TRIGGERnometry - Cancelled Anti-PC Comic Speaks Out

Episode Date: July 28, 2021

Chris McGlade is a comedian and actor. Join our exclusive TRIGGERnometry community on Locals! https://triggernometry.locals.com/  OR Support TRIGGERnometry Here: https://www.PayPal.me/triggerpod https://www.subscribestar.com/triggernometry https://www.patreon.com/triggerpod Bitcoin: bc1qm6vvhduc6s3rvy8u76sllmrfpynfv94qw8p8d5 Buy Merch Here: https://www.triggerpod.co.uk/shop/ Advertise on TRIGGERnometry: [e-mail] Join the Mailing List: https://www.triggerpod.co.uk/sign-up/ Find TRIGGERnometry on Social Media:  https://twitter.com/triggerpod https://www.facebook.com/triggerpod https://www.instagram.com/triggerpod About TRIGGERnometry:  Stand-up comedians Konstantin Kisin (@konstantinkisin) and Francis Foster (@francisjfoster) make sense of politics, economics, free speech, AI, drug policy and WW3 with the help of presidential advisors, renowned economists, award-winning journalists, controversial writers, leading scientists and notorious comedians. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You tell me what I can't say. You censor what I can. You say I'm offensive because I believe my eyes and I say I see a woman, not a man. You call me thick and racist for not wanting to be a part of a rich man's club in Europe or a globalist New World Order

with no soul or guts or heart. You throw up me the slave trade. You tell me my five-year-old grandson is to blame. You point your brand and accuse and intolerant fingers and tell me to hang my head in shame. I'm free to have opinions as long as they fall in line with yours. I can fly my banners high and proud

as long as you support that cause you have to be right all the time yours is the only way I have to like the things you like be the black, trans, left or gay it makes no difference if I tell you I'm not the things for which you accuse because once you've made up your closed off minds

I'm always going to lose I have black friends so you're still a racist homophobic but I've shared beds with gay men I'm an anti-seeing mind but the Rothschild is the richest banking family in this world and that's got nothing to do with them being Jewish and everything to do with them being multi-billionaires really can influence

the dollar pound in yen. You sip your pino, grejo in trendy bars down in the smoke, looking down your noses with loathsome contempt at billions of working class folk. Well, I've come here to tell you that you have had your time because the winds are change of blowing and bells of freedom soon will shine because my class, my fucking class is waking up and staring and we're going to peacefully attack. We're going to breach those peace-seaw walls of segregation that have divided

gay, straight, white and black. I've got no malice in my heart. I don't judge people on the sex or creed or race. I don't speak of absolute cunts behind the back. Not even the bloke who murdered me dad. I just tell them to the face. So to all you branding liberals

who won't allow debate, I hate no man or woman, I just want the right to hate. I want the right to hate. I want the right. to hate like I want the right to love. I want to like and dislike what I want to like and dislike and be able to vocalise it, brov. I'm not responsible for slavery

and I'm not taking any blame because the white privilege built on black slavery you say that I enjoy well, Beyonce, Jay-Z, Opera Winfrey, Rihanna, Floyd Mayweather, Alicia Keys, Jimmy Fox, Barack Obama et al, all enjoyed the same. Beyonce spent $87 million in a house just through shaking the ass

while me now alas say that home lamenting about ways to pay the fucking gas. And I don't see too much white privilege in a system that lets East European immigrants or wounded soldiers living cardboard and waxes. Why do Black Lives Matter and progressives fail to see? Not all white folks live in stately homes chasing fucking foxes. I'm non-homaphobic, transphobic or anything phobic you can see because I don't fear sex or race agenda. I just won't bow down to your PC.

Don't confuse my use of slang with racism and bigotry. don't confuse my rejection of your shite with spite don't naturally assume I'm thick and racist because I'm northern working class I'm not I'm articulate sharp and bright and I will not walk a minefield every time I open my mouth to speak and I will not apologise for things

I've glibly said or spoken tongue in cheek so shape up or fuck off with your madness because I'm going to bring you down I'm going to bring working class people together Muslim Christian white and brown I'm going to bring those global wall to Jericho crashing on your brainwashed liberal feet and I'm gonna blow my loving inclusive un-PC fanfare and your communist fascist capitalist socialist left right Catholic

Protestant Muslim Christian black white gay straight male female leave remain against COVID-19 for COVID-19 against vaccinations for vaccinations Democratic, Republican, North, South, divides. I will defeat. You divided us, the working classes, and you've conquered us, and you've fucking laughed at us at the top. So I'll come onto my mate's programme to tell you,

right now to this camera, it's time for your shit to fucking stop. Hello and welcome to Trigonometry. I'm Francis Foster. I'm Francis Foster. I'm Constantine Kisham. And this is a show for you. If you want honest conversations, we're fascinating people.

Our brilliant guest today is one of our favorite comedians working in the UK today who finds himself in a spot of bother. Chris McLeod, welcome to Trigonometry. All right, lads are we doing all right? It's good to have you, man. We have known you for a while and you and I particularly go back a long way. But tell everybody who doesn't know you, who are you, how are you where you are? What has been your journey through life that leads you to be sitting here talking to us?

Well, basically I've been a comedian for 33 years. I, and for most of that time, I've been a working men's club comedian and working in the social clubs in and around the north, all over the north of England. But I have had forays into the comedy circuit, you know, over the years. And I've done that under my own steam, you know. And I don't know how these people on that in the main middle-class progressive kind of like comedy circuit take me. I've always tried to amalginate both styles of humour, really,

so I've got this, like, unique approach. And I do that not only in the middle class circuit here in London on the comedy circuit, but also in those working men's clubs. So I've been doing that for some time now to great effect, and my comedy has become more political over the last 11 or 12 years in particular, because I fought a political campaign in red car that was, totally corrupted really we exposed all kinds of things and changed the law in this in this country regarding open spaces and after that it was it was kind of like my comedy when I'd seen

like the level of corruption and things locally my comedy had to reflect that if you know what I mean I had to start speaking out about things that I felt were bullshit and I like to say I've tried to do that in that middle-class comedy circuit style, but I've always tried to stay true to my working men's club routes and that quick, you know, one-line style of comedy. And I don't work very much. But I guess I've never been in comedy for the money, do you know, I've never sort of being one that's, I mean, I appreciate it.

I've got to make a living. it's always been the love of it and over the last 11 years or so it's wanting to say things if you know what I mean that I think stinks and I've been trying to do that more

and more and more over the years you know and I've been like you see 32 years well 33 years this year I've been a comedian and when I met you a mutual friend of ours when we were at a Edinburgh festival at the same time I didn't know who you were

I went to see you in the caves. You had this massive room. It was 120 seater, I think, big. And the day I saw you, there was nine people in, one row. And I sat there, watched you for an hour, played to nine people. I think two of them were German tourists. You couldn't understand a word. And I came back again because that's how good it was.

And that's the thing that you do is you combine, as you say, good jokes, really good funny jokes. you hate political correctness, and you talk about the political things that are happening in the world today. I mean, I'm trying to, what I've always wanted to do is I've always wanted to bring both sides of comedy together. So, like, I think at the moment comedy's too imbalanced. It's too top-heavy in one direction. The whole of the industry these days is controlled by middle-class progress. kind of people, whether it be agents, whether it be promoters, bookers, the comedy clubs, certainly.

And I've been trying to sort of even things up to a certain degree, if you know what to mean, by bringing working class, traditional working class humour into these places, but mixing it with the kind of humour that you would find in the comedy club. Because I think working class comedians or working men's club comedians, they never get a look at it. When was the last time you saw Working Men's Club comedian? I know stacks of lads on the circuit

who are really funny men and they would never get a look at Live on the Apollo or any of these kind of game shows or panel shows or whatever, do you know what I mean? Because they don't put forward the humour, they don't do the humour that these people who control comedy like. And it's a discrimination in a way for me. It is a discrimination.

And why do you think it is, Chris, that they don't want to put these types of comedians on telly and all the rest of it? Because they don't like them. That's as similar as that. It's like the people who control comedy, they have their perceptions of what comedy should be and it isn't what's in the work of men's clubs.

They think it's hack, they think it's all dated, and perhaps it is. But it appeals to millions and millions and millions of people. Do you know what I mean? I mean, I'm, listen, I mean, I wear this unashamedly all the time, right? I've got loads of T-shirts that say a working class man. I'm absolutely proud of my class, right?

And I'm even more proud of my class by virtue of the fact that we don't get a seat at the table. Do you know what I mean? And everything is controlled by this middle class, like, progressive mindset. And when I sit in the club or when I sit in the pub with the lads, they'll say, oh, do you see that comedian? And they tell you, it's fucking rude. didn't understand him, you know, what he told about, it wasn't even funny.

And they said, you see, these people control comedy. You put these comedians on the television because they like them, but they don't necessarily have broad appeal. And I'm not slagging any comedian off. I'm just saying it's wrong that it's only one kind of comedy that's been foisted on the public of this country time and time and time again. Because there are millions of working class people, right, who love the comedians who go in the working men's clubs.

And yet they're tasting, comedy isn't created for on television or anything else, you know? And I just, I think, I've tried to be a bit of a Trojan horse, really, taking one kind of humour into a comedy club and taking the comedy club. Because it's a flip thing with me, because I always try and take that middle class comedy kind of comedy that I do. I try and take that in the work in men's clubs or in a sports, men's dinner too, do you know what? So it's balanced.

But I can see that. I've been a comedian for 33 years, so I can do different kinds of comedy. If you want me to be over the top, I'll be over the top. If you want me to be clean, I'll be clean. And Chris, what would you say to those people, like these middle-class liberals, who go, well, hang on, you know, you just want to go on stage,

you know, do Bernard Manning-S-style jokes from the 1970s. Society's moved on, and you need to accept that. Well, it's not about doing Burden-Munning-style jokes. when you watch these guys on the afternoon in the circuit they are funny guys they don't do

burning manning style material once again it's like a small-minded view of these comedians you know it's like I've said to a couple of comedy critics when was the last time you ever went into a working

men's club and reviewed and reviewed a comedian when was the last time you know and and they haven't have they you know and I just it's just the discrimination

and I think that working class people are discriminated in lots of ways but especially in comedy especially in comedy you can get if you're working class and you do the the style of comedy that that you know everybody else is in the in the comedy clubs

that's fine but if you if you do that traditional working class kind of humor that appeals to working class people, you've got no chance. Well, this is why I was so happy because I opened with the anecdote about how you and I first met when you were having a rough time of it in terms of getting

audience in and it wasn't easy, even though your show was brilliant and you are a brilliant comic. But last time that Edinburgh happened, which is 2019, you did a show called Forgiveness, which Francis and I both saw, which was one of the best shows

in the festival. You got, you sold out, your room, you got brilliant reviews, and it got followed up with a run of the Soho Theatre, and you've been doing brilliantly on that front. And as of a couple of weeks ago, you were supposed to get your run at Soho Theatre, which is one of people outside of the UK, one of the biggest theatres in London, certainly like a taste-making kind of theatre here. And that didn't happen. No. Well, Yeah, they've got core feet.

Why is that? Well, I mean, it's been in the press to a certain degree. I don't think it's over as far as the press goes. So I wrote the show about my dad's murder. My dad was strangled and set on fire in 2011. And I, more or less instinctively, forgive the man who murdered. him. I thought it was the way to go. I felt that was right for me. My father was a very forgiving person, never held any grudges, also a very funny person and completely un-PC,

but big-hearted, always big-hearted. And, I mean, I had some counselling and so on and so forth, and then we, this when I was doing Northern Monkey in Edinburgh in 2018, I had I'd had this like panic attacking. I'd ran off the stage. I didn't know what was going on really. And I got back to my diggs and I wrote this poem called Blood Beneath Your Nails and I realised then that there was stuff

that I had to exercise even though I'd had counselling. And I thought, well, you know, I'm a comedian. You know, this tell the story. And I always remember my mate Wilson Milton, one of the lads on the circuit, like, you know, I said, I'm going to do this show about our dad's murder, you know. And he went, wow, why are you? I said, yeah.

He said, how are you going to make it funny? I said, I don't know yet, but I'll work on it. Like, you know. So I came back from Edinburgh and I started to write just the stories, the anecdotes. And once again, I mixed it with the traditional working men's club, quick one line of jokes that I've, I'm blind me being doing for so many years. And I took it to Edinburgh, and as you say, it just went off the scale. Like, you know, every night, apart from one, the first night.

But even then, the Times came to see me on the first night. But after that first night, it just went through the fucking roof. It was like, you know, there were like queues, like literally up three flights of stairs or two flights of stairs and out the city cafe. And critically acclaimed across the board, people were hailing it as a masterpiece, a masterclass in comedy. genius and all of this, you know. Some people were saying it's like one of the most important comedy shows

because it didn't just address the issue of forgiveness and tolerance and everything else. It also addressed the issues of race because, you know, our dad was from a very multicultural area in Middlesbrough and stuff, you know. And it just swept the board at Edinburgh. And then this top promoter came to see it, and he just, said, this is fantastic. Like, you know, never seen anything like it. So he got me in the Soho Theatre.

And just for people who don't understand, you've been at it at this point for 31, 32 years. And this is your dream coming true. Finally, you're getting recognition. Well, do you know what it was? This was the thing I thought, you see, because like gigs were few and far between, right, on the comedy circuit for the reasons,

I believe, I stated at the top of the interview, at the start the interview. So, like, when I got all this, like, acclaim and everything, and bearing in mind, I mean, I'd been to Edinburgh three times, 17, 18 and 19, and every time I'd gone there, I'd been, like, critically acclaimed across the board, but this was mega-critical acclaim, you know. And it was, like, it was like, for me, personally,

that recognition was, like, saying to these people who control comedy, look, you know, this is me. You know what I felt so proud of that. This is me as a Worker Men's Club comedian. I've done, this is the level of my writing. This is the level of my comedy. I can do what you do and I can do,

or I can do what you want me to do and I can do this in the Worker Men's Clubs. I can do this. And I was so proud of myself at that moment in time because leading up to that, the work had been so non-existent really. I'd felt many times like just jacking it. all in. Of course, when we went

into the Soho Theatre, I mean, that was just like everything for me, man. You know what I mean? I mean, the Soho Theatre for anybody who doesn't know out there is so cutting edge. You know, they don't have any shite in there. And

I was just... I don't know about that, mate. Well, no, well, I know what you mean, but in their eyes if you know what to me. Do you understand what I mean? They're not compromising on things They get who they want to get in. Exactly. Yeah.

Right? Yeah. And, and, like, I'm just, like, floating on air. And then I got a call off, off the promoter. And he said, right, they want you. They really want you. Because they came to see me in Edinburgh twice. You know, the programmer came to see me,

and then this girl came to see me on the last night. And it was just wonderful. And they said, they really want you. And then I said, okay, and that's brilliant. Yeah, but they want you to take something out. And I said, well, they don't want me to take out. Well, they said, well, they don't want you to use the word pucky, and the don't want you to use the word chinky, right?

So my first instinct was, I said, tell them my fuck off, right? Chris, before you go any further, just give people a little bit of the context because some people are hearing this for the first time. I know you're working up to it, but I'm just saying this because some people will make assumptions based on what you've said. Yeah. You've said you're a working class comedian, you've said they didn't want you to use those two words,

and they're going to assume that you were making fun of those. Not not at all. It was in context of the... Right. It was in... The words were used in the context of the 1970s. You were telling a story about your dad. Yeah. And the slang and the words that were used in working class communities,

multicultural working class communities in the 70s and stuff when I was growing up with my father. So it was all in context, right? Right. And we'd used... Or I'd used the words in Edinburgh and I'd stand in a version. nobody, everybody understood the context, do you know what I mean, the promoter, all the comedy

critics that came and see, they all knew it was in context and everything else. It wasn't just like using it gratuitously. That's what I mean. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, it wasn't like that at all. So I said, right, okay, my first instinct was to tell them to fuck off because that's, that's just me, do you know what I mean? And stuff.

So, and then I thought, no, okay, then, right? I mean, I was broke and I needed a break, so I screwed my nut. And I said, right, okay. take the words out, right, and I'll replace them, but I'll also take the piss. I'll make fun of the fact that I've been censored. And the promoter said, that's fine, right? Anyway, we went there, did the four nights at the Soho Theatre last year. And I'd written this, maybe his 15-minute piece to put in the show.

And it was all about working-class mentalities, right, and working-class slang and working-class jokes. working-class humour and how you can tell a joke and how you can use slang words without actually being racist or whatever, like, you know? And it worked just fantastically.

I mean, the director of the theatre came... I mean, I had like four shows and got four stand innovations, right? The director of the theatre was there on the Friday night and I did like an hour and 50 minutes. And I mean, After the show, it was, I like floated down the stairs back into the bar. And I always remember, I was just leaving the theatre.

I was in the street and he ran out into the street. And said, now you're coming back. And I said, well, yeah, I'll be back here tomorrow. For my last show. He said, no, will you come back to the theatre and do like, you know, more shows? I said, well, yeah. Hey, Constantin. How are you feeling?

Good. And your mental health? I'm from Russia. We don't have mental health. Well, in the civilized world, we talk about our mental health. how we're feeling about our place in the universe. In the words of my Uncle Vlad, that is why we will crush you. Well, he's two months away from a breakdown.

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That's cam.com forward slash trigger. And anyway, I finished the run and the run was just off the scale. You know, it was like just everything. I mean, I like that working men's club humor. It was, it was, it had the middle class, like, political kind of observational kind of stuff. Do you know what I mean? It had poetry in it. It was also done in a way of telling a story.

It was just everything. And after the run, the promoter came back and he said, well, you know, they were just blown away by it. And they said, you know, they wanted to go on an extended run in June. in the main theatre part, I think, or the exclusive cabaret room that they've got there, and they want to co-produce the show. I think they wanted to co-produce a tour. They wanted to film it and put it on paperview

and all this and the other, you know, blah, blah, blah. And it was just, well, I remember the morning I got the call. I was in this cafe in Redca and the promoter for me, and I just broke down and cried because it was just everything. You know what I mean? I'd actually been recognised by the establishment, if you know what I mean? This establishment that never lets comedians like me in, right,

had recognised me and my worth as a comedian. And that meant everything to me. That meant the world to me. If I didn't make a penny for the shows and I didn't make any money in Edinburgh, and I didn't make any money from the first Soho thing at the run. But if I never made a penny from the

run that they wanted me to do, it wouldn't have made a fucking blind bit of difference to me because these people, or that mindset, it's not people, it's the mindset that had tried to keep me out or had kept me out, had said, we think you're the dog's bullocks. And it just, it was just everything to me.

It was 32 years. of being booed off, paid off, had pint glasses thrown at you, fucking challenged with knives. Just everything, you know, echoed the whole lot. And then I was this establishment, this mindset that controls comedy has said,

we think you're great. And they said to the promoter here, we had people coming at this theatre that nobody that we never had before and the promoter said would you mean working class people

and he went yeah yeah I felt like brave art you know what they said William they're coming down from the hills

and the hundreds and they're coming down from fucking Newcastle they were coming over from South Yorkshire they came down from Nottingham from clubs

where I'd been in Nottingham all my life they were coming over from Wolverhampton up from the south-west they were coming from all over the place and I thought and just to see me in the Soho Theatre

and that just meant the absolute world in it I mean I played the comedy star in Hollywood and I played on the main stage and this massive room years ago 2003

2004 and I had the call on because my mum was dying of a heart attack she'd had an heart attack but she had heart failure and cancer and stuff and so that ended that one

you know what I mean And then I was in Billy Elliott in the West End in the Victoria Palace Theatre biggest break to date and the old fellow was murdered and that really after that you know

they put me in a room at the top of the theatre so my bad vibes didn't like move off on any of the rest of the cast which is fair enough and that was the end of that one really but like this one it was like well nothing's going to stop me now

nothing possibly can stop me because I know my own worth I say I have very low self-esteem because you know I'm like that's who just being bullied as a child really but like I know I've got what it takes as a comedian you know

and I thought well nothing's going to stop it now what can stop it because even Netflix were interested you know Hollywood film director He's a British film director but he's directed Hollywood movies and he's worked with Robert De Niro

and all his he wanted to write a screenplay you know there was a Canadian TV company or Canadian stroke North American TV company wanted to do a series about me on the theme of forgiveness I think they wanted me to go around North America talking to people who'd suffered murder like me

and discussed with them people or the victims of murder discussed the concept of forgiveness you know and like two weeks after, bump, lockdown, everything stops. Gotted. Absolutely gutted. Being gutted ever since.

I mean, that's very understandable, just a, and particularly, lockdown, everything stops. But then we fast forward, and you've got your run at the Soho. Yeah, yeah, well, you see, the thing is I kept in touch with the director of the theatre. He said in August, you know, you definitely know mix and stuff, and then I've read any more. and then I let go of myself like, you know, I'd had these two shows planned of forgiveness in my own town in Redcar

and it was like 90 tickets for the show. At first it was just going to be one show and then it sold out within an hour and then so we put another show on and that sold by the following day and there was people flying over from Ireland

and flying up from Bristol and they were coming down from Newcastle and they were coming up from the Midlands all to come to the Red Car to see the show there was even two women from America said if we could get a flight we'd come and fly over from America to see the show and I'm like wow

and then lockdown was called again and that just like just like like finish me off really I started drinking like loads let myself grow didn't clean the house you know what I mean just completely let myself go, grew a massive beard.

Just wasn't bothered, wasn't interesting, you know. Then I got a call and about the end of January and the promoter said, you know, the theatre says you're still in the mix, that's great and so on and so forth. You know, we'll be getting some dates, so then that's great. Of course, nothing came, weeks went by, weeks went by, weeks went by, and nothing, and then maybe about six or seven weeks ago now, six weeks ago, got a call and they said oh the promoter said

basically they need to talk to you and I said why and they said because the thing that show is anti-Semitic so I said right okay what's anti-semitic like they said well somebody's alerted them to your poem the right to hate so I said oh okay then see in the right to hate

there's the there's the verse that says you know I've got black friends so you're still a racist, homophobic, but I've shared beds with gay men. I'm an anti-semane, but the Ross Childs as the richest banking family in the world really can influence. And that's what nothing to do with them being Jewish and everything to do with them being multi-billionaires

really can influence the dollar pound in yen. And that's the verse that caused the controversy. It caused controversy last year when the poem went viral. I mean, the poem went viral that are like tens of millions of people. Now, I understand the anti-Semitic trope, you know, that like,

Zionists and Ross Charles and all that, you know, control world banking and that's what Hitler based his attack on, you know, before the war and all of this. But my, that section of the poem wasn't about that at all. My, that section of my poem was about the middle class, or in the main middle class progressive liberal mindset versus the working class mindset. Because in my working class existence,

with my working class friends, they don't understand how you can be racist and have a black wife or a black husband or a black partner or a black friend, right? And they don't understand how you can be homophobic and have gay friends, right? And they don't understand how, as the richest banking family in the world,

even though they're not as bigger players as they used to be, how they can't influence stock markets or currencies. And that's what it was about. And that's basically what the poem is about. It's about working class mentality as opposed to that middle class progressive mentality. And it's like, for me, that middle class progressive mentality is riding roughshod over everything. and it's not giving our mentality any kind of any kind of airtime really do you know what I mean yep I had this fucking dickhead online right saying that you know he'd put this post on

Facebook and he described us as working people I've noticed that coming in more and more over the years this this term working people very ambiguous working people and I responded I said hey mate you missed a word out there and he said I've I said yeah you have I said you missed the word class mate right and he started going on the fucking quoting car marks at me you know I listen at the other right and so on and so but I said

save all your fucking middle class bullshit for me I said I don't give a toss right I said you have to have the word class and basically what he was saying was if you've got a job you work in class fucking prick idiot right and this is what these people don't get right because working class

class people. It's not just about having a fucking job, right? We're with our own culture. We have our own way of speaking. We have our own mindset. We have our own thought processes. You know, we think differently. It's a culture. Working class is a culture, white and black, you know. We go on holidays to different places than middle class people. They even smoke different fags. I said this in my 2018 show, you know, working class people, buying ads, they'll smoke, Embassy Regal. Of my fear. And middle class will be smoking fucking Marlborough.

Do you know what I mean Marlborough life? It's not just about having a job being working class. It's a culture, right? And it's a mentality. And it's a mindset. And I feel very passionate about it. And it's getting completely, completely road roughshed over by this progressive, in the main, middle class mentality.

And it has to stop. it has to stop because it's discriminating so much and I don't give a flying fuck if people attack me online and say this and that near the right but I will not stop championing

my class my culture no matter what colour you are because it's a culture being working class is its own culture and that is what the right to hear is about it's about our culture being dominated by these people who tell us,

you can say this, but you can't say that. But you can say that, but you can't say this. And you will think that. And if you don't, oh, yes, and then the prejudging, that's what the whole thing is, you know what I mean? You're racist, you're this, you're that, the other, the other. Well, I'm sorry, I'm not. Because I left school with two O levels, you know,

or three O levels. One was in English, one was in that, and one was in fucking truancy. You know what I mean? I'm not the best educated man. I left school at 16 years old. my English teacher when I was 14 said, you, Maglade,

or Oxford of Cambridge material. Do you know that? And I laughed at him and I told him to fuck off, right? Because he had these deadheads behind me. And he said to me, first of all, don't tell me to fuck off because you're an question of the English teacher. And second of all, don't tell me to fuck off because you will have an experience when your older son

and you will realize what I've said is true. And I had that experience last year when I wrote this poem called Will She Fly? And when I read it on this men's mental health station, radio station in Middlesbrough, these guys were like, wow, and that's when I had the realisation that, yeah, I was Oxford and Cambridge material, actually, right? But that wasn't my path.

I went straight and was steel mill when I was 16 years old. I was mixed, you know, my professors were like Ernie Buckton and Colin Ali and Terry Taggitts, lads who worked in the mills and the cranes and the stock yards and everything else. Do you know what I mean? They were my professors, they were my teachers. You know, that was the route I went down. And so I've tried to educate myself over the course of my life about different things.

And I might have said things that in the past of being anti-Semitic or racist, but that's not out of malice because there's no malice in me, right? That's out of ignorance, really. And I've tried to learn as much as I can to put those things right. Do you understand? Yeah. But this, the whole poem is about defending working class mentality and culture. You know, as opposed to this progressive,

I'm not even going to say left, because it's not left, it's centrist. They're not left. They're not the traditional. I was a member of the Labour Party when I was 17 years old. You know what I mean? Selling on picket lines and stuff. I mean, like a proper traditional working class socialist. But I don't identify with the left now because it's not the too busy,

branding people and using ID politics to shut people up and do people down and all of that, you know. And that's what the point was about. We're being dominated by this mindset that is completely alien to ours. And we're not allowed any way back at all. You know what I mean? We're not allowed any way back.

It's a really, really powerful point. And I'm so glad that we've got you on the show to express that. there's something that I push back against a lot because it's the term white privilege and I feel that it's used as a weapon against working class people and particularly working class men to get them to shut up and not have an opinion.

Francis, listen, my family came from Ireland. My family are immigrants, right? My family came from Ireland at the turn of the last century. I mean, they were basically landslaves you know, picking potatoes or just

working for a pittance you know what I mean? Like indentured labour, just like nothing and they came over here I mean, my uncle, my auntie died of cancer last year my uncle gave me some photographs that go back to like Victorian times in my family and I cried when I saw them

I felt this infinity to them straight away I mean they look like the peaky blinders you know, my great great granddad and his two brothers were sat in his badge on the T's and like I fucking broke down cried, this is my blood. These people fucking working in the fields. They never had anything.

They had fuck all. And they came in this country with fuck all. And I've got fuck all. Nothing. And those people had no privilege whatsoever. There were Irish Catholics and they were regarded as being shit.

They used to have signs in restaurants, in there. No blacks, no dogs, no blacks, and no Irish. And that was the thing. It was the same kind of thing. So I don't go with all that white privilege shit. Do you know what I mean? Privilege isn't about your colour.

It's about how much money you have. That's what sets you apart. That's what gives you privilege. I mean, I love Marcus Rashford. What Marcus Rashford has done for working class kids in this country is exemplary right. It's fantastic. For me, the lad should be,

he should get a gong. or a knighthood or whatever because he's tried a champion working class children but do you think if he wasn't a multi-millionaire centre forward for Manchester United in England

that he would have got De Boris Johnson or being listened to he would have just been another fucking scrot living in Manchester wouldn't he? Nobody would have listened to him it's not about your colour

it's about your standing your wealth do you know what I mean and that I can't go with the white privilege you know I've been kicked shit out of himself before Newcastle

I've been stopped by the police on the streets walking home and never done anything wrong and I'm white and there's millions of white people you know and this is one of the things you know it's not just black people that are trapped badly it's white people too you know

but getting back to the thing with the Soho Theatre when they told me when the agent said they wanted you know the poem was anti-Semitic and I've gone on the OZEJ there to explain about the poem they said they want to talk to you So I said, right, I've got nothing to hide.

I'll talk to them. So I phoned them up. We had this three-way conversation, me, the director, the programmer. And I explained what I've explained to you, you know. And then I said to them, they said, oh, you know, about the, you know, will you, you know, you took certain things out before and blah, blah, blah. And I said, yeah. I said, if that's, look, if that's what you want me to do, right?

If you want me to take out that line, because they kept on stressing that, you know, we can't be seen to offend people and we can't do this. And I said, okay, if you don't want to offend people, right, I said, I will take out that line. Chris, just pause there for one second. Yeah. Just for one second.

These are people who run a comedy theatre. Yeah. And their primary concern in dealing with you after you sold out a run to standing ovation's last year is they don't want to offend people. Yeah. Well, that's what they said. We can't be seen to be offending people

and we have to be diverse and so on and so forth. Then I said, right, okay, I'll take out that section. I said, but like I did before, when I took the piss when you censored me before, I'll take the piss this time. And they said, great. And then they said, we'd like you to speak to this Jewish lady, right?

And she used to be the creative director of the theatre. And I said, right, that's fine. I'll do that you know I wanted to you know not because I want an endorsement from the Jewish community

but could always call me up I'll give you a free pass that ain't worth shit do all the Holocaust jokes you want me unfortunately you're not you're not in the position to book me in the Soho Theatre

but she used to be the creative director of the Soho Theatre I think she was the director of the London Jewish Museum and I want to wanted to talk to her, not because like I said, I wanted an endorsement from the Jewish community, but I just wanted to smooth the waters to say, look, you know, I know that it was almost like they wanted me to be educated, you know,

in what that reference meant. But really, when I think about it, that was like so condescending once again, because I understood the anti-Semitic trope of Jewish banking and everything. I understood that already. But what they didn't understand and what? What they weren't prepared to be educated in is that working class mentality, do you know mean? That doesn't understand how one of the richest banking families in the world and it's got nothing to do with the mean, just the fact they're multi-billionaires.

They must be able in some way to affect currency or stockmine. So how did that conversation go with her? Well, that never happened because we all left the phone call. It was me, the director and the program it. It was brilliant. And then they said, right, we'll sort the phone call out. And Mike Lee, who's my agent for acting and for literary things. I mean, he's Jewish.

He's a member of the campaign against anti-Semitism, right? He was going to sit in on the conversation, right? He was emailing, and I was emailing. The promoter was emailing. We're all emailing, nothing. And then they came back. not last Thursday, but Thursday before, and the promoter for me,

he said, I got some bad news for him and I said, what's that? And he said, well, you know, they're dropping you, they don't want you. And I, uh, do you know what is? I was disappointed, but I wasn't hurt. I was more or less expecting it because I knew I just, you get a feeling, don't you? Yeah. I'm not psychic, but I mean, you know, you got a feeling, I got a feeling about it.

And I just thought myself, no, I can't go with that one. you know, and I mean... So why do you think that happened? Because it's the same show. Yeah. You've already done this show at their theatre, right? So if they're concerned about offending people,

the show's the same. The theatre's the same. So what's happened in between? Well, like I say, because somebody had alerted them with the fact that this line was anti-Semitic and everything else. So when they watched the show, they were fine, but the moment someone on social media alerted them to it, I don't know if it was...

See, I don't know who alerted them, so I don't know. I don't know, maybe I've got an enemy up there or somebody who was jealous or whatever, you know what I mean? And said, oh, what are they thinking about this? I don't know. I don't know. That's out of my control. Right.

But it was the exact same show. They've got four standard invasions, and suddenly they said it was offensive. And like Mike Lee, as I say, he's juiced himself. They phoned him up and he said, well, Chris was going to take that part out and replace it with something else. And they came back and said, yeah,

but the poem, the right to hear, is out there online and it's gone viral to millions of people all around the world. So you are untouchable now. Because the poem is out there. You can't do a show at the theatre because the poem is out there, even if you don't do that poem. I don't know that. I don't know if it's just the poem,

if the poem has destroyed things. But you see, when the, I can't, oh, God. I can't describe to you, right? I wrote this thing. When I wrote the right to hear, it was in 2017, right? I woke up one morning, I was going to work and I was just laid in bed, tossing myself off, right? Trying to get back to sleep.

Anyhow, I went downstairs, made a cup of, right? Got some biscuits, come back up the stairs, go back into bed, right? And I just, I always have some paper and a pen next to the bed because I don't know why. I get my best inspiration when I'm sleeping. when I went away and go, I've got this line, you tell me what I can't say it.

And I'm not, I shit you not, right? Tell me what I can't say it. And that was it, it was off. I wrote that poem in about four minutes and it just wouldn't stop, right, until I'd finished. And when I finished, I realised it was finished. And I put it online in 2018, after Edinburgh, because I used it in my Northern Monkey Show,

which is also critically acclaimed. Great, show. Right, and so people had seen it. We didn't do much online. Then 2019, this ex-special forces fellow from Newcastle, he'd seen it on YouTube, shared it to his Facebook page, and all of a sudden it'd started to go through the roof. And in two weeks, he'd had about 850,000 views,

which is great just before I was going to Edinburgh, right? When we show forgiveness since 2019. And then, of course, last year, I don't know why. All of a sudden, overnight, it had like 600,000 views and then it was like a million and a half and then Facebook sort of like, is it shadow banded or something like this

and there was no more of you. So I went outside the blast furnace again because I filmed it the original one outside of blast furnace and I'll be a slag and I filmed it again I brought it up to date and I clarified because in the original one it doesn't

mention the thing about the Ross Charles being multi-billionaires but I thought right I'll clarify that point, I'll put that point in, you know what I mean, and clarify that people know that it's not coming from like an anti-Semitic place. I'm just coming from a fact of how can these people who are multi-billionaires not be able to affect banking. So I clarified it, I updated it. And that just

flew. I mean, Isaiah Washington, in America, famous actor, he got all of it, it was all over his Instagram. I had people, teachers, professors from Italy saying, can we teach this to our students in class? Tens of millions of people. I had people in Morocco.

I had people in Israel. I had people in Nigeria and Ghana, South Africa, all over Europe. America was just like wildfire, Canada, everywhere, Scandinavia, the whole world. Right? And I was like, well, get emotional again because I'm just like a normal working class bloc and it was too much for me to fucking take in, do you know what I mean? like like the it was it's so intense to understand what I'm saying yeah like it was like what the fuck I felt frightened I felt intimidated I felt as I was in like a fishbowl and everybody was

looking at me you know what I mean and then I had this idea I thought myself right I could I could do this using all these people so we did a global version and I did it I mean I don't have a computer don't have anything like that so I made this video the right to hate global version using 150-odd people from around the world from Nigeria and Kenya and Ghana and South America, Peru, Argentina, Brazil, everywhere, right?

I did it all in my mobile phone. They sent me lines to the poem on my mobile phone and I sent them to this guy who would like a filmmaker and he put them all together and we put the finished version out there and it didn't do as much as the original, I thought it was better. You know, even the part where, you know,

about the Rothschilds, like Jewish people did those parts, did those lines, you know? And so it's become, the poem has become a global phenomena. And I never expected that. I didn't intend it. I didn't ask for it. I didn't ask for the attention. I get like thousands of people sending me a friend requests all the time.

and I think, well, I'm not famous, I'm not a star. Do you know what I haven't got no money? I'm on the verge of going under. You know, I don't have any possessions in my house or the house I sleep and I have a chair in a bed. That's it. I don't feel worthy of this attention, do you know what I mean? But the attention's there now,

and because the attention's there, the theatre turned out to the promoter and said, or my agent, Mike Lee, and said, well, it doesn't matter because he's out there online. And I mean, I, I've always been, a fight not in terms of physically but

like with my wits I fight with my wits when I fought the local authority in Red Cow of the issue of the corrupted housing estate you know

I fought with my wits and I thought me said well what am I going to do with you I have to do something to fight back and and so I just put the post

on my Facebook page just saying basically I've been banned by the theatre and I couldn't believe it and nobody else could believe it really because

it'd already been in there and done massive things. Let me ask you again, though, why do you think that's happened? Is there something Well, from what I can gather, the decision came from above the director of the theatre. I think they might have a board or a

group that controls a theatre. I don't know. I don't know, but I think that's where it came from. I think there are forces at work without being a conspiracy theorist. But I mean, you know, that's why I'm grateful to you guys for inviting me onto the program so, like, I can, like, put my side forward publicly because, hey, listen, right?

I mean, the show never had one complaint. Everywhere it's gone, it's had standard invasions. Everywhere. Yep. When I was in the Soho last year, and there was an actor there from down to, He said, I never seen anything like it. People were queuing up to hug me.

It set people on the road to forgiveness themselves. Other people who suffered murder, I've seen the show, and it set them on the road to forgiveness. And not just like people have been set on the road to forgiveness, not just with big things, but with little things. One bloke said, Aaron's bought to his dad for 10 years. And over an out in the summit, really. And he said he's going to phone his dad.

I asked him to go for a beer. When I was in Edinburgh, there was a girl. She was outside the theatre and she was looking and I was giving the flyers out. And she said, oh, I come in and I'm trying to tell her what the show is about. She said, oh, I know what it's about. She said, my brother committed suicide.

Like, you know, I said, oh, okay, then. She, I don't know whether it would come in or not. It might not be for me. I said, well, it might be for you. I said, just come in. I said, well, there's no ask. If you don't want to come in, that's what. So anyway, you know,

know you're something with anybody. You only got so much time outside leaflet in, so I, we cut off time and I went down into the room, the room was packed out, about to start, and all of a sudden the door opened. This girl's head came. Came out of the door. I said, come on in, love. Come on in. She sat down and she fucking loved it. The show, the biggest thing for the show for me, last year in the Soho Theatre, see, I'm always wanted to bring both sides of comedy together, as I say, because I think it's too top every rate. But you had middle-class progressive people sat alongside working-class people, and they were all laughing, and they were all thinking whether they agreed or not together. And after the show, and this is the biggest compliment

that I took away from that show was that the promoters' staff came to see it, I think, on the Thursday night and they're all young, trendy, Uber progressive, you know, young kind of liberal people and they were all blown away by it and they said it crosses so many divides,

brings down so many barriers. Like, you know, it's promoting peace and tolerance and laughter and forgiveness, most of all, forgiveness, never had one complaint. And so a show that's done that, you know, that yeah, uses uncompromising language in context with the times that it was setting, right? It's basically now being put into a position whereby

was struggling to get it out there. Because, I mean, the promoter. said, if the pandemic hadn't happened, the promoter said if we'd have gone at the Saw Theatre, backed by a popular demand, you would have had a tour. Do you know what I mean? Without question, any question at all, you'd have had a tour. Now we're struggling to even find a venue for it to go in,

which is a real shame. It is. And I'll tell you why, right? Because, I mean, I'm on Facebook all the time. It's the only thing I have to occupy myself. and apart from writing my poems and I don't write comedy anymore because I haven't got the outlet for it

so there's no point in frustrating myself I mean I do write comedy every now and again but not like I used to and I look at it and we are so divided now and I mean not just the thing with race right not just the thing with race

but this whole thing with the pandemic were divided by those who were afraid of COVID-19 and those are unafraid of COVID-19, those who want to wear masks, those who don't want to wear masks, those who've been vaccinated, those who don't want to be vaccinated. And it's like, I mean, just coming down here on the train, it's like this all the time, as soon as you say anything, do you know what I'm not, if you want to get the vaccine or get jabbed, have it, right?

But don't tell me that I have to have it. I felt heartbroken today because, I mean, my world has got smaller and smaller and smaller to the point now where basically I sit in a car all day in this car park next to this baker's in mask near where I live and I sit there eating cake and drinking tea and writing that's how small my life's got

and I don't see anybody for most of the day. So like I'm, you know, I don't have to provide any like vaccine passport or anything like that, right? But like I am medically exempt from wearing a mask and from having the vaccine or the job. because of medical conditions pre-existing medical conditions I have. And I was getting me bag together and I thought myself, I better take them letters, you know, from the doctor saying I was exempt.

And that brought my heart. Because for me, that's like a really totalitarian regime, isn't it? where it's like shows your papers to do this, you know, shows your papers to do that. And, you know, I put there on Facebook coming down on the train and people say, oh yeah, we live in London, we never do that. I said, you miss the point. You miss the point.

The point is, right, that I felt as though I had to take proof of my medical status in case I was refused entry to somewhere. It's a fucking, it's like, it's like fucking. I'm going somewhere tomorrow and I got an email and they said like have you been double jabbed you know because I said no I haven't

I'm medically exempt but you know and I think what is going on you know where are we going with all of this you know it's a very very interesting point there's a question that I really want to ask you your show is about forgiveness I watched it

it was brilliant it was powerful it was haunting it was incredibly funny as well it was a perfect show And you talked about that particular subject, looking at what's happened to you, looking what's happening in society. Do you think we're losing the ability to forgive, Chris? Massively so. I told you I was going to cry. My emotions with this are all over the place and it's not showboating or anything like that. I'm walking around with this inside all the time.

And that's why I appreciate you guys inviting me down. We are all being set against each other, right? All of us. right black and white different religions the prester they're shit up constantly right

they're like the school yard bully do you know what I mean he said I can have you or he said ignavio you know what yeah yeah and the next thing everybody's fighting and the school bully fucks off do you know what I mean

or makes money in this case yeah yeah exactly and what it requires is both sides to get all the school bully and knock his fucking head off do you know what I mean that's what it requires we're all being set against each the whole thing.

And I said to the people at the theatre, I said, you know, the message of forgiveness and the themes of the show, right, and never more needed than now, you know? And I'm not saying that because I'm trying to sell a show or whatever. I just think that they are. And forgiveness is a very, very personal thing. It felt right for me.

It might not feel right for you, might not feel right for him. but it felt right for me. Do you know what I mean? But if we can go somewhere to forgiving, you know? If I've upset anybody because of this poem, I've explained the thing, forgive me. No.

You can see, I hope you can see, I'm not a bad bloke. There's no malice in me. And this is one of the things I said to him, I said, I don't hate them. If I don't hate the man who strangled my dad's life away and set him on fire, why would I a, I hate anybody, because they were black or because they were Asian

or because they were Jewish or because they were gay or whatever? I wouldn't. You just wouldn't, you know? But in this country, in this world, it's become like a really mean place. And I've seen that get worse over the last 18 months. you know it it's become like a fucking bear pit hasn't it you know what I mean it's like a dog fight social media when you said about do you go on Twitter I don't go on Twitter because it's too much of a toxic place and Evan knows Facebook's a toxic I mean

Facebook's bad enough but Twitter's terrible you know but yeah we do we do lack forgiveness so much and you know not just from a viewpoint of me wanting to get get recognition or get something for myself through the show, I think it's the message of the show that I want to take out there. You know? Because I've seen the power of it. I've seen the power of the show. Somebody said to me,

it's one of the best comedy shows that I've ever seen. And they're like a top PR person. And when you get some of the critics saying the things that they've said about it, then you know that it means something. It's an important show. I don't know if it being the best show, the funniest show, whatever, but it's one of the most important shows, you know, as a whole, because it confronts and takes on so many,

tackles so many issues, all in the thing of my father's murder. Chris, it's been an incredible interview. Thank you so much for coming down. We always end our interviews with one question. It's always what's the one thing we're not talking about, but we really should be. Class. Class.

Stop discriminating against working class people. No matter what colour they are. Class. Don't be embarrassed about it. Everybody gets a matter. Oh, no, the side away from it, don't. So when you mention class, oh, fucking people, rear up. Stephanie McGovern from Middlesbrough.

She's from Middlesbrough. It used to be the BBC's. business correspondent, I think. She was sitting in a Guardian. When she went for an interview for the BBC, she did brilliantly. And this guy came over and said, oh, that was fantastic.

We didn't think people like you were intelligent. And do you want to know what it was? When the Soho Theatre took the show, they said, oh, you know, they came from the promoter. They really want you because they believe in diversity. They believe in... Can you believe that?

I mean, I put that in the show. They want you because they believe in diversity, right? So, and I'll say this unashemly because we are. White working class people are the biggest social demographic in this country, right? But now the regard white working class people, right, as basically a minority. It's fucking incredible. It is incredible.

And, you know, you saw what happened at the football match. it's a minority with the European Championship final, it's a minority. Tiny minority. But they're trying to desperately tar a whole class, a whole culture with that racist

brush and it's wrong and they're trying to robbers of our culture, of our mentality, of who we are, of what we were, of perhaps even what we want to become. because we never get a look in.

You tell me any facet of our society that is run by a working class person. I mean, even the Labour Party. I mean, the Labour Party, if that doesn't show you how much working class people are discriminated against, if you had a black community group

that was run by a white person, then be a young, if you had a gay community group that was run by a straight person, that'd be alone, if you had a Muslim group that was run by a white person, Christian the Bielan, right, or another religion, like if it was an Hindu,

run by a Jew or whatever, they'd be able to, right. In effect, the Labour Party is a working-class community group, and it's run by middle-class progressive people, and that's why the working class has said, fuck you, because there's a massive disconnect there. And what they think and believe, or running the Labour Party, isn't what we think and believe. And that's why at the by-election in May and Artipole, right,

for the first time in 57 years, my whole life, the people of Atrepole returned a Tory MP. And when you think about it, right? When you think about it, we expect to be shitting by the Tories. We expect that. But we don't expect to have our own shit on us. And we don't expect our own to look down the fucking noses at us.

Do you know what I mean? And that's what we're getting. Let's talk about class. Salby. Let's have a working class leader of the Labour Party. I'm up for the job. Chris, thanks for coming on. My pleasure. I've loved every single second. We've loved having you. And you know, you and I go back a few years now. I've watched everything you've done. I'm very proud of you. Thank you. I'm so proud of you. You've done incredibly well to break through, to get to where you are. And I hope the people who see this interview, I hope something good comes out of it. I believe in you.

I believe in what you've done it was a beautiful show that deserves to be seen by way more people than has been seen by and there's good things in the future for you we're hoping that another theatre is going to come we have hopes for that but if anybody out there

who can affect change wants to put it on in a London theatre big London theatre I'd be more than grateful where can people find you online Facebook Chris McGlead on Facebook Yeah.

Twitter, I go on Twitter, but not so much. And I have an Instagram account, but I haven't got a fucking clue what I'm doing with it, so I don't even bother posting on there, you know. Find Chris on Facebook. That's where you can get all his views and comedy and all the other stuff that he puts out. Chris, thanks for coming on.

My pleasure. We're going to do some questions for locals as well in a second. Thank you. But thank you for watching and listening. We will see you very soon with another brilliant interview like this one. Or Raw Show. All of them go out at 7pm UK time. Or 2pm.

Eastern Standard. Take care and see you soon, guys. We hope you've enjoyed this incredible interview. Remember to subscribe and hit the bell button so that you never miss another fantastic episode. And if you believe that the work we do here at Trigonometry is important, support us by joining our locals community using the link below.