Memory Lane with Kerry Godliman and Jen Brister - S04 E23: George Egg

Episode Date: July 16, 2025

"Did you ever wrap up presents for yourself... It was such a waste of time..."The wonderful George Egg joins us on the pod this week!Such a fun chat with our old pal and brilliant cook, who is transforming the way we eat one snack at a time. We chat about food, comedy, camping and loads more.George's new book SNACK HACKER is out now and we couldn't recommend it more.- Twiglet brownies are now a favourite in our home along with the fish finger spaghetti plus loads we've not tired yet.PLUS... Kerry and Jeny chat about wicker chairs, book awards and their upcoming tours.JEN & KERRY STAND-UP TOURSKerry's 2025 tour is on sale now - https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/kerry-godliman-tickets/artist/1866728Jen's 2025 tour is on sale now - https://www.jenbrister.co.uk/tour/PHOTOSPHOTO 1: Mum and dadPHOTO 2: Street performingPHOTO 3: Stage performingPHOTO 4: Edinburgh PHOTO 5: Snack Hacker PICS & MORE - https://www.instagram.com/memory_lane_podcast/A Dot Dot Dot Production produced by Joel PorterHosted by Jen Brister & Kerry GodlimanDistributed by Keep It Light MediaSales and advertising enquiries: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Shop before they're gone. In-store online at Sephora.com. Hello and welcome to Memory Lane. I'm Jen Bristair and I'm Kerry Godleyman. 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. I have already. I'm really on top of it. Well, yeah, you've been here longer. You should be. You should be on top of it. Ready, prepped. Ready to roll.

Camera. Recording. Okay. Well, I'm ready. I've arrived. I'm ready. Look, I've got a microphone and the camera. Have you been for a swim?

I didn't this morning because it's very windy. I thought you were like hardcore. Well, I went yesterday and it was really windy. And you couldn't really. The current was so strong like you couldn't swim in it. Like we got in and then we were like a mile down the coast by the time I was like, oh, I don't think I know where I am. So today I thought, fuck that. It's even windier.

Yeah. I mean, yeah. Great. I mean, it's good to know when to not do a thing. It's a life skill to go, do you know what? I'm not going to do that. I just, why battle against the current? 100%.

It's like a metaphor for life. I don't. I follow the current. I go with the flow. I go with the flow. You really go with the flow. When I think of you, I think of you as just going with the flow. People are like, why is she so easygoing and relaxed?

She's not tense at all. It's because she doesn't fight the wind. She blows with the wind. She blows with the wind. Yeah. And I think that's something that everyone, when you're downwind of me, people are delighted. They're like, thank God. Thank God for Brista, sending her wind downwards.

How are you? I'm really good. I bought this massive wicker. rocking chair from a charity shop from a charity shop at the weekend and I feel like it's going to change my summer quite significantly

I'm going to sit in it a lot you're going to rockin it in my garden I stuck it in the middle of my lawn yeah and that's me sorted mate I feel like that's great I can imagine you with a herbal tea massive hat

massive hat a book yeah I've got loads of reading to do over the summer which I'm quite committed to I said I'd be a judge on a reading thing, a competition. Oh, I've done that. I've got piles of books to read. I'm like, actually, this is delightful. It's delightful.

I did the graphic novel bit of it. Oh, how lovely. It was. They sent me a reading section. It was all on PDFs, which wasn't ideal. No, you see, I've got books. Literal books. My was PDFs because this was COVID times.

Anyway, I've read all of them. It's lovely to have a reason to sit and. read and then you go I have to I have to I've made a commitment well I did I made a commitment I read all of them and then we had a meeting where we were discussing the books and I said um I don't know any of these books what books you're talking about I've read these books and then the researcher or the support admin person went oh I I sent you the wrong set of books oh shit so then I had three days to read all of the other books that's how unacceptable. It was pretty unacceptable, but it was COVID times. I didn't have anything else to do.

If you'd had my chair, you might have just blown with that as a blow of the wind. You might have said, oh well, we're going in this direction now. You should have seen the tension on my face when they said. Yeah, so you need a rocking chair. Take tension away. Listen, I'm so sorry. I went, it's okay. It's fine. Don't worry about it. Yeah, I mean, that's a massive fuck up. Yeah, but I did enjoy reading twice as many graphic novels than I was supposed to. That was, I mean, that doesn't often happen, does it? Having COVID, it's nice to have something to do, isn't it? Yeah, but it was still quite sort of, you know, stressy.

Because I obviously left everything to the last minute. My circumstance is not stressing. I've got a massive chair and loads of books. Loads of books. I'm actually well jail, as they say. I'm well jail of you. You've been doing things we can't talk about. No, and I can't talk about them.

How about that? You're one of those. I mean, I can. Exciting things to announce. Watch this face, but I can't say what. And so sorry, I've just been doing something. Keep an eye out. Keep an eye out of my social media.

I'll let you know in seven months. It's not that, I mean, I suppose it's exciting. It's also not that exciting for anyone that isn't involved. Do you know what I mean? When people go, oh, it's exciting news to announce for you. I'm not excited. I don't care. Well, don't stick a massive turd in the middle of the whole.

PR circus machine. Hey, the PR circus hasn't started yet. No, I know, but this is the beginning. Oh, when it does. Oh, when it does, then you'll be excited. I mean, every time everyone tells everyone that they're excited like, no, you aren't. That's PR talk for, I've got some shit to shift. Oh, who's excited about anyone? I've got some shit to shift and I'm excited about it.

Yeah, people say, are you excited about your tour? I'm like, what? People don't come to you and expect excitement. Are you excited about having to schlep around the whole country? I don't think people know what to. Don't ruin it. I'm a 50 year old woman. I'm not excited about anything. Let's practice you being excited.

Okay. I'm an interviewer for an article. I'm already not excited because I hate being interviewed. Oh, did you like that article I sent you about the photograph of me and the Guardian? I'd already read it. And I mentioned our pod because it's salient to our whole theme, photographs and nostalgia. I loved it. I loved it on the internet because you could slide the phone.

You could slide it. It slid. It was like a participating photograph before and after, before and after, before and after. Yeah, but I really struggled because every time I went for the after, it slid into a different story. And I went, guys, come on, get the technology better. But anyway, I managed to master it eventually. And then I saw you. And I don't look any different.

That's what you want to say, isn't it? You still look as gorgeous as you did. How old were you when you heard the original photograph? Yeah, there you go. You haven't aged. That's quite something actually. I mean, that was 100% manipulated by me for you to say that. I think I rose to the occasion.

And that's because I'm easy breezy. I'm easy breezy. You're like, oh, I see what she's getting at. She wants an absolute riddled with bullshit compliment. And I'm going to give it to her. And I did. I delivered it to your door. Thank you.

That doesn't happen very often where you get the compliment you've actually asked for. It's just easier to give it. I find people with me. I just say, tell me I look nice. And there's a clarity of intention. I say to Ben, do I look nice? And he goes, yeah. And I'm like, just tell me I look nice.

He goes, you look really nice. Thank you. Yeah. When you say, how do I look? It's not like, I don't want you to tell me how I look. Yeah. I want you to tell me I look nice. Just tell me I look nice.

I can't remember what we were talking about, but I wanted to say that I did read that. It was very exciting. Well done. Oh, we were talking about being interviewed. You were going to interview me. Sorry, go on. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Right. So, hey, G. Yes. You've got an exciting tour coming up. Tell us about that. How do you feel about it? I feel nothing. Oh, Jen, you can't do that in an interview. Okay, start again. Okay, Jen, hi, thanks for your time. Hello, interviewer. How are you? Well, it's not about me, it's about you. So you've got an exciting tour coming up. Tell us about it. Thrilled. Thrill. Okay, what's it about? It's about me. All of my shows are about me actually. And it's very much along the lines of all the things I hate in the world.

Okay, so, but it's comedy, isn't it? It's one of those things. It's comedy, isn't it? So what can the audience look forward to? I don't know. Armageddon, dystopia. A world and no meaning. What? Jen.

Jen. Are you aware of what your job is? You're a comedian. Yeah, I know. But look, comedian. What I do is I bring. You bring mirth. I do.

I do bring. earth. You have to scratch quite a thick epidermis of misery to get to the joy but it is in there, it's very deep. And that is what this show is about. It's about burying yourself so far deep into the shit that there

below, you can breathe in the sweet, sweet hair of joy. And it is there. There's your PR tagline. That's it. That's it. Amongst the shit, find your joy. Well, that's it then. We found it. That's good. You see?

You blew with the wind and you found the joy. I blew it. I blew it. And I blew the wind. And I did it and I achieved it. And for anyone listening, I hope you bought a ticket. Don't make it sound so aggressive. It's going to be fun. You sound like a bailiff.

What? I hope you brought a ticket. You've got bailiff vibes. I don't think, I don't know what people want from me now. Fucking hell, Jen. They want, now people are coming to me going, where's the joy? I'm like, why are you looking at me? Okay, go, go look.

go look at someone else. There's loads of other people offering like unmitigated joy. That's not me. Okay, what you're coming for is a whinge and a moan and there'll be some laughs in between. And I tell you what, you come away and you look at me and go, thank, fuck, I'm not her. So it's a huge Shard and Freudian fraud. Oh, it's a Shard and Freud are on absolute. Stereo.

Crack. Yes, steroids. So that's what you're going to be expecting. And also, look, of course I'm looking forward to the tour. Can I just say that? Because what is more joyful than having people, light-minded people in the same room, having a laugh? That's great, isn't it? It is great.

I just not comfortable with you being positive. I find it unsettling. You asked me to be positive. This is the thing that nobody wants this from me. Nobody wants it from me. They want it from. Nobody wants Ernest from Jen Bristair. People are like, make your teeth it.

She'd be like, what's wrong with her? Get out of here. And actually, Kerry, can I just say people don't want that. from you unless it's coupled with some very heavy duty computational aggression. I bring loads of joy. Yes, you do bring joy, but also an equal amount of aggression and confrontation. I don't know what you're talking about.

Okay, well, there is, there it is. I don't think, let's be honest, when people come to watch our stand-up comedy, they're very clear about what they want. They want a gobbie woman giving it what's, given it what for. And that's what we do. And nobody's come to us for some sort of, Bidde, be dee, bidi, bidi, bidi, bidi. That's all comedy is, isn't it?

What, a d'bid, bidoo. No, but like, you know. Yeah, but it's not, look, there are people that, the people are sort of almost poetic and. Oh, whimsical, whimsical. Yes, but, but, but, that's funny and, and, and they have depth and you go and you, actually, you come away and you feel bored of Jesus Christ, what is going on with your face? Holy fuck.

Thought. That is one of the most upsetting things I've seen. See, this is what happens. Because when you just get two disappearing up an orifice, you've just got to go down these roads. Oh, Jesus. When I was a kid, right, we used to stay with some family friends, Moira and John. And John used to do that. And he used to hide in wardrobes.

And then I'd open a wardrobe and he'd be like... I don't quite know what you did. You put the bottom of your glasses right underneath your eyelids. Oh, that's fun. Yeah, and then put glasses... I've actually got to get higher up to get... Oh, no. that's what we're talking about.

Yeah. I mean, this is a visual media. Yeah, I know, but we've got a camera. Joel bought us a camera, so he bought,

he did, bought some visual comedy. Well, anyway, we've peaked. We peaked. The highlights for me is that rocking chair that I got from a charity shop. And I bought a tumble dryer.

That's changed my life. So I've got a rocking chair and a tumble dryer. Oh, God, we're all getting rid of tumble dryers because of the environment. No, I've found out that some of the,

them or okay. Oh, okay. I was going to get up. The one I bought is energy efficient. So yeah. Energy efficient. Yeah. Yeah.

Anyway, maybe that's wrong. I'll probably get, I'll probably get told off. You've been cancelled. You've been cancelled, I'm afraid. What if I got cancelled for getting a tumble dryer? People have been cancelled for less. This is your moment.

And Martina McCutcheon had her a moment. Admittedly that was on a film that nobody enjoyed. And now this is your moment, which is... To get cancelled over a tumble dryer? Yep. Yep. I wondered what I'd get cancelled for. And that makes sense.

That makes sense. If you're going to get cancelled for anything, it's going to be a tumble dry. Yeah. Yeah. It fits into my domestic. It's very on brand. Ouvre. Ouvre.

Ouvre. Ouvre. Ouvre. Ouvre. Is it O'F? No, that's eggs. Anyway, look. You're going to work that out.

You don't want to ask for an uvra when you mean a nerve. I don't know. Can I have two Evers please? What? On toast. Yeah. Okay, Jen Brister. Yes, Kerry Godderman.

I'm going to adopt your thing of calling you by your full name because you do that. I feel like I'm at school. Do I say your full name? Yeah, you say my full name. I feel like I'm in trouble. Do people ever just call you Godleman? Yeah. I get called Brister.

Bristair's quite good for you. It works for you. Yeah, I don't. Barely anyone calls me Jen. They call me Brister. Yeah, that's good. It's like I've gone to public school and no one told me. Yeah.

No, I don't get called God. Godleman that much. Yeah. You get called Kale or Kerry. Kelle. Ketter. Kerry. So, Kerry Godleman, who are we talking to this week?

Okay, this week we're talking to the fabulous George Egg. And this was a lot of fun. He told us some great stories. Do you know what? I have been looking and reading and absorbing George's book. Me too. It is great. It is so good.

And there's some recipes you're going to try. I mean, just like all that fast food staff or just. stuff that you use for like snacks or take, do you know what I mean? I'm going to up my condiment game. That is the key to George's book, Snack Hacker, is the condiments. We've all got it up our condiment game. But I love this book and I can't recommend it enough. You've got a way of holding food that makes me want to eat it.

I don't know what it is about the way you hold food, but you sort of grab something. You're like, look at that. Yeah, yeah. You're like holding it like, oh, whatever is. I don't want to stick it in my mouth. Well, I tell you what I do, because when I started doing the videos, it was really fashionable for all the food videos were shot directly from above. No, you know, just like bird's eye view, just hands doing stuff.

No personality. And I just thought, it's got a bit about personality. I thought, well, I've got the experience of, you know, performing. Yeah. So kind of going, yeah. So let's make it a really, you know, a performative, interactive, kind of funny, entertaining. Yeah, personality led. And I think that maybe, I guess that's what.

People love it. Because people want the connection. They want human connection, definitely. Right, let's get your photos. We're looking at this first one. It's funny, isn't it? It looks, initially, it looks like. We just got bored inside being on our phone.

This is the problem with phones because I say to my kids, get off your phone and they're like, we're doing our homework. Oh, no. You don't know what's going on there. We're looking at your pictures. I know. I did know that really. I just got the idea of you both just going.

We're just on Instagram. Just got some finishing on eBay. I really want it. I've got a bid on this. I saw someone at one of my kids' shows just on shopping, on a phone. A school show. Oh, my God. At a school show?

Yeah. God, that's really, yeah, I bet you wanted to. I really wanted to say you can't do that. What that? Are you doing? Yeah. Wow. Anyway, this is a wholesome family shop.

It is a bit, isn't it? I mean, I had to start. So I didn't know. So I chose more than five and I thought I'd let Joel choose which ones. Well, he chose this. Well, there you go. And is this your mom and dad? That's my mom and dad.

Dad. And which one's you? Which one's your mom? Mum's on the left. That's me, yeah, the little one. The one being held. Oh, that's too cute. So cute.

And where was this picture taken? That was taken in France. That would have been. On holiday. Yeah. So we did, we didn't holiday, we're only holidayed in the UK. Mostly youth hostling holidays. Like, you know, in the family room at youth hostels.

Which I loved and I write about a lot, a lot of stuff about youth hustling holidays. That was the real thing. Like in the 70s and 80s Wasn't it youth hostling? We don't... Yeah. Do people still do that? I think so.

I tell you, I have stayed in youth hostels when I've done gigs before. I did once in Liverpool, heavily pregnant, died on my ass. And then when stayed in youth hostel? Were you in a private room

or were you in a dorm? I was in a dorm. Oh. Yeah, I've done it in dorms and that's awful where you just get some people snoring and farting and kind of then you just feel like

this really shouldn't be like this. I know people that do stay in youth hostels when they do trekking. or climbing. Yeah. But not, so is that what you did? Did you do activities? No, no, no.

We'd just drive there and, I mean, you know, go, like we'd be tourists around wherever we were, Salisbury or whatever. You've always been the envy of everyone on the campsite. You are the king of camping. You are very good. Oh, yeah. Oh no, I love camping. So we never camped when we were kids.

Right. But you've got that outdoorsy, rustic-y vibe. Yeah. Nicely nailed. Yeah. But you youth hostel with your mum and dad when you kids. So a youth hostel of my mum and dad, but I think that would have been a French youth hostel because we didn't, my mum was a little.

really paranoid about travelling. Oh, what a board? Anyway, she was like really, really suffered from anxiety and so she didn't like, she wouldn't fly and, you know, so the only time we went overseas was to France on the ferry with a car a couple of times, two or three times. Did she enjoy it once she was there? Did the anxiety disappear? Yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean on and off.

She was very anxious person. Okay. Yeah. But holidays were important to your family. enough for her to overcome anxiety and go. Yeah, yeah, definitely. And she was a, they both had normal jobs. What were their jobs?

She was a teacher, maths teacher. So they had the summer. Forest Hill boys, which is still going. Forest Hill, boys, really? Yeah. And my dad was an accountant. Yeah. I didn't know you with South London.

Yeah. Because you've lived in Brighton for such a long time. I don't know. I just, yeah. Think of you as Brighton through and true. Yeah, no. everyone's all my whole family still in south london right and yeah so well i went to brighton to go to university when i was 19 and stayed and then stayed there yeah it's a great place it is but i miss south

london and all my family all my kids live in london now as well do they i thought they'd be brighton through and through no well my son's going to move so he became a dad last year oh congratulations so yeah i've got a grandson i'll show you a little video yeah how old your kids now uh my youngest is 24 right or she 24 this year 23 or 23 or 24 I can never remember. She's born in 2000. She's 24. Yes.

So, yeah, so she was, so she's 20. Would she be 24? She's 24. She's going to be 25 this year. Right. Yeah, cool, she turns the year. Cool, she turns the same age. Millennium.

That's the year. It's easy. I don't know why I'm struggling. I think I forgot what year it was. Yeah. That's like now. That's what through me. I've loved, do you know what?

I've loved that that wasn't you or me because that's usually what happens is. Oh, honestly, I tell you, my brain is shot. I just, I'm so, I'm 52, I think, I imagine. And I forget, I forget so much. I know it's a cliche, but I forget so much. Yeah, but I find it quite liberating. I've decided to just go with it. Yeah.

It's like, I must have not needed to know that. Like in old and worldly times, in olden times. Yeah. We wouldn't have been needed to hold so much information, would we? No. And now I don't think we're designed to hold it all. It's like with names. Honestly, Chloe has to like walk next to me.

me like she's like an advisor and I'm the president and winter's PA whispering the name she lives at number 45 she's got two kids I'm like hello jean I'm like I never know who anyone is but I used to really pride myself on my memory like like knowing quotes from films that I'd seen once like 10 years ago it feels like it's going you didn't need that shit anyway though we've got to let it go like one one bit of information internet one bit of information out and voice notes do you text you I text If I have an idea, I text it to myself. Well, that's clever.

I put it in notes. And then I send it. How'd you text it to yourself? I've got my own number in my phone. This is incredible to me. But here's the thing. Whenever I send it to myself, every time, not, you know, without exception, I write the idea down. I hit send, put it in my pocket.

And I go, oh, God, text. Oh, George. That's that. That's lovely. And then I'm like, oh, yeah, course. That's like, when you were little, you wrote to yourself. Yeah. Did you ever do that?

Yes, I wrote to myself. And another thing is. Did you ever wrap up presents for yourself? Because, yeah, like Christmas's gone, I've unwrapped for my presents, that was so much fun, I'm going to wrap up something. No, I never did that. It's like tickling you. It's like, just doesn't work.

You go, I know what it is. This is just a waste of time. Do you ever put the pillows down the other end of the bed for fun? Oh, just to pretend you're on holiday? Yeah, yeah. I did that when I was a kid. Yeah. It felt really subversive.

I do it now because my husband snores, snoring husband. I'm like, if I get it just a few feet further away from his nose. Oh, yeah, maybe I've had to sleep. Yeah. I couldn't top and tail though because you're Is that all punching him in the head? Okay so kick him in the head instead. You kick him in the head.

Punch him in the head. Yeah, yeah. At this one you kick him in the head, you go, I didn't know you were there. Me and my wife were top and tail when we're in the van. Yes, you have to be in the van. Is that what you have to do in the van? Well, we find it works better because you like, you know,

shoulders are wider than ankles. Right, okay, got you. Then you can be a bit more like sardines in a tin. So you grew up in South London. Yeah. Who's your sibling? He's called Henry. Henry.

Henry's older than you. He's two years, yeah, two academic years older than me anyway. And yeah, he's a painter. Is he? So he both creatives. Yeah. Were your family creative? Can you see the origins of that?

Yeah, yeah, totally. I mean, my mum, she was a maths teacher, but she was really into art and stuff, and she had, her classroom was fascinating. It was all full of, like, geometric models that she built and loads of, like, Escher pictures on the walls. I wish I had had a little speech on. Yeah, she was really, yeah, it was really crazy.

My dad was too, although my dad was, he's an interesting one. So he was really, uh, did loads of stuff before we were born. He was like was in plays and. Really? Yeah, yeah. And really aspired to do that. But then when we came along, I think, I think it all goes a lot deeper, but for whatever reason he just, he stopped him.

He stopped. And I think he kind of thought, right, my, he was very selfless. I think he was, he was such a good dad. And I think he was really, he was like, this is what I do now, you know, this is my thing. But then I think when we, unlike when my kids, I think, you know, maybe that's why I didn't, wasn't very creative because I was focusing on being a dad as well. Yeah. But then I think when my kids reached, you know, that kind of more independent age, that's

when I kind of went subconsciously, I'm going to do more interesting stuff. Yeah. Yeah. And then start doing different shows and everything else. Whereas I think with my dad, when we grew up, he was, and we were. we left and kind of became independent. He was a bit lost, really, and then didn't really... He didn't get that back, that creative.

No, no, so... Yeah. But we did, we do, like, you know, they'd do things like they'd set up a still life in the middle of the dining table and all the pastels out and would all sit around the table and draw. Oh, how lovely. Like, revoltingly wholesome, doesn't it? Yeah, you do know that.

If it's any consolation, we argued as well. But that is a very wholesome looking family picture. Yeah, no, it's a nice one. It's really lovely. It's really, I suppose. Yeah, yeah, no, it's really lovely. But it's interesting that, you know, it's interesting that, you know, I think of you as family, very family.

You've always been very family-oriented. Yeah, yeah, totally. You're always, whenever you sort of like, we've had conversations, your family's always, you know, front and centre and you've focused on them. But it's so nice to see that you, now that your kids are old and they've grown up and they've got their own lives and their own families, that you're able to now... Yeah.

So sort of like just put the feelings out and find out. It just feels right that it was about food as well. Yeah, yes, because that's all so family, I suppose, isn't it? It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get a nice rink on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice? Yes, we deliver those.

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new craveable wraps available in Chipotle or ranch plus tax at participating restaurants in Canada for a limited time. So I want to talk about just just just watching you from there just doing the thing. Zoom in on your bum. I just zoomed in on George's bum. So you're so we also want to say is your comedy pseudonym. Yes. And you as a performer, because we were talking about you. Yeah. Just before you got here, talking about what you do on stage

or what you did on stage when you were on the circuit. And it was all kind of like, everything was like, you'd have a suitcase, you'd be grabbing stuff out the suitcase. Yeah. And like it was quite anarchic. Yeah, always stuff. And always stuff coming out and flying out everywhere. And what?

Because I, when I remember seeing. you way before I was getting paid to do stand of comedy. So what year were you started, what year did you start getting out on the circuit and, when I was 19? Oh shit, ages ago. So when you were still a student? Yeah.

Yeah, I did my first paid 20 at Upper Creek when I was 19. Wow, that is your own hair. Malcolm? Yeah, he was really, he really took me under his wing. He was very supportive with me actually as well, Malcolm. He was responsible for me getting a mortgage. Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah.

So he gave you regular paid gigs. No, but he pretended he did for the bank. For the bank, right? Literally did. So I was doing up the creek. I wasn't doing, so I did street entertaining when I... What year was this about? So it would have been 92.

Christ, yeah, that was like right in the... That is like peak comedy in the UK. Everyone's making decent money. There's not as many people performing. Yeah. Oh no, it was, but it was weird for me because I... So like, people in our kind of world talk about their comedy year group. Yeah.

And I don't really feel like I've got one because for a long time I was doing street entertaining. I was doing a few circuit gigs. But I was kind of always, I never felt like I fitted in. I always felt like, you know, a lot of gigs would go, oh, we don't, you know, we're not going to book you because you're too much like a street performer. Right. Yeah, yeah. And then Shepormers were like, oh, but you're a stand-up. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

So it was really, so it was really weird. And then by the time I sort of got more established, I suppose. I kind of felt like, I don't know, I felt like everyone else, it wasn't that kind of. kind of starting at the same time thing. I see, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Right. But yeah, so I started doing street entertaining

when I was 16. So I used to go- Because I had a Saturday job and I didn't. But this is before you started the course at university, but you were already doing- Yeah, I guess that's why I changed the course, yeah. So I did, so I went to, what was a 16, I was 17 when I started doing

Street Entertainment, but I went to, I went to see this circus called chaos the French circus do you ever see them no on Clap and Common in the late 80s early 90s and they they did this it was this amazing show it was like no animals very mad max loads of machines loads of like rock band and it was just like crazy this mad show steampunk vibes yeah totally steampunk before steampunk was you know yeah and um and i just loved this show so went to see it three times then they uh they took the show up to edinburgh so i went up to edinburgh for the first time.

So I would have went to see stuff. Yeah, I didn't perform. Right. And went to see our chaos in Edinburgh, made friends with some of the people would basically sort of said, oh, can we go backstage and chat? Hung out there, made friends with it. And then when they came back to London that winter with a show called Metal Clown, which was at Battersea, by Batsey Power Station. It's crazy. It's a big cathedral like 10. Me and my friend Leo got jobs there. And I could there and and he was a steward but then he was also a bit in the show as well we had this bike two bike frames that welded on top of each other and it was on fire and he

cycled through the the circus tent at the beginning of the show yeah it was man wow and then off the back of that I was like right I want to be a performance so then I started doing street entertaining does that world still exist like could a young person have do that now what's going to a show in common garden yeah like go down the road of street performance performing in the same way. Yeah, I mean, you know, you don't need. Because it was a kind of renaissance, like there was a circus reliance,

like Deluguada and then Stomp came big. Yeah. That time in the 90s, there was a scene, definitely, for that kind of avogood circus thing. Yeah. And there's fire, this is more circuses. Oh, there's another one. I didn't know that one as well.

Yeah, so that's, that's, that's, that's, yeah, I'm just watching the guy fire eating. No, I, yeah, if you zoom in, just buy Debenhams. No, that is me doing the fire routine. Oh my God. Oh my God. This is the peak of your street entertainment. This is when I was doing street entertaining.

Yeah. So actually that one's kind of, that one's, but I got long hair in there if it wasn't so dark. So how old were you in this picture? I don't know, 17. Where are you doing this? What Devinanons is that? Winchester. So that's a street entertaining festival, amazing street entertaining festival.

I don't know if it's still going called the Hat Fair. Right. That was just, it's always the week after Glastonbury, the weekend after Glastonbury. Right. And yeah, and they just have. hundreds of street performers all over the town and loads of people go there. It's great.

It's a really nice. And you just found a kind of community in this world. It was just like, you just belonged. Again, like I said, it was kind of, it was slightly, I was kind of belonging,

but also I felt like they were sort of going, oh, you're trying to be a stand-up. And so there was a little bit, yeah, there's these groups. Yeah, which I've always done. Really? Well, I put the whole time I was on the circuit. I was, you know,

I was always getting digs from various people about... I can pretty much guess who they were. Oh, you should write some jokes, that kind of thing. Yeah, all right. That's why I think when I did Edinburgh, it was just such a revelation. So free you. You can do it ever the hell you want.

This is great. Yeah. This is brilliant, yeah. What's this next photograph of that you sent us? I don't know. What is it? It looks like backstage there's a cooker. Oh, I just thought that. I just thought that was quite a nice,

So it's, where is that? That's my kitchen when I first moved into the flat that Malcolm Hardy helped me buy. Oh, right. Yeah. And, and I, and I. In Brighton. In Brighton. Oh my goodness.

It was above a shop in Prestonville Road. And you've got loads of like comedy posters. Well, that's what I thought. I thought that's quite interesting. So I, I, uh, yeah, I had all the posters. So there's street entertaining festivals there. There's Lee Evans. A chaos poster.

Uh, shows I'd seen. Shows I'd been involved in. And yeah, just like a kind of nightclub. In the top right, there's a post for a show called The Feast, which was amazing. That was so great. So the ringmaster of our chaos, when they were in Scotland, there was a guy called Ian Smith, who went on afterwards to form this street entertaining company called Mischief LeBar that me and my wife worked with just after we finished university.

And they did all these sort of large-scale street performing events. but then they put on this show at the Albany in Deptford. They did two years in a row, the feast and then the feast too. And it was, I just talked because it ties in quite nicely with what I ended up doing afterwards. But the cast of the show. So I did stand, well, not a properly stand-up set. And it was like a sort of promenade performance. They had stages in different places around the perimeter of the Albany theatre.

And then the audience were on these great big picnics. table was made out of scaffolding that seated about 12 people on each table. Right. On wheels. And then the cast would push the tables to one of the areas where someone was going to perform and then someone would do their set. And then they'd push them elsewhere. And they had it.

And it was this mad cabaret show. But it was called the feast because during the day, the cast cooked a meal in the kitchen at the Albany Theatre. And then in the interval, the audience got fed the meal that the, performers have cooked. That's great. Which I didn't even realize until when I started doing Edinburgh decades later, suddenly going, I'm feeding the audience. That's what I was doing when I started out. Yeah. And didn't even make that connection. Yeah.

The show that I remember, which I took my partner to see, to see you, not that show, but a different show in 2019. And the reason why I think we enjoyed it so much, because we were like, I had the flame throw. Yeah. You're like, what fuck, it's going to happen next? And you can see, like, genuinely, like, of course, like, I obviously know you. I trust. you and I knew it was fine, but you could see genuinely people like, Jesus Christ, you know. And that's what I've always loved about the fringe is, I mean, we've gone to, do you remember when we went to see the two wrongies? Yeah. We've gone to see some awesome. We've gone to see some shows

at Edinburgh where you go, I don't know what this is and I don't need to know what this is. I'm just loving it. It's fucking mental. And you don't get that on the circuit. Yeah. And that's why Edinburgh is so important, I think. That show that you saw, they were so, so that was at assembly. Yeah. And they were... In the garden. Yeah. Yeah. And they were absolutely brilliant.

Honestly, I just... The crew there, so I had in that show a what looked like a real engine on stage. And it's not. So I made it out of a giant toolbox that I put a fan on the front and I glued loads of stuff to it and then sort of painted it to look like this greasy engine and pipes and things. And then I had a smoke machine in it and it was on an engine stand. and then I had I'd turn it on by just like

flicking a switch and the fan would start and then there was an engine sound sound effect but when I when I was doing all my tech rehearsal for it unlike other venues

that I've been to where they're obviously not that well either not bothered or not being paid enough or not trained well enough or whatever but the people doing the tech there was so great

and one of the guys just said I've had an idea he said because you've got the sound effect of the engine he said we could rig a speaker directly behind the curtain that's behind where the engine is. So it just comes out of there. Right.

So that then, so at all the music was all coming out of everything. And then when I turned the engine on, it was just coming out. Yeah. And so many people were saying, how did you get an engine on stage? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that theatrical artistry, creativity and innovation. Yeah, no. It's real immersion, isn't it, in a theatrical experience.

Yes. And art and creative. Yeah. So you're got like, you know, after a while, going to see stand-up show after stand-up show, you're like, Jesus Christ. Well, it's just like you're like talking. I mean, that is what start-time is. Yeah, it is. And, you know, like I said, I took my partner and we, and it was, and it was a spectacle. That's how I would describe it. Well, I was always really passionate about kind of it being multi-sensory as well so that, you know, you're used to just hearing and searing.

Hearing and searing. Which you were actually. There was some searing going on. That was, searing. Hearing and searing. Cooking on stage. I remember we've been a kid and going to see Shirley Valentine. I was quite young and she cooks an egg and chips.

Yeah, yeah, egg and chips at the beginning, yeah. And just there's something about people cooking on stage. Yeah. The smell. Yeah. Well, that's the thing. Yeah, I wanted, so I wanted, rather than just seeing them hearing, having, yeah, smelling.

Yeah. And then tasting as well at the end. Yeah. That was the great thing, is that you could then go up at the end and try, what you cooks, which is great. So it's like, yeah, try and like get all the senses stimulated for the audience. And also when you're doing something that you're really excited about, that you've produced, you've created, you're performing.

It's something very different than when you've got, well, I'm just going to go and drive to fucking, you know, Cardiff to smash out 20 and go home. Yeah. Like there's a different level of investment. It's like it's quite interesting talking to you because it reminds me of when we were talking to Ian Stone because he is equally feel like, He went back to Edinburgh a bit like you. Yeah.

And has now found like, oh God, this is what comedy can be. And this is what I can do with my stand-up or this is what I can do with my performance. And he feels the same. And I know when he talks about it, goes, I love fliring. Oh, well, he, honestly, of everyone, every comedian, he is the, whenever I bump into him in Edinburgh, he is just so positive. Yeah. And so, and I love that because there's so many people I've stayed with and everything. I love enormously.

But they're like, oh, no, I wouldn't do flyering. You know, I'm above that now kind of thing. Right, right. And you're like, this is part of it. It's all part of it. It's totally part of it. And I just so love how Ian embraces that. He does.

And just like that and just really nice chatting with people. Rob's like that as well, Rob Rouse. When he does Edinburgh, it's the whole thing. It takes the kids. He gets some flyering. It's a family thing. It's all part of it. Did you see his show where it was with Helen?

Yeah. I did. I really wish I'd see. The play? Yeah, I saw it. It was really good. Up the ladder? That one.

I saw the ladder one. but there was another one later. Oh no, I didn't see that one. Yeah, that one that everyone was talking about because it was about being married to a comedian. Yeah, so he starts the show and you think that's the show. And then she's like, no, that isn't what happened. Well, first of all, there's this, like, like, oh, who's that?

It's so well played because you don't know she's there. You don't realize that you think. And then he's doing my wife stuff and she's like, I am your wife and that isn't what happened. And then she comes down and it's a play. It was brilliant. It's one of the best shows. Starts as a stand-up and it ends as a play.

Yeah, it was fantastic. You know what's better than the one big thing? Two big things. Exactly. The new iPhone 17 Pro on TELUS's five-year rate plan price lock. Yep, it's the most powerful iPhone ever, plus more peace of mind with your bill over five years. This is big. Get the new iPhone 17 Pro at TELUS.com slash iPhone 17 Pro on select plans.

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Yeah, that is. Is that marinaura? What you got? It's fish finger spaghetti, that is. Is that fish finger? Because I was looking at the lemon wedges. I was like, what's going on here? That is such a nice recipe.

Fish finger spaghetti. It's in the book? I'm going to flip and make it. So what happened is we... That looks great. So we wanted to do the book. So we went to various publishers and then... And all the big food publishers were like, no, no, not interested.

And then... a reasonably smallish public, well, not that small, but they're called Blink. Right. They're an imprint of Bonnier. And they do a lot of comedians' books that have done Catherine Ryan's ones and Lou Saunders one. Okay. And they said, yeah, well, you know, we'll give you a deal to do a book.

And then, and so our initial idea was it would just be a cookbook of all the, all the recipes and new recipes, all the ones from the videos, all the snack hacks. And then as I started writing it, I realized, how much of sort of my childhood and everything else and my dad doing all the cooking had kind of affected what I was what I cooked and what I craved and that sort of thing so I started writing a lot more stuff

and the book kind of developed and became more it's not biograph I mean there's biography in it but so every kind of fourth or fifth recipe there's like a double page where there's there's writing about about my life I suppose really right so it's memoir as well yeah yeah and then all working at our chaos and then doing Edinburgh and blah blah blah.

That's lovely. Yeah. And I said that and it's and I've made the book like a like a show. So it's in two acts. It's got act one, act two. It's got an interval. And it's got a story arc. So it starts.

There's a bit writing at the start about me where I'm going to visit my dad. And he's by himself. This is during lockdown. And I just started making the videos. And I lay out all these frozen meals on the floor. Say to him, look, you know, I bought all these for you. When your carer comes, you can choose which. ones you have. I put more in the freezer and then I show him the videos so I've been making

these videos and he's like I don't really know where you're doing them and I'm like I don't know either really so then I say goodbye and go and then the book goes kind of back and I talk about him cooking for us when we were kids and everything else and then right at the end of the book to kind of make it like a you know have an art it um I basically that that first that bit is that's the last time I oversaw him because then he died oh yeah so sorry but and and and And so, but then I did stuff like, so all the ready meals, they're all dishes that I end up cooking in the book. And so it's all, so it's all kind of Easter egg eating. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But, but, so I've kind of gone off the point. But, but so we, so we got the book deal and we did it. And, and we wanted it to be a real collaborative thing. So, so that's, that's at the end of the photo shoot. Yeah. So when we did the photos, that was my friend Matt, who's the guy on the left with the hat on. He's, um, who I was at university with and we did loads of. of performance together and I've known him for years and he's a photographer now.

So again, someone, you know, going in a arts direction. Yeah. Degree. And me in the middle. And then that's my son who, who's done all the illustrations. And we'd just finished, we wrapped the whole photo shoot. We'd just done some portraits of me with the big plate of spaghetti. And then we all crowded around and tucked in and talked in and got a photo of the three of us together.

That's a great picture. That's a great picture. And that is a great bowl of spaghetti. Well, as I say, that's fish fingers baguette, which is... One of your favourite recipes. It's a good one. It's a nice one. Loads of garlic, loads of chili. Yeah.

Loads of oil. And then you put the garlic and the chili in the oil all in cold. Yeah. Put in a stirrenice and some fennel seeds. What? What? Which is lovely. So you're like an accede and fish.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Put a whole packet of fish fingers in the oven. Get them really cooked so they're kind of really kind of crunchy. And then you bring up the heat. on the oil so that the garlic doesn't burn. So it cooks from cold and it's really infused you all with all the garlic. Then add a bit of tomato puree, a bit of Thai fish sauce, give it more kind of fishing. And then you chop up, loads of parsley, chop up the fish fingers really small.

Mix that all in and then that was spaghetti. Yeah. And it's just heaven. Because the... Oh my God, this sounds incredible. Oh, it's so good. And so the reason that I came up with that recipe was me and Nikki, my wife, we've been having, was other crab spaghetti or pawn spaghetti

with with you know sort of fennily ana ceded flavours and everything and we have pangratata on top you know toasted breadcrumbs and so I was just thinking well you get the best of both words with fish fingers because you get the breadcrumbs and then you got the fish and that kind of gets dyed by the chili oil with the tomato puree and anyway yeah it's delicious god that sounds great I really want that

I'm going to have that tea I actually think my kids would eat that as well yeah well I tell you I had this I had such a nice thing so There was an article about the book in the Times on Saturday. And it was this journalist, Times Best Sondy Times Best Salad. Sunday Times Best Saturday. Sunday Times Best Saturday. But, and yeah, this journalist had done cooking with her kids from the book. And it was just all her saying, my kids are eating dull.

My kids are eating mushy pee hummus. And they're just loving doing it. So I think it's, yeah, it's a book that appeals to, I tell you, it's really weird the book because it's got, it's like a kids cooking book. It's like a cookbook for people who can't cook. But then loads of chefs have bought it. Well, congratulations on the book. It's brilliant. And it's just so lovely to see.

Because I've heard you on the radio and you're popping up on all kinds of things. It's just so lovely. It is. And really well deserved. And it's available at all good book chops. Snack hacks. No, not snack hacks. The snack hacker.

The snack hacker. Cut that. Get that right. Oh, God. Listen, don't blame me. Blame the menopause. I've got it asked. We're not naturally born for...

This isn't something we can... So for... No. I'm Max Rushton. 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. Where do we put the stress? Is it what did you do yesterday? What did you do yesterday? You know what I mean?

What did you do yesterday? I'm really down playing it. Like, what did you do yesterday? Like, I'm just a guy just asking a question. But do you think I should go bigger? What did you do yesterday? What did you do yesterday? Every single word this time I'm going to try and make it like it is the killer word.

What did you do yesterday? I think that's too much, isn't it? That is over the top. What did you do yesterday? Available wherever you get your podcasts every Sunday.