I'm Michael. Che and I'm Colin Jose, and
we've got a little secret. Actually, it's a pretty big
secret. Well, now you got to give the
people something. I'm not saying a word.
Oh, then people will know to tune in.
Come on, tell them a little. Like how we're hosting of comedy
events streaming only on Peacock, exactly how it's called
New York After Dark and it's a comedy show that only features
drop in comic. Boom, you nail.
Into Michael Chase phone numbers.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hey, hey, hey.
New York After Dark. It's some kind of comedy thing,
and it's streaming now only on Peacock.
You love it. Zippers.
Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Tea With Me
podcast. If you don't know by now, we're
doing 3 episodes a week, Patreon episode on a Monday, which is
like a wee secret Under the Counter private audio episode
which you can access on patreon.com/tea With Me podcast,
thatspatreon.com/tme podcast and there's loads of other cool
things over there. But then just for everyone, for
the Grid Unwashed, we do the podcast on a Wednesday night on
a Friday and I don't know why I went in a little bit trouble
with my hands there. OK, if you're watching the video
episode and a lot of people are going mate, that's potentially
the worst Trump I've heard. Well, I didn't say which Trump
always doing. It wasn't Donald Trump, I was
actually doing an impression of Gareth Trump.
Who's a different guy that you don't know?
It's not just because I can't do an impression of Donald Trump.
I've got a guest this week, not literally in the studio because
thy shall not pass. OK, we're keeping the quarantine
going here. The bridge of the Fort Collis is
up. Everybody knows I live in a
mediaeval style 16th century castle.
This guest and I have done a podcast.
Get ready for this. Get ready to blow your fucking
clogs off. We've done an episode virtually
over the Internet. What?
Yes. I wouldn't have believed it if
you told me this two weeks ago. I wouldn't have believed you,
but it's possible. Now, here's where the small
print is me. I normally do this with producer
Dan and Big Mike, OK? They do all the technical stuff
and I just sit here, speak and look damn good.
But I'm having to do it by myself, OK.
And the guys are on hand for me to call for me to text or
whatever. But, and producer Dan
specifically said use the app Zoom to do these video podcasts.
And we spend last night setting it up.
And what did I do today? Did not use him, did no use the
1 he told me to. And you know what?
I fucked it up and there's a moral on this and that is that
Dan is always right and I was, I don't know why I did it.
It was really rude, but I tried to get the Zoom going.
The guest, by the way, is Jim Owen.
I should say that Jim Owen is a comedian originally from
Northern Ireland who moved over to Australia.
He'll talk about this, but he had no aspirations of being a
stand up. He moved over there to work on a
building site, ended up becoming a comedy superstar over there,
like literally a comedy superstar, TV films, all that
kind of stuff. And he's done live at the Apollo
a number of times. And I met him when we did a
sketch show for BBC Northern Ireland called Monumental.
And a spoiler alert, it wasn't, but it was a fun episode that I
did and the highlights of my me on it or on my YouTube channel,
Monumental if you want to see me wearing a cool cardigan.
But Jim Owen stood out to me as a very, very, very nice guy when
I was doing the show. I am a big fan of a stand up.
If you haven't seen it, a lot of you will.
If you haven't seen it, check it out on YouTube.
You'll get a lot of it on YouTube.
He's very, very funny and in a, in a both a traditional way of
like storytelling when you go and see him live, but also like
a physical way, like he clowns about on stage.
I don't know, I don't think there's many chameleons like
him. I think he's got his own
distinct style and that's not very common nowadays in comedy.
So enjoy this episode with Jim Owen.
But the small print is the way I recorded it.
Jim sounds good and we both look OK.
We've got the split screen going on.
That's fine. For some unknown reason, I sound
like a chipmunk. My voice is slightly elevated
and I don't know why because I definitely don't speak like
this. But for some reason when you
watch this video, I speak like this here and this will be the
last time I get it wrong technical wise.
But I don't know why, but for some reason, Jim Owen talks in
his normal voice and I speak like this here.
No, that's here. It's my normal voice, but for
some reason in the video, that's what it is.
So from now on, I'm going to do Producer Dances because we're
doing loads more video episode interviews with really well
known people, some cracking guests coming up.
So I'm really going to figure that out.
I'm actually doing that after recording this.
We're going to figure it out, but enjoy it.
There's a little bit of an echo with the start as well.
That's my bad. It gets better as it goes on.
It's something a wee bit different.
Next week will just be me on the podcast, Sorry, the next episode
on Friday because we're doing Wednesday, Friday, and then
we're just going to split it up. We're going to do me doing one,
me and a guest, me doing one, me and a guest.
And who knows, maybe I'll just fire it more because there's so
many people I want to podcast with and hey, I've got the time.
OK, I've got the time. So enjoy this episode.
There's a Tea With Me episode with the legend that is Jimmy.
God, we've done it. Can you see me OK?
Yeah. Can you see me?
Yes, yes. All right.
You're going to, they're going to write about this down the
line. We that we that we figured this
out. Hello.
Are you in? Are you in Australia?
Melbourne. And, and I don't know how far, I
don't know how far ahead time wise user, but do you know about
coronavirus yet? No tell.
What's the latest? You're going to, you're going to
enjoy it the. Porch shirt.
I know that much. Yeah.
So are you properly like in lockdown?
Are you isolating? Yeah, the shop shop today.
Well, what's happened today? Schools closed.
Schools closed officially tomorrow, but we didn't bother
sending our 8 year old today. You have a runny nose?
Oh dear. Well, that's just we're all
paranoid. Kids get runny noses all the
time, so who knows. Yeah.
And hang on one SEC. I'm just going to plug this into
here. Yeah, that's better.
Now, can you still hear me? Yeah.
Perfect. All right.
This is the first, this first Skype one of these have done,
this first international one that I've done.
Definitely. It's a big moment.
This podcast gym is called Tea with Me and it's where sometimes
I have a guest on, sometimes it don't, but it's mainly just
about drinking tea. Do you drink tea?
What are you drinking right now? Do you actually?
Yeah, I've got a cup of pepper and tea.
I'm going to top it up. Still counts.
Yeah, still counts. And I'll stick the kettle on
genuinely for sound effects. This is the first, this is the
first live team making we've had on the podcast.
On the other side of the world, courtesy of the Internet.
How's it, how's it, how's it stand in the cup if you're on
the bottom of the world? Yeah, yeah.
And those horses called those vocational forces.
I don't know, I did double award science and got a double image
ECSC but what I want to ask you is how badly are you missing
doing stand up? Luckily I had done a lot of gigs
league not to this so, but even within this year I did.
January I did a tour of the East Coast of Australia, then I did a
tour of the UK and then I did Adelaide Fringe and I was always
pushing my luck, you know, weigh too much.
So Adelaide Fringe was the Sunday where on the Saturday
they said, right, that's it. And the Sunday I had a show and
that was the last. Everything was cancelled after
that. So I've been doing like, you
know, a hell of a lot of gigs up until now.
But yeah, I'm kind of curious to see how rusty we all get because
if I haven't done a gig honestly for a couple of weeks, I get
quite nervous and forget what it is, how it goes, You know, you
don't really, you know, you don't really kind of overly
rehearse it. It's just when you do it a lot,
it seems to get fluent. And if you haven't done it, then
it's plenty, so we'll see. Yeah, my big fear is that we all
come out of this when everything's back to normal and
the comedy clubs are open with exactly the same material.
Just asking people backstage, are you doing a bit about this
coronavirus? Because we all will be.
We all have a show called Lockdown.
Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry. I didn't have any kind of right
new jokes. I've been really busy.
Yeah, that's the thing. No, but nobody's busy.
So when I ask people to do this podcast, I mean, I feel like
everybody should say yes because we don't have anything else
going on. Jumping on board, I saw an Irish
news that the Port Stewart become this sort of place where
everyone's going to because they're getting out of the big
smokes. Yeah, it's sort of defeat the, I
mean we're not, we're not doing the whole social isolating thing
great here because what we're doing is going, let's just get
outside, get in, in nature where there's not really going to be
many people. So people are going to forest
parks, the beach and all that kind of thing.
But the problem is everybody's going to the beach.
So Portrush and Port Stewart are just like peak season at the
minute. And you know, you have 7 people
per dolgium in barracks. So it's not, there's no social
isolating going on here. See See where you where you live
in Australia? Is it like built up area?
Spread out place? Do you live in a middle of
nowhere? Or I live in Melbourne, which is
four and a half million people, and they're trying to sort of
isolate, you know, as best as you can.
They had a big thing in Bondi Beach.
Everyone went to Bondi Beach and they were raging with them.
Yeah. But today, you know, I didn't
see anybody at all. I went to the park, but we
didn't, you know, get near anybody.
Other people were in the park, but you weren't near anybody.
And like, you're super paranoid with your kids going.
Don't touch that. You know, they're all telling me
that. Chillax, you know, calm down.
It's funny as well how you look at people that aren't isolating,
like people that are having parties, people that are going
to bars and your raging going. I shouldn't do that like what
decades but then parties gone. That looks like a lot of fun
though. I.
Just, it seems to be quite a big thing in Ireland or, you know,
people with the, it's hard to talk about this, talk about
something else. But it's hard to go in the, the
tea is nice. So I'm just gonna be tea.
First of all, I I I appreciate a good mug and that looks like a
nice mug to drink tea. Yeah, that was a party that my
wife went to and they give everyone a cup.
I mean I feel like I'm translating that to your wife
stole it but. Yeah, well, she got one.
And then all other people who didn't want their cups, she
started. Luckily she had a big handbag on
her. We ended up we did well.
Freaking good cups. It is a It is a life.
Drinking out of bad cups. You know, like even a mug.
Didn't. Didn't.
You start. Didn't you?
You were builder at one point, was that right, like when you
left school when you first moved to Australia or tradesman
anyway, so you're probably used to drinking out of just whatever
mugs we're going. So now you can appreciate a good
cup. Yeah, well, I was never really,
I never really understood the difference until I had a cup of
tea from a thin cup and the way it holds the heat quite well.
But do you not feel yourself getting a bit with a thin cup?
Do you not find yourself, body language wise, getting a bit
more dainty? Yeah, yeah, you do.
Your little finger so. Just a bit lighter, you know?
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. They're not a big cup, but
that's a big cup there. That's a nice big cup.
I've stopped taking sugar about maybe a year ago and I, I was
almost going to give up on it going.
I used to really love a cup of tea, but like the sugar, it
wasn't, you know, we just wasn't working for me.
And it took quite a while, maybe a month or more.
I was drinking tea thinking more is the point.
And then I just sort of thing I was back on board again.
So yeah. So you like you, you know, no
sugar at the minute, No sugar or you're back in.
Over a year, no sugar. Over a year bored.
Really. Yeah.
You know, I think you. One Cup of tea, that's a petrol
1 cup of tea because this is night time.
My wife was drinking a petrol cup and I kind of like it, you
know, it's kind of nice, different.
It's still illegal back home. Peppermint tea, we're still not
we're still not accepting that in the in the tea culture.
But I feel like I. Would be quite judgmental on
people drinking that stuff too to be honest.
I feel like once you stop having sugar and tea, you'd appreciate
tea more as a drink because when you're having sugar, you're just
sort of tasting the sugar. Whereas, you know, sometimes you
just got to go bareback with the T and go, this is the way.
This is the way the Lord Jesus intended us to happen.
Yeah, yeah. You know.
Where's it from India? I thought it was Ballymena, but
I mean, if you know, if you know different, then I feel like we
were the first ones to put milk in it, you know, I feel like
there shouldn't naturally be milk in it, but we were like,
you know what? Do you drink?
What's your builders team give cover?
Them and just like a a strong cup of Tetley.
Tetley. Do you go living in Australia?
Do you shop out there? I guess there's loads of like
British and Irish shops doing all that kind of stuff.
Do you go and seek that out or have you been there so long you
just get the the Australian Branson?
Yeah, just the Australian brats, yeah.
There's a novelty of that wear off like when you first sort of
see like peedo cheese and onion and stuff and Veda, are you like
this is it? I'm always going to buy this.
And then very quickly, do you go, OK, that's moving on?
Yeah, yeah. I never really remembered having
that sort of nostalgia and the 1st place I get to go home quite
a bit so. That's what I was going to ask
you. How often do you how many months
of the year on average do you spend down Under?
Yeah, well, yeah, I live here, but then I tour and I would do
three months in the UK and Ireland and you know, just doing
doing gigs around there. Or it's like a fly in, fly out
sort of lifestyle where you, you know, people work on on on mines
or the oil rig that sort of like they fly, they call P4 or
something. They call where they fly in, fly
out, Yeah. And that's really what I just
recommend. Work solid, which is great.
I did the whole February flying to Birmingham, drive around the
country and then fly back again. So yeah, three months and then
the rest of the time I tour and live in Australia.
See when so take me back a bit. So I feel like I know your story
a bit of I think, I think you left here like between 18 and
21, something like. That yeah, no, 22.
Oh yeah, yeah. That's like, yeah, that's home.
Yeah. Northern Ireland.
Yeah. Fort Stewart, 18.
And then I went to London until I was 22.
At 22 I was at college doing a building management course and
then I went to Australia 22 And then when I was there a year 23,
I started doing stand up. And when you lived here, like
back home, did you ever do stand up?
The stand up something you only picked up when you went and was
there no notion to doing it? No, I didn't even know what it
was. Really naive.
I knew who Billy Connolly was, A New Deal Allen was, but didn't
really know there was a scene beyond that.
I just thought they were two cats out there doing and I
suppose, you know, I was aware of Tommy Cooper, but they were
on TV or and I never really shouldn't, didn't it that much.
I really wasn't seeing it as an art form or something that I was
interested in until I came to Australia.
Yeah, because you, I mean, you don't know there's an amateur
scene a lot of the time when you, when you don't do stand up
like the first. I think I was about 18 the first
time I did it and I was just Googling stand up comedy nights
in Belf. I knew the empire was gone and
that was it. I was like the empires for like
guys like Colin Murphy, Jaco King that are on TV.
But I thought that's it. I was like there's no other,
there's no other gigs. And then you find out actually
there's a Saturday night, there's a show that Saturday
night for a fibre in and yeah, it's mad how you your perception
of stand up. And then once you do it, you
realise there's a million comedians in the in the I love
the. Ruins first story of So what was
yours? You're 18 and you were where?
Black You ever heard of the black box in Belfast?
No. So it's like a same new theatre.
It's probably been going for about 15 years, but it's in the
Cathedral Quarter, which is, you know, been totally rebound.
It. Was a stand up night and the
lineup was. Do you remember Dermot Core?
There was a guy called Dermot Core from Coal Island who had a
two series in BBC Northern Ireland of like his own sketch
show. He did stand up and it was him
fella called Paul Curry. Would you know Paul from like
Dindy? Fringe and stuff like that.
Yeah, yeah. Paul, Paul Rana, Paul gave me my
first ever gig and Neil Dugan. Yes, I know Neil.
Yeah, totally. I've been Gigs and Neil in
Glasgow. Neil, Neil Neil Brilliant.
I appreciate comedians that still wear a suit.
You know, there's something about that.
I don't do it, but there's something about that where I go.
I'm glad that people do do that. Think about it, he does this
thing about his mate, reckon he can take it down.
And then they all watched over the fence, the dab.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. He.
Actually happened to his friend. He did.
Neil would be, I'm sure when I was saying this, like what,
early 50s maybe something like that.
Yeah, yeah. And he, he, so we did a show on
Radio Ulster a couple of years ago called Live at the Sunflower
where it was for basic new, new comedians to do 5 minutes goes
out in the radio, that sort of thing.
And I, I asked Neil to do and he was really don't know if he was
nervous, but you know, every comedian almost from the age of
like 20 to 30 maybe. And we're all wearing, you know,
jeans and T-shirt. Neil shows up in a suit.
And I remember some people in the audience maybe or other
comedians sort of giving him a look of, you know, this guy's my
dad's age. He got up and delivered the best
set of the night, just an unbelievable set.
And he, he he's taken like a year's break from stand up just
because he, he works full time. He is a like a like a big job
kind of. But I hope he comes back because
there's something about that like more traditional style of
stand up, you know? Yeah, proper punch lines that I
that I really, that I really like.
So everybody that did that first gig that I did is, is now now
headlines everybody. It's it's, it's a weird one
because how many times do you look back at a poster or line up
and go, that guy doesn't do stand up anymore.
That guy doesn't do it. But this was one where everybody
has gone on to do way more stand up.
I, I died so badly my first gig so bad because as whenever I was
18 or 90, I think it was 18, I looked 13.
So I already had that in with the crowd where they looked at
me and thought God bless him, You know, I I was already
getting laughs because of how young I looked and out of place
at a comedy club. But I wrote a script.
I don't I didn't know how to write stand up.
So I wrote a script like word for word.
I was like, I'll learn Nestle do material.
But I'd never performed before. So as soon as I got on stage, I
didn't realise the nerves would throw me off.
I forgot a couple of words, a couple of words in the script
and then I couldn't remember one more thing.
So I just fell apart, but I started talking about it, you
know, it's like I don't know what I'm doing here.
I was like, I've forgotten all the jokes.
That kind of bought me a better laughter.
But it was, it was so bad. I remember walk leaving that
comedy club the first time going.
I am glad that I did that, but I'll never do it again.
And then like 6 months later I was like, I'll see, we'll see
how this goes. Went a wee bit better and I just
sort of started doing it from there.
But it's not like I turned my hand to it and it started great.
But. Those.
So your first gig was in Australia?
Yeah, I told jokes, like, as in joke jokes.
Yeah. I love guys.
I love a good guy. And I sort of tell them.
And then they started laughing at the fact that I was telling a
joke. And I thought they'd heard the
joke because they started like, yeah, like, I know that joke.
And then I go, oh, you've heard that one.
Do you know that one? And then I stopped.
All right. I thought, OK, forget that.
And then that I was getting laughed.
I was getting like to say they thought that was my ACT.
Right, right. They knew.
Any genuinely thinking, oh, they know this 10, they know this
one. Then I eventually got the gags
that were good gags. I knew nobody.
Like, they weren't run-of-the-mill gags wanted to
catch you off guard, you know, like, ah, yeah, fair enough.
And and then that was my introduction to watch the rest
of the night. I loved it.
I just thought, oh, my God, we've been standing in bars
playing pool, you know, going to bands or doing what we were told
to do. And I just thought, this is so
different. This is, I felt like I had
discovered it in this little dark room in the back of Sydney.
It was the only club in Sydney. There was a comedy club there.
It was shit. This was a Monday night and I
just felt I just couldn't wait to go again the next week and
watch. And I got up and I wrote a
script the next week and it didn't kind of go too well.
It's like your thing where you say you were getting laughed,
saying it wasn't getting laughed.
And and then sort of, I just sort of, you know, there's a
there's a guy, Bob Franklin, who became a real big inspiration
and he was living with these two guys from Belfast and they were
flat and Bondi and we all became friends.
And he was doing stand up for a while.
And I would say to him things socially and he'd laugh and
they'd look at me and go. So they have a few times he'd
laugh and he'd go, you should say that on stage, you see.
Yeah. And I go, they wouldn't get
that. And he goes, oh, you'd be
surprised. You'd be surprised.
And then he started back like saying things you should say
that. So then I started saying the
things that he would say that I had said and they they would get
big laughs, you know? Yeah, I'll tell you what it was.
It just gives you the timing of it.
Right. So the Berlin Wall came down and
we're watching TV and some of the over the moon.
We're all over the moon. And I go.
You wouldn't have been if you've been digging a tunnel for the
last six months. And, you know, Bobby kind of
laughed in behind his book and then did this look over at me.
You should say that on stage. And that was the line that got a
big laugh. And I was, oh, fuck yeah.
Now I know what to. This is the sort of shit I
should be trying to sort of tap into.
And from that sort of, I did tap into all these kind of little
comments and little sly remarks that you probably have in your
repertoire, but you don't realise those are the things
that people want to laugh at. You were thinking, oh, to be,
you know, it was things that made me laugh and then the
friends laugh with the things that would benefit.
And what was the transition of not working on the building side
and just go more full time in the stand up over there?
Was it like a very quick thing for you or was it?
Well, Laura, you know, back then there was a recession and
interest rates went from 6% to 17%.
I was working on a golden site and they I had holidays off and
I was booked to do this comedy club in Melbourne.
And then they asked to come back again and the guy said to me,
they employed me goose drone, I'd do it because we don't
really have a job view at the end of this job.
So you should. So he kind of told me like the
job had finished. So I went she should go down
because there is no job really for you.
After this finished went down, did the four weeks work in
Melbourne, which led into I have a think I still have the tools
and stuff like that. I can work as a Carpenter and
that led into this other job, which was six weeks became 10
weeks. And then I got so it sort of
like it was one of those things where I just, I opened a bank
account, a deposit bank account, I thought, but if I put this
money in from construction, from gigs, I could see maybe I could
buy something with it. And then it became my full time
job. Like I didn't have, I didn't
have any other job. But because I moved to Melbourne
and there was lots of work, there was loads of comedy clubs
that Sydney had two, Melbourne had about 5 or 16 and all little
gigs as well. And then there were TV shows,
which were big national TV shows and they were employing comics
to write on it. And if you get a wage, you've
got two or three minutes of a week, which is, you know, clear.
Were you? And.
At that time was there loads of people from home going over to
Australia or is without after that?
Because I was going to say we're we're a lot of the audiences in
the comedy club. Would you get people from home?
No, it wasn't. There was no.
That was before that first real big wave of Irish people.
There was nobody I knew in Melbourne that was Irish really.
I, I think that's probably a good thing as a performer
because if you've gone to the comedy clubs and you know, you
say who's from home and, and you get a huge cheer, sometimes
it's, it's not cheating, but sometimes you, you know, you,
you know, the things that are going to work.
So you sort of focus on that. Whereas, you know, there's
definitely a difference. If I do a gig in Boston and it's
just people from home that have come to see me, I'm going to
talk a fair bit about home. But when you do a comedy club
and there's nobody from home, you definitely have to work that
bit harder and that. Was all I knew.
And that was kind of really a great thing if you just know
that you can't make any of those references.
And I never really did make any references to the Troubles or
Northern Ireland or Ireland. I just thought I'll make it
about universal things. Then indirectly it travelled
well, but ultimately it worked really well there.
And you know, as soon as you open your mouth, people know
you're Irish. So and then and then they would
play on it like the worst way. If you're getting TV or press.
It was the worst sort of cliche of being Irish, you know, can we
get you holding potatoes or chuckling potatoes?
Stay on top of the morning and you know, like you say, it was a
pursue Australian that and you go.
Can you wear one of those hats for the corks hanging off that,
you know all the work thing? Yeah.
So, so yeah, on the not mention, it was, you know, great.
And then and then you seem to do like you did like a lot of
films. And I actually remember seeing
posters. I remember some of the posters
of those films because it kind of whenever I was probably still
in school, it was a guy from home.
I remember people saying there's a guy because I had such a big
interest in comedy. And I remember in school a
couple other guys did and I just remember what was the film.
Where do you have like a Guinness moustache?
The crack. Yeah, yeah.
That did really well. We have the big hit over here.
I did well on Ireland but it was a really big hit over here,
which is great. That was the first time I did
it. But before that I did ATV show,
which was there was a Tonight Show which I hosted a few times
and then they asked me to host it on a regular on a Friday
night and the network intervened and they said no, we don't like
this guy doing it. You find it actually too strong.
So we don't want him to do it and we don't even want him on
the channel. I mean, that's harsh.
I know. And, and they had to come to me
with this news going like now you can't host it and you can't
even be on as a guest. And you have to.
Get out. Literally what I did, I got out
of the country, I went back to the Uki was in London.
I was doing a show in London. I just done Edinburgh and I've
done a show in the West and one night in the West End and they
had this TV show which was, you know, of everyone, all these
comics together, you know, a, a, a group of like all these
different comics, all the different stand ups on one TV
show. And it died in it, that comedy
supermarket. So like it was a still water in
the supermarket and they all went down and it took everyone
dying like everyone that was involved with the show.
Was what what are their names would have done it?
You know, was there anybody like anybody that's well known now as
well that would that was on that show?
OK, it was every comic. Yeah, I don't know.
Peter Roadshorn, I think, was on it.
He was in Katherine Kim. You know, this is quite a while
ago now. This is back in 1991 or
something. So Brad, right.
And they were all Australian comic.
Everyone on the circuit would have known them that if we're on
stage or on screen or writing, everyone was involved.
Edge, edge sign big time. And the the executive, one of
the executives happened to be in the West End and saw me and
goes, oh freaky, why don't we get him the next thing I got a
phone call. Can you come back?
Oh, it's forgiven 180, the biggest 180 I've ever heard in
my life, where next thing I'm back in Australia and these guy
goes please, like you can do a pilot for your own show in three
weeks time. So could you still get writing
to do this? Yep.
And we did it. And on that night, the guy goes,
I love that we're doing it. And it was just commissioned and
it was on on a Sunday night at 7:30, which is a ridiculous like
seller black kind of surprise, surprise what you know, and I
and I would win, they would win it written.
So it became this ridiculously big kind of family comedy show
that, you know, that everyone could watch together, but just
sketch and and stand up. And because of that, I got to do
the films and do those other things.
But that was my initial, you know, introduction to to a
bigger audience other than stand up.
You did. I remember you did a documentary
for BBC Northern Ireland. This is going back 12, maybe 12
years. Was it?
And it was, it was just you and it was like a travel diary
almost. It was like you and a mate.
Yeah, Yeah. Yeah, Yeah, that's right.
Yeah. Yeah, we did.
Are you? Are you just, Are you just
remembering that you did this? So there's two that I did, there
was 1 I did on Northern Ireland for Australia, but then there
was one that I did in Australia for Northern Ireland, so.
Yes, that's the one I saw. Yeah, It went from Broome to
Room to Fire and which is over the top, that weird part of the
sort of. Yeah, I like those stories about
how things got up because the guy was telling he goes back up
because they put it on in a meeting at the BBC.
And within about two minutes someone said no, that, you know,
the person ahead of the meeting goes, no, we don't want to.
This is not for us. And they are OK.
And then they tried to turn it off, but for some reason they
couldn't turn the thing off. So they just turned the sound
down and then kept it on. And then he goes slowly through
the meeting. People started watching it and
then someone goes turn now, turn now.
And at the end of the meeting, we're doing this so because they
couldn't turn it off. So are you saying that if I'm
pitching any projects the BBC in the next couple of years just
hide all the remote? The basic, Yeah.
But you know, the two guys in the meeting were very adamant
that that's what happened. He goes, I swear to God, this is
what happened. They said no.
And they said, yeah, that's. Crazy.
I've got a couple of a couple of quick questions from Instagram
and I put out the way we're doing this and people got in
touch. So just give me.
People I owe money to because that list is getting pretty long
at the minute. Yeah, it's people, just that
many people asking for your PayPal details, cap Catherine
Blair says. What do you love about Northern
Ireland the most? So is there anything when you're
away that you go, ah, missed? That it's not when I'm away,
probably when I'm at home, I go, Oh, yeah, that's great.
Yeah. The time I grew up in, there's
nothing like home. Sometimes, you know, you're in
in the house you grew up and and that sense of just being in that
you're you're in a place where you can really drop your
shoulders is, I suppose, more to do with home than somewhere in
Northern Ireland. But for me, that just happens to
be Northern Ireland. Are you are you Port shared to
Port Rush port shirt What shirt is Harry Shack in Port Stewart?
Yes, it is. That is the quality, we just the
setting of it. We used to live in Port Rush in
the summertime. We used to rent our house out in
the summer and go and live in Port Rush.
So, you know, I can hang with the Port Rush ones.
Yeah, they always, they're giant talk.
Alright man. I did a game in Port Rush about
a month ago and it was really fun.
I feel like I wish everywhere locally had a comedy club.
Every town, village, whatever it was in what What was the theatre
called? The Playhouse.
Yeah. They have a bar in there called
Kiwis. I'm sure you've been to me when
you've been home. But it's great venue.
Yeah, yeah, it's brilliant. It's in the venue.
It's in that middle bit, umm, where the sort of where the bar
is and the IT was, it was class. It's really good.
Fun. We used to.
We used to spend the summer. There used to be an amusement
arcade. The guy that used to change the
the key, he had the keys, a big bunch of keys.
Big John's Arts. We'd call him because he'd
always bend down. You see the crack of his ass.
So he changed in the key, Big John's Arts.
So yeah, we used to. I was in Port Rush and they blew
it up. Remember that quite vividly
standing at the end of the park when like 3 or 4 bombs went off
at the same time. What do you do you?
Think we were about 12 at the time, yeah.
Oh well, is it and you just you saw this happen and you're I
actually don't what year without at the main without have been
way before my time. In 19801979, you'd probably look
at exactly what year it wasn't that that that happened, but the
Playhouse was blowing up. Oh, I had no idea.
All those amusement because like 5 bombs are off at the same time
and yeah they blew the whole straight up.
I remember another time there were two guys there once they
bought a karaoke machine because they wanted to do karaoke when
it first started. But.
Not the paranoid trees, by the way.
No, they hadn't discussed they maybe they hadn't discussed who
was going to do the, the, the MC ING and talking.
And there was a little bit of a scuffle over who was going to be
talking to the mic. And there's just people on stage
and one of the guys grabbing the mic, he would kind of hold on to
it. And then the other guy, like go
over and it like sort of hit him in the lip and bust his lip
open. And then the two of them started
punching on. And that was the first night of
karaoke in Portrush. If I'm the last, I've got a
question from Ross who says opinions in Northern Ireland,
people bumping into Northern Ireland, people abroad.
So I guess I'll ask you, do you get many shouts in Australia
when you're in the street? Do you get people coming up to
you from home? You do a gig, you can really,
really tell people a gig. Being from Northern Ireland,
just the accent, of course. Yeah, yeah, totally, totally,
all the time. Well, it's a.
Weird piece. So we all come from minute here.
Yeah, yeah, I mean, but there's something beautiful about that
because our accent cuts through every other accent.
So, you know, if there's a million people talking, you'll
pick up the guy from home, pick up our accent because it's, it's
unique. Yeah, totally, totally.
Like I was in Paris and we're at the airport and next thing I
could hear, I'm thinking what's going on with the honey bun?
There's loads of this going on, but why they keep hearing and
then next thing you know, EasyJet flight to Belfast.
Oh yeah, yeah. We we, we build from here, go to
Paris. We shouldn't be allowed to
speak. It's such a beautiful city.
We should only be allowed to speak in our hotel rooms and not
in public that Daniel Houston asks the big question.
Get ready for this, he says. Best meal you've ever eaten?
That's meal. So normally the last meal that
you've ever had tonight was a cracker.
What do you have? My wife?
Salad. And then there's this thing,
it's an Italian thing that she had to go cooking and take a
quiche. Basically a quiche, potato, eggs
and faggot. And yeah, it's hard to be a good
steak, mind you. Is there a place you go when you
come back home? Like if you if you go home to
Port Stuart, is there like a cafe or a restaurant that you
make a beeline for straight away?
Is it that one? That's the old Golf Club.
It's called Amici's. It's right across the road from
our house, the old corner there. And because that's again, you
can see, you know, catch up with a lot of people, you know.
But you know, I'm not a big, I'm not a fussy eater, to be honest.
I like that hungry. But yeah, I like that.
Chris Henning says, fucking legend, first of all, and he
says ask him if he would ever consider coming back home to
live. I mean, I feel like Chris is
offering you an invite there to move in with him.
But yeah, are you? Are you in Australia for good?
Or, I don't know, I tend to come home quite a bit.
I tend to enjoy going home quite a bit.
So as like somebody who's a job where you travel, not at the
moment, like you haven't said all of that.
We're not going anywhere, are we?
I'm doing a gig in the kitchen next next next Wednesday.
Right, right. People outside the window or.
Yeah, no, just no. I do enjoy coming home.
I don't know if if I, who knows? Who knows?
I enjoy coming, coming home. I can tell you that much.
Are there any gigs at home or what are you doing?
He's trying to do gigs or what? Oh, at the minute, no, God no,
no. There was, I mean, this, this is
this gives you an idea of our collective Iqs on the local
company scene. We were like, we really need to
still bring people stand up. And the idea was we had like a
WhatsApp group with a couple of mates and the idea was floated.
Why don't we do a gig and stream it to people?
But then we were talking about getting like 12 of us together,
sharing a microphone in a small confined room and streaming it,
which which totally would would defeat the purpose of isolating.
So Nah. At the minute I'm just trying to
put out as many videos as possible.
Going through old stand up footage which is my pet.
Hate watching myself back and trying to put some clips up.
The question for two more questions, the the Remor in Port
Rush says what's the difference between Port Stuart and Port
Rush? So is there is there a key
difference between people from both of those places?
Yeah, I don't know. The two lovely parts of the
world really is. There any beef?
Is there any like you know, is there any like rivalries or?
Port Rush rivalry? Oh yeah, for sure.
Absolutely. Does that ever get ugly?
It has over the years, but I'm not really.
There used to be that Easter weekend thing where they come
down and big fights on the beaches.
Yeah, by Quadrophenia. That's going back a while.
We should get, we should get that going again soon as this
last time is over, we should get that going again.
That's right, working a movie, reenacting the fights and the
beaches. And.
Yeah, with both of them, you know, both of them were two big
beaches and they they got that East Strand and and then Port
Shirts got that Pompton Beach. Yeah, they're all good times.
Castle Rock was always tricky to get to because you have to go to
Colerain and around. And you know, now that we're
talking about these beaches, these lovely pictures places,
I'm going as soon as this lockdown is over, as soon as
it's over, I'm going to go to all.
No one's going to do anything. I love that we're all being
like, as soon I'm taking up yoga, I'm going to go horse
riding. You know, it's going to be a new
me after this. And the reality is it's not
final. I mean.
All the time. I just reinvent the stuff every
Tuesday and then shit come Friday is a.
Question from Baz, which isn't really a question, it's more of
the doth of the cap. He says ask Jim, does he know
where the toilets are? Which is of course a call back
to your final question, because I'm going to let you go here.
But final question. Do you have a stock line or like
way of basically like acknowledging people when they
come up and reference your stand up?
So if someone says, do you know where the toilets are?
Do you have a, do you have a like a get out where you'll just
like, give them a thumbs up and walk away, but say something
that does that make sense? I do.
I just drew my eyebrows up. Give them a look.
Yeah, I know where you're at, but it's nice that people make a
reference to the gag that you've done.
Absolutely. Do you ever get it when people
make references to gags that you've forgotten so someone will
say something really out of context?
That joke. What joke?
That joke. You did that?
Really. You did remind me, yeah.
Yeah, exactly. I've had a bit of that.
Yeah, Jim, thanks very much. The big one.
Thanks very much for taking the time to chat to me, appreciate
it. No problem.
I'm glad we got there with the technology in the end.
Eventually, eventually, yeah. I mean, I this is just, I need
this locked down to be over so that I can have, you know, guys
do this for me because I don't know how to.
I mean, it would have been quicker me flying do you or us
meeting halfway just with a camera.
Oh, when all this is over, I'm coming to Australia.
I won't. Well, we'll we'll shake hands
and hugs when all this is over. Until then, you're a.
Strand on the strand and then we'll pitch the Netflix the Port
Stewart strand fights. We will fight them on the
beaches. We'll fight them in the beaches,
we'll fight them on Barry's. That's it.
All right here. Good to speak to you.
Shame. Them.
Cheers. Thanks very much.
Good luck. Cheers, see you again.
Bye. Stay safe.
Bye. There we go guys.
There's the Jim Owen episode of the TV Me podcast.
Thanks a million to Jim Owen for giving up his time and just
being a thoroughly nice and funny guy.
I've got really, really good guests coming up and I'm really
excited about who we've got. I'm recording one tonight and I
think it's going to be extremely interesting for people.
Not the usual sort of guest that would have on the podcast, but
let's just go with it because when we're locked up, we're
doing things a bit different. If you guys could do me a
massive favour, you could rate and review the podcast on Apple
Podcasts, the TV With Me podcast.
If you give it a nice review and Uno Dos Tres cut, Sanko stars,
that'll be great because we'll rocket up that iTunes chart and
eventually we'll just make tea. The number one drink we're going
to take. We're looking to take over water
is what is what we're looking to do.
I want to turn on taps in households and I don't want hot
or cold to come out. I just want tea to come out.
That's the dream. So guys, thank you very much for
watching and listening. Monday, the Patreon episodes go
out. If you want to support the
podcast, you can do that's how you get to Patreon episodes,
patreon.com/T me podcast and the podcast, as always goes out.
I need to swallow so the actress to the Bishop.
The normal podcast goes out Wednesday and Friday.
I don't know. I'm doing Donald Trump hands.
I'm very Trumpy today. Not in that way like trap gas.
I just mean I'm using my hands a lot.
The video episode goes on YouTube, my channel, she and
Todd. You can see my gorgeous face
there. Thank you very much for
listening and stroke watching. See you next time.