THE ADAM BUXTON PODCAST - EP.226 - SAM CAMPBELL

Episode Date: September 28, 2024

Adam talks with Australian comedian Sam Campbell as they walk around The Latitude Festival and get to know each other. Topics include whether it's OK for a Brit to do an Aussie accent, Sam's upbringing in Queensland, Adam's hat, the rules of stand-up comedy, whether AI is good at writing plays, why Kasabian chose their name, ear injuries, why painting sheep pink is the kind of thing conservatives do and creative angst. But mainly Sam makes Adam laugh.This conversation was recorded face-to-face on 26th and 27th July, 2024Thanks to Séamus Murphy-Mitchell for production support and conversation editing and to Latitude Festival and everyone we met there for their generosity and help.Podcast artwork by Helen GreenRELATED LINKSADAM AND JOE LIVE AT ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL - 5th December, 2024GET REAL DUDE - SAM CAMPBELL COMEDY BLAP - 2019 (YOUTUBE)Lots of funny stuff in this one-off sketch showSAM CAMPBELL YOUTUBE PLAYLISTSAM CAMPBELL AT MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL - 2019 (YOUTUBE)SAM CAMPBELL - NIPPERS (OF DEAD BIRD BAY) - 2017 (YOUTUBE)Pleasingly mad four-part Australian web-series made by Sam Campbell and Eric Hutton that sort of spoofs kids' superhero and adventure shows, but is primarily an excuse for oddness. NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN!SAM CAMPBELL ON 8 OUT OF 10 CATS DOES COUNTDOWN - 2023 (YOUTUBE)SAM CAMPBELL ON DOOR TO DOOR SALESMEN (LIVE AT THE MOTH CLUB) DAVE - 2024 (YOUTUBE)CARL BARRON - THE PROBLEM WITH PEOPLE WHO BUY SELF HELP BOOKS - 2020 (YOUTUBE)DRIFTING OFF WITH JOE PERA - AUSTRALIA - 2024 (YOUTUBE)Eccentric ambient podcast fun in which sleepy-voiced American comedian Joe Pera gets impressions of Australia from Aussie comic Sam Campbell, Aaron Chen, Guy Montgomery, and Yaraman ThorneRIP TORN & NORMAN MAILER - THE 'MAIDSTONE' BRAWL - 1970 (YOUTUBE) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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stupid world Hey, how you doing podcats Adam Buxton here I I'd bow down before you and blow a raspberry at myself. Pfft. Stupid world. Hey, how are you doing, Podcats? Adam Buxton here. I am reporting to you from the usual Norfolk farm track, although it's a different part of it. And as you might be able to hear, I'm not outside, I'm sat in the car. And it is chucking it down. But I'm here with my best dog friend Rosie. Say hi Rosie. Thank you. She's here curled up on the passenger seat next to me. And the reason for that is that recently she's been very reluctant to come out for walks. What happens is that we go out, I put the harness on

her and then we get to the same stretch of track fairly early on in the walk where I usually do my intros on the podcast and she just freezes and refuses to go any further and she starts shaking and it's like she's seen a ghost. My best guess is that she's worried about the noise of shooting. There's been some shooting around here, you know, people hunting pheasants or whatever the hell they're doing. And occasionally there's bangs from some of the fields or they scare the birds with these noises and stuff. She's not great for rows. she doesn't like it and I think that's the reason she's been so reluctant to come for a walk. So I

thought if we drove beyond the point where she usually gets freaked out maybe it might be okay and we could start our walk from out here in the field but as soon as I arrived a huge storm cloud moved overhead and now it's like something out of Twister. Oh, thank you. I took my microphone and found some human folk Then I recorded all the noises while we spoke My name is Ad Buxton. I'm a man I want you to enjoy this. That's the plan

Well, I didn't work it's too disgusting out there for man or beast to go walking. Rosie got a bit of chicken out of it so she's happy I think. In the meantime, how are you doing, Podcats? Welcome to the first car intro that I have done on the podcast, I think. And this is podcast number 226, and it features a truly rambling conversation with Australian comedian, actor and writer Sam Campbell. This one was recorded face-to-face as we walked around on a beautiful summery evening. So it's a contrast. Rather than being out and about in my intro in the beautiful Norfolk countryside, this time I'm in a car, but

the bulk of the conversation you're about to listen to was recorded on a lovely summery evening at the Latitude Festival in Suffolk back in late July of this year, 2024. Intercut with the bits of me and Sam wandering around the festival outdoors are a few clips from a chat that we had the following day on stage in front of a small audience in the Listening Post tent at Latitude. Up until a few days beforehand I had been expecting to interview comedian Jo Brand. brand. She was due to headline that weekend at Latitude but sadly had to pull out due to ill health which I was very sorry to hear. I really hope she's doing better and I look forward to recording a conversation with her another time. She's been on my wish list for ages anyway, sending you all the best Joe. But luckily for me that weekend at Latitude, Sam Campbell was also on the bill and very kindly agreed to step in as my guest at the last minute.

I'd met Sam briefly once before and we've been trying to pin down a time to record a podcast together for a while so this ended up being a nice opportunity to have a good old waffle. I'd seen enough of Sam's stuff to know that I liked where he was coming from but not a huge amount. I would have watched more if I'd known that I was going to be talking to him. Since then I've watched a lot. I love it. So anyway what you're going to hear is essentially me and Sam getting to know each other a little bit more, feeling each other out, getting used to each other's conversational rhythms and having a fun, quite stupid but

occasionally very deep conversation. Quite, well, maybe not very deep. I don't think you need to know too much going into this. Sam is a very funny man. He is already a well-known face in the Australian comedy world, and has been living over in the UK for a few years now, where in addition to his live work, he has popped up in TV shows like Bloods, Stathletes Flats, 8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, and of course he also put in a memorable performance on Taskmaster. That was the year after he won the main comedy award at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2022. I saw his stand-up set on the Saturday afternoon at Latitude.

It was the funniest thing I had seen in years. So let's get to our conversation, which begins with Sam joining me on stage at the listening post tent for our live podcast show, for which I had done some bits about AI at the top before I got Sam on, and later we also did a short play entirely generated by chat GPT, as you will hear. And there's also a little jingle after that that is also the work of AI. Maybe it's a little more successful than the play, I don't know, you be the judge. You'll also hear a brief appearance from my eldest son, Frank. He helped me out on stage with a jingle halfway through the podcast, but the bulk of the conversation you will hear is me and Sam wandering around,

mainly in the forest area of Latitude, if you've been there before, you will know where I'm talking about and down by the lake. Anyway, the sound of music drifting from the stages wasn't too extreme, basically. I had a great time getting to know Sam, and I hope you will too. Back at the end for a bit more waffle, maybe outside if the weather calms down, but right now with Sam Campbell, here we go. Come on, let's chew the fat and have a Campbell chat Put on your conversation coat and write your talking hat Yeah, yeah, yeah Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah come along and be my guest at such short notice, please welcome the wonderful Australian comedic genius that is music himself.

The big bucks. Why do you like that as intro music? Do you think it makes you appear more impressive? Yeah, absolutely. And also, it sort of lets people know that I'm not really someone that they can be messed with. Oh yeah, okay. Do you think that you don't get enough respect?

Absolutely not. No way. From who? Your peers or just people in the street? The industry. No. I want to go on the wheel. No. Which shows would you do? Would you do anything? Would you do Strictly?

Here's my solution to this Strictly stuff. Get rid of these pros. They're just no good. Let's have two amateurs trying to figure it out. Do you spend time worrying about artificial intelligence? I think he said do I spend time dancing during the American Smooth. What is the question? Do you worry?

The cha cha. With Anton Debeque. It's so nerve wracking when they the judge, what you've done. You're like, we've worked so hard on it. And then to get a four or anything lower than a four would just be devastating. What about this? No pros at all. Even the judges are amateurs.

The judges are worse than you. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good idea. Yeah. If you had to dance right now, what would you do? If I made you dance, what would be the move? And you're asking me that, but I don't actually have to do it? Well, in theory, yes.

So I'm just sort of describing what I'd do. Yes. I'd like to, I guess, be in some sort of basket. You'd play something on the pipe and I'd slowly... In a basket. I like these... Yeah, I'd like to be summoned. I like whatever that style of dancing is. Oh, yes.

What's that, sorry? Snake Charming. Snake Charming. Snake Charming. Yes, but what's the style? They're not charming, they're actually very dangerous. See me fuck up that heckler? They're not so...

Oh, wow. See me fuck up that heckler? They're not so... I don't think... Does a person who's trying to help you... I fucking destroyed that guy! Fucking hell, he's gonna wish he never came into this tent. I fucking dunked on that fucking poor fool. Look, he's not even there, he's a puddle. He's a puddle, I drink him. Nah, so good on you, mate.

He's not even there. He's a puddle. He's a puddle. I drink him. Nah, so good on you, mate. How do you feel about people doing Australian accents with you? Yeah, I love it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Is that your sort of asking if you can do one? Do you want to do one? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Go crazy. Yes? No, that's New Zealand. You've got to ask for permission these days, though, don't you? I think it's still... There are some people for whom I wouldn't even ask permission to do the accent because I think that it would be understood that the answer would be no.

It's not OK. But with an Australian, I feel as if it's alright to ask and then do it. So I'm going to talk like this for the rest of the podcast. Is that okay? There's actually a good phrase, sort of a sentence if you want to do a good Australian. Yeah, go on. Teach me. Stop mocking our culture! I find that one... It's a good way.

Stop mocking our culture, goba. Mate, stop mocking our culture. Like that. Listen, all this is, all this is, is me trying to reassert myself after yesterday, we wandered around the site recording some waffle, and at one point Sam rounded on the hat that I was wearing it wasn't this one it was a

different hat. I like your hat your hat has no brim. No it's a docker hat. Yeah. I was trying it on as a as a new look because I always used to wear a hat with a brim and at a certain point I just thought, things have gotta change. So I'm trying this. Do you genuinely like it, or are you a bit worried about it? I was shocked when I saw you wearing it. Yeah, were you?

Cause I've only seen like sort of, yeah, I was shocked. Did you think I looked like a stevedore? What's that? Like a docker. Oh. Somebody beat Dan at the docks. Yeah. A roughy toughy man. Yeah. What did you think? I don't know. I just I've seen them. I've seen them around but on different kinds of guys. It's that this doesn't sound good. I've seen them on like yeah I don't know. I really I think it's cool. What kinds of I was just shocked

I'm just shocked when I saw you what kinds of guys yeah, I wasn't like scandalized Maybe a guy called Andre who used to work at the cafe called Piccolo in seven sisters He's he used to wear one. It's very trendy was he nice Andre. Yeah, he was really nice I'm not getting positive vibes from your reaction. It just sort of shocked me. It's like if I... Yeah, it's just something that's I've seen, but I just wouldn't combine with you. Okay. But maybe I just... Yeah. I'm wondering where the best place for us to go is because at the moment it's like barely... I think there's places like chill out zones where people are like, um,

have taken too much MD or something. Yes, we need to find somewhere for drug casualties. Yeah, sort of a Zen area. Exactly. Whereabouts in Australia did you grow up? Hey, that's a little personal. Sorry. No, I'm from Queensland originally, up north. What's Queensland like?

Yeah, it's great. It's um, people are a little bit self-conscious there. Like the slogan used to be the sunshine state, but then everyone would call Queensland as stupid so they changed it to the smart state. Is that true? Yeah. What kind of household did you grow up in? What did your parents do? Oh. My dad is a horticulturist and my mom is a teacher. Good one. What does she teach? A chalky discipline. No, she was, she taught year three mainly. She was actually my teacher one year. Really? Yeah

How does that work? Was it not difficult to have your mum as your teacher? Or was she a popular well liked teacher? Yeah, I just felt very lucky Okay, good to see the most beautiful woman in the whole world in the classroom and out. Yeah No, she was harder on me than the other kids, right? And she once took me to a store room to hit me and a supply teacher came in and she said it's alright, he's my son. I'm not laughing at the idea of you being beaten. Oh yeah, no, no. I don't think that's okay. Yeah, yeah. I was just getting smacked. I

think people always talk about hitting kids that it's wrong, of course, but there are different types of smack That's the thing isn't it? It's a nuanced area. Yeah, although in a way, it's not a nuanced area anymore because it's illegal Who's that geez That's from bright. Yeah. Yeah presuming ahead the crew Those guys run presuming Ed in Brighton. What's Presuming Ed? It's like a cool, I think it's a bar but I use it as a cafe. Oh do

you live in Brighton? Yeah I'm about to move though. Okay where will you move? To London. Right, why would you want to move to London? I need to be there for, just the trains are freaky, a bit nutty, you know? Yes. Well, that's Southern Rail, isn't it? They're the worst, I think. Well, the other day, this guy was like, four hours to get back to... This is ridiculous.

I thought this new government was going to do something. Yeah. But it was two days after the election. Well, give them a chance, mate. Yeah. But yeah, hopefully, this is the first time you've looked me in the eyes. No, I don't think so. Are you up for sitting down over here?

Yeah, absolutely. Just pausing a little bit. Listeners, Adam is trying to feed me a Turkish delight. Was it weird? Because we were just wandering around the site and it was very loud and I hadn't met Sam before. I met you once very briefly, so we were getting to know each other as we were waffling. Was it weird? I feel like we didn't make eye contact

for maybe the first 30 minutes. But as soon as we locked eyes and I saw those sultanas. Did you see the synchronised swimming in the lake? No. Yeah, yeah. Who was doing that? Some old ladies.

Oh. They were pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Why didn't you join them? I got in trouble for trying to feed them bread. So why did you move to the UK and when? I was sort of an accident, I guess.

I was coming over more and more. I went to do the Edinburgh Festival in 2016, and then I, it didn't go great, but I returned in 2018, and went a little bit better, and then I started like, you know, you just make videos, a lot of people here making videos. You just meet people, and so I'd spend a little bit more time each year.

And then during COVID, I got a job working on a sitcom called Bloods about paramedics. Oh yeah Julian Barrett was in that. Yeah yeah yeah. Did you get to know Julian? I saw him recently yeah he was getting into a car and he quickly got all this sort of rubbish out of the car and just left it on the side of the street and some of it was like sort of artwork that his kids had done. Okay. He said do you want this and then he drove away Yeah, he drove off. Yeah Yeah, he's amazing to me. Yeah, I love him. Yeah

When did you start performing stand-up in Australia? I Wouldn't tell that to the clip my closest friend. That's so private. No, no, no, no, no in 20 Maybe 2010 I think yeah. Yeah, I was 18 years of age. Yeah, and what inspired you to begin? What was the thing that finally made you step up onto the stage? I Think I just been watching it a bit. Yeah, you just watch watch watch stuff on TV. What if YouTube? Yeah, we'll be watching the stuff on YouTube. Yeah, you're watching. Oh my goodness, I love Tom Barry and I would listen to him and I guess all sorts of things but Australian comedians, I love Kyle Barron of course, do

you know him? No I don't. Yeah he's huge, he's the mammoth. Yeah. What's he like? He's from Longreach and he used to work as a roof tiler. Yeah. And he's observational, yeah. He's just amazing. He's so confident, yeah. And what were you doing? Like, what were the early things you were doing on stage? I was pretty feral, I guess, in psycho. So I just talk about, I had stuff about the bus driver's knees and stuff like that. Lots of short jokes and experimenting a lot. I'd take my shirt off and I had the Illuminati symbols drawn all over my body.

My friend and I had a cardboard robot. We loved Kasparov and Deep Blue and we talked about that all the time. So we had a robot that could beat someone at a paper scissors rock So they would do theirs and then it would slowly print out You know Okay, I've written down some questions for you. Oh shit. About performing live. What have you learned about performing live over the years?

Are there any lessons that you have consciously absorbed? About performing live? Like did you ever see that documentary about Seinfeld? Yeah, yeah. So that guy, Ornie Adams, he would sit there and he would watch back all his performances on video tape. Yeah, I like- And he'd make notes.

I walked past Ornie Adams in Los Angeles. Oh yeah. I said, man, I'm a huge fan. And he looked like sort of bothered. He was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't really like him. No. Um, you do?

Yeah. Yeah, okay. He's on YouTube. He's got these specials. And I've seen him live a few times in America. Is he good? Yeah, he's got good stuff about like, he gets worked up about stuff like straws, like paper straws. He's like, paper straw, you want me to have a paper straw? I don't want a paper straw! Like he's going, like, yeah, he is funny. Um, he's like, this thing's not lasting in my mouth. I'm not getting the full drink. I'm not doing it justice.

But he's got good stuff about the straws. Sure. Well, they seal up, don't they, the paper straws? I wouldn't be as good as Orne Adams. This is one of his bits. He goes, they seal up, and everyone's clapping. Yeah, yeah. He goes, they seal up.

This is what I would be like with that stuff. They get soggy, don't they? And harder to drink but they don't have they lack the rigidity of a plastic straw. Yeah so Ornie would probably go they lack the rigidity and everyone's joining in. Yeah. I don't know. And then he comes out and he's got that on t-shirts. Yeah yeah. He makes notes a performer like Ornie Adams to improve his onstage stuff. Do you do that kind of thing?

I write my set list out and I do record my sets every now and especially if you're doing a full show to learn and to yeah, it's not a it's not a great thing to listen back to. It'll really make you grimace. But have you learned stuff off the back of that? Have you told yourself like, okay, I'm never going to do this again, and I'm never going to do this again? Yeah, I'll listen back, I'll be like, oh that didn't really work, and then I'll sort of listen back and I've not really spoken clearly at all. And I'm like, how did, what did I think that was? That's, yeah. So it's important to be articulate. For example.

But not too articulate. No. I made notes at a certain point. Because I'm not, you know, I don't perform live nearly as much as you. And I don't- You did a character called Pavel. I did do a character called Pavel, yeah. But um-

He was an animator. That's right. How did you know about Pavel? From YouTube. Ah. Yeah. Is there anything on YouTube, what's on YouTube of Pavel? He's sort of running around. He's an Eastern European sort of fellow. Yeah was that me and Joe?

Yeah but I think he and then did you do him live as well? Yeah. Yeah right. But I didn't realize it was filmed. Maybe I've chatted Pavel with someone. Maybe. Yeah. Alright like these are some examples of some things that I wrote down to try and improve my own live performances, right? Don't laugh or smile at your own jokes. Oh yeah. I did that a lot. Was that genuine or was that you just trying to sort of...

I think... Why did you do that? I don't know because I thought that it was... I think it was out of nerves Yeah, but I thought that it made me look like I was relaxed and easygoing To laugh at my own jokes. Yeah And I don't think it's a good thing to do necessarily I think if it gave it strikes you and if it gets you giggling then don't hold it in sure. Okay

Yeah, I mean obviously if you're on stage and especially if you're with someone else Maybe don't clap after the bits. Yeah and pump your fist. Yeah Some comics do that. Yeah, I mean Dave Chappelle kind of does that with his mic tapping doesn't he? Oh, he's lost the plot Yeah, okay. Here's tapping the knee. So tapping the knee bending over. It's like he's doubling himself up. Yeah, and he's creasing. Yeah. Yeah Don't blame the audience Saying things like that joke usually gets a much better reaction. What's wrong with you lot? Oh, you would say that I don't think I've said that but I that's one of the rules that I wrote down for myself Yeah, and my circles we call it crumbling, that kind of thing.

Crumbling. And it's like, everything is the same as anything, like laughing at your own jokes, you go, oh don't do it, but then you'll see someone do it and it'll be really, really charming. It depends, like, sometimes you have to crumble. If the audience is like, this guy doesn't even, like, you have to say, listen, I get it, I know what's going on. You've just seen Neil Delamere, he's blown the crap. This happened to me at Ealing Comedy Festival

I had to crumble Neil Delamere just blew it up. He was amazing He was doing an impression of a Russian telemarketer. It was insane And so I went on and I'm getting nothing and they're looking at me like I'm roadkill. I had to say like listen I get it. I'm you know, I'm really struggling up here. I Don't know if I can follow Neil Delamere. This is freaking me out I had to admit that what was on. And did that work for you though? Did you get them back onside? I left the stage to try and find him to come back and then that got me a little bit. They're like, okay he gets it. Yeah.

Here's another rule I wrote down for myself. Commit. If you suddenly realize a bit is not going to land, double down and commit. The audience takes their cue from you. If they see you've lost confidence in something, then they're going to, definitely. Wait, who did you write? You wrote these for yourself to read? Yes. Yes. I was trying to be like Ornie Adams. I thought, look at Ornie Adams, he's got shells full of his tapes.

He's taking this thing seriously. Mic technique. Hold the mic at the base of the microphone. The further up you hold it, the more of a wuss you are. And you will never, ever, ever get big laughs. Yeah. Exactly. I'm gonna, let me just write that one down. At the base of the mic.

It's crazy that you tried to make, like when you were making short films and things like that, did you ever have these same rules for yourself? No. With podcasting you like that? You have like these rules? Well sometimes people ask you for rules. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like people like me. Yeah. And they, and so I come up with them when they ask. No one really thinks of them at the time, do they? Yeah. It's just in retrospect, because I'm quite attracted though to people who act like there's a science and they know it Like Seinfeld is like oh, yeah

Yeah, and he's like almost a simulation now like because he was in the most famous TV show Appearing at the start as a comedian. He's almost like when you picture a comedian. He is the comedian Mm-hmm, but it's so weird. I think he sort of thinks that that he's like I am the comedian Where it's like he's just sort of I think he's amazing thinks that he's like, I am the comedian. Where it's like, he's just sort of, I think he's amazing, but he's still just a comedian. Yes. Also, and I don't mean to sound like sort of knee jerk, male man, trying to be a feminist man. Is there a word for that? Sorry?

A snag? A sensitive new age guy? Perfect. I've never heard that before. Really? Yeah. A snag? A sensitive new age guy? Perfect! I've never heard that before. Oh really? A snag. Anyway, I don't want to sound like a snag, but I do think it's something that men do more than women. Like I can't think of any women comedians

talking about the theory of comedy in the way that I can think of a fuck of a lot of male comedians. Oh, yeah, yeah, like the Craft and all that stuff. Yeah, yeah. it's just fun I think it's also partly to remind you like to keep going Yes, to you just want to feel like you're part of something So you if you make it seem like it's oh, this is thing that can be mastered Maybe that helps you keep going and it right also it makes it feel like a job that isn't just totally bullshit Yeah, because that is, do you ever find yourself

having an existential black hole moment where you just think, what am I doing? Oh, no, not so much. Okay, good. I don't think it's that like, yeah. I don't think you should. No, I don't think I'm like. I don't want you to.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm just asking. I just think it's okay if you're on the make. If you're just always making things, then it's, you know, not a bad thing to be doing. Yeah. Spreading joy. Yeah, absolutely. I get a lot of emails. Hadn't smiled in five years, mate. Army guy. Hadn't smiled. Saw your act. Ear to ear. Smiling like a bastard. Don't apologize for what you're not. Oh. Concentrate on being the best version of what you are.

So once on a TV show I did, I had a joke. Just before the ad break, and this leads on actually from what we were just talking about. And I said we'll be back after the break for more hard-hitting political analysis and it was a joke because there was not gonna be oh yeah hard-hitting political analysis I was sort of trying to send a signal to the audience that I was sorry that there was no hard-hitting political analysis on some subconscious level. Do you know what I mean? Like I was ashamed that I was just doing a silly TV show. It's called Bug. Oh yeah, the music video.

Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah. And we did a series for Sky Atlantic in 2012. Oh nice. It was good. Yeah. But even so, even though it was good, though I say so myself, there was still a part of me that felt I had to apologize for being silly.

Because, you know, even back in 2012, there was problems in the world. I don't know if you remember. Oh, big time. Yeah, absolutely. Coney. Exactly. You don't hear about him. And his child soldiers. So much anymore. Yeah. Joseph Coney.

Yeah. Hey, by the way. Hello. I was thinking that we could do a chat GPT play on stage tomorrow. Oh yeah, I'll do anything. Because it's just like, it would be five minutes and I could type in what I wanted the play to be about. Oh, so you haven't even conjured it yet? No, no, no. It would be created live in front of the audience. Oh nice, yeah. And so we just read it line by line. Yeah I'll do it. Yeah? Yeah. What prompts should we put in? Like what what should the play be about? Oh I guess latitude. I mean I think it's usually good if it's some... Barclays. If it's some version of us. So I would describe us to chat GPT yeah so it'll be comedian Adam Buxton meets Sam Campbell Australian comedian at Latitude Festival and then you come and you're being interviewed by me live on stage yeah and then you make a joke

about Barclays or something okay and, very spicy. Then I get offended because I bank with Barclays. Do you? Yeah, I genuinely do. Here's the thing, in reality, and this is true, the protest over Barclays' sponsoring latitude encouraged me to divest myself of my Barclays account. So I've switched banks now. You're just saying that to get all the chicks.

I've heard that before chicks It's classic snag Yeah You're like, yeah, I've been thinking more about the ocean. I Wanted to impress on the stuff that's been happening with the sea life. It's just not on Yeah, yeah, I wanted to impress see Matt What other elements can go in there into the prompts? I'm trying to I'm looking around. Think drama. What's gonna be dramatic? Are we gonna stay away from Trump's assassination attempt? Yeah throw in an assassination attempt. Pop it in there? Yeah yeah yeah. Are you gonna be like maybe we could disagree maybe you could say something disrespectful about well

the thing is that chat GPT probably won't know about Trump's assassination attempt. Who hasn't learned about that yet? I don't think so I think it's on a lag. Anyway I'm trying to think of stuff that's been in the news in the zeitgeist. Would you make a joke about Trump getting assassinated and I get upset with you? Or would it be the other way around? Oh yeah, that could be interesting. That could be good. Maybe something to do with the food vans. Hahahaha.

Well look, I thought it would be nice to demonstrate the power of AI to the audience by generating live, genuinely, a play, a short play, a two-hander, myself and Sam, and on chat GPT. You up for it? Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Frankie, could you just bring me the mic stand just so I can put my mic on the stand while I type in the prompt for this chat GPT play. Oh, I know this guy. He offered me a pill backstage. LAUGHTER LAUGHTER

Oh. He's like, yeah, that... He's like, this stuff goes really good with the Buxton Man, really complements it, really good stuff. Thank you very much. That's great. That's great. Thank you, Frankie. Take it easy, dude. Let's see how we do with ChatGPT, shall we? This is my graphic for the ChatGPT theatre. That's the robot that's going to be generating our play. Oh, hello.

Alright, so this is the prompt. You can read it out, Sam. Oh, absolutely. Write a 10 minute two man play about the British comedian Adam Buxton interviewing surreal, absurdist Australian comedian Sam Campbell on stage at the Latitude Festival. At first the pair get on well, but when Sam makes an off-color joke

about the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. Oh no, hang on, let's change that. After seeing what happened to Tenacious D, I don't want to do that one. Let's see... okay, hang on, hang on. Can you not look at the screen for a second? All right, so this one is slightly different. In this one, there's a disagreement about Sam making a joke about the festival being sponsored by Bankleys. And they're a bank with controversial investment policies. But Adam, who uses Bankley's gets offended and the

atmosphere becomes tense before the two accidentally discover their share love of the poetry of John Cooper Clarke who is gonna be here at 8 p.m. and the play ends with them taking turns to improvise a short poem about ants. Now it can be about anything do you want it to be about ants? Oh yeah, let's go with ants, I think. Are there any other details that anyone out there thinks would be more dramatic to include? Adam and the ants.

Adam and the ants. Do you think we should do it about Adam and the ants? Yeah, chuck it just a little bit. Chuck it in. Just say passing reference to the Adam and the Ants just because the lady seems nice, but don't focus on it. To Adam and the Ants. Okay, should we do it?

Yeah, nice. Generate. So let's see, Sam, can you see this coming up here? Yeah, absolutely. Where should I go from there? Here we go. So this is called Ants in the Latitude. Characters, Adam Buxton, a British comedian and interviewer.

Sam Campbell, an Australian comedian known for his surreal and absurdist humour. Setting, the stage at the Latitude Festival with a backdrop featuring the festival's logo. There are two chairs and a small table with water bottles. Check. Are you sure a human didn't write this? How do they know about the festival's logo? They're guessing. They're imagining. Here we go. Scene opens with Adam and Sam sitting on stage. The audience is cheering. The festival atmosphere is lively, yes. Adam, smiling. Welcome everyone to the Latitude Festival.

I'm Adam Buxton and today I'm thrilled to be joined by the brilliantly bizarre, the hilariously surreal Sam Campbell, give him a warm welcome. Audience cheers, Sam waves and grins. Here's your first line Sam. G'day everyone. It's great to be here in the latitude of latitude. Oh, good line. Adam, chuckling, so Sam, how are you finding the festival so far? Oh, it's been a hoot, mate. I swear, this is chat GPT.

It does sound like I wrote it. It sounds like an offensive, slightly racist, middle-aged jerk wrote it, but it is chat GPT. Yeah, it was pretty good till a dingo stole me baby. Fucking bullshit. I got lost three times trying to find the vegan food stand, but I met a lovely group of mimes who showed me the way. They were very quiet about it though. Adam laughs only at latitude right? Now your comedy

is known for its absurdity and surreal twists. Where do you get your inspiration? Mostly from dreams and those weird moments just before you fall asleep. You know when you're halfway between reality and a world where pigeons are your financial advisors? Some of this is good, Sam. That's not good. Some of this is strong. That is a nutty thing to say.

Chat GPT continues. Adam, smiling. Speaking speaking of finances have you noticed how prominently Banklies is sponsoring the festival this year? Oh yes, Banklies, nothing says fun in the sun like a bank that invests in shall we say some not so sunshine industries. Adam laughing then quickly stops. Well, you know, we all have to make a living somehow. True, true. But it's a bit like having a shark as a lifeguard, isn't it?

Come swim, we promise we won't bite. March. Audience laughs, but Adam's smile fades. Well, I use Bankly's, and they've always been good to me. Maybe not as black and white as you think. Sam, realizing he's hit a nerve. Oh, no offense, Adam. Just having a bit of fun. And you are complicit in a genocide.

fun and you are complicit in a genocide. ChatGPT didn't write that bit. Sorry, I didn't bring my reading glasses. But it's all a bit of absurdism, right? Adam, cool-ly, maybe, but some jokes can be a bit off the mark. An awkward silence settles in. Both men look at the audience who are sensing the tension. Boo! It doesn't say to boo.

LAUGHTER Obviously it does! LAUGHTER Sam, trying to lighten the mood. Well, I think we can both agree. You know what's not off the mark? The poetry of John Cooper Clark. Yeah.

Adam, perking up. John Cooper Clark, you're a fan. Absolutely. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. His words are like a caffeinated octopus playing the drums.

Pure genius. Adam smiling again. I couldn't agree more. Evidently, Chicken Town is a personal favourite. Oh mate, same here. His rhythm, his wit. It's like he's tap dancing on your brain. Adam laughing.

Exactly. You know, this reminds me, we should do something fun to wrap up our chat. How about we improvise a poem? Sam, grinning. Sounds perfect. Hey, what should we write about? Adam, what about ants? I think it wants three dots after how about.

How about ants? Ants it is. Hey, and let's sneak in a nod to Adam and the Ants while we're at it. I mean, this is supposedly what is gonna enslave humankind. Let's sneak in a nod to Adam and Ants. Okay. For the honeys. They stand up facing the audience.

Ants in the grass, marching in a line, tiny soldiers working all the time. Underneath the sun they toil and they strive. In their little world they come alive. Ants on a mission, no time to relax. Carrying crumbs and avoiding cracks. They dance and they prance in a rhythmic trance just like Adam and the Ants. They take a stance. Ants in my pants, can you feel the beat moving to their rhythm? Isn't life sweet?

From the underground tunnels to the festival lights, these little creatures know how to fight. It goes on. Oh, it's nearly finished. So here's to the ants, the tiny and bold, in their microcosm, stories unfold. We must stop Netanyahu, the Israeli leader. The biggest enemy of the ant is an anteater. Again not chat GPT.

Busting with the timing, Campbell trying to salvage Mechanical musing, sounding like savage cabbage Robot playwright, ain't no Shakespeare here Packed house whispers turn into cheers Comedy aloft in the digital fog Freezing like a glitch in a binary bog Okay, we are standing here at Latitude Festival 2024, myself and Sam Campbell. And it is the evening, what

time is it now, like 7.30 or something? It could be, yeah. It's pretty balmy, as you said before. It's well balmy. Balmy. Oh, it's exactly 7.30. And it is sort of perfect weather. Are we going to say perfect?

Yeah, it's really nice. Perfect temperature. Conditions are perfect. There's clouds, the sun is going down, but they're beautiful clouds. It's gonna be a lovely evening. Cassabian are sharpening their plectrums. They are limbering up to delight the crowds

with their stomp rock. Yeah. Is that what it's called? Oh, I'm not good with genres. Cassabian, Cassabian, Cassabian, Cassabian, Cassabian, Cassabian. Is that one of them? I don't know. Thanks for having a song with the band name in the title.

We are, we are, Cassabian. That's the, I don't really know much about Cassabian. I think it's more Cassabian rhythms, Cassabian nights. Who knows what will happen? Kasabian tonight! But you know who Kasabian was though? Oh, a general or something, maybe oligarch, great warrior, Boudica's little sister, sorry.

None of the above. Yeah. Linda Kasabian was one of Charles Manson's entourage. Oh really? Yeah, I believe so. Yeah, I Don't know if there was anything sympathetic about her. I don't know why the band chose to name themselves after her Yeah, or whether it was just pure Nihilism he was a good-looking guy. He got that swastika tattooed on his forehead. Who Charlie Manson? Yeah, I was like, what have you got that for?

You don't want to say anything, you're like, I don't like it. Cause he's like, you know. His parents would have been. He's like, you like it? You're like, ah, I don't know. It's just, yeah. Charles, you're not going out like that.

What have you done? Tell me that's just felt tip Charles. That better be the nice one from Hinduism. That better not be the other, the one with the negative. Is that the nice Hindu one, Charlie? It's not, is it? It's the wrong way round, oh, Charles. Why would you do that?

You're a good looking kid. I love your new character of Charles Manson's mother. Mom, Charlie. His long suffering mother. You've got so much going for you! What are you doing at that ranch? I bet that was Steve that encouraged you to do that! Which one was Steve? I don't know. One of the entourage. No, that was Linda, wasn't it Linda Kasabian?

With her stomp rock. Encouraging you to tattoo that symbol on your Forehead it's a shame. Don't you think that's weird though to name yourself after one of Charles I mean not to add, you know, this is very boldly Changing tone after that fun Impersonating Charles Max's mom to suddenly be serious and cast judgment on the band for naming themselves after Linda Cassini. I think it's a slightly edgy kind of thing. It is edgy, isn't it? Do you know much about Manson? No, I get freaked out. I've tried to read the Wikipedia and I get a bit,

I got a bit upset. This big old book like Louis Theroux recommended a giant Manson book to me. He loves all that stuff. I nearly stepped on him. Oh yeah, where? At this latitude in 2016. Right. He was lying down with some kid, with his kids. And I nearly stood on his leg.

Oh, you should have done. No, no, no. I like his dad. His dad, yes. Which of his books have you read? I've read My Secret History. Yes. I've read his-

That's the one that upset Louie's mum very badly Oh, I could see why the stuff with the water pistol and that yeah And I've read the the great Siberian railroad great railway. Yeah. Yeah that one Yeah, and I've read one that's all about the writer VS. No, no Paul. No Paul. Yeah. Yeah, is that good? I haven't read that. It's amazing. Oh, it's incredible. Yeah, cuz they sort of had a falling out. Yeah, yeah. Is that good? I haven't read that. It's amazing. Oh, it's incredible. Yeah. Because they sort of had a falling out.

Yeah. It's an amazing book. Yeah. It's quite petty in some ways. It's just incredible. Do you read a lot? Yeah, I like to read. What are you reading at the moment?

I'm reading the biography of John Steinbeck. Really? Yeah. Grapes of Wrath. Do you absolutely love his stuff? Have you read all his books? I've only read a couple. What made you want to know about him? I just saw the book for sale and it's got four different photos of him and he

looks so stern. I read Norman Mailer's biography of him a while ago and I loved that. Norman Mailer was a maniac wasn't he? He built this beautiful... I think he was going to be an architect before he went off to the war Same as Steinbeck. They would do things just for the story Yeah, like Steinbeck could always be hanging out with migrant workers just so he could get their stories to write They were really both into like sort of Appropriating the stories of everyday and they're like fascinating. Yeah, they're both like obsessed with like what's Hemingway doing like, uh-huh Yeah, it is funny reading about these writers

What's Hemingway doing? Yeah, it is funny reading about these writers. Norman Mailer's the guy that, there's that YouTube video of him having a scram. With Rip Torn, yeah. With Rip Torn and biting his ear off. Or did Rip Torn bite Norman Mailer's ear off? I think Rip Torn bit Norman Mailer's ear. I think he was watching John Cassavetti's movies

and I thought I could do this. So he would do these improvised films where they would just chase each other around with hammers yeah it's really upsetting they've been improvising something and then it goes weird and then they start fighting and it gets serious yeah and they start hurting each other and ripped on the actor bites Norman Mailer's ear yeah it starts bleeding and then members of their families and children... Yeah, some kids run in.

And it's quite upsetting because the kids are upset. Yeah, it's, I guess every couple of years something happens to someone's ear, doesn't it? It's a good turn of the century sort of thing. Which are your other favourite ear injuries? Mike Tyson. That's the big one isn't it? And then of course recently, President Trump is the corner of his ears.

And you would be more upset than anyone I think because you love to, the ears are your sort of bread and butter, they're what you feel. Me? Absolutely, yeah. Those are sort of your target audience. No, but I don't mind the corner of the ear going. Or the lobes. Yeah, well what's the opposite?

Like the lobe is the bottom. The top bit. What's that called? Oh yeah. It's just the top ear. We can ask a punter. Could ask a passerby, couldn't we? Hey.

Sorry sir, excuse me. Do you know what the top of the ear is called? Oh no, don't, it's a good question. No worries, thank you. He didn't know. We'll get this guy. He's not gonna know. Oh we'll get this house. Excuse me, sorry, um, we're with TikTok. Do you know what the top of the ear is called? The bottom of the ear, this part, has a name, the lobe, but what's the top called? It's the tiny bone, isn the ear, this part, has a name, the lobe. But what's the top called? It's the tiny bone, isn't it?

It's cartilage up there, isn't it? I don't know. It doesn't have a name? I don't know. We have an opportunity to name it now. Yes. What would you guys call it? This bit.

Bob. Bob. Wow. Finlay. Don't say Stephen, that's a parrot, then. Jeffrey. Jeffrey. Bob or Jeffrey? Bob. We Bob we go for Bob thank you very

much who's that these guys tomorrow oh yeah yeah where do they listen to me? We listen to Vintage Adam and Jo and we listen to Adam Buxton Podcast as well. We also listen to Vintage Adam and Jo. I hope you carefully cherry pick them, most of them aren't appropriate. Yeah, turn it down. In case we use this, is that okay with you? It's totally okay, yes. You won't, but it's totally okay. Would you mind just saying your name and saying that you consent for us to use it on the Adam Buxton podcast? Yes, Oliver Moran and I consent to you using this on the Adam Buxton podcast. Thank you. Just in case. Nowhere else though If it goes viral, nowhere. All right. Nice to meet you guys Take it easy keep supporting the live stuff So they were very nice so they're calling they're just giving it a nice but very stupid family

All right Frankie put your mic on. There you go, that one down there. One, one, one, okay. Turn Frank's mic right down. I mean not right down. What are we seeing? But a bit half. This is halfway through the podcast. I just went over this with the audience.

Ah right, sorry. No, don't hit him! He's just a boy. Don't send him away to one of your horrible boarding schools. Go boy, go, go! He didn't go, I should have sent him. Then he'd be a bit more disciplined. Okay.

Alright, here we go. Give us a count in. One, two, three, four. We're halfway through the podcast, I think it's going really great. The conversation's flowing like it would between a geezer and his mate. Alright, mate. Hello, geezer! There's so much chemistry. We're going to be friends, we're going to be friends We're going to be friends, we're going to be friends

We're going to be friends, we're going to be friends We're going to be friends, we're going to be friends We're going to be friends, we're going to be friends We're going to be friends, we're going to be friends We're going to be friends, we're going to be friends We're going to be friends, we're going to be friends Put it to bed Frank! Yeah! He's putting it right to bed! Okay, that's enough of that! We are walking past the river here at Latitude and we're down by the Latitude sign, the big metal letters, and it's next to the river it's a beautiful evening the

sun going down and the pink sheep are here how do you feel about the spraying sheep pink oh yeah why have they done that it's quirky I think yeah and it ties in with the kind of latitude multicoloured, brightly coloured, fun, in diverse environment. Yeah, I think it's wrong. What's this wrong? Why didn't you just spray paint the sheep? I don't know. I don't think they do either.

I think it is disrespectful because it's like the fact that they're all sprayed pink as well, is sort instead of rubbing rubbing their faces in their inability to do anything about it. It's what they do in prisons they sometimes put the guys in pink jumpsuits to emasculate them. Oh yeah yeah where do they do that? It's what Campbell Newman did to the Bikes, premier of Queensland. He made the Bikes wear pink jumpsuits to emasculate them in prison. The bikeys? Yeah. Are they the naughty gangs, biker gangs? Yeah, I thought he was too tough on the bikeys. He was so like, had so many rules about like, if you're seen with a bikey, you could get like, fined

and it was too much. Yeah. He just was, I don't know, he had something to prove with the bikeys. So what is he, is he a conservative? Campbell Newman, yeah, he was the mayor, the Lord Mayor, and then he went on to be the Premier. And was he popular? Not in my circles, I'm from, you know, my parents are real left-wing pinkos, sort of. Oh, right. Yeah, so they don't like Campbell Newman.

But I guess a lot of other people were going, yes, put those bikies in jumpsuits, teach them a lesson. Yeah. Because they've gone too far. Yeah, but it's like, they want to wear cool black leather jackets, you know? Yeah. And bandanas, like, fashion's obviously important to them. And to do that, I just think it's wrong. I don't know, I think that's quite lateral. wrong I don't know I think that's quite lateral now should we wander across the bridge or is it just gonna get unmanageably crazy over there we could go back the way of the hurly-durly what is that thing called the helter-skelter yeah well it's more quieter out there okay yeah what's up in well shall we let's let's walk across let's take a different route, at least.

It might get a bit more gnarly. Yeah, we can't go up near the main stage. Do you feel self-conscious wandering around with the mic? No, I'll do whatever. You're OK. These are not my people. Ha ha ha ha. Who are your people?

Bikies? No, some more disenfranchised people. Yeah. Who are like, you know, they're not here. They're not at the latitude they're not in this field right okay these are chosen people what do you do with your time when you're not performing do you have any other things that you do when you're in Brighton oh in Brighton I swim and I play shuffleboard.

Yes. I play a bit of shuffleboard. That's good. Go to the movies. What was the last film you saw? Oh, at the cinemas? Yeah. Or in life?

Either way. Oh, I did see... What did I... I did see that Kinds of Kindness. Oh yeah. I must have seen something else. Did you see Civil War? Yeah, I loved Civil War.

It got me really jeered up. Did you think when Trump got shot that maybe the guy who shot him had seen Civil War? Oh, do you reckon? It crossed my mind. Yeah, I don't know. After we saw the movie, I said, a war is only as good as its correspondence. And then I started saying that all the time in my life

to people. It does apply a fair bit. I think so. Well, they're the history makers, the recorders. Say to your wife about something, a war is only as good as its correspondence. See, I wonder what she would say. Can you just slip it into normal conversation? It's a nifty phrase, but yeah I loved that movie.

Would you like to make a film, a feature length film? Yeah I think so. Is that the thing you'd like to do most? Sounds like I'm talking to a four-year-old. What would you like to do Sam, would you like to make a film or would you like to do a? Would you like to make a film? Or would you like to do a theatre thing? Or something like that. I remember my friend. He was like, do a nice play. My friend was talking to a guy. We knew someone, her boyfriend was Portuguese. And he was talking about like his phone plan or whatever.

Like Optus, we have Telstra Optus and stuff he's what's your plan and this guy goes just to be happy I don't know I'm trying to make a TV show at the moment what would be in your TV show would it be a narrative thing or a sketch show it's um it's about people who are in... Have you ever watched like Backyard Blitz? Do you know what that is? Like you know where they'll go on this person's been working hard? DIY SOS type thing.

To the community, like her friends written in. Home makeover shows. It's a show about... It's that, but it's people who have ideas for movies. And this team have a van with a camera on top of it and they make the movie They turn their idea into a movie in three days And that's your show we have filmed a pilot of a yell Wow Yeah, that sounds a bit like something Michelle gondry would do I mean it reminds me of be kind rewind is it that sort of spirit?

it's Maybe less like cardboard and stuff like that. Trying to be a little less craft-a-noon, maybe. Not that I'm, you know, I'm a huge fan of his. And are you? I play the director. You're the director. Disgraced. Yeah. Yeah. Oh that sounds good. Oh I'll send it to you. Maybe you'll like it. So it's real people, is it? It's got Kim Noble in it. Right, oh he's brilliant. Yeah he's a troublemaker but he's amazing. He is a troublemaker. How do you know him just from being around? Yeah I don't know actually. How long have you known Kim Noble? I went to see his show. He freaks me out. I love him. I went to see his show at the Soho theater and everything like you say to him he's

like oh that's amazing I can never tell if he's like making fun of me and stuff, but he was amazing in this I thought he's really funny Yeah, he's brilliant. I don't know what he's thinking about He's quite sort of straightforward. Isn't he Kim Noble like he's he's not constantly fucking with your mind He's just definitely fucking with your mind. He's just- He was definitely recording people on set.

He was doing something. He was making something. And a portrait of the Queen went missing from the location. And also my Medicare card, which is like our health care in Australia, went missing from my wallet. And then two days later I opened my wallet and there was a giant like 83 black and white photo of my Medicare card Is that real? I think he was responsible. Yeah. I mean that sounds like something he would be responsible So weak and then he's so like polite and so like working so hard on it, but then also

Yeah, he's he's the real deal. Who else is like that in the comedy world? Yeah, he's the real deal. Who else is like that in the comedy world? Making... causing trouble? Yeah, because that's sort of Kaufman-esque, isn't it? That's sort of Andy Kaufman behaviour. Just being mischievous. Yeah. I think it is good to do.

It can all get a bit too serious. Yeah, that's true, isn't it? I mean, I'm quite uptight about that sort of thing, though. I get unsettled. And I take people at face value. Right, right. You know what I mean, I'm quite uptight about that sort of thing though. I get Unsettled and I take people at face value right right gonna mean so You don't get like to get mucked around with no. I don't think I do like if you ever say to someone What's that supposed to mean? Did you mean by that yes, I think I probably have. I think I have. Yeah.

Like I'm writing at the moment, I'm trying to write a book and I'm writing a little bit about me and Joe being on TV years ago. Joe Cornish. Yeah, yeah. And we used to do pranks on our show. Yeah. And I'm writing about the fact that I always had a very conflicted relationship with pranks. And I don't know if it's because I'm nice and I

don't like to take advantage of people's trust and goodwill for the sake of a laugh yeah or if it's just that I'm a little conformist coward and I don't want to disrupt the status quo of society it's hard isn't it because a bad prank a prank gone wrong can really ruin someone's day, but a great prank can save the world. Yeah, it's not but there's things, there's things I do like when I go to see the movie, uh movie, I'll always say I'm always, there's much swearing in it no matter what movie it is. And I don't think that is hurting anybody. Who do you say it to? To the people who work at the cinema?

Because if I was working there, I'd like it if someone asked me a question like that. And sometimes when you scan your bank card, they go, you need to insert it and then I'll say, well, what's the code? They don't know my PIN code. Yeah, that's just brightening people's days, isn't it, by being a little bit weird. Yeah, yeah. You're not like um really yeah it's a tough one you're not going up and saying well the thing we did in the in our TV show we thought we were doing a meta bit about taking the piss

out of pranks on TV that took advantage of people. Be careful fighting monsters. Yeah. But our version of doing that was going to a park and Joe dressed up as an old man and I was filming him remotely and we were both playing characters like there was layers. Yeah. It was so that the layer one was us us playing these West country characters Martin and Andy and we were like, let's go to a park and will you pretend to be an old man and you'll be walking along on a Zimmer frame and then when a person a normal person Walks past you you fall over and then when they go and say are you okay you jump up and say I'm not an old man I'm young and I fooled you you're stupid because you thought I was an old man yeah so we so we did that but we did it for real so a woman like a

normal woman who was not involved with the production walked past when Joe dressed quite badly as an old man fell fell down but she just said, oh god are you okay? And he jumped up and went, I'm not an old man, I'm young, I fooled you, you're stupid! And she screamed and she was really upset. Wow. And then we just had to spend like half an hour trying to say sorry. And that woman's name was Paul Havennels. No it was terrible it was terrible yeah and you know there we were trying to take the piss out of cruel pranks and it was it couldn't have been more unpleasant and yeah and mean and the woman was really upset it was awful.

I think I hope you like apologize but I'm sure it's not something that she's fixated on I hope not. Yeah Yeah, do you still text him all the time Joe Cornish? Yeah Not all the time. Yeah, no, he's busy with me someone you'll ring up just to chat Or do you have to have a reason to ring him up have to have a reason? Oh, okay Yeah, yeah, he was, we were like that. This is weird. I've never, I haven't talked about this.

We were like that, like when we were teenagers, but I think working together changed that, turns it into a job, you know, and then like we get on fine. I wish we did talk more. Maybe I'll ring him up. Yeah. Just try it. Just ring him up. I don't think he'll be like, and get on fine. I wish we did talk more. Maybe I'll ring him up. Yeah, just try it. Just ring him up. I don't think he'll be like, and what's this about? I think, I don't know.

The other thing is that the other thing is the older you get, it does become harder and harder to be spontaneous, I think. And when you do get a phone call, it is, uh-huh, and what are you calling for? And then you go, what's any of it about, you know? So that's, I mean, I guess what we're talking about is you used to be young men being foolish by pretending to be old, but now you're an old man who it would be wise for you to act young again and to ring him up, yeah Holy shit, man

That doesn't make any sense. That does it makes total sense. That makes sense for four seconds. I didn't expect you to drop that Philosophy bomb on me. How can people be it for half a second? Oh, no, hold on. Wait a second No, it does make sense. That's leaking water. It doesn't. Yeah. How old are you now? I'm 32. 32. How do you like being 32? It's not something I think about.

Yeah. Oh, really? I'm very like maybe I just very moment by moment. Yeah. I'm not one that reflects. Yeah. And have you always been that way? Or did you become that way?

Well, as in thinking about how old you are and stuff. No, yeah, like have you always been a sort of in the moment person? I think I'm in the moment, but it's not like I'm having a great time. I'm in the moment and I'm like, petrified. I'm not, you know, like, be like, you know, when you think of in the moment, I'm like petrified. I'm not you know, like be like, you know, when you think of in the moment I'll wait the moment. Yeah, you're not a sort of chill, dude I watch TV and I forget to sit on the couch like I'm like standing up like watching the weather. Yeah But what makes you most anxious? What are the things that frighten you?

Just the uncertainty Yeah, I'm very uncertain and I've got so many huge blind spots where I couldn't even tell you what they are because I don't know what they are, but I think that, yeah, it's all going to catch up to me in a lot of ways. But I get a lot of remorse around creative things as well. In what way? Just working on stuff, not doing it right, wasting people's time, some of that stuff like that. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe I've just contradicted myself. No, it's interesting. Were you anxious when you were growing

up? I'm not saying you're anxious now. You think I'm anxious? Yeah, I don't know. I think maybe I was. Yeah, yeah, on edge. Yeah, I think maybe I was, yeah. On edge. I live on the edge. What used to worry you when you were younger? Just all sorts of things that would sort of never matter. And also, you know, it took me a long time to sort of make comedy stuff work out. So it's pretty, you're in like these environments that are very hostile

for so long trying to make comedy yeah but do you get crushed if you have a bad show yeah yeah and how but how do you feel depends where I'm at in the cycle sometimes it's fine but if I'm more you know it yeah, certain ones can really fool me. And I'm pretty inconsistent as well, so it happens more than I'd like. But in those moments are you thinking I should stop? Or are you just thinking ah damn it I wish I'd done that? Yeah, you wish you could. I would love to put like a checkpoint just before you go on and then you if it didn't go well you can just go start again just before you. Time Machine?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I wouldn't mind doing that. Do you use a Mac? What? Sorry, sorry, sorry. Do you use a Macintosh? An Apple Mac? Oh yeah, that's hard hitting. I don't know if I've ever been hit so hard. Yeah, I do, yeah. That's what I meant by time machine. I use the Adobe suite.

Do you not use the time machine? I put my head in the creative clouds. You don't use the time machine function? No, I've never used that. It's quite good. It does exactly what you were describing. You're like Douglas Adams. You love computers. Yeah, I do. And gadgets.

Is the podcast something that you find very consistent, that you're consistent with in terms of, that you enjoy doing it, or do you ever think, oh, this is like, I'm in a bit of a dip with it and I'm waiting for the next high? I don't know. Maybe. It's weird because recently I've just been very conscious of taking breaks. That's a genuine lesson I've learned, is like take breaks. Yeah, totally.

Because it does stop it becoming too much of a routine. And it does make me concentrate on trying to keep it somewhat good. When you're working on a creative project are you messy at all or like do other things fall or other things in your life have to sort of fold in for it to happen? Yeah I can only do one thing at a time. I'm no good. How about you? That's refreshing to hear. Definitely. Are you a good multitasker? No no. I can let something really consume me. I'm I used to do Edinburgh shows and stuff like that, the two weeks beforehand would be pretty terrifying. Right. But that's

partly the result of wanting to do everything myself. Yeah. Like wanting to be across the detail. And I'm not sure that's always a good thing. Really? I'd like to experiment more with collaboration and have forced almost arranged marriages of collaborations just to see what they yield. Yes! I think with bands they should have just rotating members, try everything, try it all. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that's a good point. I'd like to do that too. I know I've kind of isolated myself really because I like to do things myself and I enjoy the process.

But the problem is you do end up quite isolated and then you know with a family that's a risk as well is that you kind of just exist within this and do you find like with a creative project will you ever be like this is be all and end all like if this isn't well received I'll be finished yeah but uh then they just aren't well received and then I'm not finished you feel like that. Yeah, that's mental You're your bonko now because there's been things that I've done That made no impact whatsoever Yeah, so like TV show things that you wouldn't even know about you know, you would like four years into them sort of thing

Yeah, maybe not years, but a lot of effort a lot of Excitement and passion and then they just literally evaporate You know most people if they know me at all Maybe they know me from the podcast older people might know me from the Adam and Joe show or something and both of those things are things I really love doing and I have invested a lot of effort in and it's very gratifying that they've connected at all. But yeah, things that you... Well I think you've got a ripper legacy and if you died tomorrow it would be an amazing funeral.

Ah thanks, that's very nice of you. Same to you. Oh that's nice. I don't want you to die. I've never spoken this long to anybody in my life. This is crazy. I think you've put me in a hypnotic state. Let's hear it for Sam Campbell. Folks, so generous for stepping in, for doing the chat GPT play.

Can I do one for you? Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, give it up for, I mean, the guy, he's incredible. This guy, he's carried us through. He's an incredible, he's an intellect. He is such a generous performer and his podcast has saved all of our lives. Please go absolutely googa. It's not just him, it's his entire dynasty. His son is here.

Give it up for this amazing, give it up for the Buxton legacy. We love the Buxtons. The Buxtons will always care for us. The Buxtern legacy! We love the Buxterns! The Buxterns will always care for us! This is an advert for Squarespace. Sometimes it feels like the world doesn't want you to succeed. Ha ha, you'll never get anywhere! Now the time has come to say to the world... Shut up world! Ha ha, you'll never get anywhere! Pfft! Now the time has come to say to the world Shut up world!

Ha ha, why should I? Pfft! And if the world says why should I, tell the world you're about to build your new website with Squarespace. Okay, I'm just writing this down. What should I tell the world about Squarespace specifically? I was just about to go into it. Sorry.

It's okay. Just tell the world to visit squarespace.com slash Buxton and start a free trial so the world can see how quick and easy it is to build a website with Squarespace's user-friendly interface, professional looking templates, all-in-one platform with integrated features, mobile optimization, and strong customer support. And with Squarespace's new AI-powered business name generator, you can generate a name for your business using AI. Try it out with a free trial at squarespace.com slash buxton and when you're ready to launch, use the offer code BUXTON to save 10% on your first

purchase of a website or domain. What do you think about that world? Ha ha now you're using Squarespace I bow down before you and blow a raspberry at myself. Stupid world. Wait, continue. Do you read your reviews? No. Do you not? Are you going to? No, no, I'm not going to read any of it. Nah, nah, nah. They're good people though. A war is only as good as its correspondence. Hey, welcome back, Podcats. The weather has calmed down a little bit. We've driven to a different part of the farm track out here, over towards a wooded area,

and Rosie seems a lot happier here. I'm going to give her a treat. The magic Tupperware. I just cooked it before we left it's a bit of chicken. That's better isn't it Rose? Well that was Sam Campbell joining me for a Campbell ramble and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. I had a great time meeting Sam, I hope I'll see him again. He sent me a link to his pilot where he plays a director and Kim Noble's in it. Made me laugh a lot. I hope it gets made into a series. Now even though we are out here in the woods and it's slightly less torrential than it was back when I was in the car, it's not nice and I don't think Rosie's that keen on staying out here

for too long, so I won't make this outro too much of an epic, but there were a few things that I had noted down that I wanted to say after my chat with Sam. What is the top of the ear called? The outer ear is made up of cartilage and skin. There are three different parts to the outer ear. The tragus, the helix, and the lobule. The tragus, the helix, and the lobule. That's gonna be my new dystopian sci-fi trilogy. Anyway, so it's, maybe the top of the ear is the helix. Smacking children in the UK. In all parts of the UK teachers, nursery workers and

childminders are not allowed to smack children and physical punishment in schools has been banned since the 1980s. In the UK it is legal for parents to smack their children but there are strict limits on how and when this can be done. The law allows what is known as quote reasonable chastisement as a form of discipline. But this must not cause injury to the child. In Scotland since 2020 and Wales since 2022 it is illegal for parents or carers to smack their children. Kasabian. I'm gonna check in with chat GPT to straighten this out.

Jeeps. Did Linda Kasabian have any redeeming qualities? While Linda Kasabian was initially drawn into the orbit of the Manson family, she exhibited redeeming qualities, particularly through her refusal to participate in the murders, her courageous testimony that helped convict Manson, and her lifelong expressions of regret and remorse. Okay. How about this? Jeeps, is Stomp Rock an accurate description of the music made by the band Casabian? Yes, songs like Clubfoot and Fire feature the kind of driving pulsing energy associated with Stomp Rock. However, their sound is broader incorporating elements of electronic music, psychedelic rock,

and dance rock as well. So while stomp rock fits part of their style, it doesn't capture their full range. It's stomp rock. Thanks, Jeeps. You're welcome, Adam. Okay, Rosie is keen to get going. All right, Rosie, fair enough, we are heading off. I've put some links in the description,

quite a few links actually, if you would like to go on the same exploring mission that I have been on with Sam Campbell and Spent some time in his wonderful strange universe. There's loads. I found a huge Sam Campbell playlist on YouTube. I have put a link to that What else have we got? Yeah, Riptorn Horn versus Norman Mailer, the Maidstone brawl. This is the final scene from Norman Mailer's 1970

avant-garde film Maidstone, in which he played the part of a famous movie director running for president of the United States. I haven't seen the whole film, who is supposed to be assassinated in the finale. And this is the description on YouTube of the clip that Sam and I spoke about where Rip Torn attacks Norman Mailer. Don Alex is the person that uploaded this clip and he says, Mailer concluded principal

photography on his film Maidstone without resolving the final scene and Rip Torn playing his brother-in-law and assassin, allegedly decided to take it upon himself to improvise an attack by hitting Maela on the head with a small hammer, drawing blood. Maela retaliated by tackling Torn and then nearly chewing his ear off as they grappled viciously, and it rapidly escalated into an unhinged on-camera brawl as Mailer's horrified kids screamed in terror. This is the completely uncut sequence. I have to wonder how unplanned it was, as the camera is obviously following Rip closely

in the moments before the attack, and if principal photography had finished the day before, why was the camera crew still hanging around filming Rip and the Mailer family? It's more like Mailer knew Rip would pull something for the camera but didn't know what and overreacted because he wasn't expecting him to use a real hammer and actually start hitting him with it. Think to that if you are interested but as I said to Sam it's upsetting the footage mainly because you can see the children are upset. So do be warned before you click the link. Do be do be warned be do be do be be do be do be warned. That's it for this week. Thanks once again to Sam Campbell for being such a good sport

and for stepping in at the last minute to help me out at Latitude, giving up all of that time, I really appreciate it. Thank you to Seamus Murphy Mitchell for all his invaluable production support. Seamus won an Emmy, or at least the show he works on won an Emmy. My next guest with David Letterman and John Mulaney I think was the episode that won the Emmy recently. Congratulations to the team there, especially to Seamus, my Emmy award-winning producer. Thank you very much to Helen Green. She does the artwork for the podcast. Thanks to everyone at Acost for all their help keeping the show on the road. But thanks most especially to you for coming back. I hope you enjoyed this episode and until next time I had another person getting in touch with me saying recently that they'd been enjoying

the podcast they'd only recently discovered it and they'd started right from the very beginning and they were working their way through and they were way back in the kind of 60s or 70s in the episodes and they said oh you've started shouting very loudly at the end of the episodes I can't remember when I started sh- feels like I've always shouted loudly at the end of the episodes but I guess maybe I didn't anyway this person wasn't very happy about it you said he preferred it when I didn't shout at the end of the episode but we've had this conversation before some

people like it some people not so keen. Ah, you can't please everyone, can you? Everyone likes a hug though, don't they? Come here, come on, hey. Good to see you. Till next time, go carefully, please like and subscribe, please like and subscribe. Give me a big smile and a thumbs up, I stick a pant with me thumbs up. Give me a big smile and a thumbs up, I stick a pant with me thumbs up. Like and subscribe, like and subscribe, like and subscribe, please like and subscribe Give me like a smile and a thumbs up, like a pot with a thumbs up

Give me like a smile and a thumbs up, like a pot with a thumbs up And I'm so tired And I'm so tired And I'm so tired And I'm so tired And I'm so tired And I'm so tired And I'm so tired And I'm so tired And I'm so tired And I'm so tired

And I'm so tired And I'm so tired And I'm so tired And I'm going to be a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a

little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a This is an advert for Squarespace. Sometimes it feels like the world doesn't want you to succeed. Ha ha, you'll never get anywhere. Now the time has come to say to the world...

Shut up world! Ha ha, why should I? Pfft. And if the world says why should I, tell the world you're about to build your new website with Squarespace. Okay, I'm just writing this down. What should I tell the world about Squarespace specifically? I was just about to go into it.

Sorry. It's okay. Just tell the world to visit squarespace.com slash buxton and start a free trial so the world can see how quick and easy it is to build a website with Squarespace's user friendly interface, professional looking templates, all in one platform with integrated features, mobile optimization and strong customer support. And with Squarespace's new AI powered business name generator, you can generate a name for your business using AI. Try it out with a free trial at squarespace.com slash buxton. And when you're ready to launch, use the offer code BUXTON to save 10% on your

first purchase of a website or domain. What do you think about that, world? Ha ha! Now you're using Squarespace. I bow down before you and blow a raspberry at myself. Stupid world.