. There's

37:45

been other moments in my show where I've sort of

37:48

had those moments. That one is

37:50

what is just depressing because then no joke

37:52

that you tell for the next hour and a half gets this

37:54

bigger laugh as a horse taking a dump on the stage.

37:59

know it's like what anything

38:02

a comedian does is they're trying out material with

38:05

their audience. The audience is telling them what they like and you're like,

38:07

well, how could I then

38:08

recreate the feeling of that moment

38:11

because you're so performative on stage? It makes sense. You're

38:13

like, okay, I just have to act this out again. I just

38:15

have to pretend. Yeah. And I

38:17

would say that the key to making those bits work

38:20

and feel like they're not acted and

38:22

feel like it's not as prescriptive as it

38:24

could be is

38:27

making

38:29

sure as well. And it always is the case, like those

38:31

are the bits where I am literally the most like

38:34

improvise.

38:37

I will always say the name

38:38

wrong and then go into that bit. But

38:41

what happens after that will be different every night.

38:44

And I like that as well because I am quite

38:46

regimented when I do stand up in terms of

38:48

like I do stick quite closely

38:51

to a script and I like those moments where

38:53

it becomes a little bit looser. And so

38:55

weirdly, you know, it is

38:57

probably authentically the most like live

39:01

moment of the show because it's the messiest

39:03

part and I

39:05

am changing it up and making

39:08

it different. But

39:12

yeah, I mean, and the

39:14

other issue with that is like some nights, I

39:17

don't connect with it as much because it feels really acted

39:19

and then all the nights it like comes out

39:22

perfectly because it feels very authentic

39:24

and messy and you

39:27

know, it's

39:28

whilst

39:31

most jokes will be pretty much the

39:33

same each time I tell them that's one where every

39:35

night it was different. Yeah. I mean, speaking

39:37

about how regimented you are, so

39:40

the joke continues and you

39:42

Prince Harry tells a little joke and you sort of do

39:44

a big act out for it. And I believe you

39:47

like pretty deliberate about how you do

39:49

act outs. Can you talk about like what the process is like

39:51

that? Are they rehearsed or they scripted? Like

39:53

how how specific are they? Yeah,

39:55

I mean, in the old days, I used to work with

39:58

my guy called

39:59

and then Kavy who's been

40:02

a long time sort of collaborator, producer,

40:04

and worked with him

40:06

on my TV shows and stuff. And

40:08

he

40:10

used to work with me on my

40:14

stage shows. And he was like

40:16

a theatre director when he was younger and then

40:18

moved into the television. But we would go

40:20

through the show and we would work out like physical

40:23

bits and act outs. And again, like talking

40:25

of people that influenced me, I was always

40:27

like obsessed with Rowan Atkinson and John Cleese

40:30

and people like that who made

40:32

the most of their physicality. And so I

40:34

would always try to bring elements of that into my

40:36

shows and have like big

40:38

physical act outs. And I love using my

40:41

body in weird, wonderful ways

40:43

and trying to add to a routine

40:46

by building in

40:49

kind of like physical

40:50

and visual element to it. So

40:52

yeah, with that one, I think that

40:55

organically became bigger and

40:57

bigger and bigger and had more

40:59

kind of like physical

41:01

elements to it as I

41:04

did it more. Yeah.

41:06

I had a question about directing, as you mentioned, director. In

41:09

this joke, there's two visual things

41:11

that I don't see many specials before where the

41:13

camera starts and it sort of circumnavigates

41:15

you and that happens twice.

41:17

That is a very interesting thing to have in

41:19

a special partly because you're like, well, where

41:22

was the cameraman? Because you see a wide shot

41:24

and then somehow you have a shot around you. Yeah. Do

41:27

you have, was that a deliberate decision to have that shot?

41:29

Was that shot filmed live? Yeah, that

41:31

was filmed live on the night. Yeah, we had to pick, we did

41:34

it over two nights. So we picked four

41:36

moments where we'd come on and try

41:38

to

41:39

film some stuff on the stage because he's just

41:41

trying to make it a little bit more dynamic. And

41:45

yeah, I think one night he tripped over and again,

41:47

like that horse taking a shot on the stage,

41:49

deeply depressing that he gets a bigger laugh than you

41:51

and all he's done is fall over on his ass.

41:54

But yeah, we tried to

41:56

build that into that routine so that

41:58

it was shot in a kind of of interesting

42:01

way as well. Yeah.

42:07

Yeah. I remember that. I don't

42:09

think I'd do it again to be honest because it is

42:11

quite distracting having a cameraman on

42:13

the stage with you running around. Yeah,

42:16

I was just curious. I was like, you notice in the next special, that

42:18

doesn't. Yeah. The other thing about physical comedy

42:20

feel like this moment captures two things about

42:23

your comedy. One is you're very specific

42:25

with your body. Your body is like

42:27

almost like a muse, how you use it, how you decide

42:29

to like, you know, you're naked often

42:32

in things you do off stage. And

42:34

then also embarrassment is obviously such a another

42:37

muse for you. Talk

42:39

about that. How you landed on those focuses

42:42

and what it is about it and what

42:44

connects you to those elements.

42:47

I don't know. I think it's just that thing of like,

42:50

I think it's useful to like,

42:52

to be

42:54

as like self deprecating

42:56

as possible and make yourself

42:58

as low status as you can. And

43:01

I really like that comedy

43:04

of cringe and humiliation

43:06

and like sharing that with an audience and that feels

43:09

not only cathartic, but I think is, you

43:12

know, really helps you connect with an audience

43:14

when you're willing to just like, bear

43:17

all and, you

43:19

know,

43:20

embrace being

43:23

a fool

43:25

at your own expense for them. And

43:27

I enjoy that. And then in terms of like the

43:30

physicality, I think, I

43:33

don't know, I just think I have quite a funny body.

43:35

I'm like quite gangly and

43:39

big like

43:42

dangling limbs. We have this

43:44

phrase, a lanky streak of piss.

43:47

Is that an Americanism? No, well, that's

43:49

what I was called as a kid. Father

43:52

could be very cool. But

43:54

I was like, well, I should embrace this. And so

43:57

yeah, I love it when I can find

43:59

a routine where I can build in a little

44:02

bit of an act out or some

44:05

theatricality. I'm very theatrical. I think that's

44:07

it, isn't it? It just grew

44:10

up watching so much

44:13

theatre and

44:14

live comedy and

44:16

was so enamoured

44:19

of it that I wanted to have

44:21

an element of that in my show.

44:27

Hello, Jesse

44:29

here. I want to take a brief moment to let

44:32

you know that I wrote a book, and it

44:34

is coming out on November 7th.

44:39

It's called Comedy Book, How Comedy Conquered

44:41

Culture and the Magic That Makes It Work. It was inspired

44:44

by all the interviews I've done for a good one

44:46

these last six plus years, as well as

44:48

a decade plus of watching and studying

44:51

comedy. This book is me making

44:53

the case for comedy as an art form that can be analyzed

44:56

and thought deeply about. I talked about

44:58

a lot of comedy that's been made the

45:00

last 30-40 years, and

45:03

if you like this show, I really think you'll dig it. I

45:06

put a lot of time in my brain and myself

45:08

into this book,

45:09

and it would mean so much

45:11

to me for you to read it. So you can

45:13

pre-order Comedy Book, How Comedy Conquered

45:15

Culture and the Magic That Makes It Work, wherever

45:17

you buy books, but we will include a link

45:20

in the show notes so you don't have to wildly

45:22

google. So thank you for your time.

45:25

I really appreciate it.

45:28

Hello, I'm Esther Perel. I'm

45:30

a psychotherapist and host of the podcast

45:32

Where Should We Begin? Relationships

45:35

expectations are at an all-time

45:37

high, and yet the norms

45:40

are less and less clear, and we are

45:42

literally making up the new norms

45:44

as we go. Whether it's your

45:46

work relationships, friendships, or

45:49

romantic relationships, I invite

45:51

you to enter into my office

45:54

and listen in on my sessions

45:56

where I help people explore the

45:59

challenges and choices in

46:01

their relationships. You will

46:03

listen intensely to them

46:06

but you will actually see yourselves.

46:09

And in the process you become unstuck

46:12

and empowered in your own relationships.

46:15

Join me in my office every

46:18

Monday morning for a new episode. Listen

46:21

and follow Where Should We Begin on your

46:24

favorite podcast app.

46:31

Do you know what? The moment happens where, you

46:33

know, there's a Ron Weasley comment

46:36

and the Shrek comment. I want to get

46:38

a sense of in the moment what goes through your head and

46:40

also, you know, like, are you a person

46:42

who you're

46:44

in this moment like this might be material I need

46:46

to like be a comedian right now. So

46:48

now I have to reveal something about this element

46:51

of the joke is that that actually happened

46:53

at a different time. So

46:56

there is there's like it happened

46:58

but I had to

46:59

truncated all yes,

47:00

because that happened like six months later.

47:03

So I had the Royal Variety Show with Harry

47:05

and

47:06

that all that bit is all true.

47:09

And then six months later, this

47:11

incident happened with my friend. It

47:14

was a Christmas party. And

47:17

we were all out

47:18

in London.

47:19

And we ended up in the same room as Harry.

47:22

And I was with my friend Gabe, who was quite drunk

47:25

at the time. And he's like a

47:27

massive character. He's very

47:29

funny. And he's very punchy. He doesn't care

47:32

who you are. He was like steaming.

47:34

So he's, he is like one

47:36

of those friends that is a bit of a like

47:40

bit of a hand grenade. Yeah. He's

47:42

been very successful. Yeah, he's a successful

47:44

documentary, documentary, documentary

47:47

filmmaker and producer because I think because he's like

47:49

that, people love having him around. And they love

47:51

that he doesn't stand on airs and graces. And,

47:54

you know, I think that's part

47:56

of his charm and appeal. But

48:00

If you don't know him, oh my god, he can really

48:02

like

48:03

come in all guns blazing. And

48:05

so we were in this environment

48:07

with Prince Harry who I'd met

48:09

previously but didn't know that well. And

48:12

some of the other group knew him. And

48:14

I think Gabe just like...

48:17

He just... because he was drunk

48:20

and a bit foolhardy just really like

48:22

yeah went in no holes barred.

48:24

Now the other thing about this joke

48:27

which is quite interesting... I

48:29

don't know whether this says more about me but I

48:31

was like what happened in real life

48:34

is Gabe basically

48:36

won the exchange. Sure. It

48:38

was the other way around. Yeah. So

48:41

Prince Harry insulted

48:43

Gabe and then Gabe

48:46

like... Yeah.

48:47

Like had a topper for Prince

48:50

Harry. And so Prince Harry ended up with egg

48:52

on his face but I was like I think if I'm

48:54

gonna tell this publicly and put it on a Netflix

48:56

special Prince Harry has to win

48:58

this exchange. So I had

49:00

to recalibrate

49:03

it slightly so Gabe ends up with

49:05

egg on his face. Hence another reason

49:07

why I was like I'll probably change his name because

49:09

I feel bad. Like he

49:12

said a really funny thing. He mugged off Prince

49:14

Harry. It was hilarious. And

49:16

I'm now gonna have to make

49:17

Gabe look like the mug because

49:21

I worry more about what Prince Harry thinks

49:23

than what Gabe thinks. Yeah. He

49:25

gave me so much stink. He was like no

49:28

that's not what happened. It's

49:30

not what happened. I was like yeah but you

49:32

understand like I want to get a knighthood at some

49:34

point. And so I need to maintain

49:36

this relationship. Now as it turned out I could

49:39

have said whatever I like about Prince Harry and it wouldn't have

49:41

affected the knighthood. He's now persona

49:43

non grata. There's no

49:45

need to change it but I didn't know that at the

49:47

time. He was still a national

49:48

treasure back then. He was beloved. Though

49:50

you have mentioned that I don't even know if you're joking

49:53

the way it's passed through that you weren't invited to the

49:55

wedding because of a joke you made. Well

49:58

yeah I think I've. I've probably

50:01

read into that too much, but I was quite

50:03

friendly with him. I was, I really

50:05

was. I just, well, I don't know. I

50:07

don't know.

50:08

You probably isn't even

50:10

aware I exist, but I don't

50:12

know. There was a little part of

50:15

me that was like, maybe I could be like, if

50:17

they get a few rejections and there's,

50:19

you know, like a little,

50:21

I don't know, E.coli

50:24

bug that goes around and a few people can't attend.

50:26

I might be on the backup list. I certainly

50:28

thought there was a chance, a slim chance

50:31

that I might make the invite to the wedding. And then when I didn't

50:33

make the invite to the wedding, probably James Corden

50:35

did. There was a part of

50:37

me that was like, you know what? Well, maybe it's down

50:39

to that joke. Maybe it's because I,

50:43

you know, mercilessly threw him under

50:45

the bus on stage

50:48

for an entire tour and then on a Netflix special. But

50:50

again, probably not that. Probably just

50:52

didn't want me there. Yeah, one

50:55

of those two things. Because of my personality.

50:58

As you mentioned, that part is twisted

51:00

around and Gabe

51:03

on, I think he saw you do the joke live

51:06

in February of the year that you filmed the special

51:08

at the O2 Arena. And he tweeted, one,

51:11

he doesn't have shaved head and cauliflower

51:13

ears. And then he- Well, I mean,

51:15

he doesn't have a shaved head, but he is quite-

51:18

Yeah, that's almost an unfair- That's ogre-ish?

51:21

Yes. He definitely

51:23

is ogre-ish. No offense to Gabe.

51:26

No, no offense to him at all. But we could both

51:28

agree that he has quite bulbous features.

51:31

And a slightly green pigment as

51:33

well. No, he doesn't. He's a lovely looking

51:35

child. Yeah. And

51:38

I

51:38

guess the question I had, and I think it's

51:41

with this joke. And as I think

51:43

about your series, the trials with my

51:45

father series, what is your relationship to

51:47

truth? Like, how

51:50

important is it or non-important do you think? Do

51:53

you know what is your perspective on it? Because it does feel like,

51:56

as you know, there are communities that have to be 100%

51:58

true about whatever that means.

51:59

that's its own falsity. But what

52:02

is your perspective on it?

52:03

I think it's probably be, it's pretty, pretty

52:05

loose, pretty loose relationship. Yeah.

52:08

Me and the truth are in an open relationship when it comes

52:10

to comedy. You know,

52:13

again, I think that's very much like, come

52:15

from, you

52:16

know, my main inspiration is my dad. Yeah.

52:19

Is that he's why, what's become a comedian

52:22

because he was this amazing raconteur. And

52:24

whenever my dad told stories, I

52:27

began to understand as I got

52:29

a little bit older that a lot of them were probably embellished.

52:32

And so I think, you know, that's

52:34

definitely something that I have inherited from

52:37

him is the ability to gild

52:40

and embellish a story. I

52:42

mean, I'm never gonna just like

52:44

outright lie. There will always be like

52:47

a kernel or a core of truth to the story.

52:49

But as I tell it, like there will

52:52

be embellishment. And I feel like

52:54

that's a lot of comedians and a lot

52:56

of people's routines. And I don't know,

52:58

I feel like with the audience as well, there's an understanding

53:00

that that is the case with most

53:03

comedians is that if they're telling a great

53:05

story, there is obviously going to be

53:07

flourishes or like, you know, an

53:10

element of like, yeah,

53:12

crafting it in the retelling

53:15

of it. And

53:17

so I feel like that's probably what

53:19

I do. The best

53:21

stories are always the ones that have more truth

53:25

to them than embellishment. And

53:28

so, you know,

53:29

that's sort of like the trade

53:31

off that you have to make. Yeah, I mean, when

53:33

I thought of this question, I was thinking about your father,

53:36

partly because I know he has that reputation.

53:38

I know there's jokes that I've seen him change. Like

53:41

there's one example where you talk about how he

53:43

used to joke about how you have a big penis, but then he realized

53:45

it's funnier to say your brother has a big penis

53:48

than you have a small penis. So that became the truth. That

53:50

is not the truth. He's just the end of

53:52

that. But the other part about your dad is

53:54

that, you know, he worked in show business.

53:57

And I think that there's something about how this special,

53:59

really interesting, which is the special opens

54:02

and you do the sort of big dance number with people

54:04

with women with feathers. And then shut

54:06

on the stage as well, thankfully. And

54:09

there's fireworks and there's

54:11

a fake, there's a mic that comes up that you do a little bit

54:13

with and then you joke about how the mic is fake. But

54:16

you start by yelling show business. And I wonder

54:18

if,

54:19

and you mentioned the sort of seeing so much theater growing up, that

54:22

part of you is so comfortable

54:25

with show business being show business. You

54:28

embrace this sort of fiction

54:30

of it because that is your baseline reality.

54:32

You grew up seeing your godfather

54:35

be in place and you're like, got it. So

54:37

it is so much more organic to you than maybe someone

54:40

who

54:41

comes to it sort of later in life. Does

54:43

that make sense? Definitely. I definitely say

54:45

that is the case. Do you have an aversion

54:48

to being introspective? Does it

54:50

to a more personal or understated? Is

54:53

it a taste thing or is it ultimately like, I

54:55

guess maybe we would do better way of phrasing, do you think that

54:57

show business

54:59

background and growing up and that being your

55:01

reality makes it so like to you, that is

55:03

real. It is real to be sort of over the top where being

55:06

sort of quiet on stage is not ring true. Yeah,

55:08

I just would. I don't know. I don't

55:10

know. It would be like

55:11

it would just feel so unnatural to me.

55:14

And I do try to, you know,

55:17

push myself to go there

55:19

where possible. And yeah,

55:22

I guess I'm probably on a little bit of a journey

55:24

to doing more of that. And

55:27

as I say, like

55:28

earlier in the conversation, like trying to

55:31

maybe like think about

55:33

recalibrating my comic voice a

55:36

little bit as I grow up and mature

55:38

as a comedian, I feel like I'll probably

55:42

move more towards that as I get a little

55:44

bit older.

55:45

And as you know, mentioned, Alex's influence

55:48

as well. Like, that's one of the things that we always talk about.

55:50

And he's always telling me, you know, like, the

55:53

more personal you are on stage, that's when

55:55

you're at your best. And like, you

55:57

know, I don't know, like I. I

56:01

guess I probably maybe have had a little bit of

56:03

a fear of doing as much stuff

56:06

about that and have lent

56:08

more towards the

56:10

big, over-the-top theatrics.

56:12

And that also, yeah, I think

56:15

is probably something that might

56:17

shift. You started so young, and

56:20

as you said, a lot of it was sort of either

56:22

talking about how young you were or having that sort

56:24

of young energy or having a sort of man-child

56:27

sort of energy. And it's so hard for a comedian to find the voice,

56:29

period. So you had this voice, and

56:32

now you know you're 34, but that

56:34

to grow out of a voice is

56:36

always hard. It's hard to grow up, period, but it's hard for a

56:38

comedian to stop

56:41

a thing that is working to the level that is working for you

56:43

to be like, all right, I know this works for stames

56:45

of people. What is the mature

56:47

version of that? And I assume

56:50

that's sort of where you're working at now. What has that journey

56:52

been like?

56:53

Well, it's weird. Also, I

56:55

burnt through every single life experience

56:58

by the age of 21, because I started so early

57:00

and did like, I'd done two shows by that point, so

57:02

I'd gone through everything and talked about

57:05

it. And so, yeah,

57:08

that was a kind of like,

57:12

and frustrating

57:14

situation that

57:18

had occurred because I'd started so young. And

57:21

then the nature of doing

57:23

those big arena

57:25

shows, it's

57:28

certainly a

57:31

certain type of comedy that fits

57:34

those venues and

57:36

that type of tour better than other

57:39

types of comedy. So yeah, I don't know, I think, yeah,

57:41

I feel like I am probably going

57:44

to

57:45

develop as a comedian and certainly

57:47

feel,

57:49

yeah, I definitely still feel like I'm a kind of like

57:52

a work in progress. But

57:54

I think, yeah, a lot of comics

57:57

feel that way.

57:59

satisfied in ever the finished article

58:02

you were evolving. Yeah, it's

58:04

the pursuit. I mean, yeah, I think so. The

58:06

other, actually I want to take a step back

58:08

because I want to ask a question about the material you do about your

58:10

parents and all that, but I feel like it'd be useful for

58:13

people to know. Can you just share a brief

58:15

about the professional history of your parents to give people

58:17

contacts who might not be familiar?

58:19

Yeah. So my

58:21

dad, my dad

58:23

was a theatrical agent in the sort

58:26

of 70s and 80s and

58:29

looked after lots of very like,

58:33

you know, proper actors,

58:37

like Judi Dench and people like that. Do

58:39

you discover Daniel Day Lewis or are he signed the Medal of Colours?

58:42

Yeah, well, I could be an embellishment. I

58:44

didn't think about that until... No, I

58:47

think, to be fair, he

58:50

did. But

58:51

yeah, so he looked after all these very worthy

58:53

and successful actors and

58:56

my mum was an actress

59:01

of middling success. I would say

59:03

not due to

59:06

any lack of talent, but just, you

59:08

know, opportunity

59:11

and breaks. And

59:13

so she did some like stuff

59:16

in soaps and bit parts

59:18

and appeared in pantomime as the back end of a horse

59:21

and had various ignomonees

59:24

like that. And so,

59:26

yeah, she was an actress and he was an agent.

59:30

And so I grew up in a household where,

59:33

you know, all my godparents were actors

59:35

and there was lots of theater

59:37

trips to see clients of his and stuff. To

59:40

be honest, like when I was a bit older, he'd

59:43

sort of began to wind

59:45

down and a lot of his clients

59:47

had

59:48

left him and it was sort

59:50

of the end of an era. And

59:54

he was very adamant that I didn't become

59:56

an actor. I really wanted to become an actor, but he

59:58

was like, I honestly, Jack, I've

59:59

looked after so many actors that are out of work,

1:00:02

you need to get a proper profession

1:00:04

and I would really be very concerned

1:00:07

if you went to drama school and became an actor.

1:00:09

So I had to go to university and study

1:00:12

history of art and... For

1:00:14

two semesters or what? Yeah, like two semesters

1:00:16

and then found this route into

1:00:19

performing via stand-up comedy.

1:00:22

I don't

1:00:23

know if you're familiar, buddy. So New York Magazine

1:00:26

produces a podcast recently. They released an

1:00:28

issue about Nepo babies. Are you familiar with

1:00:30

this issue? I am. How

1:00:32

do you feel about the term generally? How do you feel about

1:00:34

it in recut your... I've decided to own a new

1:00:37

term which I talk about on stage in my current show.

1:00:39

Well, I think I'm the first person to have

1:00:41

a Nepo dad because yeah,

1:00:44

my dad was in the industry but like... And

1:00:46

obviously, there's

1:00:49

definitely a leg up in life

1:00:52

and I think less so with

1:00:54

like... I think that did

1:00:56

always like slightly irk me was people who are like, oh,

1:00:59

well, his dad's an agent so that's why he's on TV. It's

1:01:01

like my dad was a theatrical agent.

1:01:03

He was also like detested by every

1:01:05

single casting director in London. He was like one

1:01:07

of the least popular agents ever because he would just like

1:01:10

screw everyone on deals. Like I used

1:01:12

to go into castings when I wanted to be an actor

1:01:15

and they'd say, oh, your name's Whitehall.

1:01:17

The only relation to Michael Whitehall and the room would go

1:01:19

silent. And then I'd say, oh, Daddy, I had

1:01:22

a casting with this lady and

1:01:24

she seemed to recognize your name. Do

1:01:26

you remember her? And he was like, yes, I think the last

1:01:28

time I spoke her was 30 years ago

1:01:31

and I told her to go fuck herself because she

1:01:33

wouldn't throw in traveling accommodation for Richard

1:01:36

Griffiths. And so

1:01:39

he burnt more bridges than I think he built.

1:01:41

But that said, obviously, yeah,

1:01:44

the background of immense privilege. I've had

1:01:46

every leg up that one can in life, so I am

1:01:49

aware that there is definitely a degree of like

1:01:52

nepotism. But

1:01:53

I think he's the nepo dad. Like I

1:01:56

put him on TV and then

1:01:58

he is just like. He's like

1:02:00

a parasite. He's just infected

1:02:03

and eaten away at his host.

1:02:05

And now he is like thriving.

1:02:08

He's doing his own podcast and he's on reality

1:02:10

shows. And it's insane.

1:02:13

It is interesting because a lot of every convenience talks about their

1:02:15

parents in some ways. But you put them

1:02:18

in it. They materialize

1:02:20

in reality and then they became like an extension.

1:02:23

I know. Beyond you. They just sort of live

1:02:25

in the world. It's like a living joke that sort of just like

1:02:28

shows up on television. Well, also it's because

1:02:30

basically I talked about him so much on stage

1:02:32

and I was like, I think I've exhausted that avenue. I can't

1:02:35

talk about him anymore. And then Ben Kavey,

1:02:37

my friend, the producer said, why don't you

1:02:40

have him on stage, do something with him on stage?

1:02:42

And we did Edinburgh and he said, do a chat show.

1:02:45

He can sit in the corner and he'll just chip in every now

1:02:47

and again and be himself.

1:02:49

I was like, fine. We did two shows. And

1:02:52

it was very funny. And he just, you know,

1:02:55

derailed the interview every night and

1:02:58

just, you know, torched

1:03:01

any attempt that I would have to, you

1:03:04

know, present myself as a competent

1:03:06

interviewer by undermining

1:03:08

me and insulting me. And the audience

1:03:10

loved it. And there

1:03:13

was like a BBC producer and he was like, I want

1:03:15

to make a show of this. And we're like, no, no, no, no, literally

1:03:18

like kicking and screaming drag to

1:03:20

the studio to do the show because we didn't we

1:03:23

had no intention of doing anything together

1:03:25

beyond like a couple of just fun shows.

1:03:28

And then we ended up doing like three series of that. And

1:03:30

then I was like, we're done. Finally, I can

1:03:32

just go back to doing what I do and what I like

1:03:34

doing

1:03:35

and what I want to be focused on. And

1:03:37

then bloody Netflix were

1:03:39

like, oh, yeah, we had an idea

1:03:41

to do a travel show and you could go around

1:03:43

the world with him. And again, like not like

1:03:46

every other show that I've ever done has been me going

1:03:48

to the broadcasters and going, oh, please, will you let me do

1:03:51

this? And with the stuff with

1:03:53

my dad, it's always been them coming to

1:03:55

us going, can you just do this one more thing?

1:03:58

And then we've been like, oh, God, I guess so. And

1:04:00

then, and then now he's,

1:04:02

yeah, apparently it's just your dad. They're using

1:04:05

you to get to your dad. It's just, yeah.

1:04:07

The amount of people now, I used to get stopped in the street

1:04:10

and like people were like, oh, I love your stuff

1:04:12

and you're funny. It is now. It's like, oh, mate,

1:04:14

you have your dad so much funnier than you.

1:04:17

Or in America, I had and this is I

1:04:19

was in a hotel. I think he was in Arizona

1:04:22

when we were filming the show. And there

1:04:24

were two guys that walked past my dad, recognized

1:04:26

him, didn't recognize me,

1:04:28

which was obviously a ding to the

1:04:30

ego.

1:04:31

Then to make it even worse, as they walked

1:04:33

past me, I ever heard them and they were

1:04:35

like, oh, that's the man from Travels With My Father.

1:04:38

And the guy was like, what's Travels With My Father? Oh,

1:04:41

it's the show on Netflix. It's about an

1:04:43

esteemed elderly English gentleman

1:04:46

that travels the world with his doofus son.

1:04:49

And I was like, wow, that's

1:04:51

what I've been reduced to. I'm the doofus

1:04:54

son.

1:04:55

That's so funny. That is a reverse. Your

1:04:58

name's in the title. They should do Netflix,

1:05:00

should do a screen that is the same

1:05:02

show, but then it has with Michael. He suggested

1:05:05

that. I'm surprised. Nepodufus.

1:05:09

That will be my next. The other thing that I

1:05:11

have,

1:05:11

you know, and I thought

1:05:14

about this nepotism thing partly

1:05:16

that not just for you, but I think about

1:05:19

the part that sort of gets under discussed

1:05:21

is

1:05:22

a pursuit in show business often demands

1:05:25

a certain level of obsession that

1:05:27

relates to a certain amount of like unavailability,

1:05:30

both in terms of time or emotionally.

1:05:33

And then kids

1:05:34

go into the fields of their parents to

1:05:37

have access to them. They're

1:05:40

like, oh, they're famous. If I

1:05:42

also become an actor, then maybe we can hang out more

1:05:44

or whatever it is. Yeah.

1:05:46

Does that resonate with you? Yeah, definitely. And

1:05:48

definitely wanting to like, you

1:05:50

know, even though I didn't want to like

1:05:53

work with him and that was never part of the plan, like

1:05:55

going into that world and being part of his world

1:05:58

was definitely part of the. of

1:06:00

it and I saw the reverence

1:06:02

with which he held actors

1:06:05

and performers and people in that profession and definitely

1:06:07

wanted to be that because I wanted him to reveal

1:06:10

me and you know that that's definitely

1:06:13

part of it if I'd you know

1:06:15

dig a little deeper into what my motives

1:06:18

were back then and wanting his approval

1:06:20

and thinking that this man's the funniest guy

1:06:22

in the world and wanting him to think that

1:06:24

I was funny and like you

1:06:26

know what sort of worthy of his time

1:06:29

and attention and yeah

1:06:30

there was there was definitely

1:06:33

a degree of that I remember also thinking like

1:06:36

I don't know there

1:06:37

being there being a frustration when I was

1:06:39

a team that like when I spoke to him he didn't like

1:06:41

necessarily talk to me like I was

1:06:43

an adult and treat me as an adult and find

1:06:45

me particularly funny or interesting and he

1:06:48

was interesting and funny and had all of these interesting

1:06:50

and funny friends and you know and

1:06:53

I wasn't one of them and wanting

1:06:55

to sort of get his attention

1:06:58

and you know being

1:07:01

able to make him laugh and he's a very hard

1:07:03

nut to crack but there was yeah there

1:07:06

was a there's a lot of that

1:07:07

built into the desire to go

1:07:09

into career and performance yeah

1:07:11

I mean it also ties into sort of the other thing

1:07:13

that I think weaves through especially the show

1:07:15

which is him being older like an

1:07:18

older dad and both

1:07:20

the how you relate to each other and also

1:07:22

there's just sort of like so much pathos about the

1:07:25

thing about the show is like almost every

1:07:28

season ends with like I don't know how many times we could travel

1:07:30

together then you do another show but like clearly

1:07:32

there is a maximizing

1:07:35

time with him that drives you

1:07:37

yeah 100% with everything

1:07:39

and I think that's why I want

1:07:42

yeah that's why that definitely fuels

1:07:44

like an ambition and a desire

1:07:47

to do stuff that I can do with

1:07:49

him yeah while I can and for him to you

1:07:51

know to achieve things that he can

1:07:54

bask in as well whilst he's here and

1:07:56

and I share a lot of you know

1:07:59

the the highs with him and

1:08:02

enjoy being able to to do that and he

1:08:04

you know, he

1:08:05

He's been he definitely

1:08:08

has helped steer my Career

1:08:11

and work and he's a great sounding board.

1:08:14

He is a Even for

1:08:16

a sort of a 80 about to be 83 year

1:08:18

old man You

1:08:21

know

1:08:22

From a very very different generation. He's still

1:08:24

got like a good sense of

1:08:27

taste and judgment and I do run

1:08:29

a lot of stuff kind of like by him

1:08:31

and value

1:08:33

his opinion and

1:08:35

It also helps to have something like that that literally

1:08:37

has no filter if I'm doing something that I shouldn't be

1:08:39

doing He will tell me I will have no qualms

1:08:42

about it If I'm

1:08:43

yeah

1:08:44

related and this joke transitions to

1:08:46

the idea of America you're currently in America

1:08:48

as we speak What is success in

1:08:50

America mean to you especially at this point? Like

1:08:52

what did what is it? What data represent?

1:08:55

What does it represent? What

1:08:57

do you hope for it doesn't matter to you as much like

1:08:59

not only do you you're such a touring act big

1:09:02

touring acting You have shows that you Star

1:09:05

in or produce you have you know everything so what

1:09:07

what does America mean at this point in your career? Do

1:09:09

know it feels like it's just a new challenge and

1:09:11

that's exciting. I think

1:09:14

And I would in no way

1:09:16

want to take for granted my audience in the UK But

1:09:19

I guess there is a little bit of a ceiling in terms of what

1:09:21

you can achieve

1:09:24

and now and maybe I've

1:09:26

reached that and it's exciting

1:09:29

to be able to come over here and try and build

1:09:31

a new audience and you

1:09:33

know start

1:09:35

not from scratch necessarily,

1:09:37

but

1:09:39

to kind of like

1:09:41

go through that journey again in with a new group

1:09:43

of people and I'm about

1:09:46

to embark on my first kind

1:09:48

of US tour and that feels exciting

1:09:51

again and You

1:09:53

know, it's

1:09:54

gonna be a sort of

1:09:56

adventure and this certainly feels

1:10:00

different in a kind of like fresh challenge, which

1:10:03

is exciting. Wait, this is a side

1:10:05

note. Have you ever heard of the book Killing Bono?

1:10:08

Yes. I auditioned

1:10:10

for the film. So you know

1:10:12

what it's about. So it's such a guy who grew up with Bono. And

1:10:16

you have a similar relation with Robert Pattinson. I

1:10:18

need to give some of you a little bit of backstory about

1:10:20

my acting career. When I

1:10:22

was at school, I was a big fan

1:10:25

of drama. I know, shock

1:10:27

horror. Not

1:10:30

the only fan of drama at my school, though. The other guy that was

1:10:32

really into drama at my school was a

1:10:34

chap called Robert Pattinson.

1:10:37

There he is, young R. Patz,

1:10:39

star of the Twilight films. And

1:10:42

every time there was a school play at my school,

1:10:45

Robert Pattinson would get cast in the

1:10:47

lead role. And Villager 17

1:10:49

would go

1:10:52

to this guy.

1:10:53

Yeah,

1:10:56

laugh it up.

1:10:58

For some reason, my drama teacher

1:11:00

wanted the star of his play to be the young

1:11:03

James Dean and not the young Katie

1:11:05

Lang. And

1:11:08

it's fair to say that over the years I built up a little

1:11:10

bit of resentment towards R. Pattz. He became

1:11:12

my rival.

1:11:13

Rival's a strong word. Nemesis.

1:11:17

He is my nemesis. Oh yeah,

1:11:19

I've never thought of doing a book

1:11:21

called Killing R. Pattz. And

1:11:24

you also have a story about how you auditioned for Harry Potter.

1:11:27

And you didn't get it, but Emma Watson was

1:11:29

in your school and she did get it.

1:11:32

Do you want to be that famous? Do you want to be that

1:11:35

level of famous? I mean, I don't necessarily

1:11:38

hanker for that level of fame. I

1:11:41

mean, in terms of like

1:11:43

Robert Pattinson's career, I love the

1:11:45

work that he does. I

1:11:48

love the movies that he gets to make and the people

1:11:51

that he gets to work with. And I think he's made

1:11:53

excellent choices.

1:11:59

and I think he works with great people

1:12:02

and he's someone that has developed

1:12:04

as an artist and an actor.

1:12:06

I didn't think this was going to turn into a Robert Pattinson

1:12:08

love-in but uh... Well it's good. I'll

1:12:11

say this having listened to your interviews, it does

1:12:13

feel like you've now matured to like, it

1:12:15

used to be a begrudging respect or like

1:12:18

a he's very successful but like he's a terrible

1:12:20

actor and now it just seems... Oh no, he totally like

1:12:23

egg on my face, prove me wrong, you know, he's a

1:12:25

very very accomplished actor and uh...

1:12:28

Yeah maybe it was just the Twilight script. Yeah

1:12:31

yeah. Not his fault. But you'd like

1:12:33

the work but you don't need to be that famous. If you... No

1:12:35

no no, I just like... I don't know,

1:12:38

I mean I don't know what I want necessarily,

1:12:40

it sort of changes and I can't...

1:12:43

I don't know

1:12:44

whether that's just my restless mind but

1:12:47

I don't really know what I want, like part

1:12:49

of me is like I'd love to really challenge myself

1:12:51

as an actor and try to find some like

1:12:54

really

1:12:55

dramatic roles that surprise people

1:12:57

and I definitely... And I know I want that but

1:13:00

then I'm also like, I would also love to

1:13:02

do like big, broad,

1:13:04

Jim Carrey 90s style comedies

1:13:07

and I don't know whether you can do both of those anymore,

1:13:09

maybe you can. Jim Carrey tried. Jim

1:13:12

Carrey tried, yeah he did. But

1:13:14

like yeah, I look at the projects that I'm kind of

1:13:17

attracted to or developing and

1:13:20

is very varied but it's so hard,

1:13:22

I don't know... Again and again because it's slightly

1:13:24

out of your hands as to what people will go, right

1:13:27

we're willing to make this or we

1:13:29

like you doing that and that's another reason

1:13:31

that I like America. In terms of

1:13:33

like talking about

1:13:34

why I want to come over here and why I've

1:13:37

actively tried to kind of do stuff

1:13:39

in America, it's not about like breaking America because I

1:13:41

want more success and more fame, the thing

1:13:43

that I like about the States that is

1:13:46

hard for me in England is that in England I'm

1:13:48

so seen in a very, very

1:13:50

specific way, it's very, very hard

1:13:53

for anyone to see me as anything other than

1:13:55

that because they're used to me for the last 15

1:13:57

years being this big, broad...

1:14:00

idiotic, man-child, comedian.

1:14:03

And so it's so hard to get

1:14:05

out of that box. And in America, there's

1:14:08

definitely more of an opportunity to be seen

1:14:11

in a different light and to do different things and

1:14:13

to, you know, be able

1:14:16

to act in a drama or, you know,

1:14:19

play a completely different character because

1:14:21

there's less, as we mentioned

1:14:24

earlier, like, of a preconception about

1:14:26

me. And so I feel

1:14:28

like I get to start with a little bit more of

1:14:30

a blank canvas here. Yeah, I

1:14:32

mean, I think as we were talking about, like, it is

1:14:34

so hard, you had so much success with a persona,

1:14:37

the struggle to break out of it, to seem

1:14:40

more mature, is also a struggle of an audience

1:14:42

showing up expecting something. Exactly.

1:14:45

So to have an audience who does not necessarily expect as much,

1:14:47

I imagine, is

1:14:48

exactly what an artist who's been working

1:14:51

so long probably would be looking

1:14:53

for. Yeah.

1:14:54

And I definitely think, you know, they're like, yeah,

1:14:56

people want that persona and I feel that,

1:14:59

I feel that with everything I do. So I'm

1:15:02

like, I

1:15:03

give in, cave in and give

1:15:05

them what they want. But over here,

1:15:07

they don't know what the persona is. So I

1:15:10

can choose what I present to people. Oh.

1:15:18

So now it's time for the final segment of the show.

1:15:20

It's called The Laughing Round. It's like a lightning round, but because

1:15:23

it's a comedy podcast, I call it a laughing round.

1:15:25

Yeah.

1:15:25

Do you have a favorite joke joke? Like

1:15:28

a free joke or a dad joke?

1:15:30

Tim Vine.

1:15:31

Do you know Tim Vine? No. Great. He

1:15:34

just does puns. He's

1:15:35

like sort of like a kind of Stephen

1:15:37

Wright, but with a lot more energy. So

1:15:40

I think that's the opposite. Yeah. He's

1:15:42

like Stephen Wright's writing, if Stephen Wright was like heavily

1:15:45

caffeinated. Got it, cool. And he has a joke,

1:15:47

which is just very short, very simple, very sweet. Velcro,

1:15:50

what a ripoff.

1:15:52

So that would be my joke joke. Is

1:15:54

there a joke you wish you could steal or a joke you saw

1:15:56

another comedian do and you wish I had, it's like I wish I had

1:15:59

that bet. I wish I can do that.

1:15:59

every night. Michael McIntyre,

1:16:03

mandrel, that's a great routine. I

1:16:06

mean, yeah, Michael McIntyre is someone that I watch.

1:16:09

And I'm like,

1:16:10

in envy of his like ability as

1:16:13

a kind of

1:16:15

observer and writer.

1:16:17

Yeah. So yeah, mandrel. That's

1:16:20

a classic. Do you have a short story

1:16:22

of an interaction with a legendary comedian living

1:16:24

or dead that you're willing to share with us? I

1:16:28

had dinner with Jerry Seinfeld.

1:16:31

When me and my dad had

1:16:33

done a couple of series of the Netflix show, we were invited

1:16:36

to LA.

1:16:37

And Ted Sarandos invited us to dinner

1:16:39

to sort of thank us for doing

1:16:41

the show. And then sprung

1:16:43

it upon us that Fred Armisen and

1:16:46

Jerry Seinfeld were going to be the other guests at the dinner.

1:16:48

And I was like, Oh my God, I'm very, very nervous

1:16:51

and arrived with my mum and dad.

1:16:54

And I would not have brought my mum and dad had I known that those

1:16:56

were going to be the other guests. And I

1:16:58

think it was my dad. No,

1:17:01

maybe it was my mum that asked him what he did. And

1:17:04

I was like, Oh God, please just stop

1:17:06

talking woman. But he was very, very gracious

1:17:09

and dealt with it wonderfully. And then yeah,

1:17:11

it must be so unlike you were talking about, but it's

1:17:14

so refreshing if just have someone to just

1:17:16

free of expectations. The

1:17:19

other one that I had the other night was just horrendous.

1:17:22

He was always at a friend's birthday and Larry David was

1:17:24

in attendance. And after dinner, they brought

1:17:27

out like a karaoke machine and some

1:17:28

of thrust a microphone in front of my face.

1:17:31

And I sang like a karaoke version of

1:17:33

one the wall and completely cleared the room,

1:17:36

including my hero, Larry David, and didn't even pluck

1:17:38

up the courage to go and speak to him. The only

1:17:41

knowledge of me is that I murdered an

1:17:43

Oasis song in front of him and really

1:17:46

ruined that opportunity. Do

1:17:47

you have a favourite

1:17:49

time you bombed?

1:17:51

Well, I love that the Prince

1:17:53

Charles bombing in front of him, because

1:17:56

even though I was bombing and

1:17:58

that was one of those ones where even in the moment.

1:17:59

I was like, this is gonna make a great story.

1:18:02

Do

1:18:05

you have advice? You have to give a comedian? Advice

1:18:08

to give a comedian.

1:18:10

I mean, don't be frustrated

1:18:12

when I first started.

1:18:15

And I was going through all my different

1:18:18

iterations of my persona

1:18:21

on stage, and people kept saying, You're a good

1:18:23

joke writer, but you just need to find your voice.

1:18:25

And I was so frustrated. And

1:18:27

I was like, can you, can, I don't understand.

1:18:30

Why are you talking in riddles?

1:18:32

Can someone just tell me what my voice is? Just

1:18:35

tell me what the voice is.