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The Big Show Interviews Alan Davies! · The Hauraki Big Show

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: The whole Achy Big Show with Jason, Mike and Kesey.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Tune in week days at four on Radio Hdarchy.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: You know, over the years we've had some amazing guests,
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: but our next guest is truly a comedic legend. He's
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: a stand up comedian, he's an author, he's an actor,
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: he's a presenter. I'm talking about the one, the only,
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: the magnificent Ellen Davies. Get a Ellen, how's life? Oh?
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: Very good?
• 0:28
  Speaker 4: Thank you?
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: Well, what an intro.
• 0:30
  Speaker 4: I'll leave now it's down here all the way.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: I've got to be honest with you. Keysy, here you
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: are sincerely were going to say I was his dad then, yeah,
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: who knows?
• 0:44
  Speaker 4: Remember when you came.
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: Five years you met that woman in the.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: Funnily enough, we did meet back then, Ellen, way back
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: in the day. For some of here was some sort
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: of festival going on. But Kesey here, you're his hero.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: So he was saying to us when he came in today.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: He hasn't had any sleep all night because he was
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: so worried about it.
• 1:05
  Speaker 5: And he's terrified that I'm going to ruin things for him.
• 1:08
  Speaker 5: But I don't know how I could.
• 1:10
  Speaker 4: You've got the look about you ruin anything.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Well, they will trust trust me, they will Ellen Jase
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: isn't lying For some reason. In twenty ten, I was
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: studying for a few years there and a friend of
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: mine this is during the age of and I feel
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: bad about it, but pirating TV shows and stuff I
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: was given.
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: Don't worry. I've been paid.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly right at the end of the day.
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: Right, this is this is sixteen years ago.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: I was given every episode of QY for the first
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: like ten or twelve seasons or something, and every time
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: I was hungover, which was a lot myself mainly, but
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: a lot of my flat and I would just sit
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: down and watch them on repeat. I think I have
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: got the first twelve seasons of you and Stephen Fry
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: like in my head locked away.
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: The Golden Years.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Well they were, and so when I you know, because
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Stephen Fry was here early. It was it last year
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: and I went to that and then I found out
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: you were coming. I bought take it straight away because
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: for some reason, you guys are just locked into my
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: brain from that era.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 2:06
  Speaker 5: Is it weird for you to be on the other
• 2:08
  Speaker 5: side of the world and to know and I don't
• 2:10
  Speaker 5: know you've been to New Zealand a few times, but
• 2:12
  Speaker 5: there's a real love for British comedy here in New Zealand.
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's great for me because I can do here
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: and I really like New Zealand.
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: It's a beautiful country and I could turn up.
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah, the people. I mean initially Jonathan Creek was the
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: number one show on television in the nineties.
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: It was huge. And now QI there are just so
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: many episodes. Well that's the.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Same thing, is you know when you when you signed
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: up for QI, which is a comedy British sitcom panel show,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: and they said the first season is.
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: Going to be called Season A. Yeah, that's right.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: The twenty six seasons are going to happen, right.
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: I didn't really mention that, did they not. The master
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  Speaker 4: plan was slightly kept from me.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: Where are you up to now?
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  Speaker 4: We've just recorded series X Wow. Yeah, extraordinary sitting in
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: the chair. Now everything's changed. Got a few of the
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: comedians weren't even.
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: Alive when.
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: And I used to be this sort of stupid brat
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: in the corner and now I'm the old man, so
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: it's totally reversed. I don't know anything, but it's because
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: I'm senile.
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  Speaker 3: That's a general vibe.
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, but yeah, we've got WY and Z to do.
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: And then I'm emmigrating to.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: You're most welcome because mission at the top of the
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: introduction there, you're an author, you're a stand up comedian,
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: you're an actor and a presenter Wheelers Ellen Davies nist
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: Ale most comfortably amongst all those roles.
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: Well, it's the stand ups my thing.
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  Speaker 4: Oh, really, stand ups what I started doing stand up
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  Speaker 4: when I was twenty two, and he did it for
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  Speaker 4: five years before I got any opportunity on radio or
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: anything else.
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  Speaker 3: And I absolutely loved it.
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  Speaker 4: And now I met loads of the people that I
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  Speaker 4: met men are still friends, you know, and and a
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: load of them ended up on QI so q I
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  Speaker 4: when I was had a period where I wasn't doing
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  Speaker 4: stand up, which I sort of regret now, yes, but
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: a lot of them were turning up on QI recording,
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: so I felt like I was seeing everyone and we
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: had an audience. But if I hadn't had Jonathan Creek
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: or QI or all those things, I'd be doing stand up.
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: That's what I'd be doing. And having the microphone and
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: being on the stage. It feels at home, you.
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  Speaker 1: Know, Yeah, because when you're a set up comedian, like
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: getting stuff like the comedy panel shows and stuff that's
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: the stuff you see on tvaf my generation anyway, and
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  Speaker 1: you think that's when you know you've made it. So
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: you go into that world and then you sort of
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: did you have like a break and then come back
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  Speaker 1: to stand up, if you know what I mean, Like,
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  Speaker 1: you know.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I did.
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  Speaker 3: And I kind of was doing a lot of acting
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  Speaker 3: for a time.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, after Jonathan Creek and I was doing a couple
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  Speaker 4: of other dramas. I played a barrister and that was
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: weird and it wasn't really funny, and then.
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: And then I kind of got a little bit back
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: into it.
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  Speaker 4: And then I started podcasting in about two thousand and nine,
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: all about Arsenal, my football team. That was all we
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: talked about. Yes, but it was fun to do. It
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: was funny, and the only people who listened to it, like, yeah,
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: they'd find you. Your audience would find you. And I thought,
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: this is how this works. Now, you don't have to
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: just be on someone's living room every night of the week.
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: People will find you and they will listen to your stuff.
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: And I enjoyed being off the cuff and I enjoyed
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: making people laugh. So I got back into stand up
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: then and I toured New Zealand. Then I did two
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: tours back to back. There's a there's been a bit
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: of a hiatus for touring, but I've still been gigging.
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: And now I've put this show together called Think Ahead.
• 5:25
  Speaker 4: And really, because I'm thinking ahead, I mean, how many
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: I mean anything had happened right in the next few years,
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: how many more tours.
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: I'm going to do?
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: The range of things I can do in my life
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: is narrowing down. So but I feel as though I
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: as a comedian when I saw Dave Allen a show
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: in London and when he was sixty one years old,
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: and I've never laughed at anything so much in my life.
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: And you know, I've got a year till I'm sixty one.
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  Speaker 4: I don't think I'm going to make.
• 5:55
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, But I do feel like you can talk about
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  Speaker 4: anything with that age. You've been through a life, You've
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: seen things, experienced things, and you're less concerned about withholding
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: stuff that perhaps you wouldn't have talked about when I
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: was younger, you know, more able to talk about.
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  Speaker 3: The whole picture.
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  Speaker 4: So I feel as though it's a good time later
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  Speaker 4: in life is a good time to be a stand
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  Speaker 4: up comedian? Actually, And the young comedians say, I can remember,
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: must think about when I started, if it got to laugh,
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: you'd say it. You wouldn't always know why it was funny. Yeah,
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  Speaker 4: it was a little bit hit and miss. Some gigs
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: would be great, some wouldn't. You weren't a master of
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: the craft kind of thing. But I think as you
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: get older you can get the hang of it.
• 6:32
  Speaker 5: The Whole Warky Big Show week days from four on
• 6:35
  Speaker 5: Radio Hiraarky.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: Oh kid, I'm mass ho mock.
• 6:40
  Speaker 6: If you want the chance to win all out on
• 6:43
  Speaker 6: ere competitions and staff and get amongst the live conversation,
• 6:48
  Speaker 6: tune into The Hodarky Big Show four to seven week
• 6:51
  Speaker 6: days on Radio Hiraarky.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: And I heard radio remember the Wary Big Show podcast?
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: Is it?
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: Also? You know? Because I found this as I've got older,
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: that you careless.
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  Speaker 4: I don't.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: I mean, I don't mean that, And you know it's
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: like I don't give a shit about it. I know
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: what you mean.
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: You care.
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: The consequences of things he's saying to can restrict what
• 7:14
  Speaker 4: you're saying to do. If you're thinking about that. And also,
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: you know, a lot of people live life by their fears.
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: You know, I don't want to do this because this
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: and this can happen. And I hate that feeling of
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: living life according to what you're afraid of it. In
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: other words, you're living life according to things that haven't
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: even happened yet.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: But that hasn't happened.
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: But it could happen, but it hasn't happened, has it.
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  Speaker 4: So let's carry on doing what we want to do
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: and say what we want to say. If things happen,
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: we can react to them, but let's not not say
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: things because the things that haven't even this is slightly
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: I feel at the moment there's a kind of a
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  Speaker 4: bit of a cancel culture, and you know, there's always.
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: That feeling in the air or.
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  Speaker 4: To be careful, you better watch out, And I think, no, this,
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  Speaker 4: things haven't happened. I'm not going to be restricted by
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: things that haven't happened.
• 7:56
  Speaker 5: Yeah, our boss is always telling us the opposite here
• 7:59
  Speaker 5: is just don't say.
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: Don't speak. We have a look in the studio when
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: we're live on the air out and when we give
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: each other a look and it's like, don't go there
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: because we know where it's going.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we've got comedian Ellen Davies who's in from the
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: UK going on a massive to or across New Zealand.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: Tickets available at Live Nation dot co dot nz.
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: Ellen.
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  Speaker 1: You know you mentioned you're sixty now and you've come
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: back out gigging again. Jase here he is apparently thirty nine,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: but he was gigging when you were here in the nineties.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: But he hasn't done stand up in a long long time.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: Do you think he should get back out there as well?
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: If you enjoy being up there, I mean, you've got it.
• 8:36
  Speaker 5: This is surely it's it's whether the audience enjoyed as well.
• 8:40
  Speaker 5: I think they should be considered as well.
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: That is a consideration, but that is something that we
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: will discover.
• 8:47
  Speaker 5: That's right.
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  Speaker 2: Well, that's why I ask you that question, Ellen, because
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: because I'll never go back. I mean, during the time
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: that I was doing it, it was all fine and dandy,
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: but now I hate I hate the idea of going
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: back and doing stand that comedy. I'd rather be a
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: third rate rock DJ and just sit comfortably in my life,
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  Speaker 2: you know what I mean. But you seem to me
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: to be a person that likes to keep pushing the
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: boundaries a little bit, keep keep yourself on edge.
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  Speaker 4: Well, I think it's just if you feel like you've
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: got something to say, or if you can feel some material.
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: Coming to yeah, you think, oh, now there's something happening.
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  Speaker 4: I was working I wrote a memoir a few years
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: ago called Just Ignore Him, about my childhood, and then
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: I worked on a second volume kind of following on
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: for that, called White Male Stand Up, about going into comedy,
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: and I was writing about things.
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: That I'd never talked about on stage, you know.
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: And while I was working on that book, I started
• 9:37
  Speaker 4: to have ideas for stand up around those some of
• 9:40
  Speaker 4: those areas, and that.
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: Was the show think ahead and once once I've thought
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: there's something.
• 9:47
  Speaker 4: In this, yeh, I've got a bit of an idea.
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: I've been doing this a while here, I think this.
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: That's funny. That's funny, but that must be exciting. Right.
• 9:54
  Speaker 5: So when you've got that and you actually feel like
• 9:56
  Speaker 5: you've got something that's worth getting up on stage again,
• 9:58
  Speaker 5: you're not forcing it, and then get an opportunity to
• 10:00
  Speaker 5: put something together, as you say, your passion as comedy
• 10:03
  Speaker 5: and being as stand up. When you get that urging
• 10:06
  Speaker 5: in and that feeling again, it must be exciting end
• 10:08
  Speaker 5: of a week because then you have to do some work.
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: You have to do some work, you have to go
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: a long way from your family and your kids and
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: all of that. But that part of it, when the
• 10:16
  Speaker 4: show is just beginning to form and it's you know
• 10:20
  Speaker 4: what you want to say, but it's loose, that's the
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: best bit really, And then eventually you know it's by necessity,
• 10:27
  Speaker 4: it's got to settle down into something first of all
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: that I can remember, that's going to work, that's going
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: to be organized, and then you take the audience on
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: a journey. And this show is the most personal show
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: that I've done. But it's been the best received I've had,
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: the best notices, The audience reaction has been great, So
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: it's to be very gratifying.
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: Really.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, I mean they say like, if you're writing,
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: for example, you know right about what you know about
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: you know what I mean, and it sounds like you're
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: dealing with real experiences in your life and bringing comedy
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: to it.
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: Well. Also, if you're a comedian, the first thing you
• 10:59
  Speaker 4: need to establishes some sort of stage persona. You know,
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: how are you going to be when you're up there
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: and everybody's got a unique stage persona, whether it's edde
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: Yezard or Bill Bailey or whoever it is. And then
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: once you've that's there, you're sort of that's kind of
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: stuck with that, really, And mine was always a bit
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: people pleaser and a bit of a facade. And most
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: performers have got something going on behind the facade in
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: most people have, you know. But if you can take
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: the facade down a bit and show a bit more
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: of the stuff that previously might feel brought was a
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: bit shameful or was embarrassing, then you're really onto something,
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: you know.
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: But it takes a while to do that.
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: And the book White Mouse Stand Up is about taking
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: that down and not being ashamed of things that weren't
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: my fault, and then creating something and knowing that the
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: audience out there and there are many people in the
• 11:50
  Speaker 4: audience who've had difficult experiences as children or other stories
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: of their own. And then once you get everyone in
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: a room, we're all in this together, right, And that's
• 12:01
  Speaker 4: the nicest thing about being a storyteller, really, yes, And
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: I really feel that, especially now when everyone's just on
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: their phones morning, noon, and night to get everyone in
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: a room, phones.
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: In bike, it's just listening and it's nice. It's as
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: old as the hills, isn't it.
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: And it takes a bit of courage to do that too,
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: you know, to be honest about things.
• 12:20
  Speaker 5: And for you to then have to you, for you
• 12:23
  Speaker 5: to come on stage, to be you know, sort of
• 12:25
  Speaker 5: it's the culmination of decades of doing what you do
• 12:29
  Speaker 5: across so many different things. But then to be to
• 12:31
  Speaker 5: let the curtain down of britt and show who you
• 12:34
  Speaker 5: are as a person and talk about your experiences. To
• 12:37
  Speaker 5: then have the audience respond to that. You must have
• 12:40
  Speaker 5: been terrified the first time you did it, and yet
• 12:42
  Speaker 5: the reaction has been this is the best way I've
• 12:44
  Speaker 5: ever seen of them.
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it feels like that, and yes it is. You
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: are unsure about how much of it is really just
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: for you, you know, you don't want to be a
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: self indulgent performer, and no one likes that, but it's
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: a median. Ultimately, laughter is still the barometer. There's there's
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: still a needle going and you can't have silence in
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: the room unless that's what you want that moment, and
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: that's a really good comedian. There are them about the
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: I spy to be like, they're like conductors, you know,
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: the audience are making the noise that they want them
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: to make, and it's quite an amazing skill, you know
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: it is.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: So you're you're on Hamilton tonight.
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I'm on my way.
• 13:32
  Speaker 6: Sure.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: So Hamilton, You've got Auckland, Totdung and Napier, Wellington, new Plymouth,
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: Pariser North christ Church finishing in Dunedan once again Live
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: Nation dot co dot z. If you want tickets and
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: you want to see Allen Davies live, Alan, I'd just
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: like to say, for me personally, seriously, like watching you
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: on QI years ago, this is I'm watching stuff that's
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: like twenty years old, you know. And now I'm on
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: a comedy panel show here in New Zealand, a sports one,
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: and a lot of what I do on there is
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: based off of like Ellen is always just a big
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: goa and you were never trying to be correct or win,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: and so I've taken that away and I genuinely apply
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: that to what I do here. So I just like say,
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: it's really nice to meet you.
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: It's it's a safe route to humor.
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: Allan Davies what an absolute pleasure mate,