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

Episode Date: August 6, 2026

In part two of Emily and Ray's walk with the wonderful Alfie Dundas, the conversation delves deeper into Alfie's time at Eton, the expectations that came with his upbringing, and why he eventually decided to walk away from a successful career in the tech industry to pursue stand-up comedy instead.He also talks about his debut Edinburgh show, First Class Panic, and the experiences that inspired it, as well as what it's really like making the leap into comedy full-time.If you haven't already, do go back and listen to part one. And if you're heading to this year's Edinburgh Festival, don't miss First Class Panic at the Pleasance Courtyard from August 5th to 30th. Tickets are available now at https://www.edfringe.com.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.

Welcome to part two of Walking the Dog with the brilliant comedian Alfie Dundas. If you want to go and see Alfie at the Edinburgh Festival, his show First Class Panic is on at the Pleasants Courtyard throughout August. You can get tickets via edfringe.com and by the way, do give Walking the Dog a like and a follow so you can catch us every week. Here's Alfie and Ray Ray. Can I just say you're so fascinating to talk to and obviously your background's fascinating but I also want to know a bit more about you as a child I suppose and I want to go back to you growing up you've had this really you know it's a it's a tragedy isn't it that you went experienced with your brother and what were you like as a kid did that change

you I'm imagining it absolutely did change you as you say it forced you to grow up a bit but what would I have said about you if I was you know one of your friend's parents and they said what's Alfie Dundas like mm-hmm at what Probably, I want to say, let's say eight, nine. Sure. Well, I mean, I say what age? I think I was really consistent. I was very chatty.

Right. I was very confident and chatty. And, you know, I talk about how things changed after Louis died, but I don't really remember before that. As in, you know, I was six when he got ill and I was eight when he passed away. So it was a bit like, was I, did I change? Or was that just, that was still in your formative years.

So it's sort of, you've only ever. really been one way and I was very confident and I looking back on it now this seems obvious but I was cracking a lot of jokes but I never saw myself as like a particularly like the class clown but looking back on it was definitely doing a little bit of that right and I loved hanging out with the adults like that was always the coolest thing to me I think I was longing to be an adult for a long time I was desperate to be an adult and I didn't want to hang out with my friends. I wanted to talk to their parents.

And I loved it when I got sat next to someone's boring dad at a dinner because I talked to him about his business. I loved it. I was obsessed with business. Who was it? David Cameron or someone. It could have been Cameron, Boris Johnson, just any, just normal guys, just like the same people everyone talks to. But I loved it.

I would sit next to someone and they would go, oh, my dad has some boring job. And then I talked to him when he's the CEO of some huge company. I go, well, how do you think the age of someone? Asian market's going to respond to that new law or whatever. And I loved that. Like I had it in an adult conversation. And I think part of that came down to having four older siblings.

Yep. Who naturally I probably idolized a little bit. And so when they would come over for dinners and they were in their 20s and 30s and I was 10, 11, just a bit young to be staying up. The way to stay at the dinner party was to act like an adult. I knew that if I was the annoying kid, I'd be sent to bed. But I wanted to stay up. You know when you're a kid, you're like, I just give me like,

I just want half an hour more at the table. Yeah. And if I joined in in the banter and I could make them laugh, and if I could act like an adult, despite the fact that I was drinking apple juice, I always thought it would keep me at the table longer. And I think that is how I was constantly acting. I think if you were a friend of,

a parent of one of my friends, you would just see me as very confident, probably quite loud. A bit precocious? Probably. I think that's like, Chippy was the term we used at school. Like I would chat.

to the older boys and I would give it back because I liked the chat I liked that game and at eaten and this is explains all of those PMQs where David Cameron destroys whatever you know it's like if someone takes the piss on you and you can give it back like there's kind of a respect there I didn't see a massive amount of physical bullying although I'm sure it does happen at all body schools but it was more of a like can you survive with your words like have you got the gift of the gap it's like roasting essentially comics roasting yeah it's it's it's it's I do look at my journey from like having older siblings where our whole relationship is based on humour and then going to an all boys boarding school where the hierarchy is based on humour and humour is survival.

Right. Like if you're funny and you don't annoy the older boys, you're less likely to get bullied. So that's a real currency at boarding school? It does feel like the perfect, looking back at it's the perfect pipeline to comedian. Were you lonely? How was it like going to boarding school? Because people often, obviously it's a question people ask and some people will say, I don't know about sending a kid away young.

You were slightly older, weren't you? I was 13, I wasn't eight, which is what some boys go, yeah. Yeah. Did you want to go to boarding school? Yes, and I loved it. But I think I loved it because I already felt not lonely, but alone. Like I was like, after Louis died and I kind of growing up kind of for a couple years with a younger brother and then in an empty, not in an empty house, but as an only child.

It says what's called a therapist, after I lost my sister, called it the presence of absence. And I wonder if maybe that's what you felt a bit. What does that mean? The presence of absence. It means the constant sense of someone being absent. Yes. It's a presence in your life. You can't explain it to other people really, but it's just, it's a sense of, it's kind of, it's just, it'll never not be there.

And I find myself subconsciously moving towards things where you're at. isolated. Like I got to Eaton, I've eaten you have your own room from the start. I should hope so at those prices. Yeah. There's no dorms and. I mean I wouldn't be sharing with that money. There's no like there's you know there's 1500 boys in the school. And do you have to wear all those uniforms? Wearing tails. It does look nice. I know it's you don't wear. I think it's Harry where they wear a top hat. or something, not a top hat, but a little cap that they have to.

Winchester have one as well, maybe. Don't know. Anyway, yeah. Drop it in the comments if you know. If you're listening to this, what all kids were to school? Because I know you're out there and listeners. Do you know what we had? We had some family friends, and the kids were inevitably called Hamish and Huey.

Yeah. Oh, you're lovely boys. I can remember, probably similar family story going on there. And I can listen to that. And I can remember, this is what always struck me. They both went to Winchester, and it was how sophisticated. I can't explain that. We'd go around there, and they said to my mother,

one of them must have honestly been about seven years old. And he said to my mother, as the answer to the door, Christine, this is crazy. We haven't seen you for ages. Yeah, yeah. This is crazy. Like, it's not how a seven-year-old taught. Then he put his cigarette out.

He went, come in, we've got some cake, and they've got the cake somewhere. But you know what I mean? Yeah. Oh, he was 13. and I had a lisp. If you'd come around, Emily, what a pleasure. I haven't seen you since.

John has do. And sort of understanding, he was like, and how are the kids? It's like you're a kid. They treat you. The secret source to those, like, elite private schools, the reason they create confident people is because they treat you like adults.

And it's a very sweet, you know, sink or swim environment. And half of the boys swim. And then you just, nothing can really, Does it teach it's confidence or something? It's social confidence. It can definitely be entitlement. Right. And there's a fine line between telling people they have value

and that they should be loud with their voice and how to talk to people and how to look people in the eye. That can seep into because you're better than them. Right. That's a really fine line. How do you tell people they're special without them starting to believe it too much? Yeah.

That's hard. But what I noticed is I loved school because you very quickly know that, There's a five-year plan here. You're doing sport every day. Your time is your own. If you don't get the work done, you get in trouble. There's no one looking over you, making sure you do your home work.

You can do it at midnight. You can do it at four in the morning. You just get it done. What I found really difficult was then leaving school. I went and worked for a year for a tech company in London. Was this before you went to Bristol University? Yeah. I had a year in between and kind of didn't really

do a gap yard, which is what most people do. I went, I worked in Shanghai for about six months, again, just chasing that kind of isolation. Didn't speak Mandarin, but loved that. Then got to Bristol University and was like, oh, this is a step backwards. Yeah. Maybe you had always had a bit of an entrepreneurial spirit out. 100%. That's what I wanted to do. It's from your mum, maybe. I wanted to be, I was just trying to set up companies and the social network had just come out. And I was, when I was 21, I was devastated, because Mark Zuckerberg made a billion pounds for he's 21 and I hadn't. Really?

Genuinely, it never occurred to me that I wouldn't because I was like, that's what this is all been leading up to. Where did you get that belief? Was it eaten, your parents or just knew you off? It was just feeling both that you can do anything genuinely. That's all anybody's ever told me. And also, on the other hand, of pressure and feeling, well, if you don't, don't, don't, then you failed all this. Right.

You failed everyone. Right. Because what's the point of getting all this special treatment and support and going through all these hard things to them just be like a normal kid? And what was, you mentioned, well, my producer was just changing the battery there. You mentioned, which one obsessed with, that Jacob Bruce Mogg's kids work. Were they in your year at eating? It might not be in a kid.

It might be in a nephew. nephew, yeah. I had one. But it was family, it was Reese Morg's, basically. It was a Ries Morg in my house a couple years above me at Eton. So he was, he was senior to me. But I remember, I think, being in the room next door to him. But what's weird is when you're 13, you don't know,

Reese Mollum means nothing to you. You just go, is this ginger kid in my house? Did you have any names like that? Because I can remember there were some other, there were some friends of ours again, who were, you know, the kids were at a prominent public school. And they said, um, the mother said, Oh, it's so wonderful.

Little Rishi's done so well for himself. I mean, it doesn't make me feel very old. Yeah. But did you have any, anyone like that who went on? Well, we'll find out. Oh, we'll find out. Yes, yours are all starting out. We're all starting out.

I mean... There are probably people already have gone into politics, I would imagine. 100%. There's no public figures yet from my year. I'm trying to think... One thing I have experienced is bumping into, you know, I left Eaton 10 years ago, or 8 years ago now, and I, and again, this is in the show, so anyone's seen the show will have heard this, but I bumped into a friend the other day who is now at Palantir,

which is the, you know, the US company that makes drone technology. And it was, it was a tough conversation to be honest, because he's, he led the conversation with I've seen you're doing stand-up, God, that's so brave I could never do that. And I said, yeah, the feeling's mutual, to be honest. And then he said that my crowd work was a bit harsh. I said, well, so was some of your targeted killings. So why don't we just end this conversation? But what's funny, what's funny is that there are more boys in my year that work a

paladin than there are doing stand-up comedy, that's for sure. And I don't mean to say that, like, oh, well, I deserve more credit. So you and Ivo Graham are the outliers, really. I'm the only comedian I know from my social circles. And what's weird is because the private school bubble is a bubble and everyone knows everyone. So if you were in my year at another boarding school, I probably know of you because you're friends with this person

and that's your godmother and you dated this person. It's really insular. It's a minority group of the population. It's really small and they're all in three post-coes. One of my friends said to me, which was really interesting, that he noticed when I was with my friends, and there is a sort of slightly, I suppose, North London,

it's a different bubble, but it's a North London girl, schools, this, that and the other. And he used to call me and my friend's surnames. And I said, why? And he said, you don't just say, oh, do you know Tara? Yeah. It's always the surname. Yeah.

And I remember them saying, what is this Game of Thrones? Like you said, do you know? I was called Dundas at school for five years. Because there was, my real name's Alexander. There's five Alexanders in my year. Have you got a Francis in there? Alexander Lawrence Francis. There's always a Francis.

ALF, Alf, Alfie. Oh, is that why you're Alfie? That's so cute. My son-y-ma-Mack, and my brother and sisters came up with that when I was born. I'm glad, because Alex Harda-Dundas would not be so cheeky, chappy on stage, would he? I mean, that poster's not quite as nice. He feels like he could be in reform. It's a bit like, well, why is he wearing a blue suit at the Edinburgh fringe?

It's not a good vibe. You feel like you could be my divorce lawyer at this point. It is that. There's a language to it. Yeah. And it's very. There's a great bit in Saltburn. Archie and Barry Keogan have a scene where...

Is it in the tutor's office? No, it's when they're watching everything burn. And Archie Madreke's character has stolen... No, yeah, I think he's stolen from the family. That's it. He's their cousin, and he's stolen something, and he's betrayed them, and they have that argument, and they kick him out.

And then he arrives at the party. And Barry Keogan's like, how are you... Why are you here? You've fallen out with the family. And he goes, what you don't understand is there's nothing you could ever do that will make you part of this family. there's nothing I could ever do that will take me out of it. And I was like, yeah, that's it.

You've smashed it. Right. They've smashed it. And this is the problem with it. I spend my entire career taking the piss out of the people that then are like, love me for it. Whenever a posho finds out I'm doing comedy, they're like, we want to come to the show, we love it. Everything I'm saying they disagree with, a lot, most of the time. Yeah.

All of, all of, that whole bubble, because everybody knows. knows everybody. The fact that I'm doing comedy makes me like the thing for them to go and see because I'm like the only posh person they know doing comedy. I'm sure it's the same for Ivo Graham. I'm sure it's the same for Jack Whitehall. I have people come to my gigs that go, oh you might know my son's flatmates, boyfriends, whatever. They feel a sort of sense of in-grouping. Was there a sense also maybe I'm thinking not your parents' friends because I get the sense from what you said. Your dad and mum are quite sort of entrepreneurial, you know, they're sort of, so I suppose you wouldn't really get it from their friends,

but do you ever get sort of family people or just some of the poshos, if you like? Are they a bit baffled by what you do? They're offended by it. They're offended by it. Is Alfie's still doing this little comedy? They're offended by it, but they'll still support it. Got it. Because it's me.

So that's what's, and especially doing quite, you know, I'm young and I live in London. So my material is quite liberal and comedy is a bit of a left-wing sport most of the time. So it's funny when I have poised. Posh, whenever posh middle-aged men find out I do comedy, the first thing they say is that must be so difficult because you can't say anything these days. And I go, why have you led with that? Why have you led with that?

The problem is you can't say anything racist. And I go, when was the last time you went to a comedy club? You've never been to a comedy club. You go, well then go, then go, they're saying everything. They're saying everything. You just live in the country. So you just don't know. You have no art all that.

You live on a massive farm and there's not enough culture around you. So what's funny is, and people now obviously with Instagram is they see my reels and they see that I'm doing comedy and they like that I'm doing comedy and they want to be part of it. And then I'll have

I've had posh people come up to me and be like, you're one of the only comedians I enjoy, it's just you. And then they'll name three of the most racist comedians I've ever heard of. And he'll go, you four are the bastions of free speech. And I go, listen to the material. I'm doing. Listen to the words.

I'm doing pro-immigration stuff where I go, you know, more boats, more boats. And they think it's a thing. Yeah, of course. I'm taking the piss out of them. Yeah. And they don't realize because I'm one of them. So they would prefer me to take the piss out of them than someone that's not one of us to say what they want. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That was the whole point of that film. Barry Keogan comes into the film and he sucks up to the poshos and he does whatever they want. And Archimadrake says, you'll still never be one of us. And I really understand that. Yes. It's fascinating, isn't it? Well, you mentioned your reels, and I want to talk about how you really grew your comedy career,

and it was online. That was huge for you, wasn't it? And so let's get to the bit where you're working at the tech company. You've got the Duke of Westminster apartment in so high. Which I was paying full rent on, by the way. That was no favour. That wasn't Lord Bruce Stundler. No, I was paying like £1,500 a month for a room the size of Raymond, basically.

Was it tiny? It was tiny. But that's what you're meant to? do you see what I wanted I was chained smoking and I was walking into Soho to the gig and then to my job yeah I thought I was the wolf of All Street I thought I was the coolest guy in the world yeah and why did you walk away from it all because it was unsustainable and it was and it was in what way on sustainable you could have gone on to progression that career I could I got to the point

not because it was unsustainable which was I was doing was unustainable which was I was doing both. I was running a tech company and trying to be an open-mic stand-up comedian. Because you secretly had always wanted to do that, do you think? My goal was always to IPO a company and ring the bell and be a billionaire and have a success story and change the world and do Mark Zuckerberg social network, but just a little bit more personality. So where does the comedy come into it? Well, I loved comedy and I loved sitcom and I was watching comedy specials and I grew up in front of the TV basically watching comedy. and then I noticed that I was re-watching specials I liked and transcribing them and trying to,

I'm starting to pick up on the joke patterns and starting to predict the punchlines on live at the Apollo and that kind of thing. Because you do start to see a repetition. And you knew presumably from your experiences at Eaton that you were seen, it's how you're perceived, you know, you get your spice girls moniker at school, don't you? Yeah. He's the funny one. He's the, so was that sort of you, were you? That was interesting, but what was.

Dry spice. What was more important to me was I could make my parents' friends laugh. Genuinely laugh. I could hold attention at a dinner party and really make them laugh. Because I was picking up on how their kids... Now I look back on it and I understand what I was doing. Back then I was just feeling it. I was just sensitive and I was just feeling...

Oh, this feels nice. This is when you should add that extra punchline. This is when you should go into the high-pitched voice impression of whatever. And I had done an open mic in my last term at Bristol University. I'd hated Bristol. I just didn't enjoy it very much and I spent the whole three years working for a company in London. I moved to London, I continued working. I started doing the open mics in the evening. So I was working like eight, ten hour days at a stressful company and then going and doing an open mic. And I did a few of the open mic comedy competitions and they went okay.

Like I never won, but I always kind of got to the final and I had a few jokes that I thought were all right. And then it got to the point where I started getting offered paid gigs. Not a lot, but, you know, someone was like, doing 20 quid to come and do 10 minutes. And the startup I was working for, I was about, I was maybe keen on leaving. Right. And I thought, I either take another startup job. And if it succeeds, I'll be there for seven to ten years, which is how long it takes to get to a sale and exit. Or I do comedy for a bit.

And I knew that if I did comedy for a couple years and it failed, I could always go back to tech. Because I was very far ahead for my age. I knew that if I came back at 28 to tech, I'd only get offered better jobs because now people would suddenly see me as more mature. Right. But I knew that if I took the startup job and it worked, then I'd be 30, 35 before I'm out. And I will never do comedy then because I'll have kids or have mortgage or whatever. So I just, it didn't feel like a risk. And it wasn't me giving up a career in tech,

because the way the world works now, I think tomorrow, if I wanted to go back, I could. And I still do some part-time work. And when you step away from things, you're often more in demand afterwards. But it also wasn't like I was working a job and I hated it and I wanted to be an artist. I loved my job. Okay. And I loved the comedy. I got my phone in there.

Do you know, Alfie's done something extraordinary. Do you want it? No. But Alfie did something and I can't actually believe it. We got up to move because I was whinging about the noise, wasn't I? And we're taking a little stroll around the part. And do you know what? Alfie just picked up my Raffia bag.

I feel you're the sort of person that whatever you did, you'd sort of make a success of it. I know this, it's a bit like Jimmy Carr, who's a bit like Jimmy Carr, who's a bit of a bit, who's a friend of mine, he worked in, he worked for an oil company. I think he was sort of in marketing. I never really worked out what the job was. But I sort of felt, well, then he did comedy, but whatever he did, he would have sort of made it happen.

And I kind of get that sense from you in a way. Sure. Well, I appreciate that. I feel the same way in the least arrogant way possible. I just like, I'm never really worried about things not working out. I just sort of always believed that if, well I just will either quit because I want to or it'll work out eventually eventually eventually one thing I'm getting better at now is being a little bit more patient with things

when I started I was really desperate for things to move quickly and because of social media you can now in a way that you couldn't before you started doing open mics but what did you just start because a lot of your clips have gone I mean you're a lot of your content's gone viral You've had how many millions of views have you had? You're over 100 now, aren't you? Yeah, I think about 100 million views. And what was sort of more important was I wanted to go viral with stand-up clips. Stand-up's quite hard to make go viral because you can only edit what is happened in the room.

So if you do a sketch, if you pick up the phone and you go, people with dogs be like, and then you do, you know, see, it's good stuff. It gets a giggle here, but it's like... Well, it gets a giggle from recognition of the genre. POV, you've got a dog, you know, and then what people with dogs, having a dog is like in your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50, you know. Can you run my social media page, for me? That content is, it's not easy to make, you've got to come up with the ideas, you've got to film, you've got to edit it, but it is, you can... It's reliable.

It's reliable, and you can spend a bit of time going, well, what's the best word to have in the caption? And if you do a bad take, you can retake it. With stand-up, the reason it's hard to make stand-up go viral is because, you know, you know, you know, you're... You can't edit a hook in later. You have to, you have to, you can't control what happens in the room. You have to just edit what you have. And so I was like happy to go viral with stand up. But what basically happened is I started posting clips even when I was at the open mics.

That which was unusual, I think most people get good and then they post online. Whereas I knew it would take, I knew that getting good was linear, but that social media was exponential. Right. And I knew that I had to post it. in the same way you have to die a hundred times on stage before you have a good gig. You have to post 100 videos before you have a viral one. And I just thought, well I'm doing the 100 bad gigs now. Why don't I also do the 100 bad videos now? And that was crowd work, is it?

No, that was just clips from gigs. I used to put my first 50 videos where stand up from open night where there's five people in the room and I did a pretty average joke and then I'd spend an hour editing it and then it would get 17 likes and then I'd go, great, great, that's another bad video out. Let's go, let's go, let's go. In the same way that when you have a bad open mic, you go, great, well, that's another bad gig gone. That's, do you know what, that's a bit, that's changed my life.

So that's a really great way of looking at it. So it's every failure, if you like. Well, or if you want, if you need an incentive, I'm incentivised by wanting to be good and wanting to be successful. And if you go, look, I know it's going to take 10 years to get good. So let's just not. worry about being bad in year one because I know that's going to happen. There's a thing in sales, which is a bit douchey where they go, you're going to get a yes every hundred knows. So get those

hundred knows out as quick as possible. Get the no and celebrate it because it means you're one closer to the yes. And I think you can do the same thing in comedy. And I think a lot, it's funny you bring up Jimmy Carr because I think that marketing background, that's what I used to do for tech companies was growth and marketing. And I think there are the exact same principles to try. And I think there are the exact same principles to try to grow a career in comedy. You're just the product now. We've just got to a statue. Is that one of your relatives? That. It could be. They have got gills, but you know, you know what our posh folk are like. Enough inbreeding. You'll get there. You'll have to breathe underwater.

Nothing will surprise me with the Dundas family. What are we looking at, by the way? That is Triton, is it? I just watched the Odyssey yesterday. Did you? Here we go. Triton Fountain is currently undergoing patination and rewaxing treatment. I've had a bit of that. Jeez. This should be completed with the fountain reopened by the end of July. This is what you get in Regent's part, you see. Everything's under construction.

Yeah. Let's go around here. It's a nice font that. It is nice. What is that? I've used that. Not entirely sure. It's lovely.

My nerdiest thing is I'm on a subreddit called font spotters. Yes, I like a font. You take a picture, you upload it. And a bunch of nerds from all over the world will go, well, technically. I'll tell you. That's Nouveau Sands, but I think it's italics. You go, thanks, mate. I'm a boudoni girl myself.

What's a boudoni? Bidoni's lovely. Look up the font. It's very elegant. So, yes, that's interesting what you were saying about the sort of celebrating, you know, the growth, if you like. Treating, you know, when you don't get, when something doesn't go viral or when your gig doesn't go well. Yeah. Great.

This is part of the process. And I think that's interesting. I know Frank Skinner, who's a long-term friend of mine, he's always observed that about going on things like panel shows or TV. He says, you have to, he said, whenever someone gets that first opportunity, you know, the advice he always gives them is just say everything. Don't hold back. Don't go there and think, I've got five funny things to say.

He's to say 105 things. Because not everything will go well, and you have to go. get you, it's resilience is the key where it's like, oh, the audience didn't like that. And that freaks you out when you're new because you think, oh, oh my God, is this going really badly? Am I dying? Am I dying? It's like, no, get up and keep saying it. Keep saying. This park's amazing. Isn't it lovely regents? Why are more people talking about this? Well, I'm introducing it to the world. It's a bit more discreet. Are you getting paid by the Regions? No, I should be. I should be doing their PR by the Royal Parks. Everyone heads to

hamster teeth. Everyone heads to hide. Hamsterh Heath has just become a cesspit of hipsters. It's just awful. It's just organic wine on the heath for a bunch of creatives with mustaches. Do you know? They all roll their trousers up. When did that come in? When do people

start rolling up the cuff of their gene? I think he's fabulous but it's not been the same since the Stiles boy moved into the area. Yeah. It's changed. It's changed. So I want to get back to your comedy because, like I say, things started really taking off for you. And you grew your sort of presence online.

And you had a couple of fascinating things happened to you at gigs, which you had one time when you had a sort of what I'm going to call a slight cold play incident. When there was a man at your gig when you were doing some crowd work. And he says, well, I'm married because he's with this woman. And then he hurriedly says, but it's okay. I'm separated. Yeah, I said, are you married? Are you married to a couple in the front row? And I said it to the woman, and she said, I'm not, but he is.

And I thought, great, we're going to stop the gig there, talk to you to for a bit. They actually turned out to be lovely. But it is funny doing crowd work, because you do catch people at very random parts in their life. And I think you forget, just because it's your job, you do it night after night, that these people might be, these people might have come to a gig

straight after a really big life event. Yeah. You know, those two had just started dating. He was in the midst of a divorce. She was about to meet his children. Yeah. And they just, they happened to wander into my gig. They probably regretted it immediately.

Yeah. What was fun about that show is I do an annual Valentine's Day show where the whole show is people bring kind of bad first dates and, you know, dating horror stories and we go through them as a room. And it really is very fun because people come in their relationship. but you also get groups of single people coming. We try and set people up at the end. Yeah.

And you did also, in addition to the Coldplay incident, you've had someone vomit at one of your gigs? I had someone throw up whilst I was on stage. And that's the thing about art, is it really pushes you emotionally. By the way, if it sounds like I'm at Niagara Falls, I mean, we're at a waterfall. Isn't it pretty happy? I don't know we had all this in... this in London. Do you like it? It's a great

You're trying to get me to talk about how someone threw up at my gig in the downstairs room of a basement and I'm in a waterfall. Did your parents quite hot on manners? I think so, yeah. Is it Bruce and Ruth? My parents, yeah, which was a nightmare because I used to have a Lisp so I used to call my parents Ruth and Bruce. I said Ruth and Bruce and there's no S in either of those names but I added about six. Oh my god, that's adorable. My thing is I don't remember ever being badly

behave but I don't remember being disciplined either. Really? I feel like I came out of the womb and I was like peas and cues. What does Ruth and Bruce do? My dad works for a jewellery who's a jeweller. Yeah, so sort of high end. Sales Italian, expensive Italian jewelry, if anybody's looking, send me a DM. I'm here to plug the jewelry, to plug the merch. I mean it doesn't really say it sounds quite high end. I don't think it's, you're handing it out at the end of my shows. It's the only show where you get a diamond at the end of it. And then my mum works in fashion and she's on the board of a bunch of companies.

Very serious business woman. Really? Yeah. You'd like my mum. We'll set something up. Do you know, I think I might be. You should come over for dinner. Oh, my God.

I live with them. Do you think they'd like Raymond? They'd like Raymond. How would Billy do? I don't know. But we'll just lock Billy outside. I don't care. What are we going to do about Billy?

I like your dog more than I like my own dog. so it's not a problem. I think I need to come over. You've got to come over. What are we going to do that video? That's where we'll take the photo for the episode. We'll just put a microphone in the room. You go for walks with your guests,

but have you ever been to any of their houses? Yes. But not with the mic on. No, not with the mic on. Oh, no, I have sometimes. Occasionally, I would go, occasionally I'll start them. If people live, sort of, yeah. Or if they live outside of lunch.

that's where I'll start it. So like Gabby Logan, I've made her dirt twice. Fine. I make them all dirt, you're going to now have to do it. Leibax had to do it three times. I assume this is a weekly thing. Yeah. And once you're in, you're in. Frank Skinner's done it twice. Jonathan Ross has done it twice. They all have to do it as many. Ricky Jervais wants. How much dirt do you have on these people at the times? I mean, what, what, how has this happened? What, but they all do it? They all do it multiple times. What do you know about all those people? I'm just... I don't want to start conspiracy, but all the names you just named, let's put them into claw. and see what comes about. What connects them all?

Where were they all? So we need to talk about your upcoming show which I'd love to try and come and see. Are you coming up to the fringe this year? Well I don't think I'm going to be able to but if I do, I'm going to head for you first. And let's go for a walk. Yeah, I love that. And tell me about this show Alfie.

My show is my first time going up to Edinburgh properly doing my first hour. Yeah, because you've done all the shows but this is your first day. This is your day, new hour long show. I have, yeah. I've done like sort of shorter shows, and last year I did a sort of work in progress, but this is a final product.

It's called First Class Panic. I love that title. And originally, you have to name your Edinburgh show. Hello, Ranger. About six months. Wow, they've got go-carts in the park. What is this park? This is like a magical land.

Do you like it here? Yeah. It's, you have to name your Edinburgh show about six months before. you actually write the thing. First class panic is funny. And I thought, I don't know what it's going to be about, but I have one story about having a panic attack

on a private plane that I think will really ingratiate myself with the reviewers and the working public of Scotland. So I started there and worked backwards. When you walk past the Dundas house. Yeah, people keep asking me what the show's about. And almost all the things, you know, it's obviously I talk a lot about privilege in my show. And I do talk about Louie.

I talk about the statue, but never get very serious. It's all really silly, funny stuff. There's no heartfelt message and there's no tears, but the subject matter is d-it is heavy, all the way through. My set list is posh, religion, family, death. That's the four chapters. But it's very funny.

It doesn't sound funny, but it is. No, they sound like the dream comedy subjects. I hope. And I'm really excited to do it and then hopefully take it on tour after Edinburgh. So yeah, very excited. So everyone should come and see you. Is it the Pleasant's Courtyard or the... Pleasant's Courtyard.

Bunker Three. It's a tiny little bunker room. Perfect for comedy. And I have a projector and I kind of, I put pictures on the screen to prove that everything I'm talking about is real. Because the feedback I've been getting on the show is that no one believes any of the things. you're saying but they're all 100% true so I talk about and you might have seen this online being the Arsenal mascot and going on the pitch Alfie was the Arsenal mascot I've seen a photograph of you with John Terry yeah it was

against Chelsea yeah and I and you look really grumpy I look really grumpy because I just been told or thought that if you look like miserable you look cool I just figured out like pouting a little bit but I wasn't pouting I just look sad and in the show I go through all the pictures yeah properly and I have the story of that but yeah I have to put the pictures on the screen because otherwise people go what are you talking about they won't believe you once you've done this Edinburgh show and it's a runaway success yeah what's the dream for you now you've got you signed not long ago to a super high profile agent and I feel like things

are really sort of happening for you I feel like there's momentum behind you at moment but I feel you're also someone who's creating this you don't strike me as someone who waits for life to happen to him I think you do to life would you say that's fair yeah I yeah I mean I but that feels partially driven by necessity I don't think you know when I grew up and I sort of was watching comedy I was watching panel shows and sitcoms and live with the Apollo and all these things which are no longer sort of breakthrough moments So it's interesting. I started doing comedy after COVID.

So my whole career has been during the social media kind of revolution. Most comedians social media changed their industry. It was for me I started and that was kind of commonplace. Because also you're pretty youngster. How old are you? I'm 26 and I've only been going for four years. Adorable. For me really the goal is just to like keep trying to grow an audience and write material. I'll take any opportunities that I can get and audition for things and we'd love to do panel shows.

I would love to do TV. But if that is not going to exist in the next couple years, then I'm happy just like doing my own shows, putting out my own clips. I think what you're doing is building a little army. But I think it's the future. I think so. I think it is, quite honestly. I think panel shows probably won't exist in 10 years. I'm hoping it comes in waves and I hope it comes back.

They'll be on YouTube. Yeah. So I'm just trying to be, I'm trying to be open to whatever's about. Apologies to all my comedians of my age. Yeah. You're done. Pack it in. There's a new generation in town.

But the smart ones kind of reinvent themselves, you know? All of the big comedians now have editors and they're putting out clips and they're doing, Frank's going to's doing his crowdwork show in Edinburgh. I just sold out the entire run. And you know what? He is good at crowdwork. He's good. They're all good at Crowell because they've got the skills.

It's just about transferring them to new mediums. The question for how to break through for like new comedians like me is, what are you going to do to kind of budge your way in there? And I'm just going to use connections. Well, I might introduce you to Frank. I think he'd really like you. There we go, nepotism, back at play. And do you know why?

Frank loves pot people. Does he? He always says to me, he said, I like upper class people. I don't think he likes middle class. He likes upper class. Nice, he's just skipped straight to the top. Well, he's got this idea. that I don't know why he loves posh people the the poshest man he used to have a doctor you know

when you're doing when he was doing for iTV had given him medical or something and he said you know you're taken to this place in Harley Street and this doctor's the poshest man I've ever met yeah and he says uh thanks god I've never seen handwriting like that calligraphy it looked like the doomsome he said I've never seen handwriting like that he said oh do you like it he said I was taught by the traitor blunt he said it actually I rather tried and we love actually I've rather tried rather tried yeah it's great that's good I rather tried I'm gonna do that at the end of the show whether people like it or not well I rather tried actually I rather two stars week hack show well I did try rather so maybe you could be a bit nicer

maybe you could be a bit kinder Alfie I've absolutely loved spending time with you have you enjoyed it it's been a pleasure it's been the best it's been the best it's been the best one to start a week. Oh, that makes me so lovely. I'm sad it's over. Yeah, me too. When can I come back? How many months do I have to wait?

Oh, we'd have you back anytime, Alfie. Right. Adundas is always welcome on this podcast. I'll see you guys next week. Dear listener, I'll see you next week. And thank you for being so sweet with Raymond. I think he's really taken to you. He picks up on energies, you know, so you must have a good energy.

He's a real sweet dog. It's one of the few dogs I like. Oh, I'm so pleased. He's asleep in my arm like a little baby. Well, Alfie, and everyone should go and see your show, First Class Panic, which is... First Class Panic. Tickets at alfidundas.com.

And if you're going to the fringe, come and see it. And if you're not at the fringe, you'll be on tour next year, so keep an eye out. And I'm going to come. If I don't make it to Edinburgh, I'm definitely going to come. Come to the Big London Show, bring your dogs, venue permitting. And we'll... You'll... I do not want to be held responsible.

I want 300 people in their dogs at my show. turning up with a bunch of Doberman pinchers to some poor comedy. A bunch of Labrador and shooting dogs. I can see it now. Alfie, thank you so much. Will you say good, but I'm going to have to take Reverend back off. Sure, sorry, I've got to give that back.

Yeah. He just got comfy. Do you want to say goodbye? Bye Raymond. Don't be sad it's over Raymond. He doesn't care. He's so chill, such a chiller. I really hope you enjoyed that episode of Walking the Dog.

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