Reflecting on Celebrity Interviews and Guests

It's time for another Answerus Back in which between our full length episodes we take a look back down memory Lane in the company of your feeedback do you mean, Ollie that Our listeners hear a podcast from our nineteen yearsars of Answer M me Listening And to them, it's as fresh as the day we shat it out And they're like, I have opinions about this too. And we're like, we don't remember. We're in our twenties then, good God. That's right. Nothing is truly old is it Everything old is new again. Worth remembering, isn't it? And everything will pass Al useful. And then pass back You know, like how a cow digests things with its multiple stomachs? Well last month, so this is a recent one. we were discussing listener Zoran's fiance who loves tortilla chips dipped in cottage cheese with hot sauce mixed in. We just thought that was not a particularly controversial food combination. Admittedly, I haven't tried it. Listener Dan has been in touch to say, I have an unusual food combination. Try me, Dan. try me. This would better be unusual or I'm going home. Sauerkraut. plus sppaghetti Hm plus cream Okay. so like a creamy, sour pickly cabbage spaghetti. I could see that working a treat It's almost like coleslaw but with pasta instead of cabbage. But with extra cabbage. You've confused it because there is already cabbage. Yeah It's almost like if you'd cook the cold staw, let it ferment for a while and then put cream and spaghetti in. He says This was our go to meal when we were living in Germany where the saauerkraut is cheap, abundant and delicious. Oh paradise. Doesn't sound disgusting, but it also doesn't appeal. That's where I am on it For me, the Sauerkraut is promising. I'm not a huge fan of cream So that's where I would vacate the premises Where do you stand on a classic use of cream on spaghetti, like what's the one that's basically like an English breakfast on spaghetti? Oh Ollie, you are wading into some very controversial creamy waters there because you're talking about a carbonara. Carbonara, yes. ye. Italians will fuck you up If you talk about putting cream in a carbonara. but it's so creamy, I assume it's got That is egg egg only. Oh, I see, okay, but it creates a cream like effect. Cream is for fuckers who can't cook an egg without scrambling it Okay, right. That's the official line on that Well, here's an email from Eric from Portland who says, I just want to share how answer me this sparked a tiny, effervescent moment of kismut for me this week Eervescent kissmat is my go to blend at Joe and the Juice. I am an American who's gotten into watching professional darts while scrolling through Welsh Muscleman Gerwin Price's Instagram I found this post that Pice had been gifted A Toby Carvery gold card Holy shit. Finally, something to strive for in this life. Something to aspire to. Absolutely. ye. It's like the American Psycho businessiness card, isn't it? the Toby Calvery gold card in my world? Eric has helpopefully forwarded us a screen grab of this Instagram Go and Price says, Thank you, Toby Carvery, I can't believe I've been given this gold card. It is literally the home of the roast and my always number one go to when I don't want to cook. twenty twenty six has started so well heart eyes emoji, muscle emoji, heart eyes emoji. And there's a picture of a red box filled with tissue and a very small box that says Toby Calvery on it. I think the Toby Calvery Insta PR people know what they're doing, don't they? A for choosing, obviously an influencer who's a Welsh professional ds player which seems perfect for them But B, then subverting the sort of influencer gift by having a big plush red shoe box that looks like it's going to have an expensive thing inside it and then you open it up and it's an ever decreasing size of box down to the piece of plastic that tells you that you can go to Toby Carvery. And I looked at the back of the card as well, which Goen Price also helpfully had photographed for us. Oh thank God. And what it says is it entitles you to and not I'm not dissing this. You would never dis Toby Carvery. You look at the back of it And it says it entitles you to quote many Toby treats. Now that's going to be free dessert or some bullshit, isn't it? I want a drive through gravy station. Do you know what I mean? You want potatoes fired into your golb with a t shirt cannon. I want it delivered every morning to my doorstep. Yeahah. Whereas this is like, it's not even. You can bring four friends to Toby Calvery and it's free. It looks like it's like free lemonade refills. Eactly, it's that isn't it get a free Yorkshire pudding with every English bre Is it possible that there's a higher ter You know, there's gold card, but maybe there's also platinum, mayaybe there's black card. who's the influencer then? You you. I don't go to Toby Calvary that much. I just happen to live in a very Toby rich area. Olly, do you not know yourself? What we all know about Olly Man is that you love a bargain? and you love love I do love a bargain, ye. and there is one right next to Costco, so I mean I could really You know,il. If Costco said to you free rotisserie chickens for life, you'd get one every day, even if you didn't want one. So something we didn't talk about in the episode is my photoshoot in the Daily Telegraph for Costco. What did you make of it Exquisite, stunning. Thank you I was just really sad that Your dad wasn't around to see it. I think he would have been genuinely proud and amused. Yeah, it's funny. I very rarely get asked to have my photograph taken by any professional publication. in this instance. The Daily Telegraph magazine said we're doing an article about middle class people who shop at Costco And we've heard was a fan of the show. We've heard that you've talked a lot about Costco and answer me this. You're a Costco influencer, Ollie. I am a Costco influencer, yeah. And I didn't get anything free out of it. The telegraph didn't pay for my shopping either. They just came and took a picture of me in Costco. That is outrageous because they can't even claim it's because of journalistic integrity because that's a lifestyle piece. But something I did discover investigating this Toby Calary card you Toby wear, which is their range of like trackuits Oh, so not like where W ARE where it's Toby Jugs. No, but I think they should totally do that. The Toby Jugs is missing from their range of merch, but anyway, you can buy a loungewear tracksuit with bigig roast energy written up the side. What are the legs? Yeah. Would you wear that? I mean, it's interesting how they've made lounge wear so you're clearly not supposed to leave the house with it. That's not true People leave the house and that all the time. They go to Toby Carvery with their elasticated waistband and soft clothing, ready to load up Yeah Amy must have been listening to our recent episode where you were talking about what species of creature the Wambles are, Ollie. Yes. Amy says, this is hilarious timing. My sister and I are quite literally going on a Wambles themed holiday in a few months. I imagine you put this itinerary together yourself because I doubt to E sell this. Amy and Sister are leaving from Wellington, New Zealand, going to Greece for great great Aunt Thessaly Bulgaria for Great Uncle Bulgaria. France for Madame Cholet Aldeny in the Channel Islands, which is also where the creator of the Wambles died, then Wimbledon Common, and finally Hoba Mury goodoodness. Putin's being a dick so we can't go to Tomsk and Orinoko is in Venezuela, so nope. Wow. Covering a lot of ground there. It's like a heritage tour for Wumbles. You and your sister are the Jessse Eisenberg and Kirin Kulkin of R You could add to it the Castle of May because the Queen mother was notoriously a Wombles fan. Yeah. Where is that castle? It's in the Highlands If you're going to Tobam Morory, so you're in Scotland anyway, and if you are going to Toba Murory there's a really good restaurant there called Cafe Fish. I had an astonishing meal there once. Oh, not Toba Muri Cary. A Toba Mori Caram Mory Fun Mike Bat Wombles fact that I couldn't squeeze into that episode because Martin rightly pointed out that my interest in Wombles is mainly bat based. Mike Bat was offered two hundred pounds as the fee for composing the theme song two hundred pounds pre decimalization. Yeah, but two hundred pounds total buyout, you know, usage fee for decades. and he didn't take it. He waived it in exchange for the character rights for music related activities and it's re. you get by nineteen seventy six three gold albums and nine top forty hits with the Wumbles. That guy is Canny. It's fascinating, isn't it? when people don't know what they've got. We did an episode of Today in History with the Retrospectors on the Smurfs And it was a similar thing with Payo. He got the merch rights to the smmurfs because publishers had given them to a cereial company to make the Surfs as little porcelain figures as like one off things you've got in a bowl of corn fllakes And it was really popular and all the kids in Belgium love them And then the publisher were like, G great, we've done that, that was fun. but anyway, we make paper. we don't make plastic. Fucking out. And Payer was like, I think there's more in it. And he got the merchros to the smurfs to the fucking smurfs. The publisher of the smmurfs didn't want the merchs to the smmurfs. People are not thinking these things through except for Mike Bat Clely except for my backat, he's always veryer smart Maybe you thought two hundred pounds is a missable enough amount of money T me at this point in my career that I can take the risk that get something more. Yeah. So my last three columns for Readers Digest before they went bust I wasn't paid for because they went into liquidation And I could have sued them for what they owed me which was fifteen hundred pounds. Yeah, which would have cost you money to do and you wouldn't have got it. Exactly. It's exactly at the kind of level where it's like if it had been five grand, then it would have been worth it. But for fif thousandteen hundred pounds I'd spend fifteen hundred pounds trying to get the fifteen hundred pounds It's not worth it. So I thought, what can I get out of it? And I tried to do a payo. I tried to do a mike bat I said, Can I have the copyright to my columns? And actually I got it. They said, yes, If you accept that that's the final settlement from the company on liquidation, yes You can own the copyright to your columns If ever you were to publish them, You can't say that they were the readers' digest columns. Wh? And I thought that's fine from the point of view of like it means nothing to my audience as a brand. I could just publish a book of columns by me. But on the other hand, like how do you make sense of what they are if they're not a monthly column from a magazine that I did for ten years. Like there's no context then without saying what it was. Also if the magazine is defunct, if the whole brand is defunct, what's the damage? I suppose they're thinking, you know they're trying to sell it off in the UK. Maybe if they achieve a separate buyer who wants to publish readers's Digest books, then I'd be publishing a rival Readers's Digest book, something like that. But I did think what I should do is record them all as audio books. like could do audiob book of me reading my own columns, which would be like three hours long and I could sell it myself. Which is a good idea, but of course like all these things, I haven't done it. To the column standandos, a lot of them are about gadgets of the past Oh, no, no, not notot my tech columns. No, I wouldn't be' be c I' confused. Here's my deep dive on the home pod. These are people who are nostalgic for like twenty ten's technology that didn't really stick. No, it wouldn't be my tech columns. I used to do a lifestyle column that opened the magazine called it It's a Man's World AWM. Clever. It was kind of ten years of me writing about like you know, having kids and moving house and that sort of stuff, buying things you know, middle class life shit, which which would be fun to audio eyes one day Has the telecraph given you permission to voice the audiobook of what's in your Costco trolley That's mine. That's all mine. I didn't give that away. Yeah. D didn't get paid so. good because I think That's going to be the big hit Anyway, the Wumbles holiday. haveave you ever programmed a holiday around such an expansive theme? We are going to Montana this summer I'ming I suspect that my wife is using the opportunity to secretly construct her fantasy Yellowstone tour, but I've never seen it I've never watched Yellison but she watches it Yeah, is that because it's got horse content Horses. She likes Costner. Really? Yeah Rro We went to a fancy dress thing Um like someone's thirtieth birthday She just told me that I was Rip who's one of the characters from Yellowstone, and I just took word for it. She got me a western shirt and some cowboy boots and told me to chew on a toothpick. So I did. How did you feel Yeah, quite cool actually. Wearing cowboy beots is quite boss. A good clicky heel. Yeah. If you' ever on holiday with Martin, he will often arrange things around a cultural tour that no one else would ever do. So we had the Tom Waites tour of L.A We had a tour of North Island New Zealand themed around the film TheQiet Earth. Don't yell with recognition too hard. Sure, sorry sorry, Helen, ye, I don't know what you're talking about So retrospectors, what historical events are we ticking off on this week's run of Today in History? On Monday, why Waltzing Matilda isn't the Australian National Anthem. On Tuesday, the true story behind the Magna Carta. On Wednesday, the only James Bond song to ever get to number one and you'll never guess which one it is. On Thursday, the comic ineptitude of the Thieves who tried to steal Edvard Mon's the Scream And on Friday, we remember the days when Coca Cola had cocaine in it. That's today in History with the Retrospectors. ten minutes each weekday, wherever you get your podcasts Now episode three hundred and sixty one might only be fifty three episodes ago on our feed, but it does in fact date from twenty eighteen. Jesus So you will forgive me, Sarah from Leeds, that I have no recollection about what you've answered us back about. But Sarah says, the question in AMT three hundred and sixty one about socially acceptable ways for adult men to skip in public awoke a long dormant memory for me In my first year or so of school, my dad and I would energetically skip the ten minute walk to school while singing, either the theme tune from the Archers Donald wears your trousers I'm not familiar with that one. Oh at the window high in the windbow low something something Don not' your trses I mean, it's vague, but it's there. Number thirty seven in the singles chart in nineteen sixty and then it became a bigger hit in nineteen eighty nine. Apparently Andy Stewart wrote, Donald wears your trousers in ten minutes while he was wearing no trousers in the lavoratory at the recording studio. and it's about a Scottish man wearing a kilt whilst traveveling around London on the underground Oh, okay, nice, yeah that gives it a bit more context Well, Sarah says regarding skipping to Donald where's you trsers It was definitely faster and more entertaining than walking, if unconventional I'm not suggesting that this was deemed socially acceptable at the time, in reading in the early two thousands, and my dad has gone on to become increasingly eccentric in twenty years since. But perhaps the thirty one year old male questionnaire from twenty eighteen might be comforted to know that he was not the only adult male skipper out there I suppose it's a lot easier to get away with when you have a child because people associate it with youngsters. Yes. and you just think, o, that's nice. that dad's just entertaining their child rather than Yeah. People love to give dads points just for showing up. Yeah. ye. I do think that still skipping is yet to be fully reclaimed So the adults un acccompanied by a child and that is a shame because it is a fun form of motion compared to a lot of the other ones Yeah. if you're going to do one of the quirky walking around things, you know, be like one of those guys who like trails, a bag full of crap with you everywhere you go do skipping instead was different Yeah, I wonder if skkipping lost some currency because a lot of kids have the little scooters instead. It's funny because like theoretically I'm supportive of dad skipping and I think it sounds cute, but the reality is with my own children, I am the fun police. Like they want to do this. They're like, o cracks are lava. And I'm like crracks are not lava Watch out for the mud sppllash, please. Listen to what I'm saying You're like, look, I'm an entertainment professional and this just is't up to my standards Toby, actually, my younger one did say the other day that he wants to do, he doesn't really understand what it is I do for a living. obbviously because he's a child you. He's a child and it's a strange job and I don't know what I do for a living So He describes it as the news And he he's like When I'm older, I want to do the news Yeah, you are the news, Ollie. I am the news on the one man knees Just going around the village. Any news? any news today That would be quirk, wouldn't it? even more so than skipping. Well, it's about time you entered your exit Tisty era get some practice in It's time someone brought back the oldie worldy sort of News of the worldld style town cryer actually You mean like gather you around and I'll tell you the headlines. Well, totally could be you, Ollie Yeah, just like a living audio book that people couldn't escape Here's an email from Gatie in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Who says I've been relistening to your back catalogue to get me through some stressful times at work and in life. Exactly what we're for. I recently listened to your episode with special guest Jackie Mason. A trying to make me feel stressed about my life and work? That is one For the collector. What was that two hundred six? She says it was truly a treat to hear someone else struggling to produce a jolly time with an entirely uncooperative interlocutor It gave me joy. to know that the painful group dynamics that I'm trying to manage will one day be as far in the past as that episode is. Great. Happy to be of service, Katie. A problem shared is a problem doubled and all that. It is bad. I don't think it was even our fault that it was bad. but also like We're all professional talkers, all three of us. E though it's bad, it's still two stars. it's fine. That's less than one star per professional talker on. But it it's quite good to have a souvenir on there, a memento of a time that it was awkward and the conversation didn't flow. Because that is life, isn't it? Sometimes that's what happens, partarticularly intergenerationally. If you had your time again, Oie It was your choice to book that interview. Would you do it again Yes You'd put us through that again, knowing what would happen Thanks a fucking bunch. I mean, at the time I was out touting the show trying to get sort of bigger and bigger guests onto the show as a way of leveraging you know our audience and trying to grow the show. And you thought this will get all of the elderly North London Jews. Precisely that podcasts. Yeah, I thought it was I thought he'd say yes. I thought he was at a stage in his career where although he's a big name, like he's obviously not selling out this West End theatater that he's booked for a run that's too long. He'd say yes because we're Jews and it might be that he really goes for it and we have a laugh. and it doesn't matter because we can edit it anyway. But yes, it just wasn't very good. Really discovered the limits to what editing can achieve that day? Actually, for similar reasons, I was trying to get Joan Rivers as well. Oh my Godd. Jonie would have turned it out though. like she knew what she was doing. I also met her when I was A researcher on this morning. And there, of course, she was absolutely incredible. Yeah. I had the honour of being because I was the researcher, not the producer, the person who would call up the day before to get the brief written And usually celebrities of her stature will not do a pre interview interview. like they will not give you, you know anything. You just like talk to my publicist, you know, read the article in the Times. I'll say that But Joan You called her sweet in the Rz And she picked up and she was like, first I'm going to say this. then Philip's gonna ask me that Then Holly's going to say this, thenen I'm going to say that. thenen I'm going to say, o, you never believe it with this. And then she'd say the joke, like do the whole routine. and I was obviously laughing on the phone, but she was listening to see what the laugh was like And she was like, I'm not sure about that one. Wellow, you were her test audience. Yes, yeah And the presenters were quite happy to do that because Joane Rivers is on just feed the lines she needs to be funny. She produced the segment. She produced the She wrote the segment. ye.ow. Yeahah it was impressive. Anyway, I did think should I abuse my position of responsibility and try and invite her on to answer me this directly? becausecause if you go through her people, they'll obviously be like, Joan doesn't get out of bed for less than two million dollars. And I never did, but Katie from Halifax finishes her email by saying, Wh who is the best guest you've ever had on the show? and is there anyone you tried and failed to get on the show? I don't think there was. Everyone we invited on to answer me this said yes, I think. Because this show has so rarely had guests. I think what like five or six. total Yeah. I mean, Joh Ronsson, as a guest provided so many memorable moments and ones that I don't think he has wheeled out in any other interviews. No. Talking about Mrter Blobby theme park. Never heard him talk about that elsewhere or the Pokeca Hamas character breakfast in Disney. I don't think he even wrote a column about that. O't answer me this. Yeah. Or his views on Pipper Middleton's ass.'sot the person you'd go to for that commentary normally. Doon Romson gives good interviews. He does. I wanted to make an illusionist about peopleeople who got tattoos that have been misspelled And so I never tried to get her, but I do think it' would be really funny to get Arianna Grande to talk about the Japanese tattoo she has on her hand that it was supposed to say something else, but instead what it says in Japanese is small barbecue grill brillant. Do you think she'd think that was funny though? I think she would think it was funny. She seems to have a sense of humour, but she's also very busy and I have no idea how you contact big celebs with such a ludicrous request for cast like mine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like I think she'd go on good hang with Amy Pohar and talk about it, but I don't have that booking power Yes, yeah, yeah, exactly. You need someone in someone in LA, someone whose people knows her people Exactly Yeah, it's not me Although actually, of course, like meeting big celebs is exciting I genuinely think my favorite ever guest on answer M me this were Richard Zaltzan and Grandma Terry U Grandma, Terry. Yeahah, my brother was very salty, but actually I loved Martin's mom when we had our family on episode two hundred Martin's mom really blossomed on Mike His dad was surprisingly shy and nervous, but his mum was just letting it all out was terrific Katie mentions in this email that, you know, she's trying to keep up group fun dynamics and the group she's in isn't fun. And that's so often You know, there are some really miserable fuckers out there. It's fine because your job is to do them along, but you sometimes just think, fuck's sake, like you agreed to do it just like cheer up, you know. And it can be hard work. I was watching Zoe Ball interview Phil Collins on Ty. Oh I mean he's notoriously difficult guy. Seriously, I'm not joking. I think she deserves a BAFTA for this interview. Like she doesn't get much out of him But he is such a miserable old cun. I mean, obviously, It's not helped by the fact. I know he's been unwell. I think he's in chronic pain. I acknowledge that. But he doesn't have to do interviews. He doesn't have to be. It's just like exactly. he's come out of quasi retirement really. to pay tributes to his career for a series of programes Say something. Say anything. laugh when someone's telling a joke And I don't think he's awkward either. I think he thinks he's the kind of person that doesn't have to feel the silence, you know Where it's like, you know when I interview people that I really like, sometimes on times radio, I suddenly find myself like they'll book me a guest that I didn't know I was going to be interviewing. It's like in an hour's time. and Because I'm not a news in politics guy, it doesn't bother me so much actually weirdly, where it can be a really well known MP. That's okay. I'm not bothered about that. But when it's like Neil Hannon. Which he was But you love Neil Hannon, don't you? Yes, exactly. I love Neil Hannon. And I was like, Oh my god, I'm gonna to be talking to Neil Hannon, like don't fuck this up. don't like you want him to like me, you know, that's the thing. I'm thinking I'd want Stuart Murdock from Bellen Sebastian, I've interviewed recently. Yeah Did he like you? I mean, he seems like quite an awkward guy which in a way takes the pressure off you. Well, he wasn't desperate to be liked. He came on to talk about some stuff and we talked about it but it's just It's not a real conversation, is it? because a real conversation would start with me like effusively kind of fanboying him and I didn't wantan to do that obviously. Yeah, I mean, that's not a real conversation in that you then aren't having a conversation with that person because they're like, this is not an equal interaction. Exactly. the status is all skewiff. And I suppose the status is then like You know, the status is changed by the fact you have a microphone in front of your face and you're representing an organization, but it's not really like I'm still the same person there underneath it. The best person actually the celebrity interview that I've done For that is Nigel Planer weirdly M eight Yeah He was just up for laugh, really interesting, clever. by actually listen to the questions came up with interesting things, reacted in the moment like a cool guy. I think he's not of a fame level now where he could be like an asssehold. No, I know, but I know he's always worked as well. like literally never stopped working and he's a really great actor and all that. But at the same time, there could be a part of him that's bitter that like every time he comes on, they play the fucking young ones. Do you know what I mean? But he's not he's not at all. He's just like, yeah, people know me as the hippie from the You ones that's fine Let me tell you a funny story about it and then we'll talk about something else liked him I don't interview celebrities very much and that's fine by me because I like interviewing people that are not interviewed that often. so things come up fresh. They're not like this my press release version of my life. I've said a hundred times Me too. I mean it's interesting we both basically have that policy on our shows, don't we? O the man on the eigionist, I don't talk to people that you've heard of generally. Yeah. The one time I interviewed someone who was super famous, I was like I'm not going to get anything offrand there. There's two PR people either side of her just off camera. and Julie, I did not Anyway, thank you for your feedback. Do continue to send it in to the usual places where you can also send questions. That is, of course our website answering thispodcast dot comot But also if you patreonise us at patreon dot com slash answer me this. there are some tiers where you can get the entirety of our back catalog. if you're listening to this thinking someone's written in about episode fifty five, what's on that You can get that as well as all of our other shit that we've ever recorded, including a special album we did aboutout Love just in time for Valentine's Day That's right just a few days ago until the day where of course our relationships all hit their peak. Yes. And we present each other with some Belgian chocolates. I personally love to get chocolates to celebrate the patron saint of epileptics and beekeepers We recorded an hour long album of romance based questions Back in what was that? I don't know twenty fourteen maybe Sime. And it is available to buy for a fiver at answer me thisstore dot com but if you are on our top two tiers on Patreon, it's included. You can listen to it right now along with all that other stuff. Patreon dot com slash answere this. We will be back of course with a fresh new episode of Answer Me this four hundred fifteen on the last Thursday of February. Why need twenty six See you then