THE ADAM BUXTON PODCAST - EP.107 - GUZ KHAN

Episode Date: November 1, 2019

Adam talks with British comedian and writer Guz Khan about being excused from class, teaching tips, overthinking things, parenthood, the story of the viral videos that began Guz's career and I give him in inappropriate gift.Thanks to Anneka Myson for additional editing and Seamus Murphy-Mitchel for production support.RELATED LINKSMAN LIKE MOBEEN (BBC IPLAYER)GUZ KHAN - PAKISAURUSVICTOR BORGE - COMEDY IN MUSICULTIMATE FUNNY FOUR LIONS COMPILATION (YOUTUBE)JOANNA NEARY'S PODCASTDOLEMITE IS MY NAME (2019, TRAILER)WILD ROSE (2019, TRAILER)2 NORTHDOWN - COMEDY VENUE AND SPACE FOR HIRE Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I added one more podcast to the giant podcast bin. Now you have plucked that podcast out and started listening. I took my microphone and found some human folk. Then I recorded all the noises while we spoke. My name is Adam Buxton, I'm a man. I want you to enjoy this, that's the plan. Rosie! Come on, dog.

Oh, fly past. And there she goes, doing her best, no doubt, to meet up with one of the ticks from Thetford Forest, about half an hour away from us here in Norfolk, that is, according to newspaper reports this week, carrying a virus that could potentially lead to fatal brain diseases. I'll tell you, between fatal brain disease ticks and politics, I wouldn't mind if I never saw another tick again.

OK. How are you doing, listeners? Adam Buxton here. Welcome to podcast number 107. I'm recording this intro link on a very beautiful day out here in the countryside, walking along a farm track. i mean it is beautiful right now the clouds are gathering and it is threatening to get unbeautiful this weekend but hey let's enjoy the sunshine while it lasts it's cold though got my puffer puffer jacket and it's going to be gloves weather pretty soon. In fact, it's already gloves weather, really. Glove chat! But look, let me tell you about my guest this week. It's British actor, comedian...

All right, partridge. Actor, comedian and writer, Guz Khan. I first became aware of Guz when I saw one of his viral videos a few years ago. And thought, ha, he's funny. And then I didn't really keep track of what he was up to. Until I talked to Charlie Brooker on the podcast last year, 2018. And he was recommending Man Like Mubeen, which I hadn't seen at that point, but I watched it and enjoyed it, got in touch with Guz, and now finally here he is on this podcast.

Here's some Guz facts for you. Guz, currently aged 33, started posting short videos as his character started posting short videos as his character Mubeen, who, like him, is a streetwise Muslim man from the West Midlands. He started doing that around 2015, while he was still a teacher of, according to Guz, history, geography, RE, any classes that required people not to stab each other. When several M Mo Bean videos, some of which featured his lifelong friend and collaborator Lumbu, went viral, Guz came to the attention of TV comedy producers in the UK. Just a couple of years later, in 2017, the first four episodes of Man Like Mobine aired on BBC3 and featured Guz's character living in small Heath, Birmingham,

doing his best to be an upstanding member of the community and looking after his younger sister, played by Dwar Karim, while trying to escape a criminal past and avoid being landed in more trouble by his friends, played by Tez Ilyas and Tolu Ogunmefun. A third series of Man Like Mobin is, as I speak, in production and due to air early next year, 2020. In the meantime, Guz has been having a busy time, especially this year, acting opposite Idris Elba in the Netflix comedy-drama Turn Up Charlie.

Guz was in Sky TV's drama Curfew with Sean Bean and Billy Zane. And he was in Mindy Kaling's Hulu miniseries based on the Richard Curtis film Four Weddings and a Funeral. Guz also does, he does, Guz does, live stand-up comedy. And as well as several appearances on Live at the Apollo, earlier this year, 2019, he went on a sold-out national tour called Persons of Interest alongside Kuwait-born American comic Mohamed Amr. My conversation with Guz was recorded at the King's Cross comedy venue Two North Down. Thanks once again to the kind people at Two North Down for letting us record there one afternoon.

In September of this year, when Guz was visiting London with his friend Lumbu, he was off doing something very exciting while we were recording. You'll find out what Lumbu was doing towards the end of our conversation, which meandered from the topic of getting excused from class, teaching tips, overthinking things, parenthood, the story of the viral videos that began Guz's career,

and at the very end, I give him an inappropriate gift. Back after that conversation for a small waffle slice, but right now with the magnificently affable Guz Khan. Here we go. Focus first on this, then concentrate on that. Come on, let's chew the fat and have a ramble chat. Put on your conversation coat and find your talking hat. La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, distinguishes itself by having two toilets either side of the stage so that if anyone from the audience wishes to go to the lab they have to do so in front of everyone in the audience and it's this strange thing of the person on stage and the audience knowing that there's a person right there

to the left or right of the stage doing their stuff in the middle of the show i don't let people go to the toilet in my show. Do you not? No. Where are you going? Sit down. Just that tone of voice seems to really click people into action, bro. Where do you think you're going? Sit down. Sorry, mate.

Sorry, I louded. I might have chronic illness, but you're sitting down. You're going to listen. Are you tough with your audiences? Yeah, it's fun. I always try and, a little tongue-in-cheek. But, like, in terms of controlling a room of people, I can never quite get my head out of a teaching space. Thank you.

Which kind of set things up so beautifully for how I've stumbled into this. Sir, I want to go to the toilet. You went five minutes ago. Nah, sir, because I've got this chronic, chronic problem. What's that? It's this chronic itis. You went five minutes ago. Nah, sir, because I've got this chronic, chronic problem. What's that? It's this chronic itis. Shut up and sit down. Time for your bullshit.

Sit down, Tyrese. You know what I mean? So don't let anybody off the hook for it. But what I did used to do more than that was hyperventilate until I felt faint. And then I would have a legitimate, like I would create a legitimate physical situation that I could excuse myself for. I'm feeling, excuse me, sir. I'm feeling faint. I think I'm going to pass out.

And I genuinely was because I'd been hyperventilating. Did that work with your teachers? Yeah. What would you do if a child was clearly faint, all the color had drained from their cheeks and they're about to faint you don't want to take a chance they're going to keel over and i mean my first response i believe in my head would have been stop hyperventilating motherfucker just sit down all right that's enough for that we'll take a risk come on then the whole class will see this five minutes off your work let's go let's have a look are you gonna hyperventilate go on then find out if it's a real

one or not and if they do ko bro the nurse was the school nurse wasn't far from me so she could rectify the situation are you allowed to take those kind of chances in the modern school environment though probably not but you know the thing is like there are so many red tapes there are so many pointers that as a teacher as an educator you have to go through yeah that if you tried to do all of them properly in one day per regulation, bro, you would get nothing done. It would be chaos. Like, it's one of the biggest things that when I was sat there marking books just like four and a bit years ago,

and I was thinking, shit, man, I love these kids, but this job's going to kill me. Because people didn't care about how you're moving these kids on emotionally, how they're improving as human beings. It's all like, can't, can't. Is David going to get his A to C? I felt like an imposter there as well.

Did you? Why? Because, like... Because you weren't a perfect example of a human being yourself? Yeah, well, yeah. Obviously, bro, that was always playing with kids. But then, like, it felt like the school was split. So, like, the teaching cohort was full auntie and uncle vibe, yeah? Who had still been there since I was a kid.

Do you know what I mean? Who used to roll TVs into a room. Yeah. And you used to be able to change the channels with the watch remote on your hand. Yeah. Used to be able to do all their maneuvers. So it felt like they still... Could throw the blackboard rubber at people's heads.

Exactly, bro. That gang. And then there was a brand new gang. And my favorite gang was... I loved them in the end, but there's this thing called teach first. And the government thought it was a great idea to take some of the brightest minds in the country with no teacher training whatsoever. You know, Oxford, Cambridge, blah, blah, blah. And throw them into a modern academy. They almost threw themselves out of windows on a regular basis.

The logic being they thought, oh, well, they're clever people, they'll adapt. Brightest minds will change the minds of our children. It's like, yo, that shit didn't pan out very well, son, especially for the first three terms because the kids, they're ruthless. They don't care if you're from Oxford or Cambridge or what knowledge you can impart. You have to make an impression on them first as a human, you know? Yes.

And then everything else comes after that. Why did you feel out of place? So my mum, not a mainstream teaching background, but had a teaching-ish background. And she was kind of like a teacher at the end. So like where her and my sister's group, super tough place in Coventry called Hillfields, she was always helping to educate other aunties, other uncles.

Like there's this basic thing where we're from, yeah, which is if you can't read English, there's always one lady that you take all of your mail to so my mom was like it's a shit job but i gotta do it for free so she had she had piles of mail from all different types of neighbors like read this for me explain this for me so i was i was used to that vibe in the house from an early age of just people i maybe never even seen before but don't worry zena will read the letters to us and so she was kind of educating them on content of the letter what this means next steps and she was really good at it and she did it from her from her heart my sisters then ended up going into teaching their bit shit as well but like it's fine um they went into teaching

doing their thing but it wasn't my it wasn't my dream like to be a teacher or impart knowledge. I initially was like, yo, man, this life isn't quite panning out how I thought it would. I do have a degree. So if I bang out this PGCE, that definitely means six weeks holiday per year. And that's a good chunk of holiday for a job, for a career opportunity. But then I ended up falling in love with it, bro. So I always felt a little bit like, you know, there are some teachers who blag it. Like, I was born to be a teacher. Yeah.

I wanted it. No, you did not at three years old when you were playing with your Barbies and your Kens want to be a teacher. That's a lie. I don't even believe that. So I always felt like I was kind of a bit of a fraud in that sense. How old were you when you did your degree then? It was meant to be a three-year degree. Turned into a five-year degree.

There was two years of a lot of fun. And then so I finally buckled down. I managed to get a 2.1 in criminology and law. And then I was kind of still mucking around. I kind of did the degree because mum was like, look, you can do what you want. I can't stop you doing what you want. Your cousin's up to this and you're up to this.

But education is fundamental. That's why we came to this country to ensure that you herself personally yeah and me and my sisters get a quality of education so i did that and i kind of did that for her so i did it i felt validated and then after that it's like okay what is next am i gonna end up like the mandem or am i gonna i'm gonna try something different here and then you know you go through different phases of maturity and what's mandem what ads okay so um close friends oh okay i mean i've heard that before but i don't really like when you said it just then i was like i don't know what that means in context so like who's who you're who your best two friends in the world um garth jennings and danny richards garth and danny mandem yes yeah you should set up a whatsapp group just and initiate that into your lexicon bro mandem let's do this where does that

come from then it might be patois is it short for something like mandem are really nice mandem are so nice mandem offer me great spiritual and social respite no like bro i don't even know it just it came and it became popular comedically it's been used a lot i noticed that and so i'm always quite wary of where certain terminologies and what kind of vernacular where it's being used so because because for some people mandem is a actual word utilized to describe this is my social circle yeah this is my social circle yeah this is my mind many what you want about social circle yeah we're in the fucking circle bro what you talking about so like it's it's a real term for real people so if it's being used

kindly yeah um i don't mind but i think there's some people who utilize terms a bit of appropriation going on a bit of appropriation well that always happens. It's weird with those kinds of things because it often happens with kind of white middle class people will ironically reference something that's definitely outside of their culture. Happens a lot with hip hop, with white boys who used to listen to hip hop back in the day. Yeah. And so it would start out that they were doing it sort of ironically. Some of them weren't. Some of them genuinely thought that they were from Harlem and that they were doing it sort of ironically. Some of them weren't. Some of them genuinely thought that they were from Harlem and that they were rapping people.

But other people would sort of ironically use a few phrases here and there. Then they don't think about it so much. And then it's not ironic anymore. Well, a phrase like bruv, you know. Yeah. Harry Hill would say bruv and it would always make me laugh because it was obvious that, you know, it was totally outside of his sphere socially. And that's why he was saying it, because it was funny.

But then, after a while, it just seems completely natural and it's like, yeah, everyone can say bruv. You know, like the term bruv, when I'm working on sets, it feels like everybody from the transport department was initially from the east end not probably you know old school white fellas yeah and bruv rolls off their tongue very naturally is it bruv yeah yeah you're right bruv you know what i mean bruv bruv comes off fucking about bruv chelsea we ain't racist a little bit but no no every single transport conversation takes place in a 45 minute journey now we ain't racist guys come on come on um but

yeah it fits in very naturally doesn't it yeah these phrases though they weave around don't they it's not always that it's very seldom the preserve of one culture yeah and i suppose bro for me we always had a where we grew up in my own personal family in the area that we grew up in everybody was kind of mixed it was irish immigrant families it was caribbean families south asian families and then the whole spectrum of that is broad ranging baghdadish indian pakistani all with their own beef it wasn't odd you know like when like now i meet people who are kind of like overly sensitive to um is it is it right if i if i say that i'm like well say it isn't it yeah someone tweets you don't tweet it again you know i mean see how it pans out but we were kind of mixed from an early

age and um even in my own personal family i'll talk about this on stage yesterday because it Don't tweet it again. You know what I mean? See how it pans out. But we were kind of mixed from an early age. And even in my own personal family, I talked about this on stage yesterday because it just occurred to me. It's like half of my family is white Irish and half Pakistani. So my uncles ended up here in like late 60s, probably early 70s, sent to work. And somehow, against all odds,

they managed to pull their wives. To give you some perspective, one of my uncles looked like that brother out of Short Circuit. You know, Johnny's Bleeding. It feels like he'd styled his haircut on Johnny's Bleeding. And somehow he managed to pull Aunty Teresa. I'll never get it. But for me and our family, there was a clash of, sometimes it was a clash actually

of cultures and religious ideologies and where you're from. So for us kind of mixing up languages and vernaculars was always natural, you know what I mean? We weren't really stressed about it. Yeah. It's nice. I like it. Delicious information Yes I love information and you serve it by the plate phone Going in the left ear, coming out the right

Blah blah blah blah Blah blah blah blah Blah blah blah blah Blah blah blah blah Blah blah blah blah Munching information every day and every night to go back to teaching though which you were doing five years ago yeah so paint us a picture of what you would have been up to five or six years ago like on a daily basis it would have been trying to get around lesson planning marking moderation like that is the stuff that i felt weighed me down so much i know it's important right however it felt like there

was a whole host of teachers who were like getting the kids in their class knowing them by name because of the seating plan ensuring everything was tick tick tick and then off you go and like first of all it's bare effort bro to do these lesson plans so i don't want to present it like i was trying to find a new moral way but it's fucking long all right so i was like there's gotta be a better way to see if these kids are improving educationally than just like bro constantly they brought out clever ideas which is like depending on the color pen that you utilize that's the kind of marking that you should be implementing so we had we had green and red pen and then like i figured out a really good way for the children to self-moderate and self-assess is like pass your book to your

partner they'll read it write your question in green pen, and then they'll hand the book back, and you answer it in red pen. Because I'd heard it from a different school, but our school wasn't doing it at the time. Turns out, bro, it's changed my fucking life. I didn't have to mark books for, like, six months. Sometimes it would shake questions, like a deep theological question around Buddhism.

It would be like, yeah, what does your mum think about KFC? No, I was checking. And then when senior leadership came out, I remember seeing a few books like, yo, these dickheads have messed me up here. They're asking each other about lyrics and albums and hip hop. But senior leadership came around in the lesson observation. They flicked through the books. They saw all of the green and the red in quite depth. Didn't read it and said, fantastic, guys. Really good self-moderation. Shit. This is the way forward. So my life was great for about six to eight months.

And then obviously comes around to GCSE time, you really have to put the foot down. And bro, it started taking up too much of my life. You know, I had three little ones at home at the time. And I was thinking, if I do carry this on as a career, which I didn't think I was going to, but if I do, I'm going to end up spending more time with other people's kids than i do my own that shit that's not what i want to do though it's a it's a beautiful vocation and you know you're helping the next generation i can't sacrifice my own happiness my own family so i was sat in a classroom and i brought i still remember it to this day i was marking books and there was two kids sitting in front of me and i was like in my

head i was like you gotta try something else just nothing beyond that but you gotta try something else and it was weird because the kids in front of me started asking me questions about things that their parents had to say like so you know like um with the with the taliban and them and then man gone now and i was in bro in that moment i was thinking that's such a basic but funny question from people who don't like I'm their only reference point like their parents are discussing with them things to ask Khan in school is like oh you're the Taliban then man gone it's all about ISIS now isn't it it's all about and I think it and there must be other people who think like that and that's when the first couple of comedic videos came about and then wow because that's intense as a parent

when your children start asking those questions and you have to make a decision like am i immediately going to google the answers to all these questions or am i going to make something up so that they'll think i've got all the answers bro i don't know like i suppose you could be in another classroom in the country with another teacher would be like that's entirely inappropriate but i taught in a majority working class white british school who when i walked through the corridors on the first day i think there was one other south asian teacher there one of the caribbean teacher big up miss library all day every day so like the school the the teaching cohort the the kids in the school was very white and initially i was like oh super sensitive like should they be asking these things

but when you look a kid in the eyes you can tell if they're chatting shit if they're trying it with you or if they are genuinely interested and the majority of the time ads they were genuinely interested so like well gone why you man want to kill us and the way they were asking the question it wasn't like oh my god that's entirely inappropriate let's sit down and have a chat about it it was like right is that what you think come on let's let's talk about it do you get what i mean bro yeah yeah yeah it's like kids eyes don't lie you've got little ones yeah i do yeah so bro you know when they're oh? Their eyes do lie though, mate. Tell me, explain to me,

what do you mean, bro? I'm joking. No, but occasionally, occasionally just, most of the time you can't see the eyes because they're just staring at the floor. Okay, that's a dead giveaway, bro. That's a dead giveaway that they're telling porkies.

Like if they were looking at their feet like, yo, sir. Yeah. You'd be like, you're taking a piss. But like when they're looking at you dead in the eyes, it feels like a genuine question. Oh, I dream of eye contact.

Yeah. It would be great. No, one of my sons is going through a phase where he's strongly anti-eye contact. Oh, my. How old is he? He's 15. Okay.

I mean, yeah, to be expected. How old are yours? Mine are eight, six, and four. Right, okay. They mean, yeah. To be expected. How old are yours? Mine are eight, six and four. Right, okay. They're still nice. Yeah, bro. Really nice. Really nice.

And we've got one more on the way. Have you? It's a busy house. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Have you not been listening to Prince Harry? You're not allowed. Yo, listen, bro. You know like family planning, yeah? Yeah yeah yeah i still don't i'm not entirely

sure what that is now i know yeah the idea of well i'm probably this is gonna show my ignorance and uh privilege but family planning i don't know yeah where did it. Where did it happen? How did it happen? Who? The idea was that a young couple who thought they were going to spend the rest of their lives together would go off to the family planning clinic. I don't know. And sit down and go, we're planning to have children. How many do you think we should have? I don't know. What were they supposed to do i suppose teaching the first environment that i was really full scale in a place where i was surrounded by people that i didn't grow up in who weren't in my social circles well family planning you could get birth control that would be that would be one thing right yeah so the plan would be to not have a family okay yeah okay bro i mean yeah that's you fundamentally explain the basis of it there. But in my head, like you just said, how you summarized it was what I thought it was. People would sit down and say, next 20 years holds this.

Yeah, but maybe there was an element of that as well. I mean, in a way, it sort of makes sense. In a way, it's the kind of thing that I've often thought would be quite a good idea and I wish that I'd done it. I wish that I'd sat down and had some of the realities of parenthood explained to me in a more detailed way. I mean, you're talking about feeling like a fraud as a teacher. Do you ever feel like a fraud as a father? I do.

Why? I'll say, nah, no, but then I want to hear why you feel like a fraud. I'll say, nah, no, but then I want to hear why you feel like a fraud. Because I feel so often like I'm just making it up in so many areas of my life, and I feel as if my children imagine that I know what's going on way more than I do. And I feel like a bad example a lot of the time. What of a dad? I just spend a lot of my time feeling guilty every time I read the news and i see what's going on in the world and these days when you go on social media

and you see how passionate people are about all sorts of things and their ideas about how we should be changing our behavior and improving the world etc and you you know you do your best to think about those and incorporate those into your life, but not all of them. You're not across everything. You can't be. So I just find myself thinking, oh, man, I shouldn't be bringing up children. I'm just a terrible person. Bro, you're stressing me out.

How old are you? I'm 33 now. I have not analyzed it anywhere near as much as that. I think that it's part of a midlife crisis yeah don't be having a midlife crisis bro just relax with your fucking

midlife crisis you're gonna cause me an onset of a midlife crisis early with all these deep questions you have the fucking kids if they're still alive by the end of the day

and they're having fun you achieve brother okay it's fine for me I suppose okay if I'm real if I really analyse it

maybe one thing I was worried about is what's a dad? Because my dad passed away when I was very young. Right, okay. How old were you? I was three. Oh, man. So I was raised by... Do you even remember him?

Okay, there's one thing I remember, right? And I thought for a long, long time it was in my head until my sister confirmed it, which is I remember putting a what's it between my toes and feeding him a what's it between my toes. And I just remember, like, I can't remember, but a face that was heavily unimpressed, but then I smooshed it into his beard. So that is, I remember that.

This was confirmed by my sister, probably because my dad called me a dickhead, whatever. He was a good dude. But yeah, don't remember a great deal. So I just, I grew up on the storieshead whatever he was a he was a good dude uh but yeah don't remember a great deal so i just i grew up on the stories of of what he was like um but then i was raised by three very strong assertive south asian women yeah which look and they were your who mom and two older sisters okay so they're like my sisters are 10 and 11 years older than me so it was it was it was a big gap um in terms of when i was six they would have been like in the heyday their teens

but my mom's like yo i'm out here busting my ass doing this work so you two are going to stay home and make sure your brother's not fucking up the house right yeah i had an issue i used to do this like pissing vcrs at night it was fucked up like why'd you piss in this i had a brother are you asking me questions i don't really have the answer to you piss in VCRs? I had a brother. You're asking me questions I don't really have the answer to, okay? Is that a top loader or a front loader? All I remember is just, I was obsessed with the flap for a while.

Sure. And then my sister goes, my nappy was off in several incidences, but I was playing with the flap. I planned it in my head, hadn't I? You were shagging the VCR. I was shagging. I was shagging the VCR at four years old. I was ahead of the game, brother. You

hear that, man? Your boy was ahead of the game. I was fucking VCR at four years old. You ain't got shit on me. I used to get myself into a lot of bother, apparently, as a young kid, and then never really much changed. But going back to the father thing, I always wondered, oh shit, is there something I've really missed out on here? Had uncles, some of them were quite traditional, working class, South Asian uncles.

They say hello a couple of times a week. Hello, dad. Hello. I'm off to work. Really good, strong relationships with their children. But then I think, I don't really overanalyze anything, you know. Yeah, well, that's a good thing.

I mean, I blame Malcolm Gladwell. Do you know who I mean by Malcolm Gladwell? No, explain to me. Go on. He wrote a book called The Tipping Point back in the day. He is a titan of popular psychological, soci books so the tipping point which made his name was all about and i think it was end of the 90s that it came out something like that it was all about how little things have great effects kind of almost butterfly effect type

thing you know the idea of well what we now call viral culture, really, you know, huge, great social movements have their origins in very small ideas and trends. And so he analyzed, he had various case studies about how certain things spread from like a little local trend to becoming a global phenomenon in things like fashion and art and all sorts of things, and some quite depressing things as well. He analyzed how suicide became an epidemic on an island where a few teenagers took their lives, and then suddenly it became kind of a weird, macabre trend for this, you know, even something like taking your own life can become a viral phenomenon.

Anyway, it's really a great book and it captured people's imaginations. He's a controversial figure in some ways because he appropriates a lot of scientific literature and twists it to his own narratives in various ways. But I do find his books very readable. But the problem is that he was one of the pioneers of that kind of way of thinking about the world. After that, you got Freakonomics, a book that was on similar territory and was also very popular. And now there's just loads. Pretty much every TED talk you see is influenced in some way by those kinds of books by Malcolm Gladwell. By that idea of thinking about the world in microscopic terms, like macroscopic, whatever the right word is, analyzing the tiny things.

I suppose that's that whole culture of thinking about microaggressions and things like that. Yeah. Owes something to that way of thinking, you know, analyzing the small things that we do that actually have big effects and being aware of those things. Would you say like in terms of those thought processes right there is that something that you had from an early age

that super analytical way of looking at things or is it something you develop later on not really i mean i think i remember when we sorry this is now turned into uh well this is a freewheeling conversation freewheeling um i used to do a tv show back in the day on channel four called the adam and joe show was sick sick show joe cornish so a lot of that show was looking at little details of popular culture and the guy that commissioned it at channel four guy called peter grimsdale when we were trying to figure out what to do he would always say i think this show is all about minutiae. And we're like, what's minutiae? We had to look it up. And so we started thinking that way about things like that

when we were doing our TV show. And thereafter, I was always attracted to that kind of way of thinking and thought it was interesting and funny. But then I have felt recently that it's kind of led me down a rabbit hole a few times that's a bit dark and scary and I want to get out of because it's almost paralyzing. If you think about inherited ideas about feminism or racism or any of these big topics that people are now discussing and thinking much harder about if you think about how different things are than they were just five years ago that's because people are thinking about them in a really heavily analytical micro way a lot of the time and you see people getting in rows on social media because people are saying all right you didn't think about what you just said but if we analyze it we can see that there's a lot of patriarchal privilege at play in some of your

word choices there yeah and those people are like what fuck off i didn't yeah i'm not racist i'm not i don't hate women yeah yeah yeah yeah but if you do pass and analyze a lot of the things they're saying, you can make a case. Well, actually, there's this and that kind of refers to that bit of white privilege or that bit of patriarchal. You know, of course, there's so much merit to that. And it's fundamental that we analyze things in that way. But I just think right there, listening to the depth and complexity of how you explain that right and then i think about the school that i taught and the parents who ended up really getting on with me if we try to break that analysis down for them they're gonna say excuse me You fuck off. I'll stay the way I am.

Bro, for me, I'm thinking like real world terms. I feel like we're heading toward times where if you say something that somebody feels untoward today on Twitter, and that gets enough retweets, that's a wrap for you, bro. In certain circles. That's a wrap for you bro in certain circles oh yeah yeah that's a wrap for you and i just like you said it's it's all so dangerous and it worries me because i think the the way that people behave on social media as you were saying definitely impacts in real life i better not ever ask somebody who wears a face veil that question it's like oh ask talk to each other interact that is what will

I hope that's what will change the game I don't know there's a way you know people in real life part of interaction in a physical space is reading how people are saying things yeah even a tone bro even a tone of voice like if you were stood in a dark room and we couldn't see each other, a tone of voice allows you to judge, engage, and then you can pitch something back, right? Then when you add seeing somebody face-to-face and then maybe shaking a hand or thumbs and a high-five, whatever the fuck it is, bro, these things break down the way we think so much more easily than, here's my 19, 19 000 page report on the minutiae of race

i think i don't know i might be talking shit i haven't finished that report yet i'm getting my son to help me with it it's bad i think myself into a corner and you know it's all done for the best reasons and you as i say i'm not putting down the idea of wanting to think hard about these things that should be thought about you know because definitely a lot of them haven't been thought about nearly enough but man it is uh it is tricky sometimes oh wow that's an amazing point i never considered that point till now you're so deep and you made me think and now i'm gonna change my life somehow thank you very much for your wonderful deep and amazing point you're deep and amazing point you're deep and amazing point so while you were teaching yeah in your free time starting to make videos i was yeah

and i want to say this as a caveat because a lot of people every single day i don I don't know what the numbers are, but in terms of YouTube uploads and Instagram uploads, like you can't even comprehend the amount of hours worth of content that's been uploaded. Yeah. Right. And people are like, yeah, because you just banged it out and did it. Like, though I tell you that I don't overanalyze things and look back at it, I did have a moment the other day when I was chatting to Dino, my missus, and she was like, yo, imagine if that had gone different, you would have fucked it, innit?

And I was like, yes, Dino, I would have. Because, like, I was a teacher. I finally got a stable job, which, if I'd have carried on doing it the way I was, actually, maybe I would have ended up in pastoral care and that would have been sick. And I would have loved that as a long-term career. So there's a solid long-term career for this working class geezer and I put that all on the line bro because I didn't overthink the fact that what if this doesn't work so whilst I was teaching I put the first video out and that's and what was in that video bro I think I think the content of that video was something about an uncle of mine who used to wear glasses with no lenses in it.

So I recreated that moment and I put it out on Facebook. And it wasn't just random. It was like after pressure of, yo, cuz you've been funny since we were kids. You've been ripping people since we were kids. That's the way we grew up. But right, you should go and try comedy. But to comprehend going into a small pub up in the West Midlands and do in five minutes fucking albraham i've never been into a small pub up in the west midlands let alone go and try and make people laugh so completely off

the radar out of my world yeah so i did that first video just for friends on like a private facebook page and it banged there was like loads of like because you dickhead always being funny friends that i hadn't spoken to in like that that's how Facebook works, isn't it? Like six, seven, eight years from school. Like, fuck bro, I miss common room on Thursday afternoon when you'd be in there taking a piss. I was like, okay. Like, forget the people that I'm with every day

who think I'm funny. Everyone's remembering what it was like growing up as kids and how much fun we used to have. Then the next video that I did was based off a conversation with the kids I was having in the classroom and I was thinking, I've got to do something different here.

And Fox News ran a report about Birmingham being a Muslim-only zone. They called it a no-go zone, didn't they? No-go zone. 2015 it was, yeah. Who isn't Muslim. And then Trump quoted that, didn't he? He did.

Yeah. He did, he did. What a world we live in, bro. What a't Muslim. And then Trump quoted that, didn't he? He did. Yeah. He did. He did. What a world we live in, bro. What a world. What a world we live in. And I did a silly sketch based on a mate of mine who is very much like the guy who's gone on to be on television now. So, Mobin.

Explaining his point of view, tongue in cheek, taking a piss. We uploaded that. Didn't think anything of it i went to school and then like halfway through the morning i was getting calls from like itv news west midlands bbc news west midlands like saw your clip really really funny can we discuss it and brought everything steamrolled from there i don't there's so much hard work that goes i've seen youtubers i've seen people who create content, comedic content. But for me,

from that first video, it's not like I was then going home every day. Like what's in the news today, today, buddy, let's give it a go. It was just, whenever I felt like I was able to chat shit after a long day at school, me and my boy lumber would jump out,

grab a camera, usually on our, on our camera phone, uh, and then just put it out. And it started gaining, uh, a following and what i liked about the following years when i was reading comments and the vernacular was in the

comments like okay these are my people when i say my people i mean working class people from brum coventry wolverhampton you know what i mean white black asian so it's like a cool little following that's going on here this is our comedy it felt like still didn't take any of it seriously uh until it must have been like three months into doing this stuff maybe four i did a video called pakisaurus um it was a video that went so fucking viral that i was fielding calls from indonesian media outlets like and this is still me, just guzzed out, teaching at school, doing this daily shit. And after that clip, like, life changed. What was in that one?

Essentially, me and my mate went to watch, you know the Jurassic World reboot? Yeah. And there's a scene in the movie where they're in a control room, and a woman says, when she's looking, straight down the barrel of a CCTV, guys, we have an issue

the uh the packies are out of containment and i was like the what the what are out of containment pachylofosaurus is the dinosaur they'd abbreviated pachylofosaurus down to the pachys are out of containment and there was an old dude and his wife sitting next to me bro and it's quite bright lights back like just streaming back on us from the screen i looked There's an old dude and his wife sitting next to me, bro. And it's quite bright lights, just streaming back at us from the screen. I looked at him and he went... The listeners won't be able to see his facial reaction. He went...

What the fuck is this? So we were creasing up. There's people behind me laughing because now me and Lumber were going back and forth. What did this bitch say? In a blockbuster movie? The pack is at our table. I appreciate it. Give me my fucking money back and I want what is it what is this bitch saying in a blockbuster movie the pack is giving my fucking money back and i want a free slushy like we were really stressed like they said and then the laughter genuinely started building around the cinema auditorium the people

behind that you hear what she said she got you like a diamond right finish the movie i don't even know what fucking happened for the rest of the movie, really. And we're Googling, is there a Pachysaurus? Then we found out there was something called Pachylophosaurus. And in and amongst all this, it turns out there was a dinosaur discovered in Pakistan called Pachysaurus. No way. Right? So there's all kinds of misinformation.

Yeah. And then I decided, look, this shit's funny. Me and my mate were still laughing at it on the way home. And we'd bought a DSLR. I think it feel like 190 quid from tesco or whatever acting like we know what we were doing we're doing that shit right jumped out the car recorded that clip and bro ever since that clip dropped like within days of that there were agents emailing to the facebook page and blah blah like hey how long you been doing this for? We really like, and I ignored everything initially

because I was, they were asking me questions about, and so how do you build your material? I'm like, what the fuck do you mean? How do I build my material? We just do it. It's off the cuff. One take kind of thing. We're not really thinking about it.

And yeah, bro, that's, it was literally a process of maybe like four videos that got a great amount of traction. Wow. And there we are. The feeding frenzy. The feeding frenzy. The thing is that your stuff, you're one of those personalities that kind of feels fully formed. So I remember seeing the Pachysaurus video and really laughing at it.

But it was like, oh, yeah, this guy's going to be fine. You know, you see people like that every now and again. And it's like, okay, I can see this. I can see the whole package. This is great. But then there's a lot of other people, and I would count myself as one of those people who have maybe a handful of okay instincts and ideas, but actually they're going to need to do a lot of work before they can get it anywhere near being something that will connect with a large group of people. You said you thought that about yourself?

Yeah, yeah, definitely. I'm typical of a lot of kind of comedy fans and people who watch comedy a lot when they're young. They watch a lot of kind of comedy fans and people who watch comedy a lot when they're young they watch a lot of stuff on tv and they have a kind of um slightly conflicted relationship you love it but you spend a lot of your time going that's shit i could do better than that and i know that charlie brooker is the same kind of person who used to have that sort of relationship with watching comedy and you've got ideas and instincts and you're like, why? Why my stuff should be out there? And then when you get the opportunity to do it, when you start doing it, you realize quickly, oh, it's not that easy, is it?

And it just takes ages and ages for you to hone it and get rid of the stuff that doesn't work and find the stuff that is a bit better. And, you know, I think most people are like that. And then then of course there's loads of people who are just fucking rubbish I'd send shots bro send it bro listen we're here

I love when people send shots call them out name some names I feel like you Charlie I'm working with

my broski right now called Amir Rahman he's a stand-up comedian from Australia super bright super intelligent and you guys can craft and hone brilliant comedy pieces in my head i feel like you lot are proper comedians that's the way i feel i feel like you lot are proper comedians and then i feel like someone like me i'm just doing me right so what i had to learn quite quickly and the thing is bro nobody explains to you do they i remember to turn up the first day when i was doing comedic acting and someone said have you

got your sides and i'm like what the fuck your sides now bro what what do you mean yeah i've got my side you can see that physically on me what are you talking about bro talk fucking english to me side turns out it's the words that the script is written it's the script right and i'm i'm trying to analyze and look at all these things and but still the thing that freaked me out most was constructing stand-up comedy routines purely for the fact that i was fine when i grab a microphone and there would be a crowd there and i could just go off on a tangent and start ripping him start questioning her start ripping him back there and it felt natural and there was a great energy in the crowd. However, what I found out quite quickly is, oh, and now when it comes to material, oh, yeah, there's nowhere near as many laughs there, you know?

So I'm relying on things that I've got innately, naturally, like you said. But then what still freaks me out to today is, yo, man, I need to still learn how to create really good stand-up bits. Yeah. Which is an art form, bro. You'll be able to confirm that. It feels like, people are like, oh, because you did La Vidipala last year, you're smashing it. I'm like, yo, bro, I had like 16 minutes. I did 16 minutes and then I walked off.

And then people are like, oh my God, that's unbelievable. What about if you had to go on tour? But I don't, like you know already, I don't think that far ahead. I'm like, we've got an opportunity. I think it would be sick to go and do that kind of performance in front of that's unbelievable. What about if you had to go on tour? But I don't, like you know already, I don't think that far ahead. I'm like, we've got an opportunity. I think it would be sick to go and do that kind of performance in front of that many people. Let's do it. It still freaks me out.

So part of me is like, yo, should I have that super over analytical element to just stand up? Nothing else in my life, but just stand up. But then part of me is like, nah, let's just keep seeing how it goes. The advantage you have is that you're a personality that audiences like and they want to see. So that is a big, big part of the puzzle.

For a lot of other people, you know, they have to overcome their shyness and their awkwardness. And that's very natural. Most people are shy and awkward, but audiences don't like that. I thought when they gave me the first four, they're going to piss off anyway after i've done the first four so let me just talk about all the stuff that i would have loved to see on tv or a or a platform right and it's so weird bro because if if me and you would grab the camera and made man like mobi and put it on youtube it might have been great it might have taken off but there's a there's a mentality that if there's a BBC sticker on the corner, the type of demographic that I wanted to reach, they feel validated.

Like, oh, shit, because it's not just my man on a Facebook and that on Instagram. You're the BBC's come for him, bro. This is real shit now. So it's really important that that little sticker was on the corner in the content that we created. Yeah. And the four helped me to learn and then after the four went out and you know lo and behold it did reach the kind of demographic of people that i wanted to give a voice to it permeated beyond that so it's like johnny and kent or whatever the fuck it is saying sterling work and i was like oh

yeah big man on that yeah amazing work and it started you know it started spreading and people started enjoying it for lots of different reasons which was amazing got to the second run of four and you learn it again like oh let's try and give it more of a narrative but bro this this four episode run looking back on it was was perfect for a newcomer as well you know imagine if they'd have slapped six or eight on me the fourth thing is great i think everyone should be thinking in those terms think about the good bits and don't churn it out and don't immediately start hating the whole process that's the other thing is you want to you want it to be fun i agree bro and you know one thing you'll be able to advise me if you felt the same thing though is that when they do give you that four and you are a new performer

that if it doesn't work then then you've had your chance. Turn the cycle and then let's get the next one. And the reason why I felt like this, I knew a lot of MCs. So, you know, who were in the music industry. And it felt like if the first single didn't bang, boom, let's get the next black kid. Boom, let's get the next MC. So that was definitely part of my thought process, which is why I think I really went for it. Like selling an idea to the BBCbc that i want to be

stuck in the back of a van with a far right wing leader in the last episode of a run of you know a first show in a comedy obviously i had that shit didn't go down well um and there was a bit of a feeling of like well this is on you you know it's on you guys can't it's gonna be back to pakistan so you like so and i definitely felt pressure, but I think that's another big thing for people not to fear. Like you just said there, to just give it a go. And if you in your heart of hearts feel it's content that you believe that there is an appetite for, that you feel says something and makes people laugh,

then just do it, innit? Do you know what I mean? Yes. Yes, please. yes yes please yep yes who are the people that you look at in the comedy world

and you take inspiration from and you enjoy their stuff I mean like from a stand-up perspective that vcr that used to shag all the time that we talked about my sister from i must have been like five six seven something like that uh she was very innocent my sister so this is your oldest my oldest yeah shady so you could have put any horrendous filth on in front of her and as long

as you couldn't physically see it she wouldn't really get what was going on. So she sat me down. From a very young age, I kept watching Murphy over and over again. And what I got from him. Which one? Delirious? Bro, that. And then like,

because she's daft as fuck, she put the next one on as well. We're not playing that. So I was sat there just swallowing everything that he was saying. Not understanding it, of course, myself, because I was a little kid. He was a huge influence over me. And then as I got older, Four Lions fucking, as a standout point,

it changed my life, bro, in terms of, I always enjoyed comedy and watching it and Live at Apollo's and Rotos. This is Chris Morris' film. Yeah, bro, like Chris Morris's four lines changed my fucking life and i remember i was just newly married at the time and i said to him mr come let's let's go watch this movie she didn't know what to expect and then we spent the rest of the movie in stitches but also looking through a lens that offered a completely different view of who these people were friends that offered a completely different view of who these people were and and i remember by the end of it bro i here's what i thought yeah i thought riz ahmed wrote directed and did all the

things that he did i thought caven novak made all his words upon a spot and after that movie i started looking at credits of movies i'd watched my whole life. I know it sounds silly, but a writer writes all their words. A director instructed them what kind of performance. And so that movie changed the game. And I was like, yo, Morris is a fucking bad boy, yeah? And then I started remembering odd things, like bits of brassi that I'd stumbled across when I was younger. Obviously, we weren't necessarily the demographic that that show was was trying to reach or might have thought he'd reach but i remember

just from a comedic value thinking oh that's funny shit bro and then when i showed my mates even mates who aren't comedy commissars or whatever they were like oh yeah that fucking brass eye was funny bro yeah you know what i mean they understood they appreciated comedy and that really changed the game for me thinking back is, he mixed heart, reality and humour in just that hour, whatever it was, a two hour movie in a way that for me was like one of the most perfect examples that I'd ever seen, bro. In terms of as a comedy fan, are you like, yeah, he's a real G? Or are you like, were you still like, I could have done that better. Oh no. I think he was, he was definitely, well,

the, my initial reaction to a lot of things that I end up loving is like, oh fuck. Listen, you are what we call where we're from. Fucking hater bro. Stop with this hating ass hate ads. I don't know where it came from.

I've been, I've been writing a book recently and thinking hard about where all my hangups came from. And I think I'm going to blame my dad for all of them. He was very, very critical, very conservative. And I think a lot of the sort of psychological conflicts that I have come from, on one hand, loving my dad dad he was a lovely guy in a lot of ways but on the other hand sort of absorbing his extremely critical ideas about pretty much all the culture that I loved you know was he was he critical of your like career trajectory was he wasn't critical I mean yes is the short answer he thought that it was mainly bullshit

but he would say oh it goes over my head it's not for me you know what did he enjoy from a comedic point of view not much is the answer he liked very old-fashioned stuff he liked have you ever heard of a guy called victor borgia i've heard that name maybe my mom likes it yeah maybe but yeah he liked that kind of stuff. But pretty much everything that I was into, he just thought, what the shit is this? And I remember like the Young Ones, when the Young Ones came out, the announcer would say on BBC Two, and now it's time for another anarchic slice of student life, courtesy of the Young Ones.

And my dad would stand at the back going anarchic god save us um i'm just going to take a drink from my rose gold chilies bottle that is fancy bro yeah you know these bottles right that's how you're moving ads no talk to me what is it they're like um you know reusable water bottles so this is to reduce your plastic water bottle consumption. Oh, yeah, yeah. But I thought it was like that's a specific like. No, this is just rose gold. By the way, I'm not sponsored by Chili's.

I don't have to do a little spot for them. But this is one of the few things in my life that not only works, it's fucking amazing. Like how many things can you say that about? This thing, right, it's a thermos, basically, I think. So you can put cold water in it, which I did yesterday. It's still cold, even though it's been bouncing around in the bag on my bike in the sun for the last few hours but it is so rare that

actually something like that happens and i treasure it and i'm beginning to wonder if it's like a freak bottle you know are they all like this are they all this good i can't believe they're all this good and i just love this fucking bottle have you got anything in your life that you just think holy god this thing works so well no look how well you described that fucking bottle bro now anything i say is gonna sound shit you really you really love to get out of that bottle feel like i need to add that bottle to my life so i have an equivalent it doesn't have to be a physical thing it could be just anything that you use and you just think, wow, this is absolutely working. Bro, honestly has to be the device that I love and hate, which is this fucking mobile phones, bro. These smartphones.

And the reason for that is it gives you unlimited access to any shit that you might want. But then also can just distract you with a pair of titties as well. It's unbelievable. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Unbelievable invention. I'm what they refer to as a nitty bro i'm an addict uh-huh it's a problem how do i break the cycle a nitty yeah like a full addict bro what do i do what do you do you've got to re-engage you're in a dangerous position because you're now very busy yeah you have many messages coming in at all times people time people approaching you

from all different angles exciting opportunities and offers coming in you have to sort through yeah uh so there are so many reasons for you to be looking at that well you just have to have that thing of occasionally finding a way that you just leave it behind and switch it off and then break through that barrier of realizing actually life continues. You know, it doesn't just grind to a halt if you don't immediately answer a text. Even if you have people who are absolutely apoplectic if you don't answer a text within three seconds or something. Very true. I'm too far the other way, maybe.

People who text me, i hope most of them understand that i might not text back for weeks literally weeks bro i mean on the streets that's power play move you're you're stunting on motherfuckers that's that's that's bro that's a real stunt i mean it is rude it is rude because i don't like it when people do it to me because it does me being an overthinker as we now know yeah i immediately think like what is what's the problem i remember when i was trying to get romesh rang and nathan on the podcast years ago i mean i know romesh a little bit but not well enough to know that he's just not fast at replying to text or did he blank you for ages yeah initially it would be like, yeah, cool.

Very short reply. He's a busy guy, you know. And then I'd be trying to get back and say, all right, let's nail down the specifics. When are we going to do it? Nothing. And then I'd be start thinking like, what have I done? What have I done? Have I said something wrong?

Have I said something weird on social media that he's seen? And now he's angry with me. Oh, fucking hell. My brain's spinning. And then like, you know, a month later, it's like, yeah, later it's like yeah cool see you on tuesday he was stunting on you romesh romesh listen i know you're gonna be listening to this fuck you romesh that's my boy bro just don't don't hold back you did you did ads dirty there rom i see you it's on i love that dude i worked with him recently oh yeah what'd you work on it was a pilot where I played

his little brother and I was just so happy because bro he's someone that again I looked up to you know when I was doing all these videos

initially yeah I got invited by the BBC the second time I'd ever done stand up comedy in my life

to come and do it was a shit one it was on a red button or something but it was still live it was still filmed it was still going on TV and the boys like yeah bro go and do it it'll be fun so i did second ever stand-up comedy gig was on this platform i did it and i remember forwarding it to him on an inbox on twitter saying yo listen you're a sick guy and that tell me what you think

of this ting and he took the time to reply, immediately add so. Bro, I mean, I haven't been hot for a long time. Come on this weekend Let's actually go out To the Lazy Disco To the Lazy Disco You go to the Lazy Disco I'm sorry I can't go Why can't you go to the Lazy Disco Cause I'm going to eat biscuits I'm going to eat biscuits I'm going to eat biscuits

I'm going to eat biscuits Tell me about Mindy kaling's show four weddings and a funeral four ways a funeral um do you say kaling or carling kaling black label i prefer that let's say mindy kaling um i think it was supposed to be a limit do they call it limited series yeah on they turn up on things like Hulu yeah I don't know so essentially

it starts and it finishes and you're never going to get anymore right oh okay so that's the mini series yeah limited series

mini series something like that so anyway basically it starts and it finishes and I I never I never that'd be a good pitch

for a show I'd never seen it before bro um the original four weddings and a funeral um i didn't get on that wave it wasn't my thing i don't think so then when this came you surprised me so when this came through i was like okay it's fun and then she was involved she's a big name she's done some stuff that i really appreciated she's a us comic right yeah she's a us comic and she was really broke through when she was on the writing team for the american office ah right but then they liked so much they were like oh you act as well let's give it a go so like she was helming this project and i got involved and hulu is an american

show but it was filming here again which is perfect for me not wanting to leg it very far and stay close to home because back and forth so i did it and it was fun bro you you just learn how big the machine gets and how there are levels and how much bigger the machine might get if you're ever sat on a set of a marvel movie one day doing a two-minute role but just how big the machine is comparatively to the little show that we do up in brum you know and there's so much that i learned like how unless you're really careful really pay attention to the process of what's going on camera is the most important thing because actually can get lost in such a big machine sometimes you know lighting and angles and where's that person and what's going on here

um so it's fun and i met some great people i never did you watch game of thrones yeah you really enjoy it i would say that's putting it too strongly i have moments where i'm very pleasantly distracted from what's going on in the real world. Oh, my days, bro. I'm not passionate about it, but it's fine. No, because sometimes when I broach that conversation, because I never saw it. So when I was like, I worked with, I believe her character's name was Missandei, Natalie Emmanuel from Game of Thrones. Oh, yeah.

People are freaking out like, oh, shit. And she was a great person, super down to earth. And that's, bro, that's a big thing for me. I've done acting gigs with the quote unquote, what people might refer to as super Hollywood folks. And for me, it's all about vibes, bro. I'm really impressed with your CV and your catalogue and how you sat ringside when Mike Tyson bit Holyfield's ear off

and that chunk of ear went over your head specifically. You know them kind of stories, bro. Like, fuck you, man. That ear did not fly over your head. Don't be talking shit to me. And then you went into the lobby where Tupac Shakur was shot and you witnessed that.

But for whatever reason, the FBI didn't choose to call you. Do you know what I mean? Are these real stories? These are real stories that I heard while I was sitting in a VW camper van filming this thing. It was a fucking very long evening, right?

So there was just, the people on the full wedding set were super nice down to earth people. There was no Hollywood-y, Hollywood-y vibes. Yeah. Do you read your reviews? No. But like if the people are feeling it

on social media, for example, like Twitter, with men like Mobin, if they're feeling it, I take that as a positive thing. Because I suppose, yeah, there's a lot of insidious shit going on with how people judge each other and, you know, cancel culture and all this kind of stuff. However, like if someone's feeling something, they're not going to lie. Do you know what I mean? I don't even know if I've really been reviewed. What's your feeling about when they review you?

I mean, it doesn't happen very often. I generally don't do things that are reviewed in that way, like overground things, you know. I wouldn't seek them out, though. No, I would avoid it. Will you internalize it if they're like, do you really like that? Yeah, I would, yeah.

I know. I asked you the question. You know me well enough now. I know you well enough now. To know that. But why, bro? Like, fuck them, innit? You're doing your team i've got to get some therapy is the short answer to it do you get therapy no maybe through the

spirituality of like how i try and try and i must say this try try and live my life there's a bit of there's a bit of therapy there but no like, you don't. Are you a religious person, a spiritual person? Yeah, I think I'm spiritual. I try. I try to just take moments. You're a good Muslim? Oh, fucking hell, mate. Fuck's sake.

That should be the perfect response. That should be the answer all in one. Bro, look, man. I'm going I'm just gonna I'm gonna try that's my response for you ads so much trying

I hear it big up all the imams and them do you want to text your mate and tell him to come in he can chat with us for a little bit

he's pissed off I don't know where he's gone wait let me see where he's gone call him yo bro listen I'm here with Adam yeah

he said the most annoying part of the Pakisaurus video yeah the real talk and you know I rate ads like that yeah he goes

it was that fucking buffoon in the background asking you all the questions that sounds like something I might say but I didn't say that well whoever this brother is he sounds very well spoken yeah he's bro like very well spoken you've shocked him with your level of uh education that's yeah i'm so i'm like practically royalty no i'm not i was saying that that you'd be welcome to come and join us,

but you're not in the area. No. To be honest, bro, I just finished up hiding my turtleneck. Yeah, this motherfucker's hiding a turtleneck. You two should have done this podcast. Why are you hiding a turtleneck? You know what? I'll be honest.

I thought I packed a different jumper. I pulled it out and I was like okay yeah well then I have to make it work alright fuck off now you've ruined my image

in the public get out say bye bye bye okay thanks hey bro see ya

I'm in a fucking turtleneck what's he doing in his turtleneck is he gonna go out and do some beat poetry later on

I don't know what that is and neither does he so he's definitely not gonna be doing beat poetry bro my god so we'll wrap up but before I do I don't know what that is and neither does he, so he's definitely not going to be doing a bee poacher, bro. My God.

So we'll wrap up, but before I do so, I've got a couple of gifts for you. Gifts? I mean, don't get too excited. Here is the Adam Buxton podcast mug. Why, thank you, Broski. Is that a realistic depiction of your lovely pop? It's, no. Rosie doesn't look like that.

I mean, not too far off. And also, I don't sit on a rock and interview Rosie in that way. No, anyway, that's yours. Thank you, bro. For your hot drinks. Do you like hot drinks? Yeah, I'll do a hot drink then. Would you ever own a Kurdish Kangol? What's a Kurdish Kangol?

Bro, a Kurdish Kangol is a Kangol. Kangol, yeah. Not a Kurdish candle? Bro, a Kurdish candle is a... Kangal? Kangal, yeah. Not a Kurdish candle. A Kurdish... Kurdish Kangal. Thank you, Gus, for offering me a Kurdish candle. A Kurdish Kangal is a type of dog, bro. Is it? I'll text you afterwards.

You have a look at this dog. Yeah. Because I... Rosie is a Whippet Poodle Cross. This Kurdish Kangal might swallow her. I've never heard of a Kurdish Kangal. Yeah, amazing dog. The other thing I've got, someone bought me these the other day,

and I thought, hmm, maybe I'll get these for Kaz. Booja, well, you tell me. Have a look at this. Booja Booja. Fine champagne truffles. As I want to say at this point, you did ask me earlier on, are you a good Muslim, cuz? And you have ended this podcast by giving me champagne-infused truffles. Thus...

Is it real champagne? It's real fucking champagne, that. Yeah, and you're trying to give a Muslim brother, at the end of of your podcast a gluten and soya-free, yet alcohol-infused... Ah, okay. ...Boujabouj... See, this is the... Okay, listen, yeah? Click this up.

Adam Buxton invited a Muslim brother to his podcast and gave him champagne-infused truffles to try and tempt him to the way of the unbelievers. I'm not impressed with this, Adam Buxton. I just looked at it and I thought, because it said all over it, dairy-free, organic, gluten and soya-free. I thought, well, there you go. Everyone in the world should be able to. Just for future reference, bro, there is another sign called a halal sign, which you can find on boxes, which definitely isn't there. Damn it. I didn't think hard enough.

That's very offensive and I'm sorry. Just try one. Wait. This is an advert for Squarespace. Every time I visit your website, I see success. Yes, success. The way that you look at the world makes the world want to say yes.

It looks very professional. I love browsing your videos and pics and I don't want to stop. And I'd like to access your members area and spend in your shop. These are the kinds of comments people will say about your website if you build it with Squarespace. Just visit squarespace.com slash Buxton for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, because you will want to launch, use the offer code Buxton to save 10 off your first purchase of a website or domain so put the smile of success on your face with squarespace

yes continue Yes. Continue. Hey, welcome back, podcats. That was Guz Khan. Guz, guz, the guzzler, guzzy bear. I don't know. All I do know is that meeting him for the first time was like receiving a warm hug from an old friend that you haven't seen for many years. It was really a hoot to spend time in his company.

I've posted a few links to bits and pieces that we talked about in the description of this podcast. A couple of recommendations for you before we part company today. Shout out for comedian and friend Joanna Neary. She has a new podcast, but it's not just comedians bollocking onto each other in a completely inconsequential way god i hate those kinds of podcasts it is called wife on earth and it is a series featuring her character celia based on celia johnson perhaps best known for her portrayal of a somewhat emotionally repressed British lady in Brief Encounter. Anyway, Jo's character Celia, who is also an emotionally repressed, uptight housewife from the fictional village of Upper Lowing,

has been encouraged to do a book-based podcast to promote the local library in nearby Lower Upping, because no one else wants to do it, as it's too much of a time commitment. As well as Joanna, the cast includes Anna Crilly, Alistair Kerb and Ben Crompton, with guest stars Paul Putner, Michael Legg, Robin Ince and Adam Buxton. Oh, now we see why you're giving it a shout-out, you fucking self-interested guest star plugging twat.

I'll stop looking at Twitter. It's an anarchic, original, and charming character comedy written by Joanna Neary and Joseph Nixon, and it drops on November 6th this week. A link to more info is in the description of this podcast. Movies, what have I seen recently? I can't remember the last time I went to the cinema cinema. Oh yes, I can.

I went to see Ad Astra a few weeks ago with my children. For some reason, I thought it would be a good idea to take them all to see Ad Astra, I think because it was a 12. So I thought, oh, it'll just be a sort of fun family space film with Brad Pitt. But it's a bit more downbeat than I expected. I didn't read the reviews properly. It's my own fault.

And my daughter got quite freaked out by one scene, especially involving a very angry space monkey. So we had to leave. Or rather, I had to leave with my daughter. And the boys stayed and watched the rest of it. They said it was good. I was enjoying it. my daughter and the boys stayed and watched the rest of it they said it was good i was enjoying it but um daughter was not impressed by the space monkey uh talking to guz there about eddie murphy eddie murphy seems to have popped up a lot in my recent conversations with people his film Dolomite Is My Name is on Netflix and I watched that the other day. By the way, I'm not obliged by a sponsor to mention any of these. These are just genuine recommendations and things that I've enjoyed. Yeah, I thought it was pretty good, Dolomite Is My Name. It's based on a true story about a guy called Rudy Ray Moore, who was a blaxploitation film star. He died in 2008,

but his heyday was in the 70s, as far as I'm aware. I hadn't heard of him before, but he had a whole character. I mean, the movie is a fairly, well, relatively faithful account of his rise to fame as a comedian with this character called Dolomite, who would do these raps, proto-raps, that were largely a string of boasts and insults. A lot of people have said that he was one of the spiritual godfathers of rap. But it's a funny story.

And Eddie Murphy's very good in it. It's got a lot of amazingly good music as well. And good music sequences. It's very uplifting. If you want something that is extremely goofy and positive, I would go for that. It is a rude film. It's not family viewing. It's, you know, not perfect. But what is?

I also saw recently a film called Wild Rose that came out. Did it come out earlier this year or even last year, maybe? But I'd heard that it was good. It was one of those films people kept on saying, oh man, you should see Wild Rose. Anyway, I finally got to see that and I really liked it.

Directed by Tom Harper, who did the TV adaptation of War and Peace, I think, which was good, as I recall. And he's done Peaky Blinders, written by Nicole Taylor. Fresh out of prison, not Nicole Taylor, this is the plot now, a Scottish woman, a woman, played by Jessie Buckley, juggles her job and two children. She's a children juggler while pursuing her dream of becoming a country music star but she has to decide whether her dreams should come at the price of her relationship with her children and her responsibilities as a mother and her relationship

with her mum her disapproving mum who's been looking after the children while she's been in prison played by julie walters but this film it's good i mean it's a drama and there are lots of moving bits and she starts off as a relatively unsympathetic sort of selfish character i would say albeit in a very understandable and relatable way but she goes through a journey it's what they call feel good i believe but jesse buckley it's one of those performances that you see and you think okay here we go bit like well jennifer lawrence in winter's bone who else james mcavoy in starter for 10 michaela cole i remember the first time i saw her and chewing gum carrie mulligan in an education i'm just saying the name of films with young actors in now. Anyway, Jessie Buckley, who I'd already seen in Chernobyl, and she was in War and Peace as well. And she was

in the thing with Tom Hardy. Taboo. Don't know if she's in Mirage. It's one of my 480s jokes. Don't know if she's in Mirage. It's one of my 480s jokes. Anyway, the thing is that she is required to sing a lot in this film and deliver performances that should convince the audience she has the makings of a star. And she very much does. Like, not only is she a technically talented singer, but she's got genuine, know charisma and star quality and she sort of channels Janis Joplin in some scenes very convincingly but in her own way I'm not saying it's just a straight impression of Janis Joplin but she has that that kind of explosive right on the edge of being out of control way of uh behaving on stage in some scenes fucking hell it was good anyway so that's what i've been up to as well as trying to finish the book two more months until i have to pay back the advance. All right, that's enough waffle for this week.

Thank you very much indeed, once again, to Guz Khan. Thanks to Seamus Murphy Mitchell, as ever, for his invaluable production support. Thank you very much indeed to Annika Meissen for her edit on the conversation in this episode. Rosie, come on, let's head back. Come on, dog. Fly past. It's fly past time. Let's run. Ah, she's just running alongside me.

Me and my Rosie. Listen, I love you. Bye! Thank you. I say goodbye to everybody. Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe.

Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. សូវាប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់បានប់� Thank you.