Walking The Dog with Emily Dean - Alfie Dundas (Part One)

Episode Date: August 4, 2026

This week Emily and Ray take a stroll with one of comedy's fastest-rising stars, Alfie Dundas.With more than 100 million views across social media, Alfie has quickly built a huge following for his brilliantly observed comedy. But away from the internet, Emily discovers the story behind the jokes, from growing up in London as the grandson of a Marquess, to his years at Eton, studying economics at university, and the decision to swap a conventional career for life as a stand-up comedian.Alfie also talks about his Edinburgh Fringe show, First Class Panic, which heads to the Pleasance Courtyard from August 5th to 30th. If you're heading to Edinburgh this summer, it's well worth catching. Tickets are available now at https://www.edfringe.com.It's a funny, thoughtful and surprisingly self-deprecating conversation with a comedian who's as charming off stage as he is on it. And despite Ray's obvious excitement at meeting someone with an even posher pedigree than his own, Alfie somehow manages to steal the show.Follow Emily:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emilyrebeccadeanX: https://twitter.com/divine_miss_emWalking The Dog is produced by Will NicholsMusic: Rich JarmanArtwork: Alice LudlamPhotography: Karla Gowlett Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If this was live streamed, I'd go, hey, table 328, send me some pancakes if you're enjoying the pod so far. This week on Walking the Dog, Ray and I went for a stroll with one of the fastest rising stars in comedy, the wonderful Alfie Dundas. Alfie's comic brilliance has gained him a huge following on social media with over 100 million views. And he's also well worth seeing live. So if you're going to be at the Edinburgh Festival this summer, do check out his show First Class Panic. It's on at the Pleasance Courtyard at 7.15pm from August the 5th to the 30th and you can get your tickets via Ed Fringe.com. So I don't think Alfie will mind me saying this. He's probably the poshest person I've ever had on this podcast. And given that Ray is a terrible social climber, I knew he'd be all over Alfie like a cheap suit, demanding to swap pedigrees.

Alfie's also one of the loveliest people I've ever had on this podcast. He's so easy to chat to and funny and fabulously self-effacing as you're here. And we had the nicest chat about pretty much everything from Alfie's childhood growing up in London as the grandson of a Marquist to his school days at Eton. And how, after doing an economics degree, he decided to pivot and to stand up. And I, for one, am very grateful he did because the man is genuinely hilarious. Ray and I absolutely loved our morning with Alfie. And no, I'm not just saying that because he's an Arsenal fan.

But let's be honest, it definitely made me love him at least 17% more. Really hope you enjoy our chat. Here's Alfie and Ray Ray. Sit there Ray. Well Alfie, I'm so pleased you joined us today. Raymond and I are big fans of yours. Big fans of yours and Raymans. And you've already met Raymond.

And I think you immediately took to him, didn't you? I did and that has surprised me. Why? not a big animal lover. I'm not an animal, I'm not an animal hater, but I, I don't, I'm allergic to cats and horses and that kind of pathetic hay fever hair situation. The horse's thing is difficult for someone as pox as you. I know, I know. People are very disappointed when they come to my shows and they find out, I can't ride a horse and I can't ski and I can't shoot and they go, oh, you're fake then. I can't do any of those things. Don't have a gun dog. Don't, well, I didn't say

but it doesn't get much action but I've never really I grew up in London I didn't grow up with that like country posh thing of growing up around animals I'm quite precious and I don't like dirt and sand and smells and stuff but then whenever I find a dog that's quite chic I don't know if that's the right word but just isn't some dogs invite you to come to them and some dogs you have to go to them. Kind of same as comedians, same as people, you get an energy.

Any dog that's running up to me and trying too hot, I don't respect. And I, it's the same with people. Well, that's the difference between charisma and charm, apparently, isn't it? Yeah.

Is charm, I come to you, and charisma as you come to me? I bring you in. Yeah. And I find that with babies as well, like children, like, I have a lot of nephews and nieces, nine nephews and nieces,

and I'll take them to the playground and they'll have a party or whatever. And there's all these kids running around and they're sort of jacked up on sugar and then there'll be one kid in the corner just watching. And I go, that's the kid I want to hang out with. Well, that's the comedian. That's the comedian. He's watching. Because this is what people often get, I think, very wrong about comedians. Is this idea that they're the sort of look at me charactering in sort of sequence in the center of the room.

I think the comedian is the observer. always in a room. They can be big and extrovert, but I think they're always watching. Do you know what I mean? Because that's what you do. You're kind of doing psychological profiles of everything and everyone. Do you know what I mean in the room? Yeah, it's like a weird, I go back and forth on feeling, wondering whether comedians are better as sort of introverts or extroverts because it's obviously you're a narcissistic enough to need a microphone. As far, I had this conversation with some comedians the other day. I said, well, obviously, all comedians are slightly narcissistic and they I was with two comedians and they sort of

slightly took offence to that and they were like no we're all really insecure and I was like yeah but at the end of the day we go on stage and we make sure everyone's facing us insecurity is what leads to narcissism they're not mutually exclusive surely right and so just to bring us back to the pets thing so you don't have pets currently don't have pets you were saying your partner she's keen on my girlfriend really really wants a dog and I keep reminding her that she lives on a third floor in a flat in North London and that would be animal cruelty. And also, the reason it annoys me is because I don't want a dog. My girlfriend does want a dog, but she knows I don't do anything all day.

So she's going to get a dog, go to work and then go, can you look after little Raymond? And I'm going to go, this was what I signed up for. If you did get a dog, what kind of dog would you get, do you think? A quiet one. Like a, this, this is what I want. Raymond has not moved since we started this. conversation. Raymond has never barked and I think what I'm going to just briefly

sell you, Raymond is an imperial shih Tzu. He's not just any old shih Tzu. Is he? And originally bred as companion dogs at the Chinese. Well no, they were gifted. I think they were gifted by the monks to the emperor. So they were they were companion dogs at the Chinese imperial palace. They were the emperor's dogs.

And it was illegal at that stage for anyone else. side of royal circles to own one. That's why he appealed to me. So that's why Raymond and I have this kind of slightly aristocratic bond. It's true. My parents have Lazar Absos. Well, one Lazar Absor, but they got one and then

he moved on and then they got... When you say he moved on, is that a posse euphemism for he died? He died, yeah. Yeah, yeah. We sort of... Die feels like, someone's saying this to me the other day. They were like, don't say passed away. It's like, they died. It's much more, but it feels more aggressive.

It does with dogs somehow, doesn't it? So we got a dog when I was maybe nine years old, a Laza Apsoe, and then he lived quite a long time. What was the name? He was called Cookie, and that was my first dog. And did you love Cookie? I love's a strong word. I liked Cookie a lot, and I thought he was quite elegant.

And then in the last couple years of Cookie's life, we bought Cookie's nephew, or Grand Nephew or whatever, Because there's not that many Lazar episodes. Lazare episodes are kind of like... Related to Raymond, yeah. Similar ilk. And we got the nephew and we called... We were going to call it Billy, whether it was a boy or a girl,

either after Billy Ilish or Billy Bob Thornton. We're going in two very different directions. And then Billy... We got Billy as a companion to Cookie. And then Billy was a puppy and Cookie was very old. And Billy bullied the hell out of Cookie, I think. And then Cookie passed on. at the vet at an appointed time at a scheduled time of the day.

It was one of those. So it's not a funny part. It is quite funny to be saying he passed on as if we weren't manufacturing the whole situation. It's quite morbid. But yeah, it's funny, that was, I was in the room, you know, when they put down a dog. It was the kind thing to do. He was very, he was sort of 12 years old, which was too old for a small dog. Yeah.

And now my parents are sort of stuck with Billy. I said Billy's still around. Well Billy, yeah, because Billy was a puppy when Cookie was old. Yeah. I now look back on the names and all this stuff. What are we doing? Well, do you know what?

I know you're saying the time has come, you have to make that decision. I'm going to be clinging on to this one. I know, I know. Well, how old is Raymond? Nine. Raymond's got a sort of wise, Raymond's got a sort of Stephen Frye

composure to him. And if I had to get a dog, I just, I just, I just, I just want one that is more additive than anise's. I'm too selfish. Like I just don't, I just, my nephew's an nieces. I'm like, yeah, let me play and we'll go and buy sweets. And then when they start crying an hour later, I'm out of there. You don't want the neediness.

We talked a bit about your background. And I'm fascinated by your background, Alfie. And it comes up a lot in your stand up, obviously. I appreciate some of it is sort of made bigger for the performance. But we should say full disclosure, I know Alfie's brother really well, I've known him for years, Max, who's super successful publicist, isn't he? Yeah. And so I know a bit about your... Super successful is a stretch, but yeah.

Max, I'm so sorry. Successful. I'm so sorry. I was just doubled up there quite heavily. I'm going to go super successful. The more successful you pay my brother to be in PR, the more it makes me look like a Napo baby. I'm going to bring him down a bit. My brother's run of the mill.

Run of the mill PR. Lovely, fantastic brother. Super successful as an older brother. As an older brother. There's a PR. Not for everyone. I'm going to let that side. But going back to your childhood,

you grew up, it was in Wonsworth, is that right? Yeah, we grew up in Clapham. And when you say we actually, it was an interesting situation, wasn't it? Because your dad, you were the product of your dad's third marriage? Third marriage. So when we were talking about my brother, my brother's 21 years older than me, I think. Wow.

And my dad had six kids through three marriages, and me and my brother bookend it. So I have four half siblings that are much older. But I'm very, very close with them, and I see them as, you know, we talk about Max, like he's my brother because he feels like my brother. But we didn't grow up in the same house. By the time I was born, he was in his 20s. So when you grew up, you were you essentially? an only child in that you were the only kid in that house or were your other siblings sort of there as well? My four half siblings had all moved out by the time and I've never

really lived with any of them. I think whenever they were going through heartbreak or like changing flat they would move in for a couple weeks and I was a bit confused the whole time. But I had a younger brother who passed away when I was very young. Alfie, I didn't know that. I'm so sorry. My mum had two children. I had a younger brother with Louis who passed away when I was eight he was four oh god that's heartbreaking so that was that was like kind of grew up as a no grew up a bit of an unusual upbringing where obviously two of us for a while and then he had brain tumour so we sort of had 18 months of treatment and then kind of only child after that but also Christmas and birthdays and big family events I had

five older or four older siblings yeah who were like partying around me as a kid and that was like the best scenario ever. And now that we're all adults were all very close. Yeah. So it's weird. It felt like I grew up like an only child and then now feel like part of a, but also part of a massive family. And grew up also having to come to terms with loss at a very young age, which isn't easy? Yeah. Well, it's, um, it's, it's, it's hard now because any aspect, when people ask you kind of any aspect of your personality, If people ask me about the stand-up, or if I do therapy and I'm trying to understand why I act in a certain way, it's too obvious to always tie everything back to that period, but annoyingly a lot of it is quite accurate.

And so I have this annoying thing where I'm really aware of that period and how it affected things, but also hate being so basic as to have all the cliche consequences of kind of grief in an early age. So obviously growing up a lot quicker than other people because when I was eight, I had that kind of existential understanding that we're all going to die and that bad things happen. And I feel like most kids don't deal with that until then maybe teenage. You really believe for a very long time that your parents can fix everything. And then...

And everyone else will die, but you won't. Yeah, because the first experience most people have of death is like a grandparent in their teenage years. You're 13, one of your grandpa. I remember my friends when I was at school, they'd not come into school and the teacher would be like, we're really, you know, young John O's grandfather's passed away or whatever. And I was like, what is that? You're getting a day off for that.

You're getting a day off for that? No, I said, I once said, because by the way, I lost a sibling as well. And I, she was older than Lou. But I always say when people's grandparents die, and I think we're allowed to make this joke. Yeah. It's that I would say, I'm sorry, grandparents don't count. They don't count. You don't get a day off work. You don't get a day off work for Grandpa.

No, because we've done the siblings. It's hard for. And I wrestled with trying to find material in it and find the funny in it. But that is how it feels like. There was a day, I talk about this in the show, but there's a day where it was 100% true. I was in an English class. And for some reason, the teacher was teaching us about, we're about to read a book that had some mature themes. And we were 13. And she went around the class and was like, we're all going to cry before we read the book.

Not we're all going to cry, but we're all going to say the most. things ever happened. I don't know what kind of private school nonsense that is, by the way, where we're telling 13-year-olds that we're all going to just go around the room and say the saddest saddest thing. And it was going around, going around, people were going, oh, I've lost a pet, and I've lost a grandparent. And I was there licking my lips. I was like, you've got no idea what I'm about to drop on this classroom. Oh, Myanmar died, 96. Oh, tragic. Not. I knew. And it was, um, my, my brother died. My, My grandmother died a couple months before my brother died. And both my dad's parents died before I was sort of turned five.

So I sort of had no grandparents, been to all of four of those funerals, and then had everything happen with Louis. And then just by the time I was, I spent my teenage years thinking that the experience I had growing up is the experience everyone else had. And it is only now in my 20s that I am now, realizing that that was not necessarily normal. Yeah. So.

Did you tell the class then? Yeah, brought the house down. Everett performer, 13. I went, I stood up. No, I just like, I knew it was coming around that I was just like, but I knew everyone knew. Everybody knew. One of the weird things that, again, I've only realising now

is that I was treated really, really well at that. I moved school after Louis died. I went from quite a... You went to prep school in... In Wandsworth. In Wandsworth. Really, really sweet school called Northcote Lodge off Bollingbrook Grove in Wandsworth. But really like 30 boys in the year.

Really soft, really gentle. The headmaster shook your hand every morning in the playground. Tweed jackets. Really quite easy. But I moved there from a very competitive school. I moved there from Dulwich. The prep school that feeds Dulwich College. Yes, that's very well-warned.

And did you go to Eaton? And then I went from that tiny. I went from really big competitive school. And then my brother died. So then my parents took me to a really small, cozy school, where everyone treated me really well, because I thought I was just really talented, but it turns out they all knew.

And then at 13 went to Eton, which is suddenly back into ultra-competitive. You're living on your own, you're in your own room, your time is your own, your time is your own, your time is your own. And some of my classes in Eton, they would rank us in the class from like one to 20. Like you always knew where you were.

God, there was a whole World Cup thing going on. There was a whole World Cup thing going on, and I loved it. No wonder those boys come out feeling I have a right to... Do you know what I mean, to run the country? Oh, it's really easy looking back on it. I chose comedy, which was the hard course. It would have been so much easier for me to be Prime Minister.

It's so much easier. So many more offers to go to politics and comedy. I mean, I'm going to say now, what is it, seven every ten years? You've got a shot. We've all got a shot. It's 20. 20 of the last 58 Prime Ministers went to Eaton. Maybe you're talking to number 21.

I don't know. Depends how your listeners take to this episode. I want to go back a bit more, I'm fascinated by your childhood because I think I might have met your dad briefly once when I was with having lunch with your brother. I'm sure, yeah. And I remember, I think your dad might have been there and I just remember him being immensely charismatic and, you know, everyone seemed to know him. Everyone in the restaurant seemed to know him. Yeah, that's how I ended up with five half siblings. That's exactly the problem.

the nail on the head. It's charming. It's charming. It's charming. It's a problem. It's a nightmare. It's okay. I didn't know him. No, no, no. You never know. I meet people. Some of my friends, I meet their grandparents. You know, I know your father in the 60. I don't want to know. I don't want to know. Why are you flustered? Oh, God. But your dad, and you talk about this very openly, which I love, by the way, because I think when you're posh, and I'm using that word, because you've used that word. I'm not being offensive, but I think sometimes people feel particularly in comedy.

It's like, I don't want to address this. Let's just put on a slight cockney accent or pretend I'm less posh than I was or apologize for it a bit and say, but we didn't have any money, but we didn't do this, but I was a scholarship boy. You know, you don't do that. You just, you're like, mention it all.

And I kind of respect that. But going, delving into your background as I have, I'm going to say you're the poshest person I've ever had on this podcast, possibly the poshest person I've ever met. Thank you very much. Thank you. Because you're... I wish more people opened with that. You're...

And I've met some posh people. You're descended from a... So it's a Marquist. Was your grandfather a... It's the Marquess of Zetland? Yeah. The thing is, my dad's side of the family is posh, and my mum's side of the family isn't posh. But because of my surname...

Yes. It's Dundas which is, there's a castle. I know that much. There's a, there's a castle. So basically my uncle, so my grandfather, if we start there, is the Marquessus Etland, was the Marquess of Zetland. He died earlier this year, is that? That was my uncle. My grandfather died before I was born. Got it.

But basically seven generations ago there was a trader in 700s in Edinburgh. It's a Scottish clan. There's a tartary. There's a tartan, very popular tartan, and their headquarters of Royal Bank of Scotland is in Dundas House. So whenever I go to Edinburgh Fringe, people are staying on Dundas Street. There's a big statue of Count Melville, who's Henry Dundas, they keep trying to bring down each year. Is he a bit problematic? He was the Scottish MP who delayed the abolition of slavery in Scotland.

It's not great. It's not great. What's worse, or not worse, but what doesn't help is they were going to bring him down. I was at University in Bristol during the Black Lives Matter movement 2020 and I was there when they brought down Edward Colston, who was the slave trader which and everything around Bristol is named after. They've renamed everything and we brought down that statue. And then in Edinburgh they started to bring down Count Melville.

And I was yeah, bring him down, bring him down Count Melville. And did you press on that accent? And then I clicked on, yeah, yeah, about time. And then I went to Wikipedia and it said, Count Henry Dundas Melville. And I went, ooh, that's interesting. where have they got that from? It was my seven times great-grandfather's cousin. Okay. So a bit of a loopy way round, but... He still got the name.

He still got the name. And what didn't help was that they were going to try and bring him down. It's that big statue on that plinth, big 150-foot plinth, and then a statue at the top. You can't really see it, like what it looks like. But they didn't just bring him down cleanly. They tried to bring him down. And then a bunch of historians came out and said, He had to, he basically put in an extra bit of law in the abolition of slavery that allowed people to get reparations. Allowed like landowners to get reparations. And a bunch of people were like, oh, he was trying to delay it to make his friends rich. And then a bunch of historians came out and said, no, that was the only way it was ever going to get passed through.

Because all the people voting on it were the people that were benefiting from the slave trade. So then there was quite a heavy and not very nuanced debate about whether he was a good guy or a bad guy. and about relative morality in the time. And I was very glad that that debate was taking place, but it did just extend the amount of weeks that my surname was in the newspaper's Dundas slave question mark. It was like not a good period. And they were having this conversation

about how far in the past we go and da-da-da-da. But that was in 2020, I was at university, and that was kind of the first time I learnt about my lineage on that side of the family because I'm not close with my dad's family so much. Right. Because they're much older, my dad is the youngest son of the Marquess of Zetland. Got it.

He's 10, 15 years ago. And your dad, am I right in assuming your dad inherits, your dad is a lord technically? So my dad's a lord, but it doesn't pass to me. Because your dad's not the air. Because my dad's not the air. So the way it works in the UK is everything goes to the eldest son of the eldest son. So the eldest son becomes the Marquess. And all the other kids become Lord and Ladies.

And then the Marquess's children, the eldest becomes Marquess and the rest become Lord and ladies. But the Lord and Ladies' children don't become anything. Well, amateurs, stand-up comedians. And a mildly successful PR Oracle. But let's not say nothing. So me and my siblings don't get a title, but my cousin, my first cousin, is the new Marquess of Zetland and lives in...

Do you think it would have changed you having a title? Hell yeah. I wouldn't be doing this podcast. I'd be gallivanting. I'd probably still be in Regent's Park, to be honest, with the dog. Do you think it would have changed you? If I'd grown up on the side of the family that lived in the castle. Yeah, like a lord.

Yeah, because I don't feel culturally posh. I feel culturally, I went to private school, and my mum's self-made and very successful businesswoman. So I grew up very privileged, and I sound posh, and I have the titled family. And the Eton. And the whole Eton thing. But where I feel more culturally aligned,

is more what people would also hate, but for different reasons of a kind of new money situation. I grew up and I went to private school and I live in London and I like comedy and I go to Arsenal games and I don't like shooting, I don't like the countryside. I find posh people quite annoying most of the time. I just am aware that I sound and act like them, but I'm not culturally, like I'm not wearing red trousers and a julee. I'm doing street wearing London. I was a bit disappointed. I know.

I'm also hoping for that. But when you say, like, I'm one of the poshest people. I'm definitely the poshest comedian. Yes, you are. And what's funny is when reviewers try and have a little jab at my privilege, they'll say, you know, Alfie is classic, showing the classic middle-class brogue that we come to expect or whatever. And they think that that's a bit of an insult. But what they don't realize is that is massively reducing what I'm actually doing on stage.

I'm the only upper-class comedian. You're not middle class, yeah, you're upper-class. Until one of the royals do comedy, I'm the most upper-class comedian. I'd like to put that on record for the reviewers. You make that vital. Joe Weil doesn't have a title. Joe Wynne went to Marlborough. Why are we calling him?

Iva Graham went to Eaton, doesn't have a title. I don't have a title, but I'm the closest to it. There's no aristocratic comedians. So if you're going to have a go at my privilege, make it upper-class. But this is what I find interesting. You can. could argue, some might argue, why is that the case? Because when you grow up with privilege, you're less hungry.

Stand-up comedy is terrifying. A bit like why they're no posh footballers. You know, it's the idea, or boxers, actually more specifically. Yeah. It's the idea that to do something which most people would consider utterly terrifying, it's a risky, it's a risky sort of prospect doing that. And some might argue, well, posh people wouldn't need to do that. Yeah.

Do you know what I mean? Yeah, but that's where, like, my mum's side of the family comes in and kind of, I feel much more personality-wise, cult more similar to that side of the family. Like my, more sort of driven and self-starter. Yeah, well, my grandfather and my dad, my parents had the completely opposite upbringing where my grandfather and my dad's side is the Marquess of Zetland and grew up in a, now. things have changed but back then it was growing up in a castle you know my dad grew up in a castle and you know shook his father's hand and it was it's saltburn it was it was cold and like nasty bunk grand whereas my mum grew up the my mom's father was a diplomat in the civil service when in the foreign office when Nigeria was

just going through independence he was in poor hardcore in Nigeria for 10 years and then in Istanbul and then Atlanta and in Malaysia. So my mum grew up in Nigeria and then Turkey. But not fancy. Now being a diplomat is quite nice. There's a lot of like fancy state dinners. Back then it was just- It was a duty. It was like basically coming out of the army and it was at a time when my grandfather was in Nigeria it was transition from, you know, juju and witch doctors into trying to implement a British court and rule of law and there was no railways and there was no infrastructure yet. So it was, and it was, and it was, and it was not well paid. You did it out of some sort of honour. There was no spoils to be had.

It was a sort of, it was a really old, I'm reading my grandfather's book at the moment and it was a really sort of, it's a really old fashioned idea, but every page he sort of goes, well, I did that because I ought to. Yes. And you're sort of going, we've lost that mentality for sure. Yeah, we don't have that. I do it.

And he grew up in Preston and he died, you know, 85 years later in Charlie, Manchester. And so he had my, both my parents are one of four, but where my mum and her siblings grew up abroad

and kind of in an office of servitude, you know, my mum would be a young child and the job was to serve drinks at dinners for diplomas. whereas my dad's going up in a castle in the country where they're having fox hunts and whatever posh people do it's just two very very different and how it's interesting because what was your when you were growing up what was the energy like in your household do you think that you know

because of your mom in a way it was just those two very different people coming together do you think that was helpful in some ways in that you were saying your dad had a formal kind of rigidity to his background and I think that's it's really nice to see I can't imagine that was the kind of background that you had though no no well my dad is and i've done material and there's videos in light of me and my dad clubbing my dad's a rava and he's like a party guy I think what every generation just rebels against the last so I think what happened was my dad's parents were strict and cold so he went hippie and warm and now I'm going strict and cold again It's a nice combination where I'm serious and I use spreadsheets and I'm quite like health conscious

and because my parents were very chill. I had nothing to rebel against. But it was a very supportive environment and that combination... I thought this was for us. Oh, wow. I wish it was. It's not. Someone's just trying to bring us pancakes.

That's a hell of it. Do you know that's made me really want pancakes? I thought you were going to just accept it. I nearly did. Raymond's really excited for those pancakes. I'm just excited. We're at, we should say at the Regents Park Cafe, and this man came over. That looks so nice, Alfie. I bet you're quite healthy. You wouldn't eat that. I would. This is, there's QR codes on the table, and I don't know if you have this, but there's like a trend going around when I was at uni where you just put on your Instagram story what table you're at,

and people would send you the most disgusting drinks you can get. And there's something about being at the Regents Park Cafe, the idea of putting up the QR code and then a bunch of our audience, which is just going to be poshous, to be honest, sending us pancakes. Quite fun. If this was live streamed, I'd go, hey, table 328, send me some pancakes if you're enjoying the pod so far. Support a young artist. Buy me a coffee. Actually making a pancake. So were you always, because your uncle was very famous in the 70s, 80s.

In the 70s, David, yeah. Yeah, he did a really famous song called Jeans on. Jeans on. It was a jingle for Brutus Jeans. Can you sing it? What is it? In the morning light, I put on my jeans and I feel all right. I think it's that?

Yes. I put my blue jeans on. I put my old blue jeans on. It's really good. It's just been the top. And the great thing is we don't need to pay royalties. No, no. Although Spotify might go, that's a bit too, that's eerily similar to the original.

You might get copyright struck how good that was. David was, my dad's... And he co-wrote, was he involved with Nell and I? Yeah. Yeah. So he was, he wrote that jingle. He wanted to be a music. He was a musician.

He wrote that jingle for Brutus Jeans. It got turned into a song. I think it hit number two in the charts. Is that your dad's brother? It's my dad's brother. Yeah, my dad's older brother. My dad's the youngest. And my dad and David kind of grew up together.

They moved to London together in their 20s. And they shared a flat. And David, I don't, I don't want to get this right, but I think David was friends with Bruce Robinson, who wrote Withman. And that flat is real. So my dad kind of remembers being young and going to stay with Davy

in what that... In the Withnell and my flat. That Withnell and I flat, and the deep heat and all of those things were just real things. I'm not going to ask who the inspiration for Uncle Monty is. Let's leave that on soul. Uncle Monty's definitely a real person.

I mean, ask anyone in that generation about their uncles, but it was all real. I think the reason that film is so cult and I really weirdly watched it about a month ago is because it was real like it was authentic and even those shots you don't really get anymore those those people it was sort of that I see you know that sort of um I'm going to be a poet do you know what I mean it was a very well it was broke it was like kind of cash poor poshos it was like privately educated wanting to be in the arts yeah and then not being an immediate success yeah and

you kind of you have a flat but you can't afford to heat it but you sort of got by through the kindness of strangers as well yeah and like because because you could you could there was always a flat someone's someone's floor in eaton square where you could maybe crash you know that's the privilege you the the main privilege there's a big conversation going on obviously in comedy about um nepotism and privilege and especially the how expensive the edible infringes or just how expensive comedy is. If you want to be a comedian you kind of have to get to London and if you want to survive in London for three years before you're getting paid for gigs you have to find a way and that's just a reality

and it's like well how are you meant to be able to focus on the craft if you're balancing two full-time jobs and coming in and out of London and the main people talk about nepotism or what a lot and you know I don't have any family that work in comedy but having parents that live in London that I can live with rent-free for the first couple years whilst I give comedy a go. Like that's the benefit. The ability to kind of go to London and know that there's someone's couch you can crash on. I would argue with comedy, it's one of the few professions where nepotism is fairly useless.

Because I can see even with acting, and I'm not saying dismissing acting as a lesser skill. but I do think with comedy it's all about the audience response to you you can still get parts in a film even if you're shit whereas no one is going to can't see your gigs if you're not funny in the pure sense of the word nepotism i literally having family favours

it really doesn't no it's not going to help really and the comedians that do come from comedy families are still have to go and build their own audience the difference is is that if you're an actor you'll put on set those first couple years when you're maybe not so good, you can have multiple takes and you can

figure it out and you can get an acting coach. If your dad's a famous comedian and then you try and become a comedian, it doesn't help you know how to do it. The audience might like you for the first two minutes, but then you're going to lose them. You have to prove it again and again and again. And you don't perhaps have his hunger, so therefore. But what I would say, I think you're absolutely right and correct to acknowledge that is that, you know, it gives you a head start, you know, I was similar. When I was going into sort of broadcasting and journalism, I literally just from having a base in London,

is how it helps you. That's the benefit. I didn't have to get a rentless flat or something. It's kind of like when people, nepotism is like an easy word to jump on. Yeah. But it's less interesting than just the privilege. The privilege is, for example, going up to being able to afford to do Edinburgh.

Edinburgh Fringe is where every great comedian has come through. And it is now no longer possible to do it. and make a profit, a break-even. You basically have to make a loss. I'm going this year, and by all accounts, it's going to be a good run. Even if it sells out, I make a loss. Do you?

So it's about like, how are you, and people talk about it openly. I talk about it with other comedians. I talk about it, with my agent. It's like, it's an investment in your career. It's a lost leader always. But I can afford to make that investment in my career because I still live at home.

Got it. And it's like, if I was paying rent, rent in London right now I wouldn't be able to go to Edinburgh do you still live at home now then I moved out after uni because I was working in tech and I rented a flat in Soho and I lived like a king flat in Soho who are you hell yeah Austin Powers or something I was an awful human I was 21 I got a big old flat in Soho I got a big old job in tech I've been working Did you have a lot of money did the parents help with it? No I was earning a lot because I worked throughout uni for a tech company because it was COVID.

Okay. So by the time I graduated I got like a big job and then I was... In Soho? I'm like the Duke of Westminster. Oh I was living it up. Yeah, I was on the Bedford estate. I was probably renting off someone I know. And it was a shoe box and it was ludicrously expensive but I could walk to my job in Farringdon and do 10 hours a day trying to run a tech startup and then I would go and gig every night. every night and I started doing comedy and I lived like a king and I walked around so hurt and I thought I was the coolest person in the world and then you walked away from the tech job I walked away from the tech job I basically

achieved everything I wanted to in tech in like five years and then as soon as I was in comfortable I quit okay and I don't that's it that's been a bit of a pattern it was like when I was at uni and I should be doing uni I was working for a tech company in London and getting the train back and forth and then when I was 24 and things were going well in tech and I was living in London and everyone else was moving to London. I was like, oh, I'll just do comedy then full time. I really hope you love part one of this week's Walking the Dog. If you want to hear the second part of our chat, it'll be out on Thursday.

So whatever you do, don't miss it. And remember to subscribe so you can join us on our walks every week.