Memory Lane with Kerry Godliman and Jen Brister - S03 E29: Hammed Animashaun

Episode Date: September 11, 2024

"It was the end of year six talent show and I danced to Daniel Beddingfield's Gotta Get Through This..." This week we have the brilliant stage, TV and film star @hammedhamz on the show talking about how he became the superstar he is now.    Plus we have Kerry and Jen chatting about their respective summer holidays... Including Kerry's insta montage and Jen's constructive feedback. PHOTO 1: Aged 2yrs PHOTO 2: My first suit PHOTO 3: Barber Shop Chronicles PHOTO 4: Wedding day PICS & MORE - https://www.instagram.com/memory_lane_podcast/ A Dot Dot Dot Production produced by Joel Porter Hosted by Jen Brister & Kerry Godliman Distributed by Keep It Light Media Sales and advertising enquiries: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus, powered by Peloton IQ. Built for breakthroughs, with personalized workout plans, real-time insights, and endless ways to move. Lift with confidence, while Peloton IQ counts reps, corrects form, and tracks your progress. Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus at OnePeloton.ca. Is it the macha or am I this energized from scoring three Sephora holiday gift sets?

Definitely the sets. Full size and minis bundled together? What a steal. And that packaging? So cute. It practically wraps itself. And I know I should be giving them away, but I'm keeping the Summer Fridays and Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez. I don't blame you. The best holiday beauty sets are only at Sephora. Gift sets from Summer Fridays, Rare Beauty, Way, and more are going fast.

Get full-sized favorites and must-have minis bundled for more value. Shop before they're gone. In-store online at Sephora.com. Kerry. Yeah. On the 12th of September, yeah. 2024, what will we be doing? We're doing a live podcast,

our first live podcast. For the London podcast festival at King's Place, and we couldn't be more excited. I only started a podcast to do live ones. Okay, well, that's the end of this advert. Well, that was short. Hello, and welcome to Memory Lane. I'm Jen Bristair, and I'm Kerry Goddlyman.

Each week we'll be taking a trip down Memory Lane with our very special guest as they bring in four photos from their lives to talk about. To check out the photos we'd be having a natter with them about, they're on the episode image and you can also see them a little bit more clearly on our Instagram page, so have a little look at Memory Lane podcast.

Come on, we can all be nosy together. Om shanty om. Omanty om. Shalom. Shalom. Shanty om. All right. We've really started this particular... I'm pretending to be calm.

Oh, are you? Yeah, I'm faking it till I make it. I'm taking it to you like it. What the fuck? What's happening to consonants between us? Why would I say... I said faking it till I make it and you said shaking it till I like it. I think it sounds like taking it to you like it.

Well, that's not a phrase, is it? But fake it till you make it is very much a phrase. I thought she's gone full. yoga and now she's making up her own words. Yeah, that's all happened. Hi. Hi. Welcome to autumn.

Welcome to autumn. Yeah, it's autumn. It's autumn. It's been autumn since mid-July, let's face it, but now it really is autumn. It is autumn, yeah. It's definitely... No, July was warm, wasn't it? No.

Was it? Wetched July in the universe since records began. I think I might have made some of that up. That could be high-verbaly. Yeah. I went swimming every day in July. I know, but you swim all Weathers, don't you?

So that's got nothing to do with so. I know, but I seem to remember was there some sunny days? Look, it doesn't matter. We're out of it now. We're out. And into... Why do you sound like a woman who's escaped?

Oh, I feel a bit mad. I do feel a little bit crazy. Kids are back at school tomorrow. Oh, I thought you weren't. They were back there now. No, no, they're not. Independently of whether it was open. You just took them.

Yeah, I just sent them there. They're still there. They're sitting by the gate. We'll pick her up at 3.30. They've got a sat soon and a comic. they'll be fine. Yeah, out of back Thursday. Yeah, a lot of people back Thursday,

some sort of Inset Day thing happening. But ours tomorrow. I know Joel's today. Oh, Joel, you lucky bugger. How did you work that out? He's not going to have revealed this secret, but I think it's something to do with the school. Anyway, I haven't spoken to you since you went to.

I've spoken to you all summer. And now we've got to have like a jovial podcasty branch chat. and we can't do summer. We can't do real talk. We can't do real chat. We can't do real chat. We can't do pod chat.

Pod chat. But also, we have spoken all. Now you're saying that June and July are not summer. No, I say June and July are summer. But I mean the school holidays. How do we differentiate? School holidays. School holidays is the August chunk.

The August chunk. I haven't seen nor spoken to you for the entire chunk of August. No. Not even the month of August. It is really a chunk of August. And you went away to Japon. Japan, chapin, Japan.

Why are you changing vowels and consonants? What's going on? You'd be a nightmare on the countdown. I'm mixing it up. This coffee's quite strong. There's that. And also, apart from your montage, which you've always criticised montages,

but apart from your Instagram montage. Okay, okay, we're going there, are we? Straight in, straight in. And I didn't appreciate the feedback from Chloe about the music. But music was bad Yeah but it was like relevant No it was shit The music show

Yeah I know but it's relevant to the montage Oh how is it relevant It was Ghibli, it was Studio Ghibli music What's that? I feel like you don't even know who I have She's put her head in the eyes I feel like Who are you, who am I

I don't know I feel like I'm going to learn though Okay Studio Ghibli is the films The Japanese animation films That makes Pruited Away And Oh yes, my pon.

And Toreno and Totoa. Yeah, right? And I've even seen those films. That's the origins of the Japan story. So Frank, my son, do you remember Frank? So Frank, my son is obsessed with it. Yes, I remember Frank. Yeah.

He's obsessed with those films and has been since he was little. And that is the seed, the seed that sowed the Japan adventure. To be fair, the only reason we watch those films is because you suggested them. There we go. So, yeah. So I do, I apologise. No, it's fine. I mean, I think I'm being jovially aggressive,

but I think I'm going to be more aggressive. But the music was still, well, the music was still shit. And I'm thinking of all of the studio music that could have been available with that particular brand of. Look, look, let's just go back to the other strand of narrative, which is it's a miracle I made a montage. It's an absolute miracle. And you're giving me like granular notes on the soundtrack.

I'm like, fuck. you. It's miraculous. I succeeded in that post. That is absolutely correct. There's so many plates for me to spin. I made a post. I didn't include my children who won't let me use their faces for any social media, which is probably admirable. I agree with them. So there were hardly any pictures that I could use. And then I found some music that was relevant. I'm like, that'll do, Ghibli. Studio Ghibli. We went to Studio Ghibli. And then I get feedback, not from you directly, through Chloe. No, no from Chloe. Yeah. But it was important that she heard it, that she, that she, you know, joined in.

I can't even say the word. Relayed it is what I wanted to say to you. She said, oh, nice montage, but Jen said the music shit. I'm like, well, Jen can speak for herself. I said it's probably best if it doesn't come from me directly. And it turns out it was good. It was good that I didn't, it didn't come from me directly. Was there any other feedback from people about the music?

Was it just me? No, it was just me. Wow, that's interesting. Yeah. Yeah, that is interesting. Isn't that interesting? I'm just going to urge listeners to go to your Instagram page. No, don't.

Why are you steering people towards derision? No, because the montage in and of itself is pleasurable to watch. Thank you. Very, very enjoyable. Why are you looking for problems? I'm not looking for problems. I was really impressed by the content that you created because you're not a content creator and you don't enjoy it and it's not your bag and you're not very good at it.

And I tagged the relevant people. I tagged the tour people. I did all that. I'm not an influencer, Jen. No. I'm very much a Gen X lump and fall. Yes. As am I.

As am I. Right. And I made a montage. And I know I cast montages, but I made one. Yeah. So go and watch it. Enjoy it. And then a little bit of feedback at the bottom.

You wait a good. Let us know. Go watch it. Go watch it. And then let us know what you think of the music. No. No, no. I'm not inviting any more feedback.

Love to hear from you. from you. Feel free to tag me with your feedback on Kerry's choice of music. That's at Kerry Godman on Instagram. Kerry who? You're welcome. Kerry Godleman. I am saying your name correctly.

You're just really, you're scatting now. You're practically scatting. Kerry Roglaman? I don't know what I'm saying. She just gave up. Mid my nose. I did. I did.

I don't know what's the matter with me. I'm struggling to pronounce words. I'm struggling to say words. Did you have... Is this because you're exhausted from summer? Yes. Oh God. You didn't even make a montage.

That's how fucked you are. You couldn't even be asked to make a summer montage. I'm not making montages. I'm not making montages, no. No, those days are over. The montages are dead to me. I'll save that for the end of my next tour. And then I'll make some smug montage of me standing in front of an audience that may or may not have enjoyed the show.

Bill, but it doesn't... You're playing as a promotional montage if you... If you zoom in on people that aren't enjoying this. Don't zoom in them. They're always, like, you can't actually see their faces. But you'll see me, smiling away. Making an anti-marketing montage. In front of an audience that it doesn't matter because it's all about PR.

So it's what it looks like, not what it was. It's all about what it looks like, mate. Tell me about Japan, because I genuinely want to know. I can't bottle Japan into bullet points. It's just too big. I tell you what, right, it was great. I had a good time. It was really hot.

Oh, wow. What degree was it? I don't know. 40? Is that hot? Is that like total recall? Yeah. Okay, maybe 37, yeah.

Okay, okay. But you couldn't be outdoors. You couldn't really be outdoors much. So we did a bit of outdoors. We did some temples. We went on lots of trains. Loads of trains. One of the pictures I sent you as me cracking up on a train.

It felt like we were on trains a lot of the time. Yeah. The bit of it that was hard was the journey because it's so far away. Yeah. And you don't do Australia, so you're not using. I don't like being on planes for that amount of time. You know when you're on a plane and you think, right, I've had a good sleep. Oh, how long was I asleep for when you wake up and you've been asleep for 20 minutes?

Well, even if you've been asleep for eight hours, there's still like, you know, 17 hours left with the journey or something. You're like, what? And you're wearing that stupid thing around your neck and you look like your head sticking out of a toilet. That does nothing. And when you walk through to go to the toilet and do you ever do that thing where you look at people asleep And you think, oh my God, it all looks fucking just. They're just like their eyes closed.

Having an existential breakdown with their eyes closed and... I don't spend so much volume they've done, I suppose. Yeah, I think that's the thing I should have drugged myself more. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I talk some melatonin on the way back. Oh, does nothing. Oh, I didn't find that to be the case. It did donk me out for a good four or five hours.

But, you know, that's only... That's a third of the journey. Yeah. So, yeah. So, yeah, it was a very, very, very... long way to go for two weeks like realistically should have gone for longer but that wasn't achievable so well you did what you did and you did and it was like you said it was like a once-in-a-lifetime trip and it's amazing it was and you know and I'm going to go back and I'm

going to re-watch that montage yeah I think you should I'm going to do it I should yeah because I feel like I was not looking at the photos and just zoning in on the music and actually I'm going to go back because I am not an influencer I'm not I I I can show you as a friend some good photos of that holiday, but I just can't put them online. Also, I'm not, like we talked about before, I'm not, I'm not down with the whole didn't, aren't I smashing life kind of posting. Do you know what I mean? No, no, no, it's not, no, it's not you.

It's not your brand, Kerry. It's not my brand. People don't want that from you. Oh, Kerry looks like she's smashing life and having a great time. No one wants to see that. No one wants to. No. And also no one would believe it.

They'd be like, this is a fake. This is a, this is AI. They'll think it's AI generated. She looks like she's enjoying... I did meet some robots in Japan. Did you? Yeah. What?

I met a couple of robots. We met this little robot. I'll send you a picture of the robot. Elsie was dancing with a robot. There was a robot in a Saki brewery and we really bonded with that robot. Really? Did the robot connect with you? Lovely big eyes.

That's interesting. Okay. Yeah. Anyway, that's my holiday. Right. Tick. Tick. This is life now, isn't it?

You just go, did that? Tick. Move on. tell me about your holiday? My holiday. We, as you know, went to not Greece, Turkey. It wasn't Greece. It wasn't Greece. It wasn't roads.

No, it was actually Turkey. And it was too hot. Too hot. Too hot. Too, too, too, too, too hot for this Lesbo. I couldn't function in that heat. No, and you like the heat, don't you? Everyone's like, oh, you have Spanish.

Why can't you have, it's like, I'm a hot? Yes, I am genetically, yes, DNA-wise, there is some Spanish inside of me. That's got nothing to do with climate change. But I grew up in the UK. Yeah, and also, it doesn't, I mean, the fact is, it's, it's distressingly, this is, distressingly hot. Too hot. This has got nothing to do with, oh, you know, your Spanish or where you're,

it's like, this is fucking dangerous, mate. So it was, it's, I wouldn't go to, uh, the southern Mediterranean in August again. It's going to be Northern France from here on in. It's too hot. You've got quite a lot of strong feelings about Northern France. I know. I'm really going to have to review those. I decided. I decided. Go Alpine. What about Alpine? Yeah, exactly. Alpine. I actually have two lots of friends who went on, um, Switzerland, Austria. Yeah, they, they've got camper vans. So they went on, they both went on a three week, uh, sort of camper van extravaganza around, around sort of central Europe and including going

up and about by the Alps. Do you want to buy a camper van? No, I don't fucking want to buy your camper van to carry. Do you want to buy a camper van? It sounds like you're making a camper van. I'm not making any camper van plans. I know a camper van that's available for sale. Yes, I've seen it and it's not.

Well, it does work. It's a very good camper van. It's about what is the maximum speed? 35 miles now. No, you're joking. It does 60 downhill? 60 does it? Downhill.

You could, and going to the alpine you'll be doing a lot of downhill yeah yes but we'll have to yeah you will be going 11 miles an hour uphill but wow

wait till we go down you could maybe get 65 down so you'll make up what you lost going up oh wow that's good to know 65 miles an hour down hair pinters

so what we're saying is you do want to buy a camper van no we're not saying I've sold my camper van right okay I don't know what to do this lovely I really wanted to

I wanted to keep it close okay all right Well, well, I'll tell you what, I'm going to, here's what I'm going to suggest. You discuss this with Chloe. She's the boss with the camper van. All right. Well, I'll get Ben to call Chloe because they're calm people.

They're calm people. I'll tell Ben that we've sold you the camper van. I can't wait for Ben to come back and go, I had a lovely chat with Chloe, but what was that about the camper van? And you can plan your next summer? Listen, I, I'm not going to buy a camper van. Okay. sounded like you were saying we've got friends that had a lovely holiday in a camper van.

And what I gleaned from that is that you want a camper van. And what I'm saying is I've got a camper van for sale. So this just sounds like perfect. This sounds like a really perfect situation. Can I also introduce you to something called Gumtree? And then maybe you can put it on there as well. Oh, I'm not getting involved in that. What?

I don't need to because you're going to buy it. Oh, well, okay. How much is it? Well, name your price. Name your price. Hang on, I just check my pockets. Okay. I got some chewing gum and 72 pens.

We'll haggle offline. We'll haggle offline. Okay, we'll haggle offline. So, Kerry, who are we talking to this week? This week we're talking to Hamid, Anima Sean. I met him doing the sewing bee. Oh, yeah. So I said, listen, come on the podcast.

And he was up for it. I was amazed. He hadn't done a podcast before. I was like, you're going to love this. You're going to love it. This is the best medium to communicate. All things. And he came with his pictures and his stories.

But also we were lucky to get him because he is one busy actor. Flipping heck, isn't he? I mean, I saw him unrecognisably so, actually, because he's got so many prosthetics on. On Amazon Prime's The Wheel of Tame. Yep. And Black Ops. I think he's just filmed another Black Ops, which was a brilliant show. Did you enjoy that?

Oh, I loved it, yeah. You can watch that on BBC Eye Player. So I think that they must be bringing out the new one of that soon, because I know it's shot. Let's not get bogged down in the detail, because you know, you and I, that's not our strong suit. No. This is us having a lovely chat. Thank you so much for sending us your photos.

No, no worries. I want to talk about this photo. So cute. How old are you in this picture? I think I'm two. I think I'm two. You're so cute. So cute.

Where are you there? I don't know where I am in this picture. I asked my mum and she couldn't remember. Is this her classic? This is Hammond when he's little. Yeah. Cute shot. Yeah, but I just, I like this picture because I like the dungarees and I miss them.

Oh, no. You can't beat dungeries. No, you can't. You still wear them. I still will wear a dungary now and then. Would you? How much? Yeah, 100%.

Yeah. And also, like, you've lovely got your little hand tucked in there. Yeah. They're so good for just... It's so comforting. I don't know. I look at a picture, I just feel comfort. Have you got brothers and sisters?

I have two younger brothers. What do they think about what you do? My brothers were super supportive. My mum, not so much at the beginning. They take her a while to warm up to it? Yeah, a little while. Yeah. Why'd you think that was?

Well, my mum. My mom's from Nigeria and she came over when she was, oh gosh, how old was she? Maybe like 27. Yeah. And I think she just wanted, she came here hoping for a better life for her kids. And then when I turned,

when I turned to I want to be an actor, she thought it was a joke. She thought I was joking. And then I was like, no, I'm not joking. And then she was really upset. You don't want to be a doctor? Yeah, yeah. I'm a lawyer?

I was like doctor lawyer engineer. Yeah. It was a journey. There's a pressure. Immigrant parents. It's a pressure. I mean, my mom came over from Spain and like for her,

she had to leave school when she was 13. So for her education was really important. So there's just so much pressure when you've got parents who've come somewhere to make a big better life for their children and then you really feel it as you're growing up. Did you feel that extra pressure

when you're an adolescent? Yeah, I definitely felt the pressure. Yeah, it was always about education. Education is a child. education, education. Don't think about anything else. Really? Yeah, yeah. And the arts is like an alien thing, isn't it? Yeah, tell me about it. Well, I barely got out of secondary school. Where'd you go? When I went, it was called Sir John Cass.

Right. Church of England secondary school. And I didn't have the best time there. How come? I didn't really know where I was. Like, I didn't really know which, like, clang I was in. Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. You need to find your people to make school work. Like, I wasn't really much of a sporty person in school. I mean, I liked playing sports. I played basketball a lot when I was... But you weren't with the jocks.

No, I weren't with them. And then I weren't really with like... The nerds or whatever. I wasn't really with them. And then I wasn't really... I was quite a weird kid in school. I liked, like, weird stuff. Like...

Well, I was into, like, anime. Oh, okay. But not, like, deep anime. It was more like... I don't know. But I liked, like, Dragon Ball Z. But all you needed was another kid that liked that stuff. And I found them.

That was the thing. I found them. It was towards the end of school. Oh, and too late by then. Yeah, it was towards the end of school. It was when I found my group. Right. But then I finished.

And then it was just like, oh. So I didn't really, I had my two best friends who, we're still friends now. Music is what kind of brought us together. Making music. Yeah, yeah. No, no, making music. So we're all in a, um, a still band together. And we play at Notting Hill kind of every year.

Oh, that is so cool. Yeah. So how did you get into, all right, I need to go, we need to go back. So you've got two siblings, Nigerian parents who moved here when they were in the 20s and came to East London and you have spent, did you spend all of your childhood growing up sort of in the same part of in that Whitechaple area? So that's your man and that's where all your mates are. Yeah. And then so like primary school, how was that for you? I can only remember the latter parts of primary school. Yeah, same. Yeah, like I remember, um, I remember, um, I remember, um, I remember it was like the end of year, end of year six talent show. And I danced to Daniel Beddingfield's got to get through this.

In a basketball jersey. Did you bring the house down? You're like, this is going to be my future. Yeah, I was like, oh, I kind of like this feeling. I was going to ask you because there is a point, isn't there? Like, I mean, you're, you know, you're an actor now and you're successful. But what was that, do you think that was that point where you're, went oh this isn't great I like this feeling yeah I think that was a moment I was like oh

this is this is really cool everybody's looking at me yeah I like this and it was just me for three and a half minutes dancing to Daniel Bedfield so um no it was so um is so much there is there a video of this there i think there is footage somewhere i think my mum might have some footage it has not found its way to the internet no and thank god it hasn't so that was the beginning of the performing yeah i mean i always performed for my mum as well like at home and stuff try and make a and she come back from work and stuff like that. And was she a good audience? Yeah, she was great audience.

So she had nowhere to go when she pushed that. No. She shouldn't have contributed to, this is the problem. When parents are off at your jokes, don't be surprised when we turn around and go, we want to be comedians. Yeah, I know, I know, I know.

No, she was a great audience. She still is, to be honest. But, yeah, I think that was the moment where I was like, oh, I think I might want to, this feels good. And I, yeah, and I was having, I was living my best life in drama class. And then when my first parent's evening,

you know, as it happens or whatever, like, every teacher was like, no, he's got to be better. It's got to be better. And I'm sitting there. My mom's just giving me the desk there. And I was just like, you had to sit next to your mum? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm sat there, like, sweating. And my mom was giving me the desk. I could feel it, the heat on this line. And then I get to my drama teacher and she's just singing my praises. And he was like, he could really do something with this. So I, you know, I recommend that he. he goes to this school, like after school club thing, which was, um, or after school, like, what was it called?

It was, it was called the half, oh, yeah, youth theatre. It was half moon young people's theatre in Limehouse. So I started going there from when I was about 11. So he was like every Tuesday, every, like every Tuesday and then every Wednesday. And this became more important than school. Yeah, to me it was more important than school. I didn't care about school. I just wanted to go to youth club.

Yeah, youth theatre. That's what I wanted to do. And your mum was okay with that because I guess that kind of tied in with maybe like, giving you some discipline or giving you something to be grounded in or I think at the time it was more like if he goes to this then he could concentrate more in his other classes right because all his energy is going here he needs to somewhere else to put his energy so when he gets to school he can concentrate more yeah so um how did that pan out no that didn't work but um it's a nice idea though yeah i think i think they were trying to like you know appease me like

you know he needs somewhere to like get get out all this energy yeah yeah Yeah, yeah. So he doesn't do it in his maths class or his English class or his science class because that's what I was doing. I was trying to, I found, I found that if I made my, my student, like, my peers laugh and I got that energy, I'll be like, oh, this is great, this is great. So I didn't, but I just came, I just became really disruptive. Right.

So, but my drama teacher, Miss Servi, who, you know, to this day we still talk and she's the best, she's the best, but. But she's the one that said, yeah. She said it to be, like, like, a wild. back, you know, a little bit later on, she, while when I was, when I finished secondary school when I went into college, she was one that said this could be, you could do this as a, as a job. And how did that feel when someone said that to you? Well, I didn't believe her.

Why? Because there was, there was nowhere for me, I didn't know what to do afterwards. I didn't know what, I didn't know, like, drama school was a thing. Yeah. Did she give you any sort of like advice and say, look, if you, once you leave school, if you think about doing this? Yes, she did. She gave me everything.

Oh, great. She gave me leaflets, pamphlets, everything. Like she helped me out with my auditions, paying for my auditions for drama school. That's fantastic, isn't it? She's incredible. Teachers like that, when people say those people are in their stories,

thereby, you know, that your life wouldn't have been what it's become without that teacher saying you have got a talent. Yeah, she was incredible. That's annoying. What? You're a muffler. You don't hear it?

Oh, I don't even notice it. I usually drown it out with the radio. How's this? Oh yeah, way better. Save on insurance by switching to Bel Air Direct and use the money to fix your car. Bel Air Direct, insurance simplified. Conditions apply.

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And BAFTA award winner Lenny James. You're about to have a plague of outsiders descend on your town. tell you this just going to be consequences. Mayor of Kingstown, new season now streaming on Paramount Plus. Which is our next photo, Hammond. Did this one? Oh yeah, that one. That was the first time I ever wore a suit.

It really looks like it's the first time you ever wore a suit. You definitely don't know like you wore a thing before. Wait a second. What is that indent on your tie? It looks like you've put the iron down on your tie but I've gone to switch it on. So I Did you switch your iron on? So before the I don't think you did. I don't know. So

But I think I'm probably a bit of a teenager here. Yeah. And irons and teenagers don't mix. No, they shouldn't. They really don't. I don't think they mix. And so I tried to iron my tie because I thought that's what you do with like with big boy clothes or big people clothes. Yeah.

So I tried to iron my tie and it didn't work. Your face says I know my tie looks fucked. Yeah. I don't care. Still had the tag on because I was going to send it back. I was going to wear it and then send it back. Yeah. We've all been there, mate.

Did you send it back? I did send it back. Good for you. So what are you dressed up for? I think this was for a job interview. I think this was for a job interview. If you've got a job, you might have kept the suit. No, nah.

You've got like a little kerchief there that matches you. Yeah. You're going to a wedding. Yeah, I, I, this was a, it was, I was going for it. It was overkill. Yeah, it was overkill. What was the job? Do you remember?

Yes, I do. It was MNS. You've got three suits if you've got it. I know. It was for MNS. I bought the suit from Next and the job was for MNS. And the gig was for the job was for customer assistant at MNS.

And how old are you in that? I think I'm about maybe 15. Oh my gosh. You're a proper job. You're so tall. What is going on? 16. But that's not a 15 year old job for going for like that.

No, no. I tried, but I tried it. I just tried it. And you thought I'll blag it? Yeah. I thought I, you know, I told some fibs on the CV and stuff. Did you say you could iron? I said I could iron.

I said I could iron. I do love that picture because you do look like you're not meant to be wearing that suit. Yeah. That isn't the life that you were destined to have. No, no. Look at the shoes as well. The shoes are awful. The shoes are great.

Brown shoes, blue suit. That's the rules, isn't it? Yeah, brown and blue, yeah. Do you ever, did you ever do like Office Angels, Temping or reed? Yeah, loads of it. I had a suit that I wore off. Yeah, think back to what you were wearing. Oh my God.

I used to quite like wearing a suit because if you're already doing this acting business, you're kind of just about, you can pretend. You're just about making it work in your head. You're like, I'm playing a character. That's how I felt as well. Even the way I walked was different. You walk different in a suit.

Yeah, I do, yeah, you do, yeah. And you still were doing youth theatre at 16, or did that come to an end? No, I, I, I aged out. Yeah, they kicked you out. They kicked me out. They're like, you're not youth now. Yeah, they're aged out. That's not, isn't it, at 16, yeah.

I know, around now. It was youth theatre. because I came through youth year as well. They're very specifically for a certain time. Yeah, yeah. And if you are going to go forward, then it's the natural trajectory is drama school. Yeah.

So did you eventually go to drama college? No, I didn't. So what was your... I went to university. I went to the University of Greenwich. To do? To study English. Right.

To be an English teacher. That's the decision you'd made. That's the decision I, myself, and my mum made. I love the way you tried to style that. I think your mum and my mum are very similar. Yeah. You're going to go here and you're going to do this. Yeah.

I just thought it was the safest option. Right. And so you were quite happy to go to uni. Yeah, I was happy to go to uni. And how was that? Yeah, it was fine. It was great. I mean, I had a really good time.

It was different. Yeah. I mean, like, if you skipped a lecture, no one's going to be like, how could you do that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because you're paying for it. So it was just a different atmosphere.

And you graduated and you got the degree. No, I dropped out. There's a real theme we're picking up here. Where you said, I had a good time. How long did you do? I did, I complete my first year and I dropped out half through my second year. Right.

Yeah. Okay. So once you dropped out of uni and you'd managed to dodge your mum, what, what did you want to do? Did you know? I mean, was that? No, so I actually had an agent at that point. So I got an agent.

How? I feel like I'm missing so many states here. Yeah, so during, so before I went to uni, my drama teacher gave me a leaflet and was like, you need to do. this audition for this course and it was for a it was for a 12-week program at hoxton hall and it was called hoxton street casting and it was um they were taken on um they were taken on people who had an interest in the arts or in the industry but didn't have the financial means to go to drama

school or anything like that so she was like audition for this thing i think you i think you get in so i did i went in i auditioned and uh i got in and it was um it was one of the best things i ever did because it was literally a program which they, you know, you do a whole, you do an acting, you know, acting class two times a week. And then at the end of the program, you did the whole showcase and they brought in like casting directors and producers, directors. You do a massive showcase. Oh my God. No, you don't need to go to drama school if you get all that. Yeah.

That's all drama school's for. That's just exactly what at the end. It was amazing. It was amazing. And then, you know, in Walton after the showcase was an agent. It was like, they were like, this is your agent now. Wow. Yeah, yeah, and we were like, oh my gosh.

And then they paid for our first year of spotlight and they paid for our first ever headshots. That's fantastic. And then we're like, you're actors now. And you've got work? No. But you had an agent going into uni. Yeah, had an agent going into uni.

But the work that I was doing whilst I was at uni was very much like short films. Building a CV. Yeah, building a CV, getting paid like chips. You know what I'm saying? But you were getting castings and you were going. going to auditions. I was getting castings,

I were getting auditions. Building a show real, all that stuff. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. So by the time I got to my second year was my second year of uni, my agent called me was like, there's an audition for a play at Manchester World Exchange. Right.

Called an Nogged issue, would you like to go in? And I was like, yes, please. And I got it. And that was that, you were like, I'm leaving uni, I'm an actor now. Well, no, when I got the role, I went to my tutor at uni,

I was like, so I got this part in a play. And she was like, oh my gosh, amazing. This is great. I'm so happy for you. I was like, yeah, so how does it work in terms of studies and stuff? Do I do it online or? She's like, no, you have to pick. You either stay in union or you do the job.

How old is that decision, man? Oh, yeah, I was like, yeah. I'll see you guys later. So I deferred it. I was like, okay, I'll be back next year. Right. And then you never went back. I never went back.

So what did, was the deferral you trying to like say to your mom? Don't worry, mom, I'm going to go back. Yeah, I said to my mom, Don't worry. Look, look, it's just a few months in Manchester. I'll be back in union next year. Like, it's just a one-time thing. Yeah.

And so she was like, okay, cool, no worries, that's fine. You do this one-time thing and then you go back to school. And I was like, yeah. But that's it. I mean, once you're doing a theatre run and you've tasted that life. Yeah, once I did it, I was like, yeah, this is what I did. And how was it? How was the whole experience?

It was amazing. I was, but, yeah, 19. So that must have been such an incredible experience. And then you, you know, you make really close, form really close friendships with people. and like, which you know, which you can only do when you're on a, in a theatre. Yeah. And did that, then once you'd got that, you knew that acting was your career. Yeah, I knew it.

Yeah, I knew it then. And theatre specifically? You're very passionate about it. Yeah, so you weren't like, all right. Theours was the thing I want to do for the rest of my life, yeah, 100%. Oh, wow. Yeah. And what happened after that then?

We did the tour. So after that, so it transferred to London to the lyric hammersmith. Then we did a run there. and then maybe a few months after that we did a UK national tour for about six months. Oh my God, so this job just went on and on and on. That is a, for your first act like your proper first act, theatre job?

What a sweet, sweet break. How big was the cast? How many of you were in it? Oh man, I think 10 or 50. And you became close? Yeah, definitely, definitely. And were there people old, obviously, because you were very young? So did you kind of find people that could go, right, this is how this business works and mentor you a bit and shape up what your fans were.

100%. Yeah, there were a few people in the cast that really kind of took us under their wing. Yeah. It was like, especially the director. The director was very much like Matthew Dunster. Right. He was, he was a...

Yeah, he taught me a lot. And you were just falling in love with theatre at this point. Just love plays. This is what I have to do this always. Yeah. So many young actors want to get into telly and film. Yeah, I don't want to do that. So it's quite a rare thing.

to meet a young actor that's like, no, I want theatre. Oh yeah, I was so allergic to TV and film. Really? Why is that? Why did you think that? I don't know, I just thought, no, I don't want to do that. I don't know what it was. There's nothing against it. Yeah, I had nothing against it. You just fell in love with yet. Yeah, theatre was just my thing.

And my age, oh, bless her, like, I love it to bits, but she was like, does a TV, or this? I was like, no thanks. Wow. Oh, man, are you kidding? I just want to do theatre. And when did you get in there at the National? When was your first job at the National? Oh, that was three penny opera? That was 2016.

Yeah. And you've worked there quite a lot, haven't you? Yeah, I've been really lucky, yeah. But there must have been, what a rush to get your first job at the National. Yeah, I was, I was buzzing. Because I remember back in uni, I would go to the national all the time. I remember you sent to me, you just went every week. I just kept going.

They had that cheap tickets. They had the entry pass for like $10 to $20. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'll just watch everything. I just kept going. I was going. And did you think I want to work here? This is a building I want to work.

No, not really. No, but I knew that I would, I knew that I would, I knew that I wanted to work here. one day. But it wasn't like, I need to get here. And when you got in, you were like, that's it. When I got there eventually, I was like, I thought I thought I would feel something. There's a massive poster of you in the lobby. Yeah. I went with my daughter the other day to see the effect. Yeah. And there's a huge poster of you in the lobby. Fantastic. You're in the Barbershop Chronicles. Yeah, I was in the Barbershop Chronicles. Yeah. Yeah. I thought I would feel something when I finally got there. But I was still hungry because like, I wanted to do more.

at the national at the national right right you were like I'm in now I want to do yeah I want to do

this is this is always the way you think oh if I get this then I'm going to feel this or when this comes it's just I mean

and this is the same we've talked about this loads where you get something and you forget to be in the moment just at that point and go

enjoy this yeah be thankful for this you know be like congratulate yourself yeah definitely was it

with the barbershop chronicles Chronicles barbershop chronicles was definitely that moment I mean that was huge What's this? So just to go back to your photographs, so this is a picture? Yeah, this is Barbershop Chronicles.

This is for you on stage during the Barbershop Chronicles. And what theatre was that at the National? This is like the Dorfman. Right. And then it went all over the world. Yeah, it went all over the world, yeah. I mean, how long was the run there that you did that for? So the first time we did it,

the run was very short. I think it was something like three weeks. And then when the show opened, it opened to like massive reviews. And then I remember we were in the theatre warming up and then Rufus came to us and was like, so we want to bring you guys back and we were like, yeah, you do. So we did a second run, which was much longer.

I think it was like six weeks. And then yeah, then it kind of just, it blew up. Yeah, it just blew up and then just went everywhere. We went to Leeds Playhouse, we did it there for a while as well. But yeah, it was. Did you go internationally? Went to Australia. I didn't go.

the show went but the show went to Australia, New York. Wow. It was just huge. It went everywhere. Yeah, it was one of those shows where I'll be forever grateful for that show and to the people I worked with in there. It's so incredible to be part of a show that is like a new show that blows up like that and you are the original cast.

I must be like, have you want your name in the screams? You're going to have your name is screams. I'm always one day. You can dream. So lucky. Yeah, it's so lucky. And the fact that people still Talk about it

Talk about the show And yeah It's just yeah That show was a moment In time for me And for everyone involved And it was just like It was just one of those things

I don't think I'll ever forget It was incredible By the seven time world's Best Leisure Airline Champions Air Transat Maybe it's Maybelaine Is such an iconic piece of music

Hit the track Everyone in the studio That I worked on this jingle with All had like childhood stories or memories. Yeah, we're around either watching these commercials on TV or sitting with our moms while they were doing their makeup and it became really personal for us. It's hockey season and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats.

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And what about your next picture? Is this your wedding day? This is a wedding day. This is such a gorgeous picture. Where did you get married? Northwood Park in Surrey. Oh, fucking crap. I'm looking at that picture, it looks like, because there's vines in the background. I was like, what, you were like in a vineyard or where are you? Sorry. Oh, it's sorry, right. It's sorry.

Yeah, that's my wife, Tony. Oh, it's such a beautiful picture. How did you guys meet? She'd get crashed my birthday party. Sure. And as soon as I saw her, I was like, I was like, who's that? Needs to get out. Wait, no, no, no, she could stay.

She could stay. Yeah, no, yeah. I met her about, yeah, just over six years ago. And, yeah, friend of love instantly. Oh, wow. When did you get married? We got married about three months ago. Oh, did you?

He came back to do sewing B and get married. Oh. From Prague. Really? In the middle of a nine long shoot. Yeah. Lattery hell. Yeah.

Yeah. Prioritized. Yeah. She ran the gap. Yeah, yeah. She did all the planning. Yeah, she did all the planning. Of course.

I rocked up and just had a great time. Yeah, she was the one. Was it a big wedding? No, not really. No, no. It was about maybe 100 people. That is a really beautiful picture. It's a beautiful photo.

Yeah. And is she in the business? She is in the business. Does she do? She's an actor? Is she? Yeah, yeah. Oh, wow.

Have you ever worked together? No. Not yet. How do you think that would go? I think that would be fun. I'm ready to do that. Theatre, tell you what sort of stuff is your wife doing? Oh, all.

She's about to shoot a film. What's your wife's name? Tony. I feel weird calling her your wife. Okay. Tony, no, she's about to shoot a film next year. Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah.

And she's doing great. She's doing great. She's doing the play next year as well. She's doing great. It's interesting couples, like, that both do the same thing. actor couples I don't know I said it like that Acter couple

Well you know It is a Because you work away a lot If it's not an easy life No You've chosen both of you Going into the business Also especially if one of you

Is like got regular work And maybe the other one is having a bit of trouble Like having a dry spell Or whatever in terms of work It must be tricky It can be tricky But we make it work And we help each other

And we help each other with our tapes And stuff And we always try and keep it interesting And like See my husband's actor And he won't let me help him with his tapes Really? Yeah

He's like get out I can see why. I'm like, why? He's like, you're too bossy. He'll do it. He'll do a tape and I'll go like, if you think that's good enough, sure, see. Do you know what?

Wow, I can't see that. I totally does that a little bit. I'm like, if you think that's fine. Yeah, send it if you're comfortable with that. Yeah, and I'm like, see, this is the problem with actor couples. They're too hard on each other. Because I know I can get a bit,

because I would like to direct a play one day or something. So when we're doing tapes together, I'm like, I'm just giving her notes. It's just like, And you think that's creative. And she thinks it's controlling. You're wasting my time. Yeah.

You're wasting my time. And it becomes personal. Like you say, because directing, if it's something that's a little bit in you, it's creative. So you're like, it's like,

what about if we shade it here and we bring this big up here and whatever? And they're like, stop fucking telling me how to do it. You have been in a lot of mega hits, haven't you? Have I? Yes.

You're just like, oh, yeah, I was hanging outside of port a cabin, and then I got in a steel band. And then this teacher said, da-da-da-da. And also Wheel of Time, that's a big Amazon show, isn't it? Yeah, it's huge.

Yeah, it's great. When's that on? You can watch season one and season two on Amazon Prime video right now. Exciting. You can watch it right now. Right now. Black Oz is very good, go and watch it. Season three coming soon.

Watch this space. Yeah, I don't know. And then the directing, if you do Karen directing, I am available for acting parts. I got you. Wow, just got that in right under the. Casting opportunities. We just had a week down in Dorset glamping, glamping, I'm going to say that now.

There's no irony. I went glamping. I stayed three nights in a safari tent with Rosie and her family, Ben and Frank, and then we went and joined my mum and Jess and my family in another campsite, and we were in a static caravan for three nights. Did you go to rock? Well, rock something in Dorset.

Which one did you go to? We were in like near Bridport all around there. Oh, okay, okay. So three days in Somerset with Rosie and we went to Glastonbury, proper Glastonbury, walked up the tour. Yeah, not Peltin, but proper Glastonbury. Not the festival, the actual town. Whoa, that's an interesting place.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And then we walked up the tour and had a nice day doing all that. And then we met my mum and Jess and all that lot. And we went to Dorset and did a lot of C-Sid and did a lot of C-Sys. swimming. Oh, lovely. It's the sea so warm at the moment. It's great. I know. It's beautiful. Really beautiful. And now it's over. Summer is done. Summer's done. And now it's the new term. It's a new dawn. It's the new day. Do you? Yeah. It's like January. It's full of promise.

Oh, no. January is. New year. No. Nah. No one goes into January going. New year. Nobody. No. But we're all kind of like fucking. It's not going to be daylight for another four months. Okay, that's fair. But September is a very magical, promising month. I love September. I love it, because it feels like the new term of school. And it feels like, all right, I've done a whole term.

I've done a whole year. And that's a new term. What's new? I want new things in September. New shoes. New pencil case with all the little bits and bobbsy press the button. Plans. Yeah.

Lovely plans. And you still get the gut, like, a bit of good. weather? It's very, it's very balmy in Brighton at the moment. So, is it? I'm feeling, I'm actually borderline positive. Shit. That's really unsettling when you're like this. No, it is, isn't it? That's actually probably what you witnessed. When you logged on Zoom and you went, what the, like, what is wrong with your face? What's going on? What you're seeing and it's very rare. It won't be here next week. So enjoy it while you can. Smiling. There was a little bit, not even thought it's behind the eyes. Yeah. And that's why you lost the faculty.

of language because your face was concentrating so much on smiling. Concentrating on not smiling because of my brand. Your brand, yeah, your brand. I keep forgetting about your brand. Oh my God. Anyway, I'm going to America next month. Oh my God, that's so exciting. Right.

Tell me about that. Oh, God. It is a very intense trip. Right. And your tour. Yes. Yes, but I mean, I'm actually only doing nine cities in 18 days. It was supposed to be...

That's still a lot. That's a lot. Yeah, but it was supposed to be 12. What happened? Just couldn't get the venues. We couldn't make the venues work and it just didn't work out. You might be glad at that. Do you know what? At the time, I was like, oh, that's such a shame because I really wanted to go to Vancouver

and all these places. But now I'm like, oh, actually. I've got a gap. I've got like a four or five day gap where I haven't got any shows. So I think that's going to be quite a nice time just for me to get my head around being in America. But the rest of the time I'm doing like, yeah, I'm all over the shop. Where are you going? Where are you going?

I'm doing two or three shows. Well, not everywhere because I'm going hardly anywhere in America. But it feels like I'm going everywhere. So I see you're doing like L.A. and New York and all that. Yeah, yeah. L.A. and New York. and Chicago and Washington, Boston. Oh my God. This is so exciting.

Yeah. Austin, Philadelphia. And when? October? Yeah, October. So I leave at the end of September. I leave at the end of this month and I come back at the 20th. I come back at the sort of near the end of October. Yeah. And then I've come back for like about two weeks and then I go to Australia.

Australia? To do more stand-up? Yeah, do you remember? going to that tour that vineyard. You're doing that gig. Yes, I told you. I know you did. You tried to get me to go on that and I said. Yeah. So I'm only, I'm only gone for six days. So it's not long. Okay. I'm only going. Yes. Six days. Three weeks of those days are in the sky. Huh? Four of those days are in the sky. Yeah, exactly. You're only going to be in Australia for the best part of two days. Yeah, I arrived jet lagged and I leave jet lagged. Yeah. Sounds great. And then I come back and

I'm chatting. Yeah. Yeah. You're going to be fucked. Yes. I really am. I'm going to be so screwed. But anyway.

Anyway, it's very exciting. Okay. All right. Let you go. All right. Bye. Bye. I'm Max Rushden.

I'm David O'Dardy. And we'd like to invite you to listen to our new podcast. What Did You Do Yesterday? It's a show that asks guests the big question. Quite literally, what did you do yesterday? That's it. That is it. Max, I'm still not sure.

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