The Perfect Hangover Day

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Today's guest is a comic and sketch performer whose online clips have racked up millions of views and has been one of the breakout stars from the first series of SNL UK. It's Al Ash and here is fiveive Brilliant Things Wheels up Motherfuckers. Okay, let's start with that. You very rarely starts, how about you open with it? Go. Hello Al. That's how mic is you. Hello Al. nice to meet you.ice to know you sh. You saidel wheels up, Motherfuck. Hello everybody.. Hello Al. Hello. We were just about to start the podcast and Dan, the producer Hello. saidid wheels up Motherfucker. I thought that'd be a fantastic way of starting and I offered you the opportunity to say that and like a Victorian proude you wouldn't say Motherfucker. Give me another go. Okay. Wheels up Motherfucker. Now is that a reference to something that I'm missing? No, I'm trying to develop my own catchphrase as a producer and I think it's spicy but not too spicy S ye you plotting wheels at Mother Fucker' podcast is kind an offsot of. The great thing about podcasts is if you get a niche topic and to my knowledge, there isn't a podcast about wheels being elevated So if we can combine two men that are going around banging mils and observing lifting wheels, then we've got oursel a need It doesn't have to be car whels. doesn't have to be many people don wheel Yeah bikes, gerblls. Yeah, you know, the little things they go around as long as we're Banging women, ye. as well as right Obs we've got a podcast. Hello out. It doesn't normally go like this. Nice to meet you. Likewise. Nice for having me. Pleasure U how how are things? You are hot on the heels of your debut season of SNL UK Do you feel like a husk? Do you feel energized? How do you feel by the success of it? I feel a bit husky. Yeah. It was great. It was really good. It was like a very weird process. It's like such a massive beast obviously. It's weird doing something for the first time that also kind of everyone sort of knows about as well. Yes. It's not like a brand new show or a brand new format. P people are kind of like, I sort of know about that. I think there are a lot of preconceived notions about the show, what it would be and like a lot of kind of tastemakers talking about like British comedy, American comedy and the format and the style, but I always thought from the start, like the cast was great. so many names there I was so excited to work with pretty much all of them to be honest. And as soon as I found out who the writers were, I was like We're good. Deep breath, we're good. Yeah there was something quite cool about it as an old man observing from sort of a rock Gandalf. There was something quite cool about the fact that I didn't know any of them. And that's how it should be. rather than kind of, you know, the usual faces that you see on everything. Yeah Yeah. F different backgrounds as well, like that's why I love like, you know, Hammed is like a pro recently nominated from Llivier Award, proper actor. L I'm in awe of him. like George, you know, proper Shakespeare' done Hamlet of the Globe, like Emma, incredible character comedian. like I could go on Annabelle, like musical comedy, like so many different backgrounds and Yeah, it's been a really nice kind of alchemy and melting pot of different skills, I think. I think we've done a good job. I think we've done a good job. was with it. yeah. And you're now on a break and what a lovely day to talk about things you adore. So what is the first brilliant thing It's crrumpets. Okay. I think I actually had to hold myself back from making every single brilliant thing some kind of food related thing. Yep. That's fine. Wh probably says a lot about me, but I also realise, as you'll probably see it as this list goes on that I've kind of just created the perfect day for like a thirteen year old boy No. So crumpets to me Forr even just a feat of kind of like structural ingenuity They're kind of a singular thing. There's nothing really similar to a crumpet in my mind. It's like You have the beauty of toast, you have the crunch, you have the absorbability a bit more so because of all the little pockets and it's kind of like for catcha, but not as fancy. It's like I tell you why I love crumpets is that they're not on my shopping list, generally speaking. Right. Even though I like them I don't buy them how I would buy milk or eggs. but every like three to four months I'll be like, crumpets. Th those are amazing. I love those things.. And then I'll scratch that itch. Probably later today I will go and buy some crumpets as a kind of well done for doing this.. And do you because my son who was two is a huge fan. Yes. And there's a real variety now as someone who's who's re engaging with the crumpets. Yes, yeah, yeah yeah. You can get sourdough ones., you can get those wararburton ones that are kind of thick. There's a a lot of wholemeal ones. Yeah for the kind of the clandestine gentlemen. What's exciting about it is you can really sort of smother butter and it feels like it really holds. There's a lot of sauce My son has marmite. Yeah I love that. Ruced salt, marmite and saltless butter on his. What would you go It really just depends. I think that's the beauty Probably I mean, classic is butter. A actuallyually, what's really nice is butter with salt and pepper on it. Oo yeah, It's like a seasoned crumpet. Yeah, that works. I like crumpets because I love a lot of butter on stuff and the crumpet really encourages that. Yes, it does. It almost helps. It almost goes Oh sorry, it was say ut much butter as you want. Yes, I'll hide that away. Yeah. That's gonna go down below. that's between you and me. then you can put the public butter on. Yeah, exactly. Do you know what I mean? And it's not similar to the walls we have here. Yeah, it's lovely. This is why I agreed to do this. And these things are choped the butter. wouldn't believe it stinks in it. A abbsolly reekss in it.'s thing can just You could because you very rarely see the butter come up to the top of the holes in the crumpet And I like when there's a bit of condensation from the warmth of the crumpet mix in with the pool of butter at the bottom. so the last bite of crumpet, you mop up.. had a crumpet. I tried to have a crumpet yesterday at my mum's house. there was one left and I thought, what what's the sign. Toaster down, butter, bomerman raspberry jam with the seeds. Lovely. so ready up two old nephew, Uncle Alex, can I have a crumpet? And you have to just give it to him. But it was just the bowl was slammed down. Oh that's frustrating. You did say sw halve in it? No,,, he's really cute. And he's only just started to like me as well. The first like year and a half he just fucking hated me. Yeah. So and is it your sister or your brother? My sister's son. So effectively what you did there is you gave your sister back a child that had just had jam. Yes Oh yeah ye. On my mum's on my mum's brand new sofa as well. It's generation. So yeah, so the sofa's in peril and that kid is wired. I've got to respect that That's top uncling Yeah isn't it? How about you, Dan? you must have something to say about crumpets. Well, interestingly, your son enjoys the marmite on it. That's the top. Apart from butter alone that's the top spread on top of a crumpet from the UK Yeah. Okay, well have we got is there a top five? There a top five Jam doesn't make it. Okay. That's crazy. So I'm going to say the following peanut butter is number five mental. Honey It's not on there.' on it. Okay, Marmalade Marmalade's not on there Don't if you say one of the two following things, I'm going to say Mateella or Bisov, I'm gonna flip out. Number one is Marmite. Yeah Nber two is melty cheese. Okay, that's fine, that's fine. Yeahah ye Yeah We'll skip over number three and four and number five is beenina. No, it's not.'s Bisc. We used to be a nation, Russell. wild Bis coffee is having a moment. Oh it really is. How's that snuck into the top five? Is it? and I hasten to say crumpets are food for children Really? And pensioners? Yes. Yeah. So it's there's passionate in Nateella and biscot? No, they're not. No. I wouldn't have thought God, I mean, I saw a very old lady taking her teeth out to have toast the other day. Oh in a hotel and that's she giv her teeth for sureort. Well, she just kepting. She was taking itestly She wasort sucking it. suck my toast. Oh. But you know when you like, it was so obvious that if I move seats that she would have known that I was looking at her, but I couldn't stop looking at it. It was like that thing that killed Buba Fett You know, that kind of hole it. But if that was a crumpet and she was sucking the butter out of a crumpet with no teeth, you go? Oh yeah. Yeah, but but if she'd had if she'd have had Nateella near them teeth. God knows what could have happened. No I'm not into that at all. That really surprises me.. I'd like to check the there kind of That's a good point. noobody ever checks where he gets these lists. Yeah. Yeahep, because they've got lives. How do they make it with all the holes? I'll tell you because I've made them before. Okay. I went a bit mad in COVID And I just I just bake incessantly every day. like not veryang. And it was a fake pandemic was it was a shandemic looking it was a shandemic. No, I think I think because it's yeasted R. And so you put it in a little mold. Yeah and because of the yeast there's like Esenti it's bread, isn't it? Yeahah, right I think the way cook it, you cook on a griddle that you would like a muffin or a waffle. O a waffle. Yeah ye. And it just sort of permeates. Lovely. Well, what an excellent start. and I think everyone listening along. there might be somebody eating a crumpet as we speak I can't think of a finer way of enjoying that What's your next thing? Funny if it's anal and then the act They have to switch up Yeah. Anay just said. tell what. e a camit go. This isbelievable. Of course, what is your next? It's the cinema Lovely. Okay. which is not having a moment. No, it's not at all. It's famamously dying. It's really it the it's the one thing one thing but definitely post COVID Yeah just feels like it hasn't recovered at all. Yeah. And it feels really like I'm not like I would say I'm on the edges of film expertise. I'm not like a proper film guy, but you know, I really I just sound like an old man whenever I talk about it at the minute where I'm thought there's just no good films. It just feels like they're just desperately trying to make money. So it's like Mario or Minecraft or shit superhero film, but those kind of Great films, they feel less and less. And yet that feeling when you go to the cinema and you watch a great film. Yeah is there anything better? Yeah, just that communal experience isn't it?'s like g it's just like, you can't beat this. I went to see like a kind of kind of shitty horror film the other day and even that just like Herear we was someone go And then everyone kind of laughing at. It was just so beautiful and like you so rarely get that. But you're right, L so much of the films these days are like kind of IP stuff. I think that is just like they can't really take they see it as not risk free, but being quite risk averse, like, you know Mario will make a billion dollars or whatever. So like why not? but Well, like a Michael Jackson film where which I saw ye, but you cut out all of the all the people all the allegations. But it's just like, you know, it's just like, you know, Hitler drawing. Yeah. like it's so odd But I guess if you're trying to find money, which is kind of what they are, but the sequel's gonna be mad. It is gonna be. There is a sequel, right? No. No There' a sequel. They're gonna to do part two of the. There' was a part two, and I think that is when they address all the stuff. Guly. genenuinely, ye yeah Yeah. Cer shift. Yeah, yeah.. It ends and it says hisis legacy continues I Is that the end? Yeah, I turn And I was like, fucking. I was like, yeah obvly, like, you know, and it's like, thiss gonna be part two. I was like, isn't. That must have been an extraordinary moment in a cinema when it flashes up. says this legacy continues and you hear the whole room go That' W it? No I think you're right. I think a lot of like the best new films like horror films. That's where it feels like people are really like taking risks or like budgets don't have to be as big. Are you a horror guyist? Not massive, but I'm trying to get more into it. Do you ever go to that? Is it called Fright Fest? Yes. My friend Sab goes to that religious Is that in Sussex? No, no, no, this I think it's in London I think And he just, I mean he'll spend like eight hours. You've seen teeth? I haven't seen teeth before. What what happens inent? Well, do you want to do you want to see Ted in the corner. Yeah. What what's teeth A woman grows teeth in an unusual place. W Yeah, it's good. Okay. Yeah. Jeez, Louise. Yeah. That feels like that would be a fun presumably there's a lot of close ups of the male face. Yes. So more than you believe. Yeah That must be a forty percent of the film, I'd say someomeone going Yeah yeah. Eactly. So But presumably I would like to see the outtakes of the faces that didn't get there. Do you know what I mean? Be you would feel consumed all of them are like that. Yeah ye. But there must be one guy that Exactly. The smaller the better way you I love that. too I think I used to work in a cinema as well so I' do a real like. Oh, nice. Yeah. It was probably my best ever job. What were you doing? I was Jackable T trades. I worked behind the bar Wor behind the kiosk, seven the popcorn being an usher Wh and when you howled U fromrom the age of about twenty Three to twenty six. What a great job. It was a witchly you just watched everything Everything Yeah. and like Yeah, if you had a day off and it was like a shit day, like especially a rainy day, I'd just go in at eleven and I wouldn't leave tt n PM. just watch four films, free popcorn, free Pepsi. It was great. There was always something going on, There always some kind of drama happening, like people kicking off or good world for a sitc that It just feels like it's because it's kind of one of those transitory jobs I would have thought so everyone is kind of trying to go somewhere else. Completely. You know. I don't know. the odd person who was like there was a guy called, I believe, Michel, who wass in his forties, who was an ussher. Yeah. Whatever I was obsessed with. I love Unironically as a thing, like people who do kind of like small time jobs who just fucking love them. likeike the belt, the torch like, you know, if you're on your fuck bam there, like just it's everything. I just respect that so much. Yeah It's that or cave guide. Yes. Those are your sort of two, you know All paintball instructor or painball instructor. Yeah ye. I remember meeting a painball instructor and it it was sexually sinister. Yeah because he was He was showing me was this guy in Sheffield and it was like the I don't know if there was some sort of mechanism. he was going like that with what's that they??? Like that and he was doing that with the trigger and he kind of goes, C you imagine what I'm liying with ladies? Well whisper Yeah yeah. He was like, you know that kind of loud whisper? Can you imagine what I'm liying with Oh, it was just a. Yeah. Yeah, it was pretty weird. it was just me and him and it was for like something we were filming and it was just a weird. And the course was set out like Sarieevo and he was like shooting up it. It was a really awful experience. And all you think about is poor annt and deck. Yeah Lovely. what what is your perfect cinema experience? Like let's go through do you have a particular chain you like? Do you have a snack you like? Do you have company? So let's take us through what you like Interesting. View is reliable in terms of I think all the seats are now massive, which I quite like. Although I will say about View and the cinema experience generally is they've like it's kind of like football. It's like we have the technology and like we have VAR and it's we still haven't discussed like what handball is You know what I mean? It's like we have like the seat and we have the surround sound, but it's like, o, he's talking and fucking ruining the whole thing. Yeah. And like no one's doing anything. So it's like it's no use to having all this stuff if we're not like policing people. I we need to give the usher a pain a gun. ye. Yes No a big seat, I'd probably go for like a medium sweet and salty mix p Cool sixty forty sweet to salt.. withith some crispy M and Ms in there. or mixes. Maybe revels sometimes, quuite nice.. And then a big Tango ice blast So I think at the cina worldorld they do an icy, not the same thing, not as nice. Right. Tango ice Blass different thing. And then it would be a film that's probably like two hours, ten minutes. You know what I mean? If it' two half hours, you're like that's an afternoon. Yeah two hours Tw hours. yeah yeah yeah yeahah. It's not funny thing though, isn't it? When a film is too long, but you're really enjoying it you have to you know, have a piss. Yeah. It's just that it's such a furious wee. Yeah where you're just like running and you're just like, you know, when you're peeing like a race horse and you're like fucking hobby. Yeah. Once upon a time onnce upon a time in Hollywood I did that for. I came back I was like, Well I messed I met Bruce Lee. I was like Oh God Bruce Lee. Yeah sake that I really enjoyed that film. Yeah. that is it's it's a really nice hang. Just nice to hang in that. Aarently they're they're making a story about Cliff Yes they are pit. Yeah, yeah, yeah ye' very excited about. We're excited about the Beatles film as well. You know the idea about that? So it's I think it's from each different point of view and apparently there they're bringing it out week after each side. Is it? Apparently it starts J then you have Paul Ringo and then George. Yeah. Pre pretty exciting. Amy Lewood was one of the hosts on SNL. she's playing George Hris, Ge Jorrison's wife? What? perfect cast? Yeah, of course. And she was saying it's been really exciting. I think all those guys think Maybe not all of them. I think at least three of them have gone kind of full method on set. Right. Always talking in that Soutouse accent. and yeah, you know? Tal in a full method. I met Keith Lemmon for the first time, a gig I did a festival gig in Chipping Sodbury. Yeah. And he was I said, o, all right, mate. And he went, hello. I said, right? And he goes ye And he was doing that avid merian. Yeah But he was he go he goes I I have to talk like this otherwise I cannot stay. Ready I was second Allright But you know when' backstage going? was? That's just a gig map. But it was a really I've never met anyone where they've been full method. And of all the places for it to happen at a festival in Chipping sory, I wasn't imagine it Yeah, it was pretty interesting. Would you ever do that? Would you ever go full method? I don't think anything I do requires that. It's possible out is full method now. Yeah That is true. It has a broad Westernndian accent in real life. Yeah tr. If they want to cast me in Tif two, then whatever I have to do to go. Whether I'm the guy going, Oh You could play the vagina. Yes, ye yeah. just Yeah. Oh Jeez, we need a new diet. Gy. one thing on the cinema? Yes For peopleople who like the cinema, you've got to buy the popcorn Because that is how cinemas make their money. The studios charge so much for the films. ofen a cinema, a small one will pay to have the film loss. Yeah And it's the concessions that makes all the money. So if you want to keep buy the popcorn and the tango that I did not know that. That the green tea has more Fland coffee fact of the cinema world That is really interesting. So it's all about the snacks. It' interesting how certain people buy certain things based on the fact I still have like PTSD from certain film runs. Mama Mia. We'd show that five times a day every day and it would just be like Were doing like a pink GNT. I can still hear the squabbling, but I can still I still hear the clinking of glasses. It's like I was there, man. ye the irony that the tagline is here I go again. So it's perfectly set up for groundb day, isn't it? Yeah, it was What would be I mean impossible possible, but if you could, top three cinematic experperiences film wise We still watched Lord the Rings films as a family, because they'd always come around Christmas time. It wass amazing. She's incredible. Similarly, I was at that age where like Harry Potter One came out on A eleven. It was just like pure magic. And then I loved. I watch that again. Is it Freefall? that documentary about he's called Alex something he like he's like a free climber. Oh does that Netflix thing recently like this year actually we scale of the thing. Is it free solo? Free solo. Yes. I saw that in the cinema.ow And it was I remember hold my gfriend hand that we were both just like slipping over each other because it were just so A and drop silence just like, a that was so so good. It's really interesting as well where watching that and you just go it's a real reminder of that sort of insanity gene Yeah where you go, he's not he's doing that to do it. Yeah. He isn't doing it for the adulation or the the fame. You know, when he's in that little kind of caravanette and his girlfriend's there and you can see she's like fucking Yeah. And is this it? is this my life? and yet he's just getting up really early, looking at a mountain and just climbing it with no help. Yeah. But just so kind of in a way Russell, it's kind of similar to what we do It really is like, you know The risk, the reward Yeah And we don't do it for the adulation either. We do it for the thrill. Of course Starting or growing your own business can be intimidating and lonely at times. Your to do list may feel endless with new tasks, and lists can easily begin to overrun your life. So finding the right tool that not only helps you out, but simplifies everything as a built in business partner can be a game changer For millions of businesses, that tool is Shopify Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and ten percent of all e commerce in the US from household names like Gymshark, Rare Beauty, and Heinz to brands just getting started Shopify has hundreds of ready to use templates that can help you build a beautiful online store that matches your brand style. 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The battle isn't over come to time when you have to take action when you have to choose your own destiny. Watch the new Hulu Original series The Testaments, Streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney pllus for Bital subscribers, Terms apply. When you finally find your thing You want the whole world to know about that thing. So you use a thing called Canva make it an even bigger and better thing Whether you want to create flyers for that thing, make presentations for that thing, or design merch for that thing. You can do anything. so people can see your thing, feel your thing, love your thing. The next thing you know, it's a thing Canva, the thing that makes anything a thing What is your next by thing? Again, I did preface this by saying, you know, this was the day of a fourteen thirteen year old boy. I've gone with school fairs. School fairs. Yeah. fates? I guess you could call them.? I would I would actually kind of open this out to village fates as well Any fateal fair. Okay. I think I love seeing things through a different lens. like go to school you're so like used to how it looks and people's roles. then on the school fair You go to school on a Saturday and you're like, o, The teacher that usually like gives me a ballocking for like getting my pe short is now wearing shorts himself, and he's manning the barbecue. Yeah. And there's little stalls, there's like, I love whimsy, whimsical things. I love being able to like win sweets in a jar. I love raffles. I love like I love candy floss, I love games And I think Wy Wanging, you dr that? Yeah, yeah, yeah, fun. Great Smack the rat. Yes. Yeah I like the the they used to have one in the village where I lived where they you'd have tyres and you could kick the ball through the tyres, different sized tyres Me and my brother probably spend about three hours. Yeah. u I ensured that we won Yeah to wasting all of our money done that summer. Yeah Just so we could walk away Yeah, I won it. Yeah You did also try sixty tyres. Yeah you still want And I think at secondary school because when you I think you probably go to like maybe the first or or Youre going in like probably year seven year, eight year nine when you weren't too cool to be seen at school on a weekend, but that's one of the few places where like girls from other schools would come as well. Exciting ye. So I'd be smacking my rat in front of the girl. You know what I mean? Yeahly trying to look cool. Yeah. So I'm kind of I live just outside London now and I have a two year old son. So these when these kind of fate Jim Karerss local like county faairs come come to town, I'm now going to all of them. Yeah. and I like him. We went to a one that was a monster truck event the other day where there was a guy who I think was divorced And he was sort of whipping up the crowd and he had this massive monster truck and he was driving over like little Persia one hundred sixs and smashing them up. and ye it was Bedlam. My son losing his mind J It was like shall I shall I run it over. Sall I run it over. It's really cool actually it' fun.. They often have like Falconryast. Yes. Falconry Falconry is great. Yeah. I saw a Falconry thing it was like a kind of medieval fair in Northampton where my girlfriend's from and like just solft classic comedy character. gather around every one, thanks so much for coming got the lovely this is Millie here, the Falcon. and I think the Falcon just from memory Falcon just flew off and never came back. Ry? Yeah. We waitited for wait for about twelve minutes. Well as say she will she will return. hear that? Yeah I's got his sketch back. Bustter comes back with a chihuaha. Yeah S you to. Yeah. I think I'm just very nostal maybe my old age I'm getting very nostalgic. I miss like the simplicity of things. I miss just like you pay a pound, you get a ticket, you win a prize. What would be your favourite store to go to at first Games guy or you coocconut Shire is a classic. Yeah. Be then you get to keep the coconut. And again, is that where you win? Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Yeah. Well you don't win a like teddy bear one or somethingit. You win the coconut? I think Bically you would win you' win the coconut ye. And the fair ground coconut shy they offer you other things from behind their dirty stall. Yes. Do you like a fairground stall as much as a fate stall? I'm more of a fake guy if I'm honest with you. Yeah. Fairground's too busy. And there's a kind of there's a kind of horrible, insidious commercial aspect to it Wh it's fate it's like this is just everything here is for the pure enjoyment of everyone that is here. Except often the teachers though, I dont know if this is my school, they'd have to go in the what's it called? the barracks? The stocks and you get to just pelt the shit out of them with like wet sponges. Yeah brring your own brick Yeah, it poor teachers. Yeah I remember them very vividly. We enjoyed it so much that our dad built one in our garden, but a little sort of stock with like just a bit of plastic sheet cut a hole in and literally we'd just lob. And he'd go in there? No, we'd go in there loob sponges at each other. Brilliant Yeah, funally ye. What about punch and Judy? Do they still exist? Yeah Do they? They presumably they must have had to change the because Well these days, Russell, you know, good have' gone woke isn't it? Well probably won't be punch anymore. It be'll be hug and Judy are some bastions of good old fashioned English values who refuse to change the chch. Yeah some little old bastard with his hands up there What's the narrative of punching Judy? That's what I'm trying to think. Somet about crocodile of sausages. It wass always a crocodile Yeah, and then Judy would get a beating. Yeah That was it, I think. But let's find But again, it's the fascination of like how did that become a thing that you know, we need to entertain the kids, right Let's have a sausage eating crocodile and a wife who's asking for. just seems so weird. Isn't it extraordinary how Something like like you just said, punch and Judy can be weaponised in the world, like this silly weird seaside odd thing that you can imagine that becoming part of the next general election, Farage talking about Oh complete you know punch and Judy Yeah Yeah Yeah. go back to a world where just this absurd so funny though But you can see him talking.'s probably they probably got a list of bullet points and it's up there. Did you ever feel I a sausagist in the croodile's mouth? He's right. He's right. Yeah I was thinking it and I said it. I'm gonna go I'm looking for a clue ye. These Italian puppets coming over on their big windbats, ask. Oh I would say of all the things that a sort of fate, the one I would visit the most would be the hog roast Yeah That's the one for me. A bit of applesauce on there. Yeah. I you've been to Oink and Edinburgh Avenue I haven't. Where' baffled. U The really pretty winding street with all of the colourful I know that right the bottom of Cowgate. Yes, yeah. Yeah, it's called Oink. I fear for you though because I feel like you're If you love this, you're gonna be mad because it's like I think they called like Oinker a growler I'm like a snorter maybe The Edinburgh I know It's just it's a different world to the So all the all my kind of go to places don't exist anymore. Really? So yeah, I wouldn't I would have into Marati on the corner. No I've been there for a years. It bit of favverite Exactly. But this what I mean? There used to be there used to be this really cool little hangout where, you know, we were called back then the chocolate Milk Brigade Sounds cool. Who did you flat share with when you did it? Who who are your guys or who are your crew Just my sketch group. So I went to the University of Sussex and started the Sketch Comedy Society there. Oh nice. But we got weirdly lucky with accommodation. It was never too grim. Obviously we were all you three to a room. One year it was like a boys's dormitory, which was like nine of us in one room, all a single bed, like boarding school or something. It was very weird. But one year we managed to stay right, we always do it in J just trying at the caves. We managed to stay like just above that. It was awesome. But So what's that like sort of like starting a sketch? Is that daunting or just exciting I think I was just so new. I'd always loved sketch comedy. When I got to Third Yoke Union, I was like, I've made like good friends, but I haven't really like I hadn't gone to any societies or anything. So I was like, o, there must be a comedy society and there wasn't. So I just sort of blindly started it. And then managed to just Like most things, the first two shows were like quite shit and you're sort of just there being like coming for my sketch comomedy show and like that fucking arhole on the mile, just being And we you do them at the university as well? Yeahes, to do shows in at the university U at Bright just around Brighton in general, Brighton frringe Um But it was so exciting. Yeah, it was awesome. It was so cool and it was my first ever proper thing. I think like It was me and two of the guys, and then there was like a big, big sketch group, probably like nine people. Th then as the years went down, it was suddenly like I was writing directing, producing, and there were sort six of them in the group. So by like third or fourth year, I was like, that was actually really good and like really good proving ground for like learning how to basically make and write sketches. did what were your sketches that you loved growing up You said you were u Mitchell Weblook was Mas for me. love big train, obsessive big train Love Kind of niche, we're not not that niche Dereirect comedy.'s It was Donald Glover's sketch group when he was at university Yeah and they'd make just YouTube stuff. Right. And That was the first time I was like, what is 'causeuse you grew up on like generic television comedy, you know, loveve like Black An only falls with this thing I was like, what is this? It's like it's not TV it's on YouTube and it's only three minutes long, but like I love it. And that was what first me really interested in sketch comedy Was it really? Yeah that proper thing because I was like, this is something that me and my friends love. We're sort of quoting it But it's it's like what is this? It was just like magic. And so it was from YouTube. Yeah. yeah, yeah. It's so interesting. Yeah that that is a resource when you're a kid. Yeah. So you'd have been like eighteen to twenty sort around thatge Early in that I was probably when I was like fifteen, sixteen, reckon? Yeahah, earlier But isn't that amazing to there this guy that is in America writing these little sketches and finds its way to like wherever you grew up. Yeah. yeah. Yeah's so cool. It' so cool stuff like that. But that happens with my stuff now it's like you get recognized lot because the sketches go so kind of global. I went to Switzerland last year to a place called Grindelwald, which has a population of like four thousand people a mountain town in Switzerland. And someone was like, Holy shit, you're the guy from it and I was like that I literally went fuck off.ike that's mad You know, you fuck you fuck. That's so cool. Crazy the reach of these videos is just. Do you given that you we were speaking off air that or I come't remember whether it was part of the main show that used to work in social media did that help or hinder having that kind of knowledge of how the system works against your creativity It did inform the ones, I think, especially the ones that did well early on, it was kind of a conscious decision. So basically I madeuff on my own for a while and I think I was kind of struggling with like what kind of stuff to do. Some people will just do like White Wall, I'm playing all the J know Ed Jones? Yes. Phenomenal. Like someone like him can do that perfectly and I'm so envious of that. because he's just a brilliant actor I found that to be quite lonely and I just wasn't pretty good enough at it kind of thing. And so I reached out to try and find more collaborators. I met my friend Tobbey Douglas Bate Toby from Bath on Instagram, who I follow. And we kind of sat down and we've been making stuff for years and we was a bit like we want us to do well. And so I think we were I'd like to think we were some of the first people in the UK to do these sort of like format parodies really well. I always think of it as like when you watch Peter Sarafano at the show, like he parodies like know old adverts or things like that. But our versions of those adverts in my generation are often internet things, like things on Instagram. So we would parodody these man the stet interviews and we'd write them so naturalistically and film them so You'd think you want people to think they're real for the first ten, twenty seconds kind of thing. So that was a conscious decision with those especially to like try mimic those formats that feel native to social, but then give them that surreal twist. That's kind of our bread and butter really. So I think yeah, having a social media background does help, but I would counter that by saying I just write what I think is funny and stuff that I love. So those were a happy accident of like we think these are so funny, but secretly we're like, I think these will do well actually because like we're paroting stuff that people see. Yes like doesn't feel like it's been done. Yes. Yeah ye yeah. yeah, it feels very Again, it goes back to what I was saying earlier about you know youth and comedy. That is obviously an incredibly fertile ground as a parody what you're seeing on Instagram in a way that as an old man, I wouldn't know those or should I. But you know what I mean? there's something really exciting about I really like watching observational comedy when it doesn't work for me and yet I see everyone laughing. Yeah. And I don't mean that in a condescending way. I remember going to see a comedian who shall remain nameless and I just it wasn't working and yet she was destroying. And there's something really cool about the fact that you go Ah this is This just isn't for me. Yeah. And it was really fun just to see, oh, if you go to watch grumpy old women like doesn't make me laugh because I don't know what it's like to go to Lakeland. Yeah. But when you see somebody just hit the bullse eye for a certain demographic and you can feel the room going, that's it. Yeah. And yet you don't know what it is because you're a forty six year old white guy. Yeah. I was really exciting when that happened to him. But I think because the internet is so big We've made stuff where I've been like, it feels a bit neat, I'm not sure and then it will just you crazy numbers because you I always try and make stuff that's like, if I gig, I'd rather like twenty people out of a hundred like having like an incredible time and it slowly filters up the audience rather than a hundred people kind of going, o yeah, like that's funny kind of. Like you want to hit those people who just love your stuff. And like I think doing stuff online is brilliant for that because you're cultivating an audience who are really passionate about your stuff. But we've made sketches about like niche like Lord of the Rings, characters or whatever. you go No, I's going to get that. But then Even if you don't really understand, you kind of get what we're doing and you know, it's like would you like in terms of sort of like we were discussing like live versus kind of social stuff would you ever do kind of like like an SNL UK tour M be quite a fun thing. Id love wouldould I love to Yeah, I think I'd probably would love to do that. And we spend a lot of time together already. but I think it'd be interesting. I think this show has really shown there's a massive appetite for like A, new names and new faces and just sketch comedy in general like And then with the online stuff, I think I get painted with the brush of online comedian. It's like, I'd be doing these on television someone let me. I've been banging that drum for years, but every gate you're shut in the face of is just sketch shows are too expensive or like you know, they made lazy Susan. The skketch showhow was amazing. Ellie Natasia made an incredible sketcher which is coming back for season two. than Godd, but it's like You know, when like Jamie Dmitru and like Liam Williams and that generation of people can like barely get sketch showes off the ground, it's like it's not to do with a lack of talent. It's just to do with a perceived lack of interest from the public, which is just not true because these sketches online do huge numbers. There's such an appetite for But online is the public as well. TV is fetishised by social media people. Yeah and social media is fetishised by T peoplees ye yeah. TV is in a massive state of flux and TV is dying. Yeah. So you know, the big numbers aren't going to be there. Yeah. It was like SNL, like I think the viewership generally has been has been strong. There's been more than what they've been used to on a Saturday night But yeet it is fluctuated, but online it's their biggest show ever. Yeah. But it's that funny thing as one when you hear about Um I remember seeing it on Chortle and it was like huge ratings and it was something like,' know two hundred thousand, whatever. and youd go, what? Yeah. And yet the sketch is millions and billions and millions, that's where it exists. Yeah ye. particularly for sketch and That I would imagine, in fact, I know that would be exactly the same in America. I'll be doing a late night show there. And when you assume there's gonna be forty million Americans watching, it's like two two million. And yet it just goes online and goes mere it goes What is your next brilliant thing? My next brilliant thing is Dimitar Berato. Okay, lovevely. A footballer. Yes, I know. You own? I do. Well, I've played football with him. Oh in no way. What was he like? Phenomenal. Yeah. Unbelievably silky. Yeah. Beautiful feet. Yeah. looks the same as he He does looks very lean. Yeah he was eating just tomatoes. He had a plate full of just tomatoes and I said, Well you like tomatoes anyway? Yes. Yeah. So you got you really bonded Yeah mates. So for non footballing listeners to the podcast. Yes, let's just give a Pacy of who he is. Well, do you want to take him away? How would you describe Dimitar Ber? Dimitar it off Bulgarian footballer who played for B Labor Kusen, Tomom Hotspur, moved to my beloved, Manchester United and then went to Fulham and Monaco. What a career that what a fun career that is. And the way he trained, apparently when he was young, he would just kick a ball against the wall as hard as he could, just learning how to cushion it so that he just he was just vllying back and forth to himself. Yeah. And he thinks that's the reason why his touch is so good. Yeah let me tell you, when you see it up close, it's extraordinary. I can't believe it. Beautiful.ah. A real glider. Yes, is it. I love football. glide Cle Palm is similar. he just kind of glides I love players who are yeah silky mercurial. We another player who wears a hairband? Yeah. that does something to me. Yeah for some reason. We're obviously going to get quite niche into this That goal he scores when he starts the move in the The left hand side.'s Blackburn. Is it Blackb? call that. Little back hes Erera plays it back oututside his foot into Nanny, littleittle hold up play bam. Yeahah. Great goal. Yeah ye. Yeah he's a really great footballer. How along What is your what's the link to Manchester? How come it's United? I think if I'm honest with myself, they're a great team and I''s I have older brothers.. I can do some Siel about. I have Irish grandparents, they love George Best. That's probably not really true. you know But yeah, but you know, been a Maynight fan since I was youah, five, I guess. Have you been to Trfford? I have yeah. What is your favourite game that you've been to? I've been to very few Main Night matches., sadly. That's right I always say that I kind of redistribute it karmically by being a gllorious hunter by also going into lots of watchloads of non league football as well. to sort of like balance out. yeah. because I'm from Amersham, which is really in Chesham. so I used to with Chham over the weekend. Right Alex Horn Alex Horn? Well, I ago, I was pre Horn horn Yeahah. Not where these modernory glory huntings. I played it's a very bobbly ground I played. Y his game the other day. The Meadow. It's pretty cool is it what it's called Yeah. Yeah. So you're from Amisham? Yeah, yeah, I know Amisham very well. Yeah. yeah. Well I live near there. I've recently moved in. Nice. So lovely part of the world. It is a nice part. I used to make John Robins's coffee all the time. Did you? I did Yeahah, I imagine he needed it. Yes. Large black coffee. So did you do you know John now? No That's funny.. Yeahah. So think I think I first served him years ago after he'd done that incredible show where he did he share it with Nette? Was it that year? Yes, yes I remember I just saw the show in obviously in August and I think I saw him in like October and I sort of was like, o, I just wanted say I love the show it. Yeah. great. And then I think at one point, because I did I do the occasional gig at like Noocku Bag at Moth Club. Yes R by R from Mendi. Y So I think I was like, that's good link. So I think one day I was like, than's coffee. Oh yeah just say I go to the and he was like, o, okay, fuck like obviously wasn't bothered kind of thing. So I know I've yet to I think I have meet again, I would say, He's to make a coffee or That's pretty exciting. Yeah So do you play football? Not for a long time. No. I used to play it like religiously like every weekend, just like similar to you and your brother kicking balls into tres for hours. you just play all day. like But I haven't played for a long time. There was talk of Tom Perry, who's in Pappies, who is our performance director on SNL, there was talk of What does a performance director do? that's the thing that struck me like watching it from afar. The amount of resource put into it just seemed incredible. It felt like you all had your own messusse Yeah, yeah But it just felt like there was a lot of money put towards it. Yeah.ery exciting. Tw million pounds an epise I think Is that what it was? Yeah ye Yeah. So what does a performance director do? sort of well, you know, St the Ovice directs our performance, but also he's very much there to like kind of watch and help produce the sketches and he's kind of constant coming over the script and because a lot of SNL is sort of live editing because we do dress rehearsal And then about an hour and a half later we do the show again. So the show you see on Telly we've already done about an hour before to a different audience. but we've cut full sketches have been cut. That's what's mad about the show is like we had one in week eight with Shuty Gatwa that was like a about sirens so as mermaids sat on this huge thing. like that's written on a Tuesday, it's read at a table on a Wednesday, it's rehearsed. There was music, amazing costumes, wigs, handmade everything and then it's just c. Wow. because for whatever reason it doesn't work on the night or you know ye And you don't know until you do it. Like it could be you could think this is's going to kill and then For for some reason it just doesn't work. And there's like, well, you know that think that massive barnacled structure that we've built like that's going in the trash now. Not the trash, but you know, it's we but presumably that's the nature, particularly if it's you know, on the hoof and you're doing it week on week. Yeah someome stuff is just not the very fact that you're getting an hour presumably out of three Yeah that you write that week is well, you know, forty five out of let's say two hours that you've written is phenomenal. Yeah like We wish you so we would write. U You know, when we were doing good news, it was twenty six minutes, twenty five and then when we did the skkyshow was forty five. But again, like people forget just how difficult it is to kind of come up with just if you were doing stand upp or sketches, you you would do that in a year you have a new hour. Yeah versus having to do it just What is your final, I believe? Final? Yeah. Brilliant. Final brilliant thing. A final brilliant thing is being hung over on a clear day. Yes, okay. Yes. being hung over You've got nothing else on. On a full dance card is a tough one when there's nothing there's nothing to do. Yeah. I love it because you have the full debrief. it's almost It's'm not to say it's as good as the night out But actually how sh I willil that. I think it's as good as the night out. Yeah becausecause the pressure is off. With the night out, you kind of have the pressure almost of like I find of like, o this has to be good, like we have to make sure we have a good time. But like the day after, you just get to stew together, especially if it's like you and your boys, you know. It feels like a street soundbum, doesn't it? when you're like chatting shit at the walls may It sort of I loved the debrief of a big night. Yeah. It' one of my favorite things. I remember on my stag do, there was an incident with one of my cousins and one of my other cousins was telling that story to everyone that was waking up And it was like watching a stand up perfect their sex. You got to tell it six times. byy the end, there were sound effects. It was brilliant. Oh b Yeah It was great. It was one of the highl up but that the retelling Yeah and the repurposing and the just the just the embellishments Yeah. Oh, I love it We used play ods on a lot. You you play oddsdsds. Odds on is like we do this a lot on nights out. It's like it's kind of like a Dares game. so I'd be like I personally love it where it's stuff that has no real consequence. So like we'd be on the tube and I'd say like Odds, you don't we're getting off Bake street odds on, you don't get off. And so you go, okay, I'll give you twenty to one. Then you go, one, two, three, both say a number twenty one and twenty. If you say the same number, then they have to do it. What J just them. Just them. Yeah. Which happened, then it's like, well, okay, I guess we're all gonna have to fucking wait for you.'s like it doesn't benefit me. It doesn't beneit you. O've the ones where it's like ods you just go back up the escalator.', o, you lose. We did one that was on night out. It was like odds on you two. there was four of us My friends Adam Gooses Od on, you go to mas tomorrow And they weren't religious. Yeah. So like being fucking brutally hung over and then being like, we're gonna go now. L that's commitment. Yeah. ye, horrendous. And the idea that you are all having fun. Yeah, you know, having a breakfast somewhere. Yeah, and they're offering mass. Yeah. Yeah yeah, that's I love odds on. So, so good. We we were out for pride And it was like everywhere just obviously it was in Brighton. It obviously just rammed like we're queuing for a club called before So ramed. I'm so ramed I doing I filmed a stand upp special. Yeah, The Night of Pride Yeah and it was brilliant. Mental. Yeah so good. The day Jesus. Yeah's yeah ye it's insane. I remember we queued for this club for about an hour and a half. I think after forty minutes, one of which just said like You know, odds on. if it gets to one AM and we're not in, we just leave And we got to the bouncer at Oh twelve fifty nine. Absolute psychopath. As he said and as he said IDs, it ticked over to one on one and we said G go. Oh my God. my friend was like, what do you mean? we said wed do it and he was going mental. I was screaming us the screen. stupid fucking pricks then I was like o Oh, we said it again. You've got to commit to that That's it. That's it I love it. Oh, that would kill me. Oh my God. you just that's so funny. And where iss the boundn of thing Idas? you're right. Yeah, yeah. k for that time. There's something magical about it and ye it's just So brilliantly pointless. Yeah, I love it. Yeah I like it so good. No no I love I love a hangover. I love it. We used to do a thing where We'd get a mattress in from my room, put it on the floor and then we'd get if find the couch, youd kind of put it on its front. So the back of the couch is now the roof. Yes. So we'd affectionately call it the verandah. So you'd all be on the mattress together. and you'd be able to lie there and watch presumably the Star Wars prequels, which we'd watch every week And you just had your cups of tea and biscuits on the veranda. Oh lovely. So nice. Feing the warmth of your boyys' body on you just all kind of is that breaking together? Is that East Sussex? Yeah, Right. Okay, nice. L. So that the Star Wallars prequels. Yeah. Hry the Harry Potter for people of your generation They're a good hangover film as well. A great hangover film. Yeah. Be they're really silly But it has moments of like really good acting as well. So you're kind of like you're watching for that b. They've really progressed, aren't they, Harry Potter fms? becausecause that first one is very much hell there and by the end of it, they really know what they're doing and they're kind of dark. Yeah, number four is my favourite because it's like that's the one that starts off at the ike the Triwizs tournament. That's where Cedric dies, isn't it? I starts off at the fucking the World Cup,Quituidit' Wor Cup Wor Cup Yeah yeah And they arrive and it black and it's like o Ohh,es, whereedric dies Yeah. Victor Crum. very much very much the Berberotov of that's what I' going say. Yeah. He definitely has that, doesn't Yeah? Yeah I was sort like him in Pyerez who I kind of envisaged. What So take me through the perfect evening that would have led to the perfect hangover with nothing to do. So I want your Saturday night and then I want your Sunday. Yeah I can tell you this in exquisite detail, because I did this every week for about a year. Okay. So I'm living by my best friend Goose. My friend Adam, who is living in Buckinghamshire, would have driven down on the Friday. I would work on a Friday night on a Saturday. So Saturday we go out, we probably go to we pre drink for at least two, three hours playaying various drinking games. Lly what you haveven? At this point in my life It really depends. I weirdly I used to drink a lot of Cinzano. Okay. Have you had Cinzano before? No, but I wasn expecting that? No. No, no,. I've seen it It's likeeet It's like a sweet verouf. My mate's mum used to drink it. Okay. So one of my brilliant things was gonna be actually just like having dinner at your friend's parents' house I used to love that And you don't do that at my age. You don't sit to your friends's parents in the same way anymore. But when you're younger, it's kind of like, o they're allowing us to have a drink and it's very whatever. But she used to have Cinzano and lemonade. I used to love it. It was kind of like syrup and sweet and d d. So I drink a lot of that. But failing that just like cider I'm a sweet boy so you probablyist And then we go to a place called The haaunt in Brighton, eighties Night. Really good. Great music, like no decickheads, just like super loud. a great tagl. Yeah Preat music the Dicks Yeah, always some kind of drama going on, someone cracking ono something, you know, this kind of shit that happens you' twenty three. And then we go to Bill's All night Diner in Brighton, RIP which was just It' kind of like a mad fever dream really. People having continental breakfast and like full English but also like having like steak and chips to like four thirty in the morning People getting kicked out, people in fights, it's just very messy and very just like Put the world to rights. Then we wake up and go for a full fry up at Green Tomato in Brighton, againg, RIP, one of the many establishments to shut down the last few years. And then go to McDonald's straight after of the frry upp, G Mc Furry and then go home and then watch a combination of like Johnny English or Star Wars prequels. One time my friend got arrested whilst we were watching the Star Wars I' just remember the story. He was No, no, no, he he was wrongfully arrested, I'll be clear. Like it was but the police it for George L what? Well, the police turned up. It was me and three of my friends all in our sort of dramas I think in Nveranda. about Floram Yeah ye ye yeah Presumably as they opened the door, they're like, Yeah, think I think it was number sixty two. I you got the wrong wrong house, put yeah, G. But we're all sort of like polite Buckinghamshiread. Hello. So we' like, Ohh, hello. And I was like, Oh, the police are here. and he was like, Oh right, He's like, can we talk to him? I was like, Oh yes, of course. And then my friend was like S we go to the kitchen? and we're like o, we saw like its a little weird. thenen he saw I just say I'm being arrested and we werere like, Oh, right. Why like C can't really say I was like, rightight. and then but it was just a mis Its like identity. But it was just quite a weird thing to hear and for palpatine be like, No, you will. Wh my friend's getting his head pushed into a police car. Here's the question Did you finish off? We did? He's McFlurry? Oh, no we didn't. Well we finished the film. Yeah, exactly. It's just the idea you just look up go. Well he's not here. I just had the image of like a three quarter full McFlurry and you two kind of look at each other Yeah justust hand in Lovely. Well, one excellent end to an enjoyable chat. I love that. Thank you. Lovely to meet you. Y the wonderful Almash. Thank you What hot? Yeah Jed fun. Very like you said, it felt like a real stroll through sort of arcadia, I believe. That's what Pete Dockerty called Old England. I got Albion That's we Al Sry Albion. I get the sense that you are not a school fairs kind of guy. Fuck no. But listen, it is' my place to could feel that I'm not gonna shit on his rainbow. No. whyy do you not like them? It wass just full of fucking All right, lovely, lovely. Yeah, it's not my vibe. But it's just that thing, I think because when I was a kid, I didn't want tona do anything. I just wanted to play football so. I wasn't that kind of kid of like, let's go and pin a tail and a donkey. You're like, what can I just kick something out thing