Latest / Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps / SZEPS WORLD TOUR - JIMMY CARR, COMEDY LEGEND

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SZEPS WORLD TOUR - JIMMY CARR, COMEDY LEGEND · Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

• 0:00
  Get a humans welcome to the safe space for dangerous ideas and as the zeps live around the
• 0:09
  world podcast marathon continues we find ourselves in London sitting down with one of the
• 0:14
  world's biggest stand up comics for a second time on this show the one and only Jimmy
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  car one of the biggest television personalities in the UK as well as a world renowned stand
• 0:24
  up comic he has smash hit Netflix specials which you can look up he's a long time host
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  of big UK panel shows including perhaps most notably eight out of ten cats and he will
• 0:35
  be touring next year well actually this year he's touring in the US and UK and Europe
• 0:40
  and then Australian New Zealand most notably for our Antipodean listeners in early 2026 his
• 0:46
  brand new show is Jimmy car laughs funny he and I sat down and chatted crowd work Elon
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  mask immigration Kanye covert comedy please enjoy as much as I did Jimmy car Christmas Eve
• 1:02
  right incredibly cold minus 22 oh and we go trudging across the frozen lake and all I'm thinking is
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  well what happens if the ice breaks and I fall into the freezing cold lake it didn't
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  we get to the edge of the lake and they've put hoses garden hoses into the edge of the lake
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  to stir up the water so that it can't form ice and they've been there since the
• 1:27
  autumn right and so the ice has never formed but the water is minus 22 it just can't form ice
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  because constantly moving and there's a sauna and in the sauna it's whatever you know
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  90 degrees so they take it very seriously very seriously like
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  ascending because the saunas in hotels in america all the all the UK if you go to the sauna it's
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  like they have to cap it at like 65 degrees as they go like we're not some of my ever heart attack
• 1:51
  yes whereas if you go to the proper ones it's yeah oh this is yeah if you will have a heart attack
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  then you will have a heart attack I sent my I was in New York recently and I sent my my
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  tailors are very nice guy Max and then we got a store in that he's the cutter so he's over in
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  New York and I was with him I said oh what are you doing he said I've got a big nut out tonight
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  it's a boy meeting the sauna tomorrow Russian and Turkish baths yeah lovely in his village yeah
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  I love it right so I went there and I found him the next morning I go oh my friend Lucy came
• 2:19
  out to have breakfast there whatever so I'm looking to make it he said oh I'm going to go and not
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  the hangover out you say this place is great I've been there that five days in a row at a great time
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  he goes around a Sunday so he just sees a little sign on the way and saying menomen not a
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  not a big deal but sees them okay great maybe there's a man in any place whatever goes in there it's
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  it's a sort of 70 style gay sauna oh on a Sunday tool to a clock hey you have to know they have
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  but you need to have known but you need to but so he calls me goes was that are you were you pranking
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  me yeah what the feels like I got a great blow job like all over me and I went no no I had to
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  I literally and then for me to try and convince him I wasn't fucking around no I was I genuinely
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  I wrote every day this week it's been fine I love it um so yes they go outside in Finland and
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  you and you so you get in the song 100 degrees you go outside you will walk through two two
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  eight minus 22 and you get in you can't put your head under the in the lake because it can
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  brain freeze you and you can die so they tell you and then you do doggy paddle doggy paddle doggy
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  paddle doggy paddle doggy paddle come back in out in out and by the end of it I mean you know
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  this if you're a whole plunge guy you're in a psychedelic state yeah your brain is like flying
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  it's brilliant it's wild it was like an intense drug I think I think it's like it's that
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  best thing in life as well well you're enjoying where you are and you can't wait for the next thing
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  you're when you're in the cold you're going I was to be hating where I was and resenting the next
• 3:47
  thing as well but I know you I was hating the heat and also fearing the cold but I know what you
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  mean yeah it's like incredible extremities I've heard you talk about comedy that way about saying
• 4:00
  that you're basically a drug dealer because you're dealing in people serotonin and dopamine yeah
• 4:03
  and you're like you know you're tweaking them and the great thing about that is you go they've got
• 4:08
  the drugs on them like they can you know customs I never get stopped because the drugs are in you
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  everyone's got the right amount of dopamine in serotonin it's just being able to fire that off
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  yeah and the idea of going it's I suppose it's the it's the variable reward system of comedy
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  where people sit down they know I'm gonna tell them jokes but I don't quite know when the joke's
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  gonna hit they don't quite know what the punchline's gonna be so it's kind of constantly being
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  surprised and then the serotonin you're sort of delighted and then it's a very it's everyone kind
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  of coming together and you're enjoying that on mass the live experience I think is very um I think
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  that's maybe underplayed I think there's an illusion with um uh sort of creative so performers
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  you're going well I'm doing the performance you go well yeah you're the one on stage but everyone
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  in there is it's all performative laughter is quite a performative act like if you watch something
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  on your phone isolated kind of on the bus on headphones or you're reading the thing like oh that's
• 5:06
  funny yeah you see how that's funny but you don't laugh in the same way it's why I think in the UK
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  there's a real thing about Christmas television and there's nothing special about TV about Christmas
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  it's just that Christmas TV is watched as a family as a group you're with other people and so it's
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  better some things are just better shared and paying to mind and void fill in the states and like
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  everything yeah the live experience is like when you think about what people care about in life
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  this music or sport or comedy or theater at its play there's not enough play in our lives
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  hmm we're desperate for it so we go out we sort of find it sort of artificially I and go and kind
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  of watch it because we want to we want to play more we want to be part of that thing so I think
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  the live thing of like going after festivals buying tickets to shows going to see something
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  because not only are people kind of working remotely that effectively they're living remotely
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  because not only is the office it's like you order your food on the app and you you kind of live
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  your life on this and even the tinder thing you know the kids are meeting online which is I mean it's
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  good in a way but then there's no reason to go to a club and there's no reason to drink there's a
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  theory now that kids in this generation coming up will drink 80% less because you won't have to
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  have an awkward conversation in the bar right you just ask enough people swipe left and right and
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  you've yes you have the thing but then you're losing the the experience of doing that and the
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  kind of fighting that dragon and going out and and having that experience was the thing yeah yeah
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  I liked that as much as the sex the flirting the chase the arms like you know the the playfulness
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  do you think it's more it's a more if I am watching something alone and I see a clip of yours
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  and it comes up and it actually elicits a laugh out loud like I can't laugh that I can't help
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  that to me is a is a higher bar and a true laugh than the laugh that I do when I'm in a crowd
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  and I understand that joke has just been told and everyone else is laughing and so I want to laugh
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  along but it sounds like you're saying that that you don't regard one as being a lesser well
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  I didn't add to it if someone watches something online or watch a clip and it really breaks through
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  and they laugh and they you know have that release that's that's wonderful that's great I love
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  that that's kind of why you put them up I think more often than not it's like you have that experience
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  in the room weird on the other day someone heckled just like two nights ago a lady heckled in the
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  audience going why are you using candle after I want what and she went this candle after and she
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  thought somehow in the room she was in with the fails and other people laughing that somehow this
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  was can that you were piping in like what what are you talking about lady it was just kind of insane
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  but it is a weird thing where people often believe that sitcoms and some of them did but very few
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  used candle after we did often film in front of a live studio audience and at home you couldn't
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  understand that people were laughing that hard at this show because you weren't having the same
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  experience that they had of like they'd been there for two hours and the actors are in the room
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  with them and they love the show and they're all there together and it's a it's a it's a community
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  thing and it's I mean I suppose it speaks in a in a broader sense of what's the matter with our
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  world at the moment if you think about liberal democracy we oversold for liberal for the individual
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  and there's not enough of the demos there's not enough group and tribal activity where we feel
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  part of something right so it's it's and it it you know that the the poison is the dose
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  there's got there's too much of it what on right too much of the time which maybe what's causing
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  the backlash and the rise of the far right in Europe and the kind of tribalism this kind of
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  blood and soil vision of identity and democracy that your JD answers and people like that talk about
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  and they're talking much more about three heritage that the left and the right both have the same
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  problem they're both very dissatisfied with the present and one is looking to the past
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  you know make America great again or the Halcyon days a vision of the past which is sort of like a
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  a best of all the bits you never think of how things actually were you want to return to that
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  yeah somehow you pick the best bits and and and then so that's the the right one to go back
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  and the left want to move forwards into a utopia in the future I know yeah I'm progressive I believe
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  things will get better but you go but the present is kind of it's it's pretty good but we I often
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  say this it's never been objectively better and subjectively worse because we're aware of kind
• 9:30
  of all these problems in the world that we just have no there's nothing we can do about that I mean
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  that characterization of left and right is an interesting one but it probably applies more to 20 years
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  ago than it does to the way that the left has been over the past decade because the left one of
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  the problems with the left thing over the past decade is that it has dropped the mantle of being
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  we are about the future and the future is inevitably a better place and there's a light on the
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  hill that we're marching towards and the arc of justice is you know long but whatever the
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  arc of history is long but it bends towards justice in Obama's famous phrase and it's become more
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  about resurrecting of playing in the same terrain as the tribalism of the old right in a way like
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  you think about the emphasis on identity the emphasis on race the emphasis on difference the emphasis
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  on kind of who I am fighting other people who are different from me this is a much more tribal
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  vision of things and also much more pessimistic like the left has become much more morose and kind
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  of moribund and saying like everything sucks and you know all we can do is try to fight over a
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  squabble over a finite pie it's sort of lost that sparkle yes I suppose the idea of well it's
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  what is was ever thus I think we always think oh my god we made such progress in the last 20 years
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  but this is it this is as much as there ever is right and you kind of go well the no I think it's
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  the things will move forward things will inevitably I think the left the left for me is and I'll
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  always be a kind of a creature of the left yeah I'm gonna go there's been a sort of gentrification
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  of the left certainly in in the western world where you go and by that I mean the working classes
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  have been sort of left out of it although you've got a lot of kind of neo Marxist thought and
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  power dynamics and Foucault and the Frankfurt School and the Atari not all of that stuff but the
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  old school Marxism which was about inequality in terms of economic resource it's kind of gone
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  so the left of stop talking to the working classes so for me the turning point is that kind of
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  it's it's the deplorables Hillary Clinton speech where you sort of go you've got to listen to the
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  the working class that's that used to be a party about the deplorables used to be your gang
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  yeah the working class you're hyperloy but yeah you'll listen to them you've got to listen to
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  what they're what they're saying what they need and what they need you to be because now it seems
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  that I mean has the switch already taken place now in America where the the right wing parties
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  to the parties of the working class and the left wing parties to the party of the open intelligence
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  yeah yeah that's a weird shift totally totally um just on the question of group dynamics and
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  group entertainment and consumption of media what did you make of the shift away from those
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  studio shows because now they seem to the the whole studio audience laughing at something
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  got replaced by a more sophisticated kind of it was very suddenly very fashionable to do shows
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  like white lotus or you know some other quote unquote comedy show they're always nominated in
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  the comedy categories at awards ceremonies but oh yeah that's actually that's fine
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  definitely yeah there's you know they're not so there's a right there's a right job yeah
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  wasn't just seeing a right go yeah that's a draw yeah yeah yeah yeah exactly well like the past
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  10 years there's heaps of things where you sort of what was the four seasons with Tina Fey and
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  Steve Perrell I love those guys it's an easy watch I watch it but I'm all but the most you ever get
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  is a huh huh you don't get Jimmy Carbelly chuckles yeah well but that thing about going you know
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  from the sitcom became something that was a multi camera thing to being single camera and it
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  became more artistic but I mean the I don't I mean the demand for entertainment is so huge
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  you just go you don't quite know where it lands in terms of going you know is it you know that
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  Stephen Colbert being cancelled is a really interesting moment where you go well people are getting
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  their news in a different way now and they used to go to late night for that and it seems like a real
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  I know is it I thought I got a real fondness for those late night American shows yeah and those
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  guys hosting them so I feel a real sadness for that but I suppose now people will set up their
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  own YouTube channel you know you wouldn't want that job now exactly the pinnacle and to say
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  what was hosting the tonight show yeah now you go well I'll just do my own thing and I won't
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  have a boss and I'll have sort of total freedom and people will find me if they want to find me
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  it's never gonna be the same I mean I and it hasn't been the same for a while I think you know
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  Letterman was probably the last the last guy in terms of a person who the following day there was
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  a whole there were tens of millions of people who would sit who would say oh did you see it's such
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  and such on Dave last night and the majority of people in the office would happen you know like that
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  kind of vibe I don't think that's existed since since Letterman really there's everything splintered
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  and everything I wonder we'll be going back to that in a in a weird way now because I did notice
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  things like white Lotus globally you can now say hey did you see the show that's trying everyone's
• 14:18
  kind of watching this one so the big streamers or I don't know where it all kind of comes out at the
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  end of this I don't know what happens with the media landscape yeah but it's it's it's certainly
• 14:26
  sort of this sort of thing of like podcasts seem to be huge and ever growing yes but there are
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  seven billion of them you know I mean it's like I don't know I think it's the the the the the
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  most don't get past ten episodes no that's true to what the you know people that the you know what
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  your shift from mainstream you know the National Broadcaster to go well I'm going to do this thing
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  on my own and I'm going to find my own audience and and speak to it's quite a wide variety of people
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  that you speak to them even Jimmy can't yeah but I mean the fact I'm having to follow Sam Harris
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  is Frank late mad me I'm not going to say anything you're interested in well you're gonna talk about
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  consciousness and like artificial intelligence and then I'm conscious for the interview that's
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  as much as I that's as much as I can dig you yeah you showed up sober yeah and you showed up a wake
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  so where this is where killing it so far so what about television in the UK are you I mean
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  because you've done a lot of these live studio you know panel shows you have the whole energy
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  of the studio audience is that still I think it's still a thing is still going I mean we had a
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  big hit last year with a show on Amazon called last one laughing and it was a it was a legit hit
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  like lots of people watched it it was it's nice to see entertainment TV doing that well because
• 15:35
  you sort of what what you don't realize I think as a casual observer is lesser those shows are being
• 15:40
  made and that I might complain about that and go well you know because I used to like hosting them
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  but it's also because that they that's where new talent was sort of brought through you'd appear on
• 15:49
  those shows on a couple of episodes as a guest whether it was a you know Boscox or a QI which
• 15:55
  you know both still going but mocked a week or eight or ten cats you'd appear as a guest a couple
• 15:59
  of times and and sometimes some will come on and they'd absolutely smash it and then there'd be
• 16:03
  on a second time and then a third time and then they're putting in a little tour and they became
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  kind of famous in a way that I think it's very difficult to achieve now yeah so it's slightly
• 16:12
  more niche fame where you find your own audience online as opposed to oh everyone knows who you want
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  yeah I mean I miss that I do there was something I kind of remember who I was hearing I think
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  I might have been Jerry Seinfeld talking about their first time on the tonight show with Johnny
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  and it was like you know at four p.m. that day nobody knows who you are right and the following
• 16:32
  morning everyone everyone you walk out walk down the street I had to hear that guy I was on I had
• 16:38
  to say last night I didn't experience on the first time we did Joe Rogan I did Joe show on which
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  the airport the next day I think it was an LAX or whatever and just got waved through security
• 16:48
  wow Joe show yeah like like three and a roguan badge they wrongly said but that feels like that's
• 16:54
  an equivalent sort of thing now in terms of going well that's the big shot that's still niche it's
• 17:00
  still niche most people I mean going Carson in like the 70s or something like that but the only
• 17:05
  thing on is the only thing that was in 2017 was yes America but it was just America that's true
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  we heard about it maybe in the UK we had some vague idea that it was going on over there yeah
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  it seemed very glamorous but there was nothing over here that was the equivalent and late night
• 17:21
  that the finances didn't work in the same way so it was like it was there now that it's global yeah
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  that's the thing that I've noticed really the idea of English being the lingual franca has
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  increased in the last 15 years I've been touring kind of around the world for maybe 15 years
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  and I've really noticed a difference and I think it's YouTube I mean while ABC and NBC or
• 17:47
  BBC and ITB or whatever the channels are channel seven and channel nine in Australia we're arguing
• 17:53
  over who's going to win Saturday nights ratings battle YouTube just came in and stole their lunch
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  YouTube is the biggest TV channel in the world by some margin and I can't see there being a
• 18:03
  competitor to natural monopoly where everyone posts there everything is a YouTube channel now so
• 18:09
  the big brands are no longer the broadcasters it's the shows so you hardly even know where the show is
• 18:15
  that's right if you want to watch a show if you go oh we're going to watch white lows you kind of
• 18:18
  have to ask where's is it is that it's a little or Amazon or is it yeah yeah or no it's a prime yeah
• 18:24
  you're looking for the thing but that becomes the and I think that's the way it will go where you've
• 18:27
  got your the shows become the theme yes and kind of you choose the model I mean I'll change again
• 18:33
  yes and effectively um you don't want more crowd work these days or am I just imagining that
• 18:38
  I'm filming it I only started filming it last year so I had this great thing where uh
• 18:43
  and envy and jealousy all right this sort of conflated terms right and it doesn't matter which
• 18:49
  way round but one of them let's say jealousy is I don't want you to have that I don't want you to
• 18:54
  have that and it's an ugly horrible thing but envy can be very positive because you look at what
• 19:01
  someone else has and you go I want that and knowing what you want I think is an incredibly powerful thing
• 19:07
  I'm feeling alive about your tie right now by the way it's a beautiful tie thank
• 19:12
  so I was watching Matt Rife and Andrew Schultz um and I was looking at men they're selling
• 19:17
  arenas in the States and I was going to want to sell again as in the States and then I was looking
• 19:21
  at what they're doing online I did a crowd work and I got I do loads of crowd work every night
• 19:25
  oh yeah but those guys film it and then post it I just wasn't doing the last bit and I went oh
• 19:29
  well that's clearly that's the thing to do and then instead of getting like you know people can
• 19:34
  get very um pissy and comedy about well that guy's doing well I want to be doing well
• 19:39
  the narcissism of small differences you could never find a better example than comedy yeah people
• 19:45
  they're doing basically the same job being really snipy with each other yeah it's the same thing
• 19:49
  all in this together what do you want and it's growing up high but I watched those guys and watch
• 19:53
  what they did and went well I should do this so I got this great videographer to come out with me
• 19:57
  on tour film everything and then I was kind of surprised at how much original stuff I generate in
• 20:04
  every show because it is that going on stage you're obviously you've written a show and you want
• 20:09
  it to be 200 very well crafted one-liners that is sort of and it's like it's kind of like polishing
• 20:16
  stone it's like I really focus on that I spend all my time writing jokes and then there's the
• 20:21
  playful space within that where you can just go okay we've done 20 minutes of like a three jokes
• 20:25
  a minute and everyone's in that slightly heightened euphoric state and they've all right any questions
• 20:30
  what are we talking about what would you like jokes about and then it's like seeing a magician
• 20:35
  do real magic yeah because you're allowing them to kind of go well sometimes you could win
• 20:41
  sometimes the heckler wins and it's glorious it's like it's such a fun one but even if they don't
• 20:46
  win it's like it's so fun and I had the experience just like a week ago of what it's like
• 20:54
  I was on holiday and Andy Murray was at the same hotel I'm a big tennis guy and he marries
• 20:59
  there I know him a little bit and he we're very kindly came and he went oh hey hey we should
• 21:04
  we should hit a ball look at the tennis court why don't we hit a ball one out the next day play
• 21:09
  tennis for them for an hour and he sent me a lovely message the next day say you were much worse than
• 21:15
  I think you were going to be no much worse I like I could not give a fuck I was like it was it was
• 21:23
  my it was maker-wish it was like so perfect I loved it and sometimes people go why would people
• 21:28
  heckle at your shows and you go yeah it's fun we know I they know I do this for a living and I
• 21:33
  take it very seriously yeah and they're just messing around and sometimes I'll eviscerate them but
• 21:38
  it's within the spirit of fun yeah but you can't have a bad heckle with your audience because it's
• 21:45
  your audience I mean sometimes it's someone else's audience you can I'm also going to heckle
• 21:50
  at someone else's show beautifully by you know this guy Nick Helm he's a musical comic he's
• 21:55
  I mean he's wonderful right so he used to see him every year in Edinburgh I would always make
• 21:58
  sure but seeing his show because it just he just really gets me and I've got a weird laugh
• 22:03
  so instead of laughing on an out breath like ha ha it's always on a ha ha ha ha it's a it's a
• 22:08
  weird evening well you're being strangled by Jack the Ripper that's it so I uh I go to see
• 22:14
  you show I hold it together for the first 10 minutes and he does this on and I just absolutely
• 22:18
  lose it like properly a laughing fit like and and and and really poor focus and he just stops
• 22:25
  the show and goes all right Jimmy I don't laugh when it comes to see one of your shows
• 22:31
  god damn you god damn you that's very good um and when someone does heckle and when you
• 22:38
  were doing that audience interaction is there so what's going on in your head is it um is it hunt
• 22:44
  is the first instinct to hunt for a gag that you know you've got in your back pocket that you can
• 22:49
  know that that's the last result okay the last result is okay so if I get asked something that I've
• 22:54
  been asked a million times before you've got you'll go to so you know and some of them are nice
• 23:00
  sometimes it's like bell it's like it's more like being the jukebox yeah and they go hey sure
• 23:05
  lock you've got any stories and I go of course I've got stories yeah tell you stories yeah and you're
• 23:09
  in service of the audience and sometimes it's a genuinely interesting inquiry that you've never
• 23:13
  heard before and then that's more fun for me because you go well this is the bit of the show I haven't
• 23:18
  heard hmm let's see what happens and you don't quite and you know trying to land the laugh and trying
• 23:22
  to find that thing it's it's really fun it's like a writing exercise and when you try something
• 23:27
  out and it doesn't work during an audience exchange but what point do you bail on it or what point
• 23:31
  do you double the other they don't know when the funny bit was meant to be that it's not like
• 23:37
  well he'll do three lines and then the funny bit it's like they're just thinking why he's just
• 23:40
  he's talking yeah and sometimes I'll allow myself maybe a ratio of about a hundred to one I'll
• 23:46
  allow myself a serious moment on stage if someone asks something and you go well okay well talk
• 23:51
  about it yeah yeah you know so I like or I'm gonna have seen it clip where like someone had like
• 23:55
  someone was dying of cancer for example and like you're not gonna no joke about your answer yeah
• 23:59
  but it's mostly just saying thank you for coming out and I hope you have a good night
• 24:05
  you don't want to like yeah but how are you gonna die well it's amazing how the kind of comedy
• 24:10
  that I do I I sort of say this in the show that having a very dark sense of humor only really pays off
• 24:19
  on the worst days like when you're really going through it you lose a loved one if you get the
• 24:23
  diagnosis when something awful happens in your life you've got to feel bad for the people out
• 24:27
  there that that are easily offended uh because they've just got a white knuckle it through that and
• 24:34
  like on our worst days if you have that sense of humor you get to laugh a little bit and it does
• 24:41
  soften the blow that's where I think the you know why comedy why do we why do we do this thing what's
• 24:46
  the the tealots what's the purpose of this and it's it's uh remote grooming is what it is is what
• 24:54
  laughter is that's the uh evolutionary benefit of it so we've already talked about tealots and now
• 24:59
  we're talking about grooming so you're going from philosophy to pedophilia yeah sure a heart rate
• 25:05
  well do you think of the yeah well that's classic me um that thing of like going they used to be
• 25:10
  there's a thing called the Dunbar number yeah you can have like 50 great apes in a group and they
• 25:15
  would all kind of groom each other and then you get to 60 and 10 of them will go how we never see
• 25:19
  those guys let's start our own pod so they go and do their thing and we get to 150 because
• 25:25
  uh we developed language right and 150 meaning the number of people who you can sort of keep in
• 25:31
  your social group and kind of know yes kind of know I know I think that's even true on it's often
• 25:35
  quoted with social media so obviously people go all I've got 10,000 friends on Facebook and you go
• 25:39
  well not really but yeah but yeah I get I get where you meet yeah but that idea of going the idea
• 25:45
  linguistically language wise laughter being something that signifies oh okay well it's going
• 25:49
  most laughter is is what they call fake laughter it's kind of the iraise and the uh-huh
• 25:55
  women and bosses lay again kind of thing but it bonds people it really kind of bonds people together
• 26:00
  so there's kind of a there's a purpose to it and then I think the idea of like the coping mechanism
• 26:04
  the idea of being able to get kind of because it what is laughter what's what our jokes is kind
• 26:09
  of perspective on stuff and being able to kind of step back and see a bigger picture and often
• 26:15
  that's kind of the uh I suppose what a lot of mental health issues come down to is going to a
• 26:21
  blinkered focus yes I mean you can't see that you said life excuse me life must be hard for people
• 26:26
  who are constantly outraged at everything because they don't get to laugh but do you suspect that
• 26:30
  people are constantly outraged at everything are getting their rocks off from the outrage as well
• 26:34
  like maybe it's just an alternative method of finding sort of some calm joy like there seems to be
• 26:40
  a glee amongst the people who are perpetually offended by everything I don't know I mean maybe
• 26:46
  maybe I but I always think like if they're perpetually offended by something like my sense of
• 26:49
  humor is not for everyone I think there's probably quite a lot of people that would look at my
• 26:53
  stuff and go well this is just disgraceful this is just ban this filth but some people like it
• 26:59
  and then there's other comedy for them which you know I often think I mean again that that
• 27:05
  the narcissism of small differences some come to very sneering about other comics but they might
• 27:10
  go well you know that's very very bland or or that's you know that's not funny it's just not
• 27:14
  for you yeah I often get it when I you know watch lots of kids shows for the kids and you you know
• 27:19
  it's not to your taste but the kid's absolutely loving it you know what's the same with comedy
• 27:24
  yeah not everything's for everyone do you always think with me when people get offended by me now
• 27:27
  I sort of go well you bought tickets to a horror film and now you're complaining you're scared
• 27:33
  well I mean okay but just leave yes yes I just saw Nikki one um Nikki Glaser in Sydney and the
• 27:43
  woman next to me is laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing
• 27:47
  until she says the word retard and at that point she's kind of drunk this woman next to me
• 27:53
  when Nikki's doing a bit about you know which is intentionally provocative because she's
• 27:57
  fucking Nikki Glaser and it was great everybody was like with the woman next to me
• 28:03
  no no she starts saying no she leans over to me because I work with children with special needs
• 28:11
  no what else no the milk monitor I was like you came you came to see and also you've been laughing
• 28:20
  in a whole bunch of things that many other people would find offensive she happens to touch your
• 28:25
  pet subject and all of a sudden you think that you have the right to disrupt the show a billion
• 28:29
  other things that she's always said would have been offensive so on the count of performance if
• 28:32
  that is as well right this she feels she has to make the noise and do anything and other people
• 28:37
  around me need to know that I'm not buying into this and I'm okay yeah but I just it's about you
• 28:42
  that's we came here to find out what you had to say yeah that Nikki's material do you find
• 28:48
  audiences any different when you're doing crowd work between countries yeah I mean there's quite
• 28:53
  quite a big variance really in terms of going like you know playing in the States you
• 28:58
  be hard pressed not to get a standing evasion in the States it people just they get it I mean
• 29:04
  you came and you did the show and they're up they're getting up anyway the UK you'd be the
• 29:09
  risen Christ no one's getting up right interest rates it's got and that thing of like the willingness
• 29:14
  to jump in yeah the in the UK people are very willing to get involved and heckle and be abusive
• 29:20
  and rude and great and in America people are like so we're meant to we're meant to say something
• 29:26
  there are we fucking up the show I don't want to fuck up the show wow because I find Americans
• 29:30
  much more talkative if you have a microphone in their face and a camera on the street oh let me
• 29:35
  tell you about Joe Biden you know I think stand up has been is an American medium and I think
• 29:39
  the clubs there please tackling because heckling was associated with only the negative right only
• 29:47
  people saying you know fuck off your shit or shut up or a negative kind of throwing vegetables
• 29:53
  it was walled off and stoutler in the Muppets is that's heckling as opposed to we're all trying
• 29:59
  to do something here yeah and it's crowd work so really it's like heckling is maybe not not the
• 30:04
  best term maybe is crowd work because you're you're messing around with yes yes I mean you're
• 30:08
  asking them legitimate questions they're not just telling you to fuck off yeah is there any way
• 30:13
  to prepare for it for crowd work specifically I think intentionally yeah but we're all here
• 30:19
  to have fun and remembering if someone misjudges it just be incredibly forgive it because some
• 30:26
  take people misjudged it they kind of don't know where the boundaries are I haven't done this before
• 30:30
  they're not they're just a punter so if they shout something horrific out you kind of go okay
• 30:36
  yes calm and we'll manage that let's not worry about that it's not gonna ruin everything we've
• 30:41
  all made a dicks of ourselves that's fine yeah and then it's yeah everyone's kind of in service
• 30:45
  of the event you're making it fun for everyone and make it feel like I think make it feel like it's
• 30:50
  an event that this happened tonight this is you brought together the show you came to the show
• 30:55
  you want a home you can't pause this and watch it any other time that happened in the room now
• 31:00
  and we have like a shared experience so it's often that lovely thing when you do a call back
• 31:05
  to something that happened in the room that night and it's like the biggest laugh of the night
• 31:09
  is people yeah that's awfully it's fabulous isn't it yes there's I mean that's the beautiful
• 31:13
  thing about improv as well as crowd work it's like we do there was this thing only happened once
• 31:17
  we were the only people who saw it it's never gonna happen this way again you know it's not like
• 31:21
  a stand-up routine which may be exactly the same in every city I know that this is never gonna
• 31:25
  happen again we were talking about podcasts and I wonder what you make of you know one of the
• 31:30
  downsides of this fragmentation of the media and the fact that punks like me or you know join our
• 31:34
  own thing instead of all aspiring to become David Letterman is that there's a lot of different
• 31:39
  voices and you can notice how some themes get magnified and amplified there's this whole conversation
• 31:45
  amongst me and my peers about whether you should worry about platforming people whether it's okay
• 31:50
  for Joe Rowe then to talk to World War Two revisionists who seem to be sounding like they're
• 31:54
  apologizing for Nazis and whether like but I think the the idea of platforming someone or
• 32:00
  de-platforming like you well who watches the watches so you go have a like the fact that Bill
• 32:07
  Mar going and having dinner with Donald Trump was critiqued it strikes me as like that that's
• 32:13
  that way madness lies because the far left and the far right think the other ones the problem
• 32:20
  right the far right think the far left the problem the far left think the far right's the problem right
• 32:24
  the moderates at least can agree what the problem is they have different ideas on how to solve the
• 32:29
  problem but they would they would agree yeah there's there's a problem here it's the economy
• 32:33
  it's there's a there's an issue around immigration there's an issue with um uh suicide in
• 32:39
  our youth uh women's self-harmic you know this is what the problem is let's focus on that as
• 32:44
  opposed to just blaming the other team for whatever their stances and I think that thing of going
• 32:48
  not talking to people is crazy and I I love long form I love the idea that people can come
• 32:55
  to podcast and if they are um a grifter uh they will show their ass I mean I'll be the course
• 33:03
  of three oh but if they're a good grifter and there's no pushback they may not show their ass
• 33:08
  well that seems I mean it's yeah I listen you know I mean like it's it's it's hard to bet how you
• 33:14
  do the interview us yes I mean if the interviewer is digging in and asking probing questions and
• 33:19
  challenging the guests that's one thing but I understand the criticism I'm not sure I agree
• 33:24
  but I understand the criticism that you know you don't give Donald Trump an open microphone
• 33:27
  for 90 minutes and then not push him on xy or z uh yeah well maybe but maybe but as long as you
• 33:36
  offer that to Kamala as well I think that's kind of that's kind of okay I think it's okay to say
• 33:41
  have who you want to have on your on your show you don't have to have someone on if it's just
• 33:46
  going to be a horrible disagreement and you're just going to argue but maybe you do I mean
• 33:51
  Piers Morgan's kind of made a career of getting people on that haze each other and they argue
• 33:55
  and some people like seeing those sparks I'm not particularly a fan of it I like you know once can
• 34:01
  it's a it's a playful conversation conversation is a playful thing anyway and then you're trying
• 34:06
  to sort of build and get to somewhere so I think the idea of going oh we shouldn't platform
• 34:10
  these people well let's draw up the list then shall we that feels very authoritarian to me and
• 34:15
  I'm very much I mean it's not really about left right it's it's it's um it's a liberty
• 34:20
  authoritarian and the idea of saying okay well let's come up with a list of people who can't
• 34:25
  have on a podcast well I'm gonna be on that list at some point you're already there man yeah well
• 34:30
  maybe maybe for some but that thing of like going it's it's you go well who's gonna make that
• 34:36
  decision as to who you can trust and I think maybe I'm gonna have to think covid was covid was
• 34:42
  awful right covid was awful in so many ways but one of the ways it was awful was we lost so much trust
• 34:49
  in the authorities and that does not mean we don't need the authorities it just means we need
• 34:55
  better authorities right we need we need we don't need new institutions we just need to fix
• 34:59
  the ones that we have we got like a great system I think but it needs to be better it needs to
• 35:04
  be fit for purpose in the modern world and I think they tried to I think they tried to bullshivise
• 35:09
  and uh people called that and so it and now suddenly it's like you go from being very skeptical
• 35:16
  about covid vaccines to being very skeptical about all vaccines it's a cattle beer I think
• 35:23
  and then to being very skeptical about where the Hitler was such a bad guy or whatever the next step
• 35:28
  but but then but then is it okay that we we litigate we we maybe need to re-litigate everything
• 35:34
  that the previous generation fought for well I think the thing about the the revisionist historians the
• 35:42
  coming on and spouting that
• 35:45
  drivel um you know Hitler wasn't such a bad guy fuck in hell but that idea of going
• 35:51
  is that the symptom of a much bigger problem which is the basis of the society that we live on
• 35:59
  was prax americana the american navy will save us and they'll pay for everything and they'll
• 36:03
  protect the world and globalisation and the foundation myth that that was built on was world
• 36:09
  or two and that foundation myth is crumbling so and and the symptoms are you get people like that
• 36:15
  are speaking and there's an audience for them and can ye sing it about Nazis is is maybe a it's
• 36:22
  the canary in the coal mine of that well that myth is is fading we need to um are not
• 36:27
  almost a quote I'm not entirely sure a um a country that doesn't love its past can have a future
• 36:33
  so you need to find that common ground that myth that thing that that unites us and often it is
• 36:39
  those things of like if you go and see great musical great comedy or great and the things that
• 36:45
  bring it what is it that's bringing us together um and we we sort of don't have that the most
• 36:51
  no we have it less and less I think with the fragmentation of the media in the and I mean I take
• 36:55
  a point of course you don't want some bureaucrat in a back office writing down a list of names
• 37:00
  of people who Joe Rogan shouldn't shouldn't speak to but I think there are also
• 37:08
  it's not like the alternative to having no judgment about who you're platforming is that there's
• 37:14
  a perfectly blank and open space in which all speech is free in the sense that algorithms and
• 37:19
  clickbait and audience um at the sort of feeding one's audience ever sexier clickier things
• 37:26
  isn't imperative of its own so I'm just talking about being mindful as a as a creator or an
• 37:32
  interviewer of inviting people on who of not getting stuck inviting people who feed a particular
• 37:39
  set of priorities so there's like a conversation for example give you an example that I've seen a lot
• 37:44
  lately about how Britain's headed for civil war because of the lack of integration of it's
• 37:50
  mostly Muslim popular right is this David Betts it might be yes okay so I've heard people talk
• 37:55
  about it I've seen going around it but it's not just him like there's a there's a podcast to stand
• 37:59
  well I think that has become but the school the quiet the school is in this in this night
• 38:04
  the school is falling in is a very interesting idea here's what I think about the coming civil war
• 38:08
  get a human as well if you've listened to this much of the episode then you must enjoy it
• 38:13
  presumably unless you're just releasing from massacistic reasons so you should listen to the
• 38:17
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• 38:22
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• 38:27
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