Daniel Sloss | The Biggest Lessons From 2020 | Modern Wisdom Podcast 228

Daniel Sloss is a comedian. 2020 has been chaotic to say the least. Daniel joins me to break down his biggest lessons from a year without comedy shows, Netflix Specials or the adoration of 1000's of strangers. Expect to learn why Daniel started going to therapy, his advice for couples who struggled during lockdown, the challenges of life slowing down, how to deal with a catastrophic ego and much more... Sponsor: Check out everything I use from The Protein Works at https://www.theproteinworks.com/modernwisdom/ (35% off everything with the code MODERN35) Extra Stuff: Follow Daniel on Twitch - https://www.twitch.tv/daniel_sloss Check out Daniel's Website - https://danielsloss.com/ Follow Daniel on Twitter - https://twitter.com/Daniel_Sloss Get my free Ultimate Life Hacks List to 10x your daily productivity → https://chriswillx.com/lifehacks/ To support me on Patreon (thank you): https://www.patreon.com/modernwisdom #danielsloss jigsaw #chriswilliamson - 00:00 Intro 00:54 Comedians in Lockdown 08:17 If Daniel Wasn’t in Comedy 12:56 Creating Content During Covid-19 18:36 How to Respond to Fans 27:03 Desire to Build a Family 33:44 Why We All Need Therapy 40:03 Daniel’s Book & Future Plans 52:58 Lessons from 2020 56:00 Where to Find Daniel - Listen to all episodes online. Search "Modern Wisdom" on any Podcast App or click here: iTunes: https://apple.co/2MNqIgw Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2LSimPn Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/modern-wisdom - Get in touch in the comments below or head to... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx Email: [email protected]

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Daniel Sloss?

  For the past 10 years, all of my confidence, all of my self-worth, all of who I am, I have gone from the love and approval of strangers. And it's been brilliant for the past 10 years.

• 0:09Chris Williamson?

  It's a very strong scaffolding to lay your life upon for as long as it's still there.

• 0:13Daniel Sloss?

  If you imagine my life as my personality and who I am as a human being is a fucking Jenga tower.

• 0:18Chris Williamson?

  Someone's just come in at the very bottom.

• 0:20Daniel Sloss?

  Aye, and took all three and went, "Do you need these?" And I'm like, "No!" I had to really look long and hard in the fucking mirror. Because I'd been Daniel Sloss for, it's intensely for like the past 18 months. And then I was just Daniel.

• 0:35Chris Williamson?

  Dan?

• 0:35Daniel Sloss?

  Aye.

• 0:36Chris Williamson?

  Dan, who the fuck's Dan?

• 0:41Chris Williamson?

  Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back. I'm joined by Daniel Sloss.

• 0:46Daniel Sloss?

  There's no audience to clap.

• 0:47Chris Williamson?

  Oh, there hasn't been. There's no audience anywhere.

• 0:50Daniel Sloss?

  No, there is not.

• 0:52Chris Williamson?

  How is it being a comedian during a pandemic? Tell me about it.

• 0:56Daniel Sloss?

  I mean, it wasn't. It's fine now. It's good now. Like, it's, some gigs are slowly starting to breathe back. For the past month and a half, I've had probably about close to 20 gigs. And it's, those have been really nice because even though it's much, much smaller crowds than been used to, especially in the past two years. It feels like being four or five years into comedy again. Like, it's, you know how there's some people out there who go like, "Oh, I'd never go back to high school." And there's other people who'll be like, "I'd love to go back to high school with the knowledge I have now." It's kind of like that, man. Like, I get to go, you know, smaller audiences, ones that, you know,

• 1:39Daniel Sloss?

  that I would have used to play into seven or eight years ago, but now I just get to play to them with this. I don't know, this wealth of experience that I have. And it's fun. I'm sort of relearning bits of stand-up as well and relearning skills that I haven't had to use for years. And that's been positive, but it's taken six fucking months to get there.

• 2:00Chris Williamson?

  Do you feel out of sorts? Do you feel like you had the sort of the off-season yips when you got back into it?

• 2:04Daniel Sloss?

  A little, oh, a little bit. Like, it was the first time I did, it was the first time in a long time that I'd been nervous.

• 2:14Chris Williamson?

  Why were you nervous?

• 2:16Daniel Sloss?

  Cause, cause I've, I lost all of my self-worth during fucking lockdown, you know. Suddenly going, you know, I've, I've, I've had, I've had a very, very good career. Um, but especially in the past two years has been immensely, yeah, intense, man. Netflix came out and you go from playing four hundred seat rooms to three thousand seat rooms. And it's an eighteen month tour that takes, you know, three hundred shows and, you know, it's all very, very exciting. And, and for the past ten years, all of my confidence, all of my self-worth, all of who I am. I have gone from the love and approval of strangers and it's been brilliant for the past ten years. It's been absolutely brilliant.

• 2:53Chris Williamson?

  It's a very strong scaffolding to lay your life upon for as long as it's still there.

• 2:56Daniel Sloss?

  For as long as it's still there. So it was, if you imagine my life as a, my personality and who I am as a human being is a fucking Jenga tower.

• 3:03Chris Williamson?

  Someone's just come in at the very bottom.

• 3:05Daniel Sloss?

  Aye, and took all three and went, do you need these? And I'm like, no! And eh, the power fucking, but obviously in that, which why I desperately tried to do was to try and prop the fucking tower back up on.

• 3:17Chris Williamson?

  What did you prop it up with?

• 3:18Daniel Sloss?

  Uh, just, I mean, for the first two months, eh, it was back, cause I, cause I'd been so desperate for time off for so long.

• 3:27Chris Williamson?

  I saw you, I think, two days after you got back, we went for lunch in Edinburgh.

• 3:32Daniel Sloss?

  Yeah.

• 3:33Chris Williamson?

  And that was like the middle of March. It was two days before lockdown came in. Um, sorry, before Americans weren't allowed to go back to America. And I remember because the chick that I was with in Edinburgh had left me at four AM.

• 3:44Daniel Sloss?

  Yes.

• 3:44Chris Williamson?

  And I'm like, is this actually just all a big, no, no, no, no, I'm sure that, I'm sure that that was what the truth was.

• 3:49Daniel Sloss?

  Yeah.

• 3:50Chris Williamson?

  And, and so I'd seen you and you were like, like this is lovely, but still even then, only two days after you'd finished. In the back of your head, you had this Australia tour and the book, which we're going to get into. Um, and even then you were already kind of putting yourself into that.

• 4:04Daniel Sloss?

  Well, cause I've always got that. So like, whenever I've had time off, it's always been like, I've got this next month off. And I know after that, I'm on tour for another six weeks. I'm on tour for another six months. So it's, I was really good at cramming my time off. Like I would be like, right, over the next month, I'm doing shit all. I'm sitting in a beanbag, I'm playing Xbox all day and I'm smoking weed. Every second of every day of my existence because I've earned this. I worked for those months. This is my time off. I've got this job coming up then. And whereas this didn't feel like time off, this felt like fucking unemployment. Like it fell, like just suddenly like in a time when like the people were throwing words around key workers and like crucial workers and you're like,

• 4:47Daniel Sloss?

  fuck, I'm so pointless to the world. There's no like.

• 4:50Chris Williamson?

  What's the pointless work is that?

• 4:52Daniel Sloss?

  Like, yeah, and it's us as comedians, it's the last one, you go, fuck, we're dead, we're not needed right now. And there's, and yeah, and I was just, I couldn't, I couldn't handle the time off because it just, it just had a nagging voice in the back of my head going, this isn't time off, you're not doing anything like this isn't, you know, there isn't a tour in two months that you're gonna get money from, there isn't a fucking, you know, eh, a show that you need to be working on because there's no audience. And eh, it took me a while to sort of realise what was going on because I was just, man, eh, smoking weed, living my life, bothering my poor girlfriend, just like fucking tapping her on the shoulder, being like, hey, hey, fill the fucking void. I need you to love me as much as two thousand strangers do on a regular basis. You're busy, sorry, I'll go.

• 5:37Daniel Sloss?

  And eh, so, but in a way also like kind of glad it happened because I had to, I had to really look long and hard in the fucking mirror. Because I'd been, I'd been Daniel Sloss for,

• 5:50Daniel Sloss?

  it's intensely for like the past eighteen months. And then I was just Daniel.

• 5:55Chris Williamson?

  Yeah, Dan.

• 5:56Daniel Sloss?

  Aye.

• 5:56Chris Williamson?

  Dan, who the fuck's Dan?

• 5:57Daniel Sloss?

  Yeah, I've not met him since he was a seventeen year old who was just fucking, you know, insecure in high school, who was starting to do stand up as a hobby and there was only like the slight hopes in the back of his head that he might be able to make money out of it one day. And eh, fuck, he doesn't have any hobbies.

• 6:17Chris Williamson?

  He's a boring cunt.

• 6:18Daniel Sloss?

  God, so fucking boring. Because I suddenly, I didn't have, because my life was so intensely stand up all the time, like I didn't need hobbies.

• 6:25Chris Williamson?

  You weren't even writing, going out to do things to find material for the next show because the next show wasn't going to happen at any point soon.

• 6:30Daniel Sloss?

  Yeah, and normally I just got to go to the next city, I get to meet people, I drink, I do drugs, I fucking party, I live the life and that's, you know. And then suddenly I'm just in my house, just going, fucking, what do I do? I don't have any interests. Like it turned out my only hobby was marijuana, so eh. But what was really nice, I did start discovering like eh, not parts of myself that I'd sort of suppressed, but it's parts of myself that, I don't know, when I was a teenager, I wasn't confident enough to, to enjoy them.

• 7:02Chris Williamson?

  But like?

• 7:03Daniel Sloss?

  Fucking D and D, man.

• 7:05Chris Williamson?

  You really?

• 7:05Daniel Sloss?

  Oh god.

• 7:06Chris Williamson?

  Online or?

• 7:07Daniel Sloss?

  Man, all of it. I'm the best. I love nerd shit. The, the five hours today, I spent on fucking eh, games eh, like a board game shop, just fucking reading nerd books surrounded by nerds. And I was like, this is where I belong.

• 7:18Chris Williamson?

  And with my people?

• 7:19Daniel Sloss?

  With my fucking people, people that I deny.

• 7:21Chris Williamson?

  These mouth breathing, neck bearded incels over here, yeah.

• 7:24Daniel Sloss?

  Well, but I, but because I did, no man, the nerds are the best. They're so, you know. So I just ended up talking to the owner of the place just about eh, comic books and stuff. But so I got to do, I don't know, I got to, I got to start DMing sessions. I am a dungeon master. So I got to do that with a bunch of friends.

• 7:44Chris Williamson?

  Alright, yeah, yeah, yeah. Through Zoom?

• 7:46Daniel Sloss?

  Hmm?

• 7:46Chris Williamson?

  Zoom?

• 7:46Daniel Sloss?

  Through Zoom, yes. And eh, man, a lot, a lot, a lot of fun and like eh, just I was like, just doing like archaeology on the old me and being like, I wonder if this still fits my personality. Like, is this thing I enjoyed when I was seventeen still fit in there?

• 8:02Chris Williamson?

  Apparently it is.

• 8:03Daniel Sloss?

  Some of it's still there. And it's, my, it's been good. Thanks to, I mean, thanks to fucking therapy and meditation and whatnot. It's been a lot easier now. I'm infinitely happier. I'm glad if it didn't do this to me four months ago.

• 8:13Chris Williamson?

  Yeah, well, you're crying, weeping mess in the corner.

• 8:16Daniel Sloss?

  Aye.

• 8:16Chris Williamson?

  Do you think that if it wasn't for the fact that you're talented and have been blessed with some like semi okay, good looks, that you would really, really struggle in life? Because Dungeons and Dragons, the wee, like you have the makings of a really like successful incel.

• 8:33Daniel Sloss?

  Aye.

• 8:33Chris Williamson?

  But you've managed to like get past that.

• 8:35Daniel Sloss?

  Oh, I think I would have. Man, had I not discovered comedy, I would have, I would have absolutely been a fucking eh, right wing internet fucking troll. Eh, from the bottom, I truly fucking, had I not discovered comedy, I would have been one of the, I would have been a fucking proud boy, man.

• 8:51Chris Williamson?

  You and Gavin Mcginnis?

• 8:52Daniel Sloss?

  Yeah, man. If, if I fuck, if I hadn't like gotten to. Comedy like and had this world where I just got to meet so many different people from so many, you know, different backgrounds and get to travel the world and experience things. Eh, I would have absolutely been one of them, you know, it's hard being a white man, like that would have been me, because I would have had nothing else to put it into, I would have just been, because I was quite an angry teenager and then, I mean, I've still got some anger within me, we all do, but, you know, I got to, I got to put that anger into stand up, I got to put it into the performance, all the, all this stuff I had, there was an outlet for it. And thank God, because if it hadn't have been, it would have just been, I would have shot up a school, man.

• 9:36Chris Williamson?

  It's, um, it's interesting that people who don't have that outlet and don't find something in life, I think, struggle with like their internal monologue and, and one of the interesting comments Douglas Murray made on a show that I did with him recently was he's adamant that the people who have the most extreme views on the left and the right have never travelled. So it's because as soon as you travel and you start to meet people from different cultures, you realise like, they're actually really far, I want to know Japanese, like a Japanese person, like they're fucking sick. And like, yeah, Chinese government probably needs a bit of work, but like you meet some people from China, from China, and you're like, fuck, like this is awesome. And you're, you know what I mean?

• 10:12Daniel Sloss?

  Aye, this, you, you, you, when you get to travel, you see the humanity that is so common across the world. You go, here's all these people that, you know, they're so different to who I am. And then you just see a mum yelling at a child and you go, oh, that's how my mum yelled at me. Ah, we're all the same. We are literally, we're all the same fucking species. We're just born in different parts. Um, yeah, I think it's, I, and I think it's such a, eh, it's such an important thing to travel, but it's such an unfortunate thing that it's, you know, it's something that, yeah, I've had money to do.

• 10:48Chris Williamson?

  Imagine, imagine if you'd not had this kind of like weird sabbatical break.

• 10:52Daniel Sloss?

  Aye.

• 10:53Chris Williamson?

  From doing your comedy and perhaps you further layered more and more and more and more.

• 10:59Daniel Sloss?

  Aye.

• 10:59Chris Williamson?

  Life and ego. Have you considered this?

• 11:02Daniel Sloss?

  Yeah.

• 11:02Chris Williamson?

  The, the, the stool's been turned upside down a little bit and you're balancing it on one leg. And then start, you know, do you remember Tom and Jerry?

• 11:09Daniel Sloss?

  I do.

• 11:10Chris Williamson?

  And when they'd like the fridge would be balanced on top of a fork upside down on the floor and then.

• 11:15Daniel Sloss?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 11:16Chris Williamson?

  And that's kind of a, what would have happened had it have been forty year old Daniel, fifty year old Daniel, like coming to the end of his career and then being like, oh. Seventeen year old Daniel's still in here, by the way, dickhead.

• 11:25Daniel Sloss?

  Aye, well, the ego would have become, I mean.

• 11:28Chris Williamson?

  Catastrophic.

• 11:29Daniel Sloss?

  Yes, and, and, and I say that as somebody whose ego two years ago would have been described by some of my friends as catastrophic. You know, a lot of the arrogant things, eh, I used to say and still sometimes say, like, a lot of the time I'll go, oh, my, my tongue is firmly in my cheek. And upon further reflection now, it fucking wasn't. I was just, eh, it was this sort of disguise of, hey, if I, if I, if I acknowledge how arrogant I am. That I'm going to try and pass that off as self-awareness and irony.

• 12:02Chris Williamson?

  Cause even last year, I remember part of the show that you were doing, that you were touring on quite heavily was breaking the fourth wall about. This way that you are with yourself, like my charisma is built around this thing. So it's, you are right, it's a level of self-awareness, but it's also only like about that thick. It's a veneer that allows you to make a proxy.

• 12:22Daniel Sloss?

  Yeah.

• 12:22Chris Williamson?

  For like self-awareness, but you're right, it's without doing the real work.

• 12:25Daniel Sloss?

  It's like when people do ironic racism, you go, aye, but you, even though you're doing it ironically, you still want to say those things. Like that's, not, you don't maybe say them with malice or hatred or whatever, but there's still a deep, it comes from an ignorant and, and, and fearful fucking place.

• 12:39Chris Williamson?

  It's the same as the, the people who are the most vehemently anti-gay. They're the ones who are the most aroused when you put them in an MRI and work at a play gay porn in front of them.

• 12:49Daniel Sloss?

  Yeah.

• 12:51Chris Williamson?

  Who can't switch off the arousal, but like the lady doth protest too much.

• 12:54Daniel Sloss?

  Aye, sort of keep it in.

• 12:57Chris Williamson?

  How much have you been able to create content then? Is a pandemic like a goldmine for content or is it quite difficult to turn COVID nineteen into something funny?

• 13:04Daniel Sloss?

  It's been real hard. I have the worst internet connection in the world. I live in a part of Edinburgh, which for some reason, eh. It's just people, there's my download speed is uh seven megabits per second and my upload speed is point two. Can't do anything. Can't do anything and then obviously and then the pandemic and that all sort of goes down. So I really wanted to get into, I've got so many friends that are really good at like streaming on Twitch and it's and it seems to be like a good, it just seemed like it's something fun to do during lockdown. I go, I love, I love playing a bit of games. Like people enjoy watching me talk for whatever fucking reason. Like I started doing a thing

• 13:45Daniel Sloss?

  on Instagram Live, which was just day drinking with Dan because I was day drinking anyway. And people were like, what are you up to? And I was like, this? So I just sit and get drunk during the day on Instagram Live and and it's one of the weird things that happens in this fucking life. But like, I think the average viewership while it was live was about 1,200 people. But then we get like 50,000 views altogether. You go, why are people watching? Watching you get pissed. But they, I'm blessed that people. Yeah. Yeah, and enjoy for some reason me ranting about things that I'm semi passionate about, but then pretending to be really enraged by them. People enjoy watching and I felt like I could do that on Twitch, but I just don't have this fucking internet connection.

• 14:26Daniel Sloss?

  It's finally happening now. I've uh, I have, I promise you, I have the most, and I'll tell you off camera, I have the most expensive internet connection in the UK. Available. Barnum. Uh, and it's still not in yet, but I hope to, uh, it just seems, Twitch seems so interesting to me because it's, I, I think everyone only really knows it as this sort of gaming platform. But having watched what people like, like Limmy's able to do on it and people are doing different sort of shows on it and cooking shows, it's just a new platform. And I think in the next year or two, one comedian is going to do one thing on Twitch and the rest of us are going to go, oh, there we go. That's it. That's the one.

• 15:08Daniel Sloss?

  And the good thing about Twitch is it's a direct relationship between you and your audience. You don't have anyone from the BBC who hasn't stepped foot in a comedy club in the past seven years being like, hey, hey, hey, we know you're great and we know you've got all these fans, but let us tell you what we think your fans want. Do I watch comedy? No, no, I don't. Am I the head of comedy? Yes, I am. That's me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, and I'm desperate for any world where I don't have to work with the fucking BBC or any shit like that again. So Twitch seems to be the.

• 15:35Chris Williamson?

  I had a, we had a porn star sat right where you were, actually, not long ago, Sienna. And she was talking about, she'd been in the game for a little while, maybe like eight years. And she was talking about the transition from the like typical porn model, working for Brazzers or Fake Taxi or whoever it might be. And like getting paid like, okay, but not, they don't get mental money compared with how much they make. And then OnlyFans came along and then Miami dot VIP came along and they were able to have direct creator to fan. Like interaction, the ability to get tipped and, and, and make money. And she has decentralized and taken complete ownership of her own earning potential.

• 16:14Chris Williamson?

  And now she uses Brazzers and Fake Taxi as the front end of her funnel to be like, I know this will get four million plays on Pornhub. Then some percentage of those people will find me, then some percentage of those people will join my OnlyFans. And now she's making like 10 grand a week.

• 16:29Daniel Sloss?

  Hmm.

• 16:30Chris Williamson?

  Doing what she was doing in any case, but doesn't have to leave a house. Had to like renovate a room into like this, this probably glitter everywhere, you know, and like feather boas around, I imagine, and lots of rubber things. But like, other than that, she's now completely in control. And it seems a little bit like every different industry is trying to find its niche for that. Like even esports has gone from it being esports, getting paid by perhaps winnings and competitions. To now Twitch decentralized you to consumer. And it seems like comedians perhaps might go the same way.

• 17:02Daniel Sloss?

  I mean, plenty of comedians are, there's some comedians who are really, really good at it. I've already said Lemmy, his, I watch his Twitch all the time. He's so good on it. Ian Sterling's on it Twitch as well. Gareth Ward does, he just, he plays scary games in the dark. He's one of the biggest wimps in the world. And it's great, it's great to watch somebody who hates scary games, play scary games. And you get to scare them during it as well. You can like, there's so many of these interaction things that I'm starting.

• 17:31Chris Williamson?

  Also, you can send in like a ghost or whatever to go and do it.

• 17:34Daniel Sloss?

  No, no, because it was, because you could, so if you bid like 500, he has to play it in the dark with the headphones on. And then you can use bits to just shriek in his ear randomly. So it'll just be a bit intense and you can just, yeah, but it's that, it's that sort of, it's mad. It's the funniest thing ever. He shits his pants all the time and he gets so visibly angry.

• 18:00Daniel Sloss?

  It's so fun to watch. And yeah, I'm really inspired watching people like Gareth and let me do these things. I go, Frank, there is that, you know, don't get me wrong, I love stand up and stand up regardless of whatever form it exists. And I will always do it. That is my, it's what I was put on this earth to fucking do. But if I could earn money from playing a beer game, if I'd been a dick, I'm gonna do that as well.

• 18:24Chris Williamson?

  Why didn't you decide to do Zoom comedy shows? There was talk like at the beginning of the year.

• 18:30Daniel Sloss?

  That's not my fucking job.

• 18:33Chris Williamson?

  But you could have, I don't know, stayed in contact with fans, remained like earned a bit of money. I don't know. I don't know.

• 18:40Daniel Sloss?

  I do. I've got a real issue with taking money off my fans. Like the fact that I've, it's one of the very few things that me and my agent butt heads over is ticket prices and stuff. I think comedy should be affordable all times. Um, I, to any comedian that charges fucking over a hundred quid a ticket, I understand why you're doing it. But I think it's dishonest. Like you don't get to go on stage and fucking pretend to be an everyman and try and relate to these people when, you know, you're going, give me, give me two weeks worth of your fucking money. And I've always had a problem. It's the same reason I've, I don't sell merch.

• 19:23Daniel Sloss?

  But just to me, I know I need to get past it, but to me, it just feels like, why am I taking, you've already given me some of your money. Like, I don't want to, I don't want to take anything more for you. I'm just like, I'm doing well already. I don't need. Yes, I've got real, um, yeah, just guilt when it comes to that shit. Um, whereas, and also I'm in charge of my fucking life. My fans do not get to dictate a single part of what I create, what I do, and that's how it works. It's a. I, you know, I don't, I create shows that I want to do, I create things I want to do to make people laugh. But occasionally people like, you know, I've had all this time off, people be like, why don't you do your fucking podcast? I'm sorry, cunt, what do I fucking owe you?

• 20:07Daniel Sloss?

  What, what, what do I owe you beyond, nothing, I owe you nothing. Um, the years, I'm about to drop a name here. But it's David Schwimmer. And he, after the, got in contact after my Netflix specials came out, because he's a massive comedy fan. And I was doing a show in LA and it was my first show since having been on Netflix. And it was the improv and it was, you know, there was a real buzz when I went on stage and I was trying to hang out with him afterwards. And I just kept going off and people like, can I get a photo, can I get a photo? And I was like, yeah, yeah, of course, because I'm like, fucking please everyone and I'm so grateful for this. And I'm just, I wanted to just hang out with fucking David and drink with him and talk to him and stuff. But I keep getting pulled away and I keep saying yes.

• 20:51Daniel Sloss?

  And eventually two people finally recognised him and they were like, can we get a photo? And he was like, yeah, no.

• 20:57Daniel Sloss?

  And they were sort of taken aback and he just kept on to me and, and they went, can we, and he was like, no. But I appreciate that you're a fan of my work, I'm very, very grateful, but no, I'm talking to my friend, I'm spending time with my friend. And I was like, how the fuck did you do that? And he was like, he was like, man, I'm so obviously grateful with them, but I don't owe my fans, I don't owe them anything. Beyond what I create, beyond what I do, like it's, fans are amazing and it's brilliant to have them. But the second that you feel you owe them something, then, then the relationship changes and then you resent them. He's like, and I don't want to resent people that love me, like that's not a nice, healthy relationship.

• 21:35Chris Williamson?

  Do you think that that is a little bit of a manifestation again of what you said about perhaps that, um, feelings of self-worth coming through? Like I need to continue to please these people a little bit. Like I'm not sure if I'm worthy of their support, therefore like I need to, it's a person who doesn't love the girlfriend anymore, but is terrified of breaking up with her because deep down he's not sure if he's, if he's worthy. I don't know how it, how it manifests for you.

• 21:58Daniel Sloss?

  Maybe, maybe, and I think also like, like I, I'm, yeah, I'm so desperate to please people that if I give them the chance to ask me for something, I know I'll do it. So, so I don't want to give my fans the ability to ask for something because I don't want to feel obligated to them, because I will.

• 22:14Chris Williamson?

  Don't start an OnlyFans, then.

• 22:15Daniel Sloss?

  Well, but I've got such a lovely cock.

• 22:20Chris Williamson?

  Did people get sad when they found out that you got a girlfriend? The army of singletons that you created with Jigsaw, did they feel like their leader had betrayed them?

• 22:30Daniel Sloss?

  Some of the ones that didn't pay attention to a word of the show did, yes, absolutely. But my, you know, people who, man, I like, the reason I also don't go into my DMs on Instagram that much is because, man, Jigsaw and Dark and X as well, really fucking resonate with some people, like to a point where it's kind of cultish. And not in a bad way, but just, I'd never considered how much, you know, material would impact people's lives and stuff. And there's a level of responsibility and fear that I have there that I'd just rather avoid.

• 23:07Chris Williamson?

  Why, why do you not want to see what the people say?

• 23:13Daniel Sloss?

  Because I feel responsible for them. Like I, when Jigsaw, when Netflix started, first started coming out, I was in my Instagram DMs all the time because it was a new level of attention. People were telling me they fucking love me. And then you start responding and then you start speaking to people who go through really, are going through really, really hard times. You, you know, some of my fans are suicidal and, and they start telling me about that. And I'm suddenly, of course I'm conversating with these people because I don't want them to fucking kill themselves. And that was always when my agent was like, you've got to step away.

• 23:40Chris Williamson?

  You were barred, you were barred from the DM inbox now.

• 23:42Daniel Sloss?

  Yeah, you can't. So with the, the, I've definitely noticed when I don't post about my girlfriend much on, online. And that's not because I'm ashamed of her, it's just because she's fucking hideous.

• 23:58Daniel Sloss?

  No.

• 24:00Daniel Sloss?

  Because I, I agreed to this life. I signed the deal with the devil for the, for the life of fame and success. And if she wants to sign that contract herself, she's allowed to sign that contract herself. But just because she's my girlfriend doesn't mean she's automatically should be in the world. But when I do talk about her online, you get some fucking stupid people in the comments, like, oh my God, what about Jigsaw? I'm like, if you actually watch the show, the whole point of it is, I absolutely believed in love. I've always fucking believed in love. My parents have been together for 35 years. There's no divorces anymore. I know love is real and it does exist. I just get, was always annoyed and I still get annoyed by fake bullshit love. The emulations of love, the fucking cut, the, you know, it's been cut with other things, obligation and responsibility and fear of loneliness.

• 24:44Daniel Sloss?

  It's not pure, it's just shite fucking methy love.

• 24:49Daniel Sloss?

  And yeah, and I, and I still fucking rail against that, but um for me now, man, this is, I'm properly in love. Like, I would not have gone through this eh lockdown if it hadn't been for, you know, my girlfriend, she really, um, I don't know, she just made, she made me confident and, you know, in the bits of me that I was never confident in before. So most people are very, very happy because they can see that, you know, she makes me happy and stuff. And then, um, also, man, I couldn't give a shit what people say on my, like, from the bottom of my heart. Like, if anyone tweets or describes me anything negative, I don't reply because I find it the equivalent of saying

• 25:30Daniel Sloss?

  no you to a dog's fart. Like, it's so unimpactful.

• 25:35Chris Williamson?

  How do you, how do you deal with sort of vitriol and, and hate and criticism and stuff online?

• 25:40Daniel Sloss?

  By knowing I'm fucking better than every one of them.

• 25:44Chris Williamson?

  What an answer.

• 25:46Daniel Sloss?

  Why would, why would I give a fucking wet, hot shit about what some sad cunt in a fucking darkened room smashed his fucking cheesy fucking fingertips into on me? Fuck off. Like, fuck, in what world, in what world would that opinion ever affect me? Who the fuck are you to affect my opinion of myself? Fuck off. Get fu- you only get to see what I let you fucking see, what I let you pay me to fucking see. Fucking, oh, there's the old me. He's still in it.

• 26:19Chris Williamson?

  Oh, you've still got it, yeah.

• 26:20Daniel Sloss?

  I know, but I don't like, I don't like that side of myself. It's horrible.

• 26:24Chris Williamson?

  You've got to turn it on and turn it off, you know? What was it that you said when we were out for, we were out for lunch and someone had done something similar, criticised you about something and you said, who the fuck are you cunt? My house has got two kitchens.

• 26:37Daniel Sloss?

  Ah, but that's a horrible side of myself. That's, that's the bit of me that's not capable of take criticism. Yeah, yeah. What a horrible side of me that I'm like, you know what, I'm better than you because I earn more. That's, you know, that's the bits that always come up in, you know, therapy.

• 26:56Daniel Sloss?

  I'm like, fuck, where's this darkness come from? What's that about?

• 26:59Chris Williamson?

  Yeah, it's the second kitchen. That's where it, that's where it lurks. But you, you moved your girlfriend in.

• 27:05Daniel Sloss?

  Yes.

• 27:06Chris Williamson?

  The, the tactical implication of that was that you thought you were gonna have an empty house that she would keep clean.

• 27:10Daniel Sloss?

  Yes. No, no, that's just a horrible joke I said on stage. No, no, my girlfriend lived in January because I love her dearly.

• 27:16Chris Williamson?

  But was quite a good decision, given the foreseeable pandemic that you didn't know about.

• 27:21Daniel Sloss?

  I was going to be on tour for ages. So it was sort of like I moved into the house and um, I bought the, I bought the house with my mind for it to be a family house. I was like, I walked in, I was like, oh, this is the house that I'll raise my children in. Um, so we moved in and we knew I was gonna be away a lot, um, uh, which we were used to, but it was gonna, it was gonna be so much less than the previous year. So that was exciting. And then, uh, we were so worried as well because she's, she's got a real job and stuff. So like, even when I was home, she would have her nine to five. We used to have this really fucking funny routine in January, which was I'd wake up every morning and I'd make her a packed lunch for her to go to work. Because I was home and I'd never been home before and I just got to.

• 28:05Chris Williamson?

  You're a kept man.

• 28:06Daniel Sloss?

  I, well, no, no, no, she's, people go, you've changed. I go, no, no, no, this, I've seen my father. I know my, like, this is, this has always been inside of me, like the, you know, my, the, the romantic side of me, the, the kind, gentle side I just fucking put down for years and years. Because it wasn't funny on stage. And then it's been allowed to, um, flourish a little bit more.

• 28:30Chris Williamson?

  So you were househusbanding in it for a little while, like patting chairs and hoovering and.

• 28:34Daniel Sloss?

  I'd love to, man, it's, man, it's good fucking life. I'd love to be a house bitch. Like, if in the fucking future, if she wants to, because she, she really likes her job. And I'd love to be a fucking stay at home dad. What a life. And I'm not, and that does to any parent being like, it's not easy. I know bigger parent isn't fucking easy. But I relish the challenge of it, like, uh. I'd like that, yeah.

• 28:53Chris Williamson?

  I can't wait to be a dad man.

• 28:54Daniel Sloss?

  Yeah.

• 28:55Chris Williamson?

  Like, there's something, something interesting about being sort of around about thirty as a, a man. Everyone talks about, like, it's such a trope to talk about women have turned thirty and she's still single, you know, it's sort of the biological clock state. And you're like, oh, fucking hell, mate, how old's that joke?

• 29:11Daniel Sloss?

  Aye.

• 29:12Chris Williamson?

  But there is an equivalent for men. I find myself not doting, because that's too much. But children used to be disgusting and I wanted to throw things at them. And now I'm not completely repulsed.

• 29:22Daniel Sloss?

  Oh, see, now, I, so what you've got is you've, I think there's a scale that you slide up and down.

• 29:27Chris Williamson?

  I'm lagging behind you a little, am I?

• 29:28Daniel Sloss?

  Oh, I've always loved kids.

• 29:30Chris Williamson?

  Okay.

• 29:30Daniel Sloss?

  So, but, but I think we've increased.

• 29:32Chris Williamson?

  Careful, are you careful what you say? I've always loved kids.

• 29:35Daniel Sloss?

  Man, the amount, this is genuinely something that constantly comes up in my stand-up. Eh, because in the show X, I was talking, I had a routine about how much I love kids. Unfortunately, I also pepper all of my sentences with the word fucking. So there were several, several times on tour where I, without just not, because I'm thinking about the next joke, thinking about a number of other things. Instead of saying, I fucking love kids, I'd say I love fucking kids. And, and some days, some days I'd catch it, but I know there were other days, days I didn't. There were other days where just mid-show I'd be like, well, I love fucking kids, man. Because for me, it's like, it's, it's, it's not, I'm not using the word fucking as a verb. It's a, it's an ad.

• 30:18Chris Williamson?

  It's garnish, isn't it?

• 30:18Daniel Sloss?

  Yeah, yeah, it's the flavour, yeah. Fucking this, fuck that shit off, you know, it's.

• 30:24Chris Williamson?

  Yeah. Yeah, man, there is something, there's something interesting and there's not an archetype for that. And I think that, like, men probably could do with speaking about that a little bit more. The fact that you do, you can desire a family and it's still masculine to want that, even though you haven't.

• 30:39Daniel Sloss?

  I can't imagine anything more. And also, why does it have to be fucking masculine? But, and again, I say this as somebody who deals with his own toxic masculinity regularly. You all saw it come out about fifteen minutes ago. Um, but, I, man, I don't, I don't, I've, I've never, with toxic masculinity, I've never understood the, the bit of it that's, that men can't feel love or shouldn't feel love. I don't, I don't believe that. I don't believe that fucking trope at all. Like, my dad adores his fucking family, even though I've not seen my, I'd never seen my dad cry much. He wasn't necessarily hiding from me, but he never. You know, my dad, my dad never struggled as hell, I mean, it would never, it wasn't difficult for him.

• 31:22Daniel Sloss?

  Like, men can still very much be like, I love you, that's a fucking man.

• 31:26Chris Williamson?

  And still be men.

• 31:27Daniel Sloss?

  Yeah, yeah. And if, and if, if, if being a strong man is important to you, which it is to some men, and I don't think that's something we should admonish, it's nice to feel strong sometimes. It's, it's, it's a good sort of thing. It's just when, if, when your ability to appear strong doesn't allow you those moments of weakness or softness, or that's when it's bad. But this general idea of, I wanna be big and strong, I wanna be a protector, okay. Just as long as, as long as you're happy and sensible with it. For me, it absolutely fits in with, uh, that being a man, I wanna be a dad, I wanna protect my family, I wanna fucking raise them to be good men. That's a, you know, my granddad was always

• 32:08Daniel Sloss?

  want, want to make sure that his son, God, be a good man. You get those generations that they're like, it's all about being good.

• 32:13Chris Williamson?

  Is that a Scottish thing?

• 32:15Daniel Sloss?

  Uh, no, I don't think so. Um, I mean, maybe, there's a lot of cons down here, so maybe.

• 32:23Chris Williamson?

  Yeah, you are right. It's, um, I don't know, man, I think it's really interesting, the sort of where men are at, at the moment. There seems to be a lot of different kind of roots peeling off. You'll have heard of Migtow, men going their own way, which is basically, it's like, um, imagine militant feminism and then flip it completely opposite. So it's men saying, we don't need women, um, basically the only way to win the game is not to play, is what they think. So it's men who perhaps have been scorned by women who are, um, just don't really like the dynamic that's going on. Some divorcees, some men that have never had partners or never had families. And, um, you've got that going one way, and then me and you talking about, like, I can't wait to be a dad. I'm really excited to have kids. I think I'm gonna be, hopefully gonna be a good, a good father, you know?

• 33:05Daniel Sloss?

  Oh, God, men need therapy, man.

• 33:07Chris Williamson?

  They really, I, I don't know, I, I don't, it. I see both sides of it because I see how hurtful relationship breakups can be and so do you.

• 33:15Daniel Sloss?

  Ah.

• 33:15Chris Williamson?

  And for some people, they would rather than deal with the risk of that occurring again.

• 33:20Daniel Sloss?

  Yeah.

• 33:21Chris Williamson?

  Would just say.

• 33:22Daniel Sloss?

  No, but that's not.

• 33:23Chris Williamson?

  I'm out.

• 33:23Daniel Sloss?

  But yeah, but I don't believe that's what they're doing. What they're doing is, is, is they're compressing their feelings into, to the point where it's becoming carbon and coal in their bodies and they're using that fuel to burn hatred. Whereas, you know, if you, if you didn't fucking compress it with inside you, you wouldn't be filled with this fuel of fucking anger.

• 33:43Chris Williamson?

  Therapy.

• 33:44Daniel Sloss?

  Man, therapy is the tits. And it's, I think it's an absolute fucking disgrace that it's, eh, it's something, it's a form of privilege, like, like I can afford to go to therapy. And, and there are obviously free forms of eh, therapy eh, that people can go to, but they're difficult to get. It's not available to everyone. It's not readily fucking available. And eh, I just don't like it. Especially this fucking year, man. Like, everyone needs therapy. Therapy isn't a fix to anything. The way I describe it, therapy is just putting a condom on the deck of twenty twenty before it fucks you in the ass. Like, it's not, it doesn't get rid of the dick. You're still gonna get fucked in the ass, but God, it stops some of the diseases getting in. It's a bit smoother. Like, it's a process.

• 34:25Daniel Sloss?

  Like, it's not a fix. Meditation isn't a fix. It's all a process, man. You just give yourself these tools so that when you're going through good times, give yourself all the tools and all the knowledge that when things do get harder, that you're able to, you know, if you're one of these people that is so bad at asking for fucking help, give yourself the tools so that next time you don't have, and also just ask for help, you stupid cunt.

• 34:48Chris Williamson?

  What's it been, psychotherapy?

• 34:50Daniel Sloss?

  Eh, no, I just eh, so what happened was after the, after my tour last year, eh, I'd lost a lot of myself. I was very, I just overworked, overworked. I just snapped. Eh, didn't like who I was, didn't like how I was eh, didn't like how I was, I was treating my agent. Eh, I didn't like how I was speaking to people. Eh, didn't like how short-tempered I was. Um, so I just literally emailed a thing and I was just like, hello, and I was just like, I fucking don't like who I am. I'd like to start going to therapy. And eh, they emailed back and they were like, this is what we recommend you go with. And ever since then, just once a week. And the first couple of ones is like, if you're a psychopath like I am, it's just you playing chess against a man trying to help you.

• 35:33Daniel Sloss?

  Like, I'm literally, I'm literally paying this man. What do you want? Yeah. What do you want? Aye. How are we? Yeah, I'm paying this. Yeah, I'm paying, I'm paying this man, I'm like, oh, you're trying to get that out of me? And he's like, yes, yes, I am. What is this? That's why you're here. Yeah, have you paid me for a fucking duel?

• 35:51Daniel Sloss?

  And, but no, for me, it's, it's just been, it's been nice to, cause it's not that I don't have a supportive network. And you know, you don't go to therapy just because you don't have anyone to talk to. Like, I've, I've got family that loves me deeply. I've got a very loving relationship. I've got friends. I can phone you anytime I want. We could talk about things, but that's not what therapy is. Therapy is somebody on the outside, somebody unbiased. Somebody who is gonna like listen and help and just recognise your patterns of thoughts and, and sort of go, hey, hey, you say this a lot, but that's not true. Like, I didn't realise I had anxiety. With my therapist one time, he's like, how's your anxiety? I'm like, I don't. What's anxiety? What anxiety?

• 36:34Daniel Sloss?

  And like, they're not allowed to roll their eyes, but he did.

• 36:40Daniel Sloss?

  Hey, would you be, I'm like, yeah, I don't, yeah, no, don't have anxiety. He goes, how do you feel when anyone's late to something? I'm like, they should die, they should be dropped out. In 2020, there's not a single reason to be fucking late to anything. Everything tells you how long it takes to get somewhere. There's clocks on every fucking screen. To be late in 2020 is a willful decision. And he goes, how do you feel when you're late for things? I'm like, I would never be late for anything because I would be a fucking disgrace. And if I do, he's like, that's anxiety. And I was like, huh, oh, right? And when I realised that, just that small little realisation of like, okay, here's a, here's a moment in your life where your brain shat itself, right? Where it just had a fucking whitey. Internally, it had a fucking whitey. You then reflect back on other things and go, oh, I wasn't right in that moment.

• 37:25Daniel Sloss?

  Or the reason I freaked out then was because of this. One of the big things I discovered through meditation as well as therapy, and I don't know how, whether this is shocking news to other people, whether it was just me, I didn't realise that wasn't my own thoughts. Right, so for so long, because all my thoughts in my head have always been so good and positive. I've always believed in the world for the past twelve years, my brain would be like, Sloss, you're the fucking best. And I'd be like, I am the best. I'd go on stage and the audience would confirm it and I'd be like, fucking thanks, Brian, yeah, you're right, I am the best. I'm so fucking good. But my brain would be telling me all these positive things and because my life was going well, I believed this internal monologue, I fully relate it.

• 38:08Daniel Sloss?

  And then when lockdown hit and my brain was like, you're fucking worthless and pointless. I was like, well, that must be true too. That must be, it's been right for the past twelve years, why would it not be right now? So my brain's going, you're worthless and pointless, I'm fucking sad and being like, fuck it, you are nailing it again, Brian, you are spawned with all of these assessments, fuck, you know me so well. And then suddenly I'm like, why am I wallowing? Why am I sad?

• 38:32Chris Williamson?

  Oh, dude.

• 38:34Daniel Sloss?

  It's these, it's, it's, some of your thoughts are good and a lot of them are, and some of them are neither good nor bad, they're just weird thoughts that you relate to yourself and. Therapy for me has just been helping me realising the occasional moments where my brain, I'm just like, oh, shut the fuck up, you stupid cunt, not now. It's nice and I thoroughly recommend it to eh people who can get it, but it's also, it's really, I'd love to at some point in the future do. It would be a dream of mine to get it fucking free everywhere, to get it on the NHS properly.

• 39:06Chris Williamson?

  That'd be so good. Well, we're about to hit National Mental Health Week, I think that's two weeks' time, something like that in the UK.

• 39:13Daniel Sloss?

  Yeah.

• 39:13Chris Williamson?

  And um, I agree.

• 39:15Daniel Sloss?

  I think after this year, we need more than a week.

• 39:17Chris Williamson?

  Yeah, it needs to be National Mental Health Year. I don't know, I think definitely therapy, the stigma around that could do with being fixed a lot, like the fact that to say that you're going to therapy. Most people take that as an implication that there's something wrong with you.

• 39:33Daniel Sloss?

  Yeah.

• 39:34Chris Williamson?

  Like, no, I can just be better.

• 39:35Daniel Sloss?

  Alright.

• 39:36Chris Williamson?

  Functioning, I mean, I haven't walked out into open traffic, I'm not screaming racist slurs on street corners, like I haven't shat myself.

• 39:43Daniel Sloss?

  Also, there was something wrong with me, I didn't like myself.

• 39:45Chris Williamson?

  Yes.

• 39:45Daniel Sloss?

  And that, and if you don't like yourself, that is something wrong with you, you should like yourself, you should love who you are, you know, doesn't, and just because you like who you are and love who you are, doesn't mean. You're fucking perfect and you're not, need a fucking improvement, but if you don't like yourself, you're wrong, that's a problem, get that, get that sorted.

• 40:00Chris Williamson?

  New book, I'll talk to you with a book.

• 40:02Daniel Sloss?

  Eh, it has been delayed because of this, eh, because it's because it's being released in America first. Eh, because it's an American book. Um, we want to make sure that we could eh do a book tour with it, like go out and eh.

• 40:16Chris Williamson?

  How do you do a book tour as a comedian? Do you play a comedy show that's around the book?

• 40:20Daniel Sloss?

  Yeah, essentially, it would essentially just be, no, no, no, I would just go on the road and do my show and then afterwards just do. Eh, book signings and and then sort of go to the bookstores around the country and um, I don't know, I've never done one.

• 40:34Chris Williamson?

  You ever said the word cunt in a Waterstones? You could do.

• 40:37Daniel Sloss?

  Oh, yeah.

• 40:38Chris Williamson?

  That'd be kind of fun.

• 40:38Daniel Sloss?

  Yeah, you've seen it, you've seen, you've seen the cunts they get in Waterstones, of course.

• 40:41Chris Williamson?

  And how are you doing it in there? You're walking around and, you know what I mean?

• 40:44Daniel Sloss?

  I, well, I mean, I, I would love to, I, I, I would be thrilled to see what, what parts of the book they would let me read in Waterstones. Eh, if, if, if, oh, no, I mean, it will be released in the UK eventually, but once it's, I'm also rewriting it at the moment just.

• 40:59Chris Williamson?

  Yeah, you mentioned you making it, making a few changes there in.

• 41:01Daniel Sloss?

  Yeah, just, um, I, I wrote a chapter on, well, I want to now write a chapter on mental health because eh, in January, I thought I was the fucking god at it. I was like, fucking, you know, it was one of those, I had that utter, utter arrogance of like, oh, look, look, aye, aye. Mental health is very, very important for other people who have problems with it. And I support them from a distance, but I don't because I'm perfect. So, uh, no self-reflection, bye. Um, whereas now that I've been helped immensely, thanks to eh, therapy and, and upon self-reflection and meditation, I want to do a bit on that. I also, um, just upon a bit of further fucking reflection, I didn't, there was a couple of chapters in there where it was just the, the, the ego was still in there.

• 41:46Daniel Sloss?

  And it wasn't, in irony, there wasn't enough reflection in it. And, and also there was, I wrote a chapter on, you know, America. And because I do love America for many, many reasons and I dislike many, many things about it. But I sort of wrote this chapter trying to explain how difficult that was. But it was eh, I think it was, I, I genuinely think I was being too gentle because. Eh, my experience of America was as a, was as a successful white man. And upon, as during lockdown, one of the things I did was started studying American history because I found it fascinating. And learning about the country more and then seeing everything that's happened, especially this year. Eh, I think I was too fucking gentle.

• 42:27Chris Williamson?

  I think. Anything that was written at the beginning of this year.

• 42:31Daniel Sloss?

  Null and void.

• 42:32Chris Williamson?

  Yeah, like you can't expect. And there's something bizarre as well. You can create a YouTube video. I could publish something now that we recorded in January and just like title it as like was recorded in January. And no one really gives a shit.

• 42:45Daniel Sloss?

  No.

• 42:46Chris Williamson?

  However, if you write a book, there's something about it that's like supposed to be evergreen and incarnate, you know? Like it transcends time and space and people presume, I think it's partly the medium. It's so fucking bourgeois. People just presume that it's like, it's got the 2020 vision, literally. And I can imagine that if you had written that, it would have felt like you've kind of cemented something that you probably didn't agree with.

• 43:11Daniel Sloss?

  Yes, I like, and I was so grateful to my publishers, they instantly, Random House, when I was like, I'd like to update it. They were like,

• 43:18Chris Williamson?

  Excuse me?

• 43:18Daniel Sloss?

  Yes. I'm like, hello, I was wrong about a bunch of things. And they were like, thank God you said.

• 43:22Chris Williamson?

  Has it gone to print? Because it's going to print tomorrow.

• 43:26Daniel Sloss?

  They have been so understanding with it. Because yeah, I also have a real problem with being proud of work that I've done. Like, I can't accept them as stamps of times of things like I watch old material and I go, oh, I was wrong then. And I can't put myself in the position. I was like, yes, but you felt at the time and things have changed and you've changed. So I don't watch any of my old shows. And they make me very uncomfortable.

• 43:55Chris Williamson?

  You said that you've, I think I've heard you say before that you kind of watch recent stuff to refine your

• 44:00Daniel Sloss?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 44:01Chris Williamson?

  process. But there's like, like maybe an 18 month window and like anything before that is deleted.

• 44:05Daniel Sloss?

  Absolutely. Dead, dead. Can't watch myself fucking, if sometimes, this is a shit thing to say. But sometimes when I watch some of my fucking old stand up, I thought, I'm just, my hands are the dumbest.

• 44:19Daniel Sloss?

  Just sitting watching this fucking shite stand up, this fucking young cocky piece of shit, talking shite. And I'm like, fucking, how did people ever fall for that? You fucking charlatan.

• 44:29Chris Williamson?

  Isn't that the way that everything's supposed to be though? Like, I can't bear to go back and listen to the first hundred episodes of this show. I'm like, Oh my god, what's going on. But the thing is, if that's the way that you look at stuff, you know that in a hundred more episodes or in three more years, you're gonna look at the stuff that you've just done now and think, what a, what an idiot. How, are you terrible? It's always that, that growth mindset is always gonna leave the previous you in the dust. That is the implication of growth, I think.

• 44:57Daniel Sloss?

  Aye, but I, but I also, yes, but with, with growth and with age should come wisdom. And if you apply wisdom to your past self, you should be able to be like, hey, yeah, go A, that was me then, right? And I don't hate that. I'm different now and I prefer the changes I've made now. I like who I am, but I don't hate that. But I said, that's hopefully what the wisdom of years brings, but I just don't have it yet.

• 45:19Chris Williamson?

  Not yet, maybe, maybe fifty or sixty. So what's, what's next? Are you able to make plans for the future at the moment? So you've got a couple of book chapters to write?

• 45:26Daniel Sloss?

  Couple of book chapters to write, eh, the second I get an internet connection, I will be eh, attempting to eh, get onto Twitch, just fucking explore, see what that is, because it's, I don't wanna go through any, any expectations. I wanna just see what it is and see whether I am good at it. Um, and then hopefully just tours, man. Eh, like, I mean, we just don't, we just don't know anything. It's, I'm really, really enjoying now because even though eh, gigs can be pulled at any fucking moment. We had a gig at the stand in Newcastle pulled last week because just health and safety concerns. Um, that's the sort of world we live in now. Uh, I'm enjoying the time at home and I'm actually really enjoying the time at home now. Eh, eh, now that I'm, now that I'm

• 46:10Daniel Sloss?

  friends with my brain again. Like, it's, it's a good time. Like, eh, enjoying, I'm just trying to reconnect with my friends, man, because for so many years touring and travelling and stuff, I didn't, I didn't get to nurture any friendships. Like, it was very much, I said to my friends, I'm like, hey, these are the two weeks I'm back. And I'm literally two of my, two of my closest friends, the allies, for years and years. And they were such good friends. I was like, whenever I'm back from tour, do not fucking invite me to your house. If you wanna see me, you'll come to where I live. Because I spend most of my time on the road. So when I'm home, I wanna be home. I don't, I don't wanna go to where you live. I don't wanna fucking meet, you come to me, which is a totality of Nazi stats to friendship.

• 46:50Daniel Sloss?

  But one which I sort of had to do for years and now, now I don't, I get to be a, I get to be a better friend, I get to be a better brother.

• 46:56Chris Williamson?

  Normal guy, right?

• 46:57Daniel Sloss?

  Aye, aye.

• 46:58Chris Williamson?

  This is, this is the thing I think a lot of people don't see in success, like the price that you pay to be at the absolute precipice of the top of your particular field is a lot of sacrifices that the person who is ninety eight percent of the way to where you are. Isn't because ninety eight percent of the effort is the returns go like that. Everybody knows there's like, I don't know, maybe two hundred to five hundred comedians on the planet that are ever gonna have a Netflix special like within the next however long like. Or maybe, no, maybe not even that, maybe a hundred, a hundred like comedians, like, okay, so to get there. The difference between you and the next guy has to be so, so great. So that two percent is actually maybe another double the workload.

• 47:43Chris Williamson?

  To just get that extra little bit in. And unfortunately, that is the sacrifices of three hundred day. Tours and, you know, playing, I remember we were talking, you were saying it almost got to the stage where you didn't feel like a comedian anymore. It was like a performance and time away from friends and like, can you deal with that suffering? Like, do you want that? As a, a, an upcoming actor, comedian, writer, you know, do you want to be working to that kind of a schedule with that kind of suffering, with that kind of sacrifice? If you don't, you're gonna outwork them.

• 48:14Daniel Sloss?

  Aye, and you've.

• 48:15Chris Williamson?

  And unfortunately, it almost becomes like a battle of attrition. Like, we've realised that with the show.

• 48:21Daniel Sloss?

  Well, I think, I think, I think it depends on the type of success you want. Like, if you want to be eh, the, the prodigy, if you want to be the first to do it, or the youngest to do it, or the

• 48:34Chris Williamson?

  You work for everything.

• 48:35Daniel Sloss?

  For a lot of things, eh, then yes, it is, eh, about that and, and it's about that extra two percent. But so many of the. Greatest comedians of all time, and I will, I will even put this into most of the other art forms as well and a lot of jobs.

• 48:54Daniel Sloss?

  They are the best, not for how fast they did it, but for how consistently they've done it over the years. Like Bill Barr, who's widely regarded now as one of the greatest of all time, and in my opinion, rightfully so. Man, he's been doing it for, he's been doing it for fucking thirty years. He's been doing it non-stop for thirty years and we only just, I mean, the, he only really came into the forefront in the past five years, right? People go, where did he come from? No, what do you mean, where did he come? He's always been there. He's always been there. Twenty-five years of hard, regular graft work, you know, he was working, making a lot of the sacrifices. I mean, there's so many brilliant comedians that only are being recognised in their fifties, you know. Tom Stade worked his ass off since he was eighteen and is now, I think, I think, sorry if you're watching, Stade.

• 49:40Daniel Sloss?

  I think he's fucking fifty now, he's nearly dead.

• 49:44Daniel Sloss?

  He's getting the recognition now. I think there's two ways to do it and I went for the speedy fucking first one and thankfully this year forced me to slow down, but

• 49:58Daniel Sloss?

  I don't know, I still think my fucking hunger's there. I still, as much as it's been nice to be a bit docile.

• 50:05Chris Williamson?

  Yeah.

• 50:05Daniel Sloss?

  I'm definitely, I'm not fucking done.

• 50:07Chris Williamson?

  So I feel like that as well. I think a lot of people might do too. I wonder how many of the listeners can resonate with this, the fact that it does feel a little bit like you've become domesticated, literally and mentally, that you can't, I've been relatively low energy, like relatively sort of low charisma, like who am I going to be big dick to? Like myself on camera, the one guest that I'm speaking to on the other side of this, of the show, like that's not going to happen. Like the, the couple of friends that I've snuck in at like four P M before the restaurants close, do you know what I mean? Like you don't get to, you don't have that, that gas in you so much anymore. And I think that there's going to be a lot of people who get re-released into the wild, who are going to have latent energy that's going to catapult them through. And I think that's going to be really exciting.

• 50:51Daniel Sloss?

  I do too. I think if, if and when the world goes back to normal, there'll be people who have a new sense of fire under their ass. Unfortunately, there's also plenty of people, especially when they are, who've just, I can't imagine, I, I think this pandemic has probably caused the loss of. The greats of many, many fucking things, people who in the arts, who were able to do arts because they were able to subsidise it with a fucking job, but now can't focus on their passion because they're just trying to fucking make ends meet. I know so many good comedians who have just gone, I'm not a comedian anymore, like I can't, there's

• 51:29Daniel Sloss?

  no work. And I, and I, that'll go to, over to art, it'll go over to, you know, acting, it'll go to all this, fucking even, not even just the arts, fucking plumbers, technicians, programmers, or maybe not, they could do it from home.

• 51:46Chris Williamson?

  Athletes.

• 51:46Daniel Sloss?

  Athletes, yeah. I, I truly think we've lost, uh, Covid has caused the loss of a generation of greats. And, uh, we, we don't know what the long-term effects of Covid are. I think we're gonna have a generation of kids who, you know, born for the first six months of those crucial development years where they only got to see both of their parents. What are the long-term effects of that? The first six months of your life, only two faces. What are the long-term, if any? Um, but one of the other long-term effects is, you know, maybe they'll just be in twenty-five fucking years, a bunch of time when art sucks for a bit.

• 52:24Chris Williamson?

  Everyone's a plumber or a mess.

• 52:25Daniel Sloss?

  Aye, aye. Football's just a little bit shyer while I fucking, I'm.

• 52:29Chris Williamson?

  I have to say, I really enjoyed football without the fan noise. I just think, because there's a DJ, have you seen this?

• 52:35Daniel Sloss?

  I have.

• 52:35Chris Williamson?

  Like the fake, the fake noise and the.

• 52:37Daniel Sloss?

  And how good are those fucking, like, sometimes they get it wrong, it's very funny when they get it wrong. Like, it's, they're like, wah, oh no, it's miles off target. Yeah. Um, mind you, fans did that as well. That was, you know, the amount of times I've thought of a match, you go, whee, it didn't go in. Oh, fuck, yeah.

• 52:54Chris Williamson?

  Uh, so two questions. First one, um, if someone's had some challenges with their relationship during Covid, what would you, any, any bits of advice of how they might be able to deal with it a little bit better?

• 53:05Daniel Sloss?

  Oh, man, I, I mean, I, here's one of the stances I still stand by thoroughly at Chicksaw is if your relationship requires any fucking effort.

• 53:14Chris Williamson?

  Even during a pandemic?

• 53:16Daniel Sloss?

  Man, I, me and my girlfriend didn't fall in love once. And then again, don't get me wrong, I know there's gonna be fucking people who've been married for 25 years. And they're gonna be like, you're still in the fucking honeymoon phase.

• 53:25Chris Williamson?

  Just wait.

• 53:25Daniel Sloss?

  Aye, you're still in the honeymoon phase. Maybe, or maybe I didn't fall in love with a cunt. Um, who knows? We'll never know. We'll know in 25 years' time. Um, no, I, I've had no advice. I'd like, I'm, I'm in a shitty, not shitty, because I'm in a really good position where I didn't have to work.

• 53:44Chris Williamson?

  A non-representative position.

• 53:45Daniel Sloss?

  Aye. Um, and also, yeah, I, I thoroughly recommend people watch, eh, Jigsaw during quarantine.

• 53:53Chris Williamson?

  Where can they get that now?

• 53:54Daniel Sloss?

  It's still on Netflix. Still on Netflix, yeah.

• 53:56Chris Williamson?

  That's, that's quite a long time it's been on, two years?

• 53:59Daniel Sloss?

  Eh, yeah, I think, I think they, I think they have it forever.

• 54:03Chris Williamson?

  Is it?

• 54:04Daniel Sloss?

  I'm genuinely not sure.

• 54:05Chris Williamson?

  Fuck me.

• 54:06Daniel Sloss?

  I don't know, where, I mean, where else would it go?

• 54:08Chris Williamson?

  Well, I don't know, I don't know how long I had it up there.

• 54:10Daniel Sloss?

  No, I don't know how long it's up there.

• 54:12Chris Williamson?

  Eh, fun thing, lessons from 2020. What's gonna be the biggest lesson that you take away from 2020?

• 54:18Daniel Sloss?

  Eh, and, and, and had I heard myself say this in January, I would have knocked myself out. But eh, just fucking take better care of yourself, take responsibility for eh, your physical health, take responsibility for your mental health. Eh, and I, like, I, like this year, it took a real fucking knock to the confidence, but I'm glad that, you know, that I did have the, the courage and the strength to go to therapy and to seek help, that, you know, I did stick to, you know, meditation and,

• 54:54Daniel Sloss?

  you know, learning about myself and just deciding to go, no, fuck, I need to slow down. Like last year was really hard and admitting that I was having a hard time, which is hard to do because we're all so reluctant to admit we're having a hard time because everyone's having a hard time. So you don't want to admit it. So you go, oh, I know all these other people in a worse position. So how dare I think I'm in a bad position? And that's not true for anyone. That's not how the world works. And if you think that way, get it out of your fucking head. You're allowed to be as miserable as you want to be. Eh, but do what you can to. To not feel that way. We all deserve to be happy.

• 55:27Chris Williamson?

  I love it, man. It's an oddly, uh, an oddly balanced and positive way for us to finish one of these. It's usually berating people that we don't like.

• 55:35Daniel Sloss?

  Well, wait, wait until, like, well, let's get, let's get back in the years that would glad comedy's back and I'll be like, listen, you fuckers, I'm back, I'm confident again. You're all fucking pussies.

• 55:44Chris Williamson?

  Remember all of that stuff that I said last year? He was in.

• 55:46Daniel Sloss?

  Aight.

• 55:47Chris Williamson?

  Dick.

• 55:47Daniel Sloss?

  Tell you what, turns out you shouldn't love yourself, because you just fucking love me.

• 55:52Chris Williamson?

  Oh, man. So, book out next year.

• 55:54Daniel Sloss?

  Book out next year.

• 55:55Chris Williamson?

  Twitch? Have you got Twitch yet?

• 55:56Daniel Sloss?

  Uh, I am, yes. Uh, it's Daniel Sloss, I think, uh, or Daniel Anderson Sloss. It's not a common name, you'll find me. But I don't have any followers on it yet, and the account's barely set up, because once again, slowest internet connection in the world, so.

• 56:08Chris Williamson?

  Mm-hmm. Where else? Instagram?

• 56:10Daniel Sloss?

  Uh, Instagram, um, also.

• 56:11Chris Williamson?

  Watching, uh, watch Jigsaw.

• 56:13Daniel Sloss?

  Yeah, go on Dark, go on, uh, Netflix to watch, uh, Dark and Jigsaw, and also if you follow him, go on my website, danielsloss.com. We're adding tour dates. We're not on tour dates, we're adding dates all the time. We'll be doing spots in random places over the next couple of months. Uh, just, uh, really, come, come see me while I'm humble again.

• 56:32Chris Williamson?

  What a unique opportunity.

• 56:33Daniel Sloss?

  I know. Yeah, small, small beard. There's people watching this, being like, I can't believe he thinks he was humble.

• 56:41Chris Williamson?

  Man, thank you so much.

• 56:42Daniel Sloss?

  As always. Shouldn't have done that. Illegal. Absolutely illegal, yes.

• 57:00Speaker 02

  Mr. President, my company informed me of the explosion on our rig on October 2nd. Causing massive water displacement and triggering a tsunami. They all heap the blame on me. Tom Cruise is. Digger got us into this mess, and Digger's gonna dig us up. From the director of Birdman and The Revenant.

• 57:16Speaker 03

  What would happen if I stopped going? You stall, you freeze to death, that's what.

• 57:21Speaker 02

  With great power comes great deniability.

• 57:24Speaker 03

  I'm not the first then.

• 57:25Speaker 02

  Digger. See the trailer online. Only in theaters October 2nd. Rated R. Under 17. Not a minute without parent.