Pod Insights The Romesh Ranganathan Show Jemaine Clement On Flight of the Conchords, Marmite & British Comedy About this episode How awkward can filming a British comedy get?
Jemaine Clement joins Romesh to discuss everything from New Zealand, comedy and touring. From starting at the Edinburgh Fringe, to creating one of the most loved series, Flight of the Conchords and working alongside Taika Waititi.
They chat about Jemaine's new Disney+ comedy Alice and Steve, filming the upcoming Rogue Trooper movie with Matt Berry and the reality of life on set. Plus, there's a UK vs New Zealand Marmite taste test, a question from Shanthi, a game of Misquoted and the best Leonard Cohen impression you've ever heard.
A Ranga Bee Production in partnership with Platform.
Chapters
00:00 Intro
02:40 A present for Jemaine
04:48 Itchy & Scratchy vs Tom & Jerry
06:15 Rogue Trooper
09:07 A marmite taste test
16:24 New Zealand’s best
17:16 Upbringing and comedy
21:12 Flight Of The Conchords influences
22:05 Edinburgh Fringe
28:45 On Taika Waititi
31:06 A question from Shanthi
34:25 Touring
38:00 On Alice And Steve
49:10 Misquoted
57:50 An exclusive
58:54 Outro
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Transcript 11,870 words · 7 speakers
0:00 Speaker 00 Now, I noticed your company name is Ranga B.
0:02 Speaker 01 Yeah.
0:02 Speaker 00 Is that how you say it?
0:04 Speaker 01 Yeah.
0:04 Speaker 00 Do you know, have you had any Australians in here?
0:07 Speaker 01 Ranga is a...
0:09 Speaker 00 It's a slur for a ginger.
0:12 Speaker 01 A redhead, yeah.
0:12 Speaker 00 A red-headed person.
0:13 Speaker 01 Yeah, because my...
0:14 Speaker 00 I guess ginger might be a slur.
0:16 Speaker 01 I don't know. You can still say ginger, can't you?
0:19 Speaker 00 We can't even say ginger.
0:21 Speaker 01 Yeah, I know.
0:22 Speaker 00 What the hell? Hi, I'm Jermaine Clement. Did I pronounce that right?
0:26 Speaker 01 Yes.
0:27 Speaker 00 I'm gonna be on the Ramesh Ranga Nathan Show.
0:40 Speaker 02 Oh, shut up, Ramesh.
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1:33 Speaker 01 Okay, I'm gonna introduce you now. If you've got any issues with the introduction, please feel free to interrupt.
1:37 Speaker 00 Okay, I'll interrupt you as you go.
1:39 Speaker 01 Okay, my guest today is a Grammy-winning, Emmy-nominated actor, writer, musician, comedian and director.
1:44 Speaker 00 Yep.
1:45 Speaker 01 After studying... Okay, thanks. After studying film in Wellington, he emerged from the city's comedy scene.
1:49 Speaker 00 I dropped out, but yeah.
1:50 Speaker 01 Okay.
1:52 Speaker 01 Winning New Zealand's prestigious Billy T Comedy Award alongside Taika Waititi as part of the comedy duo The Humor Beasts.
1:57 Speaker 00 That's correct.
1:58 Speaker 01 He formed the legendary flight of the concourse with Brett McKenzie.
2:01 Speaker 00 Big word, but yeah.
2:02 Speaker 01 It's difficult, it's difficult to accept that, isn't it? And co-created the vampire phenomenon What We Do in the Shadows. He also appeared in the Avatar franchise, Men in Black 3, Eagle vs Shark and a Minecraft movie, and lent his voice to animations including Rio, the Lego Batman movie, and of course, the crab Tamatoa in Moana.
2:17 Speaker 00 It's interesting, lent my voice, like I'm gonna get it back afterwards.
2:22 Speaker 01 Yeah, it's it's it's a turn of phrase, isn't it?
2:26 Speaker 00 Yes.
2:27 Speaker 01 Cause, cause while, while that
2:28 Speaker 00 I see, I get it now.
2:30 Speaker 01 While that, while that film was out, you were still allowed to speak and stuff.
2:33 Speaker 00 Yeah, that's right.
2:34 Speaker 01 Like, they, they, you, you weren't, they didn't sign you to an exclusivity thing where
2:38 Speaker 00 No, we've got your voice now.
2:42 Speaker 01 No.
2:42 Speaker 00 You get it back at the end of the run.
2:44 Speaker 01 Those deals are getting more and more rare, actually. That, that, it's happened a couple of times.
2:50 Speaker 00 Exclusivity.
2:50 Speaker 01 Yeah, that sort of exclusivity, please don't speak out loud while this film's sort of in circulation.
2:54 Speaker 00 Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's how often people recognise me, actually, is they, I thought it was you and I didn't know it was you because I'm older now, obviously, but then they're like, but then I heard you talk and you sound like that bird from that thing.
3:06 Speaker 01 Is that, how do you feel about that?
3:09 Speaker 00 It makes me want to be quiet.
3:11 Speaker 01 Yeah, that makes sense. Uh, now he's starring in the Disney Plus series Alice and Steve alongside Nicola Walker. It's Jemaine Clement, everybody.
3:19 Speaker 00 I'm gonna clap as well. Is it weird for me to clap as well?
3:22 Speaker 01 No, you can clap if you want. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
3:24 Speaker 00 I'm getting in on the, on the vibe of the room.
3:26 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah, no, it's, it's that kind of, it's kind of buzzy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Now, we've got your present.
3:32 Speaker 00 That's, I didn't bring you anything.
3:34 Speaker 01 No, you don't have to. It's just, uh, it's, well, I'll just let you open it.
3:38 Speaker 00 It's gonna be a joke, is it?
3:39 Speaker 01 No, it's not a weird joke. Well, you might think it's a joke.
3:41 Speaker 00 Oh, I love it.
3:43 Speaker 01 There you go, straight away.
3:44 Speaker 00 Love it. Where's Bowie? And I guess it's a, a, a twist on the where's Wally.
3:49 Speaker 01 Yeah.
3:50 Speaker 00 Oh, actually, oh, there's like, there's someone who looks like Wally, but he's got three heads.
3:55 Speaker 01 Yeah.
3:56 Speaker 00 That's fun. I like it. Thanks very much. Thanks very much.
4:00 Speaker 01 Yeah.
4:02 Speaker 00 I'm gonna just sit here and do this while
4:03 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah, yeah, go for it, go for it.
4:05 Speaker 00 Okay, I'm trying to find him the first time.
4:07 Speaker 01 Okay.
4:08 Speaker 00 On the cover. You keep talking, you ask me the questions, I'll just see if I can find him.
4:13 Speaker 01 You're a massive Bowie fan, aren't you?
4:15 Speaker 00 Yes.
4:15 Speaker 01 Is this gonna distract you from searching for him, now? That's what I'm worried about. Like, do you want, do you want silence while you do this?
4:22 Speaker 00 I found him on the, I found him.
4:24 Speaker 01 Oh, you found him?
4:24 Speaker 00 Yeah.
4:25 Speaker 01 No, that's a bit easy, that's a bit easy then.
4:27 Speaker 00 Well, it's the first page, it might be a little, um, easier.
4:29 Speaker 01 Do you wanna go, like, find it?
4:31 Speaker 00 Do, do the whole book?
4:32 Speaker 01 No, not do that. I don't want to see you do the whole book. Maybe, like, maybe it's, it might be graduated.
4:37 Speaker 00 You know what? Once I was in, um, Well, first time I started going to America for work, I was wearing glasses similar to these. And I had a um red and white stripy T-shirt on and I was at the Sundance Film Festival for Eagle versus Sharks like twenty years ago. But and then an agent came up to me and go, you're dressed like, where's Wally? Or is Waldo here, isn't it?
5:02 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah.
5:03 Speaker 00 Waldo there.
5:03 Speaker 01 Wally here.
5:04 Speaker 00 Waldo there. And she's like, you're like Waldo, you're dressed like Waldo. And um she said, if you're making a movie, you'd be perfect. Because I was wearing, I was just wearing the T-shirt and the glasses.
5:15 Speaker 01 Did they say if you're, if you're there making a movie, you'd be perfect?
5:19 Speaker 00 No, she said they're making a movie.
5:22 Speaker 00 Ridiculous.
5:23 Speaker 01 I would love to know what the storyline would be for that.
5:26 Speaker 00 I was just watching the screen for an hour and a half.
5:33 Speaker 00 There he is.
5:35 Speaker 01 Yeah.
5:36 Speaker 00 Then you can leave, I guess, if you get it.
5:37 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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6:38 Speaker 04 Ugh, I hate Mondays.
6:40 Speaker 05 King's Hawaiian cinnamon swirl bite?
6:42 Speaker 04 Uh, Taylor Hansen? Sure, I'll try one. Mmm.
6:47 Speaker 04 Hey, let's get back to work, please. But Taylor Hansen's making my day way better with these new soft and swirly King's Hawaiian cinnamon bites. Taylor Hansen? Nice.
6:55 Speaker 05 Try one.
6:57 Speaker 04 Mmm.
7:00 Speaker 04 King's Hawaiian cinnamon bites. There's nothing like it.
7:08 Speaker 01 Is it true you're working on a project with David Bowie's son?
7:12 Speaker 00 I acted in a movie that Duncan George directed.
7:15 Speaker 01 Yeah.
7:15 Speaker 00 Rogue Trooper.
7:17 Speaker 01 Right.
7:17 Speaker 00 But I didn't bring up my fandom of.
7:19 Speaker 01 You didn't?
7:20 Speaker 00 No.
7:20 Speaker 01 Did you find it difficult to not?
7:23 Speaker 00 It's the way that movie is filmed, it's performance capture Rogue Trooper I'm talking about.
7:28 Speaker 01 Yeah.
7:29 Speaker 00 We did it so quickly. They did the whole film in eight days, but it looks fantastic. I've seen one reel of it.
7:35 Speaker 01 Yeah.
7:36 Speaker 00 And it's like no other British movie. It's like a British superhero movie. So I can't think of any other except maybe Condor Man.
7:45 Speaker 01 Yeah, there's Captain Britain.
7:47 Speaker 00 Okay. Banana Man?
7:48 Speaker 01 Yeah, Banana Man. I mean, I heard they were gonna do a movie of Banana Man. Well, weren't you, sorry.
7:53 Speaker 00 Up for it?
7:54 Speaker 06 I wasn't gonna play.
7:55 Speaker 01 I swear you had a meeting with somebody about Banana Man.
7:58 Speaker 06 I think they met every director in the UK to see if they could.
8:00 Speaker 01 And what did they say to you?
8:01 Speaker 06 What, how would you make a film about Banana Man?
8:03 Speaker 01 And how would you make a film?
8:04 Speaker 06 I didn't know. Didn't get it. I didn't get it.
8:07 Speaker 01 I don't know. Is it what you had to watch? I don't know.
8:09 Speaker 06 I think I said something in the room.
8:11 Speaker 01 You didn't say the word gritty, did you?
8:15 Speaker 00 He's a, when he ate a banana, he would have the strength of twenty strong men.
8:22 Speaker 01 Yeah.
8:22 Speaker 00 They'd say twenty men, twenty strong men. I always liked that.
8:27 Speaker 01 Yeah. I, yeah, Eric. Was it Eric?
8:30 Speaker 00 Oh, yeah, right. He was a kid.
8:31 Speaker 01 Yeah, he was a kid.
8:32 Speaker 00 Similar to Shazam.
8:33 Speaker 01 Shazam, yeah. There you go. Rogue Trooper. So who, are you allowed to say what you are in Rogue Trooper?
8:39 Speaker 00 Yeah, I, if you, you have to know the comic pretty well, but.
8:44 Speaker 01 Cause his gun's got a, he talks his gun, right?
8:47 Speaker 00 Yeah, I'm not the gun.
8:48 Speaker 01 You're not the gun, okay.
8:49 Speaker 00 But he's a talking gun.
8:50 Speaker 01 Yeah.
8:52 Speaker 00 I am, well, there's, there's a couple of guys who are sort of sell weapons and things like that called Mr. Brass and Mr. Bland and that's myself and Matt Berry. Play those guys.
9:07 Speaker 01 Um, were you a fan of Road Trip before you made this film?
9:10 Speaker 00 Uh, yeah, I always liked the idea that you could carry your friends around with you.
9:14 Speaker 01 I know, it's so good. Road Trip was so good, man.
9:16 Speaker 00 For those lonely times, you have your mate, your, your couple of mates with you.
9:20 Speaker 01 Yeah.
9:21 Speaker 00 And your hat.
9:22 Speaker 01 Yeah. Just have a chat wherever you are.
9:24 Speaker 00 Yeah.
9:25 Speaker 01 Yeah.
9:26 Speaker 00 I guess there's cell phones.
9:28 Speaker 01 Yeah, there is, but it's not quite the same, is it?
9:29 Speaker 00 It's not the same as having them.
9:31 Speaker 01 Yeah, but there's sometimes when you wouldn't want them, though.
9:34 Speaker 00 No, I guess you can take the chip out.
9:36 Speaker 01 I'm, yeah, I guess so. But then if you sort of leave the gun somewhere and you go, I'm just going off and they go, what are you going to do?
9:40 Speaker 00 They can't do anything. Especially if you're the bag.
9:44 Speaker 01 Yeah.
9:46 Speaker 00 The gun can defend itself.
9:48 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah, yeah. The bag can't do anything. Um, but I love Road Trip. I'm excited for that to come out. Um, now, we, uh,
9:55 Speaker 00 I'm just gonna say I like the way that Duncan Jones has done it. It's very seventies inspired.
10:00 Speaker 01 Oh, really?
10:00 Speaker 00 So like Matt and I, our characters drive around in a hovercraft, for instance, which was futuristic then. And they've gone for it. And this, they've kept the design very two thousand A D.
10:10 Speaker 01 Yeah. And have they, have they stuck quite, have they stuck quite close to the comic?
10:14 Speaker 00 Yeah, very close.
10:16 Speaker 01 Cause two thousand A D is like, I was such a fan of it.
10:19 Speaker 00 Yeah, me too, me too.
10:20 Speaker 01 Yeah, I, I loved, I, I loved.
10:22 Speaker 00 It's what I spent my paper run money on.
10:24 Speaker 01 Yeah, I loved it so much.
10:25 Speaker 00 That's a job that we did in the old days. Bringing newspapers to people.
10:29 Speaker 01 That's when we, but we had paper and stuff.
10:30 Speaker 00 Yeah, it was like a website, but on paper.
10:34 Speaker 01 Printed. It's like, it's like if you click print on the website. Yeah, yeah. And then that would get, you'd deliver the websites to people in the neighbourhood.
10:40 Speaker 00 That's what I would do when I was thirteen. Yeah, not very much.
10:43 Speaker 01 No, but.
10:44 Speaker 00 I'd take that money and buy two thousand A D.
10:47 Speaker 01 Yeah. Did you ever steal from the shop?
10:49 Speaker 00 No, we would do it. We'd go to a place that the newspaper had a, um, I don't know, it had a shed basically. That the, the newspaper organised and we'd, all these kids would be in a shed waiting for our papers.
11:02 Speaker 01 Oh, okay. So slightly different. So this one, this one, the shop would send you out and then
11:06 Speaker 00 Yeah.
11:06 Speaker 01 The kids that would, that had been sort of entrusted.
11:09 Speaker 00 Cause all we could steal would be a newspaper.
11:11 Speaker 01 Yeah, sure.
11:12 Speaker 00 And we'd get one free anyway.
11:13 Speaker 01 If you've got a bag full of newspapers, you're not thinking, do you know what I want? More papers.
11:18 Speaker 00 We'd get a free newspaper. Did you do a paper on?
11:21 Speaker 01 No, I didn't. One of my friends did, and he used to regularly steal from the shop. And it's like an individual guy. That was really sad.
11:26 Speaker 00 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
11:27 Speaker 01 Now, we had Brett on the podcast. There was probably one of the biggest negative reactions to that episode.
11:33 Speaker 00 Oh.
11:33 Speaker 01 That we've ever had. Not because of anything. Well, it was sort of what Brett did, but basically.
11:37 Speaker 00 What'd he do? I saw clips and I enjoyed them.
11:40 Speaker 01 Um, no, we were talking about New Zealand marmite versus.
11:44 Speaker 00 Oh, yeah, I saw that. Yeah.
11:46 Speaker 01 So people have got, what is the name of the?
11:48 Speaker 00 Oh, you did a taste test.
11:49 Speaker 01 We did a taste test and people did not like the sound.
11:52 Speaker 00 They didn't like the sound of our marmite?
11:54 Speaker 01 Yeah. No, no, no, not just not, not.
11:56 Speaker 00 Oh, they didn't like the?
11:57 Speaker 01 The marmite. In fact, actually, Will.
11:59 Speaker 00 But there's whole, there's whole industries of people doing those kind of sounds.
12:03 Speaker 01 Oh, yeah, ASMR, yeah.
12:04 Speaker 00 Yeah. Someone would have liked it. Someone might have gotten off on it.
12:10 Speaker 01 I hadn't thought about that, but yeah, probably somebody.
12:13 Speaker 00 Yeah, I bet you're glad you are.
12:17 Speaker 01 Now, we have actually got, have we got some marmite here?
12:19 Speaker 06 Yeah.
12:20 Speaker 01 We'd like to recreate that controversy.
12:21 Speaker 00 I don't even like marmite.
12:22 Speaker 01 Do you not? Do you really not?
12:24 Speaker 00 No, you know, it's one of those marmite things. That's why they say that.
12:29 Speaker 01 Yeah, sure, sure. I get it.
12:30 Speaker 00 Whenever I've not enjoyed it, people like, you've put in too much on.
12:33 Speaker 01 Yeah.
12:34 Speaker 00 Um, and maybe that was true. Maybe someone who knows, um, the medium.
12:39 Speaker 01 Yeah, sure. But are you a marmite guy, Ben?
12:42 Speaker 06 I love marmite.
12:43 Speaker 01 Do you? Because you're quite a foodie.
12:44 Speaker 00 Do it, do it the way you would do it.
12:46 Speaker 06 I don't know. Yeah.
12:47 Speaker 01 Well, you'd serve it with gravolax or something, wouldn't you? But just, let's just.
12:51 Speaker 06 Okay. Are you happy for me to use my hands?
12:54 Speaker 00 Yes.
12:55 Speaker 06 You sure?
12:55 Speaker 00 You have on camera that.
12:56 Speaker 01 But he will stick his fingers straight into the jar. That's what he means.
13:00 Speaker 01 Let, be clear about what.
13:02 Speaker 00 Fingers only.
13:05 Speaker 01 We had, uh.
13:07 Speaker 06 Sorry, that's probably quite loud.
13:08 Speaker 01 We, we had Bryan Cranston on the podcast.
13:10 Speaker 00 Hmm.
13:11 Speaker 01 And so then we had some people, we, we're near a Holland and Barrett. And they were doing some.
13:15 Speaker 00 What, what, what's that?
13:16 Speaker 01 It's like a health food shop.
13:17 Speaker 00 It sounds like it's a team of detectives from the eighteen hundreds.
13:23 Speaker 01 It does. But it's a health food shop.
13:25 Speaker 00 Okay.
13:25 Speaker 01 If you're in the market for psyllium husks, that's the place to go.
13:30 Speaker 00 I am.
13:31 Speaker 01 Great, great news. It's just here.
13:32 Speaker 00 Psyllium husks, that's the, the, uh, carcass of an alien that's been.
13:38 Speaker 01 Yeah.
13:38 Speaker 00 Dug out.
13:39 Speaker 01 Correct, yeah. Yeah. And you can use it like a sleeping bag.
13:45 Speaker 01 It's perfect.
13:47 Speaker 00 Oh, you have in the market, yeah.
13:52 Speaker 01 I got a, I got a couple of, they're doing two for one on psyllium husks, aren't they?
13:58 Speaker 00 I'm just imagining this carcass now and it's really enjoy it.
14:01 Speaker 01 Lisa and I, it was for our anniversary, we'd like, we were back to back in the husks. Okay, so what have you, what have you prepared, Ben?
14:08 Speaker 06 Um, it's a Jacob's cream cracker.
14:10 Speaker 00 Lovely.
14:12 Speaker 01 Oh. Is it really your favourite cracker?
14:14 Speaker 06 Yes, it's the best one. Um, ideally you'd have butter with it, but.
14:17 Speaker 00 Okay.
14:19 Speaker 01 What are you serving on there?
14:20 Speaker 06 It may be a plate or it might be a coaster.
14:23 Speaker 00 It's a coaster.
14:23 Speaker 06 Okay, sure.
14:24 Speaker 00 I like, it's a marble coaster.
14:26 Speaker 06 Yeah.
14:27 Speaker 01 So we're.
14:27 Speaker 00 Oh, very, very sparse.
14:29 Speaker 01 Yeah.
14:30 Speaker 06 Yeah, I've just gone light, I don't wanna upset you.
14:31 Speaker 00 Right, because you know.
14:32 Speaker 01 The best is none at all, actually. But that's as close as you can get.
14:36 Speaker 00 I mean, look at this.
14:41 Speaker 01 It looks like something that secretes, mom, like wiped his arse with a cracker.
14:46 Speaker 00 Yeah.
14:46 Speaker 01 But enjoy.
14:47 Speaker 00 It reminds me of having food poisoning.
14:48 Speaker 01 Yeah. Oh, gosh. Okay.
14:52 Speaker 00 Okay, I've got to really, I've got to change my mindset to enjoy this.
14:55 Speaker 06 Can I make one suggestion?
14:57 Speaker 01 Yeah.
14:57 Speaker 00 Please.
14:58 Speaker 06 Maybe don't have too much.
15:00 Speaker 01 Why are you saying that?
15:01 Speaker 06 I'm just worried, I said what I was.
15:02 Speaker 00 He's worried.
15:04 Speaker 01 It'll be fine, okay.
15:08 Speaker 01 What do you think?
15:09 Speaker 00 Please update me with how many complaints this gets.
15:11 Speaker 01 Um.
15:12 Speaker 00 I wanna see if it gets about the same.
15:13 Speaker 01 Well, we, I think, when it really got lots of complaints, when Brett and I used, it was a teaspoon, wasn't it? That was disgusting.
15:20 Speaker 00 Oh.
15:20 Speaker 01 It was sort of cloying and.
15:21 Speaker 00 You know what? I, I feel like I could eat another bite and not mind it.
15:27 Speaker 01 Yeah? Do you like it?
15:29 Speaker 00 Do I like it?
15:29 Speaker 01 Yeah, I mean, to, yeah.
15:31 Speaker 00 I'm not gonna ask my mum for it.
15:32 Speaker 01 Okay. Is that the, the litmus test?
15:40 Speaker 00 I guess I have to taste a New Zealand marmite now.
15:42 Speaker 01 Okay, should we try some New Zealand marmite?
15:44 Speaker 06 Yeah, yeah.
15:45 Speaker 01 Yeah, okay, great.
15:46 Speaker 06 Do you want a teaspoon?
15:48 Speaker 00 I think it should be done exactly the same.
15:49 Speaker 01 You have to do it exactly the same way, Ben. That's such a ridiculous question.
15:53 Speaker 06 Talk amongst yourselves.
15:54 Speaker 05 You can't change too many variables.
15:56 Speaker 00 Have you got any other questions or this is?
15:58 Speaker 01 No, I'm gonna be honest with you.
16:00 Speaker 00 This is the marmite chat.
16:01 Speaker 01 Can I tell you what the script for the episode was? Light chat, marmite stuff forty-five minutes. We haven't even scratched the surface.
16:11 Speaker 00 I reckon I could finish this. This is rare for me.
16:15 Speaker 06 It's much thicker, darker.
16:17 Speaker 00 It's a thicker marmite, the New Zealand marmite. Yes, it doesn't look... The look of this is not appealing.
16:24 Speaker 01 Yeah. Well, the look of none of it is appealing, but I'm a big fan of the UK. I didn't mind the New Zealand one.
16:31 Speaker 00 Thank you so much.
16:33 Speaker 01 For this?
16:34 Speaker 00 No, for not minding the New Zealand marmite.
16:38 Speaker 01 I'm a really, uh, yeah, I'm a really open-minded guy. Okay, so second coaster now.
16:43 Speaker 00 Second coaster.
16:44 Speaker 06 Can we do a different coaster?
16:45 Speaker 00 Yeah, I like that.
16:45 Speaker 01 Well, it is, isn't it? Yeah, okay. Thanks. In all seriousness, Ben, thanks for doing that.
16:49 Speaker 00 It doesn't have to be complete, um, consistency, you know, you don't have to use the same coaster.
16:55 Speaker 06 I've just done the corner.
16:55 Speaker 01 So can you, can you, do you mind showing to the camera the difference in appearance?
17:00 Speaker 00 Very different.
17:01 Speaker 01 Yeah. It's darker, it's thicker.
17:04 Speaker 00 Maybe you could go back, show a clip of earlier with the other.
17:07 Speaker 01 That's a great shout. Could we do a side to side? Will, can you do a little side to side? Is that cool?
17:12 Speaker 01 Maybe a little blast of the national anthem and stuff like that would be cool. Okay.
17:18 Speaker 00 I don't really like it. We don't have a good national anthem.
17:20 Speaker 01 Okay. Neither do we.
17:21 Speaker 00 Yeah, yours is upbeat compared to ours.
17:25 Speaker 01 Okay, let's see.
17:28 Speaker 00 It's strong.
17:31 Speaker 00 It's so strong. I think I prefer the British one just for its mildness.
17:36 Speaker 01 Well, well, hold on. I don't applaud you because what he's saying is...
17:39 Speaker 00 I'm not pandering.
17:40 Speaker 01 What he's saying is he prefers the UK one because it tastes less like marmite than the New Zealand one. That's essentially what he's saying, isn't it?
17:45 Speaker 00 Yeah, this is a tasty marmite.
17:50 Speaker 01 Would you ask your mum for that?
17:54 Speaker 00 I, I have asked my mum not to ever give me that.
18:00 Speaker 01 Um, well, there you go. That's the taste test.
18:05 Speaker 01 Well done, Jemaine. Thanks. Really good. Thank you for that. Uh, now, let's start the, we're gonna start at the beginning.
18:10 Speaker 00 What? We've been going for twenty minutes.
18:13 Speaker 01 I know. That was the Marmite bit. Now we're into the chat. That was like.
18:18 Speaker 00 I'm so confused by that sentence. We're gonna start at the beginning, but you say that twenty minutes in.
18:23 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah. I normally say that too. It's actually quite early for me to say that.
18:28 Speaker 01 Normally, when somebody says we've done an hour, I go, okay, let's start.
18:33 Speaker 00 Right.
18:36 Speaker 00 Okay.
18:39 Speaker 01 Uh, now, you're.
18:40 Speaker 00 There is a time I'm gonna be licking Marmite off my teeth.
18:43 Speaker 01 Yeah, okay. Now, you're obviously one of New Zealand's greats, okay?
18:47 Speaker 00 I mean, that's obvious.
18:48 Speaker 01 Yeah.
18:49 Speaker 00 Who, who, who else are you thinking of?
18:51 Speaker 01 Uh.
18:52 Speaker 00 Sam Neill?
18:53 Speaker 01 Yeah.
18:53 Speaker 00 I'd call them a New Zealand great. Kiri Tukanoa, very popular here.
18:56 Speaker 01 Yeah, very popular. Uh, my cousin.
19:00 Speaker 00 Who's your cousin? Who's your cousin?
19:03 Speaker 01 I've got a cousin who lives out there.
19:05 Speaker 00 In Auckland?
19:05 Speaker 01 Uh, yeah, Pranad.
19:07 Speaker 00 Oh, yeah?
19:08 Speaker 01 Yeah, he's pretty good. Like, he's a good dancer.
19:12 Speaker 01 He does a bit of comedy.
19:13 Speaker 00 Yeah?
19:14 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
19:14 Speaker 00 Oh, I'll look out for him.
19:15 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah, please do. That'd be amazing. God, he'd be buzzing. Um, did you, did you?
19:20 Speaker 00 Is, do you share the same last name?
19:22 Speaker 01 No.
19:23 Speaker 00 Okay, that's lucky for him probably, because there's, there's already one out there.
19:26 Speaker 01 Yeah, you can't have, you can't have two Wranglers. Oh, we, sorry for the slur. Love to bleep that out. Did you?
19:32 Speaker 00 Political correctness got mad, isn't it?
19:37 Speaker 01 Would you say your upbringing shaped your sense of humour? You're quite.
19:40 Speaker 00 Oh, boy.
19:41 Speaker 01 You're incredibly, whoa, what's wrong? Do you not like that?
19:43 Speaker 00 You're gonna talk about my dad leaving? Is that what you're gonna say?
19:45 Speaker 01 No, we can do it if you want.
19:48 Speaker 01 I'm up for talking about whatever you want.
19:51 Speaker 00 My upbringing, uh, yeah, I don't know. I watched a lot of TV.
19:54 Speaker 01 Yeah.
19:55 Speaker 00 Yeah. I was just sat in front of the TV a lot of the time.
19:59 Speaker 01 Yeah.
19:59 Speaker 00 Yeah.
20:00 Speaker 01 And then did you, and then were you thinking, were you watching TV thinking, I want to be that?
20:06 Speaker 00 I, I think I was just deluded and thought I could do it, even though my parents both worked in factories and my grandparents worked in factories. I thought, I'm gonna be on TV, though.
20:16 Speaker 01 Did you really think that?
20:17 Speaker 00 Um, I, I mean, I also thought I'd be an inventor and, um, haven't had an idea.
20:26 Speaker 00 There's a few things I thought I'd be.
20:28 Speaker 01 Hmm. So how did that manifest stuff? They'd say that you'd start performing and stuff or putting stuff together?
20:34 Speaker 00 Uh, I was doing a couple of school shows.
20:36 Speaker 01 Yeah.
20:37 Speaker 00 And um, there was this one teacher at school who basically only interacted with me to tell me off, to give me detentions. To, you know, like, um, say something insulting to me. And she said I was really good in the school show and maybe I could do it as a job. And because she'd only told me off before, uh, it meant quite a lot to me.
20:57 Speaker 01 Yeah.
20:58 Speaker 00 And I think that's one thing I was like, oh, maybe I, maybe I could do it as a job. Mrs. Milla says that.
21:03 Speaker 01 Yeah, who hates me.
21:04 Speaker 00 Yeah.
21:05 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
21:06 Speaker 00 Yeah. Um, but now I see that's like, um, she's, she's possibly also saying, well, you can't do anything else that I've noticed.
21:16 Speaker 00 Uh, and then I went to a open day at a university and it was in the, um, drama department. And watched them putting on a, an, an excerpt of a play someone had written. And I thought it was so bad. I thought, surely I can do this.
21:32 Speaker 01 Yeah.
21:32 Speaker 00 And, uh, I actually didn't do very well in that drama department.
21:37 Speaker 00 No, but I, but, um, it got me into it though.
21:40 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then who were your influences back then? Who were you sort of, were you trying to emulate anybody or were you?
21:46 Speaker 00 Uh, I, things I loved. I loved a lot of British comedy. Um, I'm fifty two, so some of these references will be old.
21:54 Speaker 01 Hmm.
21:55 Speaker 00 Uh, and if you're older than me, some of them would be quite fresh references.
21:59 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah.
21:59 Speaker 00 Yeah, The Young Ones.
22:01 Speaker 01 Yeah, for so, for some older people, we think, oh, I need to look into that.
22:03 Speaker 00 Yeah, yeah, that's right. I've been meaning to watch that. It's like that for me now, where they're like, oh, there's movies I've been meaning to watch and, and they'll be out again because it's the twentieth anniversary.
22:14 Speaker 00 Yeah, The Young Ones, Blackadder were big for me.
22:16 Speaker 01 Yeah.
22:16 Speaker 00 Um, American show, Gary Shandling Show, it's Gary Shandling Show. Um, things like that always, you know, really lit up my brain, I think.
22:25 Speaker 01 Yeah, I mean, Black, we had Ben Elton on talking about Blackadder and he was sort of talking about. He got involved from series two and that, do you, and you know, the first series was like completely different, wasn't it?
22:35 Speaker 00 Yeah, yeah. I love the first series as well, though.
22:37 Speaker 01 I, I do as well. And then, uh, you know, Ben Elton wasn't involved in that. So when I said that, he said, actually it was, I think you'll find it was rubbish.
22:45 Speaker 00 Yeah, yeah, I have heard him say that. Yeah. Um, but it had a, it had a moodiness about it, which was really different.
22:52 Speaker 01 But he became, you know, he's such a completely different guy. You know, like the one subsequent ones, I mean, I'm, I'm telling you what you already know, but like that, that sort of sarcastic kind of withering thing. I think I watched that and even now I think my comedy is influenced by watching him back there. You know, that sort of, I used to love it, like.
23:11 Speaker 00 I, I think there's a thing that I like in that show and the, the first one where the clever guy in the first one is the servant.
23:18 Speaker 01 Yeah.
23:18 Speaker 00 And it from a working class family, I like thinking of the working class guy as being the clever person and the rich people being stupid.
23:26 Speaker 01 Yeah.
23:26 Speaker 00 Um, but everyone else likes it the other way around, don't we know it?
23:33 Speaker 01 Um, you, you obviously, you're one of New Zealand's greatest, as I said.
23:36 Speaker 00 Thanks.
23:38 Speaker 01 Did you?
23:38 Speaker 00 So laughing.
23:39 Speaker 01 Yeah, and then, um.
23:40 Speaker 00 There's another, there's a, sorry, there's another thing in New Zealand, uh, there's um, a band called The Front Lawn. That was a big influence for Brett and I, they, they'd do funny songs, but you know, they'd play in theatres. Uh, so it was a bit classier. We were, we played in pubs, so we were a bit dirtier.
23:56 Speaker 01 Yeah.
23:56 Speaker 00 Um, but they're a big influence too, The Front Lawn.
23:59 Speaker 01 Right, right, right.
24:00 Speaker 00 I check them out. They've got some short films with music and stuff.
24:03 Speaker 01 Okay.
24:03 Speaker 00 It's really good.
24:04 Speaker 01 Um, were you, were you thinking, I'm gonna break out into the UK or the US? Were you like, did you have worldwide ambitions?
24:11 Speaker 00 It was a dream, cause um, you know, watching the young ones and seeing the, you know, seeing things like double decker buses and things like that. And um, yeah, it was a dream. I don't know if we necessarily um, planned to do it. We were, we were just, we just did the Edinburgh Festival and it's on um, in summer over here, or it's winter in New Zealand and that's a big part of like, we've got to find somewhere to go so we don't have to stick through the winter.
24:39 Speaker 01 Yeah.
24:40 Speaker 00 Now I know that you guys have a much worse winter and hats off to you guys.
24:44 Speaker 01 Yeah.
24:45 Speaker 00 But um, yeah, but yeah, we just wanted to escape the winter.
24:49 Speaker 01 Edinburgh Fringe?
24:50 Speaker 00 Yeah, the fringe.
24:51 Speaker 01 Because I, I'm now, I've now been, um, I'm not allowed to do the fringe by my agent.
24:57 Speaker 00 What did you do?
25:01 Speaker 01 Basically, I become, obviously, doing.
25:03 Speaker 00 You're too big.
25:04 Speaker 01 Pardon? No, no, it's not because I'm too big, although I do think.
25:07 Speaker 00 People get really annoyed if someone who who's doing three thousand cedars and all those people doing fifty cedars.
25:13 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah, I I I do think that is a, look, I don't, I don't want to, you know, I'm not talking about anyone in particular, but anybody that rocks up to the Fringe Festival and.
25:22 Speaker 00 And takes half the audience and whatnot.
25:23 Speaker 01 It's a piss take. Like, what are you doing, man? Like, somebody that could get that, those numbers at any time of the year, rocking up at the Fr- at the Fringe Festival.
25:32 Speaker 00 All these people, you know, one of the saddest things I saw at the Fringe was someone asleep in a bus shelter uh and for a pillow, they were on a pile of their own flyers with their own face on them. That's how rough it can be out there.
25:46 Speaker 01 Early, early memories of of Edinburgh Fringe are like, just playing to three people.
25:51 Speaker 00 Hmm, yeah.
25:52 Speaker 01 And you're desperately trying to get a tune out of this, say, a crowd.
25:56 Speaker 00 Yeah, yeah, it's hard, it's hard to get a vibe going with three people.
26:00 Speaker 01 And then, you know.
26:00 Speaker 00 The worst Brett and I ever played was one person. And um at the end, she'd left.
26:10 Speaker 00 We, at the end, we're like, when did she leave? One song in, two songs, did she get to the end?
26:17 Speaker 01 Yeah.
26:18 Speaker 00 Yeah.
26:19 Speaker 01 So you didn't notice that she'd gone, or you didn't?
26:21 Speaker 00 No, we didn't notice. But we got to use it. We did a, we did a gig like that in our Flight of the Conqueror show in the fictional world of the show, we, we just basically did that.
26:31 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah. Um, but but I think that um I just, I just found the Fringe brutally hard. Anyway, the reason, so the reason that I'm banned from it, not banned from it, is because of what it does to me psychologically.
26:44 Speaker 00 What is that? You get depressed.
26:48 Speaker 01 A little bit. And then, and then you become more of a narcissist than you already are as a comedian. I remember going there. My, my youngest child was born while my wife was pregnant. Her due date was during the Fringe Festival.
27:01 Speaker 00 Oh, that's a bad clash.
27:04 Speaker 01 And she was very casual. She very casually said to me, I'll just, I'll just give birth at the, I'll come to Edinburgh.
27:09 Speaker 00 Give birth at the Fringe?
27:10 Speaker 01 I'll give birth at the Fringe.
27:11 Speaker 00 Yeah.
27:11 Speaker 01 Uh, we could, we could probably do a bucket afterwards. But um, but she, so I was doing a show. I said to my friends, oh Lisa said she's gonna come and give birth in Edinburgh. And then my friend said to me, you're a horrible, horrible person. I can't believe you're making her do this. But she was so casual about it. I thought it was all right.
27:28 Speaker 00 Imagine how many drunk people with broken legs are gonna be filling up that hospital during that festival.
27:34 Speaker 01 It was a real um insight into how selfish doing a show in Edinburgh can make you. So for example.
27:43 Speaker 00 You're like, you, your baby's been born. It's like, I've got a, I've got a two star review.
27:48 Speaker 01 Yeah, it was like, it, it, it was.
27:51 Speaker 00 There's a lot going on.
27:51 Speaker 01 You know, Lisa would go, I've had a tough day today. Like, my back's killing me. I just need to get this baby out of me. And then I'd go, Chortle said that I was derivative.
28:03 Speaker 00 You think you've had a bad day.
28:06 Speaker 01 You know, and, and that's when, and that's when I realized maybe I need to not come here anymore. Do you, do you know?
28:13 Speaker 00 Chortle's such a specific bit of knowledge. It's a website for comedy shows.
28:20 Speaker 01 I, I, I had.
28:21 Speaker 00 That becomes huge during the Edinburgh Fringe.
28:22 Speaker 01 Yeah, it becomes huge in the Edinburgh Fringe.
28:24 Speaker 00 And they, they review every show.
28:26 Speaker 01 Yeah.
28:26 Speaker 00 Yeah, so even if you, you've come from some very small country, Chortle will come.
28:31 Speaker 01 Yeah.
28:32 Speaker 00 Yeah.
28:32 Speaker 01 And.
28:33 Speaker 00 And that's a, that's, that's great.
28:35 Speaker 01 And they won't take into consideration, it's Steve Bennett, actually, let's name the guy. Um, you know, it, it's, it's, it becomes really important.
28:43 Speaker 00 Yeah.
28:44 Speaker 01 And nobody outside of comedy has ever heard of it. So i- if you say to one of your friends, fucking, I'm the Chortle reviewer, they go, why are you talking to me about this?
28:52 Speaker 00 Yeah, yeah.
28:53 Speaker 01 What, what is it? It's a really important comedy website. And what's it called?
28:55 Speaker 00 Chortle. Yeah, I haven't heard that name for years.
28:57 Speaker 01 Yeah, what the fuck are you talking about? Chortle?
28:59 Speaker 00 Even worse than reviews is comments.
29:01 Speaker 01 Yeah, I. It's, it, yeah.
29:04 Speaker 00 And if you have a really good review, then the bad comments about why that good review's wrong.
29:10 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
29:11 Speaker 00 They take over in your head.
29:13 Speaker 01 Oh, it's horrible. It's like, I, I can't, you need to sort of get a four star review or something. Really great. He's doing some great stuff. Well done, Romesh. And then the first comment is, did we watch the same show?
29:24 Speaker 00 Yeah, exactly. And that, I mean, some of those comments, they, they, they were the worst experience about doing those. You've got to avoid those. I was threatened with a knife in Edinburgh. And I still think of the comment more often. It was like this, I'll slice you up like bread.
29:44 Speaker 01 What, was this a show?
29:46 Speaker 00 No, a guy was shouting at a woman and I told him to shut up.
29:52 Speaker 00 And then he came threatening me and then the woman told me to shut up.
29:56 Speaker 01 The woman told you to shut up? No, fair play. Why are you getting involved?
29:59 Speaker 00 Yeah, exactly.
30:00 Speaker 01 You nosy prick.
30:01 Speaker 00 She's right.
30:03 Speaker 01 Um, I, I, one year wasn't writing, reading reviews. I got nominated for best newcomer. I thought, I can look at it.
30:08 Speaker 00 Congratulations.
30:09 Speaker 01 Thanks. And I was really, I saw an article about the nominations and I thought, I can read that. That's not a review.
30:15 Speaker 00 Yeah.
30:16 Speaker 01 So that's safe.
30:17 Speaker 00 What happened?
30:18 Speaker 01 It said, you can't argue with the nominations this year with the exception of one.
30:24 Speaker 00 Oh, man.
30:24 Speaker 01 And then it went into detail about how I shouldn't have been nominated.
30:27 Speaker 00 Yeah, it's good to get away from that stuff.
30:29 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah, I know.
30:30 Speaker 00 Yeah.
30:30 Speaker 01 I'm but, but it doesn't bother me now.
30:31 Speaker 00 But it's exciting. It's like the first time you hear people talking about what you've done.
30:36 Speaker 01 Yeah.
30:37 Speaker 00 And it's exciting and people are saying good things as well.
30:39 Speaker 01 Yeah.
30:40 Speaker 00 But I feel like one bad comment is equal to about 10 good ones.
30:45 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
30:46 Speaker 00 For balance.
30:46 Speaker 01 It's horrendous. And then you, and then you sort of think, well.
30:48 Speaker 00 In your head. It's all in your head.
30:50 Speaker 01 Yeah. And then you think, why have I been, why am I nominated?
30:52 Speaker 00 Now I can, now I think I can read them and go, the bad ones, wrong. Even if there's more bad ones, wrong. No, they're wrong, wrong, wrong. Oh, that guy liked it. He's correct.
31:02 Speaker 01 It's a healthy place to be. It's a really good place to be. Um, now, one of your most significant collaborations has been with Taika Waititi. What did you think of when you first met him? Do you think, did you know he had sort of a, a genius quality term or was that something that came later?
31:17 Speaker 00 I wouldn't have said that. No, just joking. Uh, yeah, him and Brett, uh, I met both those guys in, in the same way. Were auditioning for stuff at university, the drama club. And both of those guys, I remember thinking they were funny.
31:34 Speaker 01 Yeah.
31:35 Speaker 00 And, um.
31:36 Speaker 01 Like stood out?
31:37 Speaker 00 Yeah, and I.
31:40 Speaker 00 He, the first thing I saw him do, I I'd seen him in the library earlier cause all the people who were staying at university for the audition, I guess, were hanging out, waiting for this audition. And I'd seen him like helping a girl with his study, like this handsome guy going like that and I immediately disliked him.
32:00 Speaker 01 Yeah, of course.
32:00 Speaker 00 Yeah.
32:01 Speaker 01 Yeah.
32:02 Speaker 00 And then I s- then we had to go get up in this audition and improvise stuff and he was doing an um air guitar thing.
32:10 Speaker 01 Hmm.
32:11 Speaker 00 And while someone else was singing, but he was doing all the plugs and the sounds of the plugs and he's doing the wah pedal and he's getting it exactly right. And I was like, wow, that's all, those are some good observations.
32:23 Speaker 00 And thought it was really funny and same with, same with um Brett, I saw, I met him in an audition as well and he, he did a really funny thing as well.
32:31 Speaker 01 Hmm.
32:31 Speaker 00 Which I can still remember, I won't, I won't do it though.
32:34 Speaker 01 You won't do it?
32:35 Speaker 00 No, but I can remember what both those guys were doing when I saw them and then they made me laugh.
32:39 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
32:40 Speaker 00 And I, but of course I didn't imagine that thirty years later, we'd still, we'd all still be doing stuff together.
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33:26 Speaker 04 Ugh, I hate Mondays.
33:28 Speaker 05 King's Hawaiian cinnamon swirl bite?
33:30 Speaker 04 Uh, Taylor Hanson? Sure, I'll try one.
33:33 Speaker 05 Mmm.
33:36 Speaker 04 Hey, let's get back to work, please. But Taylor Hanson's making my day way better with these new soft and swirly King's Hawaiian cinnamon bites.
33:42 Speaker 05 Taylor Hanson? Nice. Try one. Mmm.
33:49 Speaker 02 King's Hawaiian cinnamon bites. There's nothing like it.
34:00 Speaker 01 Now, we have a question from my mother for you. I don't know what this question is.
34:03 Speaker 00 I'm married.
34:07 Speaker 01 She'd probably be up for it, actually, but let's, I don't know if that's what the question is.
34:13 Speaker 00 Oh, sorry, that's what, I'm married, but I'm up for it.
34:15 Speaker 01 Okay, great, great, great, great, cool, cool, cool, cool, great news. Uh, let's hear her question.
34:22 Speaker 02 Hi, Gema, this is Romesh's Mam Shanti. I know you are a very, very talented man.
34:30 Speaker 01 I thought she was gonna say naughty boy.
34:32 Speaker 02 You can say it all. I heard you like to serenade people. I'd love to have a son who could sing.
34:42 Speaker 02 Is there any chance maybe you could sing one of your songs? I love music. Music helped me a lot to be happy. God bless and enjoy life. Take care. This is Shanti. Bye bye.
34:57 Speaker 01 Guys, this-
34:58 Speaker 00 Is the suggestion there that I would be her son?
35:00 Speaker 01 Yeah, it's bizarre that. Also-
35:02 Speaker 00 We would be brothers, or I'd be the new son and you'd be her former son?
35:06 Speaker 01 I guess you'd replace me.
35:08 Speaker 00 Yeah, I think, I think, um, there's something similar about us that is almost you won't notice.
35:14 Speaker 01 Yeah, I do think we've got a similar-
35:17 Speaker 05 You kind of could be brothers.
35:18 Speaker 01 Do you think so?
35:19 Speaker 06 Yeah.
35:19 Speaker 05 Yeah, there was a comment on Reddit the other day that said, uh, someone said, I feel like as these guys are aging, they're kind of morphing into each other.
35:27 Speaker 01 About us two specifically?
35:29 Speaker 00 And now, we're getting closer and closer. Now we're in the same room.
35:32 Speaker 01 Yeah, this is like destiny. Um, I would say that sounded less like a question than a series of disparate thoughts. It didn't sound like-
35:40 Speaker 00 Does she always give a question?
35:41 Speaker 01 She does, but she's never sounded as high as that before. Like, she- There were a lot of breaks in what she was, it was a bit of a rollercoaster, that, was it? Have you spoken to her since she sent that question in?
35:51 Speaker 02 No.
35:53 Speaker 00 She wants me to sing a song or be her son?
35:56 Speaker 01 I think both, a bit of both.
35:57 Speaker 00 A bit of both.
36:00 Speaker 01 I think, I don't know for definite, but that's what it felt like. So she, she, can we, can I just hear it again?
36:05 Speaker 02 I'm Shanti. I know you are a very, very talented man.
36:11 Speaker 01 Hmm.
36:12 Speaker 02 Your face says it all. I heard you like.
36:15 Speaker 01 Your face says it all. Didn't catch that the first time.
36:19 Speaker 02 Very, very talented man. Your face says it all. I heard you like to serenade people. I love to have a song.
36:30 Speaker 01 Can we just pause it there a second?
36:32 Speaker 00 She, that's what she's heard about me.
36:34 Speaker 01 What, is that, is that, do you like to serenade people?
36:37 Speaker 00 I mean, audiences, I guess.
36:39 Speaker 01 I guess, but that's not.
36:41 Speaker 00 Sometimes, occasionally I've tried to serenade, yeah, occasionally.
36:45 Speaker 01 Yeah. Okay. So you like to serenade, so that's true.
36:48 Speaker 00 She must have heard that from my first girlfriend.
36:54 Speaker 01 So you like to serenade people, okay.
36:57 Speaker 02 Is there any chance maybe you could sing one of your songs? I love music.
37:03 Speaker 01 See, that's, that's where, that's, that's the first bit where I start to become concerned about her.
37:08 Speaker 00 Have you, have you got a guitar?
37:09 Speaker 01 Have we got, we, we don't have a guitar, no, no. Otherwise you would have done it.
37:14 Speaker 00 Well, that's what I was thinking.
37:16 Speaker 01 Now, Flight of the Conchords.
37:17 Speaker 00 Yes.
37:18 Speaker 01 You did Netflix is a Joke after, when was the last time you performed together before that?
37:23 Speaker 00 Eight years previous, we played London.
37:26 Speaker 01 Yeah.
37:27 Speaker 00 Or UK, actually. We played the O2 and Hammersmith.
37:32 Speaker 01 And which one did you?
37:33 Speaker 00 No, Apollo, what do you call it now?
37:34 Speaker 01 Apollo, yeah, Apollo. It's Aventim Apollo, yeah.
37:36 Speaker 00 Yeah, not as cool. Hammersmith. It's in Hammersmith, though.
37:39 Speaker 01 It is in Hammersmith, yeah. You can still call it Hammersmith Apollo, can't you?
37:41 Speaker 00 Because it's, because it's geographically correct.
37:43 Speaker 01 Yeah. What did you prefer out of the O2 and the Apollo to play?
37:46 Speaker 00 Apollo, yeah. You're playing O2 here.
37:50 Speaker 01 I am, yeah.
37:50 Speaker 00 In a year.
37:51 Speaker 01 In May. Yeah, in a year, just under a year, yeah. That gives us just about enough time to make it.
37:59 Speaker 00 To get that song.
38:00 Speaker 01 To break even.
38:01 Speaker 00 To get that song going.
38:02 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah, yeah. What made you do the reunion then? Was it exciting to do it? Because everybody went nuts for it. It was like.
38:07 Speaker 00 We'd been, we'd been playing together a little bit last year, like, um, just like meeting once a week when we're both in town.
38:16 Speaker 01 Hmm.
38:16 Speaker 00 And so I guess we'd already got the guitars out and then they asked us.
38:23 Speaker 00 We're after every year to to do to do a festival or something like that. And it's, I guess there were, you know, seven years of no's. And then finally, we gave in.
38:34 Speaker 01 But it was amazing, like, people went nuts for it. Like, people were very excited to see you guys back together. Like, did it feel cool to be to be doing that and to get that reception?
38:42 Speaker 00 Uh, yeah, it's almost weird. So, come on, guys, this was ages ago.
38:46 Speaker 01 Yeah.
38:46 Speaker 00 For us. Um, but yeah, really nice, big support from the audience.
38:51 Speaker 01 Hmm. Cause people who like you guys, like, love you, like fanatical, right? I don't, I'm not, I'm, I'm saying they're all of, of, you know, they're sound.
38:59 Speaker 00 You know, it sounds like you don't like us.
39:02 Speaker 01 No, I do like you.
39:03 Speaker 00 People who like you.
39:04 Speaker 01 No, no, no, I didn't mean it like that.
39:06 Speaker 00 No, I'm just joking.
39:07 Speaker 01 But what I meant was people that like.
39:09 Speaker 00 I'm jo- I'm joking, but it also did sound like that.
39:11 Speaker 01 Yeah, no, it did sound like that. And then deliberately so. But, but, but the, but the point I'm making is people are obsessive, right? Like, you've got super fans. Like, when we had Brett on, the comments on the, you know, people are obsessed.
39:22 Speaker 00 Yeah, people turn up dressed like us.
39:24 Speaker 01 Yeah.
39:25 Speaker 00 Have, have us on their T-shirts, have, um, there's, there's one lyric that I have in a song about making the ladies in the audience pregnant. And I remember just one time.
39:37 Speaker 01 I'd love you to sing that to my mum, could you?
39:39 Speaker 00 I will. Gimme her digits.
39:42 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah.
39:42 Speaker 00 Um, there's like women with T-shirts that look like a sonogram, like an ultrasound.
39:50 Speaker 01 Right.
39:50 Speaker 00 But with my face on the baby.
39:55 Speaker 01 Does that make, does that feel good?
39:58 Speaker 00 I guess it did actually feel good, but also weird, but.
40:01 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah.
40:01 Speaker 00 Flattering.
40:02 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah. So do you think that's something you might, will you, could this become a regular thing?
40:07 Speaker 00 Uh, I'm, yeah, I'm hoping we'll do some more shows. Yeah, we've, we, we learn all these songs again, which was, which was, uh, it, it was hard.
40:16 Speaker 01 Was it really? Yeah.
40:17 Speaker 00 Yeah, we haven't played them for so long.
40:20 Speaker 01 And then did they feel familiar? Did you manage to get them back in the bones, sort of thing?
40:24 Speaker 00 Sometimes you just get the, your guitars out and like, okay, I remember this. Yeah. And it's do, do, do, do, do. Oh, what's the first, what's the first word?
40:33 Speaker 01 Yeah.
40:34 Speaker 00 And then you think, once the first, once you got the first word, then it will come and then not, and then, and then we're just on Google. Just looking it up.
40:43 Speaker 01 Uh, we want, I want to talk to you now about, um, let's start, let's get started.
40:47 Speaker 00 Yeah.
40:47 Speaker 01 Um.
40:47 Speaker 00 It's a good time to start at the beginning.
40:49 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah, let's, let's begin. Uh, Alice and Steve, which is out now on Disney Plus.
40:54 Speaker 00 Is this how long we've been doing the interview? Cause it was like, when I got in here, it was, it was gonna be playing in a week.
40:59 Speaker 01 Yeah.
41:00 Speaker 00 But.
41:00 Speaker 01 Or, or you, you. I'm doing it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. No, we haven't been in this room for a week.
41:05 Speaker 00 I'm relieved.
41:05 Speaker 01 When this.
41:09 Speaker 01 Uh, we, we're a bit like a casino. You really don't know.
41:12 Speaker 00 There's no clocks.
41:12 Speaker 01 You don't know how much time has passed.
41:15 Speaker 00 No clocks, no natural light.
41:16 Speaker 01 Yeah, but, um, Alice and Steve, the show is genuinely, it's, it's so funny. It's so great.
41:23 Speaker 00 Okay.
41:24 Speaker 01 Um, it, it, it's an amazing premise that, you know, such a, basically you see these two friends and then a bomb drops in their relationship, basically. I'm gonna be totally honest with you. If you come on the podcast and I sort of thought it was good, I would say it's pretty good. Okay? That's honestly. I'm not, you're not gonna come on here and I'm gonna say, we'll talk about it, but I think it's shit. That wouldn't happen, right?
41:47 Speaker 00 Yeah.
41:48 Speaker 01 You know, I'm a polite guy, but I think it's fucking great, man. It's such a great show. It, it's so good.
41:56 Speaker 00 Well, the scripts were really good and that's what I was sent. Um, and same with Nicola Walker, who, who plays Alice. We were seeing the scripts. Um, yeah, and I was just laughing and not knowing where the story was going to go. And there's, yeah, like you say, the bomb drops in their relationship. There's, there's a lot of, um, juicy conflict there.
42:17 Speaker 01 It's, it's got a real, uh, narrative drive to it, but it's also, it's just incredibly funny. There's like, there's an awkwardness to it. I, I found like in the first episode, cause I'm forty eight, in that first episode where Alice and Steve go out and they're in a bar with like twenty something.
42:37 Speaker 00 Hmm.
42:38 Speaker 01 And they're still like having, you know, try, they're trying to have a good, I found it so uncomfortable to, you, you, you know, that realizing how you look in those situations as somebody of that age is, I found it horrific, actually.
42:52 Speaker 00 No, you need to find a place where there's other old people, like a Italian Film Festival.
42:57 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah.
42:59 Speaker 00 Who's that cool young dude?
43:04 Speaker 00 A wine tasting, even though I don't drink wine.
43:07 Speaker 01 No.
43:07 Speaker 00 That'll be, uh, uh, might, might seem quite young there.
43:10 Speaker 01 The reason it kind of resonated with me so much is because it's that thing of like being older, but still thinking, you still think you've got something. I was about to say something to offer. That's not what I mean, but you know.
43:20 Speaker 00 I know.
43:21 Speaker 01 You can still go out and have a good time.
43:22 Speaker 00 You think you can still party?
43:23 Speaker 01 Yeah, and also it's horrible realising how other people see you.
43:28 Speaker 00 I know, I remember, cause I'm fifty two.
43:30 Speaker 01 Yeah.
43:31 Speaker 00 Um, I remember being twenty one and going to a friend's mum's fiftieth birthday party and being amazed she could still dance.
43:43 Speaker 01 Yeah.
43:44 Speaker 00 It's so sad to me now that someone might see me dance and go, look, he can still move his limbs.
43:52 Speaker 00 He's doing pretty well. How does he, how does he kept fit that way?
43:55 Speaker 01 But, but yeah, it's very relatable, but in a horrible way that it's sort of, um, yeah, I found it, I almost found it embarrassing watching Alcides Stephen, I think.
44:03 Speaker 00 As a fan of British comedy, I loved that about filming this, that almost every, um, situation has an element of awkwardness and discomfort.
44:11 Speaker 01 Yeah.
44:12 Speaker 00 And that was, that was exciting to me. It's like, I'm in a British comedy.
44:15 Speaker 01 How, how did you approach, cause I, I think all of the performances are, are, are, are great in this, but you're.
44:23 Speaker 00 Except one.
44:24 Speaker 01 Yeah. This is, that's kind of why I mentioned that, that round of the nomination.
44:30 Speaker 00 He's doing an impression of the child.
44:32 Speaker 01 Bring it full circle.
44:33 Speaker 00 Yeah, clever.
44:34 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah.
44:34 Speaker 00 That's the most, that's the most satisfying thing in comedy.
44:37 Speaker 01 What I thought I loved about your performance in this is you never look like you're, you're, you're, you, you, you say some, your character says some incredibly funny things and the way you play it is really funny. But it never looks like you're reaching for it. And, and that is, as like a comedy fan, I think it's, to me, it feels like really difficult to achieve that, you know?
44:57 Speaker 00 It takes resisting, I think, yeah, but, um, a lot of the people in the show are, are dramatic actors or Nicola. Primarily, primarily does drama.
45:11 Speaker 01 Yeah.
45:11 Speaker 00 So you don't wanna be like the comedy, the, doing a Jim Carrey performance.
45:15 Speaker 01 Sure.
45:16 Speaker 00 To.
45:17 Speaker 01 But that, but then.
45:17 Speaker 00 Someone that's quite based in reality.
45:19 Speaker 01 But you're, but then you're, you're in a, you know, you're in a comedy. You must have been, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know how you.
45:27 Speaker 01 How you resist the temptation to go, I need to put something, you know, you're constantly thinking, I need to put something into this, right? But you.
45:33 Speaker 00 Uh, I'm not, I mean, well, we did lots of different takes and there would have been takes like that where I'm being, hamming it up probably too much. Yeah, but the people I like, you know, like, um, people like Pe- Peter Cook, he's so controlled.
45:47 Speaker 01 Yeah.
45:47 Speaker 00 You know, uh, and I would aspire to be like that, I guess.
45:52 Speaker 01 Yeah.
45:53 Speaker 00 If I'd thought about it more.
45:58 Speaker 00 It's more, more a thing I feel like when I watch someone who's very deadpanning and, and controlled, very real, but still funny.
46:05 Speaker 01 Yeah.
46:06 Speaker 00 Yeah, like I would, then I, I, I think the same thing. I, I don't know if I find that about myself because of watching myself. I know what I'm trying to do.
46:14 Speaker 01 Yeah.
46:15 Speaker 00 I know I'm trying to be funny.
46:16 Speaker 01 Yeah, I mean, I just, I just loved your performance.
46:18 Speaker 00 Oh, thanks so much.
46:19 Speaker 01 I think it's, it's such a great show. One of the, I might be, because Georgie watched it as well and we were.
46:27 Speaker 00 Thanks, Georgie.
46:28 Speaker 01 Yeah, we were talking about who we side with in it, right? Because actually you're, you, you, you're watching it thinking, well.
46:35 Speaker 00 They're bastard.
46:36 Speaker 01 Yeah, initially, right? And, and then you, then you think, then there's a reaction. And then you, I, I, I found myself, and did you as well, find yourself flitting between who you kind of empathize with and whose side you're on throughout the thing? Is that, is that?
46:49 Speaker 00 I haven't watched it, but re- reading the script, yeah.
46:52 Speaker 01 Yeah.
46:52 Speaker 00 And that's something, you know, that we've heard a lot, that people change allegiances.
46:58 Speaker 01 Yeah.
46:59 Speaker 00 Throughout the, this, this, you called it, you called it a series.
47:03 Speaker 01 Oh, sorry.
47:04 Speaker 00 Other than a season.
47:05 Speaker 01 Through a season, yeah, sorry, sorry.
47:06 Speaker 00 I don't know, I'm, I don't even know which term to use.
47:07 Speaker 01 Throughout the offering.
47:09 Speaker 00 Throughout the piece.
47:11 Speaker 01 Yeah, but yeah, that, I, I think that is what, um, you, you kind of find yourself thinking, shit, what would I do in that situation? Like, what, how? Because basically Steve, I think that this is in the promo as well. Steve sleeps with.
47:26 Speaker 00 His best friend's daughter.
47:27 Speaker 01 His best friend's daughter.
47:29 Speaker 00 Yeah.
47:31 Speaker 01 How serious do you think that is?
47:35 Speaker 00 Uh, well, describing the premise, a few times people have told me about people they know where that something similar has happened.
47:43 Speaker 01 Yeah.
47:44 Speaker 00 And uh it has differently broken real life friendships.
47:48 Speaker 01 Yeah, I don't know. Uh I was watching it thinking, I wonder, cause it's dealt with, it's a really difficult thing to deal with, the age gap and all of that. And there's an ickiness to it and all of that sort of stuff. The show deals with that really, really well. Did you um?
48:01 Speaker 00 Yeah, it's like um, it's like a Woody Allen sort of story in that it's a older guy, younger woman. But what if the younger woman's mum was also?
48:12 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
48:13 Speaker 00 The main character. Also, I I feel uncomfortable, you know, I was worried, I was trying to argue that the the daughter character would be older. She's twenty six in in the show, but I was thinking she could be thirty, you know, and that'd still be realistic to to be um that generation.
48:31 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
48:32 Speaker 00 Um, but Yali, who plays that character is is so great and um and but when I met Yali, I said, how old are you? And she said seventeen and I just stared at her and she said, I'm joking, I'm twenty. And I uh I was freaking out and then she was then she was joking again and she is twenty six. But it was really unfair.
48:53 Speaker 01 God.
48:53 Speaker 00 It was a really unfair prank to do to me on the on the first day.
48:58 Speaker 01 Did you find those scenes difficult?
49:00 Speaker 00 Uh, no, we had an intimacy coordinator and and so we knew the all the the boundaries and and I I quite like that.
49:08 Speaker 01 Intimacy coordinator?
49:09 Speaker 00 Yeah, it's a fairly new thing, but um and I've heard some people complain about it, but I think it's um.
49:15 Speaker 01 Well, cause it's awkward initially, isn't it?
49:17 Speaker 00 It always is anyway.
49:19 Speaker 01 When you have, but when you have the chat with the intimacy coordinator, it can be like it's.
49:24 Speaker 00 Are you comfortable with her touching you?
49:26 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah.
49:26 Speaker 00 On the chest?
49:27 Speaker 01 Yeah. I wouldn't mind it at home.
49:32 Speaker 00 Yeah.
49:33 Speaker 01 It would it would smooth things out, wouldn't it? Like.
49:35 Speaker 00 Yeah.
49:36 Speaker 01 But um.
49:37 Speaker 00 Romesh is not comfortable with you doing this, but you can kiss her above the neck.
49:44 Speaker 01 But it's awkward at first, but but so much like it's it's obviously a great thing, like having intimacy.
49:49 Speaker 00 I think so.
49:50 Speaker 01 Yeah.
49:50 Speaker 00 Some some people think it takes away the spontaneity.
49:53 Speaker 01 Yeah, but I think let's.
49:55 Speaker 00 If you're supposed to kiss someone, that can mean so many different things. There's so many different levels of kiss.
49:59 Speaker 01 Yeah, and I think let's take away the spontaneity.
50:02 Speaker 00 Yeah.
50:03 Speaker 01 You know, I think spontaneity in those situations can lead to problems. Do you remember in a voyage when I had to kiss Ashling? Ashling's talked about this quite a lot as something she found incredibly uncomfortable, not because.
50:13 Speaker 00 Now we get to hear your side.
50:14 Speaker 01 Not because of my behaviour.
50:16 Speaker 00 Good.
50:17 Speaker 01 But it's just because.
50:18 Speaker 00 Yeah, it is uncomfortable. You don't sometimes you don't know each other. You don't have that relationship with that person. Yeah.
50:24 Speaker 01 And then you go, I don't know if she thinks this kiss is as full on as she as I think, you know, I don't know.
50:32 Speaker 00 You don't want one person making it like it's really difficult.
50:36 Speaker 01 Yeah, exactly. And then you sort of go, well, how full on do you think this is? And, you know, you well, I think it's quite full on. Well, how full on is quite full on? It's, you know, like, quite. And then you don't want to misjudge that. And then you're cancelled. Do you know what I mean?
50:49 Speaker 00 Yeah.
50:49 Speaker 01 I mean, I don't want to get cancelled full stop. I I don't want to get cancelled for that.
50:52 Speaker 00 No, not going down like that.
50:54 Speaker 01 No, that I look, I'm gonna go down at some point, but.
50:57 Speaker 00 Not that way.
50:58 Speaker 01 I don't want it to be for that.
50:58 Speaker 00 It's gonna be.
50:59 Speaker 01 That'd be such a rookie way of doing it.
51:01 Speaker 00 It's gonna be for throwing the word ranga around.
51:03 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah. By the way, I I I should take this opportunity to say, um, we don't agree with the use of that term. And um. Anybody who's of the redheaded persuasion.
51:18 Speaker 00 I don't think it's a persuasion.
51:20 Speaker 01 Of the redheaded type like breed.
51:26 Speaker 01 Can I just say, I hope you're not offended by anything you saw. Our use of the word wrangler, we're using it in an ironic way. And of course, we respect.
51:36 Speaker 00 We're trying to shine a light on it.
51:38 Speaker 01 Yeah, and we respect your, your species. Completely infullly. Um, okay. Glad to get that out of the way, but what I do wanna say, we're about to play a little game here, but before, before we do play that game, I, I just wanna say to you. It's an incredible show. Everybody's great in it. The story's great. It's really, really funny. Okay, cool. Let's play. Misquoted.
52:01 Speaker 00 So awkward in here.
52:09 Speaker 01 It's misquoted. So this is, I've got five quotes for you.
52:12 Speaker 00 Yep.
52:13 Speaker 01 Three of them you said.
52:14 Speaker 00 Three I, I said.
52:15 Speaker 01 Yeah, and two of them we made up.
52:18 Speaker 00 And, and I'm supposed to know the difference?
52:19 Speaker 01 You don't have to know, but it's a fun guessing game.
52:22 Speaker 00 Okay, I'm gonna move this bag.
52:24 Speaker 01 Okay, yeah, that's good, actually. That, we do say that to all the guests. Move the bag before you do this. Okay, so here's your first one. Did you?
52:32 Speaker 00 Or did you not?
52:32 Speaker 01 Or did you not say this? I was resistant to kissing because I felt like I was going to suffocate someone.
52:38 Speaker 00 I, I imagine I did say that. What a dick.
52:44 Speaker 00 What that's about is because I've got big lips.
52:46 Speaker 01 Yeah.
52:46 Speaker 00 Yeah, it was always, it was such a, um, it was such a point of bullying, I suppose.
52:53 Speaker 01 You said it's a GQ in 2015. I'll give you the whole quote if you like.
52:57 Speaker 00 I'm already embarrassed.
52:58 Speaker 01 My first kiss came very late.
52:59 Speaker 00 Oh my god.
53:03 Speaker 00 I sent this to GQ.
53:07 Speaker 01 My first kiss came very late because I was so self-conscious about my giant lips. I was, I was.
53:13 Speaker 00 You just took a sneaky look at them?
53:16 Speaker 01 Because it hadn't occurred to me that they were giant and then I was like, you don't.
53:19 Speaker 00 Similar to yours.
53:20 Speaker 01 Yeah, you've got a hell, I, I think that's like a positive, your lips look luscious and beautiful. Like generally.
53:27 Speaker 00 Are we gonna kiss?
53:29 Speaker 01 When, I mean, only if you, if you want to.
53:31 Speaker 00 Not without it.
53:32 Speaker 01 But I think you've got, I think you've got great lips.
53:34 Speaker 00 Thanks, likewise.
53:35 Speaker 01 Uh, thank you, man. I was resistant to kissing because I felt I was gonna suffocate someone.
53:38 Speaker 00 Stop reading it.
53:39 Speaker 01 So, no, it's just the whole quote. So it didn't happen until.
53:42 Speaker 00 Stop interrupting it.
53:45 Speaker 01 So it didn't happen until adulthood, really. The wom- the woman.
53:48 Speaker 00 What a strange choice of words.
53:52 Speaker 01 The woman, she's still a friend of mine, and in the end I.
53:55 Speaker 00 The woman.
53:59 Speaker 01 And in the, and in the end, I had good feedback about the large lips.
54:06 Speaker 00 Yeah, I have continued to receive good feedback.
54:09 Speaker 01 Yeah, good for you. That's good. And well deserved by the looks of them. Okay, here's your next one. Did you? Did you?
54:17 Speaker 00 It's so embarrassing.
54:19 Speaker 01 No, I think it's good. It's honest, man. Like, you sort of think like large lip people that are reading GQ in 2015.
54:24 Speaker 00 If you've got big lips, don't worry about kissing people. They love it.
54:28 Speaker 01 And you can still.
54:28 Speaker 00 They love the big lips.
54:29 Speaker 01 And you can still continue to be friends with the woman.
54:45 Speaker 00 I'm so sorry. I just spat.
54:50 Speaker 00 Georgie.
54:51 Speaker 01 So you're one for one. Congratulations. Here's the second one.
54:55 Speaker 00 Is it, is it gonna be increasingly more embarrassing?
54:58 Speaker 01 I'm gonna say, looking across this, that's probably, that's probably.
55:02 Speaker 00 The most embarrassing.
55:03 Speaker 01 The most embarrassing, honestly. And I don't even think that's embarrassing.
55:07 Speaker 01 Um. Okay. Here's your second one.
55:08 Speaker 00 I just try and seem a lot cooler now than when I did that interview.
55:11 Speaker 01 It's so, yeah.
55:12 Speaker 00 It's hard.
55:13 Speaker 01 I know, it is hard. Because, because I, I've got the same thing where you're, you're trying to, you know, trying to reinvent, no, you're not trying to, but you're, you're trying to leave that behind. But actually.
55:22 Speaker 00 Yeah.
55:23 Speaker 01 You know.
55:23 Speaker 00 It's always there.
55:24 Speaker 01 We're all big lip guys just trying to keep in touch. Here's your next one. Did you or did you not say this? People think I'm cool because I speak slowly.
55:34 Speaker 00 I don't think I said that. I hope I didn't.
55:37 Speaker 01 You didn't.
55:38 Speaker 00 Feel.
55:38 Speaker 01 You didn't. This is the real quote. In real life, I'm very low key. I'm a wallflower. What's wrong?
55:47 Speaker 00 I don't know.
55:48 Speaker 01 Well, I think that's.
55:49 Speaker 00 I said that.
55:49 Speaker 01 Uh, yeah. Well, actually, it says here, source unknown.
55:53 Speaker 00 I, I, I think I would have said that.
55:56 Speaker 01 Yeah.
55:58 Speaker 01 I, I'm.
55:58 Speaker 00 You know, it's just like the terms I've used here, like the woman, a wallflower.
56:03 Speaker 01 Yeah.
56:03 Speaker 00 I, I know exactly what I would have been feeling where I've started a sentence and you don't know where it's going and you're like, I'm a wallflower.
56:11 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
56:12 Speaker 00 It's like a word that I would have never, ever used before in my life.
56:15 Speaker 01 But wallflower relate, that's relatable. That's relatable. I think that's what I think so. I've never, I don't think I've ever said it, but, but I, but I do.
56:23 Speaker 00 I don't think I'd ever said it before.
56:25 Speaker 01 All right. It's cool to say something you've never said before for the first time, isn't it? You just know that you've got it in the locker.
56:30 Speaker 00 We should try and think of a couple of things we never said before and say them in this.
56:34 Speaker 01 That's a great idea. Um.
56:37 Speaker 00 I'll, I'll, I'll say one for you.
56:39 Speaker 01 Okay, go on.
56:40 Speaker 00 It's the Maori word for children, tamariki. But you've never said that before.
56:44 Speaker 01 No, I've not. How do you pronounce that?
56:45 Speaker 00 Tamariki.
56:46 Speaker 01 Tamariki?
56:47 Speaker 00 Yeah.
56:49 Speaker 01 There you go.
56:49 Speaker 00 First time.
56:50 Speaker 01 Okay, that's the first time I've said that. God, it feels, can you feel it in the room?
56:54 Speaker 06 Yeah.
56:55 Speaker 01 Here's your next one.
56:58 Speaker 01 My Spotify, did you say this or did you not? My Spotify unwrapped is mostly Prince and ABBA.
57:04 Speaker 00 No, I don't think I would have said that.
57:06 Speaker 01 No, you didn't say that.
57:08 Speaker 00 I don't listen to a whole lot of ABBA.
57:11 Speaker 01 Do you not? Uh, but Prince, yeah.
57:14 Speaker 00 Some Prince for sure. Sign of the times.
57:17 Speaker 01 Yeah.
57:18 Speaker 00 Great album.
57:19 Speaker 01 Um, here's the real quote. Describe, describe, this is you describing seeing ABBA Voyage twice with Matt Berry.
57:27 Speaker 00 Wait a minute, I've only, the first time, I'm sure the first time I've told people about that was yesterday.
57:33 Speaker 01 Well, it is from the Times in twenty twenty six. I thought once was enough, but he's a very big ABBA fan.
57:39 Speaker 00 Yeah, yeah.
57:40 Speaker 01 How was, how, I've heard people, has anyone here seen ABBA Voyage?
57:44 Speaker 05 Yeah.
57:45 Speaker 01 Did you love it?
57:46 Speaker 05 Uh, I enjoyed it. I, I, I actually found myself looking more at the musicians than the Abitars.
57:53 Speaker 01 Right, so I've heard it's.
57:55 Speaker 00 Abitars?
57:56 Speaker 05 Lovely bit of work.
57:57 Speaker 00 Term, term they could use.
57:59 Speaker 01 I've heard it's incredible, but I mean, I'm not an ABBA fan, but even if you're not an ABBA fan, it's incredible. Is that true?
58:04 Speaker 00 Uh, it's sometimes it seems real.
58:08 Speaker 01 Yeah.
58:09 Speaker 00 And, and sometimes they look CGI.
58:12 Speaker 01 Okay.
58:13 Speaker 00 There's moments, there's moments where you believe it.
58:15 Speaker 01 Like where you moved?
58:17 Speaker 00 Were, was I moved?
58:20 Speaker 00 It's, it's, it's moving how the audience are into it.
58:24 Speaker 01 Yeah.
58:24 Speaker 00 And they're reacting as if they can hear them. They can't, so they're laughing at the jokes and they're going, yeah, you know, like, yeah, yeah. The, the, the audience loves ABBA.
58:36 Speaker 01 Yeah. Um.
58:37 Speaker 00 And Matt Berry loves ABBA.
58:39 Speaker 01 Yeah, like really loves ABBA.
58:41 Speaker 00 Yeah.
58:42 Speaker 01 Good for Matt. Uh, okay, here's your last one.
58:45 Speaker 00 Thank God.
58:47 Speaker 01 I've been told I look a bit like Lord Byron a bit. Someone told me I look like Jeff Goldblum.
58:53 Speaker 00 I know I've been told I look like Jeff Goldblum.
58:58 Speaker 00 I, I don't know if I've been told I look like Lord Byron, but I've played Lord, Lord Byron in a play.
59:03 Speaker 01 Hmm.
59:04 Speaker 00 I'm gonna say I didn't say it, but also you told me how many I said, I just can't remember.
59:11 Speaker 01 Uh, you did say it, but in character.
59:14 Speaker 00 I said in character.
59:15 Speaker 01 Yeah. Eh, uh, as Vladislav.
59:19 Speaker 00 Ah, right.
59:20 Speaker 01 So you actually did say.
59:21 Speaker 00 Is it in the movie or an outtake?
59:23 Speaker 01 No, it's in the thing. It's it's in it, right? Isn't it? Yeah.
59:26 Speaker 00 Um, we should edit that out.
59:28 Speaker 01 Why?
59:28 Speaker 00 Doesn't sound like a good bit of the movie.
59:32 Speaker 01 Um, do you think we look similar, by the way?
59:34 Speaker 00 Yeah.
59:35 Speaker 01 You and I. Do you think so?
59:36 Speaker 00 Yeah.
59:36 Speaker 01 Do you think we look similar?
59:37 Speaker 05 Yeah.
59:39 Speaker 00 I think that people will think we look similar.
59:41 Speaker 01 Yeah.
59:41 Speaker 00 That's more.
59:42 Speaker 01 Yeah.
59:43 Speaker 00 I don't, it's not like looking in a mirror, but it's like, oh, you, you look like one of the guys people tell me I look like.
59:49 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
59:49 Speaker 00 It's in a group with Jeff Goldblum.
59:52 Speaker 01 Uh, uh, I could do, I could open a stand up gig by going, I know what you're thinking. Jemaine Clement's been on holiday.
59:59 Speaker 01 That would be a workable opener, right?
1:00:01 Speaker 00 It's good. I loved it.
1:00:03 Speaker 01 Yeah, thanks. Uh, um, that brings us almost to the end of our, of our time together. Well, I hope that we.
1:00:09 Speaker 00 I'll miss you all.
1:00:10 Speaker 01 Um, yeah, I'll miss you too. Um, now we like to end the podcast on a.
1:00:15 Speaker 00 At the end.
1:00:16 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah.
1:00:17 Speaker 00 Um. I mean, because we started at the beginning, remember? I'm trying to call back. I'm not so, I'm not so good with it. I, I need script these days.
1:00:25 Speaker 01 I think it would have worked if you hadn't sort of apologized for it so much. I, I think it was good.
1:00:28 Speaker 00 Yeah, try it again.
1:00:29 Speaker 01 Should we try it again? Should we try it again? Now, we like to end the podcast.
1:00:31 Speaker 00 At the end.
1:00:36 Speaker 01 I was trying to give.
1:00:37 Speaker 00 That's so sarcastic.
1:00:40 Speaker 01 Now, what we normally end with is like a, we, after an exclusive, like, like a, a dream you have, a hidden talent.
1:00:47 Speaker 00 I was only told this in the car.
1:00:49 Speaker 01 On the way here. Are you serious?
1:00:51 Speaker 00 I don't, I don't look at the emails and see all the things you have to do.
1:00:54 Speaker 01 But you knew.
1:00:54 Speaker 00 I knew I was coming here.
1:00:56 Speaker 01 Right. You, so you knew the location.
1:00:58 Speaker 00 I don't know where I am.
1:00:59 Speaker 01 No.
1:01:00 Speaker 00 Yeah.
1:01:00 Speaker 01 But you knew you were coming here to do a podcast, but.
1:01:02 Speaker 00 I knew what, I knew the podcast.
1:01:03 Speaker 01 Okay.
1:01:04 Speaker 00 Yeah, I'm familiar with this podcast.
1:01:05 Speaker 01 Okay, great, thank you.
1:01:07 Speaker 00 An exclusive.
1:01:08 Speaker 05 Can I ask you a musical question?
1:01:10 Speaker 00 Sure.
1:01:10 Speaker 05 You've done loads of like impressions of artists, like Bowie, for example, is really strong. Are there any artists that you can do impressions of that you haven't put into a song?
1:01:18 Speaker 00 A musical artist?
1:01:19 Speaker 05 Yeah, yeah.
1:01:20 Speaker 00 Um.
1:01:26 Speaker 00 I was gonna try Lynyrd Cohen, I feel like that will be easy. If you want a lover, I'll do anything you want me to. Is your exclusive?
1:01:38 Speaker 01 Yes! Uh, please, everybody, could you give it up for Jermaine Kluber? Thank you so much for watching and listening to this episode. Before you go, if you've enjoyed this episode and you've not subscribed, that's a bold decision, crazy behaviour. Follow and subscribe to the Romesh Rang and Ethan Show wherever you listen. It helps me, really, like, really helps me. It helps the team. And it costs you absolutely nothing. We drop episodes every Monday and Thursday. Mondays, I'm joined by great guests. Thursdays, my mum Shanti joins me to answer your questions and family dilemmas. I'll see you Thursday with mum who, let's face it, is who you're actually here for. If you've got a problem you want to solve or a story you
1:02:19 Speaker 01 want to share, send it to [email protected] , voice note or text us on 07731 623355. We can't promise good advice, but you might end up on the show. See you soon!
1:02:32 Speaker 02 Oh, shut up, Romesh.
1:02:35 Speaker 04 Ugh, I hate Mondays. King's Hawaiian cinnamon swirl bite? Uh, Taylor Hansen? Sure, I'll try one. Mmm.
1:02:44 Speaker 04 Hey, let's get back to work, please. But Taylor Hansen's making my day way better with these new soft and swirly King's Hawaiian cinnamon bites. Taylor Hansen? Nice! Try one. Mmm.
1:02:58 Speaker 04 King's Hawaiian cinnamon bites. There's nothing like it.
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