Latest / Rich Fulcher's TalkBox / Elf Lyons: Economic Price Points, Getting Nude, Zip Zap Stop & Donating Eggs to NASA | Talk Box Ep. 33

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Elf Lyons: Economic Price Points, Getting Nude, Zip Zap Stop & Donating Eggs to NASA | Talk Box Ep. 33 · Rich Fulcher's TalkBox

0:00
Oh, my eyelids are burning. They're about to poke a hole in
0:04
my eyelid. Oh, hi, everybody.
0:07
Welcome to Rich Vulture Stock Box, the podcast for the
0:11
intellectual. This guest coming up is one of
0:16
my favourites. Her name is Elf Lyons, she's not
0:20
your typical comedian. She does a lot of physical
0:23
stuff, very funny. Recently come into a lot of
0:27
awards, the Sky Arts Award and others, which I can't name right
0:32
now. So please have a watch and
0:35
listen and let's get right to it, OK?
0:40
It's right over here. I think my eyes hurt.
0:59
Betty Grumble. Hi.
1:06
What are you doing here? Hi.
1:08
Nice to see you. We do.
1:12
We do. Oh, there's your phone.
1:14
Oh. Sorry.
1:16
Physical comedy. There we go.
1:19
That's right. I always have to remind myself
1:21
to interact like with people, like I've interacted with human
1:23
beings before. Otherwise I sometimes come
1:26
across like, you know, when you reboot a like Tamagotchi.
1:30
No, no, OK. No, but do you ever do this?
1:34
Like you haven't, you just got up and then you haven't spoken
1:38
or anything and then your first words are like.
1:42
Yeah, I've been trying to make it a rule when I go into the
1:45
ticket. Ticket, how you know where the
1:47
train, where the trains live and the ticket people.
1:51
Then there's the coffee shop there.
1:53
They've got lots of very young Gen Z, like young youth behind.
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With piercings. With piercings and just pure
2:01
souls, but none of them originally when I go, hi, how
2:04
are you, They would never respond.
2:05
They go and they'd sort of, you know, retract.
2:09
And then every day I come in and I'm like, hi, how are you?
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And now I've built up a rapport with all of them because I just
2:16
will not let the conversation fail.
2:18
But then one of them and one of the guy, the guy who is I think,
2:22
frightened of me, I just saw him the other day and I went, Oh my
2:24
God, you've got so much hair. Because I'd never noticed that
2:28
he had a beard. And then he burst out laughing,
2:30
which was a good response. And then the young ticket
2:32
gentleman, he burst out laughing and he said he's always had
2:35
hair. And I was like, I've never
2:36
noticed your hair. I normally just.
2:38
Did he have a hair or not? No, I just I.
2:40
I think I've only has he ever been looking at his eyes.
2:43
OK. And.
2:44
Today was the first time I took in his whole visage.
2:47
Yes, but you're saying that Gen X they don't speak much to each
2:52
other? Yeah.
2:52
Or is it Gen X or you know? They're not good at
2:55
conversation. They're not good at but actually
2:58
I saw this the other day I was in.
3:00
Oh, and tell me if I'm talking too much.
3:03
Not yet. Kenny will tell you.
3:07
Oh, will he? Yeah.
3:08
Yeah. Oh, does Kenny tell you?
3:09
Yeah, he has an electric Taser that's hooked up to the chair.
3:13
Have you ever watched someone be tased before?
3:16
On on video but not. We watched my dad get a taste
3:20
once and it was so. Funny lines of cops.
3:25
No, just in the garden we had, we used to have three big German
3:30
shepherds, but we still do, but different ones because the other
3:32
ones grew old and they passed away.
3:33
But we anyway. And they all had electric mark
3:38
neck, you know the neckly collars for.
3:41
Dogs. So when they go over the gate,
3:43
so they wouldn't chase cyclists basically.
3:45
And one day the electric fence went down and so my dad was
3:48
like, so he had to take the electric necklaces off the dogs
3:52
and then it came back on and nobody told him.
3:55
And there was this brilliant moment where he crossed over and
3:57
he got this huge electric shock from, oh, Oh well, couldn't.
4:02
You get get killed. Good news.
4:05
Consider it the time that mum thought it was incredibly funny.
4:07
We had such a love so and when we were little we used to play
4:10
pranks on him all the time because we always used to win
4:12
clock radios in fancy dress competitions and my mum would
4:15
like make us set them for all different times of the night and
4:17
then hide them around my dad's room.
4:19
But did you have cameras out in the back?
4:21
Because if you did, you could have a, you know, video of that
4:25
whole thing. No, we didn't.
4:27
Do that would be great just. Lives in the memory.
4:29
Damn. It I'm so sorry.
4:30
Those memory things, memories, they don't last as long.
4:34
No, and also every time you remember something you re
4:38
remember it. You like reprogram it.
4:40
So it's better to not remember things until it comes to you
4:43
authentically, because then you go, that's your authentic
4:46
memory. That's true.
4:48
So I try not to remember anything.
4:49
I try to just live in the present until I remember
4:51
something. And plus we forget all the bad
4:54
stuff too a lot of times. Do you forget all the bad stuff?
4:58
Usually. That's that's probably why it
5:01
with the greatest respect, you've got very good skin,
5:04
you've got like very nice like you're quite you're full of
5:07
collagen and perhaps you're not riddled with the memories of
5:11
negativity if. This is collagen I'm drinking
5:14
right now. Yeah, I've got about pure gold
5:17
stuff, Yeah. But I I only ever remember the
5:20
negative things, which is why I have to wake up every morning.
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I have to list all the things I'm happy about.
5:25
OK, so maybe it's a way of getting it out of your system.
5:29
Do you dream a lot? I dream all the time.
5:33
OK, do you dream? Oh, yeah.
5:35
Not as much as I should, but yeah.
5:38
So listen, I just want to congratulate you on everything
5:42
you've done. Thank you.
5:43
It's amazing. Good.
5:45
And you're is. This a bit.
5:47
Do you know do this to everyone? No, I don't.
5:50
I've never done this, but I just want to congratulate you.
5:54
I'm going to watch and find out. You do do this.
5:55
Every time I don't. Because it's so nice.
5:58
I usually start out young, but I'm just saying that it's
6:02
amazing all the stuff you've done and you're about to do a
6:06
run at the Soho Theatre. I am about to run at the Soho.
6:10
Theatre. What dates?
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I just want to get the plug. Oh, should we do the plugging?
6:14
It's from the 12th to the 20th of December at 9:45 in the main
6:18
theatre space. So that's.
6:19
Late. I know it is late, isn't it?
6:21
So it's a harder sell than usual, but quite are quite fun
6:25
because two of the shows are quite well, I mean, no, they're
6:28
all exceptionally. I'm really proud of all of them.
6:30
But two of them are quite visceral and like the goods come
6:33
out. So I suppose after Watershed is
6:35
a good time. Now, do you think you're doing 3
6:38
different shows? Do you think people are going to
6:41
watch all three? People do come to see all three,
6:44
which is. Do they get a discount?
6:46
Yeah, they do get a discount. Yes, discount.
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I love the discounts. I love discounts as.
6:51
Well, yeah, yeah. Incentives.
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Incentives matter. Incentives matter.
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That was one of the first lessons my dad always taught me
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incentives. Matter.
6:59
Oh, I thought you were going to say that's Plato or something,
7:01
but that was, Yeah, it's just. Well, it's an economic thing.
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Incentives matter. The price mechanism is one of
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the most important parts of economic theory, and failure is
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not an option. Wait, hold on.
7:11
Your dad was an economist? Yes.
7:13
And he he still is. He's not dead.
7:14
Oh my God, yeah, sorry. Why?
7:17
I didn't mean to make it think that your dad was dead.
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No, I know he's not dead. Oh my God, imagine if.
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You. Your dad?
7:26
I didn't say your dad, who's dead, is an economist.
7:34
We No, he's not. He's not dead.
7:37
He seems fine. Does.
7:38
He still does he teach. No.
7:40
Well, he's still a working economist, so he still sort of
7:43
does economic stuff and he's in the show. 1 of the shows is all
7:45
about economics. Is it micro or macro he's into
7:49
because global. Economics he loves.
7:51
Well, I think it's sort of a little bit of both, but I would
7:53
say probably macroeconomic. He's really focused on Asian
7:57
markets and he's, I just think he's really cool.
8:00
I love talking to him about economics.
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What does he think of AI? So we actually did a podcast
8:06
episode on this. What?
8:07
Yeah, we do an economic. You do a podcast, tell.
8:09
My dad about economics. Well, Kenny, you can't talk
8:15
about other podcasts, sorry. This one.
8:17
Oh, OK, yeah, no, no. But this is interesting.
8:20
Go. On.
8:22
AI. Well, The thing is you can't
8:26
get. Well, I mean, he'll explain it
8:28
better. My logic is that it's just with
8:30
anything you can't get rid of it, so it's just about how you
8:34
utilise. Embrace.
8:35
It embracing it but also again incentivising ways that you
8:40
don't become reliant on AII think what's.
8:42
Going to happen like this is AI. You go like this to AI?
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What, you cuddle it? Well, I suppose so.
8:49
I mean, I'm still quite nice to my ChatGPT, but I think, you
8:53
know, like when you do. Like YouTube?
8:57
Do you use ChatGPT? Yeah, I do occasionally.
9:00
Yeah, I've started to. I'm afraid I'm going to get
9:03
addicted to it. Yeah, the.
9:05
Thing is, it's about making sure you use it for things that you
9:08
could. I never.
9:10
My rule is I never use it for anything creative, but for
9:13
anything that I like because I'm very dyslexic.
9:16
So when it comes to maths and understanding things, I
9:19
sometimes help, I sometimes go can you just help clarify this
9:22
for me? Or if I get I get a lot of
9:25
medical stuff done and when I'm like my medical test results
9:28
come through, I sometimes just like, can you explain this in
9:30
layman's terms? For me, nice nice, which I do
9:33
find is to buy a specific prop for your show.
9:37
You go where can I get like an 18 foot shoe or something?
9:42
Not that that's what you do in your show.
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I mean, I've used quite a lot of things in my shows.
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Where can I get a a steel bra or something?
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They'll be able to tell you in London now.
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I find the Internet, if you just put that onto Instagram, there's
9:57
always one guy who knows where you can get a steel bra.
9:59
That's true. Yeah, a lot of kink places you
10:02
can probably get a steel bra like you just reach out to like
10:05
Crossbreed or any of one of those kink.
10:07
Platforms. That was a bad question.
10:08
OK, sorry, that was a bad example.
10:10
No, it wasn't a bad example. If anything, it was quite, it
10:12
was quite evident because we came to an answer.
10:16
Sorry, am I doing this? Well, no.
10:18
You're doing great. Am I I?
10:20
Mean half the podcast is over. Is it?
10:23
Yeah. How long do we talk?
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How much time do we have? No, we've got loads of time.
10:28
Right. OK, I take everything very
10:31
seriously. Yeah, but I am but.
10:33
See, I pick up on that. I usually am always kidding
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around. People say I kid around too
10:40
much. No.
10:41
That's my problem really. Yeah, Oh.
10:45
Or here's another thing people say about me, They don't know
10:48
whether I'm telling the truth or not.
10:51
This is fascinating because I I had this my ex, I would be do
10:56
saying something and then he would assume that I was
10:59
pretending and I go, no, I am telling the truth.
11:02
And you go, no, no, I know you, you're you're pretending and I
11:05
get really crossed. So then I'd have to pretend to
11:09
tell the like. I'd have to, really.
11:12
Oh, I would have to act for him to then believe me about things
11:15
I wanted him to believe. Me was this guy in showbiz?
11:18
He was a showbiz man. Oh, see that?
11:20
I thought he wouldn't be because he would just assume, oh, she's,
11:24
you know, acting. Yeah.
11:27
Well, this is it. I don't think I could fall in
11:28
love with an actor anymore because they're ever so good at
11:31
acting and you just can't. Only I fell in love with a bad
11:34
actor because I would just be too wondering if they were doing
11:38
a bit. And this guy was Tom Holland.
11:42
Tom Holland. No, it's Tom.
11:43
Holland. Which one is he?
11:45
Is he? Batman.
11:46
I'm just kidding. Who's Batman?
11:48
I'm just kidding. OK, there's about 8 Batmans,
11:51
right? George Clooney.
11:54
George, was he Batman? Yeah, he was in ER.
11:57
Yes, as Batman Scalpel. I don't know who Tom Holland is.
12:06
No, I just threw that name out there.
12:08
But no, I'm just saying you married a or you were going out
12:12
with a pretty famous actor. Was I?
12:15
No, no. Well, yes.
12:17
Wait, what? No.
12:18
Are you joking now? No, but I mean if he truly is a
12:21
bad actor then he would be. Oh no, you should practise
12:27
talking before you get on this thing.
12:29
No. Well, this is how when I was
12:31
little and I had to Start learning to talk to people on
12:33
the phone and talking to boys, I used to write calling cards of
12:37
like, questions. And I remember talking to this
12:39
boy Arthur on my mobile telephone when I was about 22.
12:42
And I had like a list of questions to ask him of, you
12:47
know, just in case the conversation ran out.
12:49
Some people say here's the schools of mine is that you're
12:53
holding the handle, but this is the phone, this is the phone.
12:58
So this isn't realistic. No, as much as.
13:01
Yeah. I'm just talking improv and
13:04
improv we used to do mime stuff. So you pretend that the actual
13:09
object it's or Like if you've got a washcloth, do you do it so
13:14
there's a gap? Or do you do this as your hand
13:18
is the washcloth? It's like with the one thing
13:21
with improv when you watch bat, like I teach mine sometimes
13:24
genuinely and when and I recently went to I was working
13:28
with some boom Chicago lovely. Oh, I know them.
13:31
Do you? Yeah, I know the guy that
13:33
started it. Oh, really?
13:35
Is he, what's his name, Andrew or Neil or something?
13:38
Yes, I'm a yeah, I was there. I was there teaching them.
13:43
And what I can't stand an improv was.
13:44
My rule is if you mime anything, it has to be there the whole way
13:49
through. I hate it when someone minds a.
13:50
Table and forgets about it and walks through.
13:53
It or like this it's I'm cooking.
13:56
Oh, fun. Oh no.
13:59
Oh, what? I'm an elephant.
14:01
I'm like, what are you cooking? Look at this meal like hey.
14:05
Make it really accurate. Like, you know, what would be so
14:08
much funny is you could have the most boring conversation in
14:10
improv. But if I'm just watching you
14:12
like really carefully peeling something, everyone's going to
14:15
be laughing going. What's this individual cooking
14:18
like? There's a really cool improv.
14:20
There's a a double act called bare pack and there's one of
14:23
the. Improvises.
14:24
I like that. Name.
14:25
They're great. That's a good name.
14:27
There's a guy in it called Carl and he's a beautiful mine artist
14:30
and when I met him I was like your minds great because he just
14:32
just it was this lovely choice. It was quite a like boring scene
14:37
which was why it was funny, but the character was just taking so
14:41
many things. It was distracting to the.
14:44
Scene but he was taking so much off.
14:46
You're like, where's this guy been?
14:47
And then when he had to leave again, he then put everything
14:50
back on and it was just the, the, the delicacy and the focus
14:54
was really like. That's just showing off.
14:57
No, but that's what we like audiences want you to show off.
15:00
Not an improv. Really.
15:02
Yeah, that's silly. So what did you do?
15:08
Shows that boom too. Yeah, I did.
15:11
I started workshopping a new show there a couple of weeks
15:13
ago. Isn't it great?
15:15
I really liked it and I liked. They've really got the tourists
15:18
going in there. It's a lovely space, the one in
15:21
Amstam at Amsterdam and the the improvises there on their
15:25
current, like pro team. The only thing I don't like
15:28
about improv is, is this where they like run across and then
15:31
tap you? Yeah, there's always one guy
15:33
who's like. Really hard.
15:35
Yeah, and they go. And then the thing about a lot
15:38
of improvises is it's always focusing on the verbal.
15:41
It's really coming out. It's never the like start from
15:45
the body 1st and then let the. Where's your animal spine,
15:50
right? Are you a giraffe?
15:52
Yeah. Are you a Weeble?
15:54
Yeah, like, think, start from the body and then let it come
15:57
through in another way. That's true.
15:59
Because otherwise you have these things where everyone's standing
16:01
there and you're like, you're not funny verbally, so just do
16:05
something with your arms. A lot of people, they, they
16:08
don't really focus on the physical that improvise.
16:12
I I give you that. Drives me twisted.
16:17
Yeah, I get fucking annoyed. Have you always been because you
16:22
started comedy quite young when you were like 6, right?
16:25
Yeah, really little. Really performing.
16:28
Yeah, well, my first gig I was 16 or 17 and my dad took me to
16:34
the gig and I had to argue that I was over 18 to get me in and
16:38
then. You did or your dad did.
16:40
My dad argued to get me in because I was.
16:41
Economically. No, just like in a man he was
16:45
like she is off age and she is my daughter and she is booked to
16:51
play but in an. Artistic show that her height is
16:54
the yeah. And he managed to flag to get my
16:57
friends Fish and Paul into the gig as well.
17:00
They were both. Any time you can get a fish in.
17:02
Yeah, you know what's for Amnesty International, and he's
17:05
doing quite well, but he doesn't like being called fish anymore,
17:07
okay? What does he like being called?
17:10
We say a short name. OK, which is carp?
17:14
What is it, Joshua? Joshua.
17:16
Joshua. But fish was what we used to
17:17
call him. I don't.
17:18
Know why his name? Fish.
17:20
Yeah, but will he let you call you Fish?
17:24
No, when I saw him, I was like, hey fish, he went.
17:26
I'm Joshua. Now I don't like that because a
17:30
lot of my friends or some of my friends, they change their name
17:33
like midstream. Sometimes it's to get into SAG,
17:38
you know, because you can't have two of the same name.
17:41
So they go, I'm Julian now, not Julie.
17:44
Yeah. And you know, you can't fault
17:47
the other person for saying Julie no.
17:50
Yeah, would you ever if you had to change your name?
17:52
Is your name the your real name? Yes, but I would call myself
17:56
fish. If he doesn't want it, I would.
17:59
OK. Fish, vulture.
18:01
Fish. Hey everybody.
18:03
Yeah, that would be really good. Oh, you did that?
18:05
Welcome. Because that would be the that's
18:07
the improv way, doing fish, not like my hand is the fish.
18:10
Oh, sorry. Yeah, yeah, because there's
18:16
squiggly. Yeah.
18:17
Can you do the jellyfish? Jellyfish is like that.
18:22
Yeah, that's not bad. Yeah, I'm not.
18:24
Yeah. No, you got you're very
18:26
talented. So did you, did you start to get
18:30
into the MIME when you were younger or?
18:32
No, I was so like. You were more verbal.
18:36
Yeah, I don't know, like you, you seem so in your body.
18:39
Were you always super in your body or did that come in
18:41
reaction to something? I like dancing.
18:44
Yeah, yeah. But I wasn't performing.
18:47
You just, you were in it. Yeah.
18:49
I like to be in it. Yeah, yeah.
18:51
I like, I don't know because it's it's so weird now when I
18:55
think about reviews of me when before I do any show, I really
18:58
remind myself of the reviews that I got for that show.
19:01
All the good and the bad and the ugly.
19:02
Like I read through all of them because even the worst reviews
19:05
or you can always take something and it's and it's good to
19:08
especially because you can be so critical of yourself as an
19:11
artist. Like I'm so nasty to myself.
19:14
And then I have to read the reviews and go, Oh no, people
19:17
love this show. Like I need to trust the
19:19
audience. I need to stop.
19:20
I'm I'm toxic in this relationship and they they want
19:25
this to do well. And if they're saying this and
19:26
this, I have to remember those feelings.
19:27
But I read reviews now that describe me as like an
19:30
incredible physical performer or like like phenomenal mime artist
19:35
and these things that. That's what I.
19:36
Read Yeah. Like when I imagine little me
19:39
when I was 19 or when I went to Golia, ever being told that I
19:43
would be described like that, like it's so I think I would
19:46
have cried or like I still get emotional because I was so
19:49
insecure about how I moved. I I don't think I really knew
19:53
how to move. Like when I went to Gullier when
19:55
I was 24. That's why you went to Gullier.
19:59
Gullier just. Explain you gullier?
20:01
Yeah. So it's like a theatre school in
20:03
France and it was based in the UK.
20:05
It's been here, there and everywhere and like, lots of
20:07
different, like really talented artists have trained there.
20:11
But Philippe didn't like it being called a clown school
20:14
'cause he only did clown for three weeks of the year, right?
20:16
The rest of it was like Shakespeare.
20:18
Moliere mask, neutral mask. But Sacha Baron Cohen.
20:22
Sacha banker Rachel Weisz when Emin Thompson went there like
20:25
Daniel Simonson went there. Did you ever see baskets?
20:29
No. You didn't.
20:31
No. What's?
20:32
Oh, it's Zach Galifianakis. And he goes to a French clown
20:36
school, which I think is based on Gallia, and then he becomes a
20:40
rodeo clown. Oh, OK, but he wants to be an
20:43
artistic clown, but in a rodeo it's very.
20:47
Good. I've never seen it like it
20:49
really. OK, I'll watch it.
20:50
OK, but I anyway. But I went, I never did
20:53
clowning, funnily enough, which I think, yeah.
20:56
But I genuinely, I went because I didn't really have anything to
20:59
lose. I was 24.
21:00
I was like, do I want to do a PhD?
21:01
Do you want to become, do you want to try being a comedian
21:04
like again? And then I just.
21:06
PhD in what? I want to do a PhD exploring the
21:10
impact of silence on the evolution of the female clown
21:16
and the body. So you know, when people always
21:18
talk about how the men are I. Was going to do that, were you?
21:21
Oh. No, wait.
21:22
Sorry. Sorry, damn it.
21:25
When, when they you talk about, you know, those stupid articles
21:30
about men are funnier than women, are women funny?
21:32
It's always based on written word.
21:34
It's always based on text and it's often always based on what
21:36
you say. And when you look at the history
21:38
of when you look at cinema in particular, women actually, the
21:44
when you look at Marilyn Monroe, Lucille Ball, Alice Howe, female
21:48
clowns, female comedians, and I would say Marilyn Monroe is a
21:52
clown. It actually comes through the
21:54
body because you have less lines.
21:56
So the when you watch lots of Marilyn stuff, she's so funny.
22:02
She knows exactly how her body moves.
22:04
Same with Lucille. And when you look at a lot of
22:06
clowning in Shakespeare, the women often have less lines.
22:09
But like there's so much clowning that comes from the
22:11
physicality and going. When people talk about men and
22:14
women, who's funnier or what? What's different actually when
22:18
when you look at history and female performers like Victoria
22:21
Wood and Julia Waters, like so much of it is in the physical
22:24
first, not the vocal. But isn't the bottom line
22:27
though, in this type of comedy is not being afraid to make fun
22:32
of yourself? So even man or woman, if you're
22:36
not afraid to look silly. I suppose.
22:41
You're a step above. But it's also like making sure
22:44
that you're not afraid to be silly, so you control that power
22:47
over how audiences view you. Like, what I like about a lot of
22:50
those artists is they're. So I think it's the difference
22:53
between people talk about the clan not having gender, I'm
22:56
like, that's absolute bollocks. Like that's such a lie.
22:59
You cannot remove gender from an artist on stage.
23:03
Like for example, my mate Damien, who does Gary Starr, he
23:06
gets fully naked on stage and he's super naked.
23:08
He does the whole show, Penguins and I, and it's a really, it's a
23:12
really fun show. It's super.
23:13
Fun tackle, like everything. Wow.
23:15
And it works. What is the address of this
23:18
place? I thought, yeah, go and see it.
23:19
It works for a variety of reasons which I won't like
23:23
necessarily convey because I think that's more his to analyse
23:25
and also we'd probably disagree on certain aspects.
23:28
But if I tried to do his show, I think it would not, it would be
23:33
funny in a very it would naturally become political.
23:35
Like you look at Natalie Palomidos, the way she uses
23:37
nudity in her work, she's fucking exceptional.
23:40
She's like a modern day Buffon because she's always playing
23:43
with that. Are you going to objectify me?
23:45
Are you not like right in your face like?
23:47
Challenging. Yeah, and I think naturally when
23:50
women use nudity on stage or like what's her name, it would
23:55
be phenomenal. Sex Clown based in Australia and
23:57
she's great but like. Who is that sex clown Kenny?
24:01
Betty. You would know this.
24:02
Betty grumble, but it's. Like sounds like a Flintstones
24:05
character. She's fucking iconic.
24:07
She's so cool. Betty Grumble.
24:10
Yeah, she'd love it. She's she's a good woman.
24:13
But it's like you use your body. Like I get naked a lot in my
24:17
work and I think it's more important as I get older,
24:20
especially because like. You get naked.
24:23
Well, just like not there's that moment where there's this
24:26
expectation that you have to stop because you have to grow
24:29
up. And I go, why does nudity have
24:31
to be something youthful? Because what you're saying then
24:34
is it's an aesthetic choice and there's something naive and play
24:38
and innocent about that. But why can't an adult like, you
24:42
know, my body's changed significantly and like I'm only
24:44
13? It's probably even more
24:46
important as you're older to feel.
24:48
Free to feel free and especially like yeah and anyway I can't
24:51
remember I I've tackled off the. Worcester School in New York.
24:55
Yeah. Oh, OK Yeah.
24:57
Because, I mean, apparently Willem Dafoe would get his kid
25:00
out and he'd. I heard there was 1.
25:04
I don't know if this is true or not, but there was one show
25:07
where he and another person would trip on acid and they
25:13
would open the curtains just as it was getting to its height and
25:17
they'd be totally naked. It's it's.
25:22
And I'll be doing that Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Drury Lane
25:26
Theatre. But just in the audience,
25:29
because you're not going to show.
25:30
No, I'll just be an audience. I think the woman in Black's on
25:33
there. I'd love that.
25:34
The woman in black. And I'd get a discount, wouldn't
25:39
I? Yeah, I hope so.
25:41
Yeah, I mean it's. Harry Potter, Harry, Harry's
25:47
dad. Hi.
25:50
So when you went to this, to the school, how did your life
25:55
change? I, I think hugely, if I to be
25:58
honest, I don't think anything I've achieved.
26:01
You know I can't predict. You can't.
26:04
Was it a whole year? I was there for two years.
26:06
Two years and was initially. Was it to say I'm going to use
26:12
this to heighten my stand up? Yeah, I just had nothing.
26:15
I I like I went to Adelaide Fringe and loads of the weird.
26:18
Artists into that, it's cool. Isn't it?
26:19
What year did you go? I think you might have been
26:22
there the first time. Earlier.
26:23
When I like 20. 1490s. 90s Oh wow, that must have been wild.
26:28
Yeah, it was truly wild. I told Kenny about it.
26:32
How old was when you first started?
26:34
How? What was how?
26:35
Because I knew you and became familiar with you through the
26:37
Mighty Boosh when I was a teenager.
26:39
But like when you before all that with all the stuff you did,
26:42
were you always like super? Like I went to Chicago to do
26:46
improv. Oh, so you were boom?
26:48
Were you a boom boy? But no, I was there when they
26:51
just started boom. And they they would actually
26:54
come to Chicago and say, hey, we've got this thing in
26:57
Amsterdam, who wants to come? And then I, I never.
27:02
Yeah, OK, but I visited. Yeah.
27:06
But anyway, what I'm trying to say is, yeah, I started doing
27:11
that before the Bush. You would be quite a good spy, I
27:14
think. Yeah.
27:16
Because you're quite, you don't give all the answers when I ask
27:19
you questions. I I give you, then you
27:21
immediately detract and then you take it back.
27:23
And I'm like because I want to know more about.
27:24
You. I'm trying.
27:26
This is interesting because all of the podcasts, people start
27:30
asking me questions. Yeah.
27:32
And it's your podcast. No.
27:35
You're the guest. That's very stupid.
27:38
I disagree. I'm just a guest.
27:40
It's like a meal. Like you have different meals,
27:42
but you have to have different. You don't go to a restaurant and
27:45
just have pasta, You have pasta with sauce and pepper and salt
27:49
and other things. So you've got to really back
27:51
yourself here. You're like the main part of the
27:54
dish and then every guest is like a new flavour.
27:57
But inherently, when people listen to this podcast, the
28:00
pasta they want is the fish vulture pastor.
28:03
This is the teacher in you coming out.
28:05
Is it? Yeah, you're telling me how the
28:08
podcast goes. Oh, sorry.
28:09
No, no, no. Look at the end of the day, you
28:12
do whatever you want and you follow your, but I'm just giving
28:14
you some advice on what I think. No, no, I just think going
28:17
further forward you really need to have a lot more faith in your
28:20
abilities and realise that we want to interview you just much
28:23
so going. Forward, OK, All right.
28:27
That was me pretending to be more of a teacher.
28:29
Is that OK? Am I coming across like a bully?
28:31
No, no, it's fine. We'll see in the commentary
28:36
whether or not that was true, but I don't think it's.
28:40
Yeah, you're not a bully. I don't.
28:42
Think I think I'd be a terrible bully.
28:44
So after the OK you knew after two years I'm going to go back
28:50
to England and take all of my knowledge and skills.
28:54
No, not really. It was like, it was sort of like
28:57
the best way to describe it. I went to Adelaide Fringe, I got
28:59
this thing called the Ideas Tap Award with Ideas Tap used to be
29:02
this really cool online for young people to get access to
29:06
the access to shows. I did Vault Festival and it was
29:10
like my first proper solo thing and I was doing this show about
29:14
Barbarella the comic book. Oh yeah.
29:17
And and then I and then I got and because I didn't have, I
29:19
just completed my masters. I didn't have really, I really
29:23
had no idea. Like I hadn't been signed by
29:25
management. I was still in comedy.
29:26
There was like. So you were in that limbo
29:28
period. Limbo period of going, do I want
29:30
to go down the academic route or do I try and see if I can make
29:35
this work one more time? And then I can't remember what
29:38
had happened but someone said do my delayed Fringe and so I did
29:40
crowdfunding and I raised enough money to get the venue hire and
29:44
I got accepted to do producers for two weeks.
29:48
I've never gone to Australia before.
29:49
There's a lot of physical theatre in Australia.
29:53
Yeah, and I and I went out to Adelaide and I had no idea,
29:57
genuinely, I was so green. And I went out there.
30:00
Helen Duff was there, Trig V Wakenshaw was there, Doctor
30:03
Brown was doing a workshop, Penny Greenlee.
30:05
There were so many different alternative clowns and artists.
30:10
And there was this amazing Canadian comedian called Nick
30:12
Nemeroff who sadly passed away. And he, I mean, he was just
30:16
superb, Like he did Conan. And I think like there was just
30:19
a really beautiful group of us and Demi Lardner and and Damian
30:24
Gary Starr and like, I'd never met so many weirdos.
30:30
Yeah. And I, yeah.
30:32
And I was, you know, I was only 24, But it was a real community
30:34
of people who also in Australia, like the comedy, you know, like
30:39
there's so many amazing alternative comics we know from
30:42
Australia. But the truth is the Australian
30:44
scene doesn't necessarily support the alternative artist
30:47
there. So like that's often when they
30:50
travel and go elsewhere, but like they're really like
30:53
thirsty. And and then Doctor Brown said
30:56
to me, I did his course, Phil. And he went look, you're he was
30:59
like, you look, he's American. He's like, yeah, yeah, really
31:03
cool. He was like, you have Dugalia.
31:05
So I thought, OK. And then I thought you had to
31:07
apply. I just sent an e-mail to Mitch
31:09
Country, went pay the deposit and you can come.
31:12
So I paid the deposit. That's the beauty of his class,
31:15
right? So you turn up and it's
31:16
basically everybody. Well, it was when I went there,
31:19
like the youngest person was 18. There was someone much older
31:23
like a proper proper adult. So many different mix
31:26
experiences was one guy, James, who had been a bus driver and
31:29
just found details of it on the Internet like.
31:31
He kept doing this all the time. He was.
31:34
He was a. Really good.
31:35
No, no, no. He was.
31:39
But like, you know, when you think about most drama schools,
31:42
so I get really defensive when people slag off Golia, like the
31:45
Golia group, I'm like, it's one of the most they.
31:48
Shouldn't though? Literally anyone can go.
31:50
You can pay in cash, you can pay in monthly instalments.
31:53
It's much more affordable than any other drama school.
31:56
It's so much cheaper to stay there than it is.
31:59
Like I come to London to go to A.
32:00
Drama school. OK, what if this happened?
32:02
What if one month you go up to Gallia and you say I'm so sorry,
32:07
I can't afford the next class, what do I do?
32:11
I think that like they have lots of things that they did, like
32:15
they were genuine. Like a lot of I'm going to
32:17
answer your question sincerely, but like, I, I mean, I was, I
32:21
was lucky I could, I could afford to go like I'd saved up
32:24
before time. So, you know, I wasn't in that
32:26
state, but I knew other people who were, which was why it was
32:30
like a buffet system. So some would go away for a
32:32
couple of weeks, they'd work and then they.
32:33
'D come back, oh, right before the next.
32:35
Yeah. And so that happened a lot.
32:37
And they would reserve people their space if they knew.
32:40
And like I when I say I did the full 2 years, I didn't do clown
32:43
in the second year because I had to come back to the UK to work.
32:46
So I went back and then I I did the Ducky Homosexualist summer
32:50
School at the Royal Vauxhall. That one does.
32:53
Yeah, with the Ursula Martinez, she was our mentor for that and
32:56
that was really important to me. So I think in truth, like having
33:00
that experience and then just starting to make work.
33:04
And I was so insecure in my body.
33:06
And Philippe would always say you don't want to be beautiful,
33:09
you don't want to be. You're so desperate to be liked.
33:13
But we don't like you when you're trying to be nice.
33:14
We like it when you're a bitch. And I think for me, because I
33:17
was. Always.
33:18
That's what I'm saying. You know, the comedy comes from
33:21
not caring about how you look. Yeah.
33:24
So like releasing that bitch and like releasing a lot of.
33:28
You're inner bitch. Yeah, like when I started
33:30
dressing up as like, Boof and I really discovered Boof on, which
33:33
was the thing I really loved and like, yeah.
33:37
And then I made this show Swan just for fun because I'd made in
33:39
between that period of time. So am I talking to him dude?
33:42
You just did a show out of the blue.
33:46
Well, I'd made so in between the first year and the second year
33:49
of Golier I because I've made being Barbarella, I've made
33:52
about 16 to 18 solo shows now. Like that's great.
33:56
But I made a show called Pelican, which was an emotional
33:58
show. You're doing a solo show right
34:00
now. Am I?
34:02
No, no. I mean, you're that busy that
34:04
you're probably thinking of one right now.
34:06
Well yeah, well no, I'm making so I've got 5 shows on the go at
34:09
the moment. So there's ones at the Soho
34:11
Theatre are Swan, which is the one woman production of Swan
34:14
Lake in an hour in French. Then there's Chiff Chaff which
34:17
is the verbatim musical about the economy.
34:19
So I lip sync interviews with me and my dad about economics and
34:22
that's I'm really proud of that one.
34:24
And it doesn't get enough. This one always gets loads of
34:28
price from because it's just pure silliness for silliness
34:30
sake and I love that. And it's really punk and I'm
34:33
proud and every time it changes because I'm getting better as a
34:35
performer. Chiff Chaff is more complex
34:37
because there is more meat to it, I think, especially as I've
34:41
gotten older doing it. And then there's Raven, which is
34:43
the Buffon comedy horror show inspired by Stephen King and I
34:47
turn and it's that's like really hard and I, I'm really proud of
34:51
that one. That's a lot nice.
34:52
And then there's Horses, which is on in January in the Soho
34:54
Theatre. And that's me reenacting all my
34:56
favourite horses from history really.
34:58
And that's about playing that uses a lot of verbatim theatre
35:01
and stuff. And then the new show Woman on
35:03
the Edge is about, and I'm making this at the moment, which
35:06
was what I previewed at Amstam and and this real show is about
35:10
because I was meant to get married this year in June and
35:13
then me and my fiance broke up in March.
35:16
I was. OK.
35:17
And so it was really stressful because I was pretending to be a
35:20
horse and I was on tour of Australia and then I had to do a
35:22
tour in the UK and I was just having a bit of a terrible time,
35:24
to be honest. And then and like in that whole
35:28
relationship about yourself and you get like, like that
35:32
fragmentation, you know? Have you seen Vertigo by Air?
35:35
She's like, can you just love me for the way I am?
35:37
And she keep I'll change for you.
35:39
And that thing that you do sometimes you forget to love
35:43
because we're so used to how we're being viewed constantly
35:46
from the outside in. You forget to kiss your own body
35:49
to sleep at night. So the show's called The Woman
35:51
on the Edge and it's basically about a woman on the edge, like
35:54
a Hitchcockian fragmentation. And and then it's also about how
35:59
I find it very difficult to just be me, neutral, calm, because I
36:03
think the worry I always have is that if it wasn't for the things
36:06
I'm brilliant at, I don't think I've got any value.
36:09
So it's me being this woman on the edge going, I'm so sorry.
36:13
I don't know who I am anymore. And like going out and going, I
36:17
just need somebody. And I keep on finding all these
36:19
bananas and like all these things.
36:22
And then when I break down and I become me, I find it.
36:25
I can never perform in my own voice on stage.
36:27
Like I find this really. So it's always a character.
36:29
So I can't do this. So I instead I've written this
36:32
stuff, this text, and then I get an audience member, another
36:35
woman to read it and I lip sync it and it's not funny.
36:38
It's me just being like, these are the things that are this
36:41
good. And then it splits between the
36:43
two and there's lots of other things and there's lots of magic
36:45
tricks would. You ever do all 18 shows in a
36:48
row? Yeah.
36:50
Like a marathon. I'm just saying before you get
36:53
way too many shows. Yeah, I would do like as I was
36:56
like, yeah, if the space is right and I've got the right
36:58
team to help me. Yeah.
37:00
I think we can do anything. I think you can do anything if
37:03
you put your mind, like at the end of the day, they got those
37:05
three men back from space on Apollo 13.
37:07
Like I always think about this anytime I.
37:09
Think they do that? It's incredible, isn't?
37:12
It paper. Yeah, this yeah, when they when
37:15
you think about they had the carbon monoxide poisoning and
37:17
they just looked at everything and they.
37:19
Yeah, they put out on the table they had crayons.
37:23
It's no, they didn't borscht. You had a bowl.
37:26
Of you're joking. No, no, I mean, but they had all
37:28
this stuff. I can see why people can't tell.
37:31
I always believe. You and they did it?
37:35
Yeah. How did they, if they can do
37:38
that, Yeah. Right.
37:39
Well, This is why, well, failure is not an option is what Gene
37:43
Krantz said when they were like, we need to get them home and
37:45
they were like, failure is not an option.
37:46
And that's our family mantra. Failure is not an option.
37:49
And every time I think anything's too difficult, I
37:51
think of those three men in space.
37:53
But I think you're up to that challenge because I mean, to
37:56
just do three shows within a span of 10 days, that's pretty
38:03
big accomplishment. Yes.
38:05
Do you know what? I'm really proud of it.
38:07
I think in hindsight I probably because I just donated my eggs
38:10
as well and so I was on hormone therapy.
38:13
To NASA I. Would I would give anything to
38:18
NASA? I love NASA.
38:20
Shoot them in the space. Yeah, but they wouldn't be much
38:23
use over unless someone fertiliser made a little alien
38:26
baby. Yes.
38:27
No, I donated my eggs because I was like, well these ones are
38:30
going to go to waste. But like, people need them and
38:32
we one of 154 children in the UK, is born via sperm or egg
38:36
donation. One out of 154.
38:40
Children. And so when you actually think,
38:43
statistically speaking, people think it's a very rare thing.
38:45
It's actually. Do you mind if we call that a
38:47
fun fact? OK, well, I.
38:50
Think the I think population and encouraging birth rates is fun
38:54
because, you know, we're actually in a real issue here
38:56
with people not having children. UN mask.
39:00
Yeah, yeah, the pro naturist they're, they're bizarre.
39:05
They've got we me and my dad actually did an economics
39:07
podcast on this as well, but you guys have.
39:10
Been covering everything. He's really cool.
39:13
I really like him. I love my family.
39:17
Well, I mean, not many people can say that.
39:19
It's usually one parent or the other.
39:22
I mean, I used to not always been great, but like I'm very
39:26
grateful that like my siblings, like we all argue a lot.
39:29
And also because me and Lulu and Joe, we all didn't, you know, we
39:32
all went to boarding school. So our relationship to each
39:34
other is slightly different, like we're really close.
39:37
Do they support your? Venture and my God, my brother
39:41
will call me and he'll be like, right, Emily, I've booked 10
39:44
tickets to see your show and I'm bringing all my friends, OK,
39:48
just to let you know, right? I've told everyone and then like
39:51
they literally my brother, my brother will come repeatedly to
39:54
my shows and it's like it's really special.
39:56
How does he sit in the chair? He doesn't go like this.
39:58
He sits like this, 'cause he, he, he's doing what I when I was
40:02
a kid, you seem to watch my dad give speeches.
40:06
I would never remember anything my dad said because I was so
40:08
busy looking at everyone else, because I'd be so nervous
40:12
watching my dad going. Oh, I'd be and because and.
40:15
His lectures, yeah. Yeah, and even now, like I was,
40:19
I was in Warsaw teaching the other day and I was on my own in
40:22
the hotel. Room.
40:23
Wait, what were you teaching in Warsaw?
40:25
Clowning and Buffon. And it was so.
40:27
You're you're teach this everywhere.
40:29
Yeah, so I travel around the world teaching clown.
40:32
I love it you. Teach business people.
40:37
That's where you need to do it right.
40:39
I do get business. Like there was one guy in the,
40:41
in one of my classes, I won't say from where from one that
40:45
I've taught this year and he's like, I do public speaking and I
40:48
scoot for me to learn to be free in my body, which is why I would
40:52
like to be a baby dinosaur. I will apply this to my business
40:59
acumen. It helps me be more free and I
41:02
feel much more free in myself. So I really love these
41:04
individuals who come in like are very vulnerable because they're
41:07
trusting you, which is why I mean, I, I loved, I love
41:11
teaching. I have friends that are, they do
41:14
improv workshops for businesses and stuff because, you know, the
41:18
business wants you to free up your mind.
41:21
Use the right side of your brain, yeah, as well as your
41:24
left. I think that's a myth though
41:27
about the different side. Like I think they do merge to
41:30
get you know there's a side. Just go with that, OK?
41:33
So no, no, yeah, I don't know. But I'm just saying that's
41:37
what's going on right now. Do I need to be giving you more
41:40
of what can I do to go Yes. And your jokes?
41:44
No. No, I'm taking everything you
41:46
say with great seriousness. Is it?
41:48
It's a give and take of an interview, right?
41:51
Is it? Yeah.
41:52
OK. So have you ever done straight
41:57
stand up? Yeah, it.
41:58
Yeah. I'm quite good at it, but I just
42:02
it. Doesn't it scores you?
42:04
It doesn't give me pleasure, so I spat everywhere.
42:07
Because it's just all verbal or most of the time it's verbal.
42:11
Yeah, and I just don't. I like I'm in admiration of some
42:16
some phenomenal good stand ups and I watch the way they do
42:19
jokes and I love it. But for me, I'd like, you know.
42:23
To like. Yeah, but like to sit down and
42:27
just I, when I see them in Edinburgh, they're often in
42:30
coffee shops, literally do writing, writing, writing,
42:32
writing, writing. Well, I go to like, like this
42:35
morning I booked a rehearsal studio for three and 3-4 hours
42:38
and I just sort of play audio recordings of my family that
42:41
I've interviewed or like a newspaper article I found
42:45
interesting and I've recorded myself reading it.
42:46
And then I just move to it until an idea comes.
42:50
Oh, so you're living life? Like I try and make either way I
42:54
make work I've realised isn't or the way that I find pleasure
42:57
doing it isn't like that. And then I go as much as I want
43:01
to, you know? Yeah, Not when you meet people
43:04
and they're like desperate. Like I'm you meet people and go,
43:06
I want to be a wacky comedian. And you go, yeah, yeah.
43:09
You're not wacky though. You're actually really funny
43:11
when you're just kind of boring. So just do that like.
43:13
Embrace your boring. Just embrace exactly who you
43:16
are. Like, I think you, We spent so
43:18
long trying to do what we think we have to do and just play.
43:23
This is why showing off, if you're good at what, the amount
43:26
of times you teach someone and they go, yeah, I'm really good
43:28
at dancing. And I'm like, well, why don't
43:30
you dance on stage? Well, it just feels a bit like,
43:31
and I'm like, you're literally good at something.
43:33
Well. Do it?
43:35
I have this theory too. A lot of people, they skip over
43:39
the thing that they're good at is almost like a guilt thing.
43:43
Like I'm good at this. I should be working harder at
43:46
something and then it takes a while and sometimes they come
43:50
back to it and they go, why wasn't I doing this all along?
43:54
I love playing the fiddle in my with no shoes.
43:57
Yeah, if you're good at playing the fiddle, play the bloody
44:00
fiddle. You meet people and they and
44:02
they tell you their idea. And then I'm like, OK, and you
44:04
just sort of let someone talk and, and you're like, and it's
44:07
like when you direct someone or work with someone in a room, I
44:09
just like them to a freestyle talk for like, however long and
44:12
I listen. And then they'll casually drop
44:14
in like, oh, yeah. And like when I was in Russian,
44:16
am I all Russian? They're like, oh, yeah, I speak
44:17
fluent Russian. And I'm like, oh, do you ever
44:20
speak fluent Russian on stage? And I'm like, oh, no, why would
44:22
I? No, I just, I mean, you can
44:24
speak a different language. How many can you speak when
44:26
you're 12? Yeah.
44:27
And then you're like, why the hell if you can speak?
44:30
Aren't you doing that? Aren't you using it or someone
44:32
will go casually? Oh yeah, I'm, I'm I.
44:35
Did you have a trapdoor? Yeah, get out.
44:38
Go, but yeah, that's how I sort of make stuff.
44:41
But then also it's good to. I think it depends what makes
44:44
you funny. I always pick something I'm not
44:46
good at for each show so I can get better at it.
44:49
So by the time I wasn't very good at physical comedy, now I'm
44:52
good at physical comedy, I wasn't good at verbatim theatre.
44:55
Now I'm really good at verbatim theatre.
44:57
Like I like getting building up. I couldn't do VSL.
45:00
Now I can do VSL. With you talking, I have all
45:03
these questions, and then by the time you stop, we're at another
45:08
question. Sorry, no, But I would say, can
45:11
you figure out what makes each person funny?
45:15
How long would it take you to do that?
45:18
I'm quite, I'm, I'm good at it quick.
45:20
I'm pretty quick, OK, I'm, I think, but I mean, I've talked
45:24
for a really long time and I, I take it so, so fucking seriously
45:28
and I read so much about it. And but the main goal is just
45:30
you watch people. You just watch people.
45:33
You watch how they breathe, you study their body.
45:35
On the street, yeah. Or.
45:37
Yeah, yeah. Or just I really like, you know,
45:39
it's such, yeah. It was just, I don't want to say
45:43
the phrase reading people, but but it's just asking specific
45:48
questions and working out and also asking people what they
45:51
need because I think listening to what people need will tell
45:54
you. What do you need?
45:55
Yeah. When I teach someone I say what
45:57
do you need? And then if someone says I just
46:00
need to feel, you know, the common 1 is often I need to free
46:02
free or I just need to be silly. And that opens up that tells you
46:06
everything about you've got a lot of stuff on right now,
46:10
right? You've you can't, we can't
46:13
analyse. We go home and watch Dexter.
46:16
Yeah, right. We just need to keep it light.
46:20
Yeah, Oh yeah, yeah. Keep it light.
46:22
Or watch Dexter. I mean, I love blood.
46:24
Yeah. Do they have lots of blood in
46:27
Dexter? Well, yeah, it's so rare.
46:28
I don't. Think Oh yeah, that's.
46:30
Right. Or did you just say Dexter, but
46:31
you didn't know what it was? Or did you mean Dexter's
46:33
Laboratory? No, I knew it was the show
46:37
Dexter, but I heard it's a 15 and not an 18, so I wasn't sure
46:42
about the blood level. So you were talking about in
46:45
Australia how you felt like you met you met all these people
46:49
that were alternative. Yeah, comedy.
46:51
Do you feel like that group they stick by each other more than
46:56
because you know, stand up comics sometimes can be a little
47:00
bit. Why is that reminded?
47:02
I think the cool what? Yeah, I like I never.
47:06
Was there any backstabby? Behaviour.
47:09
No, I've never experienced that, or if I have, I'm not aware of
47:12
it. So I suppose that's the good
47:14
thing. The backstabbing's not impacted
47:16
the vertebrae. Like I've managed to all ground
47:18
relatively unscathed. But I think what I like the
47:23
Adelaide Fringe now I'm going there this year and I'm at the
47:25
Courtyard of Curiosities and they and it's organised by.
47:29
Brit and. Nick, it's a really beautiful
47:32
like Brit and Nick have like curated this phenomenal family
47:36
of artists and alternative performers, but like the
47:39
WhatsApp group and we had this beautiful day earlier this year.
47:43
Like the support for each other is immense and actually, and I
47:47
can say that as also because I had a tough year and like the
47:51
comics around me and actually to my ex as well because they knew
47:55
him like to both of us has been just so phenomenal and no
48:00
picking sides like. Just you haven't taken sides.
48:03
No, because usually they take sides, Yeah.
48:05
But also if someone has their own sides, it's like we're all
48:07
professionals here. And also I think in the
48:09
alternative comedy world and I I suppose also to an extent at
48:13
golly it was quite not debauched, but you know, you
48:16
were very intimate with everyone, your close friends,
48:18
everybody slept with each other. Like there's a lot of, I think
48:21
more open understanding about how relationships rise and fall
48:26
and being professional and those.
48:29
And it's why I love the, you know, like Stamptown, that whole
48:31
group of the clowns. And I went to Golia with a lot
48:34
of those guys. And I love that collection of
48:36
artists, the way everyone comes together and.
48:39
What is Stamptown? It's a really.
48:40
Close to workers. They stamp tank comes from like
48:44
the Gollier Tomp, so stamp and it's like a cool clown mixed
48:49
bill night and it's run by these two cute little Canadian boys.
48:55
Or is that Canadians? I think he's from New York.
48:58
Actually. He's Zack Zucker, Johnny
48:59
Woolley, and this whole gang of cool artists.
49:02
And just like it's all what I like about clowns is.
49:07
You should write a history book of clowning.
49:10
That was what I'd really like to do.
49:11
Actually, that would be. Great because people would get
49:14
up to speed on it because I think it's in the zeitgeist now
49:19
in comedy. Yeah, it really is.
49:21
And John Davison actually is a really cool academic and clown
49:24
teacher and he does a really plug.
49:26
He does a really great online clown theory course and very
49:29
affordable clown teaching courses.
49:31
But he has a book called Clowns about the history of clowning
49:35
and it. I think it's one of the best.
49:37
But I think you could add to the level of the modern day
49:41
clowning. Yeah, I'd love to.
49:42
Like I've wanted to write that for years, but I just
49:45
truthfully, I've, I never have the time because I'm either
49:47
teaching or or making a show and to say write a book.
49:51
Would you ever have this? Like do you want to?
49:53
Like, no, but what I'm saying is, I know people have been
49:56
doing this with improv and sketch.
49:59
Yeah, because it's now part of the Zika, you know, like people
50:03
are sort of breaking down things and they're nerds in every type
50:11
of. Field My plan for 2026 is
50:13
actually like to I need to make this new show OK, but I'm
50:18
touring Australia with Swan. But in between that I want to
50:22
write. I want to write.
50:24
Would you ever write when you're on tour?
50:26
No, it's too much. It's so hard, isn't it too much?
50:29
Everyone thinks that my sister said this to me and my dad said
50:32
this to me when I was every year when I go to Edinburgh.
50:35
Don't ride on tour, they would say.
50:38
Don't Well, they say my dad just says mom and both my parents say
50:41
my mom's like you have to go to bed and you have to rest.
50:44
And my dad goes. You treat yourself like an
50:45
athlete during the Olympics. You don't see the guy who's
50:48
running 100 metres doing a casual 5K in the morning or
50:51
going swimming. You just have to you sleep.
50:54
And my sister and Emily, you've got to treat yourself like
50:56
Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift is an athlete and
50:58
that ear is tall, is so gruelling and you need to sit.
51:02
And my sister always tells me to be you like Taylor.
51:04
Swift Well, you know what TS does?
51:06
She's on the treadmill and she goes through her whole show.
51:10
Yeah, on the treadmill. I do that.
51:12
So that's what you need to. Do I do that as you swim?
51:14
I go swimming every day and I go through every single show.
51:18
That's what I do. It's stand up.
51:20
But it's. Important, but do you?
51:22
Find this like do you warm up before your shows?
51:24
Like, you know, like improvisers they would like. 12345678123456.
51:32
765432165432164. 4 You would not have liked me if we were in an
51:37
improv group together. I don't believe that.
51:40
I would shy away from the somebody would always go, let's,
51:43
let's warm up, Zip. Oh, I hate zip ZAP.
51:49
No, no away, ZAP. I hate it.
51:52
So no, I hate games. I hate, Oh my God, when you do a
52:00
workshop, I hate paying to do a workshop.
52:03
And they're like, let's play some games, go teach me some
52:05
fucking skills. Call it an exercise.
52:08
Goddammit, games nonsense. We're not 4, right?
52:12
We're going to be an octopus and we do it fucking properly.
52:16
Octopus. No games.
52:18
You're an octopus now. Yeah.
52:21
And a bus driver. Yeah.
52:27
Right. I like you.
52:28
You're fun. Oh.
52:29
OK. Oh, the verdicts out.
52:32
Usually they don't say it till the end.
52:35
Oh, really? I really hated this interview.
52:38
Or something like that. Yeah.
52:41
Did you just raise your hands? No.
52:43
OK. We were saying something and
52:46
then I had a thought and I can't remember it now.
52:48
Oh. But.
52:50
Yeah, regarding warming up, this is something I find really funny
52:54
about comedians. And I think it's the difference,
52:56
like how stand ups unintentionally don't respect
53:00
their own art form. Because the amount of times I'll
53:02
go to a comedy gig and the other stand ups would just be like
53:05
drinking and chatting. They'll maybe like flick through
53:08
their book and then they go on stage and you go, you've not
53:10
done a vocal warm up, You've not stretched.
53:12
I'm not saying even if you're standing still, there's a
53:15
headspit. Like we don't, we don't.
53:19
It's very rare. I think the more pro you get and
53:22
like obviously during Edinburgh, people realise the pressure and
53:24
the stakes and the cost of it. But I would always say to new
53:28
acts, warm up, find somewhere. Like I always remember doing
53:32
that. Like I remember doing a funny
53:34
winning gig many moons ago and being the only girl like
53:37
backstage before we went on stage doing warm ups and
53:41
everyone was like, what are you going to do?
53:42
And I was like, I'm just doing. Stand up, but in the corner
53:44
doing all those I was doing. My, I was doing Pam, Pam like
53:47
power poses and I was doing all this sort of stuff to stretch my
53:50
body out, to calm my breath down so I could go on stage.
53:54
And because you sometimes watch artists come on stage and
53:57
they're like, do you know when they come on and they go, hi, my
53:59
name is. And anyway, I don't know if you
54:01
know, and it's such funny. Everything they're saying is so
54:02
funny, but nobody is laughing because no point have I actually
54:06
come on stage and take. It back.
54:09
Or they breathe through their nose and you're like, don't
54:11
breathe through your nose. If you breathe through your
54:13
nose, people will think that you're not breathing.
54:15
Stand ups don't do enough for that.
54:17
But I will say this, sorry. From my perspective, I'd like to
54:22
get there early because I don't like to be.
54:25
You're on in 5 minutes, you rush in and you just go on stage.
54:29
You have no idea what the environment's like.
54:33
You can't soak up the room and then you're right, talking is
54:37
good. Beforehand you need to get your
54:39
voice drink to. Where you want to drink lots of
54:41
proper water and then also watch all the other acts.
54:45
I always think like you don't watch it just to.
54:47
Even if they're not funny, it doesn't matter even if you've
54:49
seen them before, watch everyone perform look exactly because the
54:54
I've seen comics die who aren't who are so funny because they
54:58
turned up late and then they talk to the same one and they
55:00
touch on stuff that you go, ah, if you were here earlier, you
55:04
would have known that there's whole.
55:04
Vibe and people in the audience too.
55:07
And the audience get it. And I.
55:08
Didn't know you were an amputee, sorry.
55:13
Yeah, yeah. And they almost hate you for it
55:16
when you start to go over old. I agree with that.
55:19
And not staying to watch the headliner.
55:21
I've noticed that so many like when you acts now not staying to
55:25
watch the headline. You're like you.
55:27
The headline is where you're going to learn the most.
55:30
Like watch them because they might not be funny, they might
55:32
be doing brand new material, but just watch how they're
55:34
breathing. But what if you have to catch a
55:36
train or? Something.
55:37
Oh yeah, totally. But then I always think if I
55:39
have to leave to catch a train, I get there earlier to watch as
55:42
many acts as I can and I notify people if I'm going to shoot
55:44
off. Or you just stay overnight at
55:48
the club. Yeah, you just live there.
55:50
Yeah, yeah, some people do. I've done that.
55:54
I've I've like if I knew there was an act I really wanted to
55:57
see and I wasn't going to get home, I'd find I like,
56:00
especially when I started, but then I don't know I was a real I
56:03
was. You went for it.
56:05
You went for it. I.
56:05
Went for it but I also was still like I was a baby and it was all
56:08
very overwhelming. Kenny and I know somebody,
56:11
Barry, who lives at a club. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
56:17
Angel. Yeah.
56:18
He brives the club. Barry.
56:19
Live there? Yeah.
56:20
I didn't realise he lived there. Yeah.
56:22
He's a lovely man, Yeah. And he's got lovely parents.
56:26
He does. I saw them in the I think they
56:28
were queuing to see the the Queen when she passed, I saw
56:31
him, he was with his parents. I think they'd gone to the
56:34
Anyway I bumped into. Him.
56:34
They're both economists, are they?
56:36
No, I don't know, sorry. No, I just need to learn to stop
56:41
being gullible. Now listen.
56:43
It's like every time a guy tells me I'm the first girl he's ever
56:45
slept with and falling in love with I'm like Oh my God this
56:47
happens every time now. There is a segment in the show,
56:53
OK, it's called fill in the blank.
56:55
OK, all right, I ask you 5 questions with a blank and you
56:59
just fill it in usually. Don't try to be funny, just say.
57:02
I never tried to be funny. Yeah, in fact, that's good.
57:07
The last song I heard today was Blank.
57:13
Go by the public service broadcast.
57:15
Oh wait, no. Is it meant to be funny or am I
57:17
just answering honestly? No.
57:19
Go by public service. It's about the Apollo 11
57:21
landings. You're obsessed with Apollo.
57:25
I'm. Obsessed.
57:26
I'm listening to Gene Cranson's memoir right now.
57:28
I love space, OK? Didn't he die recently, Gene?
57:34
No, he's still got alive. Being a blank is so hard these
57:38
days. A human being.
57:42
Yeah. I know you said don't try and be
57:45
funny, but the problem is I'm now they're not funny.
57:47
It's like I'm just. What's wrong with human being?
57:51
That's really it is hard. I think it is hard.
57:53
Every day is difficult. It's a lot harder than a dog,
57:57
I'll tell you that. Yeah, although I, I, I'm so
58:01
upset that they can't see in colour.
58:04
Oh, isn't that awful? Do we know this for a fact?
58:08
Well, I, yeah. I don't know.
58:12
Blank is a big problem for me, especially around the holidays.
58:21
My first thought was being fertile, right?
58:23
But no, that's mainly just because I've been on.
58:27
So I was donating my eggs and I, and I'll be really honest with
58:31
you, I, they didn't quite tell me the impacts it was going to
58:35
have on my body because they, you're growing all the follicles
58:37
at the same time. And I was so horny.
58:41
I was so horny, like so immensely aroused during, whilst
58:47
I was in Warsaw. It was, it was actually
58:50
debilitating and I've never been like that so much so I had to
58:54
leave the Jewish Museum in Warsaw early and it's quite an
58:59
extensive museum. Like they recommend you take
59:03
about 5 hours to look around it. I got about 2 1/2 hours through
59:07
and I thought it's actually disrespectful because I was so
59:12
aroused, not by anything. I was just so in, like it was
59:16
just like I felt like I was transformed.
59:17
Wasn't the museum? Well, the museum was a it's a
59:21
beautiful museum and like, the layout's really great and the
59:24
room's like 10 out of 10 museum. But one man said to me he was
59:27
like, oh, you were not, You know, there's still a lot of the
59:30
exhibition to go. And I said, I'm so sorry.
59:32
I'm ovulating and I need to I need to go home.
59:36
You told him that. Well, yes, well, I didn't want
59:38
to lie and say, Oh no, I've had enough juice, thank you very
59:42
much. That would have been, you know,
59:43
like terrible thing to say. And that's obviously not true.
59:46
Very perfiduish museum. But I was too horny.
59:49
It felt wrong, Yeah. Especially because we were going
59:52
into the later parts and you know, it gets.
59:54
It gets worse. It's not good and I just thought
59:57
there's sort of some anyway, so I left home to like sort myself
1:00:02
out. Anyway, what I'm trying to say
1:00:05
is I think I'm still coming down from that and now it's the
1:00:08
Christmas period. But now I can really feel myself
1:00:11
ovulating again. So I'm just full of joyed of Eve
1:00:15
in my. Body.
1:00:17
So Christmas is a time of ovulation, La La la.
1:00:21
La La, La La la. I'd rather be a blank than a
1:00:25
blank. No way.
1:00:27
Yeah, that's right. I'd rather be a Guinea pig than
1:00:31
a hamster. Really excited Guinea pigs.
1:00:36
If you hold them upside down, their eyes fall out.
1:00:40
Is that true? I mean, you should never hold a
1:00:42
Guinea pig upside down anyway because their spines are so
1:00:45
delicate. It's like you should never put a
1:00:46
Guinea pig in a wheel. People always think Guinea pigs
1:00:48
should go in wheels. No, that's really, really bad.
1:00:50
Hamster's fine, but Guinea pig's also there.
1:00:52
I used to write for Guinea Pig Magazine and Guinea pigs I
1:00:56
heard. I think I said my subscription
1:00:59
ran out. Do you subscribe?
1:01:01
I used to. Oh yeah, it's a really beautiful
1:01:04
magazine. Was Helen?
1:01:06
Yes. Is better than popcorn when
1:01:09
watching a movie. Well, I said having sex, didn't
1:01:12
I? But now, to say that again would
1:01:14
suggest that I just desperately want to talk about having sex on
1:01:17
your podcast, which isn't really what my branding well, I don't
1:01:20
want. Well, you are ovulating.
1:01:22
I'm so ovulating, right? No, but I think focusing now.
1:01:28
I'm going to swap focusing and watching the film.
1:01:31
I don't need you to have a snack actually, just enjoy the
1:01:35
masterpiece and then afterwards we can have the popcorn in the
1:01:39
bar and we can talk about the film.
1:01:42
But like I said, at home now is the big test because you want to
1:01:46
watch something on TV. People are making noise,
1:01:50
throwing things. This, this is the thing.
1:01:53
Behaviour has changed so much during the cinema.
1:01:56
My mum used to do this when we were little.
1:01:58
My mum doesn't like people sitting near her.
1:02:00
Well, none of us do actually. And when we would go, we used to
1:02:02
go to the cinema all the time. We love cinema.
1:02:04
And my mum used to wake us up in the middle of the night and go,
1:02:06
you need to watch this now. And my mum would take us into
1:02:09
the living room and like, and she would show us the Terminator
1:02:11
two and one section show. This is what acting is.
1:02:15
And she would show me like scenes of Sarah Connor
1:02:17
discovering the terminating like, and then she would say go
1:02:20
back to bed and like, she really educated.
1:02:21
Herself. That was a nice nightmare.
1:02:23
Yeah, but we would, you know, we watched so many films as a
1:02:25
family. But I remember we'd go to the
1:02:27
cinema and if people who were naughty would come near us, it
1:02:30
was the period of time where, like, kids really were kicking
1:02:32
off in the centre. My mum would pretend to turn
1:02:34
into a monster. She'd sit there and go.
1:02:39
She would start doing all this and like, and then the kids
1:02:42
would freak out and run out of the cinema and my and then we'd
1:02:44
all laugh and then we'd carry on watching the film in silence.
1:02:47
Great. Yeah, my mum did it.
1:02:50
We once did this to get and see Shaun of the Dead at the cinema.
1:02:53
My brother was about 7:00 or 8:00 at the time, little boy,
1:02:56
and we all wanted to go with Nanny Squeak.
1:02:57
I think Nanny's, I think Granddad Squeak had just died.
1:03:00
And so I think at the time we really wanted to just do
1:03:02
something as a family to have fun.
1:03:04
So it was either, I think it was, it was either Hot Fuzz or
1:03:06
Shaun of the Dead, but one of those ones and we realised it
1:03:08
was a 15 so I could. Get.
1:03:11
Yeah. So I could get in because I, I
1:03:15
always looked much older, my sister, my mum, just like we
1:03:18
just put on some extension eyelashes and made my sister
1:03:21
look super like a little bit more adult.
1:03:23
And then we put my brother and dress my brother up as a little
1:03:26
girl, like a teenage girl. And we put him in heels and that
1:03:29
we put him in drags so he could go in.
1:03:31
And then we went through and then what happened?
1:03:34
We, it was the Odeon Tamra draws.
1:03:36
And there was always a guy who would check your tickets and
1:03:38
like double check, get the tickets checked.
1:03:40
And we walked through and then suddenly went, hey, hey, hey,
1:03:43
wait a minute, how old's that one?
1:03:44
And my mum just went ran and we all ran into different cinemas.
1:03:48
Really. Oh my.
1:03:50
God, we did all get. We did all.
1:03:51
Get. We did all get to see the film
1:03:53
because I think my dad was like this is my daughter and she is
1:03:56
15 years old and we all got to see the film.
1:04:00
We all got to see the film, but we used to.
1:04:01
My mom would always. Criminal.
1:04:03
My mom would always dressed us up as like so we could get into
1:04:06
films. She'd be like, how old is the
1:04:08
film? Is it an 18?
1:04:09
I don't think she ever took us to 18, but she'd take us to.
1:04:12
That's. Great, we saw a lot of cinema.
1:04:14
I didn't. I've got to do that.
1:04:16
So I think it's a really cool bonding experience with your
1:04:19
parents. Actually, I think it's a
1:04:21
parent's responsibility. At some point you have to do
1:04:24
something slightly illegal. With your.
1:04:27
Kids to. Show sneak a man.
1:04:29
To show them I've always got your back.
1:04:32
I am a little bit rock'n'roll, but it actually means you.
1:04:35
Because I think because my parents were very strict, but
1:04:39
like. I'll be in the bank.
1:04:40
But they would be like, they would do some cool stuff, which
1:04:42
always meant actually, I think me, Lulu and Jared didn't really
1:04:46
rebel so much. We didn't go totally mad because
1:04:50
I kind of thought I said when. I said we're already rebelling.
1:04:53
Yeah, but it was sort of like a safe.
1:04:54
Like, I remember when I took drugs for the first time, like,
1:04:57
I got a bit overwhelmed. Actually.
1:04:59
I took drugs properly, sold it to you.
1:05:01
My dad sold it to me. Yeah, yeah, for a good, good
1:05:04
rate because the price mechanism was.
1:05:06
On the last one plus, there was good supply and demand.
1:05:10
But like I would always tell them these things because if I
1:05:13
felt safe, because my mum would go, I never want you to not tell
1:05:17
us because the reality is if you ever get into a situation, I
1:05:20
need to be get get you. So I'd something, no matter how
1:05:24
what, mad this situation was if I knew I'd gotten myself into a
1:05:26
pickle. You could get, I would.
1:05:28
I would ring and then go Where are you and they?
1:05:31
'D always be. There because I knew they would
1:05:33
tell me off but also I knew they had my back.
1:05:35
I'm literally in a pickle. I'm such a clown mind, so I was
1:05:40
trying to be fun. Yeah, well, Elf, give us one
1:05:44
more dose of the dates that you'll be a Soho.
1:05:49
So I'm at the Soho Theatre from tomorrow, the 12th of December
1:05:52
till the 20th. I'm doing Swan Chief, Jeff and
1:05:56
Raven on rotation and then I go to the Soho Theatre again in
1:06:01
January doing horses, which is the one that they've all won
1:06:03
awards, actually they've. Won so many awards recently.
1:06:07
Which is really nice, Yeah. And you know what, For a
1:06:10
relatively difficult year, it's actually been quite a nice like,
1:06:14
like looking at all the things. It is quite nice looking at
1:06:17
those things going Oh well. That's all coming to fruition.
1:06:19
Yeah, it's all of your hard. Work yeah and that's a really
1:06:22
lovely feeling yeah to be 34 and going we're we're doing OK kid
1:06:26
yeah so I'm really proud of that and.
1:06:28
Then I'm ovulating. And I'm, I'm God, I'm full of
1:06:31
ovulating. But no, it's not.
1:06:33
Yeah. And ovulating.
1:06:34
And then hopefully other women will get to ovulate the eggs
1:06:37
that and then they get to have their babies and that's.
1:06:39
And then that's nice. So overall, I think 10 out of
1:06:42
10, life is life is achievable. Yes, it's hard, but remembering
1:06:48
that Apollo 13 and there are Guinea pigs in the world and
1:06:51
every day I'm just very lucky that I get to be alive.
1:06:54
Well, thank you Elf for sharing and thanks for being on the
1:06:58
podcast. Thank you for having me on the
1:07:00
podcast. Wow, I think that we know Elf
1:07:06
quite well now, don't we? And a little bit of me that's
1:07:11
good on her for, you know, turning the tables as people do
1:07:16
Rats. Listen, if you guys like this
1:07:20
podcast, please press subscribe and make a little thumbs up if
1:07:27
you like it. And comments.
1:07:29
I'm going to be answering questions.
1:07:32
I hope that you keep on this show.
1:07:35
Keep on. Yeah, keep on keeping on.
1:07:39
And we're going to make the show.
1:07:46
Touchdown. Yeah.
1:07:47
OK, Bye Rich Vultures talk box.