That Gaby Roslin Podcast: Reasons To Be Joyful - Tom Allen

Episode Date: April 11, 2022

In this episode Gaby chats with comedian Tom Allen. He talks about his school years and feeling different growing up and his longterm friendship with fellow comedian Rob Beckett. He shares how it felt to start out as a comedian in a predominantly masculine environment, and that his favourite thing is laughing when you’re not supposed to. This episode was recorded before the passing of Tom's father, who he chats about so fondly.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello and welcome to That Gabby Rosen podcast, part of the Acast Creator Network. My guest this week is the very funny comedian and TV presenter Tom Allen. Goodness me, he makes me laugh so much. We chat about his school years and how he felt different while he was at school. Also, we talk about his gorgeous friendship with fellow comedian Rob Beckett. The two of them get along so well. He also talks about how he started out as a comedian in a very blokey environment and that his favourite thing is laughing when you're really not supposed to.

Now, we recorded this chat just a month before, very sadly, he lost his father. He speaks so beautifully and so lovingly about him. I do hope you enjoy this episode. Please can I ask you a favour? Would you mind following and subscribing, please, by clicking the follow or subscribe button. This is completely and utterly free, by the way, and you can also rate and review on Apple Podcasts, which is the purple app on your iPhone or iPad.

Simply scroll down to the bottom of all of the episodes. I know there have been quite a few now. And you'll see the stars where you can tap and rate and also please write a review. Thank you so much. Hello, gorgeous Tom. Hi, Gabby. This is so fun. I'm so sorry to keep you waiting.

I went to start my laptop and it was like, no, stop trying to charge your phone. I've had this laptop for like six years. I need to update it, don't I? That's the phone. Do you know what I did? Mine just kept saying, what are you doing trying to turn me on? So I sort of thought, I talked to it nicely. I felt guilty, but then I got a new one and then I hid the old one.

So it couldn't see that I got a new one. It's so important. You don't want to hurt their feelings. No, you really don't. If I have to run out in the moment, it's only because the storm clouds are rising in a distant sky. And I've just put, I put my sheets on. And my mum says it's a great day for drying, which is true because it's sunny. But I am concerned about thunder clouds.

Just saying. Okay. If it thunders, you run. Just, you know, I'll just be out there for a moment. We won't let it, we won't let it ruin our day. But I just thought, you know, I've just put it on. I love them in the sun. In the sun.

Do you know what? The simple pleasures are the best. It is the simple pleasures. I don't know what these billionaires spend their money on. Maybe they just have like loads and loads of sheets. The other great exciting thing that's been happening to me today is I've had to have the drains flushed out. in my new home. Very glamorous life I lead.

Oh, my word. What do you mean flushed? Well, the kitchen sink was leaking from the drainage hole. And so I spoke to my brother, who's a Tyler, who spoke to his friend who's a plumber. And then he came around and he said, I think you need to speak to my friend who's a drainage man. And so they came through and they've kind of blasted it

to get, and it's full of stones. Oh, I'm pleased it was just stones. Well, exactly right. Exactly. But I did feel kind of exposed. My dad had his drain. My dad's in his 80s and he had his drains doing as well. And he said exactly the same thing.

He said it felt very personal. Very personal. And people walking past. Oh, I don't like it at all. Oh, look, it was only stones. You see, this is what happens when you move into your own home. My life is falling apart. It's just the sort of thing, isn't it?

It's modern life. I mean, whatever next. It's only you because everything's something. sounds like a euphemism. I know. You know, even if the whole drain collapses, I'll be able to get a solid 10 minutes out of it on stage. I love that you, when you talk about your dad,

and when you do your dad's accent, it sounds like you're one of your best friends, Rob Beckett. It does. Every time you do your dad's accent in your book, so I was, no shame. Congratulations, I love your book. It made me cry. Gaphy, thank you so much for reading it.

Oh. And laugh. But when you do your dad, It's Rob Beckett. Oh, my goodness. Do you think I should have, maybe I should have just got him in for the audio book just to play the part of my dad.

They do have sort of similar South London accents, really. Southeast London. It's a very specific London accent, I think, that involves using all of the vowel sounds for just one vowel. So if you're doing, like, if something is alive, it's not just alive, it's Loi. Clever. So talk to me, tell me, give me your,

dad's expression so everyone knows I'm not going completely mad. So what happened? How did he greet the drain people? So do your dad for me, as it were. So he was like, well, I wasn't actually here when he greeted the drain people, but he so many greeted, I was so when he greeted Dan the plumber. And he said, all right, Dan, how are you doing? Yeah, all right, mate.

Come in, yeah, yeah. It's all right. Well, if you don't want taking your shoes off, yeah, that'd be nice. I never asked people to take their shoes off. My dad asked people to take their shoes off in my house. He says, all right, Dan, you, come down, come and have a look. Yeah, I don't know what. And dad's got his, like, whole spiel going.

Oh, do you want to drink, mate? Do you want to drink? It's Rob. And it starts offering them drinks and biscuits from my private biscuit collection. Using the mugs, which are not the allocated workman mugs. What do you have in your biscuit collection then? In the biscuit collection, I've got a selection of oat biscuits, which I got from a Swedish furniture shop, which I won't name, but you get them by the till. And I enjoy those. I also enjoy a chocolate.

Nothing makes me more excited than a chocolate ginger. And this is a dark chocolate ginger. biscuit. So it's like a ginger biscuit covered in dark chocolate. I've been enjoying that very much. And I say that because I've recently run out of macaroons. They say it comes in threes. Do you know what? If somebody said to me, Tom Allen is a biscuit, what biscuit would he be? I think I would have gone dark chocolate and ginger. I'm quite chaffed with myself. Oh, thank you for saying that. I like, yeah, that's lovely that you knew. Other people would have said, I don't know, a custard cream, a jammy dog.

are, yeah. No, no, no. They all sound like euphemisms, though, in my voice, don't they? They all sound like I'm being rude and I'm not. I know you're not. You're actually a real gentleman. That's how I would describe you. I was such a pleasure. Fox is crunch. I've met you. You're just a gentleman. And I was saying to the producer of this podcast just before, I said, he's one of the sweetest, loveliest gentleman. And when I came on, Apprentice, you're fired. You were just generous and kind. And you've got that twinkle. You've got that thing. That twilight. in your eye that Rob has, and I know you two were at school together, but you've got twinkle. Lee Mack has that twinkle.

Romish has the twinkle. Rob Bryden has the twinkle. Not many people have the twinkle. Oh, what do you think, just that we know there's something, there's something to be made fun of in the near distance. Do you think it's that? That we're just sort of itching to make a joke about something, perhaps. Were you always like that?

Yeah, kind of. I've always sort of seen comedy and making, making, fun of things as a means of communicating really. Do you know what I mean? Because you go, it's a great way to relate to someone if you go, oh, do you see the world like this? And they go, yeah, and you laugh together because you go, yeah, I feel like that sometimes. I see people like that or I see things like that.

And that's a lovely thing. I think that's, when I was at school, I think I was quite nervous in lots of ways, not in other ways, but in some ways. And if I could make people laugh, then I knew that we'd be okay. Like we'd all be, we'd be all right together as friends. So, and I think I do that. But my mum has always sort of passed on her sense of humour to me. And it's, yeah, that's kind of along those lines as well.

We've always kind of like used comedy to sort of talk about things, really. In your book you say about how you were always very chatty as a child and you deliberately got lost in waitrose. I don't know why that makes me because you wanted to chat to people. So my ambition has always been to be best friends with the middle-aged women working on the customer service desk in waitress. It's just my happy place. So as a child, as a child when chatting to people,

you probably had no judgment or no opinions about these people. You just wanted to talk. You just wanted to hear their stories, I imagine. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I just loved, I've always loved sort of listening in on people's conversations. It's not a very endearing thing to say, is it? No, I do it. I do it.

Yeah, I've loved it. since I was a child. I'm there. Oh, really? Gapy. Are you the same? Exactly. There's something about adults telling stories and they're so wrapped up in the drama of whatever

the moment is of the minutiae of that time, that moment in time. It's just joyful, isn't it? When you just hear people mushering about somebody you don't even know and how they've taken the day off again because they're always taken a day off or they're, you know, somebody moaning about their husband's cousin who always comes around at the wrong moment. And I just like it. I just like all that sort of petty drama, really. I like it.

It's the stuff, it's the kind of glue that holds life together, really. So did you always know then that you were going to end up doing what you're doing now? Because you're an actor, you're a presenter, you're a comedian, you're a panelist, you're a TV host. That must have been there always in the back of your mind. And you were at National Youth Theatre. So a performer, I suppose I'm going to use that word. I'm going to use that word over all of the others, the overarching word performer. Was that something you always had in mind then?

I think so. I don't know why, but I always sort of thought, oh, but if you're on the stage, everything's okay. Look at those people on the stage, they seem like they're having a great time. I want to be part of that. And I remember a man, I think it was a police officer, came into the school and said, who is your hero? This police officer. And everybody went round and they went, oh, my mom, or the police or the nurse or the doctor I went to see. And, you know, all of these people. And then they came to me and I said, who's your hero?

Bruce Forsyth. And it was unusual. You know, we were like nine. But I just loved the idea of someone like Bruce Forsyth, who was just like tap dancing sometimes, singing a song the next, hosting a game show. You know what I mean? Telling stories, having fun with people. I just thought, what a wonderful, what a wonderful light. What a wonderful person. Like, just extraordinary. Like, telling stories about people, telling jokes. It didn't matter if no one laughed. If everybody made fun of them. What a great space. What a great life. And I loved, I was upset when we did a nativity play at nursery school, I remember, because we went on the stage, but it wasn't a shiny stage, like a shiny floor in a studio.

It was just wooden, planks. This isn't a stage at all. I love that. So you, when you were younger, and you've always said that you feel that you were even as a child, you were 46. Does that mean you always just felt that you were a grown-up inside a young person's body screaming to get out? Basically, yeah, and I was always kind of like mystified is why I had to do these things.

I didn't want to do. I clearly didn't want to go to school. It was like it. There'd been some sort of terrible mix-up in the cosmos and, or like in a sort of quantum leap fashion, and I'd been sort of blasted through time and space and suddenly there I was, and having to go to do PE and stuff. And I thought, why am I doing this? And I remember all the other boys being, like, really into PE, jumping up and down on the benches in the changing rooms and hanging off the coat pegs. I remember our teacher coming in and going, if you do not behave yourselves, you boys will not be doing PE and I thought well carry on, hang off the co-becks in that case. Do you still, do you feel that you're not 46 yet, but do you feel that you've caught up

or do you still feel that you're not quite old enough as how you think yourself being? Does that make sense? It does, yeah. I think I have a bit more, yeah. Like now I've got a garden. I feel like that's kind of in line with where I always saw myself. And I think, yeah, now I'm sort of in my third. I've loved being in my 30s because you do have, it's that cliche, your 20s, I think you feel like you should know everything, you don't know anything.

In your 30s, you sort of start to care a bit less and people say the older you get the more that increases. So I love that. I love that aspiration of kind of, you know, getting older and just being more content. It's a lovely thought, isn't it? I don't, I, in my 20s, I was just a bit of an emotional wreck, I think, a lot of the time. Was that because you were just starting out and putting yourself out there at 22, winning the awards that you did at 22 and winning the newcomer. And there's suddenly a lot's expected.

And you're just learning about yourself in your early. I mean, you're 22. It's so young. It was young, really. I mean, people do it now when they're like four or something. I think don't they start doing standoff? I don't know. But at that point, it felt like a stupid thing to do,

but sort of fun because it was so silly. It was such a sort of outrageous thing in my mind and my friends and family's mind. Because when I started, stand up was still. very blokey. Like, I won the BBC New Comedy Award, and that was a lovely feeling of sort of validation, that oh, maybe I'm all right at this. But then I realized that I had to kind of go back to the drawing board and start all over again because I didn't know anything. And I was scared of doing these clubs. Other comedians I started with were like, yeah, I do this club and I did that. And I did an open spot there. And they booked me for a paid spot. And I was just terrified of them because

these clubs were full of a lot of the comedians were blokes, middle-aged, straight white blokes who were very blokey in their way and would kind of go out there with the audience and talk about, I mean, I'm being unfair. Of course, they wouldn't all be like this. But there was, you know, it did kind of make the audience kind of a certain kind of machismo, have a certain sort of machismo about it. And audiences were drunk and quite lairy and they wanted someone who was strong and bold and knew they were and were going to present the world in a way that the audience could understand it. Whereas I would sort of mince out and start talking about my mum's hostestrily. Out of no.

nowhere without sort of explaining anything about myself. And these audience, these kind of stag parties in Plymouth were like, what's this? No, thank you very much. And we're very like, no, it took me years to realize that you have to kind of introduce yourself to audiences and go, you know, I would talk about, I would talk about working as a dessert waiter when I was 16 in a golf club, which is quite a specific niche area without even talking about the fact that that's kind of contextualized in a world of like, oh, I was a closeted gay teenager in the 90s. who had this posh voice, even though his family had, who were just sort of normal working class people.

My dad was a coach driver. And you know what I mean? Like kind of without explaining that, these audiences were like, what's this? No, what? So how did you turn it around? I just decided that I would send it back to them a bit.

It took me years to do this, but I just started to become a bit more like, well, you're going to look down on me. Well, maybe I'll try looking down on you and see how you like it. And so I did. And I'd kind of go out there. And I sort of make fun of their butchness. And actually, you know, I'd walk out and go, I know what happens when I walk out on stage.

You all fold your arms. You all go, oh, this bloke, oh, he wants to, he wants to seduce me. He wants to recruit me. And I would always say, oh, the truth of the matter is we are actually recruiting at the moment. So if you sign up, I get a 25 pound voucher in John Lewis at the end. So, you know, and they kind of, people sort of like that a bit more because you, A, own the insecurity or the kind of difficulty and you, and sort of making fine. of it's a very British thing if you make fun of people's behaviour they kind of like you for it.

I just was thinking about you saying about insecurity and then thinking about one of your oldest friends, lovely Rob Beckett and other comedians and Josh and and and Ramesh and actually Michael all of those people that they all talk about insecurity and it's amazing that you're you guys and and Rob has talked very openly about his insecurities and his shyness and everything. Yeah. But yet, you put yourself out there. If, of the idea of, I'm also a very shy person.

The idea of doing stand-up makes me, I'd want to be just rushed to the loo. I just can't do it. It terrifies me. Because you instantly, you're judged. If somebody doesn't laugh, you think, oh, I've done it wrong. Well, it's a journey, I think, with the self to learn to forgive yourself if it doesn't go perfectly. because otherwise you never do anything.

For years, I was like, I'm rubbish. Everybody else can do it. I can't do it. Everybody else is better than me. Why can't I do it? But I knew I had to keep going at it. And then you realize everybody has bad gigs, especially when you're starting out,

and everybody has to learn. And you have times where people, you know, don't get you. And they don't know who you are. And they don't like you because they don't know you. And so you have to battle through that. But I think that's been one of the positive journeys that learning about being a stand-up has taught me is that it's taught me that actually you've got to forgive yourself and you've got to be calm

with yourself and you've got to go hey doesn't matter and weirdly even though it matters so much to you you've got to make it not matter and there's a weird paradox with that I think with a lot of things you can't you can't hold a butterfly you know that sounds very poetic doesn't that gosh it's absolutely perfect you know when talking to you and I know other people have said this as well you are incredibly like Kenneth Williams, that you have that, you know, you're an actor as well, and you've been Tamara Drew and start of a tent, and you're a presenter, we'll get on to all the presenting and all the TV shows in a moment, but, and a comedian, and you have this beautiful voice, but you have this sort of depth of knowledge for a relatively young man.

And I feel, I know other people have compared you to Kenneth Williams. I hope you take that as a compliment. And I don't mean him personally because we all know about the strangenesses of his life. You know, we do know those things now. But it's, I'm talking about the genius of him. I really am. Well, I'm very flaccount. The two sides of him. So you do remind me of him. I always loved him as a small child. And I don't know why. But I just was obsessed with him when I was like four or five years old. I love this idea. I suppose I felt like I related to this idea of feeling like a grown up. He always kind of had this sense of like commanding, trying to command status. and then it always being undermined and it always being, you know, he would be as snooty as he liked, but the world would always pull him down.

And he was so great at telling stories and being an outsider. And I think because he always obviously felt different and sounded different and had this, you know, like I'd had the situation with a voice that sounded so different to everybody around him and people were mean to him because of that. And sort of felt like he wasn't, he was made to feel like he wasn't one of them. So I liked that, I related to that. I just always thought he was the most funny person when I was growing up and when I was very small, you know, related to it. And I think there's a slight sort of that snootiness actually as a kid is quite, it's quite fun because you live in a world where everybody's like, that's very good. You're wonderful.

Oh, good. Very excellent picture. That's brilliant. He was kind of always like, no, I don't like that. I don't, you know, that's rubbish. Absolutely disgrace. And I think that's kind of, that's amusing. and I think as a kid you quite enjoy that because it's playful as well.

You never felt that he was, whenever I watch an interview with him or anything, he always feels like he's quite genuine and quite vulnerable. And I think as growing up, I've realised as well what an amazing person he was. He's often dismissed as being a kind of caricature, I think, and people undermine him. But when you think about it, there aren't many people who could be as subversive as he was, especially when he was doing things like around the horn in the 60s. And that was massive.

That's such a brave thing to do. And before that, when he was in the army, to stand out and go, I am different. And I am, you know, and I think he struggled a lot with his, well, I know he struggled a lot with his sexuality. And I think it was the idea of coming out, I think was, you know, very difficult for him for lots of reasons. But the fact that he stood there and went, I am somebody different and I see the world in a different way. and I sound different and I inhabit it and I love it is very powerful I think as a political message actually and I don't suppose he would have acknowledged it as such

because I don't think he wanted to be like that and you know and at times he was very much out of kilter with how we would think now with things and stuff but there was there's something about him particularly in terms of being a storyteller that I think is very inspiring there are so many similarities of all the things that you've just said with your life

You just mentioned about being teased about your accent. Were you teased about your accent then? Yeah, as soon as I could talk, I always had this posh voice. And my parents would be like, oh, we don't know where we got him from. Yeah, I think he's a cuckoo. And then all, like, their friends would be like, why do you talk like that though? Why do you talk like, your mum and dad talk like this? And you don't talk like that.

You've got sort of posh voice. Why is that? And I'd be like, I'm four. I don't know. But you've got, you know, the thing is, like the world loves to do this. Go like, why? Why are you different? Why?

Why do you think that? Why do you feel that? Why do you see the world like that? Why do you talk like that? And tries to sort of contain you a bit, especially when you're young. Yes, yes. And so, yeah, I always had this kind of this sense of it. And then when I went to primary school, I always felt really different to the other kids.

And I didn't know why. And I was sounded different. But I just couldn't relate to them because I felt like I was 46 years old and I had nothing in common with them. It's funny. But people are so judgmental. I mean, I grew up desperately shy and always saying I want to be a TV presenter. And people go, why? What?

Why? And it was just you sort of, oh, yeah. People like to sort of beat people down if they want to be different. If they want to, you know, dreams. You know, you talked about Bruce Forsyth and Kenneth Williams. And it's you just, it's as if your path was there. It's, how do everybody I've ever spoken to? You and I think Robbie Williams seem to, your path from a very young age seemed to have gone exactly how it was supposed to.

Oh, that's a nice. Well, I like being compared to Robbie Williams. That's nice. I don't know. I just, but like you say about wanting to be a TV presenter and I'm feeling shy. That's wonderful. What a wonderful TV presenter to be because people, all the shy people at home can relate to that person. And that's great.

That's the sort of, but I think it's sort of beyond what we present on the surface a lot of the time. It's actually this force inside us that's going, no, push for it, go for it. Do that thing. Do that. You know, whether that's, you know, you think you'll never ride a bike and you learn to ride a bike, or you want to learn French and everybody around you says, why do I want to learn French for? You just want to do it.

You can't fight it. You just have to do it, don't you? With your TV career now, so many people obviously know you as a panelist on so many things, and Apprentice you're fired, which is when we first met, and then cooking with the stars and bake off, all of these things. Does it all feel slightly magical? There's a good word. Does it feel magical?

Yes, it does actually. And I think because when I left school when I was 18, I didn't go to you. I did my A levels and everybody around me was going to university and I thought, no, I don't want to go there. I just want to, I've got this urge to do this sort of career in entertainment. I don't exactly know what it is but I'm going to just try it. And I'm just going to go for it. That's 20 years ago I left school. So I suppose now to be doing those things that I was dreamed one day I might get to do does feel absolutely surreal and like a dream that I'll wake up from any moment. So it does and I think there's often a I often go, no, well, it'll all end tomorrow. So just don't, just don't enjoy it because it'll go. Do you, really? Yeah, of course. I think a lot of people think that, don't they, have kind of, you know,

imposter syndrome and all that. Even though it's sort of a contradiction that I was like, I've got to do this career, I want to do it. I know I can do it. And then doing it and then going, no, it's all going to end. Like, it's never be happy. He's never happy. But I suppose, yeah, there is a, I guess, an interesting.

security and I think but but at the same time I do feel very grateful and very thrilled I have to the cliche of wanting to pinch myself um but when I get to meet wonderful people and and people I grew up watching and loving and and and get to you know just be sort of work with them and and stuff is is such a thrill you know doing extra slice with Joe Brand is mesmerizing I love her she's just the kindest person and talks to me like I gotta quite believe it You know, it's bizarre, isn't it? Well, you're one of the good ones as well. So is there, obviously I'm going to now be,

let's pick on Rob and Josh, because I adore them. But I especially, any excuse to talk about, lovely Rob. But is there competition between you guys? Oh, that's good. With Rob and I or just any community. No, let's pick on you and Rob because you were at school together and you're still great friends. But is there a competition between you two that you,

You've both ended up doing the same thing. You would think there should be a competition. But in truth, no, there isn't like actually. There's, he's always, mainly because of his generosity, he's so, because basically we went to the same school. He's two years, maybe two or three years younger than me, two years below me at school, yeah. And so I did know him a bit at school, but I didn't,

it's only through doing stand-up that we've become close. And he's honestly so kind. And so he's always there. You know, if ever you're worried about something, he's the one you should phone. And he's the one who encourages me. And he's got a great attitude towards life, which is like, yes, you can. Just do it. No, just book it.

No, just buy it. Just go there. No, have a go. You'll be all right. And actually, it's a great way to be because I think I, for whatever reason, grew up going, like, overthinking and going, oh, I can't do that. And what would it mean if I could do it? And what would it? And he's just like, no, just get on with it.

Just do it. You'll be fine. Oh, it'll be great. Well, you've got to remember, you're this, you're that. and just kind of really such a generous man. And he does, you know, he speaks a lot about things like mental health. He's been a very positive force in speaking about that, particularly amongst men, actually.

He's very open about talking about that. And he's a very, very good person. And he really believes in supporting people. And he's always, you know, like believes in hard work as well. So he's, yeah, he's an amazing friend to me. And so, yeah, we've been friends. for a long time. We've known each other a long time but we've been really good friends I suppose

the last sort of eight years or so. Very special person. He is very special. We were going to do, we were on a show together and suddenly I just didn't want to do it. It was a quiz show and I called him up and he literally while I was walking and I said no Rob I'm not going to come and do it and he went yeah exactly I can't do his voice so brilliantly and he did that and I remember

after putting the phone down thinking what a incredibly kind man but he says lovely lovely things about you He really, really does. And so the feeling's mutual. And I love that there's no competition. I had to ask it, but I'm so pleased that there is. No, that's a...

But I think as well, because we're very different. You know, there's not really... We're very different in our ways. I'd love to see you, you joining Rob and Ramesh. I think they should have a Rob and Ramesh versus you. Versus me. Oh, it would just be fabulous. We did our One Night in Hamleys, actually.

That was a lot of fun. Your One Night in Hamleys? Yes. Yeah, have a look. Oh, yeah. That was on Channel 4. I was on Christmas Eve. We did one night in Hamlets.

It was very, very silly. But they're very, they're very, like, it's quite blokey those two. So I felt like, I felt like I was 11 again and I'd been, like, invited to a sleepover birthday party by somebody who just sort of knew me. It was probably like friends, his mum was friends with my mum and I didn't really get on with anybody else. Oh, no. You know, they play sports.

They play sports and everything's kind of quite sporty, whereas I just wanted to, like, go to the Sylvania families and recreate a tea party. You are just a joy, complete joy. So on this podcast we always ask everybody what makes them properly belly laugh. So what you have, like I said, you do have that twinkle. There are a few people that have that twinkle. But what makes you belly laugh?

Not being allowed to laugh is the best, I think. Like, you know where, I mean, it's not always at a funeral, but you know, like if you've been at a funeral, which is very serious, you just want, like, kind of ceremony, even though I like high ceremony, I mean, really, you know, that sort of feeling of something, anything that's supposed to be taken seriously, laughing during that is the, is my favorite, is the best laugh, I think, in the world. I do a show with, with Alan Carr, and called There's Something About Movies. I mean, that's where I get to be heroes. Gosh,

I mean, sitting next to Jennifer Saunders and Alan, so, it's just such a genius, it's so funny. We did a spoof of Frost Nixon in front of Michael Sheen. It was sort of a competition to see who could do it best. And actually Rob and Michael recreated it first of all. And of course, Michael's very good at it because he did play David Frost to great acclaim. And then Alan came in with this, like the worst wig I've ever seen looking like, he didn't look like David Frost. He looked like a sort of regional manager of a bee jams.

and then did this voice that was so vaguely like David Frost and then not. And then I was trying to do President Nixon but it couldn't do it so it just was doing a sort of southern bell like I was Blanche Dubois and it looked so it's available online if you'd like to have a look. I will be. And the crew, because we were second, the crew was like,

come on, no, stop, no, come on, pull yourself to get, you've got to get you, we just need one take of this. Come on, we just need one take. and of course we couldn't stop laughing the whole time, you know, and just, you know, it was just the best. But if you ever have any experience like that, it's just great, isn't it? And I always think that's the best, that's the best, like, way to treat the world. Go like, oh, you want me to treat everything so seriously. Well, well, I'm going to laugh and what are you going to do about it, eh?

But that is the great. So all of you guys that I've spoken to on the podcast and are lucky enough to know in real life, that I think what you give and what we need more than ever, especially these days, is you give us this gift of laughter and a lot of people struggle, you know, find life very difficult. But laughter, when it's released, oh, it's the best. It's the best thing. It's sort of strange, isn't it? I've always loved laughing.

That's the best thing, isn't it? Of just kind of that feeling of just, I don't know, just makes everything all right, really. it? And I think it is, you know, even in sort of tragic moments, it's the thing that actually helps us. And so I think because it reminds us of other people, the best way to laugh is to laugh with other people, isn't it? And to laugh with friends and loved ones is, is brilliant. And I think once you do that, then you sort of go, oh, it's okay because somebody else is there going through life with me. That's what I think anyway. I mean, maybe that's a precocious way of looking at it or a pretentious way of looking at it.

Not at all. Not at all. And that's the perfect way to end this because I do, I really think you're a joy. And I'm, you know, long may all the magical things keep coming for you because you are, you're very precious and you're a rarity. And may you forever be full of magic. Thank you very much. And yes, this is perfect timing because I can hear a rumble of thunder. Oh my God. Get your sheets. Quickly. And if, you know, even if I've just given them a, my mom would say, just give them a bit of a blow on the line. Just give them a bit of a blow. And I think if anything, I've done that with the sheets and then they can finish off on the radiator or something. Completely. And in my head, I was going into a carry-on movie with so many debilocks-a-all.

So maybe we shouldn't go there. Bless you, Tom Allen. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for listening. And coming up next week, we have broadcaster, journalist, redesigner and podcaster Kate Thornton. That Gabby Roslin podcast is proudly produced by Cameo Productions and music by Beth McCari. Could you please tap the follow or subscribe button?

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