THE ADAM BUXTON PODCAST - EP.36 - CLAUDIA O'DOHERTY

Episode Date: March 30, 2017

A rambly conversation with Australian actor and comedian Claudia O’Doherty that touches on the subjects of working with Amy Schumer and Judd Apatow, heroin, pills and drunkenness, bike theft and Trump jokes. Contains non-serious chat and toilet language. Thanks to Seamus Murphy-Mitchell for production support and Matt Lamont for additional editing. Podcast artwork by Helen Green. 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, Rosie, come here. I'm staring at birds. Rosie, come here. Hey sweetie, how are you? I'm quite hot. here hey sweetie how are you i'm quite hot it's like a spring day there's a lot of action around rubbish birds that kind of thing it's exciting isn't it say hi to the all right don't say hi

to the podcats it's a bit rude isn't it hey how are you doing listeners adam buxton here. Very nice to be with you again. And it is a beautiful spring day here in East Angula. Very nice to be back from find that spring has definitely sprung. Cherry blossom is beginning to explode from some of the trees. Daffodils. All the grass is like really, really green. That's the beginning of one of the best times of year. That's the beginning of one of the best times of year. A time when a person can walk around in shorts every day and feel good about themselves. It's lovely to be back in these fields with Rosie up ahead and the rooks looking on and commentating from the trees over there in the distance.

I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to sit down on the grass. Oh, yeah. Gracias. And I'm going to tell you a little bit about this week's podcast, which features a conversation I had on my recent trip to Los Angeles with Australian actor and comedian Claudia O'Doherty. Now, you may have seen Claudia on the pilot for the BBC Three sketch show People Time, alongside some great comedians, including previous podcast guest Tash Dimitriou. That show was on in 2015.

And that same year, Claudia got a part in Judd Apatow's comedy Trainwreck, a film starring Amy Schumer, LeBron James and Bill Hader, also friend of the podcast, of course. That led to Claudia writing on the TV show Inside Amy Schumer, whoa, one of the funniest shows around, and becoming one of the stars of Judd Apatow's TV comedy drama, Love, on Netflix. Those are the career headlines for Claudia, I suppose. Although we don't really, you know, it's not like a big interview about her career. It's a kind of a silly, rambly conversation. A couple of notes, though.

At one point, I mention a book about Saturday Night Live by Al Franken's former writing partner. The book is 39 Years of Short-Term Memory Loss, The Early Days of SNL from Someone Who Was There by the late Tom Davis. Pretty entertaining, I thought, but I don't actually... I forgot the name of the book and the author in the conversation, so I thought I'd flag it for you. You're welcome.

Also, Claudia briefly mentions during our conversation an encounter with Johnny Rotten that she had when she was little. But I sent us off on a tangent conversationally, so we never got to hear the story. However, Claudia emailed it to me so that you listeners wouldn't get enraged here's what she says in the email so johnny rotten it's not an incredible story i won't do the offensive accent he wanted to buy some art from my dad says claudia he was coming to the offices for mam, the surfwear label my dad designed for, which was near my school. So my dad picked me and my sister up on the way to meet him. My sister and I were wearing school uniforms.

Everyone at the office was excited to see Johnny Rotten. So there were probably about 40 people milling around and taking photos. Dad pointed his daughters out to Mr. Rotten and he yelled at us, do you girls do what your uncle Johnny does? And we didn't know what to say. So we didn't say anything and people laughed, but not that much. And everyone was embarrassed. The end. So there you go. I really enjoyed talking to Claudia. It was a good, stupid, rambly convo. Though it did touch on the serious subjects of hard drugs, prescription medication and alcohol abuse, it treated them with much less respect than they deserve. To paraphrase the Throwing Shade podcast.

So you think we should all try heroin? No, that's exactly what I don't think, Rosie. Can you imagine what your already erratic toilet routine would be like if you were on heroin? Here we go! Ramble chat, let's have a ramble chat. We'll 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 Yeah, yeah, yeah 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 will you set the scene for us claudia okay i don't have to do any work sure we're sitting in my apartment in los angeles california what region of los angeles is this this is the silver lake region which is in the east side of the city but not that far east but a bit east and that's hip

yes it's very hip it's very cool so i just make perfect sense here in this neighborhood well as i was walking here because i just got a flat tire on my bike i'll tell you more about my bike in a second okay don't worry can't wait as i was walking here i saw some cool people, three guys all with baseball caps and cool clothes. Sounds like my friends. And they were sat out on the front porch hanging. Oh yeah, outside their home. Yeah, and there was a beautiful woman and she was filming them. Yeah, that's exactly.

Show business, coolness, that's really what Silver Lake's all about. Yeah. show business coolness that's really what silver lake's all about yeah and some nice food and you can walk around a bit unlike lots of neighborhoods here in los angeles right you can use your legs or sticks as i call them where are the no walking uh regions i feel like everywhere else just big wide roads everywhere yes right how do you get around then using a car i use my sticks in a car right that's it i don't have a motorcycle there's not great public transport here is there no it's pretty much non-existent but i also use a lyft a lot oh yeah i don't use is that no because but what remind me well they're evil i think lyft is evil as well but uber is more evil because they um

are good friends with trump or something like that but then but then he said like i'm not a trump supporter i just got invited to be on an advisory committee but then i mean so maybe they're not so bad and i think they did something where they were like we're not so bad but then they don't treat their employees super but then they don't treat their employees super well and they don't get paid very well i guess if you're a tech billionaire you're probably bad right do you boycott apple products because of the way they treat their employees no i think what they do to their employees is correct you're amused by the nets they put outside the building suicide net to catch the people yeah

i think that's good because that saves people cleaning up the dead bodies and i think that's efficient i don't boycott much to be honest yeah but you're fashionably boycotting uber yeah i just felt embarrassed i uh i'm not taking any lifts or ubers or anything like that because you're your bike i'm'm biking. Yeah. Right. I thought, because I like biking. Wait a second. How'd you get your bike over here? I cycled it.

Is that your bike? Oh, no, no. I rented it. Okay. I rented it from Hikes and Bikes LA. That sounds nice. Charming people. Wonderful service.

What about the rates? Rates seem reasonable. Okay, great. One 48 for one week's hire. Oh, that's lovely. That's fine. Yeah. It's a good mountain bike. One 48 for one week's hire. Oh, that's lovely. That's fine. Yeah. It's a good mountain bike.

Love it. Helmet, great. Little visibility jacket. It was wicked. First day, I go to the Grove to pick up the second pair of shorts. Oh, because of the hot weather or because of the great fashions? Both. Okay, great.

I went to the Grove the other day. Did you? What were you getting? With my friend, my friend Kate Ball belant she's a comedian oh i know yes yes she lives around the corner we're both trying to avoid doing out taxes so we went to the mall instead and we're responsible it was very irresponsible we tried on lots of jeans it's very american day did you steal anything i didn't steal a thing. I didn't buy anything either. Yeah, yeah. Which is almost the same.

Exactly. Because they've paid for the space. Right, you've wasted their time. The employees. It was actually a really lovely day. And I had the sort of sizzle of fun procrastination. So it was a really lovely day at the Grove. For those not familiar with the Grove, it's a kind of, it's like a shopping Disneyland.

Yes, it is. There's like a magic fountain in the middle that has like a bit like that place in Las Vegas, Bellagio. I noticed you masculinified Las Vegas by giving it the loss. Oh, but I'm, no, I didn't. No, did I? I did. Did I? I think I would say, I can't say Las.

No one says Las Vegas. That's crazy. But the Grove is like sort of an immaculately tended little, well, I say it's like Disneyland because it's got that same feeling of slight, slight unreality because it's so clean and perfect. Yeah. It's a little bit like the Truman Show. It's like very immaculate. Yes. It's like you know frank sinatra doris day it's all like isn't

america great so i felt very safe got some shorts above the knee shorts i'm glad you felt safe yeah above the knee i mean you said you have many above the knee shorts no this is do you feel quite risque when you wear something like that no i feel old but i couldn't find any that were good like i went into the gap and they just had ridiculous stuff right so i ended up going into jay cruz oh yeah classic american wear yeah old man wear and walked out with some above the knee shorts felt like a real old duffer and then went back to retrieve my bike no bike oh no 20 minutes i've been getting my shorts none bike so you've had some real problems with your bike and today on the way here i got a flat tire and this is the replacement bike because they came first of all they charged me 250 dollars for the bike for the original bike yeah is that that's reasonable i would say probably yeah i mean it's a

decent bike yeah but i i took out insurance oh no i was like what's the insurance for and they're like oh well it's in case you get a flat tire so i'll be giving them a call today oh gosh so much admin with these bikes um i went into the like i tried to report it stolen or talk to a security i went to the security office at the grove and they played back the video of the guy stealing it i just and there was nothing they could do they were like yeah there you go oh it's that guy yeah he's the guy with a blue bag because what i've done is i stupidly i hadn't chained the bike to the bike rail oh that's your fault entirely then well sort of yeah i chained the wheels to the frame, which is what I usually do, because I just think, who's going to come along, pick up a whole bike, and then carry it?

Oh, this guy. This guy. The guy with the blue backpack. The guy with the blue backpack. Wow. Do many cyclists do that, this cool style of chaining the bike to itself? It turns out, probably not. Yeah, it doesn't work.

And it's not something I'll ever do again. Oh, yeah. I'm so sorry to hear that. Yeah. It was very distraughtening and you know just to immediately like poof 250 pounds yeah you know what i mean like just it yeah it's gone yeah the exchange rate does make it rough but you see i earn american dollars now right i'm on top of the world so what's your what do you think of As your home currency Because how long

Did you live in the UK I lived in the UK For two and a half years I moved there in 2012 Yeah And I left early 2015 But I do I've

I got rid of my Australian bank account I shut down my British bank account I'm American Right Baby Good one

For the foreseeable future Well yeah I guess I mean obviously obviously things are different now with old Trump, but my job is here right now. So. And was that, was that always the plan? Did you always have your. To become a Hollywood celebrity? Yeah. I mean, I think anyone who does like comedy or that kind of thing, you like the idea of that it seems ridiculous but i never pictured or wanted to live in los angeles right but like the idea of having a job in america like well that would be extraordinary but it seems so unlikely that that will ever happen i always

assumed that it would just be too much of a pain in the ass coming over here it just seems like so many people i know come out here and try and get work and you know they'll audition for everything and they'll get a part in a pilot and then it'll go away that's the thing that's the difference it's that you have to be talented you have to be incredibly talented and you shouldn't look grotesque you have to look really good you have to be gorgeous and so talented. And so that's why it's been really easy for me. You have to be Australian.

You have to be Australian. Okay. No, I mean, I would have never come over here and given it a crack. But I was lucky because I got the job before I came here. Right. I never would have done it the other way around. So what was your first foray then? What was your first break as far as work stateside america um because i made a web series for

channel four yeah from the blaps program i remember yeah and that uh bill hader saw it right and then he showed them to amy schumer and judd apatow and then the next day i was in the table read for trainwreck. How extraordinary. I know, it was incredible. I was very panicked because I thought I was going to have to do an American accent. I was reading a much bigger part, the part that Tilda Swinton ended up playing in that movie. Oh, yeah.

I didn't even really understand what a table read was. I was so scared and I arrived, there was like 300 people watching. I'd never met Amy or Judd before and it was very scary so they flew you out like the next day kind of thing i was actually here already oh you were yeah yeah yeah and so amy sent me a direct message on twitter saying nice compliments to me and then i got an email about the the table read and then i went the next day yeah yeah i was terrified what a hoot though it was fun yes it was so fun sitting with those Hollywood celebrities I mean I was terrified but it was very fun but uh

I don't know do you ever get nervous when you're acting uh well I don't act very much but yes I mean I get nervous all the time yeah I get nervous with my wife i was just i just remember being so nervous like sitting at the table with looking at the script and my brain stopped working and the words actually started like swimming on the page oh really like i was so nervous waiting for my part to come so it's like 20 pages in so like the tension was really mounting as i was waiting and do you have control over your face and your voice and your breathing I mean that's part of this that's part of the skill of the actor I'm told um not when I'm really really nervous but I just went for it yeah I think if you're foreign you can get away because you don't

you weren't doing a silly voice or anything no but my natural voice to Americans is a silly voice that's so that's what I mean that's my entire career is based on that. Really? I think so. I was lucky. And then when I did the actual movie, I could say you gave me a little part in the movie. I was so nervous that day.

Cause I was suddenly on like a huge movie set. And I, I mean, and I could be like ruining my career telling you this, but I said my line too early. But people thought I was just improvising and they thought I was great. But I was actually bad and just I got my cue wrong. But people like, like, she's fearless.

Yeah. I mean, Judd was like, wow, right out the gate. And I was like, no, no, I know. Did he actually say that? Yeah, he did say that. That's great. I know. And then he gave me a part in a tv show so it's great and then when you turned up for the tv show yeah did you feel as if you had to say everything too early yeah i did and i that's still my

signature thing is i just jump in really quickly that's the best way so the tv show is love yes and you're in your second season now the second season just came out a week ago. Right. And we started shooting the third season this week as well. Gosh. Yeah. So that premiered early 2016, didn't it? Yes, February. I haven't seen one yet. Oh my God.

I apologise. It's disrespectful. No, it's fine. There's too much TV. I avoided it because I was once very badly hurt by love. Right. The emotion. The emotion. So you couldn't watch it. I didn once very badly hurt by love right so I didn't the emotion so you couldn't watch it I didn't I thought well it's about that time you got hurt that's what the show's about

right it's pretty much your story I don't you see I don't want to go there I understand well there's also yeah there's so many tv shows I don't blame you for not watching at all but I am going to watch it in fact I might even watch it tonight great should i should i start at the beginning or does it get better i think the second season is better which is exciting but i mean you won't entirely understand if you don't watch the first season but also we've all got busy lives is there a significant narrative arc then or is it no not really i mean the point of the show really is that it is like a really excruciating look at a relationship and it's told very slowly each episode is almost a day in rather than like many months taking place over the first episode so the first season i think is

like three weeks in the relationship so all you need to know if you went straight into the second season is they're still going out yeah okay kind of and um and you're the kooky best friend i am the australian roommate yeah okay good yeah i'm the heart and soul of the show yeah well you are one of the three leads are you not yes yeah it's true good one yeah it's fun i have the nicest job on the show for sure right um and so judd apatow he's famously a massive comedy nerd and loves comedy so much nice fellow very nice fellow he's very nice he loves jokes and he loves to make jokes and did you ever hear his um interviews that he did when he was young oh yeah they're so funny yeah because he was like a proto podcaster yeah as a teenager very cute and also didn't he call gary shandling isn't that how he met gary

yeah yeah i think so amazing yeah he was that sort of focused i know if i were fret i would have been scared of that person if i were at school with them i wasn't that kind of ambitious were you not precocious teen i don't think so no what did you think about them when you thought about your future oh i think i knew i wanted to do comedy because i was really sort of obsessed with saturday night live because my mom's cousin had worked on it in the 80s i mean it's so nerdy but i would like read all of the books about saturday night oh really yeah i think it did sort of lodge itself in my brain. What's the best book to read? Well I remember reading The Wired the one about John Belushi. Oh yeah. I thought I

was really cool for reading that when I was little. There was a writer on there do you know Al Franken who's now a um senator right a democrat but his writing partner who's no longer with us, I'm sorry to say, he wrote quite a funny account of some pretty hedonistic years there. Right. And he was a real, I mean, he was just hoovering up drugs. You know, people sort of more or less tried to do interventions with him because they were saying, you're going to go the same way that John Belushi went. Yeah. And so, you know, he was there when all these people popped off. And he tells some funny stories about hanging out with Chevy Chase. And first of all, you're thinking, wow, I mean, he's got to be quite nuts to be mates with Chevy Chase anyway.

I mean, I don't know Chevy Chase. I don't either. But Gillian worked with him. Oh, yeah. For Community. Yeah. So Gillian is your co-star. Yeah.

She is my co-star. Right. Mm-hmm. And does she have some entertaining? Because he's quite a notorious. entertaining because he's quite a notorious um i think he's quite quite a character but i would also feel like i was speaking out of turn of course if i told you anything about that it was worth a try but i also couldn't remember anything so i'd sort of be making it up have you heard you've heard those um answering machine

messages that you left for Dan Harmon, though? Oh, yeah. Dan Harmon, who... I think when I got the part, I was, like, Googling her like crazy and listening to all the stuff and then pretending I didn't know it when I actually met her. Right. Which is a thing that I often do. For listeners not familiar with the show Community, which Chevy Chase was in, with Gillian, do you say? Gillian, yeah.

community which Chevy Chase was in with uh Gillian do you say Gillian yeah um Dan Harmon was the writer and uh Chevy Chase I think I can't remember exactly what he'd done to well he just wound everyone up I think and at the at the wrap party Dan Harmon just sort of uh was making a few jokes at Chevy Chase's expense and encouraged everyone just to say, fuck you or something like this. Oh, no. I'm getting this story all wrong, but there's a very funny answering machine message you can hear on YouTube. Yeah, what does he call him? He says some really mean stuff, right?

Maybe I can look it up. Find it. What's your Wi-Fi? Oh, no. It's really complicated. Listeners, don't tell anyone the code. Oh, yeah, don't use my Wi-Fi. Because it's not cool just to piggyback on Claudia's Wi-Fi.

It's really not okay. Okay, you ready? Yeah. All caps. All caps. D-G-1-6-7-0-A-B-1-8-8-7-2. 1-8-8-7-2. Join. Did872. 18872. Join.

Did it work? Searching. Joined very quickly. Locked in super fast. Very proud of that. Oh, that is satisfying. Chevy, Chase.

Tash is texting me. Tash Dimitriou? Yeah. Oh, good one. She says, give my love to Adam. It sounds like she's in love with you. That's exciting. Wow, that's very nice. What a complicated situation. That is awkward to have that revealed on a podcast. Here we go. Look, Chevy Chase's voicemail for Dan Harmon. Let's play it. Oh, it's running through my... Oh, Christ.

Hang on. System preferences. This is good stuff, isn't it? This is a very good podcast. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. your writing's getting worse and worse that is a mean thing to say to a writer. That's not nice. That's cruel. Has anyone ever left a furious voicemail for you? I've certainly been told off. And then I got annoyed because I don't like being told off.

No one does. Some people can deal with it though. Oh, I guess like submissive people do. Yeah. Sexually submissive people probably love it. Deviants like it. They told me off and i just immediately got incandescent with rage right and rang them right back and basically yelled down

you're the one who yelled yeah i was like don't tell me off if you know if there was a misunderstanding it wasn't my fault oh you know don't ever leave a weird message for me again don't ever leave a weird message for me it was Don't ever leave a weird message for me again. It was horrible, though. I didn't like it. It's very strange because I don't get angry very often. But when you, like, actually get really furious with someone and yell at them, it's a really weird feeling. Don't you find?

Oh, it's awful. It is a favorite thing of mine to talk about. And, in fact, I was talking to Bill Burr about this. You know, because he's got a lot of rage. Yeah, that's part of his persona. Yeah. Angry, angry. Did you see that set he did where the whole audience hates him?

Oh, in Philadelphia? Yeah, that's incredible. Amazing. Yeah. Tell the listeners about it. Well, I can't remember why the audience hates him. Is it because he makes fun of Philadelphia? I can't remember why they turn on him, but they absolutely hate him.

It was apparently the audience had just been horrible to every single comet who'd been on. Yeah. And so when Bill Burr came out, he was furious. And so he counted down minute by minute. It's so funny. How long he was going to be up there and in between counting down saying, okay, we got 11 minutes left. He just howled abuse at this pretty large crowd

but he kind of wins them over oh yeah by the end they're sort of laughing there's still a few drawing his energy from their contempt but he hates them too but he clearly does feel total contempt but i think um i was listening to martha plimpton oh yes talking parenthood right yeah and she was saying that she gets terrible nerves When she goes on stage And someone told her a useful thing To alleviate those nerves Was to cultivate

Total contempt for the audience To tell yourself that they were Worthless and beneath Your level of care Interesting I guess it's the same mentality as uh picturing people in their underwear right do you get nervous before your life yeah always yeah yeah yeah i generally try and ingratiate myself and i think there's nothing there's nothing that an audience

or in fact people in everyday situations like less than someone who wants to be liked yeah they do hate that it's repellent yeah it is it's very repulsive because it's so needy and like yeah i find it gross when people do it to me and i have done it myself and been disgusted but you sometimes you can't help it no you can't because it's when you get nervous it's a natural thing if you're like brought up to be polite you think all right well if the chips are down be really polite yes and really deferential and really ingratiating yeah but actually uh especially in in performance and comedy especially it's counterintuitive you you should you should actually go the other way oh well me and my friend we make jokes about you know because sometimes stand-up comedians aren't funny but they'll do very well

because they're like they're not funny but loud right exactly we were doing a festival in san francisco and um it was like a bad venue and all of this and then we were talking we're like making jokes about it and we're saying oh let's just be not funny but loud and i went out and it worked so well i just yelled my set before buy it worked so much better you did have quite a funny set though very funny set full of funny jokes but it is um audiences like loudness yeah they do they they want to be on some level they want to be controlled and told what to feel yeah and what they don't want is for that person's fragile psyche to be within their control you know what i mean people hate to feel nervous for you exactly yeah that's why my wife doesn't come to my show yeah i have a friend who used to come to all my

shows and she has the most expressive face in the world and she had to stop coming to see any of her friends shows because she would like have her head in her hands in the front row and just be so scared for us the whole time it was really funny right let's go again what don't you fucking understand kick your fucking ass let's go again what the fuck is it with you? I want you off the fucking set, you prick. No. You're a nice guy. The fuck are you doing? No.

Don't shut me up. No. No. Ah, da-da-da-da like this. No. No. Don't shut me up. Ah, da-da-da-da like this.

Fuck's sake, man, you're amateur. Seriously, man, you and me, we're fucking done professionally. Has anyone got angry with you recently? When was the last time you were told off? I don't think I have been told off recently. I told off a cafe recently. Oh, yeah. I went to Australia to visit my family.

My sister had bought a chicken sandwich, and she'd been eating it. She was halfway through, and she looked in it, and the chicken was raw. It was like a chicken breast that was like seared on the and the chicken was raw oh it's like a chicken breast that was like seared on the outside it was raw on the inside oh pink so i rang them and i she took a photo of it and i did i told them off did you raise your voice no but i i did um embellish the situation i said she died no i didn't but i said i just said that she was sick

she wasn't you know neil hamburger yeah not personally but i've seen his shows and they're very funny they are funny and people get so angry at him oh man he enjoys uh on twitter just retweeting stories about people getting food poisoning at taco bell yeah yeah yeah it's really funny because what does he do like for people who don't know he does like he sort of looks like a 1960s nightclub comedian boozy lounge boozy lounge comedian with like an undone tuxedo kind of thing but then he's like really drunk like he's a mess but then he does incredibly offensive jokes there was one about like, obviously I can't remember, but there was something about John Travolta's recently deceased son

eating a bowl of Michael Jackson semen in heaven. Whoa. Which was really funny. And he like built up to it over like 10 minutes. And people were screaming at him. People were so angry. But then half the audience is really enjoying it. Yeah.

Which is the point. And I think people being angry is the point as well yeah do you um gravitate towards that sort of humor do you like it when people go as far as they possibly can and are you always happy to indulge that or do you ever think no no no no that's too much well i don't know i do think like i don't entirely agree with the, like, everything is fair game when it's comedy. Cause like, if it's not funny, it's stupid. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't want to hear. Um, and I don't enjoy, uh, no, I get very uncomfortable people like say make racist jokes or anything like that. So no, but then I do think the joke about John Travolta's son was really funny

but i don't feel like it's a really a joke about john travolta's son no it was sort of gathering together just horrific things and mixing them all up in a cake bowl yeah so i did really enjoy that so i don't have a hard and fast rule right and are you still doing stand-up out here then not really just if a friend asks me to i will do it so i'm gonna do a show next month don't know what i'll say i do i just do it sometimes i did some in san francisco but um i don't care about stand-up oh dear oh dear don't care about it so sometimes i find doing shows really fun and i really liked making shows for edinburgh and stuff like that but in america it's more like doing a 10 minute set do some trump stuff i'm gonna do a lot of trump stuff i love it i did do i did do a trump joke last time i did did you

it did go over well what was the joke i bet it went over better than mine i was just saying i was like i've just got back in australia our prime minister he doesn't believe climate change is real he murdered his girlfriend's cat in college is this true yeah and then he wrote her a letter in the voice of the cat also true also true it's online you can find it like it's really creepy letter but just saying that like he seems like very refined gentleman compared to trump was it so i mean it's more in the delivery which is not what i but man they were laughing yeah laughing that's good my one didn't go what was it where did you do a show well it was um a band that i love called spoon i'm wearing i'm wearing Spoon t-shirt. Yeah, you do love them. That's a coincidence, though.

Their new album's just come out. It's called Hot Thoughts. It's one of their best. Are they the same as Elbow? No. They're a different band. They're literally totally different. Their music really different?

Yes. Okay, I just think those words to me are similar, so I think it's... Spoon and Elbow. Yeah, just like gentle words. Nouns. Oneoon and elbow. Yeah, just like gentle words. Nouns. One word, nouns. Yeah.

Lots of O's in them. So I think they're the same. How would you describe spoon? Oh, art rock. Uh-huh. How would you describe elbow? Pop. Elbow is more sort of anthemic, emotional.

Do you like elbow? I do like elbow, yeah. But I would take spoon over elbow just because it's absolutely my sort of thing. Okay. This is a good conversation considering you don't really... Know either of them. Know spoon at all. Spoon over elbow.

Yeah. at all spoon over elbow yeah spoon's good music for like working murdering figuring things out no i'm joking i i find spoon very emotional anyway um they were in town in london they were playing a show a small do you live in london i think you live in the country yeah no i do live in the country uh-huh but um i know their lead singer a little bit spoons spoons jimmy spoons and jimmy spoon emailed and said we're playing a show in london you should come along and i said uh yeah sure i'd love to let me know if you need any uh you know if you need a stupid comedian to warm up and he emailed back and he said, yeah, that would be great. We haven't got anyone. No, no, no.

And so I thought, oh, no, what an idiot. And what's more, I've been on a bill with you. I have to have my laptop with me. Yeah, you're a tech-heavy comedian. I'm a tech guy. Yeah. My name is Dr. Buckles. I'm reliant on technology for chuckles. And if I haven't got the technology, it's like a barren wasteland.

And so 100 Club Club there's no projector and screen but I thought I'm committed now and they're my favourite band so I'm definitely going to have to just do it. Yeah you can't not go Yeah So I went along and won and I've got no jokes

I've got no set so I just had to write a whole new... They wanted me to do like 25 minutes. That's so much. It's so much. So what did you do? So I did a thing about Trump.

Oh my God. And it was just after a load of awards had been on, right? It was awards season. Golden Globes. Oscars, Golden Globes, BAFTAs. Oscars, Emmys, yeah. All the awards. And every single show that I'd watched,

there would be at least two or three people who would go up and say, listen, I just want to say it's a really, you know, it's a dark time right now. Do you know what the funniest one was? Tom Hiddleston. I think he won a Golden Globe for The Night Manager. Oh, yeah. But he gave like a very earnest speech about how much the night manager meant to the doctors without borders working medicine yeah and it wasn't relevant no one was

listening but he gave it and i think he's probably because he's a very good actor and probably quite a charismatic person he's probably just like used to if he gets quite serious about an issue people really listening but no one was listening because it's one of those award shows where there's you can eat and drink right and also i mean it just was the kind of thing where if anyone was going to bring up a political issue it was going to be trump and it wasn't trump was like complicated and he was like the doctors really love the night manager and then just talking about doctors without borders and everyone's confused no one cares it was really funny stay on message yeah it's a shame because i i i've done um gigs Frontières before and they are amazing.

They do extraordinary things. They're cool and I foster dogs from Dogs Without Borders. Dude, that's not the same. They kill a lot of cats. They do because they're very pro-dog. Yeah. They're like fundamentalist dog lovers. So they blow up places where cats live.

It's true. It's really sad. is that's not true anyway listen i get on stage and i've thought through all this stuff how many people are in the venue i mean it wasn't massive so it's a small club have you ever been to the hundred club no birthplace of i don't know 200 that is quite small stuffed into a small area but uh and they were all very cordial for a while it was all going well then i start talking about america and i in my mind i was thinking that they'll definitely get what i'm on about because surely they will have seen at least one award ceremony they will have seen all these actors going up and going listen we all really need to pull together and

it's so important for people in our industry we give hope we cultivate dreams where the dream is and this is a powerful way of fighting back against blah blah blah which is all true of course and laudable sentiments um that's a good that's a good noise sure sure sure and um sorry i was going for a motorbike ride i'm back um so i say anyway uh i just think it's really important at this time you know know, it's a weird time. A lot of strange stuff going on in America. I think it's very important that we all pull together and just give Donald Trump a chance. Because I think he's got a lot of good ideas, a lot of fun ideas.

They didn't know you were joking. And there's total silence. And then someone at the back said, like what? Oh, no. And so then I had to, you know, there's calculations going on in my monkey brain. Do I just carry on and ignore it? Or do I? Yeah, do you take the Bill Burr approach?

Yeah, of course that would have been. But you see, I'm not sufficiently seasoned as a straight ahead stand up. So I backpedaled and I said, well. Oh, I'm just joking. Don't worry. I was joking. Please like me. Like me.

Why are you hurting me? Don't hurt me. Please, I like you. I just want to get on with you. Can I get you a drink? That sounds like such a good show. It was not bad. No, it wasn't exactly like that.

But I came off stage and my friend Louis Theroux was there. And he said, wow, that was really brave. That's not what you want to hear. Yeah, that is funny when people see you and they're like oh my gosh that looks so scary how do you do it it's not a compliment i mean he did say he said that was good man that was good he said wow the trump joke didn't land though did it i was like no it did not no but uh he said that's the thing it's it's too hot you know a lot of people do agree with trump and then in your little little liberal elite No, it did not. No. But he said, that's the thing. It's too hot. You know, a lot of people do agree with Trump. Yeah, that's true. And in your little liberal elite bubble zone, you kind of think everyone dislikes Trump.

No, they don't. There's a lot of people that do. Some people like him. That think he's a breath of fresh air. Yeah. I like him too. I think we should give him a chance. He's got a lot of good ideas.

To give him a chance. He's nice. A sweetie pie. Is it sweet? Sweetie? And I really like him. Eating cake and pies and crisps and sipping fizzy pop from cups.

Relaxing with a group of people. I'm going to try another cake. Mmm. Claudia has laid out some beautiful cakes and like a yummy, chewy chocolate chip. I'm going to have some of that. Did you get these from your hipster cake shop? I was going to say what they're called, but then I feel like I'll be locating my house too. Yeah, don't. No one's going to kill. I don't think anyone will kill me.

But this will be like a haunting podcast. You never know. I mean, you've said some pretty controversial stuff. I don't think anyone will kill me. But this will be like a haunting podcast. You never know. I mean, you've said some pretty controversial stuff. I have said some really dead stuff. Yeah. I met Johnny Rotten when I was 12. Is that true? You saying that thing about punk, maybe you think of that.

Yeah. How come? Because he came to buy some art from my dad. Your dad was in Mental... Or is in Mental as Anything? He's no longer in Mental as Anything. He left in 1992, I think. Right.

Yeah. Because obviously in the UK, they had a big hit with Live It Up, right? Which was... Was that their biggest hit? That was their biggest hit because it was in Crocodile Dundee. It was in Crocodile Dundee. Hey there, you with the sad face. Come up to my place and live it up.

Yeah. You beside the dance floor. What do you cry for? Let's live it up yeah you beside the dance floor what do you cry for let's live it up that's it sorry that singing was so beautiful it was pretty good wasn't it made me cough yeah they were big stars and the big stars in australia right yeah they had like the most top 40 hits for any band or something like that i don't know they were they were big they were famous and then my dad's an artist as well that's right were they pre-men at work even they were concurrent that's wild yeah so you are rock royalty my dad's a national treasure

and did your was your dad um he wasn't like an insane rocker man. He didn't love heroin and Jack Daniels. Well, I just found out recently he did love heroin. He still does. Well, I don't know. He only tried it a couple of times. Are you being serious now? Yeah.

Good one. But it was long before I was in the picture. Right. He didn't give me any heroin. Did you find out? He had heroin twice in art school. I think someone died in his backyard from heroin. Oh, get it together.

But I don't really know because there was a book written about him and I didn't read it. Right. How did you find out then? Well, just like conversations. With him? No, with my mom. Oh, with your mom. This might be a big secret. But I think it's in the book the heroin stuff that i just avoided knowing next time i talk to him i'll ask him about it i would that would be high on my list of things i would want to ask my dad about

yeah what's it like how did you do it did you snort it did you i think you lick it did you inject it right i think he injected it and i think it was when he was in art school, and he was living with artists. So would you, do you want some heroin? Oh, I do heroin all the time. Do you? Yeah. I mean, some people do, you know.

No, I've never done heroin. Have you not? I'd be too scared. If you were to do it, how would you have it? Would you inject it or smoke? What are the options? Inject, smoke. I think those are the two big ones.

What's the others? The other one, I don't know, snort. I'm guessing now. I get scared about the idea of like... In tea, can you crumble it into tea? Maybe. I think. What's the format?

It's like a powder? I think it's a powder. And then you cook it. Yes. I wouldn't like to inject it. No, I wouldn't either. That seems seems too scary i'd just be too scared but i guess i'd smoke it right that seems like the most gentle way to do it yeah but whatever happens and smoking so cool that's the thing you do look very good if you smoke and heroin is the coolest thing you could do if there's one

thing cooler than smoking it's heroin it's smoking heroin and um the problem is though that even if it's going well like even if you don't get a bubble in your needle yes syringe and instantly die because of that or get that's why people flick the syringe right right getting the bubbles out don't want get up yeah don't want bubbles but um have you done heroin? No. Okay. No. But you know, never say never.

But then even if it goes well, everyone throws up. Everyone is. Really? I think so. Everyone is deeply. I mean, it just sounds bad. That sounds pretty rough. I did take oxycodone.

Oxycontin. Yeah, oxycontin by accident why what did you think it was i thought it was like a cold and flu tablet at the beginning of last year i guess like january or february i was in new york writing for amy schumer right for her tv show i want to ask you about oh i'll tell you all the secrets but we were and i was in the writer's room and i was coming down with a cold like rapidly and people were like you all right and i was like oh i think i'm getting sick and then um kurt metzger who's a stand-up who was also on the staff he was like oh do you want a like a pill and i was like yeah because i thought it was like a cold and flu tablet and he gave me a blue pill like the matrix i don't know what happens in the matrix

but um and i took it and then i felt incredible like really quickly i felt absolutely what is i think it's a really strong painkiller stronger than like codeine and i do think it's it's definitely in the same world as heroin but it it's like a prescription strength, very intense painkiller. Controlled substance, high risk of addiction and dependence. It's a narcotic and it can cause respiratory distress and death. Yeah. It sounds really good. So I was, Kurt's like probably like six foot four and a big guy.

What's he doing with Oxycontin? I think he actually needs it as like a painkiller. But I am five foot two and I'm quite small. Yeah. And I also didn't need Oxycontin. Yeah. So I instantly felt like I was like, I'd never felt cozier. But also I felt like I was gently i'd never felt cozier but also i felt like i was gently floating

and i felt fantastic but i was also alarmed by how good i felt because i didn't understand i was like what was that and he was like that was the good stuff and i was like oh no and then there was like a big lunch we went for a big lunch with the rise and I couldn't stop talking. Like I was really chatty, but I felt starting to feel like pretty worried because I felt so strange, but really good. But I knew it was not good to feel this way. I couldn't stop talking. I also couldn't eat anything. I kept like bringing food to my mouth and not eating it.

And then I was going to, because you were more interested in talking or because your throat wouldn't work. I could tell that I would probably throw up if I ate food. Wow. I felt really weird, but good, but weird. And then I thought, I can't get the subway home because I think I might fall on the tracks. Wow.

And so I got a cab and then I was like nodding off in the cab. So it's like an opiate. It's definitely an opiate. And then when I got home, I threw up. And then I threw up for um two days and there was a blizzard so it was like a really weird couple of days where like i was pretty much passed out or throwing up and i hadn't eaten any food so by the end i was throwing up like a pink goo oh yeah which was your um intestinal tract yeah it was really rough yeah so i don't want to do heroin wow it sounds like you've done it already you don't need Yeah, it was really rough. Yeah, so I don't want to do heroin.

Wow, it sounds like you've done it already. You don't need to. I know, right? It was pretty wild. How was your brain working, though? Were you any use in the writer's room? Well, luckily, because of the blizzard, work was cancelled. So I didn't miss any work.

Everyone just took pills. Everyone just took pills. Amy Schumer. Yes. So tell me about that um how did that that was post train wreck was it yes it was post train wreck and i'd already filmed the first season of love but it had to come out and i ran into her at a party and she said oh because we are friends but she lives a different life because she's um a huge star so we very occasionally were like we text but like we ran into each other's party we hadn't seen each other for a while and she was like next weekend you should come away with i'm gonna get a place in laguna and you should come and so i did where's

laguna it's like north of los angeles it sounds beautiful it's gorgeous it sounds so blue it's so blue and uh she rented a really fancy beach house and it was like a castle on the sea and then it was me and bridget everett and kyle dundagan was adam buxton there no he wasn't there he was not invited he wasn't invited he was not invited but it was very fun couple of days chilling out and then amy was like asking what i was doing and i was like oh i'm writing something or she like left the room and she came back she's like do you want to write for my show i was like yeah it's just like okay you have to be in new york in three weeks i was like cool so that's how i got the job good weekend great weekend wow swam in the sea took oxycontin no i didn't take oxxyContin that weekend.

Did you not? Nope. Well, it's good to have a weekend off every now and then. Yes, it's true. And then I got to go to New York for four months. Whoa. And I ate spaghetti every night. Mate.

How does that work then? Do they help you? They give you the spaghetti. I'm always curious. They give you free spaghetti. Yeah, they pay you in spaghetti. That's brilliant. Yeah.

And do they help you find an apartment and things like that? No, they give you a little bit of money towards your apartment. And then luckily, a friend of a friend who was an actor had like a place that he was looking to sublet. So I sublet his apartment in the East Village. And I don't care about the creativity. Just the admin. The practical. No, completely.

I had no idea how any of it would work because before i got the job kyle who was there was like looking for his place and it seemed like impossible to find somewhere so i was really lucky and so are you just leaving a trail of destroyed relationships there or do you constantly keep yourself single for this exact reason um i don't know don't worry we don't have to talk about it i guess i guess i've uh no i don't think i've ever destroyed a relationship for my work but my work has meant that i've been in different countries so i have kissed men of different oh um that's out of control i've kissed america i have kissed an american foreign man and i've kissed an english i've kissed kissed in english i guess yeah yeah i've done some kissing good one yeah um amy schumer

that's a good show how long so are you still how many series of that have you only i only did one season okay i did the fourth season there's been been four seasons. Not series, Buckles. You must never say series. Don't say series. Series, I think, is what they say for the entire show. There's this great series called Inside Amy Schumer, and I worked on season four. Oh. But there hasn't been another season since then. And you did Drunk History, right? I did.

I did it again as well. Did you? The second one hasn't come out yet. What were you doing? Were you acting in it, or were you drinking in it? I got drunk. Yeah. Both oh really to be honest the first time i don't think i was very drunk right i tried but i think they're really worried because the person who'd done it the day before had like blacked out and vomited in the pa's car did you do it in this country yeah

i did it here in america and i wonder if they're a bit more health and safety about it over here than they would be in the uk or do you think there's no difference well i don't know what happens in the uk well i did it in the uk and i really assumed that they look after you they they do look after you yeah but i assumed that it would be possible to not get really drunk yes you know because i didn't want to it wasn't practical for me also i'm sort of old and a hangover for me is a more serious it's horrible thing than it is for like a 25 year old but i got absolutely shit face what did you drink well first of all we had two pints like before we they told me i had to meet them at the pub so i just met this researcher it was really weird that is weird he's like oh i was like are we gonna go and film the thing he's like oh no they don't need us

for another hour and a half I was like okay why did you tell me to come now he's like oh we're just gonna have a couple of drinks it's like right okay well I'm only gonna have the couple though they're loosening you up yeah uh-huh I said I'll just have maybe i won't even have two you know i'd one pint is pretty much it for me thanks it's the afternoon it's not even dark anyway so we have we end up having like two and a half pints which is more or less my limit uh-huh that's so much liquid yeah so i'm sloshing around and i'm pretty hammered who hosts it in the uk is it jimmy yes he does the voiceover right yeah who do you sit with and tell the story to oh you just do it to camera to the director oh my god that's weird do you have a host in the us well derek waters who created it he sits with you oh i worry about his health

because he drinks with you and he does it like twice a day when they're shooting it. It's crazy. Yeah. How old is he? He's 26, but he looks 75. No. I think he's, I don't know, late 30s. Maybe he's had a special operation to line his stomach somehow. With plastic. Plastic. But they hired a really posh house, you know.

They did that for me as well. So don't feel like you're better if you think that well i think this place was quite a bit nicer than the one you were in and also it was off a fairly crappy nondescript street in london suddenly you go behind this door and there's like oh my god look at this tucked away behind wow we're in london there was a fountain little beautiful patio all overgrown i mean it could have been anywhere you know beautiful tastefully decorated rooms they were big claudia big okay giant rooms wow where in london was it what neighborhood is islington but it was a bit further north than islington, so it was getting a little rough around the edges. I used to live in Islington.

Right. Well, yeah, no, it was further north. It was further north. I used to live in Turnpike Lane as well. I don't even know where that is. It's where a woman, she died in her flat and no one found her for two years. It's the most depressing documentary I've ever seen. Me and my friend were watching it

and then we realized it was down the street from where we were living at that moment. And we're like, oh, we live in a really bad place. Well, you were the people that failed to find her. Yes, we were. But the TV was still on and she just like melted into the carpet. It's just a skeleton.

That's so awful. So sad. London, that's London for you. That's why I got out. Yes, it only happens in London, that kind of thing. People, English people are very indifferent to suffering. Yes, yes. That's why I like them.

So you were in the magic house. So I was in the magic castle. I mean, seven sheets to the wind. Is that the expression? Yeah, I think so. A lot of sheets. We're in the wind. And then they start giving me tequila

oh no that is reserved strictly for some new year's eve celebrations you know what i mean yeah not every single one because it's the one alcohol it's like an upper yeah yeah and and it's like uh well that's that's the heroine of the booze world isn't it no no because it's not it's the opposite mellowing you out yeah zippy it's like charlie isn't it yeah it's like the cocaine of the yeah i think it is it's the cocaine of the booze world and so they ended up giving me like two or three shots so i could barely speak yeah that's bad i was properly hammered that's a very different approach to when i did it how did it work with you then i think here in america it's like illegal to buy alcohol for someone for show business purposes.

So you have to buy the alcohol yourself and then they reimburse you later. It's like weirdly complicated. Okay. And then I always, the two times I've done it, I've drunk whiskey because I don't want to drink more than one alcohol because I feel like that will make me worse. Yeah. one alcohol because i feel like that will make me worse yeah but they also give you like a magic supplement like a salty shot of something that will make it so you don't get a hangover is it semen i think it might be semen i think it's derrick water semen that's not necessary and um uh but it works you don't get a hangover right but i did get a lot drunker the second time wow i didn't get the salty shot.

Yeah. I mean, I got some salt. I've still got some in my house right now. Good one. Let's have some of that. It's not nice. Is it not? Oh, man.

It was brutal. And then they, because they kept on, because I arrived on my bike. I've got a foldy bike, Brompton. Yes. You love to cycle. I do love to cycle. Oh, I forgot that I've got a flat tire. It's bad.

Anyway, I'll sort it out. If I walked from here to where I'm staying in Los Angeles, it would take about 90 minutes. What neighborhood are you staying in? West Hollywood. You can get a Lyft or an Uber. That's a good idea. That's what you'll do. Not an Uber.

I'd never get an Uber. No. But yeah. Oh, man. And because they kept on saying for the drunk history thing like where are you going back to and i was like oh don't worry i'm gonna cycle it back and they're like we're gonna put you in a taxi i think and so of course it was necessary to do it i think i went to sleep slash passed out in the taxi which was only about 10 minutes from where I was staying whoa oh it was

did you feel wretched the next day I felt I have felt worse yeah but I felt pretty beaten up yeah definitely yeah I think because there's something about it just being a very short intense blast exactly of poison to your body you know I sometimes feel that the booze isn't the only thing that makes you feel awful when you have a hangover. A lot of the time it's some of the crappy food you've eaten. Yeah, you eat some salty bad food often. Yeah, and then in the olden days when I would smoke. Ugh, I know.

That really made it worse as well. Yeah, when I was younger and I would smoke, that really makes hangovers a million times worse. Terrible. But smoking is so cool. It makes you look good. That's the thing. It's very cool. It's very stylish.

No one smokes here at all. In LA? Mm-hmm. I mean, they do though, don't they? They do, actually. I saw someone smoking at a party yesterday. Yeah. I take it back.

They love smoking. Smoking continues to be cool. Yeah. Have you got a favorite joke? No. Let's continues to be cool. Yeah. Have you got a favourite joke? No. Let's end on that note. Yeah. Yeah.

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. So there you go, Claudia O'Doherty. Thanks very much indeed to her for a very enjoyable afternoon of chat rambling. She made me feel really welcome. So thanks so much to her. Thanks very much indeed to Seamus Murphy Mitchell for production support and to Matt

Lamont for his editing whiz-bottory. Thanks as well to Helen Green for providing the new artwork that now accompanies the podcast. Helen is one of the most talented illustrators around. She did an animated gif of Bowie that got passed around a while back. You may have seen it. It showed Zayvid turning his head through 180 degrees and showing off various looks from his career as he did so. It was brilliant. And Helen Green, her illustrations and drawings of Bowie in particular, she also does great drawings of Lady Gaga and Amy Winehouse and folks like that.

But they're brilliant. And her drawings of Bowie particularly capture the things I loved about the way Bowie looked better than anyone I can think of. She's amazing. I recommend you check out her website. She's got posters and t-shirts and mugs and all that. Just type in Helen Green illustration and you'll find it. All right, that's enough for now, quartermasters. I reserve the right to change that at any point. Until next week, take care. Enjoy the spring. Be calm and cool-headed. Look after each other and yourselves. I love you. Bye! Bye! Bye!

Do you hear the echo there? That was good. Oh, it's good to be back in the countryside. See ya. Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. Please like and subscribe.

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