Senses Working Overtime with David Cross - James Acaster

Episode Date: December 5, 2024

James Acaster (Off Menu, Hypothetical) joins David to talk about his four cats, hecklers, and more. Catch all new episodes every Thursday. Watch video episodes here.Guest: James AcasterSubscribe and Rate Senses Working Overtime on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and leave us a review to read on a future episode!Follow David on Instagram and Twitter.Follow the show:Instagram: @sensesworkingovertimepodTikTok: @swopodEditor: Kati SkeltonEngineer: Chris OsbornExecutive Producer: Emma FoleyAdvertise on Senses Working Overtime via Gumball.fm.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is a HeadGum Podcast. People throwing parties, ugly sweaters everywhere, stockings hung up by the chimney with care. It could only mean one thing. McRib is here. At Participating McDonald's for a limited time. Touch, touch, taste, smell, hear, see So as you know, I let you choose... I'm going to this one. Yep, okay choose Yeah, yeah Coming in how do you feel about me choosing this one? Um, I

Fine and I think that I think putting my Drink over here probably subtly Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, influence of your little Darren Brown actually put this down here Yeah, yeah, and you chose that yeah Manipulation thinking when you said choose the chair. This is a Devon Brown moment Yeah, I should actually Ask him I should ask him for a trick and then see how many times it works. Oh Did you got teach you one.

Yeah, yeah. Like I was I actually I met him. And I was a huge fan. Yeah. And met him through Jason Sudeikis. Didn't know he was going to be there. He was having a something watch party, an Oscar or basketball or something and he had this spread out on the dining room table and I could see as I walked in there were two guys dressed exactly alike in a very specific type of dress. just short of foppish. And I came around to grab some pizza or whatever. And it was Darren and his boyfriend or husband, I'm not sure.

And they were both dressed alike. And so I was processing a lot of stuff all at once. And I was like, oh my God, you're, oh, hi. And we became friendly after that. And when you go to an Oscar watch party with those guys, is it weird for you guys, because you know the people who are winning awards and stuff. Because the rest of us are watching it.

I mean, I've only known a handful of those people, Leo, Tom, Dinklage. He doesn't like you to say Peter. I mean, you know it's all bullshit, right? And you know, I'm not, I mean, that's- You're not saying there's no- I'm not asking you, I'm just saying one knows it's all bullshit and you kind of root for your friends, but you know, I know for a fact that people don't do their due diligence.

Uh, and there are other people are voting for their friends because why not? And, um, and don't see all of the things that are options. So it's one of those things you're rooting for people and even more so with the Emmys. But you also know it's bullshit and you know, they know it's bullshit. So it's a it's a big lie that we're all perpetuating to further our careers. I just like watching the, because me and my friends

will sometimes do Oscar watch parties, and that's late in the UK, stay up really late to watch it. Yeah. But it's just because it's funny. It's really funny how, like, just how it gets talked about. I like how everyone getting on stage and talking about how important acting is. And stuff is really funny.

And then I really like it when people let themselves down with a speech that doesn't read the room very well, or just read the tone of the world. Sure. Yeah, I mean, there are those are there are few and far between those. And there's usually some hint of self deprecation. That's not really that self deprecating. Yeah. And that's not really that self-deprecating. Yeah. And then the worn out kind of, you know, Maggie, Kiara, go to bed, it's time to go to bed.

You know, one of those things. Yeah. And I like it when somebody who wins an award of lesser prominence, I'll say. I shouldn't say lesser prominence, but not as flashy. Right. So an international short animated film. Right. And they win. And then they just go up for like five minutes.

They're talking through the music. The music plays louder. And and you you don't want to take anything away from them because it's their moment and they may not get another one but you also are simultaneously going and nobody cares dude. I mean there's like 19 people who you're taking up a lot of precious time and this is why we have a shorter in memoriam segment. Precious time and this is why we have a shorter in memoriam sex segment Yeah Do you think you'll be when you died for you'll be in the in memoriam at the Oscars?

I do not they won't show like you splattered on the ceiling in men in black. No, I don't think so. I Truly don't know knowing who they left out before. Yeah, they've overlooked some pretty for, um, they've overlooked some pretty, uh, you know, serious people that, you know, I think was kind of shitty that they overlooked and I'm not even, you know, at one 10th of their level. I'll complain if you're not, because you're going before me. I'll complain if you come on. What have you heard?

I just, I just don't make that face and just shrug it off. What did you hear? What? What makes you say that that I am going to die before you live dangerously? You know, you know, I do live, but not as much anymore. Caution to the wind. Yeah, not as much. I'm, I'm settled down. I got a kid, um, still coming for you. Yeah. Yeah. Aren't there ways to stave it off though with like a powder vitamin powder? Yeah. Or you could like get transfusions from your kid if Gavin a kid smart. You can get that blood. Now. I never thought of it that way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But she's a girl. Is that does that matter?

No, that's even better. I think gold blood is really good. Yeah, makes sense. Makes sense. She eats well. Yeah. All right When does that process start when she's seven? Yeah. Yeah, whenever Like yeah, she's old enough to be convinced talked into it. But now wait a minute When you do a transfusion, it's not I'm not taking all her blood She'll be she'll still remain alive generating more blood, right? I see otherwise Yeah, you have to have another kid, right? That's gonna adopt another seven. Yeah, just adopt and go from like that, but that's what that's what Musk is doing

I believe is he adopted and then getting their blood. Um, he's just having kids and getting their blood. Yeah. Yeah One by one. Yeah, the adoption agency is gonna be on to you pretty quick If you keep going back and going, I need another kid, that one, that last one didn't have enough blood. But why don't I go to a different adoption agency? Yeah, I think they talk. I think there's gotta be network.

They gotta be like, listen, if David Cross comes in. What about like the super Christian ones that won't let gay people adopt kids who are desperate for love. Can I go to them? Yeah, you can go to them. Just pretend I'm Christian. Yeah, yeah.

Speaking tongues, handle a snake, come in with their like, I can be a bit of a bad, bad, bad, bad. Sorry guys, I was speaking to my snake. Let me just put this over here. And then, uh, do you think even the Christian ones, if you go in and started speaking in tongues, even though go in and started speaking in tongues, even though they are supposed to believe in that. Well, that's a sect of Christianity.

Yeah. That's not every Christian. They all recognize what it is. Yeah. Uh, I think there's a, a delicious irony in some Christians rolling their eyes at other Christians going, can you believe the nonsense they believe? Yeah. Uh, that's always amused me. Yeah.

I don't know, I don't know. So, James, first of all, thank you for coming here. Are you doing press for the special? Yeah. Is that what you're doing in town? Yeah, yeah, that's basically what I'm doing here, yeah. So let everybody know, give them the details as they say Castor heckers. Welcome is out on HBO on the 23rd of November

It's my new comedy special where I let the audience do whatever they like while I try and do my tightly scripted material That's pretty ballsy I gotta say it's in and it's a it's a Like there's a lot of complaining amongst comedians and even comedy writers. Some of it valid, some I don't think is valid about the shift in the propensity of people to just do crowd work.

I get it, I don't get it at the same time, I get it. But that's not what you're doing. No. Right. You've created a much more difficult scenario. Yeah, and I didn't want to, I mean, I'm not really, I didn't used to just go on and be like, hey, what are you doing? Right.

Even though I like watching comedians who are very good at that, do that. And it's really impressive to watch and exciting. But I was never that good at it. I wanted to do my shows that I'd spent a long time on. Sure, of course. I was very excited to do those. And then I'd react really badly when people would heckle

or be on their phones or even not laugh a lot. Be on their phones? Oh yeah. Dude, you gotta have a rule when they walk into that. Sure, but then this is the thing. This is what I was kind of thinking more and more with it. It's like, the more I try and have rules with it the less fun it feels No, no, no, no the audience I've been doing this for a while and the audience

Greatly appreciates it. Sometimes they even applaud When they when the list of rule right right now before I'm on tour. Hi. Hi, this is David cross I'm on tour currently. I don't know when this is coming out. I'll still be out on tour. And for all the dates and places, you can go to official davidcross.com. I've got about another couple of month in April, Norway, come say hi, Sweden, Germany, all the places, the UK. I better get Ireland in there. I should get Ireland in there. You're not going to hurt? I don't know. It wasn't on this tour, but I love going to –

It's so good. Yeah. I did Belfast and Dublin last time And they were great. They're always great Glasgow's great. I mean whatever all right I know you mean a lot of audiences definitely a lot of audience members Cuz I'm an audience member as well when I got a stuff. I really appreciate people not being able to do Stupid shit in the audience next to me

and ruin the show for me when I've paid to see the show. Yeah, I mean, I'm telling you when the little announcement comes either it's the house announcement. On this tour, I had Bob Odenkirk record a thing that has that's all the rules, but it's silly and stuff. And people are thankful that you're doing that and not, and also not doing the, the, what are they yonder pouches? Yoder pouch. Yeah. Those like, yeah.

The lock them up things. Yeah. Don't let them. Um, and people don't like that, but it's every, every one abides, you know, nobody, they, they, they're happy just, you know, it's going to be 90 minutes, two hours and sit back and don't get on your fucking phone. If you need to go on your phone go out in the lobby Yeah, I I wouldn't I think there is and people have probably already pick it up on like our different

The way you are. Mm-hmm People will do as they're told would use bit like immediately you went no fuck that I was like, okay, I'm not fucking getting on my phone during that guy's show. And with me, they'd just be like, I don't fucking listen to this guy. So I'd have the rules before my show, you know, pass tours, and, you know, say off your phones, don't do this, don't take photos. I'd have people walk up to the stage and start filming me. They're on their hind legs. I'd just be filming me at the front and I'd go, what are you doing?

And they'd be like, and I'm thinking of a very specific time now. Is this current where you are in your career currently or like when you were- This is a past tours. Yeah, before they were allowed to do whatever they liked. Right, right. That's fucking nuts.

I was like, what are you doing? And I remember she lowered her camera and she went, I'm a fan. And go ahead and go in. And I had no authority there. And then I'd make fun of it and try and like, be like, no, this is fucking insane. But so then what would happen is,

I would, cause my persona on stage and the way I'm on stage, isn't like shut the fuck up, what the fuck are you doing? And all that. When I switched to that truck, cause that was the only way to then get them to realize that's insane. Then my persona on stage changed, the fuck up, what the fuck are you doing? And all that. When I switched to that, because that was the only way to then get them to realize that's insane.

Then my persona on stage changed, the show changes. The audience goes, okay, this has gone from like a whimsical storytelling show or a personal storytelling show to suddenly. Well, do you think that perhaps there is value in that in that people would go, oh, shitty, serious. I don't want to upset them. Yeah, but then I always felt the shift in the room and then like harder to then go back

into the thing you had planned or the thing that you were doing. And it is harder. And sometimes I would deal with it in a way that really suited my persona and worked and I'll be like, okay, that's cool. Maybe we can try that again or whatever. But a lot of the time I would, I would just get so frustrated with it. And so kind of like, and I was enjoying it less and less. And I was coming off stage being like,

also I was finding myself, like a lot of the time I was reacting badly to them just not laughing much. So there'd be a bit quieter than the night before, or I was tired. And so I basically needed them to be incredible in order for me to enjoy the gig and it's not about me enjoying the gig obviously but like you know and then you know early on I'd start being like this gig's shit you're the shittest audience I've played to all tour this is fucking shit and they're like we've just got here yeah you can't do that

and all this yeah oh you can't do that. And I know it. Yeah. I would have already established with myself the last time I did it or the last hundred times I did it. Don't do that again. And then I'll do it again. Right. And as I'm doing it, I feel completely vindicated. And then as soon as I come off stage, I wanted to do that.

I got to stop doing that. That was really bad. I'd say to my tour manager, like, I've got, I had a tour manager who did multiple tours with me. He was like, yeah, yeah. But you say this my tour manager like, I've got a tour manager who did multiple tours with me. He was like, yeah, yeah, but you say this every tour and it's still happening. At the start of each tour, I'd be like, I'm not gonna do it this tour. I'm not gonna have a go at them for no reason. I'm gonna be really good. Just give them the show that they've paid for. And then I'd start doing it again and all of this. So this tour was like, if

I make a contract with them at the top, I've done it on a previous gig. Like I think I'd done a show in Melbourne where I acted out a number of times in a row during the run of the comedy festival. And then I went on stage one night and was like, hey, I've been a dick for like seven nights in a row, just so you know. And I promised not to do it tonight.

And then we had a good show and the person who was the tech at that venue said to me afterwards, like, that was good that you had that contract with them at the beginning. So after COVID and not doing standup for a couple of years, I was very, I found I had enjoyed not being on stage and that had been nice, but I did want to start doing it again, but I was very aware that you're just going to behave like that again if you don't address it head on.

So the main thing became do a show where you go up and you do the contract at the start of you can do whatever you like. So it came out of a necessity in a sense. And that's, well, that's cool. That's even cooler, I think. And how many of those type of shows did you do before you're like, OK, I'm ready to shoot this? I don't know how many exactly.

Well, we did it for I did the show for two years, like, you know, and I didn't do like, you know, loads and loads and loads like as much as I used to. But I don't know, I did it hundreds of times. Like it was a lot of times. Just to be clear. So you had your hour set and you're saying, I don't want to be a dick.

You guys can heckle me. I'm going to attempt to do my. And then, so how much of your material do you think you get through? How much time are you doing? So it depends from one night to the next so like a lot of the time I was doing So there'd be some nights I did all my material and no one heckled and no one did anything did you like that Yeah, or sometimes I didn't if they were really quiet. Mm-hmm I wasn't enjoying those were the hardest ones sometimes.

And then I'd be really proud coming off and going, great, you just did the show. And in the part, especially in the early days of the tour, I was still feeling like, why the fuck aren't they laughing at me? I'm feeling annoyed about that, but not letting them know. About halfway through the tour, I noticed that feeling wasn't even there anymore

and I wasn't even thinking about that. And I was just doing the show and they weren't really responding much. And I was getting through the show without being a brat and without even feeling like a brat internally. And that was a nice- This is fascinating because you don't really hear this side

of what a standup goes through and recognizing, I can't do that, that's a dumb, bad way to behave. I need to change this. And it's, you know, I think people have kind of a general idea, but they don't really know, like we do, how kind of lonely it can be up there when you're in the middle of somewhere

you've never been to before, you don't know these people, you have a job, your job is very specific, and it can be tough on your psyche. So I think this is a really interesting look at how one person decided to deal with it and Do you Without let me ask you this have you noticed how much how many shows have you done in the states? I don't quite a few. I don't know about for Like free tours and one visit where I just did a bunch in LA a bunch in New York. Mm-hmm.

So like... And where'd you go and how many shows would you do on a tour? I think I'd do about... I'd probably do about 15 shows over 15 cities and like You know They'd be like all the kind of like usual places where yeah, okay I know of the beaten track really. So do you find a difference between? UK shows American shows and European shows European being the yeah. Yeah huge

But like I think a lot of the time it's different for different comics is where you're from. It's a way so like, definitely, when I go back to the UK after being here, it really does it feels very, very different. And I don't know, I have heard a few American comics say about how quiet and how difficult UK audiences are. So it must work the same when you guys come to us. But when I go to America, I find like, because I'm not as well known here, the people coming to see me are quite excited on their little secret that they've discovered that no one else really knows about.

They're really into comedy and you have a really great gig where they get every little line and every little throw away and nuance and here like, you know, the lights go down before the gig and they start applauding and cheering. And then the first gig back in the UK after here, the lights go down and there's nothing. It's just some stories. And you're like, what?

And that's really the hardest like little run on this tour was when I'd come back from doing a stint here and then I had Nottingham back in the UK, which anyone listening to this from the UK will know is not, there's a lot of cities in the UK that may be well applaud when the lights go down. Manchester would do that,

or if you went over to Ireland, go to Dublin, but not in them in the lights went down and they went from talking to each other to just going. Yeah. And I was immediately feeling like and I did the house rules off stage, which are all applied to me and not to them. So it's James A. Castor cannot do this, not do this. Nothing. Just I'm not hearing any snickers or giggles or anything.

Or like, you know, sometimes I get people over here would start heckling during the house rules when I'm off stage, it'd be fun. Smart. It's just nothing. And I walk out, it's like, oh, this is really, really, really hard now because the difference from being here to being there was so stark.

And you know, that's not the case all over the UK. But equally, that running Nottingham is for not I was doing residencies everywhere. So I wasn't like, you know, doing as many cities on this tour. I do like a residency in somewhere where I'd enjoyed in the past. And I enjoyed not in the past. Did four in a row and they were all really tough. And the show improved way more there than it did when I was here.

I really loved these shows and really enjoyed doing them. But do you riff a lot? Yeah, and I try and like change how I'm delivering the story and like, and also one night to the next year, in Nottingham, I suddenly like cut loads of stuff because I was like, it's just not working and I'm not going to go up. And now that I've removed that choice of blame them and find this angle of ranting about how rubbish the gig is, which would weirdly, the reason why I kept on doing it was because half the time that would work and lift the room and make it funnier

I just have to commit to being that guy for the rest of the night And if they were good if they liked it, that's who they were coming back to see and that would cause a problem Further down the line. That's a that's another interesting aspect. Did you get repeats because Yeah, it's so you get people going. Oh, you got to see the J. Kester show It's yeah So there's some people who would go and then stay behind afterwards at stage door, whatever, and say, and if it was no heckles, or if there had been heckles, they'd be like, oh, I saw you previously in the tour.

There wasn't any heckles at it. So I wanted to come and see it again to see how it would be if there were heckles. And they were the kind of people who would never heckle. So they couldn't do it. So they sit in there hoping someone else does. And there's a guy who followed me. He saw me in three different countries, heckled me every time that I was better the previous time. He'd always say, oh, that's kind of funny.

Yeah, it was funny. And I got to kind of give it to him. And then did you let the audience know, I don't know this guy, but I kind of know him because he's following me. The final time we did it was in Vancouver and we got to know him for, I think we talked to him for 20, 30 minutes. Other people had questions for him. Oh, that's great. We learned a lot about him because- That's great.

It was like, right, this is the third time you've done this and I would like to know, because first of all, you did it in Gothenburg to me and then you did it in Glasgow and now you're doing it in Vancouver and I would like to, very much like to know who you are.

Three very different places. Completely different places. And you didn't even live in any of them, by the way. Wow. At any point. He'd lived in two different cities during the tour, neither of which I'd gone to. Wow. Yeah, so that would happen sometimes and that was fun too, yeah, to kind of like have people

who wanted to see how is it different, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I can imagine. Were there any go-to responses to certain heckles? Yes, sometimes, but not like, because I was never trying to win. So if they heckled me, I was trying to be as kind and open to them as possible. So there was never any, I've got to have a put down for anything.

Right. So it was always like, if people would heckle me. Sorry to interrupt, but the heckles, it seems like if they know the format, then they wouldn't be truly like angry, mean, spirited. Awesome people. Really? But then it's that thing of like, you know, people are always bringing their mates who don't know who you are.

So there's always going to be some people in the audience who hate the show. There's always going to be people who love it. Always going to be people who hate it. No matter how you think it's gone, there's someone in the audience who feels the opposite way. And that's always true. Do you think they hate the material you're trying to do or just you?

It can be either. There was a guy in Sheffield who at the very end heckled and we spent a very long time on him and it was really fun, but he was angry, like legitimately furious. And he heckled me, it was like almost frothing at the mouth and growling.

And he said, you look like a fucking vegan is what he said. And that's a terrible heckle. It's a terrible heckle. It's just an angry man. Yeah. He wasn't even trying to, so he stayed on me for a long time.

And he kept on saying like, this is what he said. All the things he didn't like about how I was dressed. I was pretty much just like this on the night. But he was like fucking converse, fucking shoes on and all this. Really? How that all made him angry. He's got some issues. He said, you know, the he said he went off on like and he said, I said, like, how did you come to be at the show?

Because, you know, those tickets had sold pretty quickly. And I thought, you know, got to be quick to have got these particular show tickets. And he was like, it was a gift. Someone gave me as a gift, like a Christmas present. That's like to a show for a comedian you never heard of. And he was very confusing, but he was definitely, he'd been sitting there the whole show and didn't like everything about me and was angry about all those things.

But in the past, I might've been like, why the fuck are you even here? And all this. Whereas it was way more fun to just continually ask him questions and get to know him and have him show himself. Are you trying to wind him up or? Yeah, yeah.

But in a fun way, in a playful way. Right. Not that he liked that necessarily, but it was more fun to be like, you know, I mean, I can't remember. We got into like his job, he was a farmer and all of this. And like, that's why he hated vegans and all of that stuff. And I hadn't even said I was a vegan.

Right, he said you look like a vegan, therefore you are gonna be the subject of my ire. This is all the things I hate about the world. And clearly, you know, never seen me before. This comedy show didn't work. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And maybe it was like, like people would heckle trying to, someone trying to upset me.

I told a story, there's a story in the show about a dog I used to have. And in the second half I came out and someone heckled me early on in a show saying, I tripped over your dead dog in the interval and your dead dog was in the foyer and I tripped over it, your dead dog was in the foyer and I tripped over it.

His dead body was on the floor of the, I like, oh, they're not, they don't dislike me. They're just, they're trying to see how this, how far they can stretch it. Yeah. At what point does he break because he's doing a show about how he's not trying to do that. But if I say something that might upset him. How's that going to go? And instead I was just like, I'm really sorry. We're going to get someone to clear that talk up.

Yeah. And then they kind of sat there. Realizing how they look. Cause also what, you know, I mean, what I probably knew anyway, but what was definitely proved during doing this tour is that I don't have to point out why the person in the audience is weird or rude or mean. The audience. Everyone knows.

Yep. And I, and it's the amount of times I've wasted over the years of being like trying to win against these people, uh, where actually everyone's already on board with this person's a dick or they're rude or they've misread the room or whatever the thing is and I can just Have fun with that Rather than going straight in on them and trying to yeah Trying to win. So so how long have you been? Doing this show would you said two years two years of doing so much in like

2022 and finished it July this year and how many shows did you do for the taping? Well, yes, so I filmed it twice for the tape in with no interval That's something Y'all do that. I fucking can't stand that they always when I go anywhere I I'm pretty successful at saying there's not going to be an intermission. But there are some places that are just like, nope, we got to. We had to fight quite hard to them to be allowed to not have the interval.

I mean, the reason why I want it, because I've done it so many times the show and I knew that it goes best when people heckle a bit. So like I didn't, I wanted, and I was got very nervous about when I film it, what if they just don't heckle? Cause I was filming it in Northampton, which is kind of like around where I grew up. Cause a lot of the stories about me being a kid. So I was like, I want to do it there. That is why I asked because of the specific nature

of what you're trying to do I thought maybe you would shoot more into you know to be able to put like if because if you have one where it's like nobody heckled yeah well ended up doing it really four times because I I also I had a run earlier in the tour maybe a two or three weeks before I was gonna do the taping. And it was going, I was in four nights and the first night was like, that's the best one of the tour. And then the second one was the best one. And then I contacted the guys who were filming it. I said, can we get a crew here for the fourth night? And just do like a, so they sent some people

down and we did like a lower budget gorilla type, filmed that show. Because everybody knows the, you know, the concept and the, I think you could get away with just cutting to that show, you know? Yeah. I think most people go, I'd rather see the best moments. If it's going to thread through the material thread through anyway, I don't give a shit that you're cutting to a different show. Yeah, that was kind of like the thinking was like,

if it goes well, we can just use that that show. If and we have that option where we can cut between like I did. I also decided to film the Dublin show at the very end of the tour as well. So we filmed that. And we filmed it twice in Northampton. Dublin's amazing. And that was kind of like, the thinking was like, that room, Vicar Street in Dublin, and that audience are always phenomenal.

So, you know, I was scared because I chose to do it in Northampton deliberately because I normally have tough it in Northampton deliberately because I normally have tough gigs in Northampton. And then I started to like after that Nottingham run, I started to wimp out and be like, if I go to Northampton and they respond like Nottingham just did and just watch me in silence, this is going to be rubbish. And so I put Dublin in as well. So I had that as a safety.

I knew that I'm doing that at the end of the tour. They're always great. The worst it can be is fine. Like, and that I'll take that. So like, okay, I've got that in. I did this one in a place called Truro on the fly because it was so good all week. And that was honestly, I was on like a high

after doing that Truro one because I felt like we had just gone for it and we'd done it and it was a great gig. And they'd basically let me do the whole show Responded really well and then at the end heckled the shit out of me and it was really fun And one of the hecklers was really mean but in a way that was like he's kind of baited to I'm wearing a stupid outfit For the whole show. I'm wearing this like sweatsuit like tracksuit

that's really bright garish colors and It's kind of to lure them in if it and like in a like a chubby way or in a yeah, it's kind of like that kind of guy. Is that your persona? No, but like I basically found that like I was wearing like all black for the tour to begin with. I got I've got to see Nancy. I've got to see Abba Voyage and I've been given the Abba Voyage jacket.

And I just thought, I'm just gonna wear this on stage for no reason. I guess because I've been sitting watching Abba Voyage and been thinking like, yeah, this is nice being a hologram. That must be a good gig. And like, you know, not having to put up with it. They just do the same gig every night

and they went fucks with them. And so I was like, I'll wear that. And I think maybe there's something in that. That wasn't really, and I just wore a plaque. And I found that I thought, oh, the audience had been a bit too subdued and I wanted to do things that would make them heckle without asking them to heckle.

So people brought up the tracksuit? Yeah, so I wore this because it was stupid and would raise questions like, why is he fucking wearing that? So like people would sometimes tackle me about that. Shouldn't you be on a swing set, you know, chugging a 40? That would be a lot better than what I think. What I think a cider, I think I just got shit tracks who yelled at me.

But then I think I'm in the special, actually, the Northampton one, someone because it's all green, someone just shouts Kermit at me and that's it. But like it's kind of perfect that you get those very basic heckles as well as the genuinely funny people in the audience. But yeah, I basically was worried that I wouldn't get the show I wanted, so filmed it a lot. And then what we're putting out as the special this month

is the Northampton show, edited down to 75 minutes. I did it for three hours on the night. And then we did it for three hours again. Yeah, well, cause I wanted to, every time they heckled, I wanted to fully go into the heckle and get as much as I could out of it. But I also wanted to do all of the material. Right.

And I didn't give them an interval. Oh yeah, sure, sure, sure. That makes sense. And we did it in the round as well. Thank you to Aura Frames for sponsoring this podcast. Yes, thank you Aura Frames. Jake, you have one of these. Of course I do.

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Thank you, Aura Frames. Do you drink when you're on stage? No. No. I have done like maybe three or four times. I've been on stage drunk in 16 years. I didn't say drunk. I said just drink.

Well, no, I don't mean drink water. I meant drink alcohol or beer or whatever. No, no, I like, yeah, again, it's like three or four times I've done that and probably is, I don't know, two times worked and the other two times it went very badly. But no, so I was just like, and I really loved it. I really loved the filming of it

and it was in a room that's really special to me as well. So when this airs, you're done with that run. Yeah. Yeah, it's all done. So that Dublin one was the very final show of the tour. We did film that. And we will put those shows out at some point in the future because it's a completely different version

of the same show. We've released a vinyl that is also on streaming at the minute of the show that's in my hometown. And that's another completely different night. And they just heckled for the whole thing pretty much. They weren't really as 5% material. Did you know any sensitive hometown? Did you know people there?

I knew some people in the audience, not any of the hecklers, but the hecklers turned out to know each other. So as it went through, I think someone at some point in the audience, not any of the hecklers, but the hecklers turned out to know each other. So as it went through, I think someone at some point in the show goes like, is that Reese? And the guy's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And they know each other back and forth. I have to mediate between the two of them.

And I've never been to Northampton. What kind of rep does it have? It's like a small market town where like not much happens and definitely my hometown of Kettering is the kind of place where I can tell people around the UK where I'm from and they have no problem to my face going, yeah, oh, I've been there to shit hole.

Is it north, central, south? Central, like it's in the Midlands. And like I'm very fond of it. Kettering knows how I feel about it. I've done loads of gigs where I've like ranted on stage over the years about things I don't like. And I've also done a lot of like, positive stuff about what I love about Kettering as well.

Northampton itself, yeah, it was like the bigger town near Kettering that I'd go to with my mates on the weekend to like go out to the shops or whatever. And I kind of like did a music course there at college. So like, yeah, but like it doesn't always, if a commedia is doing a tour of the UK, they don't always go to Northampton. So like, yeah, they kind of, they don't always get shows

coming there. Um, so then they should fucking appreciate it. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Sure. Um, I think some people really appreciated it and some people did it and that's, but that's the nice thing about, you know, so, so often we just film our shows in London. Yeah. Um, and, uh, I really didn't want to do that. I want to go somewhere where it doesn't usually happen and doing a show that was in the round for three hours. There's a couple who had sat on the front,

on one of the front rows and throughout the show, if you watch them, they start off like, with a goodwill of the world. And then they just gradually get more and more They're not really laughing and then they start talking to each other and then they start looking angry every time if the audience applaud something They're kind of just sat there like that and then for the last 10 minutes the show they're not there Have you thought about using that as a thread to like beginning middle and end of your yeah of your special Yeah, just to kind of like point out,

I should put graphics in that go like, just points them out every time and go, and now they're gone. Yeah, that's, well also in fairness to them, three hours, that's a big ask for an audience. It's a lot to ask of them, and there were some people who at the end were like really excited they'd seen that, and they knew it was like a really

different and that this you know not it's out of the ordinary and there were some people who was like yeah and I kind of knew that would be difficult and not everyone's going to enjoy that and again that's kind of like I wouldn't be able to do that on previous tours on previous tours I didn't really acknowledge the things about my standup that were not for everyone and would get frustrated that, why is everyone not liking this? Right, do you get walkouts? Yeah, on previous tours all the time, yeah.

And sometimes angry walkouts and sometimes really disruptive ones. You know, I was doing, especially in the early tours where you're basically, you know, the stage is the floor and the audience are just all raked above you and to get out, they have to walk across the floor that you're basically, you know, the stage is the floor and the audience are just all right above you. And to get out, they have to walk across the floor that you're on. I can love it.

Yeah, you just get people walking past you here, just telling you how much, how unfunny you were. So yeah, I'd get a lot of that. I got to go, I walk out once, really make a big deal of it. Like walk all the way to the next to me, turn to the audience guy and kind of make a big deal of going, fucking not for me,

like that I mean. Exit really dramatically. And then I had to say to the audience, okay, so that is not the way out. That's the toilet. He's gonna have to come out in a minute to get out there. And there was a curtain behind me. And I was like, my guess is he's going to go behind the curtain, but there's not enough room there for him to do that and detect it.

So you will see him. And there was like five minutes later, the curtains are rippling behind me. That's great. You can tell he's just crab walking to the door. So, yeah, a lot of that, a lot of people walking out sometimes. Sometimes it's weird when you're not, so I imagine you've had a lot of people, you know, disagree with you or what you're saying on stage and are quite vocal and angry and then, but then you're talking about certain things

that you're like, okay, well, maybe that's gonna happen as part of the course. I would be doing stuff where I was like, I don't know how this has made this person that angry. Yeah, good point. You know, I'm going on and the vegan guy is a great example of like, yeah, what? How would I ever anticipate? Yeah, your anger at the world and probably yourself, based on that I look like you, what you perceive a vegan looks like.

Yeah. Which is also like, yeah, okay. Yeah. I mean, obviously, I had a thing in his head of, if I'm going to see a comedian, the comedian would be like this, whatever my taste in comedy is. Right, right. Which is obviously the opposite of what I'm doing. And then I'm representing everything that is annoying him about. Do you think there are farmers who just grow like grains

who are like fucking meat eater? Yeah. You look like a meat eater. Yeah, they come and watch Joe Rogan absolutely flip the fuck out. They're being like, Oh, what the fuck is wrong with the world Joe Rogan? So yeah, I hope you get it.

How was Joe Rogan perceived in your circles? In the UK? Yeah. Just, you know. Curiosity or? Yeah, we all know about, yeah, comedians know about him. The public, you know, unless they're fans of him, don't. It's not like members of the public who are like, who hate Joe Rogan in the UK,

because they don't really know him or maybe like proper stand-up fans, you know, probably there are some people who don't like him, but like, yeah, you know, I imagine it's much more of a pain if you live here and do a comic, but like, I mean, I loved that video that I can't remember what the YouTube channel was that they did have in recently that very funny kind of fake YouTube Heidegger's thing well the guys being really serious if it was that Tim Heidegger did it if they Well, I don't know what you're referring to exactly, but I do know that Tim Heidecker, he has a couple different things that he does, but he has this thing called office hours.

And one of the things they did, they had these two guys, also comedians, and then Tim is himself, but he's basically doing Joe Rogan. And it's three hours long. And it's all a lot of like, oh wow, interesting. Fascinating, interesting. He's great at lampooning that stuff and the Bill Maher stuff that he does is so funny. He also did a piss take of Bill Maher's podcast.

Yes, yeah, that's what I meant. So I mispronounced his name because again, he's not that big, bigger deal in the UK. Tim is a genius. Yeah, he's so funny. But is that what you were thinking of when? No, there's another thing that someone did. It's just the voiceover and loads of footage of Joe Rogan.

It's about his latest special. And it's someone coming from the point of view of someone who completely believes everything that Joe Rogan says about comedy. I haven't seen that. And how important comedians are and how important he is. And there's only so many real comedians on the planet. So the narrator is someone who completely is going along with all that. And it's so funny.

Because of just how he's talking about. Because a lot of the time with those, with any comic who kind of talks about the importance of standup, like it's the, like it's this essential thing that we're the only truth tellers, a lot of the time when you watch their actual specials, it's quite hilarious. Why does taking a shit make getting it out of care?

So side by side with what they're saying off stage. And that little, I mean, I'll try and find it for you afterwards. It's all of it is hilarious. Every second of it is hilarious. I'll check it out. Yeah. And you should check out the Tim Heidecker office hours. It's one of those things that's not funny, but it's so kind of perfect. It's just like, wow. Yeah. He knows it. Well, the Bill Ma stuff is like, oh, that's exactly.

I saw that before I saw the Club Random footage. So I was like, oh, this is really funny. Said that by one of those comics and he's not even like trying to do over the top jokes. He's doing exactly what they would say. And then I saw the Bill Ma clips. I was like, oh fuck, that's what he's like. It's more embarrassing because you're a real guy and you're a lot older.

The fact that like you're speaking like this is, yeah, it's just very cringe. And I think that's how we view a lot of comics. But then when we have comics like that in the UK, then we'll probably react a lot more frustrated and whatever, because there are colleagues who we see a lot and you're just like, what are you doing? And I hate that shit.

Especially that like, if I say this, the people that annoys, they'll talk about noise. They'll do it for me. So like, because we've just not moved on with that conversation, that argument that talks, people say, you know, every time it's, oh, I'm being silenced, I'm being counseled, and people don't respect my freedom of speech.

And then the other side says, that's not happening, you're getting loads of work, if anything, you're getting more work than ever, and you're allowed to say whatever you like, people are just allowed to respond to it with what they want to say. Yeah, sure, of course. And then the response to that is just, well, I guess people are too afraid of jokes and they're not even responding to that. And that's where it's been for. I don't know.

10 years or like however long it's been of that conversation happening where. It's also a way, it's a stupid thing to talk about. It's a complete waste of the truly important things out there. It's just not. But I think so much of the time it comes from that place. If like, like the way that I felt on stage in the past, we were saying earlier,

you feel scared to be up there, you feel vulnerable. It's a lonely place. If you don't feel like they're on your side, I've lashed out at them in ways that they don't deserve. And I've definitely had the option of coming off and going, yeah, fuck them, I was right. I know what I'm doing, I'm a standup comedian. They don't know what's funny.

And they're wrong all the time. And that just comes from a place of like, it's a sphere, isn't it? It's just you're scared that you might be a shit comedian. And like, I can openly admit that like, I'm probably never gonna lose that fear. I'm always gonna think that I'm probably shit and I'm always gonna be working to get better, but there'll always be a part of me thinking when they don't laugh they're right and Well, do you ever have that? I've had this experience

multiple times Specifically in Europe where and I would say almost all the time in Amsterdam Sweden to the Scandinavian countries Definitely answer Amsterdam and the Scandinavian countries where I'll be doing a set and it's an hour and 15, hour 20, whatever. And I think I'm bombing. I mean, there's nothing going on here. And it affects you and you plow on your professional and you've tried a little tricks and everything and, and, and you, and you are excited about wrapping it up, right? You know, you're coming to the end and you're like,

all right, well, thank you, Oslo. And then you get a fucking standing ovation and they're cheering and they're like, and you're like, what the fuck? Yeah. Where were you? Yeah. What the fuck? Yeah, there's so many shows that are like that or ones where-

That's really strange to me. Yeah, or you can come off and they'll go up to you and be like, that was the best show I've ever seen. And you're like- Oh, yeah, yeah, I had no idea. I truly had no idea. And I've had that before watching comics, you know, my, you know, my probably my favorite comedian

is Josie Long and I went to see her. Oh, I love Josie. Yeah. I went to see her before I ever became a comedian. I went to see her. She's great. In Northampton where I've just filmed. And it was one of the gigs that made me want to be a comic.

Yeah. And like, and there was like, it was in the early days of her tour and there's probably about 50 people there. And she was talking about stuff that I didn't know you could just get on stage and talk about these things and like tell these kinds of stories that you didn't have to be an observational comic or you didn't have to do this. And I just made me want to do it and realize that it was an art form like any other you

could do whatever you wanted And then when I met her, you know as a when I became a comedian and I said to her like I saw you on this tour and she Remembered that gig and was like that was the worst good the tour What great things about Josie and and and Not that they're the same kind of comedian, but she shares a quality with Daniel Kitson, who's one of my favorites. I don't think he cares for me very much, but so be it. But they both.

Are like seemingly unflappable, and they're both the kind of people that I will get angry as an audience member if people don't like them or are being like you shut up and listen to him. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, they're great, you know, and and they just like it would it's there very few comics who I feel that way about or like that's upsetting to me that you don't like Josie Long. What's wrong with you? Yeah, the two of them. Look at her. I think my entire generation of comics, or at least my peer group, like those were the people who we were, you know, Daniel and Josie were watching those, you know, as we were thinking about becoming comedians. Yeah. And all aspire to be like them and still do now and still go and watch them and-

They're great. They're great comics. And I- Yeah, and I- Don't still go and watch them and. They're great. Great comics. And I don't know how they're doing that. I feel like they intuitively have this. Capability that took me a long time to get to get to that point, like I had to really work on it. Right. And they just seem like that. And they might not be. It might be a lot of work that I'm not seeing. And they just seem like natural and they might not be, it might be a lot of, you

know, work that I'm not seeing, but they just seem like naturally like, um, affable, unflappable. They're going to smile, laugh through it. Cause it's funny to them, even if they're, you know, they're not doing well. That's interesting. You know, uh, there's a lot of pushing themselves as well. And like, just like that thing of like I, you

know, my first like run as like a professional comic was because Josie asked me to support her on tour in 2010 and I got to quit my job and go on tour with her. What were you doing? What was your job? I was working as a classroom assistant in a school for autistic children. So I was like doing that. A lot of material. Well, a very, you know, a worthy job.

But then quit it to do the most egotistical career. It didn't really make me feel like a good person. I'm not going to be doing this anymore. I want to serve my own needs on stage. But like, and she was doing a tour then where she was just starting to do political stuff for the first time. And the tour was kind of like the show she was doing was kind of two halves of like this first half

of like the Josie Long that people had, you know, been seeing for a few years and like doing stories about her life and, you know, and like focusing on the minutiae and things. And then the second half of like how much she hated the Tory government and like, and a lot of like righteous ire in it. And then like, and then, you know, for a few years after that, it was political shows and she went from being this comic who would talk about her life and quite optimistically about the world to someone who was disillusioned with everything.

I don't think I've seen that. It was great and it was like so like this whole other side to her that was really exciting to see and and you got to see what they it's like three shows in a row and you got to see that progress and get better as well and and now it's like this mixture of stuff where it is about her life, but the kind of harsh realities of the world are all just sewn in there now. And now it's like, yeah, I saw her maybe a couple of years ago

do a work in progress that was like, just one of my favorite shows I've ever seen and wasn't even finished yet. And it was, it's just so rich now and three dimensional. And the whole thing is just like, it's her life, but it's the world and it's what we're all going through at the same time. Yeah.

And you just feel inspired all over again and want to be a comedian again, watching someone like that. And that's- That's great. What you want. I don't, you know, so much time we can get into talking about like, I do it all the time. The kind of comics we were talking about earlier will just frustrate me and I'll start talking about stand-up and the kind of conversation and the discourse that goes on around stand-up.

And it's also negative because it's all just focused around these bullshit arguments that other comics are creating. They're not allowed to say this, that, or the other. And then you go and see someone like her and remember why, like, you fell in love with the whole thing, why you wanted to do it, how limitless it still is as a performance, as an art form, everything. And yeah, I should try and see more of that and try and go and see those comics that inspire me more. Well, you got time now. You're going to wind this down. I've got a lot of time to go.

How long will you take between you before you start developing new material? I think probably, let's say about a year off, so probably start again in August. I used to just go straight into the next show. Yeah. I get my night. You got time to go back to the autistic kids and- I can go back to them and say, hey, do you need anything? Yeah.

I'm not- You're an assistant. I'm a bit rusty now. Yeah. I don't really, I'm not across everything. And then there's a guy named Rusty who is like, I'm a bit rusty too. And then you, there's your opening bit. And then he's my character. I can go on stage and talk about Rusty, the classroom

assistant. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Oh, thank you, David. I will do that. Um, where, where do you live now? London. Yeah. I live in like North London, North East London. Yeah. Yeah. So I love it. And and like live with my girlfriend and we have four cats and that's the best. Yeah, that's the worst. I knew you would like it. No, I don't like it at all.

How is four cats the best? Why not five, why not three? Good point. Three isn't enough, five's too many. It's just the, I can't really describe why four is the perfect amount. We had two. It didn't smell like piss enough why four is the perfect amount we had to mm-hmm It didn't smell like piss enough your your flat. So you had to get two more

Yeah, like now it smells like cat piss now now with saturated to the one one good hot summer and you guys That was a lot of talk to us yeah, it was uh, I would never come over no Well, hey, maybe that's want to talk to us. Yeah, it was. I would never come over. No. Well, hey. Maybe that's why you have four cats. Yeah, yeah. People are like, I'm not going over there. Yeah, that's the really fun of who our friends are. Yeah.

Yeah. For ages, I just didn't, I grew up with quite a few pets and I loved it. Then moved out and just had no interest in getting any pets at all, I think, for whatever reason. And then when we moved in. Did you get them all at once? No.

Oh, you said you had two. Yeah. So it's like the thing where like my partner was like, she was like, I do kind of need cats in the house. I was like, okay, that's fine. I've got no real reason why I don't want them. You're ambivalent about cats. You don't have a strong- I'd forgotten how much I loved having pets as a kid.

And I wanted a little animal gang as a kid. I wanted it to be like, I was always asked my parents, could we get more of this particular- Influence of Winnie the Pooh. Really Winnie the Pooh? Yeah. Yeah, like let's get, I really wanted like all the same kind of animal, but different breeds in a little gang. So I draw cartoons all the time as a kid.

And it would always be like loads of like rabbits that all looked a bit different. And like the rabbit gang and showed up, but parents have been like, look at this, isn't it brilliant? So like, I'd always want that. And I was here actually, I was in New York and my girlfriend called me and said, can we foster this cat until Christmas? It was November. And she's like, it's been, you know, there's a very sad story about the cat.

And you know, from the fucking jump where that's going to end. I know, that's good. You know immediately. She sent me a photo of it and I was like, well, I told my tour manager, I said, we're keeping this cat. There's no way. Of course. There's no way we're not keeping him.

So I just replied saying, let's just keep the cat cat if someone's off. Oh, you just cut through Offerings a free cat. Let's have that cat. What if they charge do? Two pounds for it. Would you still would you say no, that's not how to think about it. It's too much I'd sleep on it. And then the next day I'd say okay All right, what about? pound 50? You start haggling. Pound 50 for the cat.

But yeah, we got that. Then we wanted to get it friend because we didn't want it to be on it somewhere out of the house. Well, I see that's how the fucking, that's how it starts. Yeah. Who needs a friend? It's exactly how it started. Well, these two need another friend.

Yeah. Well, that was me then. Cause I was like, okay, I'll say, okay, these two need another friend. Yeah, well, that was me then. Because I was like, okay, we'll get two cats. And then I loved it so much. So I'm just hanging out with the cats all the time. I was like, this is better than anything. This is better than doing standup. This is better than anything I've ever done.

Just hanging out with these two cats, they're hilarious, they're friends. It's the best thing. Watching two cats be friends with like different breeds. And then like, I was the one who was like, after a year, it's like, we should get a third cat. And she's like, okay, I mean. I'm losing respect for you.

Oh yeah, absolutely. By the second. Welcome to all of my friends. People have known me for years, have lost respect for me over this. So I've gone like, oh, okay, so you're nuts now. Four cats. Yeah, but I was looking at all the cats on tour. I was on tour, my partner was like,

well, what about you? And your girlfriend's like, I get, they're low maintenance pets, but she's like, she's cool with it. Yeah, she grew up with three or four cats at a time all the time. So she was like, okay, I don't think you'd want that, but if you want to get a third one, fine.

And I looked at them, we narrowed it down to two and I went, we're getting both of them. So it was me, completely for me. Yeah. And it's been the best thing ever. Like, I love it so much and everyone hates it. Everyone hates that I love it. And anytime I tell people, yeah, you tell people you never met before.

Yeah. And they go, Oh, so you're like crazy. So you're like a crazy person. And I know I don't think you're crazy. That wasn't my response. I know. I think it was like, well, we'd never met before. So we met once. Oh, we did. You did my podcast. You my food podcast.

Oh, son of a bitch. I remember that. It was really fun. Yeah. Oh, we did. You did my podcast. You my food podcast. Oh, son of a bitch. I remember that. It was really fun. Yeah. Oh, shit. I'm sorry, James. It's okay. Doesn't matter. Oh, I do. I remember that. Yeah. Yeah. Um, well, you know what? There's a place with poutine, no fried cheese curds. And they just opened up the holiday market in Union Square over here. How long are you in town for? Uh, until the 28th. Oh nice You'll get to enjoy our American Thanksgiving. Yes

Well, the the holiday market is pretty great and They have a bunch of really good food stalls and there's place with deep-fried cheese curds. I don't know if you've ever had that Yeah, I have but like I know that you're a connoisseur from when you came on the pod, you had it as your dessert, which infuriated me. Yes. So I will absolutely have to do, if I got the- James, I'm so sorry that-

It doesn't matter. And who was the partner you did the- Ed, Ed Gamble. Ed Gamble. Yeah, yeah. I enjoyed that, that was fun. Yeah, no, we really enjoyed having you on, you were great. What was I gonna say?

Well, well, it was you on. You're great. I was going to say, well, well, I was just about to cheese curds. Yeah, but you never dump them. Yeah, I know. Yeah, you won't say I was crazy for the cats, but definitely you're like, this is this is a lack of respect. Now, this is the respect is going down, but that's fine. Like, uh, that I I've been in been over here now for like a couple of weeks two and a half weeks maybe the amount that I miss those cats is insane like I just I just want to be back with New York I was in a bad place yeah I was away from my cats I

didn't really I mean I think I got a slice at one point it was just me crying about my cats. Yeah walking sadly Sometimes it is that but it's the thing I can take you like you say your response is fine When people do say to me so sometimes get people go are you the concreta? You're like a crazy cat person. That's insane How the fuck are you doing that for cats? The only time that really annoys me is when it's someone who has even just one kid. Oh yeah. Then I'm like, you can't call me crazy for having four cats

because like you can say that you think like, I don't like that whatever. For the record, I don't think you're crazy. Not exactly. I think there's clearly something missing for your life. Not anymore. From your life. Not anymore, David. I guess something substantial.

Something substantial. There was something missing for my life. The four things missing. And now there's not. If you ever imagine them just getting together and becoming one bigger cat, like what would that be like? Like a little boy would be like having a little,

or a little girl, I guess. Is this that they become one, they're not stood on each other's shoulders in a coat? No, no, it's like a little boy would be like having a little or a little girl. Is this that they become one? They're not stood on each other's shoulders in a coat. No, no, it's like a transformer type thing like the four parts become I haven't imagined that that sounds like a horror film to me That's I think you should think about that and and jerk off to it and and see how that goes I'll try I'll do whatever you tell me. Okay. Yeah, you want us to leave the room or do you want to do it right here? I've got a special to promote. Okay. I've got a special.

Yeah, Jimmy Carr can promote his one way. He thinks he's the only one who knows how to play the market. Watch this. Me beating off over a mega cat. Well, somebody's got to do it. Yeah. If not me, someone's going to do it and then I'll be like, please, please enjoy. Please enjoy my city. Unfortunately, because of global warming, it's unseasonably warm here.

And it should be it should be what are we? Mid November should be in the low 50s, you know, jumper weather. But yeah, this is weird. Yeah, it's pretty hot. Yeah, it's not cool. Not not good. I mean, but. Yeah, and I just you know, this is I love London

and so does my wife, but I New York City to me is just the best, best city. I love it so much. That's good. I mean, I think definitely that thing of like movement. So right now I love New York and I really like it. But there are things I don't like about it that I know that if I moved here, they would quickly not become an issue because I hated London. Oh, it's too noisy.

Everyone's rude. Yeah. But like that was, I don't think everyone's rude. I will fight to the death. People say I do. I think people are brusque. I think they're impatient. Yeah. Yeah. I don't, I don't think people are, are necessarily rude here. No, I've experienced quite a bit of rudeness, but well, you're also a Brit, which has a higher level of, you know, Oh,

I can't believe you voiced your displeasure about that thing. But obviously I felt that way about London before I moved there and now I love London. And so I always know that however I feel about this other place that I don't live in, it's because I don't live there. And that if I did, I would adapt to it

and I would find so many things that I loved about it. Just out of curiosity, and I'm not going to be contrarian about it, but what is, give me an example of rudeness. I, well, so- Anything. Yeah, so I went to see a friend and I couldn't figure out if it was their building or not and I was outside looking at my phone trying to figure it out. And someone from next door went, can I help you?

And I went, yeah, I'm just trying to find my friend's house. I mean, well, have you tried phoning your friend? And I was like, yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm trying to figure out what their bonus is. Yeah, well, you might want to phone them. And then they walked away. That's kind of rude. And I was like, that's kind of shady.

That's crazy that you've asked me for. Well, it's also the, but you, it's about the tone. I could say those exact things in a different tone and it makes sense. Like, oh, yeah. Have you thought about phoning your friend? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. But even then I would say you're assuming that I am an idiot, that I would not have thought about that. That is kind of rude. Where does your friend live? an idiot that I would not have thought about. That is kind of rude. Where does your friend live? What section? I'm really bad at knowing that I just follow the map and go to the place and then people go like, where are you staying? Where do you people live? But also just on the way here, there's a few

things where you're like, it's not rudeness, but it's like, I said to my partner, I said like, they're crazy here, the way that they talk. Cause like, the guy came to pick me up, said very kindly, he organized a car for me. And I went out and I hadn't got a text yet saying my car was here, but I was like, we should be here now. Wait, we ordered a car for you? It's very nice of them. Yeah.

Or the PR people who are doing my press stuff here did. I don't think you guys did. Yeah, I'm not paying for that. You're not paying for that. Where are you staying? What section of town? I'm right near Times Square. Ew.

Yes, it's insane. Why? Well, because I'm an idiot. That's the worst. Because I don't know what I'm doing. Yeah, and that's like, you know, staying in Piccadilly's Circus. That's crazy. Well, originally, I was meant to be here just for a couple of days, and I was doing something near there.

So they had booked me in there. Right. And then they said, and then I said, let's extend it. Cause I'm going to be in LA before this and then there. And then they were like, do you want to get a different hotel? It's like, no, no, no, no. Oh no. Oh, that's too bad.

It's all me. And everyone, even people from, and by the way, this, I'm not a representation of like English people. Any comedian would have from England would have made a different decision. Oh yeah, yeah. That's just a terrible idea. I just don't like having to make another choice.

But went up to the car that was there with his hazard lights on, and I just did a little wave at the window. The guy went, and I said, are you here for James? And he went, yeah, like that. And I was like, okay, I mean, I could have just got in, but then I got here to the building, and I was looking at the

things are trying to figure out where Where a head gun was? Yeah. Yeah, so to the guy at the desk on what floor is head come on? And he went the eighth floor. I don't man. Come on. I don't think I had a come on They're wild here. Everybody reacted the same. Yeah, they'll go No, no, everyone here reacts. go why are you asking that? everyone here reacts like why are you talking to me? that's my experience the rudest

but I'm not putting this on you guys at all at all this isn't New York first of all I would imagine half the people you've had a relationship with or an interaction with are not even from New York or America?

Sure, sure, sure. Well, this guy I'm about to tell you definitely was, but also this is not, you will see why this is not, I wouldn't have this represent New York at all. I was trying to find a taco place the other side of Times Square where I live. I live in Times Square. Fantastic. And I was walking across and there was one of those preacher guys with a mic. Yep.

Telling people about, you know, hell and stuff. This is all on me really, so stupid. So I can't find it, this place that I'm going to, I'm getting a bit discombobulated and it's busy. And then he's right next to me there doing his stuff. And he paused for a bit. I thought, he'll probably, he's here all the time. So I said to him, could you help me?

I'm trying to find this taco place. And he said in a very thick New York accent that I won't attempt, I'm not from here, but into his mic still. I'm not from here. I don't know where. I could have looked in. That's what I would do. And I knew that he was lying.

But I went, and also because I was, so I was like raised Christian and don't believe it anymore. So, I think when a Christian person acts non-Christian, I get more angry at them than – That's 98% of Christians. Yeah. Because I've been disillusioned by it and all of that, so then I get – so, he said, I'm not from here, I don't know – I knew he was lying and didn't want to help me. So, I went, oh, so you – I mean, you should never do this. So, I don't know what I knew he was lying and didn't want to help me. So I went, oh, so you, I mean, you should never do this. But so you don't you don't want to help me. To

the guy. Yeah. And then he went, he went, wait, where do you want to go? And then by now, I was like disproportionately angry because he is all my childhood and everything and years and so I was like, forget it. And then as I'm walking away into the mic, he did a whole monologue about me and how I was going to hell and how he said this guy is a stupid idiot, stupid idiot, didn't know my way around New York. Can I can I suggest that maybe he gets fucked with all the time.

Oh yeah. Thought you were going to fuck with him. Oh yeah, absolutely. He probably, oh, you know what I mean? I'm not really blaming him that much for all this, but like the monologue that I got as I was walking away was something else. That's great. It was amazing.

It was, he's going to hell and I'm going to be laughing at him from heaven. He's a stupid fucking idiot. And then I heard someone else shout, amen. A different person. They could also be just winding them up or whatever. They could have been winding them up for, for you. It was, it was funny. But okay.

First of all, get the fuck out of Times Square. Don't eat your tacos in times. Go well, walk down, take the subway, whatever. Don't, don't eat there. Don't do you't do you drink? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. OK, so you should go to the East Village, Lower East Side, do some day drinking. Walk around. Is your girlfriend here?

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, you guys are going to have fun. Just get out of Times Square and don't go to Hudson Yards either. That's not nice. Not now. But do you come to Brooklyn? Brooklyn's awesome. That's where, no, it's not now. Um, but, um, do you come to Brooklyn? Brooklyn's awesome. That's where I live. Yeah.

Yeah. Oh, I went there. Yeah. I've got some friends who lived there. Okay. Uh, James, a caster with a special on HBO on November 23rd. Yeah. Okay.

Um, thank you very much for coming down. I always end every episode with a question from my daughter who is seven and you feel free to answer this in any way. Sure. You want. Okay. So your question from a seven year old, James A. Castor, who was the first person to be born on earth?

Well, has your daughter come up with this question? No, and it was me who was going to answer it. He's got no questions from your daughter. No. Wow. When you get these questions, do you assume that my seven-year-old daughter knows who you are? No, but I would assume you would at least say today on the podcast, this English comedian coming on what question have you got for it? You know, she knows Roughly the context but yeah, just a ring. No, no, I am. Yeah. Yeah that could help her. I don't think so I compile these people pretty smart

You know, I mean she knows that I'm First generation American, you know, my dad's from Lee and I had a shitty dad. She so she hates the English for me. So she didn't tell us not true. That's not true. It'll be bad. You know, we're trying.

We're trying to. We planned my European tour and UK tour around by daughter's spring break. I think they have two weeks off in April. Anyway, I booked it so that my wife who also loves London, and we lived there for quite a bit, and so we could bring Marlo there. And she, this is the second time this happened, and we're gonna try to present it very, we're excited and all this stuff,

and she wants to go to Atlanta. And we're like, because we tried to get her to go to Yellowstone last year and we're showing her pictures and the Bisonner Cav, it's going to be beautiful. I'm going to Atlanta. Like what? Which is where I'm from and my family is. And I know why because she, it's a really, my sister and sister-in-law, my mom live in this cul-de-sac and a lot of Atlanta proper is suburban, feels suburban, and it's really safe. And she hasn't experienced that here in the city where you can just run around when the sun's gone down and all the kids are boys. And she keeps up with them and she'll scrape her knees and get right back up and they play hard

and they're all super polite southern boys and they're like, man, Marlo is saucy or spicy, whatever they said, like yeah, she's from Brooklyn. And so I know why she likes it. And she just wants to, but the idea, cause we're back there like three or four times a year anyway, and the idea of like, why we have to go to Atlanta? London, we're going to London.

I want to go to Atlanta. I do like it. I get it. I get why she would like that. Yeah, I do too. I do too. And I don't want to take that away from her. I mean, she really, really, really get it. Okay, what she would like that. Yeah, I do too. I do too And I don't want to take that away from her. I mean, she really really really loves it And she doesn't get that opportunity here. So when she asks that kind of question

Do you write them all down and then you come and ask us or are you tempted to answer them? No, no, I It started I'm not exactly sure how it started But I think I asked it was an idea I had before I even started the podcast and so I asked her you know, probably when she was six at that point like I'm gonna I want to ask questions on the podcast of my guests and and so I need a bunch of questions and then she gave me a couple of them and then

All the rest of them were like, oh, I have a question for your podcast. Okay, what is it? Or she'd say, ask me a question that you go, that's a good question for the podcast. I go, yeah, you're right. So that one came up. That's the first person. I think specifically when I said I need some more questions.

Yeah. Who was the first person to be born on earth? I think specifically when I said I need some more questions. Yeah. Who was the first person to be born on Earth? To be born on Earth. I mean. It's hard to think of an answer that. Again, you can answer in any way you see. Well, I mean, obviously.

I mean, it'd be interesting to know at what point we were people in the evil. I'm not across the science enough to know at what point it was officially people. There must have been a first person born. But does that mean that the mother was not a person was still at that point in the evolution where they were being called something else? Well, there's homo sapiens. Yes, us and then there was cross breeding. They now say with David cross. Oh, I never thought

of that. Do you call it cross breeding when you have sex? Uh, Oh, I never thought of that. Do you call it cost breeding when you have sex? No, I don't. Um, the Neanderthals. So Neanderthals and then us. Well, Neanderthals are, even though they're distinct, there was cross breeding between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals.

But the Homo sapiens came from somewhere. I read the fucking book too. And I can't remember. Did you read Homo sapiens? Oh, no. Oh, it's great. It gets really super dry towards the latter half, but it's My dad was a science teacher and it meant that I didn't listen to any science sure awful. It's it's an interesting book Oh, yeah, but I didn't retain a whole lot So, I mean interesting book. Yeah. But I didn't retain a whole lot. So I mean, to be the first Truman from the Truman show.

Oh, interesting. Yeah. Say that Truman from the Truman show was the first person born. Okay. But he's clearly younger than a lot of the viewers. Not in his world, the viewers are in his world. In his. Hmm. In treatment show world.

OK, I will imagine Kerry. Yes. I'm building a birdhouse. Yeah. That's me. He's Chris. That was those me. I am building a birdhouse. Uncanny. And you close your eyes and you'll think it's me. It's a good line. Yeah, that was a funny line.

You got to be happy with that. I'm very happy. It was a top 20 lines that I've said. Yeah. Good. Was it rift? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. But a treat to be a part of that experience for sure. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind. What a film. What a film. Yeah. What a film. Do you ever how if I was in eternal sunshine to spot this mind? I'd think about that once a week Okay, do you think about it once a week to once a week? Do you go?

No, I don't What are you doing? Um Well, got a think currently I'm out of thinking every now and again. I'm thinking... How often do you think it to yourself? I'm going to say once a year on Armistice Day. Yeah. Yeah. It's a good day to do it. Yeah.

It's on my calendar. I mark it. I'll be thinking it a lot. Anytime I felt, you know, we've covered it a lot in this conversation, but anytime I'd feel low on confidence in myself as a performer and stuff, I'd think to myself, I think that's, yeah. I think I think that's a good film.

I don't have that issue, I think. You know, the lack of confidence. I'm pretty confident in my abilities, yeah. In that world, I can't. Wasted on you. That part should have been gone to someone not as confident, right? And then I would think to themself shit. I would think once a week. I'm building a birdhouse Mm-hmm. Yeah, I don't

I mean I have it on the loop that's playing in my bedroom Yeah, but outside of that not really, you know, yeah And I also took a full page out in Variety this year. You know, at great expense, full page that has a picture, you know, it's a photo of me from the set and then the line. And then it says, Introducing David Cross for your consideration. Best supporting actor, 2001. Yeah.

Whatever it was. Should have got it. Yeah. Should have got it. Who else won? That's actually a funny idea. Yeah. You should do that.

It's probably too expensive, but just take a hat out. Pull the hat out in variety. Yeah. Saying, you know, with the thing. Yeah. For your consideration, Oscars 2011. Yeah, yeah, you should do it. And they should all be I think that's how they should do the Oscars anyway. It should be. Let it cook for a few years. See the ones that really Yeah,

start the test of time. Yeah. All right, James. Yeah, I'm gonna head home. Yeah, fair enough. Thank you for coming down. Thank you. David's probably going. Thank you, David. Sense is Working Overtime is a Headgum podcast created and hosted by me, David Cross. The show is edited by Katie Skelton and engineered by Nicole Lyons with supervising producer Emma Foley.

Thanks to Demi Druchin for our show art and Mark Rivers for our theme song. For more podcasts by Headgum, visit Headgum.com or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and maybe we'll read it on a future episode. I'm not gonna do that. Thanks for listening.