Walking The Dog with Emily Dean - Ania Magliano (Part One)

Episode Date: November 25, 2025

This week Emily and Ray take a stroll through Regent’s Park with the brilliant Ania Magliano, comedian, writer and the youngest ever contestant to appear on Taskmaster.Ania admits she’s more of a cat person (her cats Chicken and Ricken sound wonderful), but given that Ray is essentially a cat disguised as a dog, Emily suspected they’d get on perfectly, and they absolutely did.Emily chats to Ania about her childhood in Buckinghamshire, her university years at Cambridge where she became part of Footlights, and how she’s used social media to shape and grow her comedy career. They also talk about Ania’s much-loved appearances on Taskmaster and why she’s become one of the sharpest, funniest voices of her generation.The great news is you can see Ania live on her nationwide tour Peach Fuzz, running from February next year. Tickets are available now at aniamagliano.com.It’s a warm, funny and open conversation with someone Emily adored the moment they first met, even if Ray isn’t entirely ready to accept her pro-cat stance.Follow Emily:Instagram: @emilyrebeccadeanX: @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.

I love that you just opened the show by talking about something so embarrassing. And I didn't know that it was embarrassing. I was like, okay, yeah, that's a choice. This week on Walking the Dog, Ray and I went for a stroll in Regents Park with brilliant comedian and youngest ever contestant to appear on Taskmaster, Anya Magliano. Anya was very up front from the start about being more of a cat person and she has two of them, Chicken and Rickin. But as Ray is basically a cat in a dog's body, I knew the two of them were going to get along famously.

And spoiler alert, they did. I should say this wasn't my first meeting with Anya, as she's guested quite a few times on the podcast I do with Frank Skinner and Pierre Nivelli, Frank off the radio. But I was really interested to find out a bit more about her origin story and how she ended up having a career in comedy. and we had the loveliest chat about pretty much everything from her childhood growing up in Buckinghamshire to her university days at Cambridge where she was a member of the footlights and the way she's used social media

to really help grow her comedy career. If you're a taskmaster fan and frankly who isn't, you'll have witnessed Anya's comic brilliance yourself and the good news is you've now got a chance to see her live because she'll be touring nationwide next year from February in her show Peach Fuzz, so do grab your tickets now at anna magliano.com. I adored Anya from the first time I met her, so I had a feeling I was going to really enjoy my walk with her,

and I wasn't wrong. She's obviously enormously funny, but she's also just a really authentic, open person and an absolute joy to spend time with, so much so that I've almost forgiven her for choosing cats over dogs. Ray, on the other hand, has said he, He has no further comment at this time. Really hope you enjoy this one.

Here's Anya and Ray Ray. Come on Ray. Hello, Ray. I love the size of his head compared to his body. Yes. And he's got a good rear, hasn't he, as well? Yeah, he's shaking it. He does a bit of it.

He's a twer. He's got the kind of, because most people have to stop walking to twerk, whereas he can do it. He doesn't have to. He can do it all at once. Well, I'm so thrilled. Thank you so much for coming on this. Thank you for having me. What a lovely way to spend the morning, I think. Get to have a nice walk.

Get to have a nice walk in a park with a dog, like, that's actually just a nice thing to do, regardless of whether you're having to sort of say interesting stuff whilst you do it. And it saves me having to walk him. Why do you think I work this into my book? Right. Yeah, that's so smart. Come on, Ray. So I'm going to try and avoid calling you Mags because... Call me Mags if you want. We should explain how this came about. Yeah, yeah. You and I'm I have previous because we've worked with fabulous Frank Skinner and you've guested on the podcast we do together when either I'm away or Pierre not when Frank's away not when Frank's away that would be that would be the

pinnacle no we don't do it when Bagpus goes to sleep all of his friends goes to sleep not big daddy but and we got on really well I like to think yes absolutely but Frank Skinner your name is obviously Anya Magliano and Frank Skinner for some reason said, do you mind if I call you Max? Straight away, wasn't it? It was like within seconds. I would say it was within seconds of us, of us being live on air. Yeah.

And it was, and I was like, yeah, absolutely. I probably said this on that one, but it is what people call my dad. Oh, yeah. So it's a little bit, I like it because I like having a nickname because it makes me feel like I'm part of something, like part of the group. But it does also make me think of like, oh, when I went to my dad's 50th birthday party that's what all the speeches were calling him well Frank's a big fan of nicknames he's the only person I know who can get away with calling David Baddill

Dave because David is so not a Dave no not at all it would have you got a nickname yeah well he calls me M because I don't actually like being called Emily I don't know what that stems from I think maybe it's just I associate it with strict teachers at my girls school yeah saying Emily yeah oh God, yeah. There's something about the way it said that sounds very Victorian and formal because it's quite an old school name. Yes, it really, it has that air of like you've done something wrong.

Yeah, so I really don't like being called my full name, and I really encourage people to call me M. Do you sometimes, I think it's nice that I kind of like that he just straight away went for it, because I've sometimes had this feeling with, like, friends. So I have a friend called Emmeline, a great friend of mine, she, like people started calling her M and then I feel like I kind of missed the boat and then everyone started calling her M and then I was still calling her Emmeline and then I was like wait when do I make the switch like I started overthinking it of like oh is it do I need

to sort of check with her if I can call her that like the politics of how a nickname sort of gets rolled out yes quite tricky yes you've got to because that's the thing I have I'm big into nicknames and I've done it a few times to people and it hasn't gone down well. Really? Yeah. I once called Gary Linneka, Gar. He said, what are you calling me there?

Gar? Well, that's not... I wouldn't say that's the classic way to shorten Gary, is it? Just to take off the guy? No, but everyone would shorten it to G, and I want to be different. So, as I have Raymond here, and this is after all, walking the dog, we should explain, you've turned up dogless. And dog-free.

You are dog-free. Have you had previous... previous with dogs. Did you grow up with dogs? Yes, we've got two dogs in my family home. Yeah, my mum and my stepdad have two dogs, which I guess were technically my dogs because we got the first one when I was at sixth form and the second one in lockdown. And they're two springers spaniels. Oh, I love a springer. They're very, very loving, very nice. So I do like them, but deep down I have always been more cat than dog. But I wouldn't say I'm like one of the these people who's like believes in the binary yes i don't believe in the binary so so what are the

dogs called at the so they are called brandy and susy susy's good susy's good susy i can't remember how we came up with that we were on the way to collect her it was sort of weird um situation where she got dropped we met we met a guy who had her at a service station and kind of picked her up sounds legit It really felt like a drug deal. And we sort of collected her. Sorry. So your childhood, was this in Buckinghamshire? Yes.

And it's you, and are you living your dad's around in your early childhood, is he? He's around, but he was kind of in London, and then me and my mum, and then my stepdad were in Buckinghamshire. And your mom's a doctor, isn't she? My mom's a doctor. Wow. she's a consultant she's a hard-working Polish doctor yeah who probably be kicked out of the country for doing that and presumably I'm interested in doctors children yeah yeah just because I think I see doctors I mean I'm also impressed by doctors just anyone who can

apply themselves and study that hard and yeah but I think I don't know I always think it's possibly quite a healthy environment to grow up in? Simply because I bet there wasn't much hysteria or drama in your family home. No, no, there wasn't. There was a lot of me pretending to be ill to get attention. I really did. I really like, I did a lot of, like, faking, I'm faking, I'm sick, so I didn't have to go into school and, like, Googling how to make, like, fake vomit and stuff

to kind of, because at some point you have to like, once you, you know, do you remember when as a child you kind of like, you figure out what the symptoms that you need to say you have are? And you're like, okay, so I'm going to say that I'm feeling really cold. Yeah. But I'll make myself really hot by being under the duvet for ages. And you kind of start to figure out what your PR angle is going to be for the day. But then I think I definitely ran out of those excuses. So I had to add in, I wanted to make fake sense. sick and stuff. But yeah, I think that's the, that's the kind of part of having a doctor mum where you're like, I also know that the way to her, the way to her attention is through

the body. And how did she deal with that? Was she, was she? I think she dealt with it very well. I think she was kind of the right balance of like, I imagine, I mean, I don't have children, but I imagine like, sometimes you can tell they're faking it and you just go fair enough. Yeah. Have a day off. Like, it's not really the end of the world. But I think she probably came down on the right side of sometimes forcing me to go in and sometimes not. And just letting me watch TV at home, which I remember those days where they felt so electric. A day when I literally just got to lie on the sofa and watch TV in the daytime. But then you had the benefit of all the channels.

Whereas back in our day, when you faked illness, literally you had four channels. I think I had that, though. Oh, did you? We didn't have Sky. Oh, did you not? No, so we just had the classics, and I definitely felt like a social pariah for not having Sky,

because I was the only person at my school who hadn't seen high school musical, and it was such a huge, like, phenomenon at my school. And I remember my dad, I mean, this is actually so sweet in retrospect. He was trying everything. I think he tried to, like, burn, he tried to, like, pirate it onto a CD,

and he tried to, like, get his, friends to get him like i remember he like gave me this cd but then it wouldn't play a DVD i mean and it was just it was awful but then he got he managed to get to get me in to see the premiere of the second one oh that's good so what does your dad do he works in marketing oh okay um and kind of he's he's always been i feel like if i hadn't done become a comedian i'd have had to go into marketing because he like from probably the age of like whatever like six or something he was telling me about marketing yeah yeah he just like would speak to me like I was a colleague and he would cut out he got like a newspaper or like a

magazine about marketing and he would cut out bits and he'd keep them in a sort of plastic folder and then when I would come to his for the weekend he'd show me all the marketing interesting marketing news like I remember one of them was that I I think like Hollister had started pumping smells. Yes, I remember that terrible smell whenever I'd go in. Well, I think they wanted to be nice. They thought it was nice. I found it absolutely overwhelming.

And did you, do you remember your parents splitting up, were you kind of affected by it? Or was it something that you just always accepted because that was just the state of affairs, really? I definitely wasn't accepting of it at all, I don't think. I think like oh the more further I've got away from it the more I believe that like at that age you're just I was for when they split up right it just is in there like it's in your brain you kind of can work through it and stuff but I think at the time I remember being upset I remember being at that age like sad and confused and not really understanding what was going on yes and then I think there was probably a period in my like teenage years. where because actually it wasn't that common like I think it is actually quite common overall but the people that I knew there was no there wasn't really

anyone who's like had the same thing at my school yeah or like people they're like one of my friends had like lost a parent but there wasn't no one had to split up so it definitely felt a bit weird and a bit like and imagine that and not having sky I was like I'm a freak what is my life did you you feel other in some way? Definitely. Which I think is the pathway to becoming a comedian. I felt very like, also because my mum is Polish and I'm very glad to have that lineage now, but at the time, I remember thinking like, just give me a normal lunchbox. Like, all I had was like these weird Polish sausages and like fruit. She would give me fruit, I guess because she was a doctor

as well. She like gave me fruit instead of crisps and everyone else would be eating their hula hoops and I'd have like a banana and a sort of cucumber. in Dill Sandwich, which looking back, I'm like, what a gorgeous meal. But now, at the time, then I was like, yes, it's so interesting. It really is only with hindsight that you can say, I'm glad my mum didn't allow me to watch brain rock, shitty TV and didn't indulge. Because kids just want, you know, terrible food all the time. Yeah.

Yeah, because it tastes amazing. Yeah. Like a penguin, I remember everyone had penguin bars and stuff. Though do you know the one trick I think I did manage was I got my mum to get me gold bars which I think she thought were healthy but they were actually white chocolate and so that was my that was my little treat I like that she's worked that why you managed to convince her of that the white chocolate I don't know how I managed to get away with that so that's yeah that's interesting that sort of sense of being slightly otherised and did you find it easy to make friends did you were you

bullied ever at school? I wasn't actually, I wasn't really ever bullied. I think I did find it a little tricky to make friends or I really felt like not popular. I was always in kind of the weird group of like freaks and geek sort of vibe. I think primary school I had my group. I found it. It was just like four of us. We definitely weren't the popular girls. We weren't the like pretty girls. We weren't getting asked to the school disco. That sort of thing. Then in secondary school, probably similar. And then in sixth form, I had this really weird experience when I went sixth form, which was like, I was definitely like, because I kind of went to like a more of a performing art sixth form,

but I wasn't, I can't sing or dance. So then I kind of became quite academic there. Right. Because I was like, well, I can't sing or dance. I'm going to have to do something else. And so I was quite, I guess I was a bit of, I wasn't very cool there. And then I had a, I went, I was going out. with someone and I went through a breakup and I lost loads of weight and literally

the cool girls were like hey do you want to come hang out with us what isn't that awful it was so bad and I was like oh god it's so how it can't be that simple can it was so like weirdly like transparent of just like oh it's just literally because I look a bit different now and because I'm as skinny as everyone else yes the reasons why it hinges on basic like you say such ridiculously shallow things you know those friendships often at that age

I remember a girl saying to me and she was the prettiest coolest girl in the school Mara and she was just you know she would have been in one of those sweet Valley Hall like she had like a swimming pool and the really good looking parents and hot brothers and she came over to me and she went I just wanted to let you know the way you smoke it looks

really cool now and I thought and then she was a bit nicer to me because I smoked in a cool away Did you go you went to a little girl school? Yeah, I did that for it for my secondary school And that is very it's interesting isn't it there who who ends up having power Yes Because at mine it was like if you were sporty

Oh, that was a big currency was it? Yeah Would you want to? Oh, bit of French Which I wasn't sporty Because I had I've had a breast reduction but I had really big boobs growing up and I couldn't do any, I hated doing sport because I would just get like

knock myself out basically and then I just felt I was like well I'm never going to be that and I think that's why I ended up doing like performing art stuff yeah because they're an asset in many ways on the stage and did you it was your mom I bet she was quite supportive about the breast reduction wasn't she because presumably she would have understood I think so yeah she was I think it kind of came as a bit of a surprise to her But it was a really quick decision for me as well. I kind of hadn't ever thought about it.

And then I thought about it and was like, oh yeah, I definitely want that. And it was quite a quick turnaround. So I think she was a bit worried as any mother would be. But she definitely was very comfortable with all the medical side of it. I was going to say, yeah. Which was like a relief. And she was very, she took me to the operation and stuff.

I think, did you walk around this part? No, it would have been maybe it was hard. park or something. We had some time to kill because she wanted to get there really early. So we got there about three hours early. I wasn't allowed to eat or drink. I was in foul mood because I was starving and so thirsty. And we just walked around the park and I was just like in a pissy fit. So actually there are a lot. Now looking back, I'm like, wow, she really put a shift in. She's really put a shift in as her mother. Yeah. She's done a good job. I like the sound of her. I have to say, Anya.

You obviously went on to become a chameleon, but you went to Cambridge, didn't you? And you read English. At that point, when you went to Cambridge, were you thinking, oh, maybe I'll try my hand at comedy, or had that seed sown itself at that point? It was interesting, because I wasn't like, I wasn't actually someone who was like, I'm going to go to Cambridge or Oxford. I kind of, I actually was thinking like, I kind of, I kind of. had this idea of like maybe I want to go to uni in the US before I knew that it was really

expensive and like not really it's not really a sort of like maybe I'll go to uni there situation but you have to be a sort of Rothschild. Yeah exactly exactly so then and then I just in our in our mock exams my the like careers people at my school he's had enough this is what he does he's setting his boundaries he really has a cat like energy which I like this is what this is why David Vodil likes him. Because David Badell's obsessed with cats and he's not big on dogs and he really, really connected with Ray.

Yeah. And he's some... I said, why do you like Ray so much? He said, well, Ray's an intellectual. He is, yes, yes. Do you think he's an intellectual? Absolutely. He's an academic.

You know how dogs are normally slightly sort of, you know, bouncy extroverts, not too troubled by thoughts? Yeah. But I think Ray is like a profound thinker. Yeah, he's a philosopher. He's got a kind of, he's got, and I say this as a compliment, he's got a darkness to him. Dark and complicated.

Yeah, he's got a sort of dark, mysterious, complicated energy. I don't like people who haven't got a complicated energy around them. It's so terrifying. It's really terrifying. Especially sometimes you meet a comedian who doesn't have a darkness to them and I'm like, what are you doing here? That's what I think? I've had people on this podcast before and I've said,

I don't want me asking, but where's your damage? I can't see it. And what the hell are you doing on this if you don't have any? You won't need to ask me that. What is your damage? Oh God, so many. I would say it's definitely parents' divorce got in their early doors. Yeah.

And I also, do you know what's interesting? Is that because I've done therapy, I wonder if also the type, I've done therapy where probably the therapists are always like, it's whatever happened in your first four years. So there's that. But it's always interesting. So I've had some trauma later in my life. and I think those have also been part of it

but I don't know how you wait what is this the more important thing what has damaged me the most who do I give the most credit to well I think it's that thing where if you have some sort of early trauma whatever form of trauma it is but any sort of emotional you know trauma

I think it's you know it's that Philip Larkin thing it deepens misery deepens like a coastal show and I think it just gets bigger, doesn't it? And it's always, it might even be about that original thing, might be connected to it, but it just. Yes, I kind of think that's true. Like it's like a bit of a chain effect. And also, sorry, I was just going to say,

like, I don't know if you've ever had this, but I remember the first time I did something that then I realised was like something one of my parents had done. I was like, fuck, no, I'm different. And then you do it and you go, okay, here we go. Larkin was right. it's so true it's just and I think also you know I know I was you know devastated when I lost my sister but I might get upset about something now it's not related to my sister

but if I really sit there and I think about it I can sort of trace everything back to that now because that's the sort of trauma site if you like the biggest trauma site so you'll think oh yes I'm upset about getting a parking ticket but you know it's or whether it's something where if it's Christmas which I find difficult it's not because I don't like Christmas it's because it's what I associate it with loss yeah you know so it's all that stuff is is interesting to process and that's why therapy is so helpful did you find it very helpful yeah I did and actually I'm kind of on I'm kind of also done a bit of a switch now, which is I'm doing more body-based therapy. I'm not really doing

as much talking stuff because I definitely think I talked enough. I said everything there was to say and at some point you're just sort of retreading old ground. Yeah. And then my therapist kind of suggested to me that maybe I see someone who works more with the body because I guess there are these schools of thought where like similar to what you say, the reason that it feels like everything connected is because of the way your body reacts in situations. And I definitely The journey that I've been on, which I think is so kind of, it's actually so simple, but I can't believe I overlooked it for so much of my life,

was that like, I just never listened when my body would say like, no to something. If my body was like, I don't want to do this, I don't trust this person, this isn't safe, this doesn't feel right, I would always override it and be like, oh, it's fine, and then often get into a situation that would actually then be dangerous or bad or whatever.

And now what I'm like having, to learn to do is to like listen to my body and what is telling me and just trust that that's that's okay. I think that's really, I think that sounds like very good advice and a really useful thing to do because I think also particularly, I think certainly I feel as a female, I was slightly conditioned to not trust myself that actually you don't know best, let a man tell you what you're thinking and feeling in this situation. Yeah, that's so true. I think especially, like, it's funny, even with regards to, like, your health and stuff.

Like, even areas where you think, I probably would know my body best and, like, know about that sort of thing. It always, it's really hard to feel like your gut is right, but it probably is, I think, like, or at least it's definitely something worth considering. Wow, these trees are so nice. Beautiful. So I want to get back to your, I suppose, your origin story. And you ended up at Cambridge, but before, you didn't end up, you worked very hard to get there. But before you got to Cambridge, hadn't you already sort of done some forays into comedy and performing? Did you have a YouTube channel? Yeah, I did. I did. It's definitely kind of embarrassing in retrospect. And it's not really available to see anymore. But basically, Basically, I mean, this is part of being a bit of an outsider and I didn't feel very cool or popular at school. And I ended up stumbling across YouTubers, i.e. British teenagers who were making videos, kind of like a mixture of like sketches, like short films, like just talking to the camera in a thing that is actually not that far away from doing stand-up, I guess. And I saw that and I was like, I can do that.

But most of them weren't funny. Well, yeah, and do you know what? I thought, I can do that and do it better. So then I kind of started doing that and that was really interesting because it kind of took me out of the world of school and like onto the online world, into the online world, which is great in some ways and also really dangerous and weird in other ways because there are lots of creeps and weirdos about and it's very unregulated. And I was like going to parties and stuff and I was a lot younger than everyone else. like i probably i did i think i posted my first video when i was like 14 or 15 and like most people were like 17 upwards so actually like it was a bit i think it was one of those situations where at the time i thought god i'm so mature i'm so mature hanging out with all these 17 and 18 year olds and and they get me into the is they get they got me into a club in um kingston upon thames

and look at me i'm an adult but actually in retrospect I'm like God I was such a child yeah like I was actually so young but so I did those videos they were kind of an attempt to do stand-up without really knowing what stand-up was like I only knew stand-up in the terms of like we had the Michael McIntyre DVDs yeah which I love to watch I just would watch over and over again and be like how does he know all this stuff about what I do I was like it's like magic or something like it was like I was really like baffled by like how can he know something that everyone does like it was so fascinating and then i would kind of post

these videos that were like i i guess almost like stand-up sets like i would sit and i would write jokes and i would like do similar to what i do now and then i put them online but eventually i just had to stop because it was like i was like oh i don't want to be in this world anymore like the youtube world is not i don't want to be an influencer i don't want to be a youtube and then i also by that point had kind of discovered doing live stuff maybe not by that point but I think I had more of an idea of like maybe I'll want to be an actor or something and then I saw comedy at the fringe I worked at the fringe as a receptionist and so stand up and had the same thing as

when I saw YouTube and was like I can do that. And so how old were you when you did your first gig? Were you teenagers? 18 yeah and how did it go? Bad was it? Yeah but I actually think in the long run that was good because it meant that the worst thing happened straight away and then I kept going whereas I think sometimes I hear about people who had first three gigs were amazing and then they had their first bad one

and it sounds like it's almost harder sometimes for them to get back on the horse because it's shocked them more whereas from the start I was like well this could be shit you definitely felt even though because that's often the key isn't it that you do a bad gig because presumably most people's first gigs are bad

And I suspect that's probably quite key to becoming a good comic because if you think it goes well, maybe you're not cut out for it. Yeah, it's funny sometimes you meet people. I've had these experiences sometimes where you see someone and you think they've had a really bad gig and they come off and they go, God, that was amazing. And you go, what? How is your barometer so far off that that was good?

I can't wait to find out who these people are. Absolutely off the mic. I might have to put that between. Gossip. I might have to put it behind a Patreon. Yeah, the fact that you wanted to continue, even though the first gig didn't go so well, as you'd hoped, that was probably a sign you'd sort of got the bug, hadn't you?

Yeah, I think I did. And I actually think, like, a big part of getting the bug is meeting other comedians and feeling like you found your people, finally. Yeah. And you go, oh, thank God. Like, there was a guy there at my first ever gig, who I'm still friends with to this day, and has actually like has turned out to be like really good friends with my boyfriend now

but obviously like at the time it's just like a random guy who I'd met and he said like you should keep going like don't give up also we were at a gig where there was like no one there it was just a bunch of comics in an arsenal themed pub like and he basically said they're not all like this like keep going and then we kind of became friends and it was just yeah it was that thing of like okay I think these this is where the people with darkness go yeah yeah this is where the people who like can have a laugh and it was so different like I guess there were those people throughout my school times and like I definitely had friends who I felt really deeply connected to but it suddenly felt like this world of like oh my god everyone here

kind of gets me and I didn't even really get myself at that point but it just felt like okay this feels like very home to me it feels like when and I know that I understand that feeling I feel it with comics and also I do feel it with actors a lot simply because because I grew up around them because my parents were in their business and I always feel it's a sense of feeling I can say something and people aren't going to look at me and go that's a bit weird yeah yeah it's so it's and it's really jarring to go back into that if you like have got used to being around comics and yeah and freaks and then you go back into a normal situation and you say something and everyone like it's just like you hear like a plate sort of clatter Yeah. And it's like, okay. Well, it's like that thing of not respecting what I think are those things you have to respect.

And I just assume that we all understand this. So it's things like if someone does an accent, not an offensive one, but you don't go, oh, sounds like you're from Wales and start going on about the accent because that's destroying their moment and their anecdote. Yeah, yeah. And just all that impression is that if someone's doing something, don't interrupt them. Yeah. And flatten their story.

but I suppose those are things you feel instinctively maybe did you feel when you just went after you'd graduated and I know one of the things that was really huge for you was social media was it was it was kind of it was kind of a collection of like nothing it wasn't ever one platform but I think the fact that I'd done YouTube then got me some more followers on everything else and then it kind of spread across Because I'm not actually that, I'm not like a huge social media star compared to what an actual, like, influence the social media star would be considered that. But I think early in, I was early in the kind of pipeline of it. Yeah.

Does that make sense? I kind of, I'm not exactly sure what I'm trying to say, but I think there was a certain point where I was like, where it was like, oh, she has loads of followers. But I think that's not true anymore because people have billions now. Yeah. But have I answered, I actually don't know what your question was. No, I think I was just saying, I was interested that because social media was, that was part of, you know, like most young comics, it sort of seems like that has to be part of your career plan in a way. Yeah, I think unless you're like once in a kind of generation talent who gets a combination of like luck and skill and and manages to kind of. get to a point where I feel like people

I feel like everyone is in a kind of battle to get to a point where you can not use social media to promote yourself like we're all just like I think this is not just true of comedians or actors, it's like everyone who's hustling just wants to get to a point where you can just stop. I know

it's a very strange paradox. Someone said to me the other day they said oh have you going to write another book and I said I just feel so exhausted at the thought of having to do all those posts about it and I also feel exhausted at having to write to people I met once five years ago at a party and saying, please can you read my book and say how brilliant it is. And you're so jealous of those people that you think can just put books

out and it's like, by the way, I'm not going to do anything. I'm retiring. I refuse to engage in this. Yeah. Well, some people don't. I mean, Lee Mack doesn't go on social media and he's a refuse nick. But you know what? I think that's because he's Lee Mack. Yeah. Yeah, well, exactly. You know, he's built up such a huge career and fan base that he's put, and Frank Skinner doesn't, similarly. Yeah, exactly. Frank doesn't have to. It really makes me laugh the idea of me being like,

well, I'm actually going off Instagram now. Everyone will be like, okay. No one will know about when your tour is. But with Frank, it's like people will, they will always know. They'll seek him out. But yeah, it's a weird one, isn't it? I guess it sounds like your book kind of, book, the PR side of it all

it's like it kind of at one point was the dream but then anything as soon as you do it the glamour of it goes and you go oh it's still nice and enjoyable but it's sometimes I wonder if like because I watch you know those sort of clips of people doing

their film tours and press junkets and stuff and I think that always seems to be so glamorous and exciting but now I'm just like oh that would just be exhausting for them They'll just be exhausted, they'll just want to have a glass of water. I just look, whenever I look at Kim Kardashian,

and I just see the hair and the makeup and the Spanx and that, and I just feel tired. I just think, oh God, you poor love. And imagine her, and then she has to take it all off. Because the amount of time that makeup is probably taking to go on. And then she's going to have to make up remit, macella water and all that. 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.