The Comedian's Comedian Podcast - 427 - Ignacio Lopez

Episode Date: May 12, 2023

Ignacio Lopez is an ascendant comic currently selling out his national tour due to a combination of talent, strategy, and sheer determination.We talk about his enjoyment of playing high status and the pitfalls associated with that, about him flying alone as a child between families and countries, and how he used comedy as a social cheat-code. We also explore comedy as a separate language, and the different dialects and fluency that we all employ…20mins of extra content available exclusively to the Insiders Club include Ignacio on neurodiversity, and the hyper-focus that means he can’t put down a book before finishing it, as well as how he parlayed his viral Rhianna parody song into the core of a social media strategy.Catch up with Ignacio:On tour later in 2023 with his new show “Nine Ig Fails”, tickets via www.comedylopez.comTW/IG/TIK: @comedylopezEverything Stu's up to:Stu’s new Edfringe show “Spoilers” (WINNER Best Show 2023, Leicester Comedy Festival, woo!) is on sale now - find preview dates as well as podcast community links, social media handles and comedy clips, and Stu’s official YouTube channel, all at linktr.ee/stuartgoldsmithOr join the mailing list for unspecified freebies at:www.comedianscomedian.comwww.stuartgoldsmith.comStu offers remote and in-person talks to business, distilling insights from over 400 comics on cultivating resilience and the ability to bounce back, to all levels from C-suite to team members.“There’s perfect and there’s perfect; and that was perfect.” David Cooper, Chief People Officer Circle Health GroupSee Stuart live on tour - www.stuartgoldsmith.com/comedy Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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We are going to talk about his tour, which I'm pleased to say is currently selling out due to a combination of talent strategy and him just being very, very funny. And we will begin this conversation by talking about Show Me the Funny, which is the ill-fated reality comedy show that I was in many, many years ago, and that Ignatio was also in as well. So we'll share a little bit of conversation about that. We'll talk about how he enjoys playing high status and the pitfalls associated with that, about him flying alone as a child between families and between countries and using comedy as a social cheat code. Loads of great stuff in this one. Plus 20 minutes of extra content available exclusively to you,

you are in the Insiders Club, talking about neurodiversity and the hyper-focus that means Ignatio can't put a book down before finishing it, as well as the specific means through which he parlayed his viral Rihanna song into the core of a social media strategy. All of that at Comedianscommedia.com slash insiders for a minimum two pound a month or as much as you would like. Go to Comedylopez.com to find out more about his new tour show this year, Nine Ig Fails, and we will talk about that in due course. Here's Ignatio. Does it feel like the right time? I sort of say, at last, you're on it.

Does it feel like the right time for you to be on this? Yeah, I mean, I've felt insulted you haven't asked me sooner. Yes, good, good, good. We'll get to status in a minute. We'll get to high status. I laughed out loud. I was, obviously, I was watching your Apollo clip. And the aside, and we can talk about whether it was an aside or not,

I'm just like, these are just excellent jokes expertly told. that's just it's so funny because your comedy and you're not even just the kind of the written stuff of your comedy but your attack your angle of attack on stage is always that kind of or not always it always has an element of and so much better than you and you're so you're so welcome do I mean like you even have that you had a sign off what was the sign off on the Apollo set this is this has been this has been yeah this has been me being on this stage has been an absolute dream for some of you that's what the final line of the show is Now, it's very, very funny. And I keep saying, we'll get to this. But what I loved about that Apollo set was that your last four jokes were all like closing jokes in a row. Like, bam, bam, pound. I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed the kind of technicals of that.

Obviously, the first thing that that makes me think, seeing you be high status on stage and when I've seen you live as well, is like, oh, that's what you were going for when you crashed out and showed me the funny. sure now no one even remembers that show but only comedians only comedians and to be honest many of them only the comedians that were on it but we we sort of can't not talk about it sort of specifically because that that angle of attack is what you went for bravely on was it show number one or two i kind of which i went out on the first one yeah went out on the first one and it was it was a bunch of women in liverpool a bunch of women it was a deliberately skewed kind For those that don't know, it was like they were trying to do this sort of adventure comedy concept whereby, oh, you're going to be in a crazy environment. And the first crazy environment was an entirely

female audience in Liverpool. Yeah, they're all sports women as well. They all played for different various themes of sports. I'd completely forgotten that. Yes, they were. Yeah. So it was sort of, it was one of a series of stealth corporates that we were doing for free whilst they rinsed us in the edit. Yeah. But you went in with, and you were quite new, how long had you been doing comedy by that point um i think about a year yeah i could probably have counted how many gigs i'd done like it was well under maybe 50 yeah you know which is a preposterous concept that there'd be you versus rudy liquid who'd been going over like 25 years or whatever yeah the main mistake i made was like i think following the book as well because i was like read the rules i was like yep it's all got

to be new stuff you know it's all got to be same and then stuff about the city i'd never been to before you know what I mean it's like well fine yeah it's I mean absolutely madness and then you know that was the and I appreciate that because I read the rules as well and not everyone did and we were further encouraged not to have read the rules by the producers who were like guys if you slip a bit of old in we'll never know I remember saying at that very first meeting on the dock whoa whoa whoa yeah define the rules what are you doing here but anyway the reason I bring it up is that you you employed an admirably high risk strategy on that gig. And it didn't work out. And I really, in retrospect, I really appreciate that you stuck

to your guns and went for, and that was like an early thing of, this is one of the things that's funny about Ignatio, which is that you're, which is that kind of, you're lucky that I'm here entertaining you. And we can, anyone listening to this who has, who has ever been 50 gigs in and employing a strategy like that, will, we'll have a certain kind of fondness for that approach. So tell me a little bit about those first 50 gigs and that angle of attack and how it went or didn't go down on the night. Let's kind of focus in on that night of that TV show because that was kind of a big night. But let's get the story leading up to that and then what happened. Yeah, sure.

Well, I mean, when I started comedy, I was playing music at the end of a comedy night. So I saw a lot of comedy. Like I was for months before I even did comedy, I remember. seeing comedian after comedian going on stage, complaining about how bad they were with women, you know, how terrible they were in their own lives, like just being super self-deprecating all the time. Like that was the standard mode for comics. And I really wanted to, so when I did my first ever gig, all I could think about was just flipping that on its head. So it was kind of in reaction to what everyone else was doing. I just wanted to do something different. And I find like false

arrogance incredibly funny like it's one of my favorite types of comedy like especially if it's undeserved or whatever and you know obviously there's stereotypes about um about you know latin people being you know arrogant and stuff like that and you know suave and you know potentially lecherous at times and that kind of thing and i just wanted to play on that um so i've done less of the kind of focusing on the stereotypes of that but i've definitely kept the you know the the false unearned arrogance almost but just very much yeah like you said like you know they they should be very pleased to have me on that stage and that's so the root of that really is that that tickles you personally yeah totally yeah is there also because this is something that you go out and do every

night is there also an element of that that is expressing something real something authentic well I think um you know I'm lucky in some ways I am I am good at what I do I'm not I'm not shit I'm not the shit as I appeared on that show anyway. And I think me going out that first episode, it wasn't the gig of my life. It certainly wasn't the worst. But, you know, I think that was a wake-up call for a lot of the other acts on the show as well, because especially when they saw the edit of the first episode go out. Because as bad as my that gig was, which, you know, I wasn't good that night. But they really butchered me in the edit. There's only so much you can do in that

scenario. And when they have full control over it, when they're playing sad piano music over your set and they're cut they're cutting to images of like women yawning who weren't yawning at the time during the interval or whatever it's like you know they've really really played on me cut to a woman being sick into a gutter outside as if that's happening during your set that's that's happened because we didn't know right because reality TV was a thing but it wasn't so much of a thing I remember talking to one of the producers he went no no no this isn't reality TV this is obdoc this is observational documentary and you're like oh is that is that how you're like is that how you're So we didn't know.

So we were, we were kind of, the thing I think nowadays is if, if that show were to happen again, I would know how to play it and I also wouldn't go up for it because I've seen loads of RuPaul's drag race. And I know now the game you have to play and the things, but we were also new. And did they even make you, did you have to go on first? Did you open at that gig? No, no, they were quite, because the people who won the challenges got to pick. And I think, I think was it Tiff and Ellie got to choose the lineup? Yes, okay.

So they put me in the middle I mean, to be fair If I was a little bit better As a comic at the time I think I might have gotten away with it But you've just got no idea That none of that material landed Totally, you could have gotten away with it

Do you remember what your opening line was? Yeah, I said if Somebody quoted it at me A few months after the gig Like heckled me with my own line It was something like if we've if you don't know who I am

or like if we've not met or something like that turn to the woman on your left she will have my phone number or something along that line we will have slept we will have slept with each other which got a laugh like that opening line worked

but on TV it looked brutal because that was the that was like the one laugh I got of the set but they even made it look like that died on its ass oh man man because the thing is like the there's no space for appreciating, let alone in the edit.

I mean, even if they'd left it unedited, the task, the monumental task required, as you and I played the game of brand new every single time, right? So you have to cut, you have to, you have to write in three days whilst being badgered for all sorts of meaningless interviews. You have to write a new opening line, fuck off, do you know what I mean? Like, that's insane. A new clothes, a new five in the middle.

It's bananas. So to come up with an opening line which sums you up, expresses your angle of attack, and particularly something that you were like, this is going to be suffused with this character that I'm doing, which is this kind of status. God, it just they say, it's not that they set you up to fail. They set it up so that it would be fun if someone failed. And you walked into it going, yeah, I believe in this.

I'm going to try rather than walking on and either comparing the room, as some people did, or relying on old, you know, openers. Obviously, I'll do new, but I'll do. five of my six minutes will be old just to get them on board, you know. So my heart went out to you. And tell me about that, about the kind of the aftermath of that. And I feel, I hope I've done enough work at the beginning of this interview that if people, like, we've talked about your Apollo clip or your amazing stuff, like, you know, this is ancient history. It is ancient history. Yeah, I feel, I mean, I was happy to talk about it at the time as well. I'm not, I'm not trying to hide from

anything I've done. And also, I went into that show, think, all I cared about, I didn't care about winning, all I cared about was being funny. And, you know, I feel we were sold a bit of a, oh, this is going to make you. You know, this is from the producer this. We got this consultant on it. This made this person's career and all this kind of stuff. So, and all I cared about was being funny. So even in the interviews, I was fully like, as arrogant as humanly possible. They were asking me stuff like, oh, what would you do with the money if you win? And I was like, I've already won. I was like, I've already spent the money on a yacht. You know, I was just ridiculous stuff.

And, yeah, just really, it was seeding, you know, sewing the seeds for my own downfall, I think, in that, which they had a good kind of pantomime kind of character to play with. After, I mean, I was, I feel like I was hated by everyone. I feel like I was hated by... 50 gigs in! Yeah. Such a new squit. Do you know what I mean?

And it got, I mean, it builds up. First of all, I lost gigs. like gigs just vanished out of my diary people were saying and I didn't have any representation obviously I didn't have representation for 10 years I just cracked on myself but it was the point where like we watched the episode then the hate started pouring in

and even my family were kind of like I think you should probably stop doing stand-up now that's you know you tried it you tried it and then it got picked up by Spanish news yeah so I was getting like death threats from Spain like you don't represent Spain you know

yeah it's a some pretty brutal message. I didn't realize it was that brutal. Oh, my God. For about a good two years, I think every gig I did manage to get on there. And that's all anybody wanted to talk to me about. So it's kind of a reverse of that now with Apollo. Like every green room I go in now, people are like, so how is Apollo rather than, you know.

But the dynamics changed a lot more, you know. It's much more excited than I'm happy to talk about it. It was before it's like, oh, it's this dickhead from that show went out. We shouldn't have been on there in the first place. Well, I have to say, when I watched that, that Apollo clip, when I see you walk out on stage, that moment, I was so fucking pleased for you. And I was just, I was, I don't know how much of this I overlaid on it and how much was kind of there or visibly there or there in the back of your mind. That feeling of

vindication, what, or was there a feeling of vindication at the time? Because you'd been treated badly by TV in the past. You know how much it relies on the edit. And we know there are people who've done Apollo sets and the sets haven't gone out because they are either they've, I mean, was it Nick Helm who did a chortle piece about the fact that he died and they fixed it or they made him look great yeah and I really got a lot of admiration for him for putting that out and saying 100% what it looked like because as a comic as well we all we all know like we're looking at the crowd and how they've cut it and he but he was he owned that and and it looks great and he's really funny on it but I can see him inside dying you know it's horrible you can see that

look on a comedian's face when it's not going yeah not going their way so so were you I suppose my question is, did you, as you walked out, did you think vindicated? Or were you thinking, shit, I hope this goes well enough that they don't butcher me in the edit again? No, to be honest, man, I've, you know, it's been a long time. Like, what was it, 2000? I think 2010, we did, we started doing auditions and stuff for Show Me the Funny. Man, if they aired the pilot episode of Show Me the Funny, I would have, I would have been

an overnight success. Ah, man. Could not have gone better. That's why I had this also false sense of security. Well, I always, I always mentioned this. Whenever I talk about it, me and Alfie Moore had a chat where we both just spanked a gig in Wales and we were chatting afterwards in the hotel before travelling off the next morning going, we've made it. We've made it. They reckon 10 million people are going to watch this and we both destroyed. And then you watch it back and you're like, oh, they showed four seconds of it. Cutting back to, bless him, Jason Balford going, he's doing great. I'm like, get the fucking go on. You know, so there was a, yeah, there was a whole raft of emotions going on with that. yeah so so talk to me about that moment of the not even in not in relation to the other show but the apollo moment of like talk to me about the night of doing that well yeah no not

it show me the funny was so far out of my mind like i've done a few other bits and pieces since then tv wise but i've just been very um much more cautious about going into anything so i was i was aware that you know i can get butchered in the edit apollo i think is a great one because they're not there to fuck you. It's not in their interest to make you look bad or to make it unfunny. They're trying to make the funniest show possible.

So I went into that with no fear whatsoever. And they kept, there was one production, one member of production staff back, backstage. Because you're there with like two episodes worth of comedians. So you, because they shoot two episodes back to back at Apollo,

which is a slog for the audience. Yeah, I've been in it. Yeah, it's long. But, you know, you're there backstage with five other comedians and like all production stuff and somebody kept going around going like oh so you know are you nervous and there's a few acts on that well they were a few hours on they were much newer than me and I was like don't ask them that and they were like oh but are you nervous I was like no of course not and I was trying to explain

like we're going to look amazing on this you got an entire audience who've been warmed up who are ready for stand up that's what they've come to expect um they're there to have a good time they haven't paid for tickets you know cheap cheap bastards um they're there for a good time we've polished this set to hell, I imagine. We're doing 20 minutes of our stronger stuff. And they're going to edit it to look good no matter what happens. So I had, for me, I was just like, it's just another gig. And I'd done a few big theaters, like, in the run-up to it, supporting, like, Jason

Manfred and John Bishop and stuff. So it felt, it felt like exactly the same. That is a lovely feeling, isn't it? When you look out at the size of a room and you're like, this is just another room. Yeah, when you really first, like, I kind of had that outside eye reflecting on, look at me I'm just dealing with this like it's a gig like I feel at home in a 3000 seater

what a feeling yeah I felt great man it was and like walking out as well I just had I was just so calm I know one thing that you are kind of hesitant with is the time because you've got this massive red clock on the stage and it's kind of counting down to what you've got and I'm not going to tell you which acts

until we stop recording but some acts go well over that fucking clock and you can see the producer backstage like flipping out so i stuck i had to cut out i reckon about four minutes worth of material which is a good problem to have because i'm on stage people and i told i had to tell the audience at one point to shut up and stop laughing yeah you know i don't have time for this the best feeling in the world you know that's great yeah i suppose there is a um there is a a theory a working practice which is that and i'm sure people have said this to me either on the show

or in green rooms, even if you annoy the person who is, the floor manager or whoever, give them as much stuff as you possibly can because then they can do the best job. And what's best? You keep everyone happy on the night or when the clip comes out, it's that much better. You know what I mean? So I think the pros, the old lags, are kind of working towards, oh yeah, a broken time. So anyway, do you know what I mean? And I get the value of that.

Obviously, that's not anything that any of us can officially sanction. And if we ever overrun, it's always an accident. But I do kind of, you know, you can see the different ways people approach that. I wanted to talk, just while we're on Apollo, I wanted to talk to you about what you were wearing as well. Because you talk to me about that decision because it reminds me of another comic, a Canadian comic, Mark Forward, who for years did jeans and a t-shirt and a hoodie. And he just looks like himself. And he's like, they tell him to dress up. He's, I'm not going to dress up.

This is what I wear when I do comedy. And I really liked, I liked how different it was that you were kind of casually dressed rather than, you know, topped up to the nines. Yeah, no, that's what I just wore what I wear on stage now. And I, you know, I used to perform in like black trousers, black shoes and a shirt of varying different colors. Then I switched to like burgundy and I pretty much exclusively wear burgundy, black and gray now. I hadn't noticed, but of course you do. You're wearing team colors now. You're wearing your brand.

made my my wardrobe you open it up it's all uh black and gray nine inch nails t-shirt some other dark clothing and just half of its burgundy we'll talk about nine inch nails i'm a massive nine ish nails fan we'll talk about that we'll lead that yeah what i saw the premise for your new show nine ink fails and i was like hang on a minute yeah we'll get to that we'll get to that so burgundy yeah so why burgundy is it because it's the color of red wine is it because it's kind of mat that's a good one it is it does it does feel it does feel very iberian and i like the yeah i just like the color. It's rich. I think it looks a bit like classier as well. If you're talking like colors and I'm breaking them down that way. Because they were very much like, oh, you got to wear a

block color. I was like, sort it. Got it. No problem. That reminds me of Nigel Ung, who has, he refers to clothes as pieces. That really made me laugh. He's got, I've got a couple of pieces and they all look, they all look good with each other. So he never has to spend, very Nigel, never has to spend any time thinking about what to wear. I'm constantly stressing out about what to wear and I suppose part of that is um it's part of it is my kind of terrible neurosis about like who will they see me as will they like me will will will they regard me as scum so I kind of do you have any of that does it solve a problem for you always wearing the one color is it like a nice thing you do or does it help you not have to worry about it well

I remember speaking to somebody quite early on just explaining that it's it is important what you look like on stage and what you're trying to project so when I was trying to to do that really early on like super high status like persona it was important for me to dress up slightly more than the audience and i did think about those kind of things was like right i want to be wearing a suit i want to be um i never went quite that far i've won a blazer occasionally but uh you know i was always in a shirt and like dress quite smart um whereas as as times gone on i'm so confident in my material now and who i am on stage i just want to feel comfortable on who i am yeah but that does mean that, you know, it's, I try to keep what I wear on stage and what I wear in real

life separate, because otherwise you need some kind of transition between walking around every day and your joggers or whatever and then walking up on stage to entertain like a couple thousand people or something. But I showed up to the Apollo, the makeup people and the wardrobe and they were like, oh, you're going to bring like three options. And I did, but they were all identical. Do you know what I mean? It was like, and I knew, because I from a like video, background. I went to film school. So I was like, I know none of these are going to peek on screen. None of these are going to, you know, cause any sort of, so straight away, they just went, yeah, they're all fine pick whichever one you want. So I went with the oldest

pair of jeans because they were the most comfortable and a burgundy tissue and a denim jacket, piece of cake. So this is Ig. Really good fun talking to him. I'm having a whale of a time as you can hear. A couple of things. Oh, while I remember, there is a charity fundraiser at the Leicester Square Theatre on Monday the 22nd of May. It's for Women and Children First, and You can get tickets from Women and Children First.org.com. You can even use the code, and this is hard to say, five-ive-off, right? So in the same way that seven,

the film should be pronounced to seven in. This is five-ive-off. It's numeral five, I-V-E-O-F, in capital, it gives you a fiver off. And the line-up includes Alistair Beckett King, Reese James, Rosie Holt, Lara Ricott, Rachel Fairburn, Sykeezer, Harriet Kemsley, jazz emu and vix latent so that's at the lester square theatre on monday the 22nd of may for women and children first now we will return to ignatio in just a sec remember we've got 20 minutes of extra

content available to members of the insider club there's some really good stuff on there particularly about ignatio's hyper focus which to be honest i'm sort of fairly jealous off i'd love to be able to not stop doing something until i'd finished it i think that would be i mean i'd be a completely different person but ignatio is on tour later in 2023 with his new show Ig Fails, and you can get tickets via comedylopez.com, and you can also follow him across the board of social media at Comedy Lopez. Now, I've got some bits and bombs coming up, including some previews. Thank you to everybody who was at the McCuncle of Comedy Festival. That was loads of fun, and also one of those useful previews where you're like, oh, right, I've learnt

some stuff from there. So thank you. I'm at the Bill Murray in London on the 21st of May with a preview there. In June, I'm at the big difference in Leicester on the 4th. at Northdown in London on the 13th and I'm also going to be at the Leeds Comedy Festival on the 6th of July as well as the Comedy Crate Festival, Northampton, on the 9th and some other bits and bobs in between. You can check in at Stuart Goldsmith.com

and there's links there to all my latest live stuff via the magic of link tree. I've just recorded a really fun episode with Jean-Marco Seresi which I think you're going to really love. Lots and lots of socials-crushing stuff on there and as I said on the episode, this is what reminded me of it, if you are a British comic

you would do well, or a comic from anywhere in the world you would do well to suss out which American comics you haven't yet heard of but suspect you might be about to are doing brilliantly on YouTube and Instagram and things like that and just learning what software they use and the toolkits and all the rest of it. That's a talk about cheat codes. You can find out everything I'm doing with my preparations for Edinburgh where I'll be taking spoilers, my award-winning, Lester Comedy Festival Best Show, 2023, show to the Monkey Barrel.

20 Daily at Monkey Barrel 1. All the tickets for that are on the website, on mine and theirs as well. And also, the climate comedy thing is now even more real. So you remember me shouting out a few years ago going, hey, I've got this presentation that I give on resilience and stand-up comedy and what you can learn about resilience from looking at the model of comedians and insights from this podcast and years' worth of interviews. And many of you kindly stepped up and sort of let me do that in an open mic way. Well, that, as you know, is a sort of continuing success. So thank you very much to everyone that was involved in that once again. But now I have a climate comedy equivalent. It's similar, similar but different. I will tell you all about it if you are someone that knows

about sustainability or works in sustainability in organizations. Please get in touch. You can find out more about it. It's Stuart Goldsmith.com slash climate. Very exciting stuff. Now, let's get back. Let's get back. Let's get back. Let's get back to Ignathio Lope. You buy a pair of socks, that's two socks. You buy a pair of Bomba socks, that's four socks. Because one purchased is one donated. Sox are the number one most requested clothing item in homeless shelters. So when you buy a pair of super comfortable Bombas socks, you're also donating a pair. Bombas customers have over 150 million donations. So Bombas would like to thank you 150 million times, but we only have like 30 seconds. Go to Bombas.com and use code audio for 20% off your first purchase. That's BOMBAS.com. and use code audio at checkout. A real Lemonade Pet Insurance Review by Madison H. You know, I thought it was a little ridiculous to get pet insurance,

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I was listening to Espanjolo, great title, lovely show. Really, Espaniolo. That's an afternoon off kind of, oh yeah, nailed that. Are you the only Spanish comic or the only Iberian comic in the UK? No, there's a few around, but they're not

they all tend to be based in London and like you know starting out they're not they're not they're not sort of closing clubs and stuff I just couldn't imagine hearing your voice and hearing your accent I was like this is this is a real this is really unusual

yeah or when I was performing when you first saw me or no no no just generally just recently listening to Espaniola on Spotify available now on Spotify and Apple music yeah I just suddenly struck me I was like

I just don't hear this accent anywhere. And obviously what you talk about, particularly on that, on that, I was going to call it a special then, but I can't bring myself to, on that album. What you talk,

you talk a lot about, like your stock in trade really at that time and on the Apollo clip is kind of cultural differences and you're kind of playing with England or British people's relationship to Spain, things that you've, you know, the stuff about Spain won World War II

because that one guy who was the world's best, spy you know like you're really kind of leaning into that so talk to me about that is that something is that something that you go for because it fascinates you or is it that it's a good way to foster a connection with an audience or like what's like you know you know you have lent into i'm a i'm the spanish guy yeah yeah yeah in a way that you know yeah well it's kind of i mean when i when i first because i've been back and forth my my whole life so like when my dad first tried to open up a restaurant in the UK. I came over and I did a joke on Apollo that got cut out

actually about like being picked on and stuff like that. I had a really, you know, I had a really rough time trying to fit in anywhere. Like back in Spain, I had a rough time because my family in Spain are from all over as well. You know, my dad grew up in Morocco, so his first language was French. My mom is like Welsh, Irish. And then when I came to Wales, you know, my accent didn't fit in with anyone. I had to learn how to do a Welsh accent just to get by just so I wouldn't get the shit kicked out of me and stuff.

And that's a lot of what I do is about fitting in. And now, the longer I've been doing stand-up, it's more about, no, I'm not going to try and fit in. I will talk about stuff that's going to be applicable to people, but I'm going to more about, it's more about becoming myself on stage and being comfortable to just go out there

and be like, no, there are differences. Let's celebrate them. let's talk about, you know, the things that are the same as well. So tell me just a bit more about your childhood. So you were going back and forth the whole time between Mallorca and Wales. Yeah, my, we, I first came over, I think I was like, I'm just going to reflect back to you that there was a bit of a heavy sigh there. Yeah, yeah, no, just because I think, especially now,

I think it definitely prepared me as a comedian for all of the travel we've got to do because I was, you know, at six years of age, I was like jumping on a plane by myself when, you know, because, yeah, because my parents separated, so I was kind of going back and forth. They separated a bit later, but like, you know, I'd get dropped off in one airport and then, you know, go to another, more different country. And how does that work? Do you get like someone from the, you get like a steward from the airline looks after the six-year-old? Yeah, at one point. And then they could tell I was a frequent traveler. And they were like, just leave him to it. I remember that it was quite tough at the start because I was forget, even though

my mom always spoke to me in English and my dad always spoke to me in Spanish. I'd forget words either side of it. So I'd get to like, I'd be, you know, I'd be talking Spanish straight with my dad for months and then I'd get dropped off at the airport, fly to the UK, get off that end. My mother's there to pick me up and, you know, I'd forgotten the word for bags in English, you know, so like, me, my letter is my luggage. So I'd, um, I'd have somebody come over and going like, oh, have you got any bags? And I just didn't know what bags were. And I was like, no so they took me all the way through airport security my mother the other said she's like where are your you know where are your bags and then it clicked and I was like oh they're back

through there in the luggage thing that you're not allowed back into so that was a bit of a a palaver so there was silly things like that that happened um farcical kind of elements of childhood but you know growing up in in two different cultures it does give you different insight and then going to school with different kids and I'm finding out it's remarkable like how everyone I talked to about as well it's like remarkable how similar everyone is worldwide like people think people like to think that their their nations like sense of hero is unique or something and the more you travel the more people you speak to you're like no it's not everyone laughs at themselves everyone takes the piss out of themselves everyone hates their government you know

it's really easy to kind of crack jokes about that sort of stuff so it's nice just on your childhood is that like some of the things you've talked about there are quite kind of heart-rending Like, were you, were you a happy kid? Like, when you were kind of avoiding getting the shake kids out of you and shuffling around? I was very creative. So my mom just recently went back to, she went to visit family in Barcelona and my uncle was telling her, like, how different I was as a kid. Like, he'd hold up a lighter and he'd sort of say, oh, this is your father.

And he's, you know, when I was like five, and he all, he said every other kid in the family, because I've got like 40 cousins, you know, or plus. He said, like, every kid in the family. family would be like no it's not that's not my dad or whatever but I take the lighter and go oh yes there's his mustache and I start like acting out a little story with the lighter I was a creative kid you know so I kind of made my own entertainment and stuff so yeah and then what was your route into comedy you said you went to film school I went to film school that had also I want to point out as well this is what I think didn't do me any favors on show me the funny all I cared

about was being funny not about you know it's like similar to university as well, even though I wasn't aware of stand-up comedy or doing comedy, all I cared about was being funny. So my best moments, apart from making films which I love in university, was the presentations we had to give. And I'd walk out of, like, presentations with, like, my group, I'd be like, killed it, you know, because people were laughing. And maybe I'd get a terrible grade, but I wouldn't care because I was like, I got them in the room that time. So I was like, before stand-up. and then why what's your theory on why that was so important well was it accepted like you might from the outside go well clearly you're accepted if they're all laughing at you then you're

accepted because you don't feel accepted because you're halfway between places i see comedy as a language and like once you've kind of you know you can learn a language and you can get conversational at it and stuff but you need fluency and that comes through practice and when you reach a point as well it totally it's a form of acceptance and when people laugh it means they understand your humor. And that's, for me, that's what comedy is. Communicating something that you feel is funny and making other people laugh with it. Comedy's a language. I like that. That's exactly. That's exactly what I'm after. So comedy is a language. I want to sort of test to that theory or sort of explore it. It is, I mean, it has a commonality, doesn't it? So I'm just wondering

why, yes, it's a language, but it's also that that is important to you particularly. So you're able to communicate I'm sort of wondering whether there's kind of a young, Ignatio, who is struggling to get on with friends back in Wales because he can't remember what the word for whatever is, but if with eye contact or a joke or a

something you can make them laugh, then you're accepted and like you're trilingual, right? Yeah, exactly. Well, as soon as that started getting across and as soon as I could make kids laugh, then I felt like, oh, I've got something here. This is going to get me by. Does that mean then, as an adult, if you have this, this is a highfalating theory, I may be totally wrong, but certainly, I think in my own psychology, being able to make people laugh means that you're accepted. It smoothed things over. For me, it's like it smooths over awkwardness or me having made a social mistake or dropped a clangor somehow or other people not getting on, you know, if I think of my family and being awkward with each other and I'll make everyone laugh and it'll be okay. For me, that means

that if I then have a bad gig as a grown-up, it has psychological ramifications beyond I've failed to make those people laugh. That doesn't matter. Is that the case for you? Yeah, totally, man. I think definitely in the moment it can kind of bring back maybe trauma of being unaccepted or not being seen as part of the group and stuff. But the truth is we're not not as well like we are outside we're the ones standing on a stage uh trying to entertain people i do think being in comedy sometimes it's a bit like having a cheat code as well you know when you're in a social situation and kind of you know you're having a conversation with people or you've just entered a group and you're not part of that group and quickly you can assimilate or you know make

make a connection to people just by making a quick joke and making them laugh so it's quite a nice thing to have in your back pocket yes i'm wondering about the gigs where like you haven't gone down well and you come up thinking comedy is a language and tonight i forgot the word for bags do you know i mean like i i didn't tonight i didn't speak it yeah that's tricky you mentioned you mentioned you know trauma or it being traumatizing are there times when you like what like how do you talk to yourself after your worst gigs like what what's going through your mind well these days i mean let's let's assume that these days you no longer have bad gigs i know that That's the point I was going to make.

That's the point I was going to make. I'm asking you to be vulnerable here about bad gigs that used to happen many years ago. No, they still happen. But the longer you go on, I think the more capable of you all of dealing with any terrible situation. And those terrible situations don't arise as much. I did have a death two weeks after my episode of Apollo died. I aired, sorry.

Two weeks after Apollo aired, I was on stage and I had like a horrible death. It was in a restaurant. It wasn't set up for comedy at all. And I was just thinking, like, why am I here? And then I remember the paycheck. And I was like, oh, no, that's why I'm here. I'm going to go out there and die for 40 minutes. But the good thing now is nothing can match the worst gigs I've ever done in my life.

That, you know, show me the funny and a few gigs around about that time did harden me to, you know, what's the worst that can happen? Is it going to be seen by 4 million people and picked up by Spanish news? No. So what do I care what these six people in a restaurant think of me at the end of this? Do you think that that negative experience changed the risks that you took as a comic? Because I think after a big bruising public defeat when you're only 50 gigs in, that might make me kind of shrink back and go, oh, I'm just going to do the most acceptable stuff.

Do you mean it might change my attitude towards risk? Did it do that for you? I'm very stubborn. So, you know, I had everyone telling me I shouldn't be doing comedy anymore. and that maybe I should. My mother even suggested I changed my name for, you know, she was like, why don't you go by, because my name is Ignacio Vincent Lopez-Magari.

So Vincent Magari after my granddad, Ignati Lopez is my dad. And my mom was like, well, why don't you go by like Vincent Magari and, you know, do stuff that people want to hear about? And I was like, no, I'm going to make sure that I'm more successful than show me the funny you ever was I was like I'm going to make sure that and I'm going to stick to my guns

I double down let's talk about the status the high status on stage the kind of you're lucky to have me angle it's a it's a really fun angle to hear and you said in the beginning it's like because you'd seen lots of comedy where people were being deferent

and you know like that that kind of cliche of the self-deprecating male comedian going I can't get a girlfriend you know what I mean like that that kind of thing Yeah, whereas they're cheating on like four different people at the same time. A lot of scum out there, guys. Lot of scum. Lot of scum out there.

But is there a relationship between the status and the stubbornness? I'm just trying to get into like who you are when you're, who you are when you're off stage. Like what elements of your off stage self particularly are kind of, I learned a great word recently, congruence, as in like the opposite of incongruent. I've never heard that phrase before. congruence where what you're saying on the outside reflects what you're thinking on the inside. Like I feel like you're pretty congruent as a, like your persona reflects your actual opinion about stuff. I think it's definitely exaggeration. I think that's what most people do on stage is like an exaggerated version of themselves. I am very confident in my abilities and most of the time

is frustration of trying to, especially early on it was frustration of trying to get that across. It's like I know I'm funny. I know what I'm writing. writing is funny and what I'm doing. I just have to make it work. And now I'm in a position where I know it works. So let's get into that. Where does that come from? I know this is funny despite the fact that they aren't laughing at it. Because I think we all we all go through that. And I think I've heard other comics say kind of versions of that. But that that's a thing that I try and remind myself. If I think something's funny by now, it is funny. If they're not laughing, I simply haven't managed to communicate successfully the way in which I think it's funny.

But where does that come from for you? Because you did, way back then, you had that kind of confidence as well, I know this is funny. And someone, a scientist would look at it and go, well, you are wrong because they're not laughing so it can't be funny. The data doesn't match up. But you do know and you were right. So just talk to me about that. I don't know what the question is, but what is that sensation of like, I know this is funny, even though they're not laughing. well it's I mean it's down to I don't know why I think I'm right in the in kind of stuff like that I like you said and I do my sense of humor and my sense of humor it's not like some out there really deep cut stuff that people can't get access to or really alternative you know I grew up watching like the Pink Panther movies with my dad like dubbed into Spanish you know what I mean like it's and that stuff's a huge success and people love that stuff so I know where my sense of humor comes from it is a sense of humor that is out there

I'm not I'm not a psychopath I'm aware I don't think do psychopaths think they're psychopaths I don't know but it's I know it works I've been doing it if I could make my friends laugh if I could if I could make myself a part of a group that I'm not a part of then it's just about scaling that up

and reaching more people so yeah and I think false arrogance is really funny we look at stuff like the office which I don't think it's the greatest show of all time like some people but the humor comes from a lot of the time of this arrogant character who is wrong and I have been wrong in my life and that's where a lot of the jokes come from as well

people will be very surprised to learn that I don't think I'm as good looking as I say I'm on stage like that's something I've been using for comedy for a long time and what I find funny is like people's reaction to that after when I get off stage some people will assume I'm very full of myself some people will feel they need to come over and knock me down a peg or two going you're not as good looking as you think you are it's like you don't know how good looking I think I am you know what I said on stage which is what I think is funny

you know yeah I'm not sure why I think I'm right but I know I am and I'm interested in the relationship between you using comedy as a means on some level as becoming part of the in group or creating an in group in which you have a role and then afterwards sometimes maybe people come over and go hey you're not all that and you're divorced from it you're separated from it like well that's not real but presumably some of the feelings of being part of the in-group are real yeah i don't know i don't know what i don't know what the question is i think um also that there is there is like an innate cruelty in in comedy like a lot of the time we rely on um attacking something whether it's ourselves or you know a group of people like you know or you know we talk about like punching up and punching

down and stuff I think it's funny to kind of flip that on his head and go out there as if I am as if everything's beneath me like you said like is it everything's beneath me whereas I know it isn't you know I come I come from a really weird upbringing all immigrants in some way shape or form and every single one of them did something different and the only thing that's kind of like held over is that like kind of work ethic and not giving up like if my granddad had given up when he moved to Wales from Ireland you know

I wouldn't exist if my family in Morocco had given up and not finally gone back to Spain and start that family met my mother when she moved out to Spain to work then I wouldn't exist keep going something good's going to come out of it I hope is that it's interesting the idea of being a hustler

like I've always liked the idea of hustling and now thanks to the sort of online in-cell adjacent cultures you can't really talk about being a hustler without it being sort of steeped in this awful kind of associations maybe that's rightly so but I think it's not just work ethic is it it's stubbornness and self-belief and hard work and are there any other elements to it

I think it's just the belief that like the worst is behind us as well like you know if you keep going like none of none of my gigs that I do even dying like a few like last month or whatever on stage in that restaurant like that's nowhere near the worst gig I've done I'm there's never going to be another day where I'm stood in a work immense club having coins thrown at me from the back of a room over pool tables like that's never going to happen again so when did that happen in Wales that was yeah pretty early on that's it so that's in my tour show actually I talk about it started out, I talk about the worst gigs I've ever done in my life in order to get the money together to go see nine inch nails in Los Angeles and yeah, you know, I did a bunch of workman's clubs like when I started out because they were the only things going in Wales as well. Each city in Wales has got like an art center, the big cities, where they maybe have like a monthly comedy club and like there was a few things

going on in Cardiff, a couple of gigs in Swansea, my first gig ever was in Swansea. But if you wanted to get on stage, you had to go do an hour you know and you're a sixth gig you had to go do an hour to a bunch of people in a in a work in men's club in middle of nowhere while they threw coins at you well I didn't know yeah so about 20 minutes into my set I think I was dying it was brutal you know they they people firstly a guy walked to the stage and he threw coins on the floor and I was like I'm not busking up here you know I've been booked to play the club and then more people did it just throwing coins on the floor and then from the back of the room over like three empty pool

tables they started throwing coins from the bar you know so i'm just sort of ducking and dodging trying to try to do impressions because at the time i did impressions as well so yeah i mean that's that's obviously awful and we can laugh about that now and go okay what good came of that sort of a kind of helping you cultivate an attitude of i'm not coming off i'm getting paid i'm I'm doing my time and I'm getting paid. Well, I was told, yeah, also they were very clear before I went up there. Part of it is they're trying to entice you off the stage. So part of it was like, they said you have to do an hour or you're not getting paid.

That's kind of like a catchphrase through a lot of the worst gigs I've ever done in my life. If you don't do your time, you don't get paid. I believe that's illegal. You can't just introduce that arbitrary rule. I only drank seven-eighths of my pint so I don't have to pay for it. Come on. but after straight after that gig I sat there and said you know I had to get paid by the committee

and they didn't want to pay me and I stood there I was like no I did my time it doesn't matter if how funny you think I was again even this early on my first year of comedy was like I know I'm funny so you're going to pay me that's monumental good for you does it is it good for you do you regret doing those sorts of gigs I mean given that you never have to do them again are you pleased that you did them because they toughened you up or would you rather never have needed to be toughened up?

I don't believe in like regretting stuff. So I think it all fed into what I'm capable of doing now is all thanks to these horrible situations I put myself in early on. So stuff like Show Me the Funny. Like I hated it at the time. I'd never do it again. But I don't regret doing it because it made me more cautious. It made me more aware of how people are trying to spin.

stuff. I certainly wouldn't walk into a room of 50 sports women from Liverpool in the same way that I did that time. I'd probably have some more jokes prepared. And like those gigs where that kind of stuff happens, you can start to see warning signs. So you know you walk into a gig now every time I'm like, right, well, you know straight away if something set up right. And there is a science to setting up a room. But like if you have to perform over three pool tables, you know, reach the audience, then that's a big red flag. Tell me about when was the first time that you absolutely roofed somewhere post Show Me the Funny.

Because I remember seeing you probably for the first time I'd seen you since then. I think it was we did the Glee Cardiff together. It was years ago now. I can't remember how long ago. I remember you wearing a yellow jumper and it was freaking you out. I remember that yellow jumper. You were like, do I talk about it? What do I do?

And I was like, just go out and do your stuff, man. I think that morning someone had said that I looked like a kid's TV presenter. And I looked in the mirror and they were right. And I panicked. I was like, oh, God, what have I done? Yeah, how funny. How funny. Well, there we go.

That's the backstage neuroses of Stuart Goldsmith. But I remember seeing, I was sort of excited to see you because I hadn't seen you for ages. And you smashed the roof. It was great. It was such a good gig. And I remember thinking, good for you, man. I was so pleased to see it. I mean, I was probably also, I think I might have been going on after you

and thinking, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You know, this is, there's a lot of local stuff going here for the Welsh that I cannot possibly access. But, so tell me about, like, when did you, when and how did you start getting really good? I was probably, because we did, I think we did Edinburgh, like, during the run of Show Me the Funny thing. We both gone out by that point. Yes, it was out on TV, it was out on TV whilst we were in Edinburgh, yeah.

Yeah, so, and to be. honest, man, made absolutely zero difference to my show. Like, you know, nobody came. Nobody in Edinburgh had seen this show, which they had like four weeks previously. Nobody came because of the show and nobody avoided it because of the show. It just, you know, that's the beauty of Edinburgh. It's like, it means jack shit. You know, your flyering game is more important than what credits you got and stuff. So I think that first, Edinburgh, because that was my first time going up to Edinburgh as well, 2011. That was like boot camp and that made me I think much much better. And when I came out of that when I was doing club gigs after Reddemora, that made me better. And it's just been a

progression since then. The first time I can remember absolutely smashing a gig was probably about 2013. I did a gig in Swansea. I hadn't gig in Swansea for a while. I'd been you know megabassing it to London and going up to Manchester and trying out all these open spots and stuff and somebody in Swansea booked me to do 20 and um I remember I was opening and it just from the second the first line my opening line people were in hysterics and I thought something had gone wrong behind me or something you know what I mean I was like what what is this what's going on like what's happening and it's just uh yeah just the hard work it paid off like everything it became so much tighter, like every joke was working, and I went back to Swansea having not kicked there

for a while, and yeah, just smashed the living shit out of it. It was fun. And what, so hard work, selecting the right stuff is every one of your jokes worked, like you've got the kind of quality control to go, right, this stuff will work here, and maybe this stuff that I want to do isn't ready yet. Yeah. Well, yeah, and like what we were saying earlier about, you know, being, it being a language and like, you know, it is a language, and you know, it is a language, and you can learn how to make your stuff as great as possible, but, you know, there's different dialects as well. So you might, you might go to a crowd that aren't the same as, you know, every audience is slightly different in some way, shape, or form. And sometimes you go out

and it clicks, and sometimes you've got to work a bit harder for it. Just kind of getting past barriers, like South American Spanish is different to Spanish. So, you know, you've got to kind of find out, there's a word for that. I'm loving this language metaphor. That's a runner. That's a runner for me. What does comedy being finished look like to you? What's the end point? Are you quite rigorous in terms of like goal setting? Or is it simply to be doing it is the goal? I think I remember a quote from a filmmaker when I was in university,

which was like, you don't finish a film, you abandon it. Oh, that's good. How does that make it feel? Yeah. Is that unnerving? Yeah, a little bit. This isn't the course for me? but I think I find it so I like completed finished articles of stuff

even if I'm not happy you know you're never going to be fully happy with something but the beauty of comedy is you work on a new hour or a 90 minute show I I've always been obsessed with this feature length version of what comedy is so like I think you can get away with like a feature length film length of stand-up so like my tour show is 90 minutes long and I've done it I've gone out there on tour and done 90 minutes we have an interval um which drives me nuts but um what do you do what do you do during the interval do you pace around in a circle i go i go yeah i go i go i don't pace i go backstage and i just um uh usually have somebody in my ear who's like oh you missed this bit out or you haven't done

this okay we'll do it later on um so do you mean a literal person like a tour manager type of yeah yeah yeah well yeah or just a friend whoever usually if somebody i've got opening for me or Michelle or somebody be like or Michelle will give me you know not notes but she'd be like you're swearing a bit much you know you've said you said fuck a lot

and I gotta kind of adjust that and stuff okay clean it up in the second section but I like to have I'm sitting on I've recorded three shows so Españolo was one of them we filmed it the same time we

recorded the audio I've got that all the footage from that show we recorded in the frog and bucket in Manchester I've got my last tour which was called Spain's Best Export in the Gwynhall in Neith, which is like a big 400 seat the theater filmed it there. And I've got another show which I'm not happy with at all. So that's kind of gone out.

But I've taken bits from that to put in my new tour show. And I like to have finished articles. Even though none of them are finished yet, I've got them all. They're complete shows. It's like I can move on from that then. I've done it. and then procrastinate over getting it edited and doing all that kind of stuff. What's the tour called?

You're on tour in October? Yes. It's called Nainik Fales. Oh, yeah, that's it, of course, yes. And it strikes me that's the first title that isn't leaning into Spanishness. Yeah, totally. And I did a version of this show back in like 2017, I think, in Edinburgh. I've done versions of it along the way.

So again, it feels like unfinished business. So I'm kind of like going back to it. and obviously I'm a better comic now so I can talk more about the terrible, terrible gigs I did early on in my career to get the money, to cut the cash together to go out to L.A. to see Nine Inch Nails. So it's kind of, I think it'll be interesting

from a, people who like inside baseball kind of stuff with comedy and, you know, I'm good at making things accessible. I made Spanish history interesting for fuck sakes. And is that also, is there part of the sort of, Is there like a positioning decision there where you go, I don't want to keep talking about Spain forever? Partly, yeah.

And also, like, this is a big part. Everything I talk about on stage is stuff that interests me. So, Espanolo was talking about Spanish history. And it is, obviously, you know, it is interesting, but it's about making it funny and accessible to a British audience. And often that just involves being quite flippant with the, you know, the historical material. But so Espaniolo was about Spanish history. Spain's best export was about, you know, me personally, my relationship to the UK and coming from Spain and a lot of cultural things.

And Ninak fails is me talking about, you know, the two biggest things in my creative and artistic life, which is like my love of nine-inch nails and stand-up comedy. So, yeah, it's whatever interests me at the time, I just kind of put everything into that until it's done. Part of me believes if you free yourself from desire, like it's the moment when you don't a shit anymore, they can tell. I mean, they can't tell, but there is, there must be some sort of, there must be something to that. It definitely, that definitely exists. And I, I, I walk into most situations now, not caring about how it goes. I'm like, I'm doing what I'm doing. I'm living

my dream. Like, I'm, I'm doing stand-up. You know, all I wanted in film was to be creative and to make stuff. And that's what I'm doing in stand-up now. And, you know, online is great. What a, what a, what a weird, cheating life we made. managed to make our way into, you know? I mean, this is a beautiful set up for the final question, which, as you know, is, are you happy? Although, because you have just explained how well everything is going, what I want to ask is, how do you bounce back when it goes less well?

Like, what things do you think to yourself? You've got, you know, your, I find myself saying this more and more, you seem to have pretty robust mental health. Do you know what I mean? Like a pretty robust attitude towards the, you know, you look good on paper. oh very structurally sound that was yeah yeah no it's um i think uh in terms of like i am i am creatively fulfilled right now i mean i'm loving stand-up uh but you know i'm still renting a flat you know my bank account still dipping in and out of overdraft everyone thought like being on apollo

makes you a millionaire and i was like guys i just about managed to pay off my credit cards with that you know what i mean it's like you know and the show nine it fails as well is about like bailiffs coming to my door and stuff as well. Like, I had a rough ride of it. And I'm not at any point in time thinking that there isn't potential for that to return. So I keep working towards keeping that away at bay. Like, there's stuff in the show as well about things happening when I was a kid as well. Similar situation.

Like, we were evicted from our flat in Spain and we were practically homeless for a little while. So I talk about that a little bit. And, like, that fear never goes away of, like, you know, the idea that. you could lose everything in a heartbeat. In terms of how do I bounce back after like something bad happens? I've got a weirdly optimistic viewpoint on the outside, especially like when I'm talking to like my girlfriend and my family and stuff. But man, it's dangerous up there in your head.

You've got to be very careful. And I think if you keep telling yourself, keep working and you're going to get through it. it's blind faith it's a form of insanity man it's uh you know but we I keep asking myself as well like what the hell else am I going to do I can't do anything else I could but I probably kill myself so I'm going to keep doing this you know thanks man no sweat thank you so that was Ignathio thank you so much to him for coming on the show very very enjoyable episode. We have got some

absolute belters in the can coming up with James Adomian of incredible American comic. Please, if you don't know James Adomian, start, just get on YouTube now and search for him because he's such a phenomenal, like a deep character improviser, and he's just a joy. Lucy Beaumont is coming up soon.

We have the aforementioned Jan Marco Sarasi and Neil Delamere we have in the can. A brilliant, a fascinating episode with Jeff Shaw, who is a comic of whom you may not be aware. He's not a sort of big profile guy but he's been a comic since the 80s and has lived an incredible life within comedy on cruise ships becoming a director of comedy clubs on carnival cruises and he's a fan of the show

and I was very pleased to welcome to the show and we've got just a comedy history lesson and some really interesting perspectives on picking yourself up and doing it all over again so that's Jeff Shaw coming up soon plus there's about currently about 10 names on my list of people who I'm getting in soon everything to play for and as they say forever to play it in. So that will do for now. Thanks to Nathan for uploading the show. Thank you to the various Comcom Towers gargoyles, are they? Including, but not limited to Moss, Charlotte Wakely and Susie Lewis, all of whom are doing very useful things to steer the ship at the moment. And if you are in the Insiders Club, remember

you can join it Insiders, Comedianscomcom slash insiders, 20 minutes of extras from this one, all of the other extra content, and the Slack workspace, I'm currently locked out of. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible. So that's all of that stuff. I'm not going to post-amble at you today. However, I will say, I can't believe I have to do this again, like two weeks after the last episode,

but I just want to spend a moment reflecting upon the life and the brilliant contribution to comedy of Adam Brace, who you will know as a comedy director, behind so many acts. I mean, if you search for Adam's name on Twitter, he was an associate director of the Soho Theatre, was deeply important to the comedy community. And although I never worked with him, I knew him, and we have lots and lots of mutuals, lots of people absolutely devastated by his sudden passing at only 43. And if you just, like, have a look for his name on Twitter or on whatever social media you follow comics on, you will see,

just an outpouring of love that anyone would be really proud of. My heart goes out to anyone that was very close to Adam and he will be much missed by the comedy community. Thank you for listening, everybody. I will be back with you next week. Speak to you soon. This back to school season, one thing is clear. Kids need a way to stay connected. Between pickups, practices, and after-school activities, having a phone is a must. But it shouldn't come at the cost of their mental health. The youth mental health crisis is growing, and social media is a major driver.

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