Walking The Dog with Emily Dean - Phil Wang (Part Two)

Episode Date: September 5, 2024

Emily and Ray take a walk with Phil Wang in Peckham Rye Park for the second part of this week’s Walking The Dog! Phil tells us about being the president of the Cambridge Footlights, how he feels about celebrating his successes and making the decision to spend more money on his haircut. He also tells us what it was like to record his new Netflix special by candlelight... Phil’s absolutely hilarious new special Wang In There, Baby! is available on Netflix nowOrder Phil’s book Sidesplitter: How To Be From Two Worlds At Once hereBudPod with Phil Wang and Pierre Novellie is available wherever you get your podcasts!Follow Phil on Instagram @wangpixFollow Emily: Instagram - @emilyrebeccadeanX - @divine_miss_emWalking The Dog is produced by Faye LawrenceMusic: Rich Jarman Artwork: Alice LudlamPhotography: Karla Gowlett  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to part two of my chat with the wonderful Phil Wang. Do go and listen to Part 1 if you haven't already and do also make sure to catch Phil's brand new Netflix special Wang in their baby because it's a thing of total joy. And I'd also love it if you subscribe to us at Walking the Dog. Here's Phil and Ray Ray. So you went to Cambridgeville and you didn't just think, oh, I'm just going to fit in blend into the background though, did you? Because you became president of Footlights,

which is sort of a pretty huge gig. Yeah, it was mostly an administrative role. I just had to answer a lot of emails from a lot of Whackos. Phil, stop making it sound like some LinkedIn thing. It was mostly administrative work. Please contact me for further detail. You really, you never don't like being yourself up too much. Well, I wasn't even the first Eurasian to get the gig. That, that I think, I think, think was Will Sharp, now of White Lotus fame. You know, season two, the guy with the Abbs, the Eurasian guy with the abs. Oh, I'm a bit

obsessed with him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, of course you're obsessed with him. He's the actual first Eurasian footlights president. I ruined everything now. I've got a bit of a crush on. I'm sorry, Phil. Yeah, I get it. I get it. We can see, See, this is all I'm saying. Achievements can only be relief or disappointment. But I just got a real fire under my belly when I got to Cambridge. I think it attracts a lot of kids who are like that. Which is like, got to get this done, got to get all this done,

got to be the top of this tree, got to get this grades, got to, you know. Do they have a very sort of Daniel Beddingfield, got to get through this energy? Well, it became got to get through this. when you realized how difficult it was to excel the way you expected to. Because, you know, Cambridge and Oxford are universities full of kids who are the top of their class in their school, suddenly together and they're kind of, and you realize you're actually at a pretty mediocre level compared to the smartest people in the country.

And so most students at Cambridge and Oxford have suffered a sort of crisis of self. I nearly quit after my first term. I was like, I'm not nearly good enough to be here. And I nearly quit, but fortunately, I held on. Did you tell Benny? Gosh, that's a good question. I told my mum. And we should mention your mom.

Is she Madeline? No. Maddie. Maddie, isn't it? I didn't want to presume to call her Maddie because I thought it's Madeline. But Benny and Maddie, I love them. Do you know, I'm so invested in Benny and Maddie Wang. Really?

I just think they've done such a good job with you, Phil. And I don't know what it is, but they've given you, I don't know they've given this to you. That's a whole other question, isn't it? Or whether you're naturally like this, whether it's nature or nurture. But it's, I can't explain. It's like, you know, some people say, oh, well, it wasn't that big a deal. And you feel it's a little bit, there's something bit disingenuous about it. I get the sense that you've genuinely been raised to triumph from disaster,

to treat those two impostors just the same? Oh, interesting. You know what, maybe for a while, but now I've sort of drifted a bit and I get so anxious about the prospect of failure that even my mother doesn't recognize it anymore. She's like, you need to relax. I think I get really upset and obsessive

over small mistakes I've made. And my mom's like, you have to let this go. So it's like I'm the parent now of myself. of myself and my parents are the children going, or like the child's version of me trying to say it's all right. But yeah, yeah, I'm more anxious now than. Why do you think that it is? Do you think success brings with it, I suppose,

and that's me saying you're successful, so don't worry, you don't have to put a caveat in there saying, yeah, but I'm not as successful as some people. Because do you think, what I'm saying is, do you think success brings with it? I suppose additional pressures because... Yeah, exactly. It changes the nature of what you do for sure.

When I first started doing stand-up as an unknown, it was just fun because I couldn't disappoint anyone. I could only surprise people positively. I'd get on stage and no one knew who I am. And if I did well, I'd just I'd wow them. And it's so thrilling and exciting. Now people know who I am and coming to see me. I can let them down.

It wasn't the case when I started. And so I think it becomes a more anxious job, really. It's less adventurous than when you start. Now it's about keeping the ball in the air. And I guess kicking the ball into the air is more fun. Yeah, I see that. I like that description. You were winning awards already for your comedy when you were at university, weren't you?

Yeah, I won two student competitions. But I've not really won anything since. I won one award for my radio show, one off. And oh, and I've won House of Games and Mastermind and pointless twice. Those are my real achievements. But you did win also those student awards. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm going to have to press you on that, Minister.

You did win those awards. As uncomfortable as it makes you to acknowledge it. You did well, Phil. Yes, I did well. Yeah, I started of really young. I did very well quite quickly. I think, and so it was all really thrilling at the beginning, and now it's about maintaining that, and that's more anxiety-inducing.

But the things I get anxious about, like, there are brown patches on my lawn, and I just think about them all the time, and I don't know how to solve them. And I feel like an idiot, because I've got brown patches on my lawn, I feel like a worm, and I just don't know what to do about it. I just water them, I've had to returfed, I've, and I said, I don't know, I can't fix it.

I'll be sort of Googling maybe or getting a guard-hounder. Oh, then there'll be too many answers, too many different theories of all what's going on. And they have to sift through all those, and have to pick one theory to believe and one course of action to take. And then I'm like, oh, well, what if that's the wrong course of action to take with the lawn? You see what I'm getting at? You see why this is so hard.

Phil, sorry. What I need is to have children and gain some perspective, it sounds like. sounds like. I need to do something that is actually stressful. I hate to say it. I think... Maybe get a dog. Tragedy is good for that as well. Ah. Tragic things happening in your life.

I don't know. I presume everyone has had their own form of difficulty or gone through some form of, whether you'd call it trauma or not, you know, we've all had adversity in our own ways because it's all relative to your own experience, isn't it? That's right. I'm afraid I'm not going to allow the brown patches on your lawn as tragedy. Well, you're not in my head. You don't know how it feels.

You've not seen these brown patches. I think you might change your tune if you did. Ray's so comfortable with you, Phil. Is he? He's really melting. His hair's so long that the more he sits down, the more he sort of melts into the surface he's on. He really likes you.

He's like a sloth. He looks like a sloth. He's a very calming presence, isn't he? Do you find? Yeah, very, very much so. He's so sweet. And so let's hurry up and make you famous. you...

That's why I'm on this podcast, baby. You have singled out... There was an appearance you did on Live at the Apollo. And as a result of all of this... Presumably, there was a bit of a sort of, you know, hot energy around you when you're present at the Footlights, and then you're going on to win all these student comedy awards. You got interest from an agent?

Yes, that's right. You did this gig for Live at the Apollo, and I feel that was quite a breakthrough moment for you, wasn't it? in terms of being seen. It was. It was. There are a few breakthrough moments and the first live of the Apollo appearance was a big one. That was 2015, was it?

2015, 2016. Yeah, it was a good gig. I did well. I performed in a way that I'd never performed it beforehand and I'd not really done it since. I just came on with all this sort of silliness and gustav. And it just really worked. And then after that, have I got news for you

was a big moment for me and then Taskmaster was huge we'll never forget the suit yes people still talk about it I forget that I was like six years ago now what people it's still seared into people's brains

and we should remind people tell us in your own words what you did Phil Wang you wore Bruce Lee's outfit from Game of Death the yellow onesie which some people refer to

as the Kill Bill outfit but it's not the Kill Bill outfit is a reference to Bruce Lee's outfit from Game of Death, which he never finished because he died during it. Yeah, well, Bruce Lee, I gained a new admiration for him after seeing the, I was in Hong Kong on tour with some of the acts and I went to the Bruce Lee Museum and he was just, he was very cool and very interesting guy. And he was also Eurasian. People think of Bruce Lee as a full of Chinese guy, but he wasn't. He was half white like me and he's from San Francisco.

we think of him as the quintessential Chinese guy but he was half white from San Francisco and he was a dancer originally and then sort of picked up well also and I do think he was quite groundbreaking and it seems sort of it's horrifying when you think how recent it was but it feels to me like he was quite early

to the party in terms of his use so being a Eurasian leading man crucially I think where yeah I mean it's not it doesn't exist anymore I mean And we tried for a bit with Henry Golding. But I think we just, Eurasian people are just two in between places.

No one can really place the Eurasian person enough. We sort of disappoint everyone because we don't look enough like one kind of person or another. And so there aren't really any Eurasian leading men or women that I can think of. That must feel good though, that you know with your visibility, does that make you feel like, oh yeah, I hope I'm helping in some way?

Yeah, yeah. I think I mean, already there's so many more East Asian comedians than the were when I started off. When I started, I was the only one. And now there's a whole bunch. Now it's not even that notable. And in a way, I feel like, oh, now I don't have to talk about my ethnicity all the time.

You can talk about other things because it's not that weird. When I started out, I felt like I had to address how I looked. as soon as it got on stage because it was sort of the elephant in the room. But now it's quite, there's so many Asian acts in the UK and in America that it's sort of normal. But then as you say, there's an incident you've talked about where you were doing a gig with a mutual friend of ours and brilliant comic Pia Novelli, who you do a fantastic podcast with, Bob which I love. Oh thanks. And you were with Pierre and I think it was Nish Cooner. Yeah and we were doing a gig in Piccadilly Circus and

At a club, a small club upstairs a pub and I got on stage and I was talking about being Eurasian and I said well my mum's actually British white and this lady at a friend said Oh yeah that's why because you're rare and I said what my hair and she goes yeah you've got your hair it's like normal hair and so I kind of made a fun of her for this for a bit It struck me that she'd think that like there's normal hair and abnormal hair. And she and her husband were both boisterous sorts and then after the gig the husband came over to me and Nish and Pierre. Because of the nature of our act we'd all talked about race on stage by chance and he came up

and put his arms around us and he said, I had a good gig, lads, but enough of the race stuff, Let's have enough of the race stuff. We don't need it. We don't need it. And I thought, what's the strange thing to say? Then I said, did you feel targeted by the jokes about racism and the anti-racist jokes? And he went, yeah, I did. I sort of admired the candour of it more than anything.

Yeah, as someone who identifies as a racist, I find it very offensive when you do material at our expense. I know. And it's weird because there's his wife who made the hair remark, which I would say is quite a racial, not necessarily racist, but a racial remark. And I think it just wanted to show that these things are worth talking about. I think it's always suspicious when people don't want to talk about race. This is pretence sometimes that we're past it or that's not important or it doesn't matter. And I guess in the cosmic sense it doesn't matter, but socially it does. and we talk, you know, it does have real life meaning.

And so I think it's worth talking about. And also, like, you're at a comedy show. None of it's necessary. There's none of it's necessary. None of the subject you talk about necessary. I was just struck by his boldness at saying he felt targeted by jokes about racism. Well, it's interesting, and this is another point you've made,

that when people say, and it comes from a very well-meaning place when people say, I don't see colour or I don't see race, what you're actually saying is, I'm not interested in your experience. Yes, it does feel like that sometimes, yeah. And again, a lot of the time it can come from a well-meaning place, and I suppose as a society, we're aiming to a point

where race really doesn't matter, but it does still, and a person's lived experience is greatly affected by what race they are and where in the world they were of that race, you know? You make a very good comparison to the film The Aviator. Oh, the Aviator. And I think it really sums it up brilliantly. Yes, there's a scene in The Aviator where he's talking to, is his wife's very rich family?

The Hepburn family, I think. And the mother goes... And it's a film in case anyone doesn't know. It's starring... It's Leonardo DiCaprio playing Howard's Hughes. And the rich lady says, we try not to talk about money, Mr. Hughes. She says, we don't care about money.

We don't care about money. And he goes, that's because you have it. And similarly, I think when you're part of the racial majority somewhere... I don't want to say this only pertains to white people, but when you're the racial majority anywhere, I mean, this is very much the case in Japan. with the Japanese. I mean, if anything, they are more anti-immigrant in many European countries.

But when you are the racial majority somewhere and you say you don't care about a race, it's kind of like saying, oh, I don't, we don't talk about, we don't care about money. Well, that's because you have it. That's because you can take this ease and this comfort for granted. That's, yeah, I think that's the analogy I was trying to make. But I don't want to be just about whiteness. It's about being part of the racial majority anywhere. Phil, I want to get on to your current project, which is your special? Yes, Wang and their baby on Netflix. I think it's out today the day this episode comes out, September 3rd.

I got sent a sneak preview. Oh, nice. And there's always that thing, because I'm a huge fan of yours, and I think, oh, I hope Wang still got it. You can't lose it sometimes. You never know. Oh, yeah, oh, I know. I've been there when I've lost it. believe me.

I can exclusively reveal Wang has still got it. And more. You heard it here first, folks. I loved your special. Did you? Yeah. Because I don't want to give too many of the jokes and material away, because it really, there are so many great moments.

Give people the vibe. We can give you some of the energy. So it starts, it's in the Globe. Yes, the Sam want to make a playhouse as part of the globe. It's in an indoor theater that's completely wooden. and candlelit, which is quite nerve-wracking. But I think it's the only fully candlelit venue in the country. You know, I'm laughing.

One of the things that really made me laugh is, and it is to do with, I think, a very clever sort of reference to this, where are you from? The sort of conversations you're constantly having to have to kind of justify your own existence and, you know, your origin story. And you say at one point, so I'm not from here. I'm not from San Juan a Maker Fischer. Yeah, so I'm not everything from the San Juan

Wanda Maker Playhouse. But you set it up, brilliantly you say, so I'm not from here, I'm not from here, and you say... I'm not from the San Juan to Make a Playhouse, I'm from... I'm not even from the Globe. Oh yeah, that's right. That's what I would say. To me...

That was just one of those jokes I was able to do all over the country on tour because I'd be at all the different theatres so I could go, I'm Phil Wang. I'm not originally from the Slough Art Centre. I'm not originally from the Slough art centre. I'm originally from Slough. I just like dumb jokes like that where you say things in a tone

that is completely inappropriate. But I don't think it is dumb. Or you're saying obvious things as if they weren't obvious. I don't think it is dumb. And that's why I liked it. Because to me, I may be reading too much into this, but what I liked about that joke is I feel as someone who's been asked your entire life,

where are you from? Yeah. And you feel all the time. you're being slightly cross-examined about your origin story. I think the fact that fairly early on in that show, you kind of address it in a brilliantly comic way and you kind of dismantle the whole... To me, maybe I've read too much into it.

Tell people that's what you're doing anyway. Yeah, that is how clever I am. I am as clever as Emily thought I was. I think you only get to a joke like that that's sort of silly and undermines the whole premise of a question when you've answered the question many times, you know? You know what I mean? I'm actually going to go back tonight and watch it again.

Just so I can hear you say again, I'm not actually from Globe Theatre. There's also, I feel we get a bit of an insight into my favourite character, Benny, your dad. Oh, my dad, yeah. Because I learnt from this special that Benny believes in ghosts. Yeah, well, not just Benny. 99% of the Asian continent still believes in ghost.

And I grew up terrified because the adults in my life were saying, yep, no, ghosts are real. We believe in them. What do you mean, ghosts aren't real? Who told you that? Your mother? No, no, no, no. Ghosts are very real and you should be afraid of them. And so I was very scared of the duck

and there's a routine in there about being very scared of the duck and instead of being called, no, there was nothing to worry about. My father was treating at the face value. face value and trying to find me some medicine for my ghosts, seeing ghosts. Yeah, I remember, it's not on the special, but I went back to Malaysia recently and I hung out with my friend Renke, who was the funniest guy at school. And he very seriously said, oh yeah, my mum, she's not very well at the moment.

She got a bit of a cold because she saw a ghost and then he just keeps driving. And I'm like, what? And it's like, yeah, well, she was out of friend's house and out in the garden as night and she looked at the tree and the tree was haunted I guess because when she looked at the tree there was just a girl there with really long hair and like her tongue hanging down out of her mouth and this girl was just smiling at my mother with his tongue hanging out of her mouth and I was like all right and then so my mom you'd realize there's a girl so she quickly looked away so she wasn't looking at him and then a couple of days later she just came down with this cold and I thought well that's she's got off pretty lightly then I mean she's seen the most horrifying thing I've ever heard of And she got the sniffles. That's not so bad, is it? I assume she's cursed forever, but she's just got her cold. Well, that's the kind of conversation you have in Malaysia regularly.

Because people believe it. I think with this special, there's something very natural about your energy up there. And you just, the energy I was getting from me was, oh, I'm in a good place. I'm quite happy. I like doing this. You know, sometimes there's a kind of manic energy that comes off stand-ups. Yeah, exactly. And part of the reason I wanted to do it in a smaller, more intimate venue was to bring out the natural side of me.

Because the last special was in the London Palladium, which is in big stage, big room. There's 900 people there because I was a half capacity for COVID, but it's still a big room, big stage. And I think it made me perform in a way that was for that room. whereas we now experience stand-up very intimately because of our phones and we experience stand-up now mostly from small rooms, small venues. Interesting, yeah. And we're more used to, instead of hearing laughs as a big wave in that sort of lively Apollo style, that sounds quite weird these days

and we're more used to hearing fewer people laughing because of how much we watch stand-up on our phones. And so I wanted to use a venue that was more suited to that. And I think being in a smaller room, if that feels more like a comedy club, as opposed to a huge theatre when filming something, it brought out, it allowed me to feel more natural, more relaxed. Yeah. And you talk about your rebrand, your look refresh, which I love,

which happened around, when would you say that happened, Phil? Which look, real. Well, you talk about this. Don't say which look refreshed, like I've said something weird. You changed your glasses. Oh. You started spending money on your haircut. Oh yeah, sure.

Was that a conscious thing? You had a bit of an extreme makeover. Was this kind of extreme makeover you had a conscious thing? I guess so. It's for my mid-20s, I suppose, and I just, my whole life I thought, oh, it doesn't really matter. You know, it's silly to think about clothes or how you look. And glasses are sort of shy that I wore glasses,

so I'd buy as small a pair as I could find, assuming that would make them less noticeable, it makes them more noticeable, actually. And I sort of put on a big pair of glasses a few years back as a joke to myself in spec savers, and I looked in the mirror and thought, oh, actually, that's pretty good, you know. And ever since then, I've only bought really big glasses. Because, well, practically they're much better because you get a bigger field of vision. Always the engineer. Yes, exactly. And they're also, they're good on Asian faces, it turns out. I don't know why, but it suits East Asian faces and they have big old, big old frames.

And then I got, I became more of an esthete in my mid of late 20s and I got more into like clothes and art and how things looked and I started to appreciate like style and and beauty and things like that. And I think when you're younger it's handy not to be into those things because you don't have any money. And that was part of the reason, I think. Yeah. Yeah, I now like to have nice things and wear nice things if I can. Are you extravagant or do you watch your money? What's your attitude to do? I'm very, very careful with my money.

I barely spend anything on myself ever. And so when I do spend money on myself, I feel terrible. I feel so guilty. But I have to get over that to dress. My care cuts now £36. It's a lot for a man, but nothing for a woman. It's £25 more than Frank Skinner spends on his head. That's crazy to me.

Mr. Tops? Frank goes to Mr. Tops. He heard of Mr. Dobbs. Of course I've heard of Mr. Dobbs. Okay. That's where he goes. And in fact he went in there once and they said, how do you want your hair? And a London bus, I believe, was passing at the time with a giant poster of him on it.

And he pointed and said like that. That's really good. I used to go to a very cheap barber on my little cute village high street in Peckham and and it was very cheap as like 15 pounds, I think, 10, 15 pounds. very sweet guy but not very good haircuts and I went to... He could maybe borrow that and have it... Very sweet guy. He could have it outside the shore. Not very good haircuts, Phil Wang.

In quotes. Four stars, Phil Wang. But then I went to the slightly more expensive, more hipstery barber down the street and I was sort of telling him about the cheaper place I used to go to and he said, oh yeah, I've heard all kinds of crazy stories from that place. It's cheap but you get way paid for and he said the craziest one I've heard from a man he used to get his haircut there was once getting a haircut there the girl was cutting his hair with one hand

and eating chips from a bag with the other I mean even crisps would be so bad crispy rime I'm just chips I don't know if Chris would be fine It wouldn't be ideal but

Chips is too far Minergan Yeah like floppy chips from Apollo style container. I kind of have respect from it, the audacity of the chip hair dresser. I just came like bits of potato fluff into the hair and not telling him, oh, fine, it's brushing it off. Hello Labrador. Oh, he's so sweet. I love Labradors, Phil. Very sweet. What's your dog called? Lexi.

Lexi, hello Lexi. Aren't you sweet? Oh, you're so sweet. Never met a Labrador. I'm I didn't like. Yeah. That's very true. Come on there, Lexie Dog. Hi, Lexie Dog. Bye-bye. See, that's one of the things I love about having a dog feel.

You're going to talk to other people with dogs? Yeah, but I always say it feels like a nice level of engagement because, you know, particularly when you're having days when you don't really feel like engaging with other people. Sure. that kind of interaction with people which makes you feel, oh, it's a reminder that you're of the world. Yes, yes. But it doesn't feel overwhelming. Yeah, I know exactly what you mean.

Yeah, I do envy that. Maybe that's why dogs are so popular in England is because the English need icebreak is more than any other people in the world. Well, my therapist calls dogs transitional objects. Oh, very good. A bit like babies. So what will happen is if a couple are arguing. They might say, that was very silly of daddy to do that, wasn't it, Lexi?

Right, of course. So in that moment, the child becomes the transitional object. How clever. Similarly with dogs, I use Raymond to diffuse tension sometimes. Or like if you're having an argument, you go, oh, sorry Raymond, you didn't want to hear all that, did you? When really you wanted the argument to stop. So, and if I'm in a public situation and someone's being a bit rude, I say, come along, Raymond, don't worry.

I'm sure that man didn't mean to shout. And yeah, it's actually quite mad when you realise you're just talking to yourself out loud. Thanks for pointing it out. You're right, Phil. Oh look, Phil, they're watering the gut. Look at that god dog. Well, now you're using me as a transitional object to talk about the other dog. This is all upside down now. So, Phil. Oh yes.

Yeah, congratulations on your brilliant special. Oh, thank you. Thank you. And I know it will do brilliantly because... Oh, I hope so. All your stuff does. You're very popular. Oh, that's kind.

How do you find fame, Phil? I think I have a nice level of fame where I'm by no means unable to go anywhere at all. But from time to time, someone will say Koji, which is a catchphrasing my podcast, or we'll say Phil Wang or we'll say they like something. And that's the ideal level of recognisability, I think. You know? I've walked down the road with more famous friends and it looks intolerable. It's all the time. Relentless.

I was once with Ramesh, who's great. And possibly, I guess, the most famous community in the country, probably. Sorry, Rob Beckett, if you're listening. Oh, yes, well, it's between them two and it. And I was in a hotel with Ramesh in a bar. to be staying there both on tour and we just bumped into each other and oh yeah let's have a drink and as we're chatting this very drunk bold man walks over from the other end of the bar to Ramesh and he sort of gets Ramesh's attention with his eyes and when Ramesh looks over this man just

holds his phone aloft at Ramesh and says with no other no other word he just goes photo he just goes photo and Ramesh is like uh yeah yeah yeah right and he gets up And he takes a photo with this man. And the man looks at the photo back on his phone and looks at Ramesh and goes, thanks Rajesh, and walks off. And I just thought, that's a level of fame I think I don't want, where drunk, bald men are coming up to me in hotel bars

saying, thanks Paul Chong, and then walking off. You know what I mean? I think at that point it probably becomes quite relentless. Phil, I wanted to ask you something, which is, I really love the idea of this sort of hybrid language of Malayan English. Manglish, Manglish, English. Manglish sounds great. And it's almost quite an intimate, almost very informal way of addressing people, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it is. And it is kind of like, when someone talks to you in Malaysian English, it's like, come on la da da come we like that laa or come we go eat we go eat that's how you invite someone to have lunch or something right how would you invite me to have lunch then you'd say come we go macan well macan is malay for eat and come we go macan is is chinese grammar i yeah i think it's either malay or chinese grammar that's been superimposed on english with the occasional malay or chinese word thrown in is kind of manglish and And it's kind of if you know, you know, you know, get it.

So come we go, macan. And then la, la, la is the way of, use the word you throw at the end of an expression. I know, because I spent some time in Singapore. Ah, yes, they're big la heads in Singapore. Well, I got in the cab and they're saying, don't worry, la, don't worry. I thought, what's this? And then I started saying it by the end of the two weeks, which obviously was terrible cultural appropriation. No, they would have loved it.

Really? The cultural appropriations is a Western invention. Out in where people actually, these people are actually from. no one cares a shit. They like it. It's a, it's, people find it complimentary. I love law. It's really good. Come on a la, it just softens everything. So you can't really be angry with someone like, I don't be like that la. If you want, don't be like that, that's quite aggressive. You go, don't be like that la. It's like it sort of implies the person already agrees with you and you're just nudging them over the edge. Come, don't be like that la. You already

know, you already know you shouldn't do that. Uh, yeah, it's a good, it's a good, it's a a good linguistic feature. You speak some Mandarin as well, don't you? Tiny bit. I forgot most of it. Which is incredible really when you think how few languages people raised exclusively in the UK speak. Well, yeah, I'd mentioned in a book and it's like if you

already speak the language that most of the world feels like they should speak and learn in order to get on, then why would you learn anything else? An informative experience for me was trying to learn a bit of German in my and going on holiday to Berlin and going, Haben do

an girl just goes, what do you want in English? And I realised, ah, actually it's quite hard to learn a foreign language if you speak English because people can't be bothered and likely already know English. You're talking your special about how French is so difficult to learn.

Oh, yeah. Even French people seem to struggle with it at times. Yeah, because they always going, uh-huh, uh-huh. It's very silly. joke, but I like it. I like it as well. I think people either love that joke or find it too silly.

Oh, I love it. Oh, she doesn't like... Yeah. The problem is, the producer's just told us to walk slightly further in, but I know what's going to happen now, Phil. Yeah. Are you scared of the long grass again? That was terrifying. But we're back on the path now.

Yeah, but the trouble is you've got a lady. And I think she's somewhat somebody with... I'm going to use a 90s word here. Halalas. What's what? Halalas on this way. That's what we call boobs in the 90s.

Oh, what a great time to be alive. I should best be off. Phil. It's been a lovely chat. Thanks for having me. And thanks for introducing me to Raymond. Have you liked Raymond? I've loved Raymond.

Have you? This ideal dog. Quiet, cute, furry, hairy. And he has a noble air to him. Oh, I'm so glad. Well, he really liked you. and we'd love speaking to you, Phil. Oh, likewise.

So I really recommend that you catch Phil Special. Wang and their baby on Netflix. Netflix? Netflix, yeah. So posh, Phil. Do you know, Benny and Maddie, they're going to be having a little toast. They might throw a party for you to celebrate.

Oh, that'd be nice. Yeah, Mom has a Google alert for my name, I think. Or she might do it manually. I think from time to time she just types for Wang into Google and see what's come up which is braver than me I could never do that. I find a words to you.

I think Benny and Maddie Wang have done a rather fabulous job. Oh, that's kind of you to say. I'll be thrilled to hear that. Oh, good. Well, I mean, I do this for them mainly. Phil, thank you so much. Thanks, Emily.

I say goodbye, all you say goodbye to Raymond. Bye, Raymond. Pat, pat, pat, pet, pet, see you back in the Imperial Palace. I really hope you enjoyed that episode of Walking the Dog We'd love it if you subscribed And do join us next time on Walking the Dog Wherever You Get Your Podcasts