THE ADAM BUXTON PODCAST - EP.92 - JAMES ACASTER

Episode Date: May 11, 2019

Adam talks with British comedian James Acaster about school, a teenage religious/existential crisis, listening to music in cars, James's quest to find the best music of 2016, the joy of sulking and much other enjoyable business. The conversation was recorded in November 2018.Thanks to Séamus Murphy-Mitchell for production support and to Matt Lamont for additional editing.RELATED LINKSTHE ADAM BUXTON APPhttps://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/the-adam-buxton-app/id1264624915?mt=8JAMES ON 'CONAN'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGp4qGNvb24PAUL WILLIAMS - SURF MUSIC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcqO8-uLxiwJEFF ROSENSTOCK - WORRY (SPOTIFY)https://open.spotify.com/album/18doqXfbCTpyz1PeO3d4eBNONAME - TINY DESK CONCERT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K58JYXhb4YADAVE EGGERS - YOU SHALL KNOW OUR VELOCITY (GOODREADS)https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4954.You_Shall_Know_Our_Velocity_NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL - IN AN AEROPLANE OVER THE SEA (SPOTIFY)https://open.spotify.com/album/5COXoP5kj2DWfCDg0vxi4F?autoplay=true&v=LSURFACE TO AIR MISSIVE - AV (BANDCAMP)https://surfacetoairmissive.bandcamp.com/album/a-v'COLOSSAL' TRAILER https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8hpm_BcHKEANNA PAQUIN OSCAR SPEECHhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xElXtoO_WmASEINFELD AWARDS SPEECHhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F3pJfmqnUM'SKYVIEW LITE' STARGAZING APPhttps://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/skyview-lite/id413936865?mt=8 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. Hey, how you doing, podcats? Adam Buxton here. I'm the host of this podcast. Thanks very much for downloading it.

Nice to be with you again. It's a cold day out here in Norfolk in early May 2019 and it's been raining all week. Good for the fields, bad for buckles. Rosie doesn't mind. She just boings around, whatever the weather. And now that the crops are starting to grow, she is bouncing in the long grass and in the fields full of, well, I don't know what's in the fields. Is it wheat? Maybe. I've lived in the countryside now for over a decade and still couldn't tell you the names of most of the trees, animals and plants in this area. I don't say that proudly. It's just a fact. Listen, I'm going to crap on more at the end of this podcast,

but right now let me tell you about my guest this week for podcast number 92, the British comedian James Acaster. James is currently aged 34. However, he was 33 when our conversation was recorded in London last November 2018. James grew up in Kettering, Northamptonshire. That's not too far from us out here in Norwich. James studied music at Northampton College and played as a drummer in various local bands, including Pindrop, Three Line Whip, The Wow Scenario, and Capri Sun Quartet. He talks about those days on Richard Herring's podcast that he was on recently. He's been on a couple of times. James started performing comedy towards the end of the 2000s.

And by 2012, he'd been nominated for Best Newcomer at the Edinburgh Fringe with his one-man show, Prompt. This is just selected highlights, you understand. James was a regular contributor to comedian Josh Widdicombe's XFM radio show, which ran between 2013 and 2015, and a collection of some of the stories that he told on that show were compiled in his 2017 book, Classic Scrapes. James also had a show on FUBAR, the internet radio station in 2015, in which he invited guests to put their iPods on shuffle and talk about what popped up. And you can still hear

those shows in podcast form, albeit with the music removed, but they're still good to listen to nonetheless. And even more A-caster can be found in podcast form on his hugely popular series Off Menu, in which guests talk about their favourite food and dining in general with James and comedian Ed Gamble, who also hosts the show. In 2018, Netflix released Repertoire, consisting of four one-hour shows that James filmed in September 2017, showcasing the best of his live material up to that point. In the meantime, James has appeared regularly on UK comedy panel shows and more recently his appearance on the Jonathan Ross chat show has been an indication that he is becoming too successful. been an indication that he is becoming too successful. I talked to James about his school days and his religious background and his teenage existential crisis. We talked about car stereos,

James's quest to find the best music of 2016, which he has written about in a book, and the joy of sulking, as well as much other enjoyable business. In fact, there was so much great conversation with James that I've put another half an hour's worth in a bonus episode, which you can hear on the Adam Buxton app. It's a free app which enables you to listen to all the previous episodes of this podcast, as well as a few jingles and some of my stupid adverts. There's links to some of my amazing videos on YouTube. And there is a slowly expanding library of bonus podcast content on there too, like whole bonus episodes,

some of which you have to pay a small fee to access. All the money goes to the fellows that run the app and my blog. And this James Acaster bonus will be available for a fee of 99 pence. And on it, I talked to James about his iPod shuffle show, and we had a go at doing it ourselves. We also talked about art and provocation, the KLF burning a million quid, Tracey Emin, Yoko Ono and Maria Abramovich. And James helped me workshop some new jokes, so you can listen to all that via the Adam Buxton app in the bonus audio section. But anyway, back to this episode. It was the first time that I'd met James and we were exchanging pleasantries and light introductory chit chat as we sat down to record.

And I was getting the mics ready and all that. But it was one of those podcast moments when I didn't do the formal. OK, we're starting now. And as you will hear, James was a little thrown, which reminds me, I need to get Prince Archie a present. Okay, here we go. Ramble Chat have we started or have we um this might be amazing stuff. Because I'm capturing you in a sort of semi-naturalistic state. Yeah, this is one of those kind of soft opens that they do on American podcasts. You never tell.

Have we started yet? You're freaking me out. There needs to be a firm delineation between entertainment and real life. And this is blurred. It is weird how you switch into a different voice. Yeah. That's why I was confused. I'd say you were halfway.

Right, okay. So I was like, oh, I don't know. Yeah, now you've shifted up a gear. Now you're in A-caster mode. Yeah, I can feel I've done it. Yeah. Even though we're the same two people in the room. Yeah, there's just a little more energy.

Yeah. But less than there would be if there was an audience there. Yep. But then your thing when you're on stage is to kind of maintain a fairly low energy appearance superficially. Yep. Is that fair? Yeah, I think so. Although, like, if I do too much of that, then the gig really grinds to a halt.

I have to really remind myself of that. I saw you on Conan, the talk show in America. Yes. And you had five minutes there and you blazed through your stuff. Sort of double time, I would say. Is there a pressure to do that? I mean, that's not a criticism. Yeah, no, no, no.

I would say is there a pressure to do that I mean I'm not that's not a criticism yeah no no no that was a very hard gig and I wasn't getting many laughs and if you watch the thing you can't tell as much and if you watch someone else on Conan then you really notice the difference of like how big the laughs are for other people and how long and I just did not have a very good show and so I was kind of going through it a bit quicker because of that, but then it was still too slow for them. Really? Yeah, the whole thing kind of, I just didn't click with that audience at all. They did not like it.

But then I just really stuck to my guns. And so, yeah, if you watch that clip, it's a guy really sticking to his guns in the face of it all. And then within half an hour after that i shit myself in a steakhouse it was a bad day i literally went from that record to a steakhouse with my agent at the time so he wanted to go there and shit my pants why because i had food poisoning whoa and then i was in bed for a week really yeah it was bad and then eventually when i kind of was like you've got to get out this flat because you can't you're in la you can't just

be in your flat all day you got you were supposed to have meetings and gigs you've cancelled them all and then like took one step out and then some teenagers walked past and went, Ron Weasley! And I was like, oh, great. They shouted Ron Weasley at you? Yeah. And I was like, oh, good. Of course, that's what happens. You don't look anything like Ron Weasley. I get it so much.

Do you? Yeah. It's just, if members of the public were really funny and astute, we wouldn't have a job. So, like, yeah, they've got to say stuff like that it doesn't work quite i don't think it's good enough they just see a guy with ginger hair and they go yeah ginger hair goes through the rolodex mental rolodex all i'm getting is ron weasley okay i'm gonna shout that yep i used to get harry potter shouted at me because they couldn't remember ron weasley's name so they were just but now the films are quite

big everyone knows ron weasley it's fine but like you know when i started out i get harry potter shouted at me before i got to the mic some nights wow it was quite common but never rupert grint never rupert grint poor guy yeah gutted what's he doing he um he he was the one out of the three of them who really spent his money early doors did he yeah he was very extravagant got loads and loads of cars loads of like ridiculously colored cars i saw an interview magic cars uh yeah he had like a bright orange car that he bought and apparently he sold it and daniel redcliffe asked him why you're selling it he went i don't like the color the weasley mobile must be the reason he bought it i used to have a car an orange car a uh ford fiesta was my first car me and joe were doing our tv show at the time on channel four

and we did a song called roscoe which was sort of a weird country and western type thing and we made a video for it that was vaguely country and western themed but it incorporated elements of the dukes of hazard right great so we sprayed the car orange like we took it to a guy and he and we said make it look like the uh general lee from the dukes of hazard and so he sprayed it all up and put all the decals on and so you've got the confederate flag on the top as per the real general lee so when was this this was late 90s when i should have known better sure sure but didn't yeah and then a friend of mine came over and looked at it and she said and she's german what the fuck have you done to that car and i said well we it's like the general e you know it's dukes of hazards for a

video yes but the flag the fucking flag that's a racist flag on the car and i was like oh come on. It's the Dukes of Hazzard. Saturday afternoon TV. They were good old boys. Never meaning no harm. She said, you've got to take that fucking flag off the top of that car. That's fucking offensive. I love the voice. I mean, obviously, Hennig Venn is German as well, but it's got a twang of Hennig Venn in there.

Yes, yes. I'll tell you, her name is Nora. Hi, Nora, if you're listening. She's married to the lead singer of Travis. This is Fran Healy, isn't it? Yeah. I met him once, did a radio show, Will Gompertz radio show with Travis.

Oh, yeah. Arts correspondent. And he had an abscess or something on his gums. It was really hurting him, it hurt to sing and everything. And so his son was there with a thing of water with a straw in it. And he would stand there and he'd occasionally put it in front of his dad. And he'd have a sip of water and go away again.

It was quite sweet. Oh, that is sweet. But sometimes he would mistime it. He wouldn't be ready for the water. So he'd be talking in the interview. And then you'd just see the straw just wiggle around. If whatever made me like, he'd just slowly push it away.

Like a kind of harmonica brace. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was like that. Wavering around. Will Gompitz. I like Will Gompitz. Will Gompitz is one of the people I can make fun of to his face on his show, so I like going on there.

I like Will Gompitz because he's got a very strong look yeah crusty the clown yeah kind of like a maybe a vampire clown look yeah but uh i was on there to promote a book and will there was a tagline on the front cover that said to air is human to air enough to fill a book isn't so that was the right because this was your book of classic scrapes yeah so it was a book about me making those mistakes and stuff. So that was the tagline. And Will read it on the radio and went, James Eckers' classic scrapes, to err is human, to err enough to fill a book. So, James, can you understand?

No, no, you've missed out the final word of that and it makes me look like an idiot. Like, read the full thing, please, Will. And if you can't be bothered to read the tagline, I've got little hope for you reading the whole book, if I'm honest. You just left it at that no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no you weren't to art school though were you no no i didn't go to art school. I went to Montague School in Kettering, which is now an academy. Now it's an amazing place. What's the difference between a school and an academy?

An academy has to specialise in something and usually has much better facilities. So in Kettering now, there's a few academies. There's a science academy, there's a sports academy, which is my old school. Did you pay them a royal visit in your celebrity capacity? I was filming an online thing called Sweet Home Ketteringer, a little series where we went back to Kettering and visited all my old haunts. And so one was my school. And how long was it since you had been at the school?

Oh, that was, I left school when I was 17. So it would have been about 13 years, I think. Right, long enough for a pretty intense hit of... Oh, yeah. And there's only, like, three of my old teachers there as well. So, like, chatting to them and, like... Because I didn't really like school. I was a good student, but I didn't like the other kids.

And I can say that you know some of them might be listed but uh it's not like i hated him but like i don't think i'm quite sensitive so i didn't deal well with the fact that you make a little mistake and everyone's on you when you're a teenager or when you're at school it's always like what are you what are you eating your lunch in that order for there's anything it's no matter what you do i just couldn't sorry i got one one friend who i'm still in contact with from school but yeah i kind of just so i think going back is like nice but it's not like i've got so many great memories that i i wanted to you know reconnect to anything were you a bit of a loner not really no i was quite i definitely quite well liked by i had

you know a group of friends who you know i'd hang out with all the time yes i mean it's the story of most comics i guess but i just sit with the other funny kids and just like make jokes the whole lesson and but do it enough that we didn't get told off right you weren't a disruptive influence no i was you know a lot of time teaching one of my teachers sending me outside the room and then coming up to tell me off and just laughing. Just laughing the whole time. Oh, James. Yeah.

I give you five stars, my friend. Yeah, yeah. Excellent stuff. And then we went back in. But it was like, it was quite bad, actually, because it's because I'd kind of framed another kid originally. Whatever it was, I'd shouted something out and she'd sent out another kid and genuinely bollocked him for it oh okay and then he said it james acaster said it wasn't me she came in and she was like was it you i was like yeah she went like come outside and she just

laughed for ages i was like okay i think what she found funny was just that i admitted to it immediately yeah that i'd let him take the bollocking but then when she'd come back in was that you yeah it was me yeah of course yeah yeah yeah i shouted it there's a you didn't want to get away with that badly yeah but you weren't getting in trouble enough for like your parents to be worried about you or anything no were your parents ever worried about you i don't know probably more so after school when i crashed my first car and i wasn't all right for six months after that my parents were worried about me in what way were you not all right i couldn't stop thinking about death i was raised christian and i'm not anymore but at that point church going christian yeah but like a non-denomination kind of like hippie kind of church okay which i liked

i really loved it i loved the music and singing were you into all that i couldn't really sing but i really liked watching the band play because there's a rock band so i started like we got a drum kit from the church and i started learning the drums i just played drums for ages basically until i did stand up when i was 23 i was just always playing drums it's all i wanted to do i was practicing all day so i loved that there was little sketches in the church they do like a comedy sketch in the church i loved watching those and i've got to be in one at one point i really enjoyed that groovy christians yeah it was that kind of thing yeah yeah there was a thing in the little kids i know sunday school or whatever when you go out it's the group and we had to write like a profile of ourselves

almost to go on the wall and uh one of the things was a hero you had to say who your hero was and all the other kids wrote jesus which i did not know was meant to be the right answer and i'd written robin williams and it was all on the wall but everyone else had jesus as their hero and I had Robin Williams as mine. So what was the nature of the accident there? It was pretty bad. Well, I've written off three cars, and the last two were much more severe crashes,

but that first one just scared me, because it was me on my own. It was going around a corner too fast, and bashing up into a hedge and stuff and at one point i was balancing on like the right two wheels of the car and like could have rolled and didn't roll yeah so that was it and at the time i thought you know i was glad that my parents weren't that angry with me and then i went to i was doing a b-tech in music practice at the local college and so i went there the next day told all my mates what happened like it was funny and then I remember

it snowed that day I remember walking to my friend Graham's car afterwards and slipping over on the ice and landing on my back and loads of people laughing at me and me thinking it was funny as well yeah and then getting in the car with Graham and his battery was dead so he left his lights on as we had to wait for the AA and we're laughing at what a what an awful day we've had it isn't that funny and got home late because of that and all my family had gone out to like they were all doing something in the evening dinner had been left me in the oven ate it on my own and i remember washing it up in the sink and there was like the window and it was just dark outside so it's just my reflection like a black mirror thing and

looking at myself and then suddenly going oh i could i could be dead i could have died yesterday and then for six months i couldn't stop thinking about what happens when you die and that we will never understand life or how infinite the universe is and all that stuff and that's all i was thinking about all the time and like during that time i think my parents didn't really know what to say sometimes that and uh they were trying to kind of hide that they were concerned about me, because I was acting withdrawn and weird and quiet. Were you asking them, though, for counsel? Yeah, I was, and if they didn't know what to say,

they would set me up with other people who they did know. So I remember going to a vicar once and chatting to a vicar, and him just being like, well, you know, sometimes people kind of just go away from christianity and sometimes they come back it's funny really and i was like looking at him like what i'm like figuring you should have more to say he was seeing it as a crisis of faith yeah because he was like and i was like well how do we ever know stuff it's like you never know really and he's like it's funny really my son kind of like just you know he doesn't believe in

anything anymore my daughter went away from it for a bit and then came back to it and now she goes to church again I was like yeah but what about death yeah what about real like

I want to talk about real stuff like yeah because it sounded like you know to me I was like it's treating this like

it's just a thing like a subscription you can sign it's not a real thing and you should you're a vicar you should be telling me

this is all real and this is how you know it's real and all this i remember at the end of it so i was there for quite a few hours just kind of talking at this guy and then eventually he was like um i've got to say good night now because um i need to spend some time with my wife i always need to spend time my wife each day otherwise i don't see her and that was the only thing that kind of made sense to me in the whole talk I had with him I remember going oh yeah that is important and like walking away

being like he's thinking about her and he wants to spend some time with her and he knows that that's important that he doesn't neglect his relationship just because of his job and that kind of hit home a little bit more than anything else he'd said about religion and faith and stuff so i'm starting to think about more about other people and just be like like it's not like yeah you kind of all this death stuff is

you're obsessed with yourself and just like i'm gonna die and all this and i won't understand this and rather than looking at looking around you and other people are maybe more important maybe you know put other people first or whatever. And then just realising that I was kind of being a bit spoiled, getting angry that I was going to die because it was amazing I'm even here in the first place. So he weirdly got me out of it, but he wasn't trying to. How old were you? 18.

Wow, man, I think I was just wanking all the time. Oh, I was still wanking. Oh, please don't get me wrong. I was wanking, but I was thinking about death while I was doing it the greatest way yeah yeah yeah one day i'm gonna die but like that was that was it but like yeah that's intense that you were going through all that yeah it was and it still took me a while to kind of completely be like you know i'm not a christian anymore and how are your folks about that fine they're really supportive and uh loving parents and just like you know they kind of took us to church because you know we were their kids and didn't want to leave us alone but like it was

never you have to believe this or this is the truth it was always presented as it was faith and it was a you know they believed it but some people don't and all that kind of stuff so right okay so they weren't like fundamentalist in any way no not in any way i mean my dad you know it's a science teacher and like really early on was telling us about evolution which i remember as kids we were telling him that was the only thing he told us that we went bollocks everything else he told us about resurrection and stuff like that yep cool he was like so we used to be apes no we didn't dad we were not born yesterday mate and uh i was the one people yeah kind of calling him out on as a child yeah no didn't happen but yeah so it was that but uh yeah they weren't fundamentalists some of their friends were and

it would be interesting chatting to them i wouldn't be surprised if i mean you know let's not forget that religion is still an important thing for the majority of people alive in the world but i wouldn't be surprised if some form of religion made a comeback in the next few decades you know what i mean just i get the sense that people are just flailing around so much these days sure yeah yeah spiritually there's got to be another word other than spiritually that indicates that you're talking about those kinds of things yeah there's got to be a new one that people could come up with but like ghostily ghost

yeah i'm pretty good love ghostily i'm kind of ghosty a little bit ghosty it would be good i mean yeah i i just loved like the conversations i think yeah and it was like that was the sharing of ideas was more what i was i liked that and the not the non-judgmental part of that that's the thing isn't it yeah that's when it gets less fun is when you start being made to feel bad about yourself yes which i think is something that like even though my parents are not like this at all they're not judgmental people and they're not like they don't focus on you know your you know people's sins or whatever but like i went to different churches i went to a c of e school i went to scouts which is a christian thing and so like naturally i think that all kind of like seeps in anyway is that you're just around

the like you know it's loads of stuff about you know born sinners forgiveness this is good this is bad and stuff and that's definitely been something that in the last couple of years i've noticed the effects of a bit more and been like oh yeah that's actually had a bit of an effect on me because I really beat myself up if I think I've done something wrong and I'm really like really hard on myself oh really and yeah and I think a huge part of that is just like those because there was certain types of people you know I'd say some of my teachers some of my scout leaders some of the people at the church who were very much like you know if you did do anything that was a little bit wrong you're in the biggest amount you're you're you should be ashamed of yourself it's awful how are you framing it when you give yourself a hard

time like what's the thing that makes you feel bad because you're not presumably worrying that you're going to go to hell i know i don't feel worried about hell i don't know what it is really i think it's just knowing that just that was wrong or that yeah because it was maybe a thing i was never scared of heaven or hell or anything that was never pushed on me that much anyway but i think it was just maybe just the getting in trouble in in any way i remember the first time i like in school i kind of called someone a bastard or something when i was like seven i've got called a girl a bastard as well i bet she someone a bastard or something when I was like seven I called a girl a bastard as well I bet she was a bastard

she was a real bastard actually but she went and told on me and I remember hiding around the corner because I could see her telling the teacher in the playground but hide around the corner but not hide in properly so like I knew they would come and get me so it was like if I went and hid

hid hid that was me being bad again you know because i'm now trying to evade whatever so like and we're getting told off about it and then he said i'm not going to tell your parents but you should never speak imagine if your parents heard you speak like that and i was crying and then after school the girl telling her mum that i'd done it but in front of my mum so me crying again and this i say how sorry i was but my mum not being like you know she wasn't hard on me at all i just thought it's okay we're just gonna go home i remember saying to her please don't tell anyone that i said it please don't tell anyone and all this and then um getting home and going

upstairs and then she was just having tea with her friend, and then walking down, and she was halfway through telling her friend the story. And what she would have been telling her friend was like... Your mum, this is? Yeah, but my mum would have been telling her friend, you know, looking back, she would have been saying, you know, he was so upset, I can't believe how upset he was, and probably, you know, quite concerned that it was that big a deal to me.

Right. But instead I just came down to hear her telling her friend that, and didn't want anyone to know and again i cried again like oh no you promised you wouldn't tell anyone and it was like this whole you know that now everyone thinks that i'm this awful person just because i said i swear so like you know but that was never put on me by my parents it wasn't like a huge thing of you shouldn't do this stuff but i think it was everywhere else and so it was a yeah i just didn't want to i think i wanted this perfect track record i'll never do anything wrong and maybe still feel like that sometimes do you come across like people being harshly judgmental when you're you know in comedy circles and when you're trying to

do your thing yeah but i'm okay with that so i just think it's funny now i think i was more insecure about that when i started out and stuff well you seem to have found a groove like in the last few years you know you you're inhabiting a stage persona completely now which is completely coherent yes and you could see it like it seemed to be obvious when you did that quadrilogy oh yeah yes on netflix yeah and that's i think that's once you're kind of doing what you want to do and you know that you know this is what like if you know i would happily watch it myself or whatever i think this is like or this is what i had in my head so yeah that's your criteria is it like yeah being you know honest with myself while i'm writing it is this good enough is this

what you want to be making and getting that kind of like clearer vision of yeah this is what i want the show to be and then if you achieve that don't mind what people say and if you don't achieve it again being honest with yourself and being like no it's not exactly what i wanted and so then again the criticisms maybe don't hurt as much because you're like yeah I agree rather than lying to yourself telling yourself it's brilliant and then people say stuff that you deep down know is true and then you react badly to it because you're trying to really what you're trying to do is be like I don't know I don't want to hear this whereas like you know at the moment like I did one joke about like a is a brexit joke about a cup of tea and like leaving the tea bag in or taking it out and i did it on mock the week and it's like a little clip

and every now and again it does the rounds on twitter and someone will share it and every time it gets shared i get my timeline is just full of people who voted leave arguing with me about it arguing with the routine because i don't respond to them but like you know always sticking to the the metaphor as well so i just can't find it funny rather than getting angry with them it's just quite funny that they're just like oh yeah but if you leave the bag in for too long then it'll stew and then everything tastes disgusting and then you've still got to throw the bag in the bin anyway and then the mug you gotta wash the mug up and it's like it's like nothing makes sense and they always stick to the metaphor and argue with me on it and i think a few years ago that would maybe would have upset me or i would have got frustrated with

it especially when you kind of just think if i carry on doing this job this is the rest of my life i'm going to come across people like this and they're going to be able to get to me probably even easier in the future whatever technology is going then so you just got to be like this is always going to happen you know i've seen another comic tweeting quite a lot he's on tour at the minute it's a lot of people complaining about the price of drinks or like you know how far away their seat is in the venue or things like that and he's kind of like engaging with them in a way that's like well you you know just don't buy a drink or if you yeah and you're going i'll just leave it like because this is going to go on forever and like you can't reason with if people are getting that annoying they knew how much the tickets were when they bought them you know just you just wear

yourself out and it just doesn't matter the thing about the contact that you have with people on social media as well is that it really encourages people to ask you stuff that actually it's not your job to deal with. Sure. So they're asking you, you know, what time does the show start tonight? How long is it going to go on for? I need to book a babysitter. You know, all this kind of stuff. Some people respond to that, which I think is like. I mean, I do.

Amazingly helpful of them. If I've got time i will yeah i mean but then i think people will listen to stuff in the podcast and they'll just say what what's the name of that book you mentioned in the podcast yeah yeah you're like well you could definitely listen to the podcast again if you really wanted to know also there's a good chance oftentimes they'll ask me stuff that i've put links to in the description of the podcast yeah yeah all that kind of thing there's stuff like there's a song at the minute in my new show there's a song beforehand that i because i'm on stage djing at the moment i am that might change but i'm on stage djing as they're walking in and there's a song that i keep returning to and turning up full volume and then i kind of go back to the playlist and i come back to that song.

And everyone always tweets me going, what's that song? But I always reply to those ones and always tell them what the song is. Because it's a fun little extra part of the joke for me that I'm responding to every single one of those with just the song name and who it's by. Especially because it is by one of my friends. It's quite an unknown kind of album that i think is brilliant so it's fun who's it by it's called surf music it's by paul williams not the paul williams who did bugsy malone and stuff different paul williams from new zealand it's a wonderful like uh pop record good one that's a great idea djing as they come in are you on stage then yeah i'm on stage

i'm wearing like a shell suit jacket and shades and just uh djing and then with for that song i'll stare them down i'll go to the front of the stage and just stare at them while it's playing and then go back to djing but i think my main motivation for doing anything in life is so that i can get control of the music in the room and uh i'd get to dj so yeah anytime i've gone on tour and we're sorting out the car and the tour manager will get hold of it. Is this car right? And I'm always like,

could I plug my iPod into the stereo? Yeah, good. Well then, yeah, great car. That's all I care about. I know. My wife, my wife, I have to say that. She's in charge of most of the important things that happen administratively within the family.

Yes. Because I'm focused on just being a tool professionally and so she allows me the space to do what i'm doing and meanwhile she's getting on with the important stuff so she generally buys the car when it's time to buy a car right you know yes and with when you've got a family that becomes a thing that happens more often than you would like it to yeah yeah and the last time she bought a car it was this big old crazy family tank nightmare thing and it was all fine but the stereo was just useless right and i couldn't play my music in there. I think it had a CD player. That was our only option.

So I had to burn CDs. I had to do that once in a tall car. Yeah. And it was just, every time we got into the car and to go somewhere as a family, which didn't happen all that often. Usually I'm cycling around, you know, I'm under my own steam. But we'd get in the car and we'd be going for a long drive and I'd realise, oh yeah, the stereo situation. Yeah. And it would bum me out so badly.

I'd get in a mood. She'd pick up on it and she'd feel like I was blaming her because she hadn't bought the right car with a good stereo. And in a way, I was. But I'd be trying to pretend that that wasn't the case because that would be so pathetic and totally indefensible. And there was quite a few journeys that were ruined because I was such a little baby about it. But it really is a bad, you know, it's so exciting because it's so great to listen to music in the car. Yeah, I always want music on wherever I am. So like, yeah, in the car car especially if it's a long journey

especially on tour when you're driving around all the time I think like someone told me or Stuart Lee's tour manager told me that they just listen to the entire back catalogue of one band and then they'll choose another band and listen to their entire back catalogue and they do it like that and on my last tour

on the last couple of tours actually because they're quite close together i was doing a project anyway of listening to as much music from 2016 as i could and so we were just listening to loads of albums that had but they had to come from 2016 and we were doing that all the time and it was so much fun what was the best album of 2016 very hard question I would maybe put Worry by Jeff Rosenstock and Telephone by No Name as my joint number ones. I don't know either of those. So Jeff Rosenstock's album is like a kind of epic pop punk kind of record,

but like pop punk for the people who were there the first. So, you know, for people like me who were teenagers when like Green Day and Blink-182 were the big pop punk bands. And you were into that? I was when I was a teenager. And now pop punk has grown up with its audience. And now it's all about being in your 30s. And the sound in general is a bit more mature.

And Jeff Rosenthal is a very good example of that. And that album, that record's really incredible. And then the No Name album, she's a rapper from chicago and it's a it was a mixtape it was self-produced and recorded in an airbnb a lot of it but like um it's really she's got kind of a spoken word kind of uh flow to her voice and a nice like lazy like drums and just slightly offbeat finger clicks and stuff it's very summery kind of feel to the album but the lyrics are quite dark even though the music's quite bright. And those are amazing.

But the whole year, currently it's all I think about is that year. Because I'm writing a book about it, and I'm just obsessed with 2016. Why are you writing a book about 2016? Well, just the music of 2016. So last year, in 2017, I had a tough personal year and just didn't cope very well and the way i dealt with it was that i listened obsessively to music from 2016 to kind of distract myself because at the start of 2017 i was looking at all the end of year lists for 2016 and i'd kind of fallen out of touch with like current music i'd written off current music

quite a while ago and was like i always buy music i was really obsessed with music it's all old stuff and then in 2016 as it was happening i remember thinking oh there's like been some really big albums that aren't just you know disposable in the background albums they're like you know black star came out yeah lemonade and then frank ocean's blonde as well those were the three that made me kind of go oh those are three like really big albums that i think are going to stand the test of time that everyone has really got excited about and they've meant a lot to people and they all come out in the same year and so when the end of year lists came out i was like maybe i will kind of like you know

check out some of these and i was really enjoying it and then in January I had this breakup which was a quite significant breakup to me and it like really kind of threw me into a bit of a funk and because the most recent thing I've been doing that I enjoyed was listening to this music I just continued to you know every night so I was on tour for most of the year I'd get back to the hotel and just put google best albums of 2016 and there'd be so many lists that people had made. And I'd just read another list, listen to all the songs on it, buy the album. I'd always buy it, buy the album that I wanted and download it and I'd have the ones that I liked.

And I've now got just over 500 albums that came out in 2016 and I'm writing about why I did it and about the album. I've interviewed a lot of the bands and I'm writing about the stories behind all the records and stuff and trying to kind of like link them together as well. Wow, that's great. It's been fun. I'd love to read that. And so that person that you had a breakup with, how long had you been together? Like three and a half years. Okay. And was she the person that got you into, because I heard you talking on your Foo Bar radio show

about someone you'd been out with who'd introduced you to like your favourite book. Oh yeah. No, that was someone else. That was someone else. So she was, that was when I was 21. That was my first kind of love, I guess. First being in love with someone.

And she introduced me to In the Airplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel. You Should Know Her Velocity by Dave Eggers, the book. And Little Miss Sunshine. love i guess first been in love with someone and she introduced me to in the airplane over the sea by neutral milk hotel you should know a velocity by dave eggers the book and little miss sunshine the film i really could have had all three of those and i'd say yeah they're still all like some yeah they're not my absolute number one favorites but although neutral milk hotel is very close to being my favorite album but yeah that book still means a lot to me in that film i think it's still amazing so like yeah it's like three things that really contributed to just my personality and stuff as well i think it's like those three things have fed into who i am a lot so yeah she annoyingly had a big influence on me yeah that's

great though i mean generally i think most of my cultural influences have come from my school friends really people that i had relationships with it was less about that in fact they were often into stuff that i wasn't into at all right like i went out with a girl who was just a total raver yeah and i never really clicked with music. The only kind of music that we really listened to together was David Byrne's album, Ray Momo. Okay, yeah. Have you ever heard that? It's really good. It's when he went all Latin.

I know him, obviously, but like, yeah. Yeah, he had this big, it was kind of his Latin Graceland. Right, yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. But it's such a good album and we used to listen to that together. But then there would be other stuff i went out with someone else and yeah it's weird when you realize oh this is something that means a lot to you i hope i like it but she loved singing in the rain this person i'm thinking

of now right and she said have you never seen singing in the rain she's quite a bit older than me yeah i said no it looks boring and we sat there and we watched it in her house where she lived with her mum. They were Polish. So we sat there and we watched Singing in the Rain. And it was really good. Have you seen Singing in the Rain? Yeah, it's amazing. It's amazing, isn't it?

Yeah. And it's one of the ones where, yeah, you do just think, that's an old film, it's boring, I don't want to watch it. And then, yeah, if you do watch it and then still think that, I think that's, you've got a problem. Yeah.

It's a joyful film and it's amazing. It's amazing how they made it and just all the dancing in it is incredible and you kind of, you can't really watch it without being like,

no, if it got made now, I would still think that was amazing. You know, if they did something like that. It's why I was actually quite disappointed by La La Land and didn't really like it. Because I didn't find the songs memorable and I didn't find the dance in anything.

Like, it just wasn't that great. I was like, okay, fine. It's meant to be this homage to all these films, but you don't seem to be really doing it properly you know sometimes you just really hate something i do and it's mainly because of how much everyone else is saying it's amazing right yeah and you're like if you weren't all saying it was amazing i'd see it and i wouldn't like it but it wouldn't annoy me i'd be like i don't like film whatever that was like everyone was saying la la land's. And so I watched it and I was so angry that everyone was saying this film was amazing. So I was like, this is not amazing.

This is so lazy. It's not good. And then at the Oscars, which I really enjoy watching the Oscars. Yeah. Because I guess like, you know, I'll be all anti-awards in comedy and stuff because it affects me. But when it's like someone else, this is just a sport. It's fun to watch like other people i remember watching that year and it was the year where la la land got read out accidentally instead of moonlight instead of moonlight and moonlight

was the one that i wanted to win i'd seen that in the cinema and like you know it's one of the few films i've got left feeling like i've been punched in the chest it's really like amazing just experience watching that film i really wanted it to win i was pretty sure like i've been punched in the chest it's really like amazing just experience watching that film i really wanted it to win i was pretty sure it wasn't gonna win and uh when they read out la la land i was like yeah yeah i knew it would be whatever and then when they came on and corrected it the amount of joy that i took in it my friends have criticized me a lot for how happy i was because i was like that is the best thing that could have happened is that not only did you not win

you thought you'd won and you got up there in front of everyone and then you discovered you didn't win with that piece of shit film and like really just really delighted

about it and then the best people did win and they came up and like Damien Chazelle scuffling off looking all gutted about it

so of course he is like he's probably been he lives and breathes cinema and he's just 41 best picture and he hasn't a bit of empathy for him but and i'd loved whiplash there's a guy who's like the year before whatever yeah i've been like this guy's brilliant i love this film and then uh turned on him so quickly totally unreasonably turned on him absolutely he's done the one about going to the moon hasn't't he? Yeah, I've not watched that yet. I went to NASA once and absolutely loved doing the guided tour of NASA.

In Florida? Houston. Oh, in Texas, right. So yeah, I went there. So all the Apollo 13 stories and stuff there and that kind of stuff. Also, I discovered that my nephew looked like Neil Armstrong. That really made me laugh. I didn't know.

I wasn't really that familiar with what Neil Armstrong looked like. There's this picture of him, just exactly like my five-year-old nephew or whatever. So I was really... Does your nephew just wear a spacesuit? Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's an astronaut. He's doing well.

Saying quotes and getting them slightly wrong. But, yeah. And we went to... It was me and my girlfriend at the time and we we only had one day in houston and we just went to the space center all day and then went back to the airbnb and rented apollo 13 on itunes and watched it because she hadn't seen it before and i was like i think that's one of the most rewatchable films for me apollo 13 yeah like me and me and nish uh kuma friend of the show were talking about films aren't necessarily your favorite films but are the ones that you would

always be in the mood to watch it if someone just said do you want to so someone says to me do you want to watch apollo 13 normally i do want to watch apollo 13 and same with like the dark knight or a lot of christopher nolan films that he's got a good hit rate for films that I'd happily watch whenever. Last night, it's weird you say it, I was watching Interstellar. Right, yeah, yeah. And I do like that film. Yeah. Holy shit, Matthew McConaughey,

when he's watching those videos of his daughter growing up. Oh, yeah. Oh, my God, and he's losing his mind. He does well. That was during the McConaissance. That's right, yeah yeah i love science fiction though i tried to write a sci-fi film when i was 17 and had never written anything before i didn't know how you write films or anything i just wanted to write my own sci-fi

film and it was this thing where there was a cat who could communicate telepathically with a postbox. So there's this cat and this one postbox. This is strong pitch already. Yeah, and they could talk to each other telepathically. But also the cat could see gravity as in the force, but as a person, like personified. So it was this character that was the force of Gress I think he was painted silver with a top hat on and only the cat

could see him in the whole world and each force apparently is told you're allowed to reveal yourself to one being in all of time and he'd chosen that cat and there's no reason behind that as well, so the cat's got a friend that he can see and no one else can see and a friend he can hear and no one else can see and a friend he can hear

and no one else can hear and they can't hear or see each other and so they they were squabbling and the cat was like this middle man and then the main story so that wasn't even the main story the main story is this guy who wanted to become a tiger and so his girlfriend was trying to help him achieve that and they'd found this underground doctor who said he could do the operation and just change him into a tiger. To transition into a tiger? Yes. But actually, what he did was just,

he did a placebo kind of thing. So the guy thought he was a tiger and he's not. This is good to go for Michel Gondry. Michel Gondry would love it, right? To direct, I think. Yeah. It's just ridiculous. None of it made any sense at all.

Yeah. It was really really long like hundreds of pages like it just went on and on and on for ages because i kind of like had way too many stories that i and i tried to tell every little bit of the story so it's like if someone was gonna you know go from one house to the other i couldn't just be like cut to the next scene and they're in another house i had to show the entire journey because i was like well you know well they're going to the house now that's the next thing that's going to happen so it's literally like a little kid telling you a story and saying and then and then and then all

the time so it was every little detail of it and i'd be like oh and now he's got to go and confront that doctor i guess because he's discovered he's not a tiger so he better get back to the doctors and do that and i was just writing so there's so much in the whole thing and i i didn't let anyone read it because um i think i knew it was rubbish secretly and uh i found one i googled you know production companies online and just sent the whole thing to this one production company who i imagine opened it looked at the first page for it in the bin if they even looked at the first page which they probably didn bin if they even looked at the first page which they probably didn't because i reckon the front page that said the name of it on it also

was not formatted correctly and how things are supposed to be done so they probably saw that and went okay i'm not i'm not reading this wow that is amazing and you were 17 17 i didn't know what i was doing i just did that have you written another script since then i've written scripts since i've like yeah like learned how to write scripts and to... But you haven't written a whole movie? No, no. It's the next thing I want to do because, I mean, I'll be clear as well, when I've written scripts for other things

like sitcoms and stuff, they haven't been made. I've got one pilot made, but that's it. But, like, if it's a project I really like, I just really enjoy writing it. And then if it doesn't get made, it's a shame, but I'm really happy that I did it and I feel like I've just really enjoy writing it. And then if it doesn't get made, it's a shame, but I'm really happy that I did it and I feel like I've learned stuff or whatever. So I think, yeah,

I'm as excited about a film idea at the moment. It's not that same one, but I might write that film. There's a lot. I mean, there's several films within that. Yeah, that was one of the problems. One of the many problems was that I wrote five films and put them all in this one film. But yeah, there's a film that i want to write at the moment and i think i'll start that

next after this book and uh yeah and and it most likely will not get made but i definitely want to write it and feel like it'd be fun to write it so fucking hell that is really impressive that you're able to focus to that degree and get those things done whether they get made or not if you don't like the idea you don't do it you don't finish it you don't focus and it's hard but if it's an idea i like then the hardest bit is just getting yourself to sit down and start but as soon as you start because you like the idea it's really funny oh i should should have sat down earlier today while i've been putting this off for two hours so this is actually really fun yeah so those projects actually don't even take that long

because you're redrafting it over. I love redrafting. I hate the first draft. It takes so long. You're trying to get everything in a row and figure out what it is. But redrafting is so much. Just tweaking it and changing little bits

and polishing it is really fun. And do you do that with your stand-up? Yeah, yeah. Because stand-up is like you go out and do a... I don't write anything down. So I just go and do the gigs that with your stand-up yeah yeah kind of stand-up is like you go out and do a i don't write anything down so i just go and do the gigs and kind of you never write it down no well i'll write down like little keywords to remind myself or you've now got a routine about whatever batteries or whatever so you write that down or write down a key phrase that you don't want to forget that you know got a laugh on the night okay always say it like that but if i write

down what i think is funny and then go on and try always say it like that but if i write down what i think is funny and then go on and try and do it i just sound like i'm reading it off of a page it sounds a bit you know rehearsed and wooden and i find the best thing is like i want to communicate the idea with the people in the you know in the room and get the actual thing across to them because the thing with me is that i don't have, you know, like I've never done a whole set of going up without AV. But I always would want to. I'd always like to. Yeah.

It would be great just from a practical point of view to be able to turn up with no gear to plug in and no tech guys to tell me that I've got the wrong dongle or whatever. That's a good 2016 album. AV. Oh, yeah. By Surface to Air Missive. Whoa. Record a prog rock album and you just found that trawling through yeah albums of 2016 that was just a musician doing an interview and she was asked what your favorite albums of 2016 and she went oh she said her favorites and then she said oh and some of my friends have made these albums yeah and here's

one of the ones like this guy's just my friend and it's one of my favourites. So good. What's it called again? It's called AV. It's by Surface to Air Missive and it's this guy, he plays all the instruments but it's a lot of recorder

but don't let that put you off. It's not a twee hole, like he really... He does London's Burning, right? Makes it work. Yeah, he does London's Burning over and over. 12 tracks of London's Burning. But yeah.

That sounds good. I'm going to investigate. Presents. I'm always giving presents. I'm like an all year Santa. Check out the gift. Give you a nice little gift. Presents.

Presents. Presents. Presents. Presents. Presents. Presents. I know it's not your birthday but I got you a present cause I like you If you don't like it you can just re-gift it I'm giving presents in the office and presents on the bus Some people find it creepy but I'm just generous

You don't have to reciprocate That's not what it's about I don't have no agenda I just like presents I got you some gifts Oh wow I was staying at a hotel last night Yes I've got you all the toiletries

How did I not spot them behind the laptop? They've been on the table the whole time This is good I mean this is the kind of stuff So every time I go home to Kettering And see my parents Their bathroom's full of this my dad stays in a lot of hotels and always takes all of the stuff yeah and there's now a fairy liquid bottle next to the shower that is full of hotel shampoo that is dispensed into this big bottle of fairy liquid perfect and now that's how he

that's how he takes care of business so describe what what you've got there. I've got here a dental kit, which I'll open this one to see how good it is. That's quite a nice touch, is that the toothbrush has a little cap on it, so the bristles aren't fully exposed. Oh, yeah. So you can remove that. Sanitary cap. Plus, there's so much plastic, though. That can't be good, can it?

There's a lot of plastic here. The tube, though, is longer and thinner than usual and that's nice i appreciate you indulging this section you don't have to describe the rest of the toiletry it's quite a nice hotel it is quite a nice hotel i was doing a gig and they got me a room all i care about in every hotel is that they got good strength wi-fi yep and good strength shower. So that's it. I want a strong shower and strong Wi-Fi and the rest of it could be outdoors for all I care. I don't care.

As long as I have a good shower and good Wi-Fi, that's all I want. It's all anyone wants. This room I stayed in last night, the Wi-Fi was off the charts. Pulling down 10 meg maybe. Is that normal inondon i guess it might be now i don't know it was it's a strong it was good or bad fantastic yeah you loved it so for example

if you were downloading a movie online the movie was three gig or whatever you know if you try and download a movie from um some streaming service you want to keep it on your uh laptop and the thing is three gig it would download that in 10 minutes no way yeah what were you what were you downloading everything i could it was just a total ram right yeah because that where we are just A ram raid. It's like, give me that. Yeah, I'll have that. I'll have that. I was doing all my downloading.

Update everything. Update all my apps. Yeah. Just every single thing that I needed Wi-Fi for. I was like, right, here we go. This is my chance. I imagine you've got a lot of apps. I've got so many.

Big app guy. You got a favourite app? Er, favourite app. I know I'm not supposed to be the one asking the questions, but like. No, no, no. I got a good app the other day, which I sometimes show to people. Our favourite app. I know I'm not supposed to be the one asking the questions. No, no, no. I got a good app the other day, which I sometimes show to people. Yeah.

Skyview Lite. It is. I'm going to open it right now because it's got nice music that comes with it as well. It is a stargazing app. Ah. Upgrade now. Fuck you. I mean, it's just never ending, the upgrade app. Ah. Upgrade now. Fuck you. I mean, it's just never-ending, the upgrade situation.

Yeah. I'll upgrade, and it'll be such a relief that the little app store says, oh, you know, you've got 56 upgrades pending. Yeah. And then you get them all out of the way. They're all done. It's all, ah. Yeah. I'm at one with the world.

And then within a week, it's like like 16, 15 apps you need to upgrade. It will never, ever, ever end. Where's the music? Oh, maybe I turn the music off. Hang on. Yes, I'll rate it. No, remind me later. Oh, stuff like that when it tricks you into that.

You can only do this, but if you recommend it to a friend or if you rate it. Also, rating stuff. I've never given an uber driver anything less than five stars no exactly why would you yeah i mean unless you got into a physical altercation yeah unless they're like so horrendous and then you're like you would make a complaint rather than just star them but like i think the people that i really i will never understand is anyone who gives an Uber driver four stars. I'll never understand them

because you're taking yourself too seriously as a critic at that point. You lose a star because actually there was this moment where, you know, who cares? Why would you turn into a proper critic and be like, okay, it was good. If something's four star good, if you get a journey in an Uber, which you would give four stars to, then it's five stars. It's nothing.

If you're seriously knocking off a point, especially when you know that it contributes to that person's job. I always think I could get them fired or something. So I always give them five stars. I'm not going to be able to turn the music on here, but just imagine nice kind of ambient music bubbling away as soon as you open the app normally but obviously i turned it off for some reason i can't turn it back on again but you hold it up to the sky and it corresponds to the stars that are in the sky there and it

shows you what constellations you're looking at maps them all out for you you can pan around and you can see where the planets are like if you dip below the horizon it'll show you the planets that are below the horizon at that point and you can see the international space station and moving across and it's so great that That is cool, actually. You can spend ages. Skyview, it's called. The other stargazing apps are available. Here's another present for you. Have you seen this? Colossal. Oh, I haven't seen it, but I'd like to see it. It's really good.

I thought it was good. Thank you so much. I like the concept of it. The concept's almost a bit like my film. Well, it's such a massive high concept idea, i.e. that a person realises that she is linked to a giant dinosaur creature that is destroying Tokyo. And every time she gets drunk,

this creature appears halfway across the world and lays waste to cities and kills thousands of people. I'm on board. And somehow they make it work. Anne Hathaway plays the person who's... Because obviously it's quite serious because she's struggling with a drink problem that she has to come to terms with. Right. So it's a really tricky tonal balancing act that they're going for

because it's got comedic elements and sci-fi, fantasy elements, and then real drama. And I thought it worked. I'm looking forward to it. Also, Anne Hathaway is one of my favourite Oscar speeches. Oh, okay. In that it's so bad. I really love watching Oscar speeches

and her one is that she gets the Oscar and she kind of cradles it and looks at it and goes, it came true. So you just feel everyone in the audience being like, oh, fuck you. Don't say that. Just perfect. My favourite one is Anna Paquin wins for,

when she's a really little kid for the piano yeah and it's just so i think i've like i always i know that i've over exaggerated it in my head but you know she's like still in primary school wins an oscar for best supporting actress as you so she's like this huge smile hyperventilating her eyes like popping out of her head she can't believe it and she just stands in front of them all and she just kind of looks at them just breathing really heavily looking around at the room this huge smile everyone's laughing because it's like it must be so weird and then it's like someone flips a switch in the back of her head and the smile goes she goes i'd like to thank my management and she just

does the whole speech just racks off who she's got to thank and then she just walks off like an android and it's it's one of my favorite things there's this like really hyperactive girl just going yeah and i'd like to thank my management and my parents and thank you to bindi for looking after me goodbye and then walks off it's so great i've shown it to so many people obsessed with it i'll put that in the description of the podcast too yeah watch and a pack with that and it's like yeah i always i know i've over exaggerated it every time i describe it to people but it's still it's still a really funny weird thing to watch a child have that happen to them at that point in their life have you seen jerry seinfeld

doing a kind of deconstruction of award ceremonies? The comics should be the people at the back making fun of him. That's right. Yeah, yeah. Jerry Seinfeld's one of those people who, like, kind of, I think as a comedian, you end up watching loads of his stuff, not just his stand-up, but also his interviews and just what he thinks about stuff,

because he's seen as being kind of a headmaster kind of figure to a lot of comics. And more and more more i'm just like because i'm not even like a massive fan of his and i'm not sure i trust how confident he is sometimes when he talks about stuff he's just so sure that he's right yeah and you're going how have you become a comedian with this attitude yeah like you're so sure of yourself and you just you're looking at people who don't do it your way and you're like why would you even do that it's ridiculous and you're like why are you telling that person like how can you be so

certain that you're right i think that that's what powers a lot of his comedy though is he it's like a magic trick or a hypnotism trick that he just forces his way of looking at the world on the audience and they go okay yeah and they go along with it that's not to take away from the brilliance of what he does sometimes but i do agree with you that sometimes you you watch how sure he is about stuff and you just think no no no so many when he's in interviews and likely he's been said a lot of wrong-headed stuff that he's definitely wrong about and he doesn't see but like uh there's other stuff where it's like a bit of compassion he's got he's got a real kind of tory streak in him.

Yeah. Like looking at people, oh, just sort it out. What's your problem? Yeah. But I had an interview with him on Alec Baldwin's podcast where he said that he wakes up every morning and the first thing he does is he splashes cold water in his face. And he says he does a certain amount of splashes and he aims right between the eyes and splashes himself with cold water because he had seen

paul newman do it in a film and it was like right i'm gonna start doing that and he started doing it he does it all the time i said then i started doing it because he had said it and then i told the comedian ellis james about it and ellis james starts and started doing it and ellis says every time he splashes himself in the face with cold water he thinks about the fact that i splash my face with cold water because jerry seinfeld splashes his face with cold water because poor noob splashes his face with cold water so it's like this kind of thing that goes back and he thinks of all of us in this chain of cold now squashes. And now I'm going to do it as well. And I've got people listening to this world. It feels great.

It's a very good way to start the day. You're just, right, I'm here now. It's like you're just switching the machine on. Right, I'm awake. It's good. This is the first time we've properly met. And you've brought me some of the perfect gifts for me. This is amazing.

When I knew that I was going to talk to you, I mean, I wanted to talk to you because I've been really enjoying your stuff over the years, and I absolutely loved those Netflix specials, and I thought they worked. They appealed to me in a kind of art school way because it was a coherent statement. These four specials, you released them all on the same day.

I liked the visual look. I liked that you thought about the way, what you wore. But none of it was didactic and it wasn't superior. It was still just about making people laugh. It was just very much, I really responded to it. Thank you so much. Very much. You know, I really liked it and it's fun when you when you

connect with something that's um not totally mainstream but you but it just really engages you in that way so i really enjoyed it and then oh yeah you had a thing about sulking which which i really responded oh yeah as a bit of a sulker myself someone that does struggle not to sulk yes um what was your bit it feels great and for a long time i was trying to kind of like do this routine about how sulking feels great and um it never kind of like it never worked like i wanted it to it would really connect with certain people and others not but like it's just saying that you know sulk has got such a bad rep but it feels amazing and you don't want to be pulled out of a sulk when you're in a sulk i don't know what chemical your brain releases when you have a sulk but if they sold that chemical i'd rub it on my gums

or the live long day um but uh it just does i tried to make it a much longer thing i couldn't do it but like there's i definitely relate to it too much that i sometimes you're in a sock you don't want anyone to cheer you up no you hear them kind of coming up the stairs and you know they're coming to cheer you up and you're like don't just don't even dare they go fuck off and then then sometimes you hear them come up the stairs and then you hear there was delay on the landing and then go back downstairs you're like no one gives a shit about like what is this like the turbo sulk at that point you just turn it up to maximum you then you're really buried it's like levels of inception in the like you got a few levels to get me out of now the sulk because i'm really buried now um yeah it's are you still like that

no no i well i hope not maybe some ex-girlfriends will listen to this and be like yeah you are but uh i like to think i'm not you've got to be careful in a relationship with that don't you because it is as you say it's so seductive it feels so great but actually you know that you've got to get out of it. It's a bit like, have you ever seen Star Trek Generations? Yeah, I think so. When Picard meets Kirk. Right. And they get sucked into the Nexus.

Right. I can't remember that bit, no. I can't remember that bit, sorry. It's all about the Nexus. The Nexus is this kind of weird space-time anomaly ribbon that's floating through the galaxy, and it kind of sucks people in. And there's a bad guy who wants to go back to the Nexus.

Because if you go into the Nexus, then it's like you've been transported to your happy place. Right. Your favourite moment in your life or an ideal of what you would like your life to be. Yeah, yeah. And you live there. Captain Kirk's one is a kind of, it's like Centre Parcs. It's like a house in the in the woods and chopping wood and um his wife's upstairs and he's making eggs and he's out and living in the country and yeah that's his nexus place but it's not real and it might

feel good to be there but actually in the long term it's going to do more harm than good right yeah that's the way i think of sulking yeah i think that's exactly how i was talking especially in a relationship and like i in relationships i find myself so often doing stuff that i know i say to myself in my in my head i'm going no don't do this like stop i can be really critical in a relationship both of myself and of whoever i'm with and it's i hate it i know i i absolutely hate how much i can just like and i have to stop myself from doing it especially out loud when i when i even if i don't get picked up on it by the person but i'm like no we both know that i keep on returning to this thing every time she does you know whatever it

is just stuff that annoys you yeah so just things that i'm like so like my last girlfriend one of those people who would while we're going shopping she would like eat while while shopping so yeah well she'd love to buy like a box of granola and she'd open it and just walk around doing the shopping but also she have this granola tweet and who cares it doesn't it's fine she'll pay for it at the end it doesn't make any difference to anything and the amount that it would get my back up and that i so the first time i feel i met i was the first time she did it i was like oh you're one of oh you're one of those people who does who eats the eats something while they're walking around because because i guess they can't touch you right and he said yeah you're above all that

and they can't touch you you just do what he's like, yeah, you're above all that and they can't touch you. You can just do what you want in the supermarket. And then like, yeah, the second time she did it, I was like, oh yeah, I forgot you do that. Like that, out loud. And then the third time I didn't say anything, but she was like, I can tell you're absolutely hating this. And I was like, no, no, no, I'm not. It's fine, it's fine.

It's so silly that I even cared in the first place. But trying to be okay with it, but going, first place but try to try to be okay with it we go oh it's really hard to be okay with this but do you think it offends your sense of order or something or no i i think i've got like some real kind of things i think the reason why my stand-up is the way it is is because i genuinely take much bigger issue with little things like anything that's small and yet to me it represents so much more so someone who goes to the supermarket and does their shopping while eating the food before they've paid for it it gets to me because to me it's like right like technically right now

you're stealing but you know that you're not really but you know that it's going to annoy the stuff let's say like staff will see you but you know like you can't do anything about this yeah you're just doing whatever you like and you can't do whatever you like that's not life i said like that kind of thing like like so it probably is again what's about the christian boy and me just being like yeah here i am playing this. Meanwhile, you're just shoving granola that you haven't paid for into your mouth. Yeah, I'm like, why are you doing that? Breaking off the end of a baguette

and having a little snack on that. Dipping it in some hummus. But I tried to like, I mean, the last time we were in a supermarket together and she was doing something like that. Last time before she got rid of you for constantly criticizing her. Before she rightfully broke up with me.

We were walking along, and I was, by that point, trying to make a joke about it, because she was like, I know this is winding you up. I was like, no, no, it's fine. And then we went past one of the employees, and I was like,

you seen this? See what she's doing? She's just walking around eating the granola. What do you think about that? And he was like, no, it's fine. I don't really mind And he was like, yeah, it's fine. I don't really mind. So look, mate, I'll stand by you if you want to complain to your boss about this.

If you want to report this, I'll happily sign whatever you need me to sign to say that I disapprove of this as well. I'm like, you know, trying to have a laugh with it at least. Yeah. You're like, I'm going to have this in me. And the next day, the relationship ends. Yeah, that was it. She's with that guy. She's with the supermarket guy. They're very happy. 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. 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.

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First time I'd met James, and I hope not the last. As I said, you will find some links to some of the music we talked about and some of the clips we talked about in the description of this podcast. Don't forget, as well, that that bonus episode of chat with James, about half an hour's worth of extra conversation with James, is available on the Adam Buxton app right now in the bonus audio section. All right. Rosie.

Rosie, come on. Where are you? Where is she? Right. I'm going to head back rosie has buggered off somewhere which she's been doing quite a lot recently she just goes wandering off and then comes back when she feels like it um which is a bit distraughtening sometimes. You know, you don't want her to go and start hanging out with creepy animals who might be a bad influence on her.

I'm sure she'll be okay. Anyway, before I go today, I saw a couple of films recently that you might be interested in. One of them is called Avengers Endgame game it's very good very exciting it's got famous people in and uh special effects and punching and kicking shooting and shouting and special powers. Hope that hasn't spoiled it for anyone. Actually, in all sincerity, I enjoyed it. Me and my daughter went to see it.

You know, it's three hours. In fact, it's over three hours. Three hours, one minute. And I was expecting to be in physical and mental pain but actually it was okay it wasn't too bad back in my day if you had a film that was three hours long you got an interval wander around stretch your legs get some food do some washing catch up on some admin and then pop back in for part two of whatever epic you were watching gandhi gandhi i think was the last film i went to see that had an interval oh here's rosie she's back and it's a fly pastast. Quite a slow flypast.

Oh, that's good. It's a relief. I don't like it when she goes off. But she always comes back. Anyway, the other film I saw this week was Eighth Grade. There's a good chance you may have heard of it. I think it's getting a lot of good reviews and a lot of good buzz. It is an American comedy drama written and directed by Bo Burnham. My sons like Bo Burnham.

They knew all about him from YouTube. I wasn't really familiar with his stuff. He's a sort of comedian, musical comedy guy who has... well, this is his first film that he's written and directed. A coming of age story that follows the life and struggles of an eighth grader, i.e. a 14 year old in America named Kayla, played by Elsie Fisher, who I think won a Golden Globe for her performance. And it takes place during her last week of classes before graduating to high school. She struggles with social anxiety, but produces vlogs giving advice.

And so she is really brilliant Elsie Fisher but it is very well done the whole thing and I wished well I guess I shouldn't say anything that will spoil it for you I found it quite hard to watch some of it because I was thinking a lot of the time uh-oh this is gonna go dark and uh I was thinking oh I don't want anything too horrendous to happen to Kayla but it's not really that kind of film it's very sweet natured despite having a few bits that are definitely painful and cringe-inducing, because it really brilliantly recreates the discomfort and the anxiety of being that age and feeling as if you don't quite fit into a social scene. And you're struggling with all sorts of difficult feelings and thoughts and worries. But wow, it's very well done. And there's so many moments in it as well that feel like a very accurate snapshot of where things are at now in the modern world in 2019 although that may be

because i'm a 50 year old guy and you could tell me pretty much anything about what life is like for teenagers in america in 2019 and i would believe you because i don't know what it's like at all nevertheless it's a very good film i I thought. OK, that's it for this week. Thanks to Seamus Murphy Mitchell for his production support on this episode. Thank you very much, Matt Lamont, for your edit whiz-bottory. And thanks to ACAST for hosting this. And other terrific podcasts. Check them out. Back with another podcast next week. Until then,

I'm begging you, take care. I love you. Bye! Like and subscribe. Please like and subscribe. Give me a little smile and a thumbs up. Nice like a plant with a thumbs up. Give me a little smile and a thumbs up. Nice like a plant with a thumbs up. Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe.

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