1 00:00:00,400 --> 00:00:04,240 Hello, I'm Charles Mallett with the UK Column interview today. 2 00:00:04,240 --> 00:00:07,440 I'm very pleased to have Alastair Williams with me. 3 00:00:07,440 --> 00:00:12,080 He is a comedian and commentator and notes from this interview 4 00:00:12,080 --> 00:00:19,000 will be posted at ukcolumn.org, so please be sure to review 5 00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:22,360 those and send them on now. Alastair, a very warm welcome to 6 00:00:22,440 --> 00:00:24,600 UK Column. Thanks very much for joining me. 7 00:00:25,360 --> 00:00:29,080 Many of the audience, I'm sure, will be aware not just of you as 8 00:00:29,200 --> 00:00:33,320 an individual, but of your great array of, of work over the 9 00:00:33,320 --> 00:00:35,760 years. What I'd like to do before we 10 00:00:35,760 --> 00:00:39,480 deal with all the various issues that confront us today is to go 11 00:00:39,720 --> 00:00:43,480 back, not through all the sounds of time, but some of them to 12 00:00:44,240 --> 00:00:48,680 the, the sort of the genesis of your career as a comedian and 13 00:00:49,160 --> 00:00:50,680 what it was that led you down that path. 14 00:00:50,680 --> 00:00:55,960 It's a, it's a big and bold step to enter that world and I, I 15 00:00:55,960 --> 00:01:00,040 would like to understand better the, the inspirations upon you 16 00:01:00,040 --> 00:01:03,320 and your aspirations back then when you were starting out. 17 00:01:04,120 --> 00:01:05,400 Sure. OK, Yeah, that's a good 18 00:01:05,400 --> 00:01:09,600 question. I guess initially I always, 19 00:01:10,120 --> 00:01:13,120 always thought I would have liked to have been a comedian. 20 00:01:13,120 --> 00:01:16,000 On my 18th birthday, I went to the Comedy Store in Leicester 21 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:19,520 Square, which is not a usual choice for someone who's 18, you 22 00:01:19,520 --> 00:01:21,160 know, usually go to nightclubs, that sort of thing. 23 00:01:21,160 --> 00:01:23,400 But I wanted to go to the Comedy Store in Leicester Square. 24 00:01:23,400 --> 00:01:25,600 I always looked at comedians and thought, oh man, I'd love to do 25 00:01:25,600 --> 00:01:26,800 that. I was always sort of one of the, 26 00:01:27,320 --> 00:01:30,200 the joker type in, in class with my friends, always thought I'd 27 00:01:30,200 --> 00:01:33,000 like to do that. And then it took me till I was 28 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:34,760 about, so I was about 30 to try it. 29 00:01:34,760 --> 00:01:38,760 And I went and did an open mic and I realised that, you know, I 30 00:01:38,760 --> 00:01:40,880 thought I was going to be really intimidated by how good everyone 31 00:01:40,880 --> 00:01:42,040 was. And I was like, oh man, these 32 00:01:42,040 --> 00:01:45,280 guys are rubbish, you know. Well, I could be rubbish. 33 00:01:45,560 --> 00:01:47,800 No, I can be as good as them, they're rubbish. 34 00:01:48,320 --> 00:01:50,280 But everyone is when you start. And when I started, I was 35 00:01:50,280 --> 00:01:52,000 rubbish. And then, you know, so I was 36 00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:53,240 just sort of doing it in my spare time. 37 00:01:53,240 --> 00:01:55,280 And then eventually I started getting paid to do it and it 38 00:01:55,280 --> 00:01:57,440 just sort of took over as my full time job. 39 00:01:57,440 --> 00:02:01,400 But initially I wanted to be like, you know, famous and I 40 00:02:01,400 --> 00:02:03,720 want to be in Hollywood and I want to be this great comedian 41 00:02:03,720 --> 00:02:05,960 that everyone loved. And, you know, I had those sort 42 00:02:05,960 --> 00:02:09,160 of childish hopes and dreams about it. 43 00:02:09,560 --> 00:02:12,840 But yeah, things have changed quite a bit since then. 44 00:02:13,080 --> 00:02:14,440 But you know, that was the original. 45 00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:18,440 That's a good start point, I think for, well, certainly for 46 00:02:18,440 --> 00:02:19,880 me, but for the audience as well. 47 00:02:20,160 --> 00:02:22,480 So let's go, let's go further forward because obviously you've 48 00:02:22,480 --> 00:02:25,600 been through some big ups and downs over the last few years, 49 00:02:25,600 --> 00:02:29,520 which I think I would be right in saying are effectively traced 50 00:02:29,520 --> 00:02:33,640 back to the Brexit in a Burger King period. 51 00:02:34,040 --> 00:02:37,760 But but or or not. But either way, when at what 52 00:02:37,760 --> 00:02:39,760 point did things start to change? 53 00:02:40,240 --> 00:02:41,400 OK. That's a good question. 54 00:02:42,440 --> 00:02:45,160 I did used to have to go to Edinburgh and you'd do like an 55 00:02:45,160 --> 00:02:47,600 hour long comedy show to sort of showcase yourself. 56 00:02:47,600 --> 00:02:51,240 And I did this show called Food where I basically it was an hour 57 00:02:51,240 --> 00:02:53,760 long comedy show. And I was explaining to people 58 00:02:53,760 --> 00:02:56,120 that, you know, people like what can I eat to be healthy? 59 00:02:56,120 --> 00:02:58,360 And essentially the point of the show was the food that you can 60 00:02:58,360 --> 00:03:00,720 eat to be healthy is the food that's sort of naturally here on 61 00:03:00,720 --> 00:03:02,880 the earth. That's either, you know, animals 62 00:03:02,880 --> 00:03:06,160 are growing out the ground. And it was a really sort of sort 63 00:03:06,160 --> 00:03:08,560 of an educational message about food. 64 00:03:08,560 --> 00:03:12,000 And that got sort of agents interested in me. 65 00:03:12,480 --> 00:03:15,480 But I quickly figured out that they weren't interested in sort 66 00:03:15,480 --> 00:03:17,160 of helping people eat the right foods. 67 00:03:17,160 --> 00:03:21,560 You know, they were interested in, you know, changing what I 68 00:03:21,560 --> 00:03:24,880 was saying, really. And that's when I got my first 69 00:03:24,880 --> 00:03:28,240 sort of TV agent. And when I got my first sort of 70 00:03:28,400 --> 00:03:34,760 TV agent, I really noticed how much I was being sort of coerced 71 00:03:34,760 --> 00:03:37,880 to change what I was saying into something completely different. 72 00:03:38,240 --> 00:03:41,600 And I really didn't get on with my, you know, sort of TV agent 73 00:03:41,600 --> 00:03:43,200 because they didn't want to change what I was saying. 74 00:03:43,600 --> 00:03:49,240 And then Rexy Burke came slightly after that, which was 75 00:03:50,880 --> 00:03:53,280 the sort of the piece of comedy that sort of made me go sort of 76 00:03:53,280 --> 00:03:57,560 really viral. And that also made the comedy 77 00:03:57,560 --> 00:03:59,840 industry or whoever runs it, the entertainment industry decide 78 00:03:59,840 --> 00:04:02,720 that I had to be sort of completely erased at that point 79 00:04:02,720 --> 00:04:06,200 because I was sort of, I was doing it for myself really. 80 00:04:06,200 --> 00:04:08,880 They they'd already, they'd already told me that I wasn't 81 00:04:08,880 --> 00:04:10,280 going to be back on the television or anything like 82 00:04:10,280 --> 00:04:12,040 that. I, you know, when I, when I left 83 00:04:12,040 --> 00:04:15,320 this agent, they, they made sure that, you know, I wouldn't be 84 00:04:15,320 --> 00:04:18,640 able to, you know, be sort of mainstream famous anymore. 85 00:04:19,800 --> 00:04:22,520 So they sort of destroyed my career, this mainstream agent I 86 00:04:22,520 --> 00:04:25,800 left and then Brexit, Burger King was me sort of saying, OK, 87 00:04:25,840 --> 00:04:28,520 well, I'll just sort of go viral by myself then. 88 00:04:28,840 --> 00:04:32,480 You know, I don't, I don't feel like I needed to be on the 89 00:04:32,480 --> 00:04:34,000 television. I was like, I can just, I can 90 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:35,880 just go on YouTube and put my stuff up there. 91 00:04:35,880 --> 00:04:38,400 And at the time I didn't realise how controlled YouTube was. 92 00:04:38,680 --> 00:04:41,200 You know, I was like, oh, we don't need the TV anymore. 93 00:04:41,200 --> 00:04:43,800 We've got YouTube. I can just, you know, grow a big 94 00:04:43,800 --> 00:04:47,600 YouTube channel. And then I later down the line, 95 00:04:47,600 --> 00:04:51,440 I sort of discovered that, oh, YouTube is exactly like the 96 00:04:51,440 --> 00:04:53,680 television. You know, like Twitter is 97 00:04:53,680 --> 00:04:56,360 exactly like Netflix is exactly like television. 98 00:04:56,360 --> 00:04:59,760 You know, it's all controlled to 1° or another. 99 00:05:00,120 --> 00:05:02,840 But yeah, Brexit, Burger King was sort of my first, my most 100 00:05:02,840 --> 00:05:06,560 popular viral piece of content and the beginning of the end, 101 00:05:06,600 --> 00:05:09,840 basically it was the opposite to how it should work, should be 102 00:05:09,840 --> 00:05:13,280 like it was Brexit at the time, all these comedians were trying 103 00:05:13,280 --> 00:05:15,680 to do comedy about Brexit and it was all the same. 104 00:05:15,680 --> 00:05:18,920 It was all, you know, if you voted for Brexit, you're a big 105 00:05:18,920 --> 00:05:20,720 racist. You know, it was, and it was a 106 00:05:20,720 --> 00:05:24,080 million different versions of that on the BBC and everywhere, 107 00:05:24,320 --> 00:05:26,600 you know, And mine was the first bit of comedy. 108 00:05:26,600 --> 00:05:30,120 I think really that took a sort of so opposite view or just a 109 00:05:30,120 --> 00:05:32,000 different, not even opposite view, just a different view to 110 00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:34,720 that. And it should, if the comedy 111 00:05:34,720 --> 00:05:37,640 industry was real, it should have made the whole comedy to 112 00:05:37,640 --> 00:05:40,160 go, wow, here's this guy and he's saying something new and 113 00:05:40,160 --> 00:05:41,880 interesting about Brexit. Everyone thinks it's funny. 114 00:05:42,080 --> 00:05:44,840 Instead it was like this guy has to be destroyed. 115 00:05:45,120 --> 00:05:48,040 You know, you must, you must never hear from this comedian 116 00:05:48,040 --> 00:05:50,240 again. And it really just sort of 117 00:05:50,240 --> 00:05:54,320 exposed the the hypocrisy, I guess, in the comedy industry. 118 00:05:54,320 --> 00:05:57,960 And it's my career, if you like. It really just sort of exposed 119 00:05:57,960 --> 00:05:59,480 the comedy industry as being fake. 120 00:05:59,480 --> 00:06:02,840 Because if the comedy industry was real and they were sort of 121 00:06:03,080 --> 00:06:06,000 out there looking for comedians that are popular, that make 122 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:08,680 people laugh and sort of broadcasting their reach, you 123 00:06:08,680 --> 00:06:10,960 know, then they would have everything to do with me. 124 00:06:10,960 --> 00:06:15,800 But they don't want anything to do with me because comedy is not 125 00:06:15,800 --> 00:06:18,760 really about that. I'm sure people might, some 126 00:06:18,760 --> 00:06:20,480 people might struggle with. What do you mean it's not about 127 00:06:20,480 --> 00:06:22,040 that? Like, they're not trying to pick 128 00:06:22,040 --> 00:06:24,080 the funniest comedians to make you all laugh. 129 00:06:24,080 --> 00:06:25,960 That's the last thing they're doing. 130 00:06:25,960 --> 00:06:30,640 There's a real agenda to everything in the entertainment 131 00:06:30,640 --> 00:06:34,680 space, but especially comedy, you know, especially comedy, 132 00:06:34,680 --> 00:06:36,840 which is one that people think, oh, comedy, surely that's the 133 00:06:36,840 --> 00:06:39,480 one place where you must all be free. 134 00:06:39,480 --> 00:06:41,480 It's like, yeah, that's. And that's the reason why it's 135 00:06:41,480 --> 00:06:44,320 the most tightly policed because it is the place where you would 136 00:06:44,320 --> 00:06:47,840 expect that everyone can just, you know, say whatever they 137 00:06:47,840 --> 00:06:48,360 want. And. 138 00:06:48,360 --> 00:06:51,120 And that's the reason why it doesn't work like that at all 139 00:06:51,120 --> 00:06:52,960 basically. I think that's completely 140 00:06:52,960 --> 00:06:55,600 fascinating and that and that is exactly what I would like to get 141 00:06:55,600 --> 00:06:58,600 into with you. You, you just at the beginning 142 00:06:58,600 --> 00:07:01,800 of that you talked about being coerced and being being coerced 143 00:07:01,840 --> 00:07:05,320 effectively, as I understand it, into creating particular 144 00:07:05,320 --> 00:07:07,600 material or only delivering particular material. 145 00:07:07,920 --> 00:07:11,240 You just go into a bit more detail on on how exactly does 146 00:07:11,240 --> 00:07:15,320 that work in terms of having an agent or, or you know that space 147 00:07:15,320 --> 00:07:19,360 and coercion and and then getting to the point of finding 148 00:07:19,360 --> 00:07:21,520 that comedy is used as such a tool. 149 00:07:22,240 --> 00:07:25,160 Firstly, people usually say, you know, I don't understand how, 150 00:07:25,160 --> 00:07:26,640 how would that work or how does it work? 151 00:07:26,640 --> 00:07:29,120 It's all sort of run through the agents and the managers. 152 00:07:29,120 --> 00:07:30,880 That's how they control everything. 153 00:07:30,880 --> 00:07:34,200 And, and what they say to the comedians is, you know, oh, what 154 00:07:34,200 --> 00:07:36,080 you're sort of doing, it's not really going to work for, for 155 00:07:36,080 --> 00:07:37,400 television. You know, this isn't really 156 00:07:37,400 --> 00:07:39,400 going to go across. This is not what the television 157 00:07:39,400 --> 00:07:42,560 companies are looking for. And by doing it that way, they 158 00:07:42,560 --> 00:07:45,600 can sort of control what what the public is, is given as 159 00:07:45,600 --> 00:07:47,200 comedy. I'll give you an example. 160 00:07:48,160 --> 00:07:51,160 When I was just signed with this television agent, I had this, 161 00:07:51,160 --> 00:07:53,880 this these pieces of material about how we shouldn't be on our 162 00:07:53,880 --> 00:07:56,360 phones so much. We shouldn't use our phones so 163 00:07:56,360 --> 00:07:57,720 much. You know, society's really been 164 00:07:57,720 --> 00:07:59,760 damaged by us all being on our phones. 165 00:07:59,760 --> 00:08:03,600 And this is one of my most popular jokes at the time. 166 00:08:03,600 --> 00:08:06,200 It was really, really popular. And I was supporting this 167 00:08:06,840 --> 00:08:09,720 comedian on tour who was way more famous than me, really, 168 00:08:09,720 --> 00:08:12,920 really popular comedian. And I was doing these jokes on 169 00:08:12,920 --> 00:08:15,520 his show and he would came backstage to me and said, hey, 170 00:08:15,520 --> 00:08:17,960 man, those jokes, those iPhone jokes are amazing. 171 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:19,600 They're incredible, man. That's some, some of the 172 00:08:19,600 --> 00:08:22,720 funniest stuff I've heard. And literally that same night, 173 00:08:22,840 --> 00:08:27,160 my agent, who is his agent as well, said, we can't, you can't 174 00:08:27,160 --> 00:08:29,640 use those iPhone jokes anymore, right? 175 00:08:29,760 --> 00:08:31,800 And I was like, what do you mean I can't use those iPhone jokes? 176 00:08:31,800 --> 00:08:34,320 And well, the crowd love him And, and your biggest act, he 177 00:08:34,320 --> 00:08:37,360 said, that's my best stuff is that there's no way I'm getting 178 00:08:37,360 --> 00:08:39,559 rid of that, right? I'm like, what are you, what are 179 00:08:39,559 --> 00:08:42,039 you talking about? And I was never, I was supposed 180 00:08:42,039 --> 00:08:43,640 to support this guy on his whole tour. 181 00:08:43,960 --> 00:08:45,520 They took me off his tour the next day. 182 00:08:45,920 --> 00:08:49,120 I never worked with him again. It would because I had 183 00:08:49,120 --> 00:08:51,760 displayed, you know, I'm not going to be controlled by you. 184 00:08:51,760 --> 00:08:53,320 It's like they told me to not do this. 185 00:08:53,320 --> 00:08:55,240 And I'm like, no, I'm not doing that, You know, because I really 186 00:08:55,240 --> 00:08:56,760 believe people are on their phones too much. 187 00:08:57,240 --> 00:08:59,680 And people were laughing at my material. 188 00:08:59,680 --> 00:09:04,120 And I always has always had the sort of the sort of attitude of 189 00:09:04,120 --> 00:09:06,960 when an agent or a manager or someone would try and tell me 190 00:09:07,200 --> 00:09:09,440 how to do comedy or what I what I must say or what I couldn't 191 00:09:09,440 --> 00:09:11,960 say. I was like, you know, I don't, 192 00:09:12,280 --> 00:09:13,600 you're an agent or a manager, OK, fine. 193 00:09:13,600 --> 00:09:15,920 But you're not a comedian. You've never done this before. 194 00:09:15,920 --> 00:09:19,560 You have 0 minutes experience, you know in in what you're 195 00:09:19,560 --> 00:09:21,920 giving me advice. I'm not here to take your advice 196 00:09:22,200 --> 00:09:24,320 on how to be a comedian, how to make people laugh because that's 197 00:09:24,320 --> 00:09:25,880 something that you don't know how to do. 198 00:09:26,080 --> 00:09:27,360 You know, I'm the expert in that. 199 00:09:27,560 --> 00:09:30,720 The guy who I'm supporting on tour, he's very successful and 200 00:09:30,720 --> 00:09:33,560 he told me that's a great piece of material. 201 00:09:33,680 --> 00:09:35,920 There's no way I'm, I'm going to stop doing this. 202 00:09:36,240 --> 00:09:38,520 And the way the agent or the manager might sell it to you, 203 00:09:38,520 --> 00:09:40,640 it's like, oh, well, it's, you know, it's not going to work on 204 00:09:40,640 --> 00:09:44,720 TV because, you know, we got sponsors and stuff and, and they 205 00:09:44,720 --> 00:09:48,720 might be sort of phone companies and they don't, you know, so 206 00:09:49,520 --> 00:09:51,280 there's that. But there's also a real sort of 207 00:09:51,280 --> 00:09:53,360 political side to it. This it's a real sort of 208 00:09:53,920 --> 00:09:58,000 everyone in comedy is left wing or all the BBC comedy is left 209 00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:00,680 wing it and everyone in the comedy industry, comedians 210 00:10:00,680 --> 00:10:02,720 especially like to think themselves as left wing because 211 00:10:02,720 --> 00:10:05,080 they still have this very sort of childish perception of like 212 00:10:05,360 --> 00:10:08,920 left is good and right people are mean and and I'm a goodie, 213 00:10:08,920 --> 00:10:10,840 so I'm on the left and all the baddies are on the right. 214 00:10:10,840 --> 00:10:12,680 You know, it's like, you know, a six year old or something. 215 00:10:12,920 --> 00:10:16,800 But the way they keep that going is anyone who steps outside a 216 00:10:16,800 --> 00:10:20,000 sort of a sort of a rabid left wing position. 217 00:10:20,080 --> 00:10:22,360 Anyone that steps outside of that, you just you won't work 218 00:10:22,360 --> 00:10:25,720 anywhere, you know, people who won't book you for shows and 219 00:10:25,720 --> 00:10:28,240 that sort of thing. And, and that'll be their 220 00:10:28,240 --> 00:10:29,680 excuse. Like when they cancelled me 221 00:10:29,680 --> 00:10:32,600 after the Brexit Burger King thing, their excuse for doing 222 00:10:32,600 --> 00:10:36,000 that was, well, you were on stage with Nigel Farage because 223 00:10:36,000 --> 00:10:38,600 they invited me to come and come and do this piece of comedy at 224 00:10:38,680 --> 00:10:41,840 one of the Brexit rallies. And back in the day, I was even 225 00:10:41,840 --> 00:10:43,200 more naive about the whole thing. 226 00:10:43,200 --> 00:10:45,040 I used to think that, you know, the Brexit Party with the good 227 00:10:45,040 --> 00:10:46,760 guys, if they got in, everything would change. 228 00:10:47,320 --> 00:10:49,640 So I was like, yeah, sure, I'll, I'll come and do that. 229 00:10:49,640 --> 00:10:52,600 So I went and did that and they took photos of me next to Farage 230 00:10:52,600 --> 00:10:54,440 and all the comedy clubs. And people use that as an 231 00:10:54,440 --> 00:10:56,440 excuse. It's like, you know, we're 232 00:10:56,440 --> 00:10:59,240 cancelling you because it's not. There's nothing wrong with the 233 00:10:59,240 --> 00:11:00,720 joke because there's never wasn't anything wrong with the 234 00:11:00,720 --> 00:11:02,400 joke. Even people who thought we 235 00:11:02,400 --> 00:11:04,720 should remain in the European Union were like, oh, this is a 236 00:11:04,720 --> 00:11:06,160 great joke. I'm laughing at this is funny. 237 00:11:06,480 --> 00:11:09,000 So there's no real premise for them to cancel me about that. 238 00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:11,720 So they were like, well, we'll not cancel you for that because 239 00:11:11,720 --> 00:11:13,680 they couldn't. They were like, but it's because 240 00:11:13,680 --> 00:11:15,960 you stood next the Nigel Farage. You know, that's why. 241 00:11:16,280 --> 00:11:19,280 And I've actually reached the point where I perhaps even 242 00:11:19,280 --> 00:11:22,560 consider that I might have been put on stage next to Farage so 243 00:11:22,560 --> 00:11:26,560 that I could be cancelled for standing on stage next to 244 00:11:26,560 --> 00:11:29,880 Farage, basically. So that's the way that they 245 00:11:29,880 --> 00:11:34,560 control all elements of comedy and the entertainment industry, 246 00:11:34,560 --> 00:11:38,080 but especially comedy is policed. 247 00:11:38,600 --> 00:11:41,960 A lot of the comedy you see on on television has canned 248 00:11:41,960 --> 00:11:44,560 laughter put over it. And on my one only time they put 249 00:11:44,560 --> 00:11:50,320 me on TVI remember I went to the recording and literally probably 250 00:11:50,440 --> 00:11:54,080 19 out of the 21 comedians that were being recorded for 251 00:11:54,360 --> 00:11:59,800 television, they they died on their, they died on their butt. 252 00:11:59,800 --> 00:12:01,800 Is the, is the expression in the industry. 253 00:12:01,800 --> 00:12:04,280 They were, they were out there doing their jokes to no laughs 254 00:12:04,280 --> 00:12:07,040 whatsoever, right? The the, the in studio audience 255 00:12:07,040 --> 00:12:09,640 just like, oh, this is awful, you know, And then when I 256 00:12:09,640 --> 00:12:13,080 watched it back on the TV, oh, these guys were absolutely 257 00:12:13,080 --> 00:12:15,200 killing it. They were cutting to the crowd, 258 00:12:15,600 --> 00:12:19,680 falling around laughing. And I realized like, oh, oh, 259 00:12:19,680 --> 00:12:23,480 This is why a lot of people, they watched comedy on the 260 00:12:23,480 --> 00:12:25,880 television. And they say, I don't get it. 261 00:12:25,880 --> 00:12:27,760 Like I don't, I don't find this funny. 262 00:12:27,760 --> 00:12:30,360 Like, but everyone's laughing. It's like they're probably not 263 00:12:30,800 --> 00:12:35,240 like they probably they record a really sort of rabid left wing 264 00:12:35,240 --> 00:12:37,720 position and they put canned laughter over the top of it. 265 00:12:38,280 --> 00:12:41,640 And that convinces you as the listener, like even if you're 266 00:12:41,640 --> 00:12:44,520 not laughing, it's like, well, everyone else agrees with this. 267 00:12:44,920 --> 00:12:48,120 So, you know, look, this whole, this whole audience is cracking 268 00:12:48,120 --> 00:12:49,960 up about how amazing feminism is. 269 00:12:49,960 --> 00:12:54,800 So you must be, you know, way outside of where everyone else 270 00:12:54,800 --> 00:12:56,240 is thinking if you don't think this is funny. 271 00:12:56,240 --> 00:13:03,160 So it's, it's, it's a real vehicle for them manipulating 272 00:13:03,520 --> 00:13:08,200 how people perceive everyone thinks is putting TV comedy on. 273 00:13:08,560 --> 00:13:11,600 And just to add 1 further point to this, I used to be in when I 274 00:13:11,600 --> 00:13:14,760 had my TV agent, a lot of the guys that I was performing with, 275 00:13:14,760 --> 00:13:17,600 they would be sort of really sort of left wing guys. 276 00:13:17,600 --> 00:13:20,040 And they would they would go to their TV recordings and they 277 00:13:20,040 --> 00:13:22,280 would sort of privately say to each other, does anyone else 278 00:13:22,280 --> 00:13:26,000 find it weird how crazy the crowd goes for our stuff? 279 00:13:26,000 --> 00:13:27,720 Like, you know, not even the punch lines. 280 00:13:27,720 --> 00:13:30,000 They'll be like, I'm just up there and the set up And they 281 00:13:30,000 --> 00:13:32,680 were like, yeah. And and they're just like it's 282 00:13:32,720 --> 00:13:35,720 really like strange. It's like, yeah, like, you know, 283 00:13:35,760 --> 00:13:38,880 the whole thing is manipulated to the point where even the left 284 00:13:38,880 --> 00:13:40,960 wing comics are just like putting me off. 285 00:13:40,960 --> 00:13:44,040 How the audience just falling over themselves, you know, at 286 00:13:44,040 --> 00:13:48,080 these set up recordings to, you know, really lay it on thick. 287 00:13:48,320 --> 00:13:50,360 And sometimes they use can laughter and sometimes they just 288 00:13:50,360 --> 00:13:53,120 use a an audience full of planted people who are just 289 00:13:53,120 --> 00:13:55,720 going to go nuts to anything you say, basically. 290 00:13:56,160 --> 00:13:58,560 Fascinating insight. I mean, for, you know, for the 291 00:13:58,560 --> 00:14:00,560 vast majority of us who have absolutely no idea how the 292 00:14:00,960 --> 00:14:03,720 comedy industry or the, you know, sort of the minutiae of, 293 00:14:03,800 --> 00:14:06,240 of the, the performance side of it would work. 294 00:14:06,240 --> 00:14:09,240 But we, I think it's, it's much more obvious to people in 295 00:14:09,240 --> 00:14:14,040 mainstream media in say film industry where exactly like 296 00:14:14,040 --> 00:14:15,920 you're describing, you know, we're, we're constantly given 297 00:14:15,920 --> 00:14:17,640 the impression that everybody thinks that. 298 00:14:17,640 --> 00:14:19,440 So therefore you must think the same. 299 00:14:19,960 --> 00:14:23,960 But comedy, I think is one of those areas exactly like you 300 00:14:23,960 --> 00:14:26,280 say, that people overlook. They don't, they don't imagine 301 00:14:26,280 --> 00:14:29,280 that can be the case. But so this is what you saw. 302 00:14:29,920 --> 00:14:33,800 What did you find that you were working alongside other people 303 00:14:33,800 --> 00:14:38,120 who did see it or who you know, as it would appear to us now, 304 00:14:38,120 --> 00:14:40,880 like a lot of mainstream journalists who, OK, 305 00:14:40,880 --> 00:14:42,920 notwithstanding the sort of vested interest side of it who 306 00:14:42,920 --> 00:14:45,040 appeared just not to be able to see it, did. 307 00:14:45,320 --> 00:14:48,560 Were there people around you that did see this and how did 308 00:14:48,560 --> 00:14:51,520 they react? I mean, it's in their best 309 00:14:51,520 --> 00:14:54,360 interest not to see it. They're quite clever in that 310 00:14:54,680 --> 00:14:56,640 everyone is at this sort of level, sort of. 311 00:14:56,640 --> 00:14:58,960 They're on the TV, they've got an agent, they're all on the on 312 00:14:58,960 --> 00:15:02,320 the gravy trains, so to speak. You know, they don't want to see 313 00:15:02,320 --> 00:15:05,200 the things that that I'm seeing. And I remember I would go to 314 00:15:05,240 --> 00:15:09,960 other comedians and I reached the stage where this agent was 315 00:15:12,640 --> 00:15:16,880 directly trying to ruin my career because I wouldn't toe 316 00:15:16,880 --> 00:15:18,560 the line. So it's reached the point where 317 00:15:18,560 --> 00:15:20,760 the person who's supposed to be trying to help my career was 318 00:15:20,760 --> 00:15:23,800 actively trying to ruin it. Like an, I mean, like if a 319 00:15:23,800 --> 00:15:27,320 meeting, if I was on the radio at 12:30, they would send me, 320 00:15:27,320 --> 00:15:29,720 they would tell me it starts at 1:30. 321 00:15:29,840 --> 00:15:31,360 So I'd be an hour late, you know, and they would 322 00:15:31,360 --> 00:15:33,920 consistently do this. And the other acts that I was 323 00:15:33,920 --> 00:15:35,480 signed, this agent, you know, they're all, they've got the 324 00:15:35,480 --> 00:15:36,880 same agent as me and we're friends. 325 00:15:36,880 --> 00:15:39,800 So I'm like, you know, that they had ruining my stuff on purpose. 326 00:15:39,840 --> 00:15:42,240 But they were like, you know, they would say like, Nah, I 327 00:15:42,240 --> 00:15:43,720 don't believe that. I'm like, well, look, I got the 328 00:15:43,720 --> 00:15:44,720 evidence right here in the e-mail. 329 00:15:44,720 --> 00:15:46,960 I don't want to see it. I want to see it, you know, 330 00:15:46,960 --> 00:15:49,520 like, no, they wouldn't want to see it and no one wants to see 331 00:15:49,520 --> 00:15:50,640 it. It's not like I couldn't prove 332 00:15:50,640 --> 00:15:53,280 what's going on. It's just, you know, no one, no 333 00:15:53,280 --> 00:15:58,880 one really wants to admit that this is going on because 99% of 334 00:15:58,880 --> 00:16:01,920 people are just more than happy to go along with it. 335 00:16:01,920 --> 00:16:05,000 And they keep you so anxious in the comedy entertainment 336 00:16:05,000 --> 00:16:06,960 industry. You know, everyone's desperate 337 00:16:06,960 --> 00:16:08,320 to get their age. And once they've got their 338 00:16:08,320 --> 00:16:09,360 agent, they don't lose their age. 339 00:16:09,360 --> 00:16:13,280 And, and, you know, they, they really sort of, if you go to the 340 00:16:13,280 --> 00:16:16,240 Edinburgh Comedy Festival and see the anxiety that is in the 341 00:16:16,240 --> 00:16:19,320 performers, you know, everyone, it's like they, they keep you 342 00:16:19,320 --> 00:16:22,320 like piranhas in a tank, you know, and they've got everyone 343 00:16:22,320 --> 00:16:24,640 just desperate to cling on to their seat at the table. 344 00:16:24,640 --> 00:16:27,440 And, you know, they get most of the comedians into debt by 345 00:16:27,440 --> 00:16:29,240 sending them up to Edinburgh every year and tell them they've 346 00:16:29,240 --> 00:16:31,840 got to spend 40 grand on the show and hope that someone who 347 00:16:31,840 --> 00:16:35,680 works for PRLC or something. Anyway, they've got everyone 348 00:16:36,120 --> 00:16:40,000 desperate just to hang on to this, this, this chance of fame 349 00:16:40,000 --> 00:16:43,480 that they have. And, and 99.9% of the people in 350 00:16:43,480 --> 00:16:47,240 that industry, they are not interested at all in taking any 351 00:16:47,240 --> 00:16:51,280 sort of a actual moral position or anything. 352 00:16:51,600 --> 00:16:55,600 They just want to be famous, you know, they just want to be on, 353 00:16:56,080 --> 00:17:00,360 you know, the BBC or, you know, and, and I would be, I would, 354 00:17:00,360 --> 00:17:03,040 I'm very vocal and I was on that Brexit Boking video. 355 00:17:03,040 --> 00:17:05,960 I was very vocal about the fact that the BBC are just this 356 00:17:05,960 --> 00:17:09,640 terrible organization with, with a record of, you know, covering 357 00:17:09,640 --> 00:17:11,560 up for, you know, Jimmy Savile and this sort of thing. 358 00:17:11,560 --> 00:17:14,040 I'm like, why would you ever want to work for this 359 00:17:14,560 --> 00:17:17,160 organization? It's horrendous in my view, 360 00:17:17,640 --> 00:17:20,280 propaganda institution that's ruining this country. 361 00:17:20,280 --> 00:17:23,200 And you know, but 90% of the convenience was like, hey, I'm 362 00:17:23,200 --> 00:17:26,800 on BBC, you know, like check this out Mum and dad, you know, 363 00:17:26,800 --> 00:17:30,280 that's it's great for them. Like no one really has any sort 364 00:17:30,280 --> 00:17:33,400 of morals in that industry really. 365 00:17:33,400 --> 00:17:36,320 Because if you do, they just, they just kick you out, you 366 00:17:36,320 --> 00:17:39,160 know, So you really do have to make a choice. 367 00:17:39,720 --> 00:17:43,880 But fortunately for me in a way, you know, they'd already sort of 368 00:17:44,400 --> 00:17:47,400 they'd already sort of booted me out and, and rejected me if you 369 00:17:47,400 --> 00:17:50,040 like, but not, you know, playing ball. 370 00:17:50,040 --> 00:17:52,160 So, you know, what did I have to lose? 371 00:17:52,600 --> 00:17:57,720 And Brexit Burger King was just me kind of saying like, hey, you 372 00:17:57,720 --> 00:18:00,480 know, just just leave me alone because I can do this. 373 00:18:00,480 --> 00:18:03,600 I can do this by myself. And I gave, I gave, I gave the 374 00:18:03,600 --> 00:18:05,920 establishment a bit of a black eye with the Brexit Burger King 375 00:18:05,920 --> 00:18:10,840 thing. Just because people are people 376 00:18:10,840 --> 00:18:15,320 might not realise how bad things are, but so this Brexit, Burger 377 00:18:15,320 --> 00:18:18,640 King thing, for example, it was sort of anti the European Union 378 00:18:18,840 --> 00:18:22,560 in a way, right? When I would go on comedy tours 379 00:18:22,680 --> 00:18:25,680 with other comedians around Europe, we'd all be using the 380 00:18:25,680 --> 00:18:27,680 same promoter, right? And we'd all be staying in the 381 00:18:27,680 --> 00:18:30,480 same hotel. My room would always be terrible 382 00:18:30,480 --> 00:18:33,160 and it'd be tiny, be small. I'm like, you guys, room's 383 00:18:33,160 --> 00:18:34,760 terrible. But no, I was like, what is 384 00:18:34,760 --> 00:18:37,040 going on? And then one time the guy who 385 00:18:37,040 --> 00:18:39,480 works on reception in the hotel was like, Hey, you know, he let 386 00:18:39,480 --> 00:18:41,040 the car out of the bag. He was like, Hey, you're the, 387 00:18:41,480 --> 00:18:42,600 you're the anti European Union guy. 388 00:18:42,600 --> 00:18:45,960 Enjoy your room. I'm like, oh, oh, right. 389 00:18:46,200 --> 00:18:49,680 You know, that's why you know, and I think there is a kind of, 390 00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:53,480 it's kind of like a digital black spot that they put on 391 00:18:53,480 --> 00:18:56,720 people like me, like my Twitter won't grow. 392 00:18:56,720 --> 00:19:00,080 My YouTube doesn't grow. Like it's not as simple as they 393 00:19:00,080 --> 00:19:03,240 cancelled my YouTube channel. It's like, no, no, no, the whole 394 00:19:03,240 --> 00:19:04,880 thing is connected. All the social media works, 395 00:19:05,520 --> 00:19:11,200 networks are connected. Like if you are sort of marked 396 00:19:11,200 --> 00:19:13,800 out as someone who is trouble who they, they don't want 397 00:19:13,800 --> 00:19:17,160 everyone listening to you, no one's going to be able to find 398 00:19:17,160 --> 00:19:18,960 you basically. And they can make your life 399 00:19:18,960 --> 00:19:21,560 miserable in in a number of different ways. 400 00:19:21,560 --> 00:19:24,720 And they were already doing that with me before Brexit, Burger 401 00:19:24,720 --> 00:19:28,400 King, but they were certainly sort of doing it afterwards. 402 00:19:28,400 --> 00:19:31,480 So, you know, there's no chance that they're ever going to allow 403 00:19:31,480 --> 00:19:34,320 me to have any sort of a mainstream career. 404 00:19:34,320 --> 00:19:36,280 But that's not even something I'm interested in anymore 405 00:19:36,280 --> 00:19:37,400 anyway. So it's fine. 406 00:19:37,400 --> 00:19:41,760 But you know, the the whole sort of social credit score system 407 00:19:41,760 --> 00:19:44,440 that people think only exists in China, I'm pretty sure it's here 408 00:19:44,440 --> 00:19:45,960 already. It's just, it's not, they're not 409 00:19:45,960 --> 00:19:47,720 sort of overt about it, you know what I mean? 410 00:19:48,280 --> 00:19:50,800 I think you're quite right. I'm I'm certain it's absolutely 411 00:19:50,800 --> 00:19:52,560 here. And and that, you know, goes 412 00:19:52,560 --> 00:19:56,120 back to the the the jokes about iPhones and the, and the, you 413 00:19:56,120 --> 00:19:59,200 know, how critical it is to the, to the system functioning that 414 00:19:59,200 --> 00:20:01,560 everybody is glued to a device all the time. 415 00:20:02,000 --> 00:20:05,160 Yeah, I think the the the last bit really as the the the. 416 00:20:05,680 --> 00:20:08,360 Newly appointed or relatively newly appointed chief executive 417 00:20:08,360 --> 00:20:12,000 of Twitter or X said freedom of speech, but not freedom of 418 00:20:12,000 --> 00:20:14,520 reach, I think was her catch phrase. 419 00:20:15,440 --> 00:20:21,080 But you, you know, what you're talking about in terms of taking 420 00:20:21,280 --> 00:20:27,080 a moral line or, or, or, or a decision, a choice which going 421 00:20:27,080 --> 00:20:30,640 back to your initial aspirations, you know, you have 422 00:20:30,640 --> 00:20:33,880 been faced with a, with a difficult fork in the road in 423 00:20:33,880 --> 00:20:38,880 effect, that the, the illusion of the world of comedy sort of 424 00:20:39,560 --> 00:20:42,640 shattered around you. And yet obviously you have 425 00:20:42,640 --> 00:20:48,160 decided to stick with comedy as something that is, you know, 426 00:20:48,160 --> 00:20:50,080 still a very big part of your life. 427 00:20:50,680 --> 00:20:53,080 How did you? Well, I mean, I don't know how 428 00:20:53,080 --> 00:20:56,680 hard the decision that was to make, but how did you make that 429 00:20:56,680 --> 00:20:59,680 decision? Did you question you know that 430 00:20:59,720 --> 00:21:02,000 it might be something that you would get out of altogether? 431 00:21:02,920 --> 00:21:05,560 There was a time when I wasn't sure where, whether I would, 432 00:21:06,080 --> 00:21:09,960 whether I would keep doing it, but it's, it's what I'm supposed 433 00:21:09,960 --> 00:21:12,920 to be doing. And I've always been, I've 434 00:21:12,920 --> 00:21:17,080 always been sure of that. And you know, I'm pretty sure 435 00:21:17,440 --> 00:21:19,160 that's why God, what God made me to do. 436 00:21:19,160 --> 00:21:21,720 And I'm pretty sure that God gave me specific talents and 437 00:21:21,720 --> 00:21:26,120 he's, he's expecting me to use them to tell people the truth. 438 00:21:26,800 --> 00:21:28,640 Because if you're already good at stand up comedy, people will 439 00:21:28,640 --> 00:21:30,880 listen to you because they're laughing and they're just and 440 00:21:30,880 --> 00:21:32,400 when someone's laughing at something you say, they're 441 00:21:32,400 --> 00:21:36,960 admitting that it's true. So it like no other art form or 442 00:21:36,960 --> 00:21:39,680 medium. You change someone's mind with 443 00:21:39,680 --> 00:21:41,720 stand up comedy because you make them laugh. 444 00:21:42,200 --> 00:21:43,400 They're sort of agreeing with you. 445 00:21:43,400 --> 00:21:45,160 If I'm just talking about it doesn't matter what it's let's 446 00:21:45,160 --> 00:21:47,720 say I'm talking about climate change and I've got the whole 447 00:21:47,720 --> 00:21:49,600 audience laughing at at climate change. 448 00:21:49,640 --> 00:21:52,920 Well, really they're sort of saying, hang on, maybe this 449 00:21:52,920 --> 00:21:55,560 whole thing is a bit silly. This is a bit ridiculous and 450 00:21:55,560 --> 00:21:57,160 it's not so serious. I thought, you know, you can 451 00:21:57,160 --> 00:22:00,200 really change people's, can we change people's mind and change 452 00:22:00,200 --> 00:22:04,840 people's ideas? And I'm 100% certain that the 453 00:22:04,840 --> 00:22:08,840 talents I had are God-given and that he's created me to use 454 00:22:08,840 --> 00:22:10,360 these talents to tell people the truth. 455 00:22:10,600 --> 00:22:14,840 I couldn't care less what, you know, they think at the BBC or 456 00:22:14,840 --> 00:22:18,280 the Netflix, you know, I'm doing what I'm doing what he tells me 457 00:22:18,280 --> 00:22:20,200 to do. So you know, I'm going to keep 458 00:22:20,200 --> 00:22:22,920 doing it, even if it's only on a small scale. 459 00:22:22,920 --> 00:22:25,000 You know, right now I'm just sort of doing this sort of the 460 00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:27,520 comedy circuit and they won't let me in the big clubs anymore, 461 00:22:27,520 --> 00:22:30,080 but I'm sort of beneath that and I'm sort of doing my own thing. 462 00:22:30,080 --> 00:22:32,200 But you know that, you know, that's absolutely fine. 463 00:22:32,520 --> 00:22:33,560 You know, that's absolutely fine. 464 00:22:33,560 --> 00:22:39,920 So I never really, I never really came that close to giving 465 00:22:39,920 --> 00:22:42,200 up all together. But there was a time when I was 466 00:22:42,200 --> 00:22:44,560 doing more stuff on sort of social media and more stuff on 467 00:22:44,560 --> 00:22:49,920 YouTube just because, you know, that's where where my career 468 00:22:49,920 --> 00:22:52,000 sort of took me sort of thing. And then they had the whole sort 469 00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:54,240 of three-year period where there was no comedy shows anyway. 470 00:22:54,240 --> 00:22:56,480 So it's just as well I had something to do during that 471 00:22:56,480 --> 00:22:58,400 time. But now I'm sort of getting more 472 00:22:58,400 --> 00:23:01,360 back into doing live stand up comedy really. 473 00:23:01,360 --> 00:23:04,560 But I never considered, you know, stopping doing it. 474 00:23:04,560 --> 00:23:07,280 It's like I'm good at this. Why would I why would I stop 475 00:23:07,280 --> 00:23:10,440 doing this, especially when you know, there's there's no one 476 00:23:10,440 --> 00:23:13,240 I've ever offended. You know, I find it's one of the 477 00:23:13,280 --> 00:23:15,920 one of the few people you can find is cancelled and there's no 478 00:23:16,480 --> 00:23:19,360 discernible reason why. Like you can't even point to a 479 00:23:19,360 --> 00:23:21,760 single person who's like, oh, he offended me about this. 480 00:23:21,760 --> 00:23:24,800 You know, it's so the people that they really want to cancel, 481 00:23:24,800 --> 00:23:26,280 they just, they just do it quietly. 482 00:23:26,280 --> 00:23:29,960 They just, they shadow ban you. They take away your channels. 483 00:23:29,960 --> 00:23:33,200 They, they, they reduce your reach, so to speak. 484 00:23:33,280 --> 00:23:35,640 You know, the people that they publicly cancel, like Andrew 485 00:23:35,640 --> 00:23:37,800 Tape, for example. You can't go anywhere without 486 00:23:38,280 --> 00:23:40,280 hearing this guy's name everywhere. 487 00:23:40,440 --> 00:23:42,240 You know what I mean? It's like you go on these big 488 00:23:43,040 --> 00:23:45,160 Piers, Piers Morgan about how cancelled I am. 489 00:23:45,160 --> 00:23:50,480 It's like, oh, come on, guys. You know, like the people, they 490 00:23:50,480 --> 00:23:53,280 own everything, including the people that have cancelled. 491 00:23:53,280 --> 00:23:56,120 Like, you know, the people who the people who are famously 492 00:23:56,120 --> 00:23:57,720 cancelled are part of the whole thing. 493 00:23:57,720 --> 00:24:01,200 You know, there's there's very little, there's very little 494 00:24:01,200 --> 00:24:04,880 legitimate voices out there that have, you know, big followings. 495 00:24:04,880 --> 00:24:07,640 I don't know if there's any. That's completely fair enough. 496 00:24:07,640 --> 00:24:12,040 I think there's a very accurate summary of the situation. 497 00:24:12,040 --> 00:24:16,080 But tell me and, and you know anyone I, I, as I say, I should 498 00:24:16,080 --> 00:24:19,840 imagine a vast majority of the audience will be familiar with 499 00:24:20,280 --> 00:24:22,280 some of your material. They may have even had the the 500 00:24:22,440 --> 00:24:24,080 pleasure of listening to you live. 501 00:24:24,760 --> 00:24:27,880 So I speak, I think for everybody when I say we're 502 00:24:27,880 --> 00:24:30,480 absolutely delighted that you didn't give up comedy. 503 00:24:30,920 --> 00:24:34,280 But do you find now, having, having seen things for what they 504 00:24:34,280 --> 00:24:37,120 are and feeling, I think I'm right in saying that you have, 505 00:24:37,600 --> 00:24:40,120 like you just said, you have a clearer path in life. 506 00:24:40,760 --> 00:24:43,360 Has that made a difference to the connection that you feel 507 00:24:43,360 --> 00:24:46,960 with an audience? Yeah, I, I guess so. 508 00:24:47,600 --> 00:24:51,000 I guess so. How many audiences are really 509 00:24:51,000 --> 00:24:53,320 sort of honest group of people? You know, they're just out to 510 00:24:53,320 --> 00:24:54,920 have a good time. They want to have a laugh. 511 00:24:55,040 --> 00:24:58,120 And if you make them laugh, they're enjoying themselves and 512 00:24:58,120 --> 00:25:00,880 that's it. You know, it's really not a 513 00:25:00,880 --> 00:25:03,200 difficult industry to run. It's like if the guy's up there 514 00:25:03,200 --> 00:25:06,120 speaking and everyone's laughing, he's good at this, Get 515 00:25:06,120 --> 00:25:10,880 him to do it more. But like I say, having a 516 00:25:10,880 --> 00:25:12,920 connection with the audience and stuff like that has never been 517 00:25:12,920 --> 00:25:14,400 my problem. Like making people laugh has 518 00:25:14,400 --> 00:25:17,760 never been my problem. Like staying alive outside of 519 00:25:17,760 --> 00:25:21,600 the outside of the game, Having made a room full of people laugh 520 00:25:21,600 --> 00:25:24,800 is the difficult bit. You know, especially when you're 521 00:25:25,280 --> 00:25:28,440 sort of broaching the sort of topics that I want to that I 522 00:25:28,440 --> 00:25:34,480 want to broach, you know, for example, enforced speech around 523 00:25:34,480 --> 00:25:38,560 pronouns, that sort of thing. 99% of people think that that's 524 00:25:39,040 --> 00:25:43,080 horrendous and they don't like it and they don't really think 525 00:25:43,080 --> 00:25:45,640 that this man is a woman or this woman is a man. 526 00:25:45,640 --> 00:25:47,640 They, they know it's nonsense, right? 527 00:25:47,880 --> 00:25:50,920 But they're terrified. They're terrified to say 528 00:25:50,920 --> 00:25:52,720 anything. This is, they know they're going 529 00:25:52,720 --> 00:25:54,680 to be relentlessly bullied. They'd probably lose their 530 00:25:54,680 --> 00:25:57,800 career. So we're in this sort of weird 531 00:25:57,800 --> 00:26:02,560 position where 95% of the population don't agree with this 532 00:26:02,560 --> 00:26:04,000 stuff. They can see how damaging there 533 00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:07,520 is, but they're not going to say anything because they're too 534 00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:09,840 worried about what it might cost them. 535 00:26:09,840 --> 00:26:11,400 Well, it's already cost me everything. 536 00:26:11,920 --> 00:26:16,120 And I'm in the position of somebody who should be saying 537 00:26:16,120 --> 00:26:18,840 something about this. You know, it's the comedian's 538 00:26:18,840 --> 00:26:20,360 job is to point out the ridiculous. 539 00:26:20,360 --> 00:26:22,680 Like throughout the pandemic, for example, comedians that 540 00:26:22,680 --> 00:26:24,360 weren't talking about how ridiculous the whole thing is. 541 00:26:24,360 --> 00:26:26,560 I'm like, you know, where are you guys? 542 00:26:26,560 --> 00:26:29,160 Like all the comedians I used to love, all the comedians I used 543 00:26:29,160 --> 00:26:32,160 to think were great and amazing. I couldn't care less for any of 544 00:26:32,160 --> 00:26:35,560 them after this pandemic. If you were a comedian, someone 545 00:26:35,680 --> 00:26:39,600 who's supposed to be making observations for a living, 546 00:26:40,120 --> 00:26:44,000 right, you're, you know, you're supposed to really be able to 547 00:26:44,000 --> 00:26:46,000 tell what's going on and then explain to people and you're 548 00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:49,080 sitting through this thing and you're, you're making jokes 549 00:26:49,080 --> 00:26:51,480 like, Hey, if you not vaccinated, punch yourself. 550 00:26:51,480 --> 00:26:55,680 It's like now that's, that's, that's gone past sort of 551 00:26:55,680 --> 00:26:58,840 incompetence and into sort of, you know, evil, to be honest 552 00:26:58,840 --> 00:27:01,480 with you. So I lost, I lost a lot of 553 00:27:01,480 --> 00:27:03,920 respects. I never, I never lost a 554 00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:07,240 connection with the audience, but with, with my sort of peers 555 00:27:07,240 --> 00:27:09,560 or the sort of famous comedians, but the same thing with sort of 556 00:27:09,920 --> 00:27:11,760 famous musicians or famous actors. 557 00:27:11,760 --> 00:27:18,680 It's really exposed to me how fake that whole industry is. 558 00:27:18,680 --> 00:27:21,920 These these people that you're given to follow, you know, and 559 00:27:21,920 --> 00:27:24,920 the way our, our culture encourages that, you know, 560 00:27:24,920 --> 00:27:30,160 there's some of the most, some of the most gutless, spineless 561 00:27:30,160 --> 00:27:32,200 people that there are available who'd literally they're just, 562 00:27:32,200 --> 00:27:35,040 like I said before, they just want to keep their space at the 563 00:27:35,040 --> 00:27:38,080 table of being this extra special human being who's 564 00:27:38,080 --> 00:27:42,480 famous, you know. And yeah, so I always, I always, 565 00:27:42,880 --> 00:27:45,120 you know, had had no problem having a connection with the 566 00:27:45,120 --> 00:27:48,520 audience. It's just it's the slime of the 567 00:27:48,520 --> 00:27:51,200 entertainment industry that that I don't want to be involved in. 568 00:27:52,240 --> 00:27:55,040 Fair enough. And you make a very good point 569 00:27:55,040 --> 00:27:58,560 about the on the observational side of it and, and not 570 00:27:58,560 --> 00:28:01,040 offending people, not, not necessarily saying it's an 571 00:28:01,040 --> 00:28:04,320 explicit sort of purpose in your material. 572 00:28:04,320 --> 00:28:07,480 But but on that though, how, how do you yourself, and 573 00:28:07,480 --> 00:28:14,040 particularly now, how do you decide what will be something 574 00:28:14,040 --> 00:28:17,160 that you can effectively make a joke out of and, and, and that 575 00:28:17,160 --> 00:28:20,200 you would, you know, might for whatever reason, decide not to? 576 00:28:20,200 --> 00:28:22,280 How do you how do you filter stuff? 577 00:28:22,960 --> 00:28:25,080 I just sort of go with what I, what I, what I want to talk 578 00:28:25,080 --> 00:28:27,800 about. I sort of go with what I, what I 579 00:28:27,800 --> 00:28:31,200 think is, is amusing or if there's a particular issue that 580 00:28:31,200 --> 00:28:35,880 I'd like to, and I'd like to have people reconsider about 581 00:28:35,880 --> 00:28:38,400 whether they want to go along with this sort of agenda. 582 00:28:38,400 --> 00:28:41,400 I'll, I'll try and make, you know, jokes about it, for 583 00:28:41,400 --> 00:28:45,880 example. So I don't really have a don't 584 00:28:46,520 --> 00:28:49,680 really have a particular thing that I may need to do. 585 00:28:49,680 --> 00:28:54,040 I just, I just want to do what, you know, what I think, what I 586 00:28:54,040 --> 00:28:57,480 think people will laugh at. But there's very few comedians 587 00:28:57,480 --> 00:28:59,640 that, you know, are actually doing that. 588 00:28:59,880 --> 00:29:03,560 You know, a lot of a lot of the comedians these days, they're 589 00:29:03,560 --> 00:29:06,840 trying to, they're trying to do what their agent and their 590 00:29:06,840 --> 00:29:09,000 manager tells them that people want to hear about, which is 591 00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:13,560 usually a sort of monotone left wing stuff. 592 00:29:13,560 --> 00:29:15,680 You know, there's very few people out there that are 593 00:29:16,360 --> 00:29:19,200 legitimately just saying what they think is funny. 594 00:29:19,200 --> 00:29:21,720 Most of it is sort of agenda driven. 595 00:29:23,560 --> 00:29:26,600 So yeah, I just sort of go with what I think is what I think is 596 00:29:26,600 --> 00:29:28,720 funny. Basically sounds pretty simple, 597 00:29:28,720 --> 00:29:31,120 but that's supposed to be what we're all doing really. 598 00:29:31,520 --> 00:29:32,760 Fair enough. And it works. 599 00:29:33,960 --> 00:29:38,800 Last year a British comedian of the year at the Comedy Store, 600 00:29:39,960 --> 00:29:44,520 which is a fantastic achievement and and I I'm sure would have 601 00:29:44,520 --> 00:29:47,800 given you a sense of enormous sort of pleasure and 602 00:29:47,960 --> 00:29:50,760 satisfaction. And in a way one in the eye for 603 00:29:51,240 --> 00:29:53,640 a lot of the people that you described sort of earlier on in 604 00:29:53,640 --> 00:29:58,600 this interview. But I think to people who have 605 00:29:58,600 --> 00:30:02,920 heard that, you know, your story is one of having been shunned, 606 00:30:02,920 --> 00:30:07,760 completely pushed outside. And then you've had this amazing 607 00:30:07,760 --> 00:30:13,920 success at the Comedy Store, just to sort of clear the path 608 00:30:13,920 --> 00:30:16,480 as to how that happened. How does how does that work? 609 00:30:16,480 --> 00:30:18,040 How were you able to get to that? 610 00:30:18,040 --> 00:30:20,640 I'll tell you how, Charles. I'll tell you exactly how. 611 00:30:21,040 --> 00:30:23,560 I don't enter comedy competitions because they're all 612 00:30:23,720 --> 00:30:27,200 crooked, essentially. They have judges and the judges 613 00:30:27,200 --> 00:30:31,400 just pick the most left wing or you know, the person who ticks 614 00:30:31,400 --> 00:30:34,200 all the right boxes or whatever. But the British Comedian of the 615 00:30:34,200 --> 00:30:36,880 Year is the only competition that's voted for by the 616 00:30:36,880 --> 00:30:40,000 audience. So it's literally like whoever 617 00:30:40,000 --> 00:30:42,440 the audience thinks that was the funniest wins. 618 00:30:42,840 --> 00:30:44,480 And that's the only reason I entered it. 619 00:30:44,800 --> 00:30:47,520 And the final was at the Comedy Store, which is one of my 620 00:30:47,880 --> 00:30:49,800 favorite places ever to do comedy. 621 00:30:49,880 --> 00:30:52,680 And I haven't, I'm not allowed to do comedy there anymore. 622 00:30:52,960 --> 00:30:55,640 And no one's told me why. I always do very well when I'm 623 00:30:55,640 --> 00:30:57,240 there. Then all of a sudden, one day 624 00:30:57,640 --> 00:31:00,080 just I'm not welcome there anymore that I've never told me 625 00:31:00,080 --> 00:31:02,920 why. So the opportunity to go back 626 00:31:02,920 --> 00:31:05,680 there, do comedy there, you know, one last time. 627 00:31:05,720 --> 00:31:07,520 And then maybe I'll go back. Maybe I'll have to be back there 628 00:31:07,520 --> 00:31:09,680 again one day. Maybe not, but doesn't look like 629 00:31:09,680 --> 00:31:11,640 it. But the opportunity to go back 630 00:31:11,640 --> 00:31:14,960 there again and, you know, have a great show and walk out with a 631 00:31:14,960 --> 00:31:16,400 giant check. But I see you later, guys. 632 00:31:16,440 --> 00:31:19,600 You know, it's just too good, too good to pass up, you know, 633 00:31:19,880 --> 00:31:22,520 so, but the only reason I won that is because it's voted for 634 00:31:22,520 --> 00:31:24,560 by real people. You know, it's a real 635 00:31:24,560 --> 00:31:27,840 competition, but nothing else in comedy works like that. 636 00:31:28,240 --> 00:31:30,720 If you go to the Edinburgh Comedy Festival, all the judges 637 00:31:30,720 --> 00:31:34,960 like write for the Guardian or, you know, it's all, you know, 638 00:31:35,400 --> 00:31:37,080 it's like who's the funniest lesbian? 639 00:31:37,080 --> 00:31:38,840 It's not like who's the funniest person, you know what I'm 640 00:31:38,840 --> 00:31:40,000 saying? Or it's like, who's the 641 00:31:40,000 --> 00:31:44,760 funniest, you know, person who's got some kind of, you know, woke 642 00:31:44,760 --> 00:31:46,840 points or whatever, But they're they'll straight up tell you 643 00:31:46,840 --> 00:31:48,720 like, dude, you're just you're a straight white male. 644 00:31:48,720 --> 00:31:50,720 You're not getting anything here, especially if you're 645 00:31:51,240 --> 00:31:53,560 comedy isn't left wing. It's like, you know, the whole 646 00:31:53,560 --> 00:31:56,880 thing is, is a rub. There's no point someone like 647 00:31:56,880 --> 00:32:00,080 me, you know, even going up there and there's less and less 648 00:32:00,080 --> 00:32:04,720 people sort of going every year and more and more audiences 649 00:32:04,720 --> 00:32:08,240 switching off to the to the way that the comedy is run. 650 00:32:08,560 --> 00:32:13,240 But to take this even further, I don't even believe that they're 651 00:32:13,240 --> 00:32:15,040 looking for the funniest people anymore. 652 00:32:15,400 --> 00:32:19,600 I got a theory that there's certain people in the world that 653 00:32:19,600 --> 00:32:23,000 want to make the world ugly. OK, so if you look at 654 00:32:23,160 --> 00:32:25,040 architecture, it's a great example. 655 00:32:25,160 --> 00:32:28,440 Films is another great example. Music is another great example. 656 00:32:28,560 --> 00:32:31,760 Comedy is another great example. You know, all these things are 657 00:32:31,960 --> 00:32:34,480 awful compared to what they used to be. 658 00:32:34,640 --> 00:32:36,720 Architecture is one of the best examples I can give you. 659 00:32:36,720 --> 00:32:39,280 You look at the buildings from 400 years ago, how incredibly 660 00:32:39,280 --> 00:32:41,320 beautiful they are. Look at, you know, look at the 661 00:32:41,320 --> 00:32:43,520 latest, like libraries that they put up in places. 662 00:32:43,520 --> 00:32:45,200 Places just awful. They hurt your eyes. 663 00:32:45,600 --> 00:32:49,080 You know, statues in London, just grotesque, ugly. 664 00:32:49,440 --> 00:32:52,080 You know, music is the same. New music's awful. 665 00:32:52,520 --> 00:32:55,520 You know, new comedy is awful. And, and I'm on the comedy 666 00:32:55,520 --> 00:32:57,360 circuit. I I know who's funny and who 667 00:32:57,360 --> 00:32:59,120 isn't. Some of the people that they're 668 00:32:59,120 --> 00:33:02,800 putting on the television are the worst, Charles. 669 00:33:02,800 --> 00:33:06,040 They are the, they're not even like just OK or average. 670 00:33:06,200 --> 00:33:10,640 Some of them are the worst, like open mic level people. 671 00:33:10,640 --> 00:33:13,800 And they've got an agent and then on TV and I honestly 672 00:33:13,800 --> 00:33:18,200 believe that there's certain people that run the world and 673 00:33:18,200 --> 00:33:20,680 they hate joy. They hate joy. 674 00:33:20,680 --> 00:33:24,760 These people are so soulless. They're so disconnected from the 675 00:33:24,760 --> 00:33:27,720 creator that they, they want other people to suffer like 676 00:33:27,720 --> 00:33:31,120 they're suffering. And entertainment industry and 677 00:33:31,120 --> 00:33:33,760 culture is controlled a lot of times from the, from the top 678 00:33:33,760 --> 00:33:35,200 down. Like in comedy, they have a, 679 00:33:35,280 --> 00:33:39,560 they have an Arts Council, an Arts Council, Charles, you know 680 00:33:39,560 --> 00:33:41,720 what I mean? Like bureaucrats in charge of 681 00:33:41,720 --> 00:33:47,840 the arts, Like why would I need a, a bureaucrat to run stand up 682 00:33:47,840 --> 00:33:50,040 comedy? And they do these comedy clubs 683 00:33:50,040 --> 00:33:53,920 that I mentioned when the pandemic hit, the Arts Council 684 00:33:53,920 --> 00:33:56,320 comes in and says, listen, we got millions of pounds to help 685 00:33:56,320 --> 00:33:59,200 you stay open. But if you want the money, you 686 00:33:59,200 --> 00:34:02,520 have to sign up to this, you know, thing. 687 00:34:02,520 --> 00:34:07,000 And The thing is, when you reopen, it's going to be 50% 688 00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:09,520 women. It's going to be 50% Black guys. 689 00:34:09,520 --> 00:34:10,719 It's going to be this. It's going to be that. 690 00:34:10,920 --> 00:34:14,159 And this way they come in and they run the whole show now, you 691 00:34:14,159 --> 00:34:18,320 know, and places that I used to love, places like the Comedy 692 00:34:18,320 --> 00:34:20,840 Store, for example. But if you made it to the Comedy 693 00:34:20,840 --> 00:34:22,239 Store, it used to mean something. 694 00:34:22,480 --> 00:34:24,199 Used to mean like, oh, he's at the Comedy Store. 695 00:34:24,199 --> 00:34:26,320 He must be one of the best acts in the country. 696 00:34:26,880 --> 00:34:29,239 It's not that anymore, man. I walk past the Comedy Store, I 697 00:34:29,239 --> 00:34:30,719 see the names of the people performing. 698 00:34:30,719 --> 00:34:34,760 And like one of the people on there will be a real comedian, 699 00:34:34,880 --> 00:34:36,199 you know, they'll put them on last. 700 00:34:36,440 --> 00:34:38,520 The other three, they might be good. 701 00:34:38,520 --> 00:34:39,920 They might not be that good, you know? 702 00:34:39,920 --> 00:34:43,920 And it's because it's not run the way it used to be run. 703 00:34:43,920 --> 00:34:47,320 It's not run as in the funniest people get in here now it's like 704 00:34:47,320 --> 00:34:52,840 right, 5th every bill be 50% women, you know, and 50% of the 705 00:34:52,840 --> 00:34:54,440 people doing stand up comedy are not women. 706 00:34:55,000 --> 00:34:57,640 Let's say 20% of the acts are women, right? 707 00:34:57,640 --> 00:35:01,080 So now you're filling 50% of your bill from 20% of the 708 00:35:01,080 --> 00:35:03,200 people. You know, it's not going to be 709 00:35:03,200 --> 00:35:06,360 as good as it was when you were just picking the funniest people 710 00:35:06,360 --> 00:35:10,240 that there are. And, you know, it's, it's a bit 711 00:35:10,240 --> 00:35:13,440 of a shame, you know, that that that comedy has gone that way. 712 00:35:13,440 --> 00:35:17,840 But you know what, what hasn't gone that way, you know, so, but 713 00:35:17,840 --> 00:35:19,440 I think it actually runs a little bit deeper. 714 00:35:19,440 --> 00:35:22,040 I think on the outside, they'd like you to think that this is 715 00:35:22,040 --> 00:35:24,520 happening because we're really progressive and we love these 716 00:35:24,520 --> 00:35:26,200 certain groups of people. We want to help them. 717 00:35:26,520 --> 00:35:28,480 I don't think that's the case. I think they actually want to 718 00:35:28,480 --> 00:35:31,440 ruin everything. And this is their way of doing 719 00:35:31,440 --> 00:35:32,880 it. You know, they don't really care 720 00:35:32,880 --> 00:35:34,720 about black people. They don't care about lesbians. 721 00:35:34,720 --> 00:35:36,400 They don't care about women. They don't care about anyone. 722 00:35:36,640 --> 00:35:39,800 They want to ruin things and this is their excuse to ruin 723 00:35:39,800 --> 00:35:41,000 things. They come in here under the 724 00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:44,480 guise of we need to make sure that there's representation. 725 00:35:44,480 --> 00:35:47,440 But really it's just it's an excuse for them to pick people 726 00:35:47,440 --> 00:35:49,160 that aren't very good, put them up there. 727 00:35:49,480 --> 00:35:52,360 And then female comedians is a great example, right? 728 00:35:52,360 --> 00:35:54,360 I know loads of female comedians that are hilarious. 729 00:35:54,360 --> 00:35:57,040 They're never the ones that they put on the television. 730 00:35:57,200 --> 00:35:58,680 They're never the ones that they pick. 731 00:35:58,960 --> 00:36:01,280 They pick the ones that are not very good and then people watch 732 00:36:01,280 --> 00:36:03,560 it and they go, she's not very good. 733 00:36:03,600 --> 00:36:05,360 Female comedians suck. And it's like, no, they don't. 734 00:36:05,960 --> 00:36:07,200 No, they don't. They could have picked the 735 00:36:07,200 --> 00:36:09,280 really good ones the same way. I don't think they're picking 736 00:36:09,280 --> 00:36:11,120 the really good male ones either. 737 00:36:11,520 --> 00:36:15,760 You know, the same way I don't think they're Star Wars is a 738 00:36:15,760 --> 00:36:18,040 great example too. You know, I still love Star 739 00:36:18,040 --> 00:36:19,320 Wars. My brother used to love Star 740 00:36:19,320 --> 00:36:20,560 Wars. Star Wars used to be great. 741 00:36:20,880 --> 00:36:25,160 You watch the latest Star Wars stuff and fans of Star Wars are 742 00:36:25,160 --> 00:36:27,280 like, dude, are you trying to ruin this? 743 00:36:27,800 --> 00:36:31,560 You know, it's all about, you know, the lesbian driven again, 744 00:36:31,560 --> 00:36:33,960 for no reason. You know, it's, you know, 745 00:36:34,200 --> 00:36:36,920 everything's got that. Everything's lesbian driven now. 746 00:36:36,920 --> 00:36:38,640 I don't mean it's not just lesbian, but you know what I'm 747 00:36:38,640 --> 00:36:40,560 saying? There's, there's all like, you 748 00:36:40,560 --> 00:36:43,880 know, especially kids programs, you know, there's so much stuff 749 00:36:43,880 --> 00:36:45,640 in there that doesn't belong in there. 750 00:36:45,880 --> 00:36:49,240 And I just can't see it as being an accident anymore. 751 00:36:49,480 --> 00:36:54,920 I just see that they're just out there deliberately ruining not 752 00:36:54,920 --> 00:36:57,960 just the world of entertainment, but, you know, most things. 753 00:36:58,520 --> 00:37:01,760 You won't find any disagreement from from me, certainly no the 754 00:37:01,760 --> 00:37:04,360 audience I should imagine. And and as exactly as you point 755 00:37:04,360 --> 00:37:06,720 out, you know, joy is now an act of resistance. 756 00:37:08,720 --> 00:37:14,080 Talk to me about Christianity because I know this has become a 757 00:37:14,080 --> 00:37:17,800 a significant part of your life. And I don't want to you know, no 758 00:37:18,080 --> 00:37:21,000 need to go into any into any great sort of personal detail if 759 00:37:21,000 --> 00:37:23,640 you don't want to, but just the sort of broader principles 760 00:37:23,640 --> 00:37:25,640 you've you've referred to it. You've touched on it a little 761 00:37:25,640 --> 00:37:29,240 bit sort of earlier on in the interview, but just just tell me 762 00:37:29,240 --> 00:37:32,480 a bit about how that's come into your life and and formed an 763 00:37:32,480 --> 00:37:36,600 important, important part of it and your your sort of outlook. 764 00:37:37,160 --> 00:37:41,560 I started off just before I was a Christian before I believe in 765 00:37:41,560 --> 00:37:43,160 God. I I wanted to do the right 766 00:37:43,160 --> 00:37:45,520 thing, you know, and, and not because I was a Christian, 767 00:37:45,520 --> 00:37:47,520 because I believe in God, I just, I just wanted to do the 768 00:37:47,520 --> 00:37:50,280 right thing. I legitimately wanted to make 769 00:37:50,280 --> 00:37:52,760 people laugh. I wanted to bring people joy and 770 00:37:52,760 --> 00:37:55,080 I wanted to try and do the right thing and help the world a bit. 771 00:37:55,080 --> 00:37:57,240 You know, this food show, help people lose weight stuff. 772 00:37:57,800 --> 00:38:02,160 And when you start down that path, you sort of, you quit, 773 00:38:02,160 --> 00:38:05,680 you'll quickly be destroyed, especially if you're trying to 774 00:38:05,680 --> 00:38:07,000 do that in the entertainment industry. 775 00:38:07,240 --> 00:38:12,400 And I was very quickly, completely and utterly destroyed 776 00:38:12,840 --> 00:38:14,400 for trying to do the right thing. 777 00:38:14,840 --> 00:38:19,240 And you're left with this realization like, hey, why does 778 00:38:19,240 --> 00:38:23,360 the world hate me so much for trying to do the right thing? 779 00:38:23,880 --> 00:38:29,400 OK. And I lost everything when, you 780 00:38:29,400 --> 00:38:30,760 know, my agent sort of counselled me. 781 00:38:30,760 --> 00:38:33,040 I lost my YouTube channel. All my friends in comedy turned 782 00:38:33,040 --> 00:38:35,040 against me on the same day, you know? 783 00:38:35,360 --> 00:38:39,120 But I knew that this was all happening because I wanted to do 784 00:38:39,120 --> 00:38:40,840 the right thing. I didn't want to. 785 00:38:40,840 --> 00:38:43,480 A lot of comedy at the time was about dividing people. 786 00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:46,280 You know, white people are racist. 787 00:38:46,280 --> 00:38:49,160 You know, men are toxic. You know, it's like men should 788 00:38:49,160 --> 00:38:50,600 hate women, whites should hate blacks. 789 00:38:50,600 --> 00:38:52,560 You know, I was always trying to bring people together 790 00:38:52,920 --> 00:38:57,040 legitimately and I would always be painted as the bad guy and 791 00:38:57,040 --> 00:38:58,640 this horrible person for doing this. 792 00:38:59,160 --> 00:39:02,720 You know, it's like, Alison, why won't you do material about how 793 00:39:02,720 --> 00:39:04,560 white people are racist? And I would say, well, I'd love 794 00:39:04,560 --> 00:39:06,320 to accept that, you know, that's racist. 795 00:39:06,320 --> 00:39:09,320 You know what I mean? Like, I won't pick on white 796 00:39:09,320 --> 00:39:11,200 people for the colour of their skin for the same reason I won't 797 00:39:11,200 --> 00:39:12,720 people pick on black people, dude. 798 00:39:12,720 --> 00:39:16,120 It's, it's wrong. And for having that attitude, 799 00:39:16,520 --> 00:39:19,640 it, it was going to cost me my career, but it was more 800 00:39:19,640 --> 00:39:24,640 important to me to say what was true and to try and do the right 801 00:39:24,640 --> 00:39:28,400 thing. And for that reason, I was 802 00:39:28,400 --> 00:39:35,120 completely destroyed to the point where after I lost my 803 00:39:35,120 --> 00:39:40,560 agent and stuff, I became very paranoid that, you know, there 804 00:39:40,560 --> 00:39:43,320 was this big sort of entity that run the world and I had pissed 805 00:39:43,320 --> 00:39:45,240 it off and they wanted to destroy my life. 806 00:39:45,680 --> 00:39:48,160 Now I say paranoid. I was paranoid. 807 00:39:48,440 --> 00:39:51,680 That doesn't mean I was wrong like, you know, now, especially 808 00:39:51,680 --> 00:39:54,960 looking back, I was quite correct, you know, but I was, 809 00:39:54,960 --> 00:39:59,720 you know, a very desperate, scared and alone person, you 810 00:39:59,720 --> 00:40:03,120 know, at the time. And I would, I would say the 811 00:40:03,120 --> 00:40:07,280 Lord's Prayer over and over again because it just, it made 812 00:40:07,280 --> 00:40:12,520 me feel better for some reason. And I found myself, God revealed 813 00:40:12,520 --> 00:40:14,760 himself to me personally at this time. 814 00:40:15,160 --> 00:40:16,960 And then I found myself reading the Bible. 815 00:40:17,560 --> 00:40:19,920 And there was there was something that Jesus said that 816 00:40:19,920 --> 00:40:24,920 changed my life completely. And that was if the world hates 817 00:40:24,920 --> 00:40:30,280 you, which spoke to me because I just had my whole life destroyed 818 00:40:30,280 --> 00:40:31,520 for trying to do the right thing. 819 00:40:31,840 --> 00:40:33,920 And I knew in my heart that I was trying to do the right thing 820 00:40:33,920 --> 00:40:35,160 and that's why I've been destroyed. 821 00:40:35,480 --> 00:40:38,680 And Jesus said, if the world hates you, remember that it 822 00:40:38,680 --> 00:40:42,720 hated me first. Now, Jesus was a man who went 823 00:40:42,720 --> 00:40:45,760 around healing people, telling us to love each other, and for 824 00:40:45,760 --> 00:40:48,600 that he was tortured to death. If you think that you have any 825 00:40:48,600 --> 00:40:51,880 sort of story, that is all, Oh, poor me. 826 00:40:51,880 --> 00:40:54,080 I was trying to do the right thing and something bad happened 827 00:40:54,080 --> 00:40:56,200 to me. You can't beat the story of 828 00:40:56,320 --> 00:41:01,720 Jesus, you know, And before I heard that Jesus said this, I 829 00:41:01,720 --> 00:41:05,360 used to feel bad about the fact that the world hated me. 830 00:41:05,360 --> 00:41:08,320 I used to feel like negatively about it, like, oh, the world 831 00:41:08,320 --> 00:41:10,000 hates me. And then when I realized that 832 00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:13,600 what Jesus said was true was, you know, if the world hates 833 00:41:13,600 --> 00:41:15,240 you, remember that it hated me first. 834 00:41:15,480 --> 00:41:17,960 If you look at what sort of a person Jesus was and how good he 835 00:41:17,960 --> 00:41:20,200 was and the world hated him, right? 836 00:41:20,480 --> 00:41:25,800 So if the world hates you for trying to do the right thing, 837 00:41:25,840 --> 00:41:27,160 you shouldn't feel bad about that. 838 00:41:27,720 --> 00:41:32,160 You should feel as though you're following in the footsteps of of 839 00:41:32,160 --> 00:41:35,360 Jesus. And that that completely changed 840 00:41:35,720 --> 00:41:39,280 my whole life because I realized that it was true. 841 00:41:39,840 --> 00:41:42,800 It was true. And that married with my own 842 00:41:42,800 --> 00:41:45,960 personal experience, which is if you go out and you try and heal 843 00:41:45,960 --> 00:41:48,840 the world and you try and fix it, the people that run the 844 00:41:48,840 --> 00:41:51,840 world will hate you and they will destroy you. 845 00:41:52,600 --> 00:41:57,280 And there really is a war taking place. 846 00:41:57,280 --> 00:41:59,920 And your listeners, whether or not they believe in God, they'll 847 00:41:59,920 --> 00:42:03,760 be able to see the war that's raging right now between good 848 00:42:03,760 --> 00:42:06,520 and evil. And you know, the Bible speaks 849 00:42:06,520 --> 00:42:09,680 of this, and the Bible lets you know that if the world hates 850 00:42:09,680 --> 00:42:11,680 you, remember that it hated me first. 851 00:42:11,680 --> 00:42:15,520 Speaking of Jesus, if you're really on the side of good, if 852 00:42:15,520 --> 00:42:19,000 you really want to follow Christ, you will find yourself 853 00:42:19,280 --> 00:42:21,400 in complete opposition with the world. 854 00:42:21,840 --> 00:42:27,800 And that was where I started. I started listening to what 855 00:42:27,800 --> 00:42:31,760 Jesus had to stay say. And I came to the Bible not as a 856 00:42:31,760 --> 00:42:34,000 Christian, not as a believer in God, not someone that had been 857 00:42:34,000 --> 00:42:36,120 raised on it, but I did love the truth. 858 00:42:36,640 --> 00:42:38,760 If you're a good stand up comedian, you say people would 859 00:42:38,760 --> 00:42:42,360 be like, oh, that's so true. And as they're laughing, right? 860 00:42:42,520 --> 00:42:47,040 I was all about the truth. And I realized I'd never read 861 00:42:48,120 --> 00:42:50,240 the Bible before. I'd never listened to what Jesus 862 00:42:50,240 --> 00:42:52,560 said. And I said to myself, I'm going 863 00:42:52,600 --> 00:42:56,200 to read every word that Jesus said and I'm going to find 864 00:42:56,480 --> 00:43:00,080 whether or not it's true. And every single word that Jesus 865 00:43:00,080 --> 00:43:06,480 Christ spoke is 100% true. I couldn't find a fault in any 866 00:43:06,480 --> 00:43:07,960 of it. All of his logic, all his 867 00:43:07,960 --> 00:43:11,280 reasoning, everything that Jesus Christ has ever said is true. 868 00:43:11,480 --> 00:43:13,560 And this is a man who claims to be the Son of God. 869 00:43:14,360 --> 00:43:18,360 So if everything that I can find that he ever said true, right? 870 00:43:18,560 --> 00:43:21,080 The one thing that he's lying about is the fact that he's the 871 00:43:21,080 --> 00:43:22,440 Son of God. I don't think so. 872 00:43:22,600 --> 00:43:26,240 Like I'll give you an example. They asked Jesus what what's the 873 00:43:26,240 --> 00:43:27,760 golden rule? What's the one thing that we 874 00:43:27,760 --> 00:43:30,600 should be doing? And he says, treat other people 875 00:43:30,600 --> 00:43:33,800 as you would have them treat you right now if everyone in the 876 00:43:33,800 --> 00:43:37,640 whole world followed that one simple rule, if everyone in the 877 00:43:37,640 --> 00:43:40,600 world treated each other as we would expect ourselves to be 878 00:43:40,600 --> 00:43:43,280 treated, you know, what sort of world will we be living in? 879 00:43:44,120 --> 00:43:46,400 If everyone did that, we'd be living in heaven. 880 00:43:46,920 --> 00:43:49,800 So I look at that and I think, well, this guy has just told us 881 00:43:49,800 --> 00:43:52,520 the way to heaven in one sentence. 882 00:43:52,880 --> 00:43:55,160 You know, if we followed that, we will be living in heaven. 883 00:43:55,400 --> 00:44:00,560 So, you know, I can't get away from the truth that we're in the 884 00:44:00,560 --> 00:44:03,840 words of everything that Jesus Christ spoke. 885 00:44:03,840 --> 00:44:08,120 And not only that, his practical example of if you try to do the 886 00:44:08,120 --> 00:44:11,120 right thing, you know, this world, I hate you that spoke to 887 00:44:11,120 --> 00:44:14,280 me as well. And despite from that, the the 888 00:44:14,280 --> 00:44:21,680 multiple signs that God has given to me that he's real and 889 00:44:21,680 --> 00:44:23,760 he's looking out for me. I honestly don't believe I ever 890 00:44:23,760 --> 00:44:25,920 have my comedy career back. If it wasn't for God, I don't 891 00:44:25,920 --> 00:44:28,120 believe I'd still, you know, be here. 892 00:44:28,120 --> 00:44:30,120 I wouldn't have my family. Everything I have comes from 893 00:44:30,120 --> 00:44:32,280 God, you know, and I can go into detail. 894 00:44:32,280 --> 00:44:35,000 I'm not sure if you you'd want me to, but multiple times where 895 00:44:35,000 --> 00:44:41,440 it's been unmistakably God that has intervened in my life that, 896 00:44:42,480 --> 00:44:46,200 you know, it's, it's the most important thing to me is to do 897 00:44:46,200 --> 00:44:52,600 to do his work is to, you know, you know, live a live a good 898 00:44:52,600 --> 00:44:54,640 life, the type of life that he would want me to do and just 899 00:44:54,640 --> 00:44:58,080 just do what he wants for me to do rather than what I want for 900 00:44:58,080 --> 00:44:59,880 myself. Fascinating. 901 00:45:00,200 --> 00:45:05,480 And it's obviously been a huge sort of solace to you and and 902 00:45:05,480 --> 00:45:10,040 clearly has shaped the way that you conduct yourself now sort of 903 00:45:10,080 --> 00:45:12,560 at least on a, on a sort of spiritual and psychological 904 00:45:12,560 --> 00:45:18,960 level in terms of the practical sort of delivery of your 905 00:45:19,080 --> 00:45:21,080 philosophy. Has it has it made a difference? 906 00:45:21,080 --> 00:45:24,800 You know, you, we're talking about the world around us being 907 00:45:24,800 --> 00:45:28,320 so ugly and being deliberately so and the and the sowing of the 908 00:45:28,320 --> 00:45:32,640 vision and all the rest of it. Do you see a way, a sort of 909 00:45:32,640 --> 00:45:37,600 collective way out of this? The collective way out of this, 910 00:45:38,760 --> 00:45:44,560 well, I mean, the collective way out of this is Jesus Christ. 911 00:45:44,600 --> 00:45:48,120 There's no, there's no one else that can save this world. 912 00:45:48,640 --> 00:45:51,760 You know, that's, that's what the Bible says And, and trust 913 00:45:51,760 --> 00:45:54,920 me, that's what I believe. And you know, that I think is 914 00:45:54,920 --> 00:45:58,600 the is the great conspiracy. That's the one thing they don't 915 00:45:58,600 --> 00:46:01,440 want people finding out that God is real. 916 00:46:01,720 --> 00:46:04,600 And if we turn back to him, all of this could be fixed. 917 00:46:04,600 --> 00:46:06,560 If you look at the United Kingdom, for example, as a 918 00:46:06,560 --> 00:46:10,520 country, people often talk about the West, the fall of the West, 919 00:46:11,080 --> 00:46:15,120 and as though there's some western way of life that that 920 00:46:15,120 --> 00:46:18,080 has built this country. This is not a western country. 921 00:46:18,440 --> 00:46:22,400 This is a Christian country. It's following Christian values 922 00:46:22,760 --> 00:46:25,760 that have made this country what it is, that gave this country 923 00:46:25,960 --> 00:46:28,960 the empire that it had. It's because we believed in God. 924 00:46:28,960 --> 00:46:31,880 If you go back and you listen to these songs, Land of Hope and 925 00:46:31,880 --> 00:46:35,040 Glory, you listen to the words we we're thanking God for making 926 00:46:35,040 --> 00:46:37,600 this nation great. Everyone in this nation, pretty 927 00:46:37,600 --> 00:46:40,760 much, you go back 500 years, almost everyone believed in God. 928 00:46:40,760 --> 00:46:42,640 If you didn't believe in God, you'd be a weirdo. 929 00:46:42,760 --> 00:46:44,400 People would think you were crazy if you didn't believe in 930 00:46:44,400 --> 00:46:46,240 God. We used to read the Bible. 931 00:46:46,480 --> 00:46:50,720 We used to follow God's rules, try and be a godly people and 932 00:46:50,720 --> 00:46:55,800 things were amazing. About 100 years ago, we decided 933 00:46:56,040 --> 00:46:57,520 we weren't going to read the Bible anymore. 934 00:46:57,520 --> 00:47:01,800 We're not going to try and love each other and be selfless and 935 00:47:02,000 --> 00:47:06,000 be honourable and be righteous. We're going to be selfish and 936 00:47:06,000 --> 00:47:07,640 we're going to watch the television and we're going to 937 00:47:07,640 --> 00:47:10,360 follow celebrities and we're going to throw the Bible in the 938 00:47:10,360 --> 00:47:12,880 name of Jesus Christ and the bin and we're going to replace it 939 00:47:12,880 --> 00:47:15,360 with Ant and deck. And now we look around and we 940 00:47:15,360 --> 00:47:16,960 wonder where everything went wrong. 941 00:47:17,480 --> 00:47:22,080 You know, it's, it's not the fall of Western civilization, 942 00:47:22,080 --> 00:47:23,960 it's the fall of Christian civilization. 943 00:47:23,960 --> 00:47:25,920 We've, we've thrown God in the bin. 944 00:47:26,360 --> 00:47:27,960 We don't think we need God anymore. 945 00:47:28,200 --> 00:47:31,600 And the Bible is very clear, many examples of throughout 946 00:47:31,600 --> 00:47:34,280 history when this happened, when a nation of people turn their 947 00:47:34,280 --> 00:47:36,160 back on God, things get terrible. 948 00:47:36,560 --> 00:47:39,080 And if you look at the United Kingdom or America or anywhere 949 00:47:39,080 --> 00:47:43,240 around the world where you know, people, they don't, they don't 950 00:47:43,240 --> 00:47:46,120 believe in God anymore. They don't try and be holy 951 00:47:46,120 --> 00:47:48,120 anymore. We look, we look down these days 952 00:47:48,120 --> 00:47:51,120 on people that try to be holy. So do you understand that being 953 00:47:51,120 --> 00:47:55,560 a Christian is about sacrificing yourself and helping others and 954 00:47:55,560 --> 00:47:58,560 trying to be kind and looking after the poor and looking 955 00:47:58,560 --> 00:48:01,600 after, you know, widows and orphans and, and, and being 956 00:48:01,600 --> 00:48:04,680 selfless. And when everyone starts working 957 00:48:04,680 --> 00:48:08,480 like that, you know, nations rise, communities rise. 958 00:48:08,720 --> 00:48:11,720 We've thrown that away. And we don't see that things are 959 00:48:11,720 --> 00:48:13,840 getting worse and they're getting worse and they're 960 00:48:13,840 --> 00:48:17,960 getting worse because we replaced God with technology. 961 00:48:18,520 --> 00:48:22,080 You know, when people started watching the television, you 962 00:48:22,080 --> 00:48:23,760 know, and the. And if you look back at old 963 00:48:23,760 --> 00:48:25,640 entertainment, it used to be so wholesome. 964 00:48:26,160 --> 00:48:29,360 It used to be hello and welcome. And I have only been playing the 965 00:48:29,360 --> 00:48:31,440 piano and my wife will be singing and playing the 966 00:48:31,440 --> 00:48:33,760 harmonica. You look at it now, you know, 967 00:48:33,760 --> 00:48:38,080 it's twerking and whap and just it's gross. 968 00:48:38,320 --> 00:48:41,840 Charles, you look at a music video, now it's soft course 969 00:48:41,840 --> 00:48:44,160 satanic pornography. I'm not even joking. 970 00:48:44,560 --> 00:48:48,240 I wish I was joking. You know, our culture is just 971 00:48:48,240 --> 00:48:51,800 being, just being poisoned. And I and I imagine there's a 972 00:48:51,800 --> 00:48:53,960 large part of your audience that perhaps don't believe in God, 973 00:48:53,960 --> 00:48:57,880 but you might not see God, but I bet you can see the devil when 974 00:48:57,880 --> 00:49:01,280 you look at entertainment. And when you look at, you know, 975 00:49:01,440 --> 00:49:04,520 you don't have to look very hard when you watch these, the 976 00:49:04,520 --> 00:49:09,000 Grammys or even the Olympics and opening ceremonies of 977 00:49:09,440 --> 00:49:11,560 Commonwealth Games. I've got some, some great 978 00:49:11,560 --> 00:49:14,920 material of mine where I'll, I'll do a commentary over the 979 00:49:14,920 --> 00:49:17,040 top of the opening ceremony for the Commonwealth Games in 980 00:49:17,040 --> 00:49:20,080 Birmingham, for example, which is a giant satanic ritual, the, 981 00:49:20,080 --> 00:49:25,240 the, the Olympic Games, London giant satanic ritual. 982 00:49:25,240 --> 00:49:27,400 You know, and when, when you listen to me commentate about 983 00:49:27,400 --> 00:49:30,320 these things and anyone that's got an understanding of the 984 00:49:30,320 --> 00:49:33,720 Bible and the script, scripture knows that these people, they 985 00:49:33,720 --> 00:49:35,800 know what they're doing. They know, they know about the 986 00:49:35,800 --> 00:49:37,480 Bible, They know that God is real. 987 00:49:37,880 --> 00:49:41,320 And a lot of the stuff that they put out there in your face is 988 00:49:41,320 --> 00:49:45,840 the exact opposite of of what God says and how God says to 989 00:49:45,840 --> 00:49:48,520 behave down to God made them male and female. 990 00:49:48,520 --> 00:49:50,720 You know, that's we're living, you know, the opposite of that. 991 00:49:51,040 --> 00:49:53,160 You don't have to get very far into the Bible before you 992 00:49:53,160 --> 00:49:57,320 realise that our world is structured to be the exact 993 00:49:57,320 --> 00:50:01,720 opposite. The exact opposite of the way 994 00:50:01,720 --> 00:50:04,920 God wants you to live and the way God says to do things. 995 00:50:04,920 --> 00:50:09,760 And that is the reason why this country is falling apart, that's 996 00:50:09,760 --> 00:50:12,200 the reason why the world is falling apart, is because we're 997 00:50:12,200 --> 00:50:15,280 turning away from God. And the Bible even says that 998 00:50:15,280 --> 00:50:18,480 this is going to happen. The Bible even tells you that 999 00:50:18,480 --> 00:50:21,040 towards the end of the age, which is where I believe that we 1000 00:50:21,040 --> 00:50:24,880 are, people will turn away from God in huge stroves and things 1001 00:50:24,880 --> 00:50:26,240 will get worse and worse and worse. 1002 00:50:26,520 --> 00:50:29,520 And this is, you know, clearly the age we're living in, you 1003 00:50:29,520 --> 00:50:31,840 know, the 666, the mark of the beast. 1004 00:50:31,880 --> 00:50:34,200 You know, the people that have read the Bible and they 1005 00:50:34,200 --> 00:50:35,920 understand Scripture. Most people that don't read the 1006 00:50:35,920 --> 00:50:38,320 Bible, they won't understand that the Bible is history pre 1007 00:50:38,320 --> 00:50:40,280 written. You can read what's going to 1008 00:50:40,280 --> 00:50:43,680 happen in the next 5000 years in the Bible right now. 1009 00:50:43,720 --> 00:50:46,000 And you can watch it happen in front of your face. 1010 00:50:46,400 --> 00:50:48,640 You know, people that actually take time to read and study the 1011 00:50:48,640 --> 00:50:51,800 Bible will realize that all of human history pretty much has 1012 00:50:51,800 --> 00:50:54,640 been played out in the Bible written before it happened. 1013 00:50:55,080 --> 00:50:57,280 You know, the more people investigate the Bible, the more 1014 00:50:57,280 --> 00:50:59,920 you'll realise that, oh, there's a reason why the whole world 1015 00:51:00,120 --> 00:51:04,120 used to be glued to this book non-stop, you know, and family 1016 00:51:04,120 --> 00:51:06,720 was important at that time, marriage was important at that 1017 00:51:06,720 --> 00:51:10,680 time and things were good. You know, we've thrown all that 1018 00:51:10,680 --> 00:51:17,920 away for Love Island Fast and Furious and we wonder why things 1019 00:51:17,920 --> 00:51:21,040 are degrading. But when you ask, is there a 1020 00:51:21,040 --> 00:51:24,560 collective solution to all this? Indeed there is. 1021 00:51:24,800 --> 00:51:28,600 If this it's not too late for this nation and its people to 1022 00:51:28,600 --> 00:51:34,040 turn back to God and He will heal this land, you know, but 1023 00:51:34,040 --> 00:51:38,800 that is, that is the solution. But most people, you know, they, 1024 00:51:38,800 --> 00:51:40,160 they don't want to hear that solution. 1025 00:51:40,160 --> 00:51:42,760 That's, you know, they want, they want a man to save them. 1026 00:51:43,160 --> 00:51:45,760 They want Trump to save them or Nigel Farage to save them. 1027 00:51:45,760 --> 00:51:51,200 But there's, there's no man that can, that can reverse this. 1028 00:51:51,200 --> 00:51:54,080 There's no man that can bring peace to the earth. 1029 00:51:54,080 --> 00:51:58,480 You know, there is a man that's going to come and offer peace to 1030 00:51:58,480 --> 00:52:00,720 the earth. But that is the man the Bible 1031 00:52:00,720 --> 00:52:05,440 says to truly look out for, that is the, the Antichrist, the man 1032 00:52:05,440 --> 00:52:08,640 that will combine all the world's religions and all 1033 00:52:08,640 --> 00:52:10,440 politics and rule the whole world. 1034 00:52:10,440 --> 00:52:13,360 And he'll be the best man and he'll be so peaceful and great. 1035 00:52:13,680 --> 00:52:15,440 The people that don't believe in the Bible and they don't believe 1036 00:52:15,440 --> 00:52:17,560 in God, let's just remember that I told you this. 1037 00:52:17,560 --> 00:52:20,520 And just if it happens, remember that I told you this. 1038 00:52:20,880 --> 00:52:23,640 You know, so this is the period of history that, that, that I 1039 00:52:23,640 --> 00:52:26,240 believe that we're in. We're in the, the period where 1040 00:52:26,240 --> 00:52:28,920 people are falling away from God and things are getting worse and 1041 00:52:28,920 --> 00:52:32,240 worse. And people should be encouraged 1042 00:52:32,240 --> 00:52:34,600 that, you know, Jesus is coming back. 1043 00:52:35,000 --> 00:52:38,320 God is going to return, you know, and the important thing is 1044 00:52:38,320 --> 00:52:39,880 to get right with Him before He does. 1045 00:52:40,880 --> 00:52:43,920 I think you're absolutely right. You know, for people, regardless 1046 00:52:43,920 --> 00:52:46,640 of their particular belief system, the, the the 1047 00:52:46,920 --> 00:52:51,360 descriptions you cite specifically of where things 1048 00:52:51,360 --> 00:52:55,080 have not just gone wrong but are being apparently deliberately 1049 00:52:55,080 --> 00:52:57,520 made to go wrong is, is something that I don't think 1050 00:52:57,520 --> 00:52:59,240 people can really contend with at all. 1051 00:52:59,240 --> 00:53:03,760 And of course from in particular in recent times, the year 2020 1052 00:53:04,400 --> 00:53:08,080 and thereafter, where people were incited to do the most 1053 00:53:08,080 --> 00:53:10,760 abominable things to one another. 1054 00:53:12,080 --> 00:53:16,720 Brings me on to, I suppose you know, that the the aspect of 1055 00:53:17,680 --> 00:53:20,880 contrition and forgiveness. And I suppose I wonder if this 1056 00:53:20,880 --> 00:53:25,360 relates back at all to comedy and that we've heard, you know, 1057 00:53:26,280 --> 00:53:30,080 in raking over what has gone in the in the last four years. 1058 00:53:30,080 --> 00:53:32,720 There's there's many sort of statements along the lines very 1059 00:53:32,720 --> 00:53:34,840 well, you know, mistakes were made. 1060 00:53:34,880 --> 00:53:37,240 We, you know, we didn't know at the time that that was going to 1061 00:53:37,240 --> 00:53:40,040 be so awful. Have you had people in effect 1062 00:53:40,040 --> 00:53:42,760 sort of crawling back to you, particularly after what we 1063 00:53:42,760 --> 00:53:44,760 talked about earlier with the, you know, the success at the 1064 00:53:44,760 --> 00:53:49,800 Comedy Store, crawling back to you saying, OK, now I see what 1065 00:53:49,800 --> 00:53:51,360 you were talking about. I see that you're right. 1066 00:53:51,360 --> 00:53:54,240 And people from, you know, whether agents in the past or 1067 00:53:54,240 --> 00:53:58,600 anyone you know, has anyone had the spine, I suppose effectively 1068 00:53:58,600 --> 00:54:01,480 to come back to you and say you were right. 1069 00:54:01,520 --> 00:54:03,640 I see what you were I. Don't think so. 1070 00:54:04,160 --> 00:54:05,880 I don't think so. No, I don't think any. 1071 00:54:05,880 --> 00:54:09,440 I don't think so. You're not expecting anyone to 1072 00:54:10,040 --> 00:54:13,640 either, you know, I don't. I'm not sure. 1073 00:54:14,160 --> 00:54:15,400 I don't. I don't think anyone said, you 1074 00:54:15,400 --> 00:54:18,000 know, you're right. And honestly, I'm not. 1075 00:54:18,080 --> 00:54:23,400 I'm not particularly, you know, expecting them to, you know. 1076 00:54:24,680 --> 00:54:26,520 Yeah, I don't think that's happening, Charles. 1077 00:54:27,040 --> 00:54:30,320 I suppose honestly, I'm can't say I'm particularly surprised, 1078 00:54:30,320 --> 00:54:32,280 but it's always worth asking is you never quite know who's going 1079 00:54:32,280 --> 00:54:34,160 to pop out of the of course at what time. 1080 00:54:34,960 --> 00:54:40,560 But but then say, looking ahead, I suppose more on a personal 1081 00:54:40,560 --> 00:54:43,160 level rather than a the macro level. 1082 00:54:43,960 --> 00:54:49,080 But bearing in mind where your sort of work is at the minute, 1083 00:54:49,240 --> 00:54:52,600 have have you got anything in the pipeline particularly 1084 00:54:52,600 --> 00:54:55,160 related to, you know, your your belief system as it is now? 1085 00:54:55,200 --> 00:54:58,120 Is that influencing any of the projects that you're either 1086 00:54:58,120 --> 00:55:00,160 concentrating on the minute or the future? 1087 00:55:00,880 --> 00:55:04,040 We're doing an audio book called Christianity for Dummies. 1088 00:55:04,320 --> 00:55:06,840 That's a working title. I might change, I might change 1089 00:55:06,840 --> 00:55:12,680 the title where I just want to sort of sort of package the, the 1090 00:55:12,680 --> 00:55:15,400 message of Christianity and the message of the Bible into 1091 00:55:15,400 --> 00:55:19,720 something that, you know, is easy for people to listen to. 1092 00:55:20,160 --> 00:55:25,840 It is, you know, it is amusing. I think I, I might have, I might 1093 00:55:25,840 --> 00:55:28,680 have a way to, to, to capture people's attention. 1094 00:55:29,240 --> 00:55:32,680 Like for example, most, most people would say, you know, I 1095 00:55:32,680 --> 00:55:35,000 haven't read the Bible because I don't believe in God, right? 1096 00:55:35,520 --> 00:55:38,360 Well, I could say, you know, you don't believe in God because you 1097 00:55:38,360 --> 00:55:41,240 haven't read the Bible, right? The evidence that God is 1098 00:55:41,240 --> 00:55:43,520 realized in the Bible. So you've sort of got things the 1099 00:55:43,520 --> 00:55:45,840 wrong way. So I'd like to give people, you 1100 00:55:45,840 --> 00:55:49,520 know, an incentive or just an idea about, hey, you know, you 1101 00:55:49,520 --> 00:55:52,520 know, some of the incredible wisdom and, and stuff that you, 1102 00:55:52,640 --> 00:55:55,320 that you can read in the Bible that will just completely change 1103 00:55:55,320 --> 00:55:57,440 your life. There isn't a problem that I've 1104 00:55:57,440 --> 00:56:00,400 had in my life that the answer isn't in the Bible. 1105 00:56:00,400 --> 00:56:04,640 It really is the most fantastic, incredible, life changing book. 1106 00:56:05,040 --> 00:56:07,960 And I wanted to just do the sort of audio book that would just 1107 00:56:07,960 --> 00:56:12,560 sort of encourage people to, you know, pick it up and, and, you 1108 00:56:12,560 --> 00:56:16,080 know, get involved in and ask God to come into their life, you 1109 00:56:16,080 --> 00:56:19,440 know, and just because it's, it'll change your, it'll change 1110 00:56:19,440 --> 00:56:21,040 your whole life. It, it did for me. 1111 00:56:21,280 --> 00:56:26,080 So, you know, that's, that's I guess influences my, you know, 1112 00:56:26,080 --> 00:56:27,720 my work. It sounds like a huge 1113 00:56:27,720 --> 00:56:28,400 undertaking. How? 1114 00:56:28,520 --> 00:56:31,480 How on earth do you set about doing that, and how did you 1115 00:56:31,480 --> 00:56:35,520 start with that? I interviewed a lady called 1116 00:56:35,520 --> 00:56:38,440 Claire Craig, who I really like, and she'd done an audiobook. 1117 00:56:39,080 --> 00:56:41,840 And I was to say, oh, audiobooks are a thing, You know, I'll do 1118 00:56:41,840 --> 00:56:43,760 an audiobook. And, you know, that was it. 1119 00:56:44,240 --> 00:56:48,520 I put it on, I put it on sale on my website to for pre-orders and 1120 00:56:48,520 --> 00:56:50,760 a bunch of people pre-ordered it and I was like, well, now I've 1121 00:56:50,760 --> 00:56:54,760 got to write it, you know. So that was I sort of just snook 1122 00:56:54,760 --> 00:57:00,040 at myself and, you know, now I guess I really need to get down 1123 00:57:00,040 --> 00:57:02,920 to finishing it. And, you know, so yeah, that's 1124 00:57:02,960 --> 00:57:05,400 that's that's what happened. Fantastic. 1125 00:57:05,400 --> 00:57:06,880 Well that, that will be one to look forward to. 1126 00:57:06,880 --> 00:57:09,080 But tell me, I mean, I don't want to pin you down 1127 00:57:09,080 --> 00:57:13,560 necessarily, but when do you think or when have you committed 1128 00:57:13,560 --> 00:57:15,840 to publishing it? I said it would be out this 1129 00:57:15,840 --> 00:57:18,400 year, so I'm absolutely terrified. 1130 00:57:18,440 --> 00:57:24,200 So I've got six months left, so I said it would be out in 2024. 1131 00:57:24,920 --> 00:57:26,600 Let's let's assume that I stick to that. 1132 00:57:27,080 --> 00:57:29,400 I was going to give you the chance of not actually 1133 00:57:29,400 --> 00:57:33,200 mentioning the year and and holding this interview, but 1134 00:57:33,320 --> 00:57:34,160 there we go. It's out there. 1135 00:57:34,720 --> 00:57:38,080 Well, that's one to look forward to And but so, OK, so we've got 1136 00:57:38,080 --> 00:57:44,800 the book, the books coming up. Tell me forthcoming gigs and 1137 00:57:44,800 --> 00:57:48,400 that sort of thing. Bearing in mind we're July 2024. 1138 00:57:48,400 --> 00:57:50,640 Is there anything on the, on the immediate horizon that people 1139 00:57:50,640 --> 00:57:53,760 might like to sort of look out, look out for you at? 1140 00:57:54,440 --> 00:57:57,040 It's actually, believe it or not, it's quite difficult for me 1141 00:57:57,040 --> 00:57:59,960 to even get the rooms to put on my own shows. 1142 00:57:59,960 --> 00:58:03,360 That's that's that circuit is quite closely controlled. 1143 00:58:03,360 --> 00:58:06,800 Although we, I did just do my own show in London on Tuesday 1144 00:58:07,240 --> 00:58:09,560 and that sold out. That was quite encouraging. 1145 00:58:09,560 --> 00:58:12,280 So I'm going to be doing a few more of those dates. 1146 00:58:12,280 --> 00:58:14,880 So Tanya Edwards is a comedian that I'm working with. 1147 00:58:14,880 --> 00:58:16,720 She's great as well. She's very much along the sort 1148 00:58:16,720 --> 00:58:20,360 of same lines as me and you and us, your audience probably. 1149 00:58:20,360 --> 00:58:22,400 And we do, we do an hour long show together. 1150 00:58:22,680 --> 00:58:25,720 So we're going to try and get a sort of nationwide tour going 1151 00:58:25,720 --> 00:58:28,200 for that to get a bunch of dates and put them together. 1152 00:58:28,200 --> 00:58:31,240 So I'd like to people to to look out for that because that'd be a 1153 00:58:31,240 --> 00:58:33,360 great opportunity to come see me and her together. 1154 00:58:33,560 --> 00:58:37,120 So we're just working on the moment about putting, you know, 1155 00:58:37,120 --> 00:58:39,520 which towns we can get to and which venues will give us a room 1156 00:58:39,520 --> 00:58:42,080 and when and that sort of thing. So that is very much, yeah, 1157 00:58:42,080 --> 00:58:44,440 something I'd like out for. OK, perfect. 1158 00:58:44,440 --> 00:58:45,920 Well, we'll look out for further details more. 1159 00:58:46,040 --> 00:58:50,000 I'll absolutely put that out when there is more on that and 1160 00:58:50,000 --> 00:58:53,920 otherwise just sort of day-to-day for people who would 1161 00:58:53,920 --> 00:58:58,040 like to find out more about what you do, do, what you have done, 1162 00:58:58,480 --> 00:59:01,640 where should they go to look for your material? 1163 00:59:02,320 --> 00:59:07,080 Well, you can find me on locals. You familiar with that Locals, 1164 00:59:07,160 --> 00:59:13,280 It's like you search my name on there and Rumble, I'm on there. 1165 00:59:13,640 --> 00:59:16,080 You can you can search me out on on those places. 1166 00:59:16,080 --> 00:59:18,680 I guess locals and Rumble, you search my name, you might find 1167 00:59:18,680 --> 00:59:20,240 me. They're going to let you. 1168 00:59:20,480 --> 00:59:24,520 That'd be the best place. Super Alistair, that's 1169 00:59:24,520 --> 00:59:26,840 fantastic. I think we'll probably think 1170 00:59:26,840 --> 00:59:33,360 about drawing to a close now. If if you had any sort of 1171 00:59:33,360 --> 00:59:36,800 concluding remarks on on anything that we've covered, I 1172 00:59:36,800 --> 00:59:40,320 think now would be the time to to get that out. 1173 00:59:40,320 --> 00:59:42,680 It's been I mean it's been it's been quite a rarely case here. 1174 00:59:42,680 --> 00:59:45,240 We've covered a lot of big topics and I think that you 1175 00:59:45,240 --> 00:59:47,760 know, what I would say from my point of view is that the to the 1176 00:59:47,760 --> 00:59:51,640 start point, the insights into the sort of comedy environment 1177 00:59:51,640 --> 00:59:53,560 have been completely eye opening and I think would have been for 1178 00:59:53,560 --> 00:59:56,520 the for the audience. And then again, the the passage 1179 00:59:56,560 --> 00:59:59,160 through and into Christianity and how that's shaping your 1180 00:59:59,160 --> 01:00:02,400 world view and, and indeed your outlook is, is phenomenal. 1181 01:00:03,000 --> 01:00:05,800 But yeah, just if there was anything you particularly had to 1182 01:00:05,800 --> 01:00:07,880 say to sort of round off that would be lovely. 1183 01:00:09,000 --> 01:00:12,680 Oh, well, I'm not sure I've summarized the whole thing. 1184 01:00:14,000 --> 01:00:16,800 I don't, I don't know. I don't know that I, that I have 1185 01:00:16,800 --> 01:00:19,440 anything. I don't have any powerful to 1186 01:00:19,440 --> 01:00:22,960 conclude, you know, be nice to each other about that. 1187 01:00:23,200 --> 01:00:25,440 There you go. That's that's that's my message. 1188 01:00:25,560 --> 01:00:27,120 That's it. That's all I've got, Charles, 1189 01:00:27,480 --> 01:00:30,840 All I've got. Simple, to the point, very 1190 01:00:30,840 --> 01:00:33,440 effective, I think. I think we like that that that 1191 01:00:33,440 --> 01:00:36,680 will go very well. Now, as I said at the beginning, 1192 01:00:36,720 --> 01:00:39,680 this has been an interview for UK columns, so please share it 1193 01:00:39,680 --> 01:00:43,760 widely. Look at ukcolumn.org for notes 1194 01:00:43,800 --> 01:00:47,440 and relevant links. If you are able to support UK 1195 01:00:47,440 --> 01:00:50,080 column financially for £5 a month and you're not already 1196 01:00:50,080 --> 01:00:53,560 doing so, please do consider it. And it just remains for me to 1197 01:00:53,560 --> 01:00:56,600 say thank you very much indeed for Alistair. 1198 01:00:56,600 --> 01:01:00,640 It's been a real delight to have you here and keep in touch 1199 01:01:00,800 --> 01:01:02,120 please. Thanks very much. 1200 01:01:03,040 --> 01:01:03,720 Enjoyed it. Thank you. 1201 01:01:03,720 --> 01:01:05,440 Thank you very much. See you soon. 1202 01:01:05,760 --> 01:01:05,960 Yeah.