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1:36

Hello and welcome to the Blank Podcast,

1:38

the podcast

1:38

where we talk to well-known guests about their lives,

1:41

their careers, and those difficult

1:43

moments along the way. I'm Giles Paley Phillips

1:46

and my co-pilot on this journey of discovery

1:49

into the world of well-known people is

1:51

Jim Daley. The world of well-known

1:54

people? Yeah, that sounds like a Channel 5

1:56

show, doesn't it? It

1:59

sounds like a sca- What was that what

2:01

was that old in freck Stella Street and Bristol

2:03

Street? Oh, yeah with it sounds a

2:05

bit like that Yeah, I'm not in seafood

2:08

Really? Yeah, so there's

2:10

you know, do you remember that? Do you remember

2:12

there was? Michael Kane ran

2:14

like I say that and he's out looking

2:16

out the window. Yeah, yeah, that's

2:20

The tuck in that was which was

2:22

like a good spoon. It's no

2:24

longer there unfortunately but yeah so he

2:26

used to do like fry-ups and

2:28

then all the Al Pacino bits were all

2:31

down on Siva Beach so yeah. Wow

2:33

I never knew. Yeah there he goes, tele-street. There you

2:35

go.

2:36

Work of genius some would say.

2:39

I would say, I would definitely say. Anyway

2:43

yes hello and welcome to this week's

2:45

pod. I'm feeling good, it's

2:48

a lovely sunny day

2:49

here in Barks, what's it like down on the coast? Same,

2:52

same. It feels like spring has come back. Oh,

2:55

it's lovely, isn't it? Yeah, it just like, it

2:57

just lifts the mood. It does, it really does

2:59

actually, because it's been a bit

3:01

soggy.

3:04

Yeah, soggy. Do you know what? Without

3:07

trying to lower the mood too much, soggy

3:09

I think is actually quite a good adjective

3:11

for the weather and also

3:14

my mood during winter

3:17

and I definitely get SAD. And

3:19

I actually think soggy is a perfect way of actually describing

3:22

sort of how you feel some days. So

3:25

I definitely need a bit more sunshine in my

3:28

life. And

3:30

it's nice that it just

3:32

makes you, just lifts you, makes you feel a bit more like a

3:35

bit more enthused about the world,

3:37

a bit more excited. Just

3:39

a bit of that. I'm like, I was actually thinking of everyone

3:42

else is going out, my family now, while we're

3:44

recording this. I might go for a walk in a minute. it. Yeah,

3:46

well I'm going

3:48

to the library.

3:51

Do a bit work. I'm just gonna, I can't, we live too far

3:53

out of town for me to walk in the

3:54

library take me about an hour but I'm

3:57

gonna walk just up and down my road. podcast.

4:00

Yeah, so cut the sun.

4:02

So wherever you're listening today, listeners, I

4:05

hope you got a bit of sunshine and if you can get out and enjoy

4:07

a bit of sun, then I

4:09

hope you're able to do that. So Soggy

4:11

has got different connotations to me because there

4:14

was a guy in my football team at school,

4:16

who's called Matthew Sutherland and his

4:19

nickname was Soggy for some reason. I don't

4:21

know if he's Ireland. I don't know what

4:23

the soggy came from. I

4:26

have no idea I'd have to I'd

4:28

have to talk to those closer to But he was

4:30

pretty decent. He's pretty decent on the ball, comfortable

4:32

on the ball, quite intelligent footballer, not

4:34

athletic necessarily, but

4:37

yeah, soggy. I'm not

4:40

sure I wanna know. No,

4:43

I don't actually thinking about it. Maybe we'll just leave it

4:45

like that. Leave it at that. What

4:48

was your nickname? Have we talked about it? I

4:50

didn't have one, mate. I didn't have one. I think at college

4:52

I started getting called like

4:54

G, but that, I mean, It sounds

4:56

like I'm a fucking gangster about it or

4:58

something. G-Dog. I

5:03

told you about my one. I must've told you about mine in Emmet College. Go

5:06

on. Trillby. Oh,

5:08

I don't remember this. No? No.

5:12

It is not a particularly great backstory.

5:14

It's because I once wore a hat.

5:19

It's a classic British kind of nickname, isn't it? He

5:22

once, once literally once did something.

5:24

And so then you just become- literally once

5:26

wore a hat and then it stuck

5:29

and when I say it stuck I mean the nickname stuck the hat didn't stick

5:31

thanks but everyone started calling me Trilby

5:33

and that nickname

5:35

I had for about a decade and

5:37

it seeped into everything I didn't mind it I quite liked

5:39

it that it seeped into everything football

5:42

world online world

5:44

all friend circles it's not a bad one there

5:46

is a strong one you can get work you can get

5:48

obviously get far worse ones I

5:50

mean I didn't realize it's also a lady can be a

5:53

lady's name Trilby I found out many years

5:55

later but I have to admit no one, a lot of my friends

5:57

are quite progressive, no one used it in in this sort of derogatory

5:59

kind of way.

6:00

just a drill, drillby, drillbs.

6:02

And actually some of my friends from

6:04

from sort of back in hometown slash

6:06

those footballs that still call me

6:08

if I'm sort of popping that WhatsApp group. Right,

6:10

drill, sorry, drillby. And it throws me

6:12

a bit because I've really been called that for at

6:15

least a decade. So it's funny. What

6:17

were you trying to do? Were you trying to look like Pete Dusty

6:19

or something?

6:21

No, so actually, it actually involves Crystal Palace.

6:23

Okay. And this is the the earliest I think I've evolved for

6:26

Palace chat in the pod. Do

6:28

you remember this? Sorry, this

6:30

is very niche, and we will get on to our guest in a minute.

6:33

When Palace played Liverpool in the 2001 League

6:36

Cup semi final. Yes, I do. I was there. First

6:41

leg beaten 2-1 at Celerst, Morrison

6:43

4-0 scored and no, sorry, Rubens

6:46

and Morrison scored, Rubens goal was an absolute belter. Palace

6:49

at the time was terrible. That is one of my

6:51

most memorable games, Bigg result. Second

6:53

leg went to Anfield. David McElhough, wasn't it? No,

6:56

no. Julian Gray. That

6:59

was a year later. Second leg went to, believe

7:01

me, the result is seeped into the story. And

7:05

on the message board at the time, the rumour was, because

7:08

in the 70s, and Palace had a cut run, because

7:10

of Malcolm Allison, everyone wore fancy hats, and

7:13

everyone wore fedoras. And so they were like, everyone

7:15

going to wear fancy hats. So I just grabbed from

7:17

at home an old fedora slash trilby

7:20

like a truly war it and

7:22

other mates more like Mexican hats or

7:24

whatever and stuff.

7:26

Took a little mini bus about a dozen of us got

7:28

to Anfield got out the mini bus got a new way end.

7:31

No one else is just

7:34

the travel bus where these stupid hats for

7:36

no reason. We get we then

7:38

the

7:38

game kicked off and Palace got pumped

7:41

five nil or three nil down inside about I remember.

7:44

Yeah. Gary McAllister

7:46

had one of the best individual performances I've

7:48

ever seen. He just, we

7:51

were terrible. So anyway, obviously, or any dreams of getting

7:53

to the final were actually demolished very early.

7:55

I remember. But for some reason, in

7:57

that kind of black humor, about

8:00

football thing, we just embraced wearing

8:02

hats and we started doing silly songs about them and stuff.

8:04

And on the way home we were having a few drinks and

8:06

I became Trilby Boy. Oh Trilby

8:08

Boy, Trilby. And it just is stuck

8:11

from there. So there

8:13

you go. Quite an innocent nickname story really.

8:15

But don't mind it. Yeah.

8:18

But it was linked to Palace being rubbish, which is quite

8:20

standard for us. Yeah. Um,

8:22

there you go. Shall we move on to, well,

8:25

first of all, any listeners that have got funny nickname

8:27

stories, tweet us in. I want to

8:29

hear people. I'd love to hear those. Absolutely.

8:33

I think we should move on to this week's guest, who

8:35

is, I would say, Charles, one of the, I

8:38

thought she would be, but probably one of the nicest

8:41

guests I think we've had. Yeah. So

8:43

down to Earth and lovely. And I

8:45

mean, obviously we talked a bit about that, you know,

8:47

during her sort

8:49

of rise into into doing acting and

8:51

stuff. She did a lot of work in, you know, community

8:54

kind of work and working

8:56

in schools, working with

8:58

social services, things like that, where she really

9:00

kind of got to see how

9:03

humans tick. I

9:05

guess she was saying

9:06

now that it kind of informed her

9:09

creativity quite a lot, but

9:11

also saying it

9:13

was like a really amazing time in her life

9:15

because she got to

9:18

work with amazing people and learn

9:20

about the way humanity works

9:22

really.

9:24

Yeah, absolutely. And I think actually

9:26

in any performing arts.

9:29

You are channeling stories and

9:31

you are connecting with audiences and people, so I think

9:34

actually anything that sort of helps

9:37

you give you a better understanding of the way people work.

9:39

And clearly she's someone, it's Lucy Beaumont

9:41

by the way, clearly she's someone who

9:44

is interested in that kind of thing. I mean

9:46

you could tell straight away, very compassionate person,

9:49

very nice, interested in people,

9:52

interested in helping people, and

9:54

I think that not only comes across in her

9:56

comedy and before me but it did in the chat today

9:58

someone that just cares about

10:00

cares about people and wants to have

10:02

that connection. And I think that really pays off in

10:04

the performing arts. Yeah, absolutely. I think

10:06

great actors are probably very great empaths

10:09

as well because they're able to

10:11

be compassionate and empathetic towards their

10:13

subjects, all the people they're

10:16

playing or portraying. And

10:18

I think like obviously

10:21

Lucy is very empathetic and

10:23

has done lots of work where you

10:26

need those skillsets. Definitely.

10:28

And I mean, there's a lot of a

10:30

lot of chat in this episode is about growing up, got

10:32

a really fascinating story about where

10:34

she was born and that and then talking a

10:36

lot about her mom, grandparents,

10:39

there's a real family theme

10:41

to this episode, which I love. love and we've spoken before about how

10:44

much family is important to me and things both of us.

10:46

So yeah, just a really

10:48

lovely episode, fascinating person

10:51

and her tour

10:52

kicks off in October and there's links in the show

10:55

notes now to for more information

10:57

on that. So if she's coming to a town near you

10:59

do go and see her talk. I'm sure it's going

11:02

to be absolutely brilliant. Yeah, the trouble and

11:04

strife it's called and yeah, it's her first

11:06

first big tour, I think she said. So

11:08

that's really exciting. Must be really exciting to

11:10

be going out on your first big tour and obviously. on the

11:12

back of some great TV shows that she's

11:14

been doing with her husband, John Richardson,

11:16

who a lot of people wouldn't

11:18

have heard of and know from his stand up and

11:20

doing like eight out of 10 cats

11:22

down and all that kind of stuff. So yeah, it's really

11:24

great that she's going now.

11:27

Another brilliant female comedian.

11:30

Yeah, she talked before about some of those influences

11:32

that she found and coming to it late as

11:34

well, you know, some chat about that. And

11:38

yeah, just a great episode. I think I think we should get into it, really

11:40

stop teasing people with stories

11:42

about my Selena nickname and I think crack

11:44

on with this episode. She's absolutely lovely

11:47

and there's some really, really, really

11:49

lovely tender

11:51

bits in this episode so I think it's got something for everyone. This

11:53

is the fantastic Lucy Beaumont on

11:55

the Blank Podcast.

12:00

Well, I'm in my daughter's bedroom,

12:04

hence the rainbows.

12:11

You

12:15

keep saying that, Jim. I did wonder if it would

12:17

do that rainbows on us. I have to

12:20

admit, if it was up to me, we would have rainbows,

12:22

I think, in our main bedroom. But I think I would

12:24

get overruled. I

12:26

can't really imagine a time where rainbows aren't a good idea.

12:28

I think rainbows are great anywhere, but

12:31

I do spiritually, I sort of find myself

12:34

getting drawn to this room. You want to be

12:36

there, yeah. I want to

12:38

be huddled in a corner in just a shot.

12:41

Right,

12:47

excuse me, I'm going to clear my throat. It's

12:49

always a good, I think it's always a good start to the podcast

12:52

if you can clear your throat. Yeah. Lucy,

12:55

Lucy Bowman, it's lovely to have you on the podcast. Thank

12:58

you so much for being with us.

13:01

I hope you're keeping well. I

13:04

think so. I think so.

13:06

I'm reading that book, How Not to Die.

13:09

Oh, OK. How

13:12

Not to Die. So is there a good

13:14

way to die then? How Not to Die, yeah. It

13:17

should also be called How to Spend a Long Time

13:19

on the Toilet, because it just basically,

13:21

in a nutshell, tells you to

13:23

eat loads of fruit

13:25

and vegetables. But

13:27

I think that there is a limit, you

13:30

know, to how many you can have. Well,

13:33

I think too much of anything's like

13:36

not good.

13:39

Yeah, that's true. Yeah, yeah,

13:41

it is, isn't it? Yeah, but it is a good book, but

13:43

it just, yeah, it just,

13:45

you're on the toilet a lot, really. Have

13:48

you just basically saved me 11 quid?

13:51

Yeah, just basically,

13:54

you should eat more vegetables. Yeah.

13:57

Yeah. but I absolutely

13:59

lo- it's telling me to eat, that lud.

14:03

And this, I mean, I

14:05

want to, I was going to say, break this down, but

14:07

that might not be the best terminology

14:09

for this. But what

14:12

kind of status does the vegetables

14:14

need to be? Do they, because obviously,

14:16

like cooking them destroys some of the nutrients.

14:19

Is it just raw vegetables? Well,

14:23

it, well, cooking some vegetables

14:26

actually apparently is better than, then having

14:29

them raw, it can absorb. It's

14:32

about how much your body can absorb.

14:34

So it says that,

14:36

boy, I mean, I

14:40

suppose it's not really for this. This

14:42

is sort of turned into a different podcast

14:44

really. I don't know. Sorry about that. No,

14:47

no, it's always good to go on tangents.

14:50

We do that a lot. Yeah. It's just

14:52

weird me talking about things like

14:54

this because I don't really know anything. But

14:57

it does to like, I don't know, but it says like cooking

14:59

carrots, like boiling

15:02

a carrot

15:03

actually helps you absorb more of the nutrients

15:05

than if you were to have the carrot raw.

15:09

Which is news to me. It seems

15:11

mad. It seems like a mad thing

15:13

that like you'd actually, you'd boil

15:15

this thing and you'd think that would draw

15:18

out all the nutrients. You'd be like killing them somehow.

15:21

Yeah, no, apparently that's better, but yeah,

15:23

it's a good book, but it just, yeah, You

15:27

can have too much fiber, I think. I

15:29

can tell you that, you know. Sorry

15:32

to linger on the book and we will move on, I promise. This

15:35

isn't a nutrition podcast.

15:38

Actually, last week's episode was because we had nutritionist

15:40

on actually, so maybe I'm just still living there. Why did you? Yeah,

15:42

we did. It was amazing. She was

15:44

amazing. It was so useful.

15:46

Is there

15:48

a rank of vegetables? Did it, is there

15:50

like a good, is there like a Premier League vegetable

15:53

and like a League II vegetable? Yeah,

15:55

yeah, there were certain ones that it says you

15:57

need to eat every day. Yeah, so

15:59

like... Yeah, like spinach,

16:02

broccoli, and then garlic,

16:04

turmeric, meant

16:06

to have a teaspoon of turmeric every

16:08

day. Just even the powder.

16:11

Yeah, there were certain like, yeah, there was

16:13

like a classy vegetables. And

16:16

some nuts and much. There's your

16:18

harrods, your harrods to vegetables. And

16:20

then your, your Aldi, I

16:22

guess. Sexy veg. Sexy veg. Not the

16:24

sexy veg. Yeah. Well,

16:26

this is a good start, I think. So

16:29

Lucy, you, I know you

16:31

were born in Cornwall, but you grew up

16:33

in Hull. Um, tell

16:36

us a bit about the game. Palm while

16:38

you met me on

16:40

holiday by accident. Yeah. On a camping

16:42

trip. Really? Yeah.

16:45

I came back in a car bar box. Yeah.

16:48

Like

16:50

your orders on Amazon. Yeah.

16:53

Apparently it was like in the shape

16:55

of a cradle. said thank goodness for fresh eggs

16:57

on the side. My

17:01

granny like made it all nice. She padded

17:04

it out. I mean he's mad how different

17:06

the 80s was. It

17:08

wasn't that long ago really was it? And

17:11

you could take a new bomb baby

17:13

home in a car, in a box. No

17:15

one said anything.

17:16

That's

17:19

mad. Yeah,

17:21

yeah. So just there. Yeah, it

17:23

was she did me by accident. Do

17:25

you do you have a weirdly do you have any sort

17:28

of affinity to Cornwall then? Obviously, you know, you

17:30

were literally there a day or, or

17:32

not, it just

17:33

like the people. Like

17:37

infinity. I fall into

17:39

this trap all the time

17:42

of like, oh, Cornwall, and

17:44

you get into conversations with people

17:46

don't even like, oh, it's like spiritual my

17:48

spiritual home and then you

17:50

go and everyone is so rude.

17:53

It's so true. They just don't like

17:55

people. They know it's nice and

17:57

they don't want you there. Yeah. I've

17:59

never been. in such a hostile environment.

18:03

It's the problem is they're

18:05

always trying to put you in a box. Yeah,

18:08

it's so true.

18:09

They're absolutely horrible.

18:11

I don't blame them. They're

18:13

tricky because they do want your money, but they just don't

18:15

want you. If you could just send the

18:18

money to them, they'd be like, every shop

18:20

you go in, every pub. They

18:24

hate us. They absolutely hate us.

18:27

They're here as more than Northern Ireland. Wow,

18:30

I was going to say France. It sounds very much like France as

18:32

well. Similar sort of similar sort of vibe. France,

18:35

yeah, but at least they can't speak the same language. You can't

18:37

tell if it's a language barrier or if

18:40

they don't like you. That's true. That's true.

18:43

It's all goodness. My cat has just jumped

18:45

up. Look, what's he doing? You

18:48

never do that normally. Oh,

18:50

goodness me. He wants to be in the forest and wanted to

18:52

see. He's so. Yeah. So in the air

18:55

is that woman lagging off

18:57

the Cornish. Cornish, yeah. He

19:01

wants to get involved. But I'm allowed to say that because

19:03

I am Cornish, you see. I'm

19:05

allowed to say they're all horrible. Have

19:08

you been into a situation where you've had to pull that

19:10

card out though? Where you've had to say, well

19:12

actually, I'm from around here.

19:15

Well I hoped one day, I would hope that

19:17

eventually they'd stop letting everyone buy

19:19

up, you know, properties in Cornwall.

19:22

and maybe say only if you're from Cornwall,

19:24

you know, if you've got, if you're on your bear certificate.

19:27

I mean, they do need to do something. I mean, it's

19:30

such a shame, isn't it, when people from the area

19:32

can't

19:33

afford to live in work there. It's awful.

19:35

But I was hoping that I could pull that one out. Yeah,

19:37

pull my bear certificate out and

19:39

buy somewhere. But we're not going to buy somewhere

19:42

because they're too rude. So. Yeah,

19:44

because that's the support, isn't it? You'd

19:46

have to live there with all the rude people.

19:48

And I can say this because I'm not gigging down in Cornwall,

19:51

I'm not trying to sell any tickets. I

19:54

was going to ask. I'm gonna ask, is

19:57

it like a homecoming gig Can you kick down there? You'd

20:00

think so, wouldn't you? But they just can't

20:02

understand the accent. I'm

20:06

being mean. I've got nothing wrong with Cornish

20:08

people. I'm in support of real

20:11

Cornish people. I think all the

20:13

Londoners should get out. Yeah,

20:16

I think. Leave the nice

20:18

beaches to the Cornish. I

20:20

completely agree. Isn't there a language?

20:23

There is a Cornish language, isn't there? It's there.

20:26

Isn't there? I don't... maybe I've made that up. I think

20:28

there is. I'll play. Well

20:31

I think, like all areas there's... there's

20:33

a dialect. Well obviously there is a dialect, but there is

20:35

a... You know, you go to any kind of area

20:37

there's a... a kind

20:39

of string of words and

20:42

sentences and phrases and all

20:44

sorts of things that is very very unique to

20:46

that particular place. What's

20:48

the Seaford? What's the Seaford phrases? We drop

20:50

our T's down here in Sussex.

20:53

So it's all little. and

20:56

kettle, I can't think

20:58

of any other words with teas in it. Lots

21:02

of dropping of teas, yeah, a bit kind of,

21:06

yeah, kind of goes into a bit of a, oh,

21:08

you think it'd be quite posh, but it's not, it's a bit kind

21:10

of like towny, I suppose. Have

21:12

I told you that my daughter,

21:15

she's three and a half, has started dropping her teas

21:17

as well. And my

21:20

wife is livid, because my

21:22

wife is a trained actor, So I've

21:24

had like, you know, elocution, essence of stuff, and like,

21:26

really wants to like, talk

21:29

properly. Talk proper. It's clearly,

21:31

it's clearly come from me. Like, there's

21:33

no, it's like, it's clearly come from me. I can't

21:35

get away from that. And every

21:37

time my daughter does it, I correct her, but secretly

21:39

inside, I'm really proud of her. I'm

21:42

so happy. I'm

21:45

really proud. But yeah,

21:47

that's my, that's my one influence that I've got on my,

21:49

uh, on my child so far.

21:51

One of, one of, Oh, well done. Thank

21:53

you. Yeah, thank you. Sorry, my heart is

21:56

level. And the rain burst, she has the rain burst up a

21:58

few to shape. Yeah. She

22:00

gets the rainbows and the bad speech. That's the

22:03

cum influence. obviously

22:07

growing up in Hull, because that's where you're from. I

22:10

guess you're more Hull than Cornwall. Was

22:15

kind of performing and doing

22:18

drama and stuff, was that always something that you kind

22:21

of thought you'd get into later on in life?

22:24

Yeah, yeah. From like,

22:26

yeah, from first start playing,

22:29

like four and five, like imaginary

22:32

play, cutting on shows and

22:35

sort

22:36

of feeling comfortable in my own imagination

22:38

really, because I was an early child, so

22:41

I did sort of play

22:43

a lot on my own, but yeah, it was always there

22:45

and from like a really creative

22:48

family really, you know, my

22:51

mum sort of taught us to

22:53

be a writer, she was

22:55

sort of struggling for work for

22:57

a lot of years and sort

23:00

of went on an amazing,

23:02

like a women's writing

23:05

course really in Hull and this

23:07

sort of amazing sort

23:09

of lady who was

23:11

a local poet and playwright. And

23:14

yeah, and really got the book and started

23:16

doing pub theater. And so

23:18

she was really sort of developing that and finding

23:20

her voice when I was about sort

23:22

of seven or eight. So

23:25

sort of grew up watching pub theater. And

23:27

then she got, you know, she had a few plays

23:29

on that whole truck and then went to Edinburgh Festival.

23:32

And yes, I grew up with my granny and granddad.

23:35

They were art teachers, my granny did

23:37

textiles and yeah,

23:41

and yeah, so it was, it

23:43

was quite felt like quite a creative place, you know,

23:45

it was normal on a weekend

23:47

at my granny and granddad's for everyone to be sketching,

23:50

you know, sat sort of in their own wild sketching

23:52

and my granny be on a sewing machine

23:54

and yeah it was lovely, it was really nice

23:57

so it's all I've ever known

23:59

really.

24:00

Not quite a Nipo

24:02

baby, but it's in the blood.

24:05

It just feels normal to be creative.

24:07

It feels like an extension of yourself.

24:10

I think that's really nice. I think it's certainly

24:13

like creating an environment for kids growing up

24:15

where they can feel, yeah, like it's normal

24:17

to be creative and like that to be encouraged.

24:19

I think that's really nice. Because we're talking about this on the

24:21

podcast a lot, but like that creativity, I think

24:24

every kid has it. And then for a lot of people, it just

24:26

sort of gets

24:27

knocked out of them or that creative

24:29

spot disappears or it's not encouraged.

24:32

But actually it's really nice, I think, to be in an environment where

24:35

kids can play because that can lead to careers

24:37

in the arts, you know, in creative industries. And

24:39

I think that's, it's nice to create that,

24:42

yeah, that creative environment. Oh, yeah.

24:44

It's just, it's criminal that

24:47

it's not, it's not

24:49

demarring schools. Yeah. It's

24:51

because it's, I think it's contributing

24:54

to massive mental health problems that

24:56

there's not enough money pumped into it, you

24:59

know. Because if you

25:01

put on a big production at school, you don't have to be in

25:03

it. There's all the other sides of it, isn't there, that

25:05

you can be involved in. It's about

25:07

working. So it'll just lift, it lifts

25:10

kids. They never forget it. I taught

25:12

youth to teach youth theater. My

25:13

mum taught youth theater. I did

25:16

some of that with my mum as well.

25:18

And yeah, it changes

25:20

lives just like one experience.

25:23

It's massively important. And we've got, we've

25:26

now got, we need to fill content.

25:28

That's the thing. The film

25:31

industry and the gaming industry

25:33

and like I said, podcasts and making apps,

25:36

it requires massive creative

25:38

thinkers. And they're

25:42

not necessarily, obviously they're there, but

25:45

they could be there, you know, en masse

25:47

really. It's just not seen as, it

25:50

never has been, has it? It's never been

25:52

seen as

25:54

a really decent career,

25:57

I think it's seen as almost like a privilege

25:59

thing. but shouldn't be like that.

26:01

It's just mostly privileged kids

26:03

can afford to go into it.

26:06

You know, we're not, we're

26:07

not sort of getting

26:09

the working class kids.

26:10

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Penney.

30:16

Yes. They're the most creative

30:18

out there too, I think, to be honest,

30:21

really. Yeah. Yeah, so true. And

30:23

like you say, from like a governmental kind

30:26

of, I mean, obviously we've got an awful moment, but

30:28

so short-sighted because not only

30:30

does it contribute so much to the economy, but

30:33

like you say, the

30:34

other effects of creativity

30:37

on, like you say, mental health and

30:40

people's

30:40

wellbeing and just, you know,

30:42

like my son decided to do

30:44

drama. Not

30:46

that he's particularly into performing, I think, but just because

30:48

he wanted to boost his own confidence, he realised

30:50

that he

30:52

found social situations difficult and he

30:54

felt that doing drama would allow him to

30:57

get some skills, you know, have a new

30:59

skill set. So things like that that, you

31:01

know, we kind of take for granted sometimes with,

31:04

you know, performing arts and creative

31:07

fields that actually, you know, it can really

31:09

change your life in lots of different ways. Well,

31:12

yeah, mostly makes your left

31:15

wing. Any right wing actors

31:17

do? right-wing

31:20

actors do. No.

31:23

Well not a one. Not both. I guess they're one very

31:25

prominent one but you might be invited on this podcast

31:28

so.

31:29

There's not many though. No. Generally

31:32

makes you a humanitarian

31:34

left wing. Yeah

31:35

yeah

31:38

yeah oh well. I uh

31:43

just I googled the word governmental then because I wasn't sure

31:46

it's a real word. It's a real word. Is it? Well in

31:48

fact I'm glad yeah. Yeah it actually It

31:50

actually sounds like the title to sort of a Edinburgh show, Govern

31:52

Mental, but yeah. Govern, you'd

31:54

have to put a hyphen in it. Govern Mental. mental,

31:57

I think, be a political, political show. Yeah.

32:00

But it is a real word. So

32:03

Lucy, I'm intrigued

32:05

by your mum finding the

32:07

creative. Did you find that kind of creative stuff later

32:09

in life thing? So I think that's a really nice.

32:13

What's the word I'm looking for?

32:14

Governmental. It's

32:19

a really nice indication, I guess, for a young person that

32:21

like nothing's forever. You

32:23

can change. You can do something, you know, you can do something

32:25

different in life. if that thing

32:27

finds you later on?

32:30

Yeah, yeah, my mum

32:33

worked, my mum was at,

32:36

before I think, I'll get this right,

32:38

before I was, before,

32:42

she met my dad and then the work, my

32:46

dad worked in editing for

32:48

BBC in London and

32:50

he got my mum a job as a set designer.

32:54

And I'm trying to get the

32:57

timeline of it. But

33:00

basically, she had me and they

33:02

split up.

33:03

And I sort of stayed with my granny and granddad

33:06

till I was sort of ready to start

33:08

school. And my mum worked in London. And

33:11

I think that between

33:13

the two of them, my granny and granddad and my mum,

33:16

they worked out, it probably wasn't a good thing.

33:18

My mum had been so far away

33:20

from me. So

33:24

she came back to Hull and she

33:26

just had no job. That

33:29

was the only job she'd had doing

33:32

set design. She worked on some great shows. Do you

33:34

remember? She worked on

33:37

a few pizza and what

33:39

was it called? Swap Shop. Swap

33:41

Shop, yeah. Yeah, Swap

33:43

Shop, Top of the Pops. So she

33:45

loved it. but yeah, she in whole there wasn't, she just

33:47

couldn't, there wasn't anything like that. And

33:50

I think she really struggled, she was just,

33:52

you know, on benefits and and

33:55

we was living in not particularly

33:57

nice areas and start a bed

33:59

sit.

34:00

quite arty areas of Hull,

34:02

but I think she was a bit depressed,

34:04

to be honest, in terms

34:07

of

34:09

what she was going to do. And again,

34:12

back then, trying to do something creative

34:15

in Northern cities in the

34:17

80s was hard now. But yeah, she did. It was

34:19

fascinating, really, watching I

34:26

mean, she couldn't afford

34:29

to, she took me to school on the bus, but

34:31

she couldn't afford to get the bus back. So

34:33

she used to just wait in a cafe with a notepad

34:36

and just listen to people's conversations.

34:40

And then pick me up from school and we'd go back together. So

34:43

yeah, it was, it

34:45

was an amazing time for her. I just remembered she had, she

34:47

bought the same notebooks, the ring

34:49

band and notebooks, and I watched them pile

34:52

up and pile up. It was just loads

34:54

of script, you know, just,

34:55

she did it all by hand.

34:57

Yeah, it was amazing. Yeah,

34:59

and she really did, you know, sort of single handedly

35:02

sort of and eventually went on and wrote

35:04

a lot of radio plays and but

35:07

she she slipped off, she just got a

35:09

writing commission. I think

35:12

it was Banda Gold.

35:14

And do you remember there came Ella, and

35:16

she slipped all the discs in her back apart

35:18

from one she was paralyzed from the neck

35:20

down. And she was in a contraction

35:23

in hospital for a year and then in a plaster

35:25

cast. And I

35:27

was almost like a carer

35:29

really, you know, I used to walk on

35:31

her back for her used to help her the spine,

35:34

spine, she used to wake up just

35:36

completely crooked with sciatica. It

35:38

was just horrific. It went on for years.

35:40

And she never got

35:42

you never got the TV career back again.

35:44

She did radio sort of sustained

35:46

but radio pays so

35:49

little and yeah, she just never

35:51

felt like she's had a crack at proper crack at the whip

35:53

mum mum, it's been such a shame, you know, she's

35:55

so talented, but I've not really been able

35:57

to ever make it.

36:00

I earn enough money from it really,

36:02

but she's in a happy place with it

36:04

now. She's been in our sitcom

36:07

Meet the Richardson's and she's been amazing in it.

36:10

And she's back doing pub theatre in Hull, as

36:12

we speak.

36:14

And I think she's liking sort of the grassroots

36:16

level of it, you know, and I said, Oh, why don't you go

36:18

put it on a theatre? this is for pubs

36:21

and you'd say it's yeah,

36:24

it's, it's been fascinating really watching

36:27

her try and

36:28

make just makings me you

36:31

know, it's, it's been an impossible

36:33

task at times but she, she found

36:35

out she was autistic.

36:37

And, and so struggles

36:39

with things, you know, and

36:42

yeah, very intelligent, incredibly

36:45

empathetic, but struggles

36:47

sometimes socially and

36:49

connecting with things. And so a

36:51

lot of things make sense, you know, of

36:53

why it's been such a battle. You

36:56

know, what she's one of many middle

36:58

aged women who in COVID had the time, well,

37:01

we both had the time I told her to go get it

37:03

done, and,

37:04

you know, get the diagnosis. But

37:06

I think that happened to a lot of people. So

37:09

it's been a mad old life for her, really, and

37:12

an incredible to be a daughter and you

37:14

know, it wasn't always easy to be honest,

37:17

it was, you know, quite could be quite hard

37:19

childhood at times. But equally,

37:21

has

37:22

given me sort of, yeah,

37:25

I think I'm quite got a

37:27

sort of quite tough skin, and

37:29

quite ambitious as well.

37:31

Yeah, I know, I know someone else that had a

37:33

had a late late autism

37:35

diagnosis recently, and it

37:38

answered a lot of questions, a a lot of questions

37:41

for her and it was a big

37:43

moment. Your mum sounds

37:45

really inspiring. I

37:48

felt quite inspired listening to you talk to her then. She sounds

37:50

like a really inspiring

37:52

person. Oh, incredible. Yeah,

37:54

incredible. And I think it's just sort of like that

37:56

single parent-child

37:58

hip it's it's quite intense,

38:00

it's sort of like, I've got a dad, my

38:02

dad, so like my dad, but you know, my dad

38:05

sort of continued to sort of work in

38:07

London, and then he became a lecturer,

38:09

and he worked and teaching film,

38:11

and but we never sort of lived together

38:14

or, you know, but he was there,

38:16

you know, and but yeah, it was like me

38:18

and my mum against the world sort of thing. And

38:21

now I say it a lot, but in,

38:23

in single parent families, you, you play

38:25

all the roles. It's not like those rules don't exist.

38:28

You sometimes siblings and you sometimes

38:31

like a married couple. And you

38:33

you still play all the it's weird.

38:35

And it's so intense. And it's

38:38

such a strong bond. And

38:40

you end up

38:41

sort of,

38:42

I feel almost like the same person as my mum.

38:45

It's very weird. Because

38:47

it's there's no no one else there. You know

38:49

me you you

38:51

you take the hit for every mood

38:53

each other are in. Yeah,

38:57

I have to admit, so my wife is

38:59

a, is a, was an only child.

39:02

And then her dad passed away 11 12 years

39:04

ago. So when she was in the mid 20s, and so she

39:07

lived with her mum for quite a bit. And we now live with her

39:09

mum as well. And as someone

39:11

who's got two kids,

39:12

a wife and a mother-in-law, I don't know

39:15

how single parents do it. I

39:17

think they're genuine superheroes because I just don't understand.

39:21

I find it so hard. And we literally

39:23

have help here with us and I just don't know

39:25

how they do it. I think it must be a very

39:28

difficult job. Well, they just don't got a

39:30

choice. What

39:32

do you do? My mum

39:34

had a lot of support. I spent a lot of time with my

39:36

granny and granddad really and they were just

39:39

as inspirational. They were

39:41

from a very

39:44

sort of quite deprived working class area

39:47

of Hulk, Hessel Road and both their

39:49

dads were fishermen and

39:51

my granddad managed to not go to sea

39:53

because it was when I think it was

39:55

a Labour government that introduced it,

39:58

you know, where they wanted to get more.

40:00

people from working class backgrounds

40:02

into teaching so they both were able to

40:04

go and train. They both were just naturally,

40:07

you know, very good artists and

40:10

were allowed to go and train at uni and become

40:13

art teachers and

40:14

my granddad said about going to elocution lessons

40:16

and stuff to try and knock out his whole

40:19

accent and they both did it at night

40:21

classes.

40:22

I think they already had the kids

40:25

early, we sort of at the moment 19.

40:29

But yeah, and that changed our family,

40:31

that one policy. My granddad

40:34

would have gone to see and my granny would have stayed

40:36

at home and looked after kids.

40:38

And I don't know, maybe

40:41

they wouldn't have raised three children. My

40:44

mum's brother went

40:47

on to be a nurse and

40:48

my mum's sister was a teacher. Obviously

40:50

my mum's been a playwright.

40:53

But I wouldn't do know, if they hadn't

40:55

been allowed to go to university.

40:58

My granddad was ready to go to see

41:00

and then that collapsed anyway in the 70s.

41:04

So he wouldn't have been able to do that. It's

41:06

mad, isn't it, when you think, I

41:08

wouldn't maybe have been in,

41:10

I don't know, you just don't know, do

41:12

you? So slightly dull moments, isn't it?

41:15

Yeah, they would have stayed. They

41:17

brought me home upon Greatfield Estate.

41:20

I think, you would they have even got out of

41:22

the council estate? The

41:24

McRanny Grandad moved to a lovely village in

41:27

East Riding just outside of Hull.

41:29

I kept on to the roots of... Because

41:33

Hesel Road was... It's

41:36

hard to explain,

41:38

but it was quite a special place really because

41:41

everyone who lived there was just involved

41:43

in fishing really. And

41:46

so it sounds

41:47

quite an idyllic, quite

41:50

a delay placement. But

41:52

yeah, funny,

41:54

one policy.

41:55

Yeah, it is funny

41:57

how those things happen. Like, say, like a sort of serendipity.

42:00

there of some of some sort.

42:03

It's also that lovely to hear about like people

42:05

having a good relationship with their grandparents

42:07

because I was pretty much, I

42:09

lost my mum at an early age and my

42:12

dad was not particularly great

42:14

so I spent a lot of time with my grandparents and my

42:17

granddad was also,

42:18

he was a more technical

42:21

kind of artist, he did like engineering

42:23

and stuff but I remember that Same

42:25

thing like being encouraged to do

42:28

art

42:29

and express myself through being

42:31

creative, similar to your

42:34

grandmother, my name was a seamstress,

42:36

so she was always doing sewing

42:39

and creating stuff and then cooking

42:41

as well was a big part of our lives, so

42:44

doing lots of cooking and being involved. So it's really

42:46

lovely that kind of relationship you can have

42:48

with your grandparents and it's

42:51

I guess something that sometimes gets forgotten about

42:53

these days really, the impact our grandparents

42:55

have on us. Yeah,

42:58

oh definitely, yeah especially if you like,

43:00

like it's mad like my friends

43:03

have got parents the same age as

43:06

my granddad, you know, and you think, oh because

43:08

you think, yeah they had my mum

43:11

early and then my mum had me fairly early. So yeah,

43:14

in those types

43:15

of families it's amazing, you know,

43:17

I've got friends in whole, you know, they've sort like,

43:20

got great grandchildren, you know, and they're

43:22

not that old, you know, but it means they've got the

43:25

time with them, and the energy.

43:27

The summit said he said, for

43:29

that, that's probably not going to happen.

43:34

But yeah, yeah, I meet

43:36

there's a few people on me. And sometimes

43:38

I've ended up saying, did you spend

43:40

a lot of time with your grandparents? Because I think you can get

43:43

like almost like an old-fashioned quality

43:45

to you and like they chilled

43:47

me out you know. Yeah. Things

43:49

were quite chaotic at home but

43:52

when I went there just with them being older

43:54

you know the yeah I think it

43:56

can be quite special I don't think I'd

43:58

be the same without

44:00

without them really.

44:02

Yeah, absolutely the same. I think lots of profound

44:05

moments with, particularly my grandmother, because

44:08

my maternal grandmother, she was very calm

44:11

and gentle and it

44:12

was, Jim likes

44:14

to do a football analogy on this podcast quite

44:16

a lot. It was like a manager who put his arm

44:18

around you, as opposed to

44:21

someone doing the hairdryer treatment, you

44:23

know. So she was always very calming and

44:25

caring and, you know, very homely.

44:28

But yeah, just would kind of like

44:31

not, you know, take you on face value, like whatever

44:33

you did, like there would all be a chance

44:35

to sort of express yourself and talk about it.

44:39

You know, and like you say, maybe because they had more time,

44:41

it was easy to do that. But yeah,

44:43

I have very, very fond memories of spending

44:45

time with grandparents and definitely kind

44:48

of instilled a lot of who I am

44:50

today is from them rather than actually

44:52

from my dad or mom actually.

44:55

Yeah.

44:56

And your mum died when you were young,

44:58

did you say? Yeah, yeah, she died of leukemia

45:00

when I was six. Oh my

45:03

God. So yeah, so it was a weird old time,

45:05

but you just learn to live as life is like

45:07

that, isn't it? Like

45:11

you just kind of, that's

45:12

all you know, isn't it? I

45:16

lost my dad when I was 20 as well. So like,

45:20

it's just, yeah, it's just kind of been

45:22

part of who I am. And like you said earlier, those kinds

45:24

of things, would I be doing

45:26

creative things now?

45:28

If my parents are still

45:30

alive, maybe not. Like I think some of that creativity

45:33

has been spawned out of, you know,

45:36

probably moments of trauma

45:38

and stuff. So yeah, so it's

45:40

interesting to sort of think about those things. Oh,

45:43

what an age. That's,

45:46

yeah, that's a tender age, absolutely.

45:49

I'm so sorry.

45:50

No, don't worry. No, don't

45:52

worry. I do think so. So

45:54

Lucy, I know Giles for a while and he's a fantastic

45:56

dad. He's Absolutely brilliant,

45:58

but actually listen to this conversation.

46:00

I, my prediction is, and

46:02

I know, Giles is going to be a brilliant granddad.

46:05

Oh yeah. Definitely.

46:08

I definitely think you're going to be, and you will

46:10

be the one that will be encouraging your grandkids

46:12

to be creative and be themselves.

46:14

And start a podcast. Oh

46:18

my God, a podcast with your grandkids. That's

46:20

a great, that's a good idea. A podcast actually. I'm

46:24

putting that in now. But

46:27

yeah, let's go back to the performing

46:29

stuff.

46:29

So you said

46:31

you did a bit at secondary school, but

46:34

then- I did a play

46:38

at primary school

46:40

in the AC. Oh, okay. Yeah, and

46:43

perhaps I think, because of my mum, I would

46:45

have maybe got into it, but it

46:47

almost like changed my little line.

46:50

It was a really good, we moved,

46:52

we moved from a,

46:54

Well, I loved it. We moved from an area

46:56

in Hull,

46:58

it was getting rough. It was

47:00

Springbank, anyone who was listening,

47:03

oh no, you know. And we

47:05

moved to Hezzle, which was more of a, it

47:08

was seen as sort

47:10

of quite a working class, but it was seen as

47:12

a step up from Hull, you

47:15

know, and the schools were

47:18

definitely

47:18

better. And

47:20

I went to a lovely primary school, and in

47:22

year six, he was called Mr. Partius, he

47:24

was incredible. He was always quite a Victorian

47:27

headmaster, but again, had this thing

47:29

about the children and the arts,

47:31

and it was his passion, classical

47:34

music was his passion, and he would

47:36

make each child listen

47:38

to classical music every day,

47:40

and you'd have to take a bit of time

47:43

out of your lesson and come and listen in headphones,

47:45

listen to and he

47:48

used to put on a play

47:50

in year six and just with the year sixies

47:52

and they spent quite a bit of money on the

47:55

set and stuff and we did a play called

47:57

Walter Babies and I played

47:59

Thank you.

48:00

gave me the part of Tom and it felt such

48:02

an honor and responsibility of

48:05

getting this main part. And

48:08

it was a, I don't know whether it was

48:10

also, my granny was dying

48:12

at the time. And I think he

48:15

knew how close we were, because

48:17

I'd lived with her till five and six. And

48:21

she felt like a mum, my mum felt like a

48:23

mum, but

48:24

sometimes when we were all together, my mum was like a

48:26

big sister and my granny was my mum,

48:28

if that makes sense. Yeah, totally. Yeah.

48:31

And yeah, she was dying at the time.

48:33

And yeah, it was it was amazing to

48:35

to do this role.

48:38

I pretended I had to be a chimney sweep. And

48:40

then my mum, when anyone she

48:43

kept the costume and when anyone got married,

48:45

she used to take me along and as a chimney

48:47

sweep to give them the book. It's

48:50

like renting me out. I

48:52

don't think she got paid for it, but you

48:55

said, you have me mad. Come on, get it out

48:57

of gas.

48:57

Not again.

49:02

But it did, it stayed with

49:04

me and it was, I felt, you know, I

49:06

got the bug. I really got the bug

49:09

and that was it. Then I wanted to be an actor

49:12

from that

49:12

moment. It's

49:15

amazing how these mentors

49:18

pop up in our life. You said that the

49:20

head teacher, Mr Porteous

49:22

Waverist. Yeah!

49:24

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49:27

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49:55

and these people that can again Charles

49:57

talking about sliding doors moments that can help

50:01

push you towards or open up a door

50:03

for you or even just make you think about

50:05

life in a different way. It clearly sounds like he was

50:08

at quite a young age.

50:10

Yeah, I can't even picture

50:12

his face, isn't that terrible? I can't

50:14

exactly, he was tall, I can't

50:17

really picture his features but

50:20

what he gave me has

50:22

stayed with me. Amazing, yeah. That's

50:25

cool that you play classical music to you. Like

50:28

every day, did you say that you do that? Yeah.

50:31

So there would be a rotation. So

50:34

yeah, so like every child every day, sorry.

50:36

But yeah, every

50:38

child every so often had to come and listen

50:41

to music. And he would teach

50:43

you about it, give you sort of an education

50:46

on classical music. Yeah. I

50:48

can imagine that being quite nice.

50:50

Like just a bit of almost

50:52

meditative kind of calm down. just

50:55

before you start kind of doing your work, they should do,

50:57

I think that should be a thing. Yeah,

51:01

oh yeah, yeah. And you'd play it in the morning

51:04

when you went into school, and play it in the, as

51:06

you was walking in and out of assembly. And,

51:09

because it was a church of England school, like

51:11

there was always a pianist, you know, would sing.

51:13

Yeah. And they sing hymns

51:16

and, yeah, I

51:18

worked in schools and I used to just instantly

51:20

start crying whenever children sing. It's

51:23

the most incredible thing in

51:26

life. Children singing together. Did

51:29

you sing those songs like

51:31

Cross Over the Road, my friend? And he's

51:33

got the whole world in his hand and all those.

51:37

Oh, yeah. Well, Manford does that really. He

51:39

does. Yes, of course. Yeah. See,

51:43

but they are out there. The brilliant songs.

51:45

Yeah, I did all them. Yeah. Because

51:48

I remember in our school, we did The

51:51

All in My Lamp song, whatever that one's called.

51:54

Oh, yeah. They did like. Yeah.

51:56

Keep me burning, burning. Yeah. I

51:58

think.

52:00

But I remember like they're

52:02

being, I remember turning up once and

52:04

there was like three part harmonies

52:06

going on with the various different year groups.

52:09

I was like, what's going on? Yeah.

52:12

I was like, what the hell, what the fuck's going on? Like they've been,

52:14

they've really like taking it to the next level.

52:16

I

52:19

remember being very spun out by that. And

52:22

thinking, why have I not been involved in this,

52:25

this like pimping up of giving me all

52:27

in my lamp? Oh

52:29

yeah, I always

52:32

got this memory of like, I used to go to guitar

52:34

club every week but I wasn't allowed to

52:36

play, I just watched it.

52:38

I think they only had three guitars. Oh

52:41

no! I think you had to wait. How cruel.

52:43

If one child like dropped dead, you went and watched

52:45

open that you'd pick up learning to play

52:48

guitar. Someone slipped on a banana

52:51

or something, you get their guitar. I

52:53

was part of my primary school guitar club

52:55

as well. And we were learning

52:58

green sleeves. I remember learning green sleeves.

53:00

I was just fucking awesome. Another classic. Oh,

53:02

that's not a good one.

53:07

No. That's a terrible one. Awful.

53:10

Awful. And then

53:12

I

53:13

remember the teacher said, oh, your

53:15

guitar sounds out of tune. I'll tune it up.

53:18

and then was just turning

53:21

the tuning peg over

53:23

and over and over again until the

53:26

whole thing just snapped. All

53:28

the headstock snapped and they went, oh, I think I

53:30

might have over tuned it.

53:32

That

53:37

sounds like your teacher was going through some things. Oh,

53:40

totally. I think green sleeves have definitely

53:42

taken its toll like over and over again.

53:46

I'm going to tune your guitar as well and yours

53:49

and yours. Tune all the fucking guitars.

53:51

Yeah. I

53:53

remember hearing the play in

53:55

Bad Moon Rising and it took images.

54:00

and then they did it in assembly and

54:02

one of the girls, she was a girl

54:04

and she had a fit about three times

54:06

a day and she started fitting in front

54:08

of him on the front row and he would just go, come on, kick

54:11

off.

54:11

No. Oh my God. He

54:14

was just fitting on the floor next to him. You

54:16

got it, you got it, you got it. Isn't

54:19

he there? Were you thinking, oh good, oh

54:21

look, this is my chance. I can slip up.

54:24

Yes, yes, yes, this is it. Yeah,

54:26

I'm coming on this is my substitute moment. Did

54:31

you pick up any of the guitar skills then Lucy?

54:34

Did

54:34

it work or something? Just

54:36

by watching. No, it doesn't

54:38

work like that. No. I

54:41

thought I knew the answer as I was saying it, but yeah,

54:43

okay.

54:44

But

54:46

I do want to, after you I said to John,

54:49

I'm gonna quit everything and I'm

54:51

just gonna learn the guitar and then I'm just gonna

54:53

be a singer now.

54:54

I'm just going to give

54:56

it all up, write songs. And

54:58

I just never did it. I bought a guitar and just

55:00

never learnt to play it. I went and

55:02

got plectrums. Nice.

55:05

OK. Have you got

55:07

what kind of was it an acoustic guitar? It's

55:11

one from Argos. I

55:16

might the first guitar. Classic brand.

55:19

Well, no, see, don't knock it,

55:21

Jim, because the first guitar I ever

55:23

bought was it was called

55:25

an encore

55:26

and it was for Marcus. It

55:29

was 80 pounds and it was 80

55:32

pounds too much. Could be

55:34

quite frank, because it was shit. It

55:37

was awful, really awful.

55:41

And I think it impaired the first couple

55:43

of years of me playing, to be honest.

55:46

Really, because you thought it

55:48

was you. I thought it was me, but it was the guitar.

55:51

Could you play green sleeves on it? I

55:54

tried. I'll tell you what I did. Even

55:59

that didn't sound great.

56:00

No, it was just a really bad guitar. I

56:02

mean, it was the action on it was awful. So the

56:04

strings were like miles away from the fretboard

56:06

and it was just really hard to play. And

56:09

I was trying to learn, I remember buying a

56:11

tab book for Smells Like Teen Spirit

56:14

for nevermind and then trying

56:16

to play power chords on it was just horrendous.

56:20

I stuck with it though, but there's nothing wrong with Argus.

56:23

They do some, they probably do quite good

56:25

guitars now. Oh,

56:27

not. Fender's

56:31

not using them as a way to distribute his hands.

56:37

So is it an acoustic guitar though? Or is it

56:39

an electric guitar? Yeah, yeah, I think

56:41

so. Yeah, it's acoustic one. I think it's

56:43

a child's one because I've only got

56:46

I've got really small arms and fingers.

56:49

So it's like a smaller scale, is it? Yeah,

56:52

I did violin in school,

56:55

but like... Is it a ukulele? I'm

56:59

beginning to think that it might be a ukulele.

57:03

Yeah, but

57:05

I had this little violin and it's

57:07

because my arm was so small in school.

57:10

They only could find this like antique and

57:13

like Victorian one.

57:15

Oh, OK. And it must

57:17

have belonged to the child. Like

57:20

a lute. It's like really weird.

57:23

And it had like tiny bow with,

57:25

you know, made a horse hair that and

57:27

it would made such an awful sound that my

57:30

mum gave it back to school. She

57:32

marched it back up to school. Have

57:35

you thought about other instruments,

57:38

maybe that don't require long arms?

57:41

No, because I've only got little

57:43

lungs, I can't do sax. And

57:45

because I've got tiny fingers, like

57:47

in the pack, I got piano fingers,

57:50

um,

57:51

you know, and yeah, guitars

57:54

obviously like double basses out,

57:56

I've flew, I find weird. Those

57:58

wind instruments. I just think we

58:00

belong to pixies really.

58:04

I do. What

58:06

about, I'm thinking xylophone? Xylophone.

58:12

Yeah, I've got one of them. Yeah, I've

58:14

tried that. Yeah, it's harder than it

58:16

looks, isn't it?

58:18

It is. I've never tried it. We had a child's

58:20

one, like it was a little tykes one, I

58:22

think. And I

58:25

could play the EastEnders theme tune on it. That was the only thing

58:27

I was like, It's like doo doo doo doo doo

58:29

doo. That was the only thing I could play on it. That

58:32

took quite a few hours of like working

58:35

out the notes. Oh,

58:38

we've got a piano. I did chopsticks

58:40

on it for my daughter. And she,

58:42

you know, I did my hack like, you know, we cross

58:44

your hands. And she would have done like that. She

58:47

was so impressed, I fear. She was

58:49

just like, whoa. How

58:53

did you do that? It was amazing. Yeah,

58:55

my mum's magical. She can like, cross

58:57

her hands over and... Yeah.

59:00

Well, stick with the guitar, because it's a great

59:02

instrument, I have to say. Right.

59:05

Still playing it myself. And I think, yeah, if

59:07

you can stick with it... You can do like, YouTube videos

59:09

and stuff, can't you? I'm sure there's little YouTube videos where

59:12

people are sort of teaching guitar and stuff. Because

59:14

I taught myself guitar. I'm not very good,

59:17

but I can do like the bar chords

59:19

and stuff. It looks... It

59:21

looks cooler than it sounds, but it

59:24

is... If I can do it, anyone can. It

59:27

is doable. It's a 10,000 hours

59:29

thing, isn't it? You just got to dedicate 10,000 hours to it. And

59:32

then you can be shit off. Yeah, it

59:34

is a lot of hours. But then if you want to be a

59:36

Virtuoso guitar player, then, you

59:38

know, you got to put in there. Yeah,

59:40

then. Yeah. So

59:43

you can start today by putting

59:45

one hour in maybe. And then you just got

59:47

nine thousand nine hundred and ninety to go. Yeah,

59:50

do it like that. Like you can't do a countdown.

59:52

A countdown. Yeah. I don't know how

59:55

many years that is. How many years is

59:57

now? It's you have to work it out now. how

59:59

many years It's

1:00:00

a lot isn't it? It is isn't it? Well

1:00:02

that's 10,000 days, so that's a lot.

1:00:08

Well if you did an hour a day it would be, yeah

1:00:10

but you could do more than an hour a day couldn't you? Oh

1:00:13

I guess you could yeah, you could do it. You

1:00:16

did 10 hours a day for a thousand

1:00:18

days. Yeah. That's a day, I've got that.

1:00:20

Really good at blankets. Yeah exactly.

1:00:23

Yeah. At

1:00:25

the time, my friend

1:00:27

children. Yeah. Grandad's

1:00:30

amazing, Grandad's shredding his guitar. He's

1:00:32

like, slash. Yeah, on

1:00:34

his deathbed. So

1:00:41

let's keep going with this, because

1:00:44

obviously the acting became a big thing. And

1:00:47

did you do performing arts

1:00:49

or anything like uni? Was that?

1:00:52

I did. I went and I did.

1:00:55

I couldn't wait to leave school. and I

1:00:57

went to Sixth Ward College and did performing

1:01:00

arts and it was the best two years

1:01:02

of my life. I just absolute,

1:01:04

a place called Wright College, I just, oh,

1:01:07

I just loved it. I just, they didn't care

1:01:09

if you were there or not and you just,

1:01:11

it was just messing about and we had

1:01:14

such a teacher,

1:01:17

Richie Green, who

1:01:17

was just so funny and didn't

1:01:20

take anything seriously but

1:01:22

I managed to get the VTech

1:01:25

and then luckily for me Hull

1:01:27

College have a thing because their founder

1:01:30

Thomas Ferendens

1:01:32

when he gave the money

1:01:34

for for Hull University said you have

1:01:36

to let someone from Hull in who doesn't

1:01:39

necessarily have to have the grades

1:01:42

and so luckily hundreds

1:01:44

of years later that was me. And

1:01:48

yes, I managed to get into and do a degree

1:01:51

without any points or

1:01:53

doing any A-levels and it was that was

1:01:55

the hardest

1:01:57

years of my life. I made some good friends,

1:01:59

but.

1:02:00

Oh, God, it was, yeah, it was,

1:02:02

I didn't find it. My friend, being

1:02:04

with friends and making productions was amazing, but

1:02:06

the rest was incredibly stressful

1:02:09

and difficult. And I felt like a fish out of

1:02:11

water, really. And, you know,

1:02:14

now I think there is the support for students

1:02:16

that are struggling, but back then there wasn't, you

1:02:19

know, and I hadn't, you know, I hadn't

1:02:21

done anything to an A-level standard.

1:02:23

So I was suddenly having to compete

1:02:26

with people who had done three

1:02:28

A levels, you know. But

1:02:31

yeah, but we did, we did, we had some

1:02:33

amazing, they were amazing

1:02:35

students, some really talented students and learnt

1:02:37

a lot. And yes, so from there went and

1:02:39

did, did

1:02:42

all sorts really, after uni,

1:02:45

I, we set up a theatre company and

1:02:47

we did, we did that for a bit. And

1:02:49

then I went into teaching really,

1:02:51

I did, I worked

1:02:54

as a youth,

1:02:55

sort of a youth

1:02:57

theatre to teach at and worked in

1:03:00

youth organisations, worked in

1:03:03

behavioural units,

1:03:06

outreach centres,

1:03:09

worked with children in care, survivors

1:03:12

of domestic abuse, worked in prisons,

1:03:14

I did all sorts. And

1:03:16

it was, you know, really

1:03:17

it was to try and jobs

1:03:19

that I could put down for auditions. But

1:03:23

at the auditions got less and less and I sort of did

1:03:25

less acting and did more sort of community

1:03:27

work really, which

1:03:29

I'm so grateful for because I feel

1:03:31

like I have, and

1:03:34

it's the training as well, I felt like I had an understanding

1:03:37

of people

1:03:39

really and especially

1:03:42

people in

1:03:43

deprived communities and

1:03:46

the challenges and

1:03:48

I think

1:03:50

if someone hasn't had any experience

1:03:52

of it or doesn't read certain

1:03:55

papers that try to highlight

1:03:57

issues. I think it's very hard to understand.

1:04:00

and how someone,

1:04:03

you know, how the pressures really, and how

1:04:05

it's so hard to get yourself out of

1:04:08

a certain situation. So

1:04:10

I was really chuffed. I

1:04:12

felt like

1:04:14

my dreams of being an actor was

1:04:17

fading

1:04:17

away. I just, I

1:04:19

was never, I was back in Holland.

1:04:22

I mean, I used to jump trains and everything

1:04:24

that I'd maybe I'd been working

1:04:26

like, you know, and sort of

1:04:28

quite tough school for ages and then get an

1:04:30

audition and be like, Oh, this is it. You know,

1:04:32

this is my ticket. Okay, now,

1:04:35

you know, you could not on a lot of money

1:04:38

couldn't never go on holidays. And

1:04:40

good, you know, my friends were going to watch concerts

1:04:42

and there's only on about 11 grand

1:04:45

a year. And so so

1:04:47

the auditions were like, I was riding on it. And

1:04:49

then they'd say we want you tomorrow. And I'd

1:04:51

look and it was be like 120 pound for

1:04:53

a train ticket down there.

1:04:54

I used

1:04:56

to just have to jump trains. I just became

1:04:58

an absolute pro. There's

1:05:02

no other way I could do it.

1:05:03

Did you sit in the toilet? Because that's what we

1:05:05

used to do when we were kids, sitting in the toilet. But

1:05:08

then sometimes the guard would knock on the door

1:05:10

and you'd be like, oh, shit, I'm going to get it.

1:05:12

I like, because it

1:05:14

would sort of be only

1:05:16

like four different... I learned

1:05:19

what the rich would work with which ticket

1:05:21

inspector.

1:05:22

And when it was men, the best one

1:05:25

really was just

1:05:26

having a box of tampons and just

1:05:29

putting them all over the seat.

1:05:30

And

1:05:33

they just, they turn up and they just

1:05:36

couldn't bear the nearest

1:05:39

sanitary products. And

1:05:42

I'd look through my bag and be like, it's here

1:05:44

somewhere. And

1:05:48

then they go, who can't love or come back in a minute?

1:05:50

It would just never come back. That

1:05:54

was the best one. That's genius.

1:05:57

weren't the best. But what it did

1:05:59

all those years...

1:06:00

was it was help building material.

1:06:02

I just, I've always liked

1:06:05

having a laugh, but I was tending to go, I had a great

1:06:07

social life and we hung around with sort

1:06:10

of like, we were

1:06:11

sort of musers, we were in a sort

1:06:13

of a music indie scene and

1:06:16

I was finding I was going out and

1:06:19

almost testing material

1:06:21

out on people. So something funny had happened

1:06:23

and then I'd go tell one group of people in the

1:06:25

pub and then I sort of see what got

1:06:28

the laughs and how to perfect it and then

1:06:30

go to another group. And there

1:06:32

wasn't comedy clubs, you know, if I would have been

1:06:34

in London, I maybe would have started doing stand-up

1:06:36

earlier and going round the clubs, but there

1:06:38

wasn't, but I was doing it, you know, I was just

1:06:40

doing it so sort of like people I knew in pubs

1:06:42

really, and

1:06:44

which, you know, and they were all funny as well, so

1:06:48

I was getting a lot of material without realising it.

1:06:51

Yeah, you were doing sort of your own

1:06:53

open mic scene, basically.

1:06:55

Well, just not having a lot of money and trying

1:06:58

to do things creates

1:07:00

quite funny. I

1:07:02

was living in a sitcom, it was like some

1:07:04

others do, I've heard most of the times, to

1:07:08

the honest, yeah.

1:07:10

So when did you start doing, when

1:07:13

did you start thinking, actually, I've got enough material here,

1:07:16

or I've got enough, you know, to go on to actually

1:07:18

start doing gigs and stuff. When I had,

1:07:20

I felt like it felt like I'd had

1:07:23

just this week of, I think on the same

1:07:25

week, I'd gone to London for an audition

1:07:27

and then I'd ran out of money but I'd

1:07:29

got there four hours early. I'd

1:07:32

got the mega bus down but they were only once

1:07:34

twice a day, you know.

1:07:36

So my audition went to like one o'clock and

1:07:38

I was down at like eight four or something. And

1:07:41

I was down to there early. And

1:07:43

so I just like needed things to do to

1:07:45

occupy myself And

1:07:48

I

1:07:48

went in a bike shop and they

1:07:50

were giving them test

1:07:53

drives because they're just out the electric

1:07:56

bikes at the time. Oh right. And

1:07:58

so he put me on an electric bike he was like

1:08:00

come back in an hour. And he was like, it'll

1:08:02

run out in an hour. And

1:08:04

so I couldn't get off it, I couldn't

1:08:06

stop it was so high up. And I didn't want to tell him it's

1:08:09

too high, the seats too high for me. And

1:08:11

I was worried about stopping and falling.

1:08:13

So I just kept on it for an hour. And

1:08:16

I just kept going round and round this building. But

1:08:18

I didn't realize the building I was going round,

1:08:21

it was where they were doing the auditions. And

1:08:23

apparently,

1:08:26

there was just this woman going round and round

1:08:29

on the back. putting them all off. So

1:08:31

when I went in for the audition, the director

1:08:33

was like, it's

1:08:34

you. You've

1:08:36

sabotaged everybody else. Yeah,

1:08:39

I was trying to psych them out. But I

1:08:42

didn't know. I didn't

1:08:44

know they were there. And they'd had been on

1:08:46

a train and fallen asleep and a gang

1:08:49

of youths got on and

1:08:51

they'd partied a chocolate wagon wheel

1:08:53

and stuck it to my forehead. And

1:08:55

I woke up and I didn't know what. I didn't know what

1:08:57

happened, why I had this.

1:09:00

And then and then that's when that crow landed

1:09:03

on my head. And that say those

1:09:05

form the basis of mass routine.

1:09:08

I thought, right, I've got it wasn't

1:09:10

really stand up. It was just some funny stories

1:09:13

that had happened. But I was just like,

1:09:15

I've got to try this out. You know, it might,

1:09:17

this might be a way, you know, because the acting wasn't,

1:09:21

I just wasn't earning any money from it. And

1:09:24

it was at that funny stage where all

1:09:26

because it was the recession, all the theatres were shut

1:09:28

in.

1:09:29

So yeah, so I did I tried it out. And

1:09:33

lots of late 20 late I think I was about 28 29.

1:09:38

Yeah, and then

1:09:39

and then got a bit of a following

1:09:42

in whole because Johnny Vegas

1:09:44

came and did a gig with me. And that was

1:09:46

it then once Johnny Vegas once I'd have Johnny Vegas's

1:09:48

seal of approval, people in whole sorts

1:09:51

of, maybe

1:09:53

women can be a little bit amusing.

1:09:55

Yeah, it sort

1:09:58

of legitimised you somehow. Yeah.

1:10:01

Yeah. And am I right? You did

1:10:03

some stuff with Jeremy

1:10:05

Dyson. Yeah,

1:10:08

he was a memento. Yeah, I did

1:10:10

a BBC. We're trying to find

1:10:13

female Northern playwrights. So

1:10:16

they, they, yeah, they

1:10:18

did. They did a

1:10:21

like a mentor

1:10:23

scheme, but then didn't

1:10:24

commission any of us anyway. Oh, I know.

1:10:28

didn't get through but yeah Jeremy Dyson

1:10:30

mentored me he was amazing and

1:10:33

yeah it was yeah it was yeah

1:10:36

incredible scheme and

1:10:39

yeah and he was a wonderful guy.

1:10:40

Yeah he really got it yeah yeah

1:10:43

can we say friend of the podcast he's been he's

1:10:45

been on. As is yeah. I remember

1:10:47

there being lots

1:10:51

of lots of words of wisdom like a very

1:10:53

kind of very very smart

1:10:55

individual and yeah just just just

1:10:57

a nice person as well.

1:10:59

Yeah, exactly. Yeah,

1:11:02

really smart and very humble,

1:11:04

isn't it? Yeah, yeah, and has obviously

1:11:06

done some amazing things. What were those first kind

1:11:08

of comedy gigs like then? How did you get

1:11:11

on? Were they, was it a bit of a baptism on fire or

1:11:14

did you think, oh, this is a piece of piss? They went

1:11:16

well.

1:11:16

Well, I did a five minute

1:11:19

in Camden and I got,

1:11:21

it was really sunny and they had

1:11:23

all the windows open upstairs and

1:11:25

I went and I got to the stage and got to the mic

1:11:27

and a car horn went off outside

1:11:30

and it sounded like I'd made it with my mouth. And

1:11:34

they'd give me a round of applause. Just

1:11:37

the timing, I went, like that.

1:11:39

And it- Do

1:11:42

it again, do it again. And I got just like that applause. And they'd

1:11:44

go from police academy. Yeah.

1:11:48

And while it came from me, they

1:11:51

didn't realise it. What

1:11:53

other sounds is she gonna do? funny

1:11:58

like i think if i had to go I thought that

1:12:01

was like a standing ovation. If

1:12:03

I hadn't got that, like they just erupted.

1:12:06

I was like, oh my God, I think

1:12:08

I'm the next Richard Cryer.

1:12:12

That's

1:12:14

incredible.

1:12:19

Yeah, and then, yeah, so then I entered

1:12:22

a competition. And so

1:12:24

that's like,

1:12:25

it was my second gig, I thought I don't count

1:12:27

that it was only five minutes but

1:12:29

then my first proper gig was the

1:12:32

first heat of so you think you're funny then the

1:12:35

third gig was the final so it

1:12:37

was it was really mad I hadn't just hadn't I

1:12:40

just didn't even know what stand-up was

1:12:42

to be honest I had

1:12:44

a Billy Connolly video and an Eddie Izard video

1:12:47

but I hadn't seen live stand-up because

1:12:49

just where I was living just didn't see it but

1:12:52

Sarah Milliken was on the TV and I thought,

1:12:54

well maybe you know she can do it and the first

1:12:57

female

1:12:58

comic I'd seen that I thought, you're

1:13:00

not dissimilar, you're regional, you

1:13:03

know, and you're northeast.

1:13:07

So yeah, so I

1:13:09

carried on like that really but I didn't know what I was

1:13:11

doing and my material

1:13:13

wasn't like

1:13:14

most people's stand-up material, it was just

1:13:18

I didn't know the craft of it really, I don't

1:13:20

know whether I still do. But

1:13:23

I just, yeah, that buzz of making people

1:13:26

laugh, you know, I was very

1:13:28

alternative then I then I had a

1:13:30

stooge. So I used to go around

1:13:32

pubs and I had this guy who was about

1:13:35

six foot four. And he was a big,

1:13:37

big guy. And he was just mute.

1:13:39

He just carried out, he had the same handbag as me

1:13:41

and he just stood behind me. And I

1:13:44

didn't think

1:13:44

he was doing anything but apparently he was, he

1:13:46

was showing off behind me.

1:13:48

Oh really? Yeah

1:13:51

he was mimicking me and that's what they were laughing

1:13:53

at, I thought they were laughing at me. gone

1:13:56

on about six months before I came round and realised

1:13:58

I thought he was just stood there.

1:14:05

But yeah, but I did, I got the bug

1:14:07

really. And it just, it just

1:14:09

felt like now I never like my thirties was

1:14:11

looming. And I just thought, I've

1:14:14

got to start any money and it's the

1:14:16

acting is not working. And I'm just, I

1:14:19

was struggling with the teaching I was finding

1:14:21

hard, you know, and the

1:14:24

curriculum had been messed up, because I was going to go

1:14:26

into teaching full time

1:14:28

and go and get my degree.

1:14:31

And I just,

1:14:33

I've cared about the kids and what

1:14:36

I found it hard, you know, it was hard working

1:14:39

with children with autism that

1:14:41

when it wasn't set up properly mainstream,

1:14:44

there wasn't money there and it was hard working with

1:14:46

kids in care. And,

1:14:48

you know, when you just again, the

1:14:50

provisions weren't there. And

1:14:53

yeah, so I desperately wanted

1:14:55

to get

1:14:56

into, you know, do something creative

1:14:58

where I could earn money. So I

1:15:01

didn't have a choice. And I really just

1:15:03

threw myself into the comedy.

1:15:06

Yeah, and just tried to gig every

1:15:08

night and keep going,

1:15:10

really moved to London and lived in a

1:15:12

bed sitting. Yeah,

1:15:15

just kept going until I earned money, but it was

1:15:17

just so hard because of

1:15:19

the misogyny, it was incredibly hard

1:15:22

to get gigs. they'd booked a woman

1:15:24

that month they didn't want another one you know

1:15:27

um

1:15:29

mad now the difference when you think most bills

1:15:31

have a woman on but back then it was just they

1:15:34

would apologize you know the

1:15:36

compare would go on and say i'm really sorry it's a woman

1:15:39

now um

1:15:41

it's mad and it's not not

1:15:44

that long ago either as well and and yeah 2010

1:15:48

yeah absolutely madness and even

1:15:51

now you still see a

1:15:52

lot of lineups that are all

1:15:53

white blokes. I think it is getting

1:15:57

better but but I think there's still a long way. I

1:16:00

think now, I think people

1:16:02

actively look for diverse

1:16:04

builds. I think it is different,

1:16:06

I think, because it's been called out so much.

1:16:10

But yeah, it's a different

1:16:12

culture. Like, the audiences

1:16:15

are embarrassed when a woman comes on stage,

1:16:17

they used to be embarrassed. And

1:16:19

they used to look away, it was heartbreaking.

1:16:22

Absolutely heartbreaking. When you think, I'm

1:16:25

trying to end at this, you you know, this is my job.

1:16:28

You're not you're not even giving me a chance. You just

1:16:30

think because I don't look like

1:16:32

Michael McIntyre. You just

1:16:34

presume it's just pure sexism from women

1:16:36

as well. It won't mean it

1:16:38

wasn't just men. But yeah, but

1:16:40

it changed. You know, it's massively

1:16:43

changed. Thank God for that.

1:16:45

Yeah, I remember

1:16:47

there was a comic that I used to kick with in the earlier it's

1:16:49

called Jenny Collier and she, I

1:16:52

think it was a mirth gig

1:16:54

and she got an email before the gig

1:16:56

saying,

1:16:57

I'm so sorry but we've already got a woman on the bill so

1:17:00

we can't have you this this week. And

1:17:04

then she tweeted about it and it became a big story

1:17:06

and hopefully was one of the

1:17:09

reasons that maybe helped change things

1:17:11

slightly.

1:17:11

I think I remember that, yeah.

1:17:14

But isn't that mad? And that would have been 2015, 2014. Right,

1:17:19

so that's even lit. Yeah, yeah,

1:17:21

that's it. Yeah.

1:17:22

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, it would be but

1:17:25

it was because punters were saying

1:17:27

that they didn't find the women funny. So that's why

1:17:29

you know, and you'd

1:17:31

get up and go to the toilet. But yeah, it's changed.

1:17:34

But I think it's as

1:17:36

well, it's a lot to do with like, there's just been

1:17:38

some incredible female comics on

1:17:40

TV who've been so bulletproof and

1:17:43

not nervous and have held their

1:17:46

own that it sort of opened floodgates

1:17:48

really. Yeah.

1:17:50

Well, you are

1:17:52

one of them, you know, and the stuff you

1:17:55

do on TV. I don't count myself as one of them.

1:17:57

No. I'm just, I'm sort of feeling, feeling.

1:18:01

This last

1:18:03

year was the first year I thought I was starting

1:18:06

to be better on shows

1:18:09

and not be like a rabbit

1:18:11

in a headlight.

1:18:13

That's honestly

1:18:16

because it takes a long time. I'm

1:18:20

in awe of

1:18:22

newbies that come along and they've only been

1:18:24

going a couple of years and they're just absolutely,

1:18:27

I've

1:18:27

never, you know, they're just so calm,

1:18:30

so confident, like that's just wasn't

1:18:32

me, it's taken me years, you know, to

1:18:35

have confidence. But

1:18:37

luckily, I've been kept giving opportunities,

1:18:39

you know, and that you can

1:18:42

do a show and not be very good on it. And then

1:18:44

someone else will still take a,

1:18:46

will

1:18:46

still, will still take a hit. That's, you

1:18:49

know, thank God for that as well.

1:18:50

But it's a, but it's

1:18:52

a, I do think there's something about

1:18:55

being a bit older sometimes. But

1:18:58

also it's a perception thing because you might think

1:19:00

I wasn't very good on that. But your perception

1:19:02

of how you are perceived versus how the world

1:19:05

perceives you can be very different. Someone else is probably

1:19:07

thinking, Oh, she was great on that. I'll pick up

1:19:09

on something else. But just because you think you weren't

1:19:11

very good doesn't necessarily mean that was the case.

1:19:13

Yeah, but you've got Twitter now, though. Yeah. Yeah.

1:19:16

People love, love telling you. Twitter's

1:19:18

not real. Twitter's it's... Yeah,

1:19:21

I don't mind. I thought, yeah, I know.

1:19:23

It is a little bit though. It is a little

1:19:26

bit. I, if someone says I'm shit

1:19:28

and then I click on his profile,

1:19:31

he's usually a man, an

1:19:34

older man. If I click on his profile

1:19:36

and he's holding like a 12 pound car,

1:19:39

I don't know, I don't need to.

1:19:40

I'm never gonna

1:19:42

get you. You're

1:19:48

mother, Stuart 5432. I

1:19:52

think I've got 5432. Yeah,

1:19:54

exactly. If he's got numbers

1:19:56

in his username. Exactly.

1:20:00

It is, it is, sorry, let us know if you

1:20:02

have a name. What all

1:20:04

lives matter, hashtag all lives matter in his bio

1:20:06

and he's holding a fish.

1:20:08

It's Lawrence Fox, basically.

1:20:12

I was thinking to say that name, but I wasn't going to say that

1:20:14

name earlier. But Lawrence

1:20:17

Fox will never be invited on the spot because never.

1:20:21

Now, Lisa, I know your time's very

1:20:23

precious and you've got lots of things to

1:20:25

do. I had to go to adapt to the point. Yeah.

1:20:28

So it's been so great

1:20:31

to talk to you. It's been wonderful. Thank

1:20:34

you. The new tour,

1:20:36

The Travel and Strife, when

1:20:39

does that start?

1:20:40

October. October

1:20:42

to December. We're putting some

1:20:45

extra dates in as well. I think it

1:20:47

might, some places might

1:20:49

get in, so that it probably

1:20:51

will run after that. if

1:20:55

places people are looking full,

1:20:57

that there should be some extra dates

1:21:00

going in. But yeah, October

1:21:02

till December.

1:21:04

Yeah, I can't wait. It's

1:21:07

my first proper tour really. And like

1:21:09

you say, I do feel like I've got a lot to

1:21:11

say. I'm 40 next year. And

1:21:13

I mean, I'm dying

1:21:15

to just tell people all the celebrity gossip I've

1:21:17

heard. But

1:21:19

the amount of lawsuits I could go

1:21:22

to, but it's so hard. I

1:21:24

can't tell you how hard it is to not

1:21:26

even tell you the things I've, you know,

1:21:28

if I could just have heard so many

1:21:32

and like incredible gossip, where

1:21:34

you think, oh, people need to know

1:21:36

this.

1:21:36

I can't tell you. But

1:21:40

yeah, so, yeah, so, yeah.

1:21:43

And it's just gonna be a laugh through

1:21:45

who I was really. That's all it

1:21:47

is.

1:21:48

Just a laugh. Sounds amazing, yeah. Try

1:21:51

and get to some dates if there's any down this way. Best

1:21:54

of luck with everything. Really appreciate you coming on

1:21:56

the board today. You can absolutely enjoy. Thanks

1:21:59

for having me. Lucy, it's been great.

1:22:22

Lucy Beaumont on the Blank Podcast. What

1:22:24

a fantastic person. What

1:22:26

a, what, I mean just some lovely stories there. What

1:22:29

a compassionate kind person as well

1:22:32

and really enjoyed being

1:22:34

in her company. I

1:22:35

should say as

1:22:37

well, I genuinely and I know

1:22:39

like we get a lot of people on the podcast and sometimes

1:22:42

it's people that we've seen lots of their stuff maybe

1:22:44

not so much. I genuinely love her output.

1:22:46

I think the show Meet the Richesons is fantastic.

1:22:48

The news show that her and John do odd couples,

1:22:51

which is like a sort of game show thing on on Channel

1:22:53

Four is absolutely brilliant. So she

1:22:56

is not only is she

1:22:58

a lovely person, but a really, really fantastic performer.

1:23:00

And it was really just nice to get to know her. This

1:23:03

is one of those episodes where you felt like you really get to know someone

1:23:05

and hear her story, which

1:23:07

is fascinating and, you know, peppered with

1:23:10

funny little things that happened to her and anecdotes. And you can

1:23:12

see how that really easily transitioned

1:23:14

into stand up and comedy. Yeah,

1:23:17

yeah, you totally can actually. Yeah, very,

1:23:19

very funny anecdotes, but very different

1:23:22

things, she's got a lovely way of looking at the world. And

1:23:25

I liked that bit where she was saying

1:23:27

she was kind of trying out material

1:23:29

in the pub sort of thing, like going to one set of

1:23:32

people and then trying out another people, maybe

1:23:34

not like sort of consciously trying material

1:23:37

out, but certainly like telling stories

1:23:40

and storytelling as obviously a big part of her,

1:23:42

her comedy is, yeah.

1:23:44

And, and sort of seeing how people

1:23:46

responded and, uh, you

1:23:49

know, kind of, responded

1:23:51

to her material was just really really interesting

1:23:54

to hear and that was I guess gave

1:23:56

her the courage and validation

1:23:59

to sort of take it as a career move.

1:24:02

I think we all do that. I mean, I definitely do that. I don't know

1:24:04

if it's just a performer thing, but I think we all do that sometimes.

1:24:08

We've all got different groups that we actually

1:24:10

think differently. And I think we all, I

1:24:12

certainly like, I will find sometimes I will

1:24:14

drop in bits.

1:24:16

I chatted someone the other day and I dropped in a bit that

1:24:18

I'd sort of been working on. And they instantly went,

1:24:21

that's new stand up, isn't it? And I was like, oh,

1:24:23

no. Right. But

1:24:26

I think actually there's a really nice. actually,

1:24:28

there's a really nice...

1:24:30

I'll do that again. Mind

1:24:32

this microphone. There's a really

1:24:34

nice bit about... Why

1:24:38

is my mic doing that? Weird, isn't it? My mic

1:24:40

is... It's fine. Fine, fine, fine, fine, fine, fine. Then

1:24:42

suddenly... Very strange.

1:24:44

Maybe it's too close to me. There you go, listeners. I'm going to leave this

1:24:46

in, by the way, to the edit. This is a little bit of

1:24:48

a... You get a bit of an insight. Sometimes there's technical

1:24:51

issues and then we just can't do anything about them. This

1:24:53

is a really good mic, but I think I wonder if it's actually

1:24:56

my Zoom anyway. way. Sorry, listeners.

1:24:59

There's

1:24:59

a really good way. You know, her mum

1:25:05

came to still

1:25:08

doing it. Remember, I just stopped talking. I'll do it really quickly. Let's

1:25:10

see if that Yeah, yeah, yeah. Her mum came to

1:25:13

creative writing and stuff later in life. And Lucy

1:25:15

started to stand up later in life and after doing a first

1:25:17

tour getting towards the age of 40. I think there's something really

1:25:19

nice about coming to stuff a bit

1:25:21

later. And the fact that nothing's

1:25:24

forever and nothing's the table that you can come to,

1:25:26

you can have a creative second life later on. I did, I

1:25:28

didn't start to stand up till 28. Same

1:25:31

age Lucy did. And I think like, and I'm now doing

1:25:33

lots of former career stuff I never thought

1:25:35

I'd do when I was in my early 20s. So it's

1:25:38

a nice encouragement, I think. And she saw that from her mum

1:25:40

growing up. And I think it's a nice message to

1:25:42

put out into the world that if you are someone

1:25:45

that's done a certain job, and maybe it wasn't

1:25:47

for you, and you've always yearned to do something else, you can

1:25:49

do it. You know, age isn't, age isn't a barrier.

1:25:51

And I think that's a, we didn't really talk about that. But that was

1:25:53

a nice kind of

1:25:55

through story and arc I think to lose his story.

1:25:57

Absolutely, absolutely, I totally agree man.

1:26:00

like also like as creatives we're kind

1:26:02

of having to be more diverse

1:26:04

this at the moment with regards to what we do

1:26:06

so you know you're not just a

1:26:08

you know for example you're not just a comedian you're also

1:26:11

a video content editor you're you

1:26:13

know you're a social media manager you're

1:26:15

you know you're running your own business as it

1:26:17

were so there's lots of different things that we have

1:26:19

to kind of work on and do and I think it's really

1:26:22

yeah it's

1:26:22

really encouraging to

1:26:24

hear someone like

1:26:26

Deciding to take something on later in life

1:26:29

and i always love hearing stories about

1:26:31

things like that where yes i'm on the know

1:26:33

we've had people on on the podcast before

1:26:35

like cali beaten for example who's another

1:26:37

brilliant female comedian who didn't stop. To

1:26:40

much later you know i think she was might have even

1:26:42

been near to sort of late thirties neighbor

1:26:44

forties before she goes forty five forty

1:26:46

five so they go stand up yes i like

1:26:48

taking that sort of big leap and that's always really

1:26:51

amazing that like say it's never too late to change what

1:26:53

you do is never too late to. try

1:26:56

new

1:26:56

things out, you know, it's, you

1:26:59

know, we talked to Lucy about

1:27:01

picking up the guitar and learning to play the guitar and,

1:27:05

you know, it's never too late to do those kind of things.

1:27:07

So I think if you've got something in within you that

1:27:09

you want to express yourself doing,

1:27:11

then, you know, go for it.

1:27:14

Completely agree.

1:27:16

That's a really lovely sentiment to end the podcast on,

1:27:18

I think as well. before.