0:00

Hello, Stu here. Just popping in before the show starts

0:02

to let you know that my comedy special, I Need

0:04

You Alive, is now available at

0:06

stewartgoldsmith.com. There's a link

0:08

there where you can watch it on a breathtaking array

0:11

of places for the rest of the month, including

0:14

the £800 Gorilla website, Amazon Prime in the

0:16

UK and US, Xbox, God

0:18

knows how they do that, as well as loads of other links

0:20

to catch it on audio. Go to stewartgoldsmith.com

0:23

and watch this show that I am staggeringly

0:25

proud of. And do watch it if you can, because

0:28

it's very pretty.

0:45

Hello

0:45

and welcome to the show. I'm Stuart Goldsmith

0:48

and my guest today is the brilliant

0:50

comic and actress and performer of

0:52

herself, Lucy Beaumont, who

0:54

is most known for her role on Meet the Richardsons,

0:57

in which she co-stars with her real-life husband,

0:59

John Richardson. And she's known as the

1:01

writer and creator of To Hullenbach and the co-writer

1:04

on Channel 4's Hull Raisers. She is about

1:06

to embark on her 2023

1:08

stand-up tour. You can get tickets at lucybeaumont.co.uk.

1:12

And you can follow her socials, AskLucyABoeMont

1:15

on Twitter and TheOneFromHull

1:17

underscores, in between all those words, on

1:20

Instagram. This is a really fascinating

1:22

chat. We're going to talk about... I mean, one

1:24

of the huge things that came out of this for me is

1:27

when she's talking about writing

1:30

processes for other characters, she

1:32

talks about letting in spirits. And

1:35

I was fascinated as to whether she was pulling

1:37

my leg or whether she was speaking metaphorically.

1:40

And the exploration

1:42

of the answers to those questions is absolutely

1:45

fascinating. So lots of great stuff to

1:47

come. We've got 15 minutes of extra content

1:49

available exclusively to The Insiders Club, including

1:51

Lucy's experience with ADHD and the impact

1:54

it's had on her career. A really interesting insight

1:56

into how to think about jokes and some more

1:59

info on how she's putting it. pairing for her tour. All

2:01

of that can be found at comedianscomedian.com

2:03

slash insiders by supporting the show

2:05

with a minimum donation of £2 a month for

2:07

which you get ad-free episodes and all the other extra

2:10

content. Now let's get into this conversation

2:12

with the brilliant and very funny Lucy

2:14

Beaumont.

2:20

Thanks for joining me Lucy. Lovely

2:22

to welcome you to the show. This is us starting

2:24

by the way. I've launched from chat into

2:26

officially starting. How are you

2:28

doing?

2:29

I'm good, yeah very well thank you.

2:31

How are you doing? I'm really well, I'm really

2:33

well. Are you at home? I'm in my cellar. Are

2:37

you really in your cellar? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's

2:39

a bit lacking in actual daylight.

2:41

I've got to do something clever with a door with glass in

2:43

it or something because it's

2:44

a bit depressing. That's what a cellar is

2:46

isn't it? It'd

2:49

be an underground conservatory if

2:51

it was lying wouldn't it? That's

2:54

true and I've never heard the term

2:56

underground conservatory before and that seems

2:59

particularly you.

3:02

How is comedy treating you at the moment?

3:05

Oh it's treating me well at the moment, yeah,

3:08

yeah. I could do a full

3:10

shop at Max and Spence as if I wanted

3:12

to

3:13

now. I

3:15

think you've interpreted that question as being how

3:17

are you doing financially out of it? Oh right, well

3:20

that's what it is isn't it? Yeah,

3:23

this is our money, isn't it? For

3:25

the money.

3:25

You're in quite

3:28

a strange position I think of them but you're quite an unusual

3:30

position in that you're preparing

3:32

to go on tour in the autumn and

3:35

it's a stand-up show.

3:38

Yes, yeah. And you are, I

3:40

know you as a stand-up, I think we met each other

3:42

years ago in sort of like late 2017, 18,

3:46

19, something like that but

3:51

you haven't been, you're not known for stand-up since

3:53

then. Have you been, like you're known for being

3:55

funny in a wide variety of other formats,

3:58

writing and your

3:59

which I've read some of is really, really funny, and

4:02

obviously Mick the Richardson's, all of this stuff. So

4:05

most people who are in your position kind of fame-wise,

4:07

your profile and able to tour at that kind of level

4:10

would have like

4:12

maybe a more regular kind of standup

4:15

basis behind them. So I'm interested

4:17

in how you're approaching that, how you feel about that.

4:20

Oh, well, yeah, I mean, it's

4:23

nice to go, it's nice to be back

4:26

doing it. Like you say, I wasn't. And

4:28

really over the last few years, the only

4:30

gigs I've done are charity

4:32

gigs. But

4:35

I am, that's what I started out as,

4:38

as a standup. And

4:41

I think there was lots of reasons why

4:45

I haven't done that

4:47

as regularly. I mean, the main one is being

4:49

a mum, and

4:52

really letting,

4:54

sorry, I'm still on

4:56

my phone, going bam bammy. I

4:58

don't actually leave this phone on, do I?

5:00

No, you don't, you don't. Or record it. I'm gonna

5:02

turn it off, because it's funny. Shall

5:05

I go back? Yeah,

5:08

yeah, come in again or whatever. I mean, you were saying standup

5:11

is how you started. Yeah,

5:13

yes. Standup

5:16

is how I started out, and it's nice

5:18

to be back feeling like a comic. And

5:20

there's lots of reasons why I've took such

5:22

a big hiatus, really. Mainly,

5:26

that

5:27

I had a daughter, you

5:30

know, and I sort of consciously

5:33

stopped doing standup when

5:39

we knew we were trying for a

5:41

baby. And I started to try

5:44

to get good at writing so

5:46

that I could be at home, really,

5:49

more. And

5:51

I had a love-hate relationship with

5:54

standup. I came into

5:56

standup at a time when the sexism...

5:58

and misogyny

6:01

was unbearable. It

6:04

was preventing me doing my

6:06

job properly.

6:08

And some of that was like

6:11

culturally at the time, but

6:13

a lot of that was it got into my head. I

6:16

just believed everyone

6:18

I'd ever heard tell me that women

6:20

aren't funny. And I could sabotage

6:23

gigs and I became so nervous. And

6:26

now it's a totally different

6:28

landscape. Of

6:30

course you've got a few men

6:33

who like to catch cap on

6:35

a weekend telling younger women

6:37

that they aren't funny. They all

6:40

like to catch cap. There's something about,

6:42

men who catch cap don't find younger women

6:44

funny. But

6:46

mostly it's fair game.

6:49

And maybe not, I mean, I'm speaking on

6:51

behalf of what, maybe I'm not speaking

6:54

on behalf of young female comics

6:56

because I don't really know their experience, but it

6:59

seems to me

7:01

like it's a bit easier. And

7:03

of course I've done a bit of telly.

7:05

So again,

7:07

people are coming to watch me because

7:10

of me, whereas I started

7:12

out comedy where, I'd walk

7:14

onto stage and even before I opened my mouth,

7:17

half the audience would get up to get a drink

7:19

or go to the toilet or put

7:21

their head down. And they just thought

7:23

before they'd even let me begin that I was

7:25

gonna be bad. So

7:29

that's the difference. But

7:31

it got to me really where, I

7:34

just lost my bottle for it really.

7:37

Was there a particular kind

7:39

of trigger point? Was there a particular gig

7:41

or experience where you thought, sod this,

7:43

I'm not doing it anymore? Or was it sort of a long

7:45

slow accumulation

7:47

of

7:49

negative

7:50

experiences?

7:51

Yeah,

7:54

it was the Leicester Mercury competition

7:57

which as you know is quite, it's

7:59

not quite. prestigious one, isn't it really, with

8:02

comics.

8:04

And Romesh

8:06

won, very deservedly, you know, he

8:10

should have like, you know,

8:12

he was amazing and he'd waited

8:14

his time. And as you know, Romesh

8:17

had been gigging a while,

8:19

you know, and he was so ready to start,

8:21

you know, obviously went stratospheric.

8:25

But yeah, that competition, it was me

8:27

and it was, the other act

8:29

was a man. And what it was, it wasn't

8:31

Romesh winning. It was the review. And

8:36

again, obviously I won't say the reviewer. Again,

8:38

a reviewer, everyone who knows comedy knows

8:41

really well. And

8:42

he reviewed the gig and

8:45

I was in tears because I'd

8:48

had a blinder, I'd had an absolute

8:50

blinder. It was one of the best gigs I've

8:52

done. And he

8:54

described all the lads, he

8:57

described the type of acts they had and

8:59

the type of comedy. And with me,

9:01

he only described what I looked like. He

9:04

could have been describing anyone, just

9:07

someone off the street. By reading

9:09

it, you wouldn't have even known I was doing a standup.

9:11

And it was that I was like, elfin,

9:13

but fairly pretty and probably

9:16

got, you know, probably gonna go on to do TV

9:18

because she's fairly good

9:20

looking.

9:22

And I just, I was more upset about

9:24

that then, like, the heckles

9:27

of people shouting, you know,

9:29

get your tits out or, you know,

9:31

or like promoters that

9:34

whisper in your ear, look, if it goes badly, just

9:36

do five minutes and get off. But don't

9:38

say that to the men. I don't know, there was something

9:40

about

9:41

that. And I think because I had

9:44

done such a good gig and

9:47

then it was followed up by, I went

9:49

to do a gig somewhere and a

9:52

local radio, it was BBC as well,

9:55

a BBC local radio interviewed

9:57

with me before I did it.

9:59

And the first question... they asked was, do

10:01

you think women are funny as men?

10:03

And it had been like a topic on like

10:06

actual BBC that

10:08

day that they'd ran with because this

10:10

is back like 2011. So it was like just a lot

10:13

of those things all grouped

10:15

together but for some reason that Lester Mercury

10:18

and I emailed him and was

10:21

you know

10:22

really angry and he deleted it offline,

10:25

you can't find it.

10:28

So he obviously knew it was wrong

10:31

but wouldn't apologize, you know wouldn't, as I

10:33

said I want you to apologize it's not fair

10:35

you know but yeah so it

10:38

was for me it was

10:40

I just was like

10:41

maybe I'm not as funny

10:43

as men, maybe I'm just never going to

10:46

be as funny as any male

10:48

stand-up so why don't I just stop

10:51

and have a baby and stay at home

10:53

and write.

10:54

And the thing one of the things that's so

10:56

kind of tragic about that is that you're

10:59

we're only hearing that story

11:02

from you because you've

11:04

been able to find another route to

11:06

keep going like you didn't you

11:08

stopped but you paused and now you're going to

11:10

come back and the landscape is very differently. I

11:13

wonder how many people have been in that position

11:16

and stopped and just gone on and done something

11:18

else and they didn't stay within the

11:20

comedy world, they didn't stay kind of writing and then

11:22

they weren't afforded the opportunity to come

11:24

back and actually reflect on that

11:26

from the perspective of a much more different

11:29

power and a much more different profile.

11:31

So it's like you know what I mean like we're I'm hearing

11:34

that and I'm just because it is I hope it's such

11:36

a different landscape now that feels

11:38

like a story that I'm like it's

11:41

awful to hear but there is a note

11:43

of hope now in that oh I feel like

11:45

it's really different now in as much as I get

11:47

to absorb

11:49

any of that like you said there's loads of so many

11:51

more female comics breaking

11:54

boundaries that have been for years but

11:57

what strikes me is like oh Jesus

11:59

that's I haven't heard that story for

12:01

a while and how many people will we never

12:03

hear that story from because it was so shit at

12:05

the time that they they quit.

12:08

Yeah and it's

12:11

to do with the landscape I think

12:13

as well also because we

12:17

have needed more female comics I think

12:19

sometimes I think it happened with me where

12:22

you sort of get plucked a bit too early as

12:24

well so you're not learning your craft

12:26

and I do see it a lot with

12:28

female casting. I know

12:31

you want to take some couple of

12:33

sides and say I know you want to be on telly

12:35

but you're not ready you

12:38

know take it from me I started doing

12:40

telly before I was ready I'm only ready

12:42

now like literally this last year if

12:45

I'm totally honest and

12:47

if I'd have come along now but you know

12:50

it can also that can put you off that

12:52

you start telly too early and I'm

12:55

just I mean this is what you know I'm going you're

12:57

doing a tour I'm sort of learning

12:59

the craft now because you sort

13:02

of do get very busy with other things and

13:04

you stop focusing and you

13:06

know I see a lot of my peers and I think

13:09

how the hell have you had time to write a show

13:11

because you're on telly every week and

13:14

you haven't lived you've just you've

13:17

got to have lived a bit you know so I think

13:19

I

13:19

think I think the major

13:23

sort of agencies

13:25

and managers

13:27

I think can sometimes work comics too

13:29

much I think a good manager

13:31

should say don't do this

13:33

go and live a bit because you're

13:35

a stand-up and yeah yeah

13:37

but then we all know there are kind of management

13:40

styles which are hoover everyone

13:42

up chuck them out there see what sticks

13:44

and then go with them do you mean rather

13:47

than that kind of like as you're

13:49

describing that sort of nourishing nurturing

13:51

kind of approach

13:53

yeah yeah and I think

13:55

there's something if you've waited 10 years

13:58

to start earning good money you you're just

13:59

to say yes to everything you know.

14:03

But yeah so I think it's a mixture of the two

14:05

it was definite

14:07

terrible prejudice and sexism

14:09

and also you know

14:12

sort of exposing

14:15

people before they're ready. I think

14:17

that it's those two things yeah. Yeah it's

14:19

interesting when you say you just feel ready

14:21

now what are

14:23

the elements that go into that?

14:25

Like what is it that you have now that

14:27

you didn't have before? I imagine there's lots

14:29

of things but listen can we just talk about some of those?

14:32

Yeah like I happen I

14:34

don't know like I've not

14:36

I don't know do you know

14:38

everything I say in my head there's another voice saying

14:41

you're not funny because I'm

14:43

as good as it. Well I'm you know I'm no

14:46

less

14:47

I'm no more funnier than I was before I just

14:49

feel like

14:51

I just relaxed a bit to be honest

14:53

and just feel I can be myself a bit more on

14:55

things. I think that's what it is and

14:58

not just being so terrified and just being

15:00

completely sometimes just

15:03

feeling completely out I felt completely

15:05

out in my depth I think you know

15:08

and that maybe you know I

15:09

don't have that that sort

15:11

of

15:12

you know I'm I think it's amazing

15:15

how some performers just have

15:17

this sort of natural confidence

15:19

you know and you think you've only been going

15:21

two years how are you this confident at live

15:23

at the Apollo like yeah and

15:26

now but that's not me you know

15:28

I still get you know terribly

15:31

nervous and still question

15:33

if I'm good enough to take people's

15:35

time up you know because that's really

15:38

what you're doing you know

15:39

that's time that those people are never

15:41

going to get back it feels

15:44

like a massive weight on your shoulders

15:47

yeah but then that there is

15:49

something whereby

15:51

like you are really loved as a comic

15:54

and as a comic voice like you know there's you

15:56

know YouTube collections of Lucy Beaumont's

15:58

funniest moments and

15:59

stuff. Do you know what I mean? Like people really value

16:02

your comic voice and

16:04

the genuineness, the authenticity

16:06

of that voice and I think part

16:09

of that is that you are unafraid

16:11

to point out that you're afraid.

16:14

Yeah maybe, yeah I

16:16

try not to, it's such a weird,

16:18

I mean

16:20

I don't, yeah I think the only

16:22

thing I can sort of positively say about myself

16:24

is I do feel I am very down

16:26

to earth and it's just, I don't try

16:29

to be, I just don't know how to be anything

16:32

else but because of that

16:34

this whole world still is very

16:36

odd to me. I can't sort of

16:38

think about it too much because it's

16:41

just mad you know like

16:43

to be on telly and people

16:46

know you are and it's yeah,

16:50

yeah I can't think about it too

16:52

much. I can't sort of reference,

16:55

I don't know what my profile

16:57

is like and I don't watch

16:59

anything I've done and I don't like

17:01

to look at anything on YouTube and so

17:03

yeah it's

17:06

a very odd one. I'm still getting ahead

17:08

around it really.

17:13

So this is Lucy, I mean listen

17:16

there are many many reasons to have Lucy on your podcast.

17:18

She's brilliant, she's funny, she's candid, she's

17:20

wonderful but also it's just

17:22

a joy to listen to her voice and I terribly, I

17:24

really do apologize to everyone in Hull for whom

17:26

it's a completely normal accent and

17:29

I'm sorry for my southern

17:31

centric. I

17:32

don't want, you know what I mean, you don't want to cutify anyone

17:34

by going oh look listen to a lovely voice but

17:37

I mean it's not just the Hull accent,

17:39

it's such a good voice isn't it a great voice? So

17:41

more from Lucy in just a second we're going to talk more

17:43

about her writing style and her processes plus

17:46

we have these incredible stuff coming up on

17:48

letting in the voices of spirits in order

17:50

to help her write characters and

17:53

we are also towards the end of this episode we

17:55

are going to discuss some of the

17:57

prejudice and the misogyny that she's experiencing.

18:00

and that she's seen around on the comedy

18:02

circuit. So some serious and very important

18:04

stuff to talk about there. All coming up in

18:07

just a second. 15 minutes of extras on

18:09

the Insiders Club at comedianscomedian.com

18:11

slash insiders, where you can get ad-free episodes

18:14

and all the extra content from every episode

18:16

that has it. And do remember, go to lucybowmont.co.uk

18:20

in order to, I've got a link here and I don't

18:22

believe it. So I'm just gonna go with the homepage,

18:24

lucybowmont.co.uk, where I'm

18:26

sure you will find a link to find out more about

18:29

her Trouble and Strife tour, which is

18:31

happening in the later part of this year. Anyway,

18:33

let's get back to this conversation with Lucy

18:35

Beaumont.

18:36

["Trouble and Strife Tour", by Lucy Beaumont plays

18:39

in the background.]

18:42

We were talking about stand-up and

18:44

having paused it for a long time, the landscape

18:46

having changed, you're returning to it now.

18:50

Are you doing warm-up shows now for the tour?

18:52

Is the tour show written? How do you work as a

18:54

stand-up? Where are you with that?

18:55

Well, I like, I

18:58

mean, I, I, I, I, I,

19:00

again, because maybe where I was from,

19:03

I didn't go and watch live stand-up.

19:06

I, I, I have a rather quite a weird way

19:09

into it. I had a Billy Connolly video

19:11

and I had an Eddie Isard video.

19:13

That's all I had. And that's all

19:15

I'd seen. I'd never been to see live

19:18

comedy. And I just, and

19:20

I've talked about it so many times when we were

19:23

talking about this bloody career landing on my head,

19:25

but it genuinely was why

19:27

I thought, I'll go and try

19:30

stand-up and do a gig. And

19:32

so my first gig was, so

19:34

you think you're funny, he, and

19:37

my third gig was the final. And

19:40

so I, they were my first three gigs.

19:43

And as I say, I'd only ever watched two videos.

19:45

I had no idea what I was doing. And

19:48

then all I watched was Les Dawson,

19:50

YouTube videos. So I, I'm

19:53

not,

19:54

I've not been able to sort of mimic anyone or

19:58

like, you know, get a gig.

20:00

I think I would have been so much better

20:02

if I'd have gone to Edinburgh for a few years and

20:05

saw shows. I think there is a value

20:07

though to having invented it for yourself.

20:10

Do you

20:10

know what I mean? There's certain people you can tell, oh this

20:12

comic is really in the mould of that particular comic.

20:15

You can say this newer comic is a huge fan of James

20:18

Acaster or a huge fan of Stuart Lee or a huge

20:20

fan of Victoria Wood and you can kind of go,

20:22

oh they've got an idea in their head

20:25

for what they think stand-up is based

20:27

on a particular person or a particular style.

20:29

But I think there's a real value as well and when

20:31

you see someone and you go, oh this is interesting,

20:34

because they haven't seen loads, they're not a student

20:36

of it, they're just inventing what it is for themselves.

20:40

Yeah, yeah, I think

20:42

as well, I'd seen Millikan,

20:44

I'd seen Sarah Millikan on TV and

20:47

that was a quite a big moment because she

20:49

was northeast and had, you

20:52

know, I'm sure she would, Mammy said a funny little

20:54

voice. I've

20:56

got a funny little voice. That really helped

20:59

as well because they haven't seen anyone that

21:01

I thought, look, you know, that

21:03

thing of you've got to see it to be it

21:05

or you know whatever. But yeah,

21:08

so

21:09

in terms of like how I structure

21:11

things, I've not really

21:14

moved from the way I've done it and I like

21:16

gags. I like,

21:19

I'm old fashioned, I like

21:22

70s and 80s sitcoms

21:26

and I like gags. I like, so

21:29

I tend to want to write almost

21:32

one-liners that, you know, that what

21:34

I like doing is

21:36

taking real life events

21:39

and

21:40

making little gags out of them. I

21:42

don't like to do

21:44

routines. I

21:47

like to try and keep the laughs, you

21:49

know, every few seconds and

21:53

I'm trying to do

21:55

bigger routines and

21:58

I'm trying to learn. the

22:00

structure more and I really want this show

22:03

to be good, you

22:05

know, want it to be good stand-up

22:07

because I can write it but I

22:10

never knew how to structure it

22:11

really and so it's nice

22:14

sort of revisiting,

22:16

you know, and there's so much

22:18

comment, you know, like Netflix is like, can

22:20

you imagine like when

22:22

we started, we had Netflix,

22:24

like the amount we can see from, you

22:27

know, around the world, you know, I mean I was even watching,

22:31

I went to Tenerife and I was, I sat

22:34

for ages watching because Russian

22:37

female comic, female comedy, stand-up

22:39

comedy in Russia is really taken off

22:41

and I couldn't understand what they were saying

22:44

but the pattern I could tell it was funny, you

22:46

know, I just liked hearing it enough,

22:48

I'm a rhythm

22:51

person, I'm not so bothered about

22:53

technique and structure, I

22:55

like the rhythm of a gag

22:58

and that's why I like sort

23:00

of,

23:01

you know, almost like one-liners to

23:03

be honest.

23:04

Yeah, can you just, that's

23:06

really interesting and I love the idea of watching comedy

23:08

in a language you don't speak and

23:10

recognising the rhythm and like I feel like I've

23:12

done that with some Indian comedy that I've seen

23:14

online and I've thought, oh wow, yeah,

23:17

these are the rhythms, not that it's homogenised

23:19

but there is a comedy language, could

23:22

you, this is a bit putting you on the spot but could

23:24

you think of a bit of yours,

23:26

a stand-up bit of yours that particularly

23:29

illustrates that, that leans into that rhythm, like

23:31

an old bit maybe or something that

23:34

you could just talk a little bit more about the

23:36

rhythm

23:37

of your comedy and the

23:38

rhythm of your movies? Yeah, I suppose it's

23:40

like, when I, you

23:43

know, I think the audience seemed to like

23:45

the gags where I subvert it, where it's got a

23:47

double punchline, you know, so probably

23:49

the easiest one is,

23:51

you know, I was in London and someone

23:55

said, a man said, where are you from and

23:57

I said Hull on the North East coast and he

23:59

said, said, say he's cursed again, I said he's

24:01

cursed and he went, ah bless

24:04

you

24:05

and he had no legs.

24:06

Yes,

24:13

gotcha, because, and so that's definitely

24:15

an illustration of the rhythmic thing. And

24:18

also because,

24:20

like, what is, just to take that joke,

24:22

like, the fact of you telling

24:24

the story, the element that he had

24:26

no legs at the end and kind of keeping

24:29

that, like, could you break down for us

24:31

what you think is funny about that? Because

24:33

I think that's funny, obviously that's a great joke that works,

24:36

but like, what is, what is the, the,

24:39

like, is it the information being revealed that

24:41

way round or is it simply

24:43

the rhythm or is it the slightly absurd

24:45

nature of whether or not there's

24:47

a link between him having no legs

24:50

and him

24:51

saying bless you? It's

24:53

just because it's a double punchline.

24:56

So you think, so when I do it, I slow

24:58

it down a lot. So

25:00

I just say, and he went,

25:02

oh bless you, and then they laugh because they think

25:05

that's the punchline. And

25:07

then you say, and then you pause, and again,

25:09

I like it when you can experiment with

25:11

how long to leave a pause because

25:14

it can be a millisecond wrong and it

25:16

doesn't get a bigger laugh. And

25:19

so, and then he had no legs and then

25:21

they're like, ah, and then, you know, they laugh at that

25:23

because that's the, and then, you know, but that

25:26

just genuinely happened. I wasn't trying

25:28

to write, not, it's a clever

25:31

joke, but you know, I wasn't trying to write a

25:33

twist. It just, it just,

25:35

it came out like that. And then people like, oh, she's

25:38

wrote a twist of that. Yeah,

25:40

I have, yeah. I genuinely hadn't.

25:43

I'm not that clever.

25:44

So in the writing of the tour

25:46

show, which is called The Trouble and Strife,

25:50

which is touring from, is it from October? Yeah,

25:53

yeah. Yeah. In the writing of that show,

25:56

are you like, like

25:58

that's the way I write, I particularly wonder if

25:59

it's about the way the shape might, you know, the way

26:02

my brain works, I often will try

26:04

and trick myself into talking as

26:06

naturally and specifically as possible, not

26:09

worrying about it being funny, and then

26:11

notice the bits they laugh at and then go, oh right,

26:13

those are the jokes, and then go back and try and elevate

26:16

those. Right,

26:17

yeah. Something similar? Not

26:19

so much, no. I do like

26:22

try to work out what

26:25

the punchline is, yeah, but

26:28

like if it's a double punchline I wouldn't necessarily

26:31

maybe know that,

26:32

and that I've done a double, you know, if you know

26:35

what I mean, but no, I tend to want to try and

26:37

write them, like I know like,

26:39

I

26:40

think it's amazing people that sort

26:42

of go on stage with some ideas

26:44

and then sort of work it out whilst they're on

26:46

stage, I don't

26:48

want to do that, that's too scary

26:51

to me, I've sort of almost

26:53

scripted it, you know, yeah,

26:56

I think, yeah, I tend to do

26:58

that. You're a proper

27:00

writer, and to me that's scary,

27:03

it's like, god, you've written a sitcom, I saw the first

27:05

episode of Hullraisers, you

27:07

know, and like you've done proper writing, like

27:09

you've written a book, you've written like proper things

27:11

with proper characters, and that completely mystifies

27:14

me how people can do that, because I sort

27:16

of, I feel like I've spent years trying to refine

27:18

my comic voice, and

27:21

I wouldn't know how to write in someone else's voice.

27:23

So like, what is it about the, or

27:26

what have you learned about

27:28

the difference between writing for yourself

27:30

and writing for other characters? Well,

27:34

it's listening to dead people. Go on.

27:39

It's going in a trance where

27:41

you let spirits talk to

27:43

you and know that they become the characters, and

27:46

it doesn't happen. So in Hullraisers,

27:49

Paula, the rest wasn't, the rest

27:51

were just made up of like, how does this person,

27:54

how would I picture this person talking?

27:57

And sometimes it's really hard, like sometimes

27:59

in a script,

27:59

there's characters that

28:02

they're unwritten, they're underwritten,

28:04

you know, sometimes, you know, you don't know

28:06

it, but production companies get other writers

28:08

in just that they go and listed, unlisted,

28:12

you know, like it's,

28:14

it's this thing of, writers find

28:16

writing hard as well, do you know, I

28:18

think it puts people off doing it, and you think

28:21

everyone can, you can, there's

28:23

no secret formula, no one, it's just, it's

28:25

really, really hard, and you will

28:27

get there, but with Paula,

28:30

Paula definitely was a dead person

28:32

coming through to me, I couldn't shut

28:34

her voice off, and her voice was so clear, that I

28:38

just think it just was someone who was dead,

28:40

and I was picking up on the energy of them.

28:44

In to hollumbach,

28:46

to hollumbach was written for me,

28:48

that was a mother and a daughter came

28:50

through, and now I was just keeping up with

28:52

them, that was totally dead spirits who

28:54

wrote that.

28:55

If I'd have known the name, I would have credited

28:57

them.

28:59

That's incredible, that's an incredible

29:01

way of looking at it. To what extent

29:04

are you using, just so I'm clear, to

29:06

what extent are you using dead people in

29:08

inverted commas as a metaphor

29:11

for

29:12

the creativity coming out of somewhere you don't know

29:14

where it's from, and to what extent do you mean

29:16

literally dead people?

29:17

No, I literally, totally 100%

29:20

believe that

29:23

when you, that most writers,

29:25

when you get characters that are fully formed,

29:28

and what they call right themselves,

29:31

you have picked up on

29:33

spirits.

29:36

That's amazing, I've never heard anyone put it like

29:38

that before. I've

29:41

had a lot of conversations with a lot of writers, and I've

29:43

convinced them that that's right. Okay,

29:47

so let's talk about that. Let's assume

29:49

that that is empirically true.

29:52

People have died, their spirits

29:54

hang around, and they see a writer

29:56

and they go, great, I'm going to get in there and express myself

29:58

via that writer.

30:00

purely as a sort of from a writing

30:02

perspective which doesn't

30:05

take a position on whether or not it's dead people

30:07

what are the pros and cons of that I

30:09

would imagine my assumption would be that

30:12

will you need to do you then have part of your

30:14

process where you're like right I've got to close my eyes and do

30:16

some deep breathing and let them in and sometimes

30:19

they come in and sometimes they don't

30:21

is that is that fair to say is that what's the well

30:23

I'm alright because I only want

30:25

funny people obviously but I mean you

30:27

know obviously if you're writing a drama

30:30

and you're picking up on really bad energy

30:32

I know writers that they go

30:34

in really dark places and it's something

30:37

they don't talk about but they've got

30:39

a dark energy about them and then you're

30:41

like what you're writing and like being right in a murderer

30:43

and I'm like you've got you've got you know

30:46

you've got an evil energy around you and

30:48

then I'll take it off them

30:50

basically.

30:53

I'll tell it to go yeah I've

30:56

done that quite a few times. Are you pulling my leg Lucy?

30:59

No, that's silly.

31:00

So

31:03

you're providing a voice for spirits

31:05

to write through you and also kind of providing

31:08

a service of exercising those like

31:10

exercising those negative spirits from

31:12

other writers.

31:13

I am not

31:16

at all saying I am a prolific

31:19

writer I do it on a very very

31:21

low scale but

31:22

our best writers in history they're

31:25

mediums how do you think 1984 was written

31:29

how could you know all that?

31:30

Well I think he made it up and was

31:32

educated and my position would be that he

31:35

kind of he dreamt it up it's a fantasy

31:37

and it's a satirical fantasy based on extrapolating

31:41

like looking at what's going on around him and thinking

31:43

where could this go in a sort of nightmare

31:45

scenario?

31:46

No he was told what to write. Stephen

31:49

King completely taps into

31:52

a different energy

31:55

you know they talk to him they

31:57

tell him what to write

31:58

he doesn't even know what

31:59

writing sometimes you know

32:01

it's just dumb for

32:03

him. I'm a big Stephen King fan and

32:05

I do know that there are books that he literally doesn't remember

32:08

writing because he was rasped off his head on coke

32:10

and alcohol at the

32:11

time. That's when they can come through the most

32:13

you see because they're in the subconscious. Okay

32:16

then what about sci-fi

32:19

writers who are writing about the future? But

32:22

again it's still they're still picking up on an

32:24

energy of someone

32:26

you know is guiding them. I mean

32:29

not always. Yeah. Not always.

32:31

That's

32:31

fascinating and I think whether or not

32:34

like people might be listening to this thinking she's

32:36

nailed it I've always thought that and people might be listening

32:38

thinking come on that's I don't believe in any of that but

32:41

I still think it's um you know

32:43

from a writing from the perspective of a writer

32:45

the idea of and I've certainly spoken to character

32:48

comics you'll know Colin Holt who does

32:50

Anna Mann who you know really

32:52

feels like he's he sort of there's a kind of spiritual

32:54

element almost where he's like I need to let Anna in

32:56

and they said to me there are times when I felt

32:59

like I didn't let her in and I faked it and I knew

33:01

and

33:02

she knew you know what I mean so but

33:04

but I think there's do you know what I mean so I think there's

33:06

there's definitely

33:07

there's definitely scope for us to look

33:10

at what's useful about that as a technique

33:13

and what's less useful about

33:15

it so does that mean that if you if

33:17

you've got a brief tomorrow do you want

33:19

to write on this sitcom in America a new series

33:21

of so-and-so we'd like you as a staff writer

33:25

would you be

33:26

kind of um

33:28

deliberately going towards I've

33:31

got to I've got to connect with

33:33

a spirit in order to find a character

33:37

no but you you want I

33:39

mean I want the voices

33:42

to be real I don't you know if you don't you

33:44

can't be my voice so that's got to come from

33:46

somewhere you know sometimes I'll base it on

33:49

someone you know and if

33:51

you base it on someone you know then and then it

33:53

sort of takes on a life of its own in your head

33:55

but from doing that you

33:57

know and you think if you think you know When

34:00

you begin to try and visualize this,

34:02

you're slowing your breathing down, you're

34:04

sort of in a meditative state, that's

34:07

when you get these inspirations

34:09

in your head. And that's, you know, I believe

34:11

that's coming from somewhere. You

34:13

plug it into something, even if it is

34:16

just everything you've ever known

34:18

up to this point, you know.

34:20

It's funny how everything starts.

34:23

I think I like star stuff, you know. But

34:28

I've never really written, I've never read

34:30

anything about

34:31

writing. I've never read anything about

34:35

comedy. I mean, I don't think there is enough

34:37

academia. There's no academia, is there,

34:40

on stand-up or comedy writing. I'm

34:43

very passionate and very annoyed

34:45

that it's sometimes seen as

34:48

the underdog to drama,

34:50

because it's easy to make somebody cry.

34:53

It's hard to make somebody laugh. And

34:56

I don't think they put the money in it as much

34:58

as they put in with drama, and that annoys

35:00

me.

35:05

So with the tour,

35:07

what kind of decisions have you made already

35:09

about the stuff? Is

35:13

it a case of like, I've got all this stuff and

35:15

I'm going to fit it like a theme is going to emerge? It's

35:17

called The Trouble and Strife. Is that to

35:19

do with it being about married life,

35:21

or is it going to be to do with your kind of positioning

35:24

as a wife on top of being a

35:26

person?

35:45

I

35:54

don't know. A woman in

35:56

Centre Park, in the swimming pool,

35:58

toilet, she said.

35:59

Isn't it nice that he's letting

36:02

you do comedy with him?

36:03

She was really

36:05

lovely. I was like, oh, I know

36:07

it is. She was like, you're quite good at

36:09

it as well. I was like, oh, nice. She was

36:11

like, yeah. Like, oh,

36:14

I'm thinking you fucking bitch. You

36:17

know, she didn't know it was the fire, didn't

36:19

she? She didn't know

36:22

it any one. Like I'd had a massive, you know, massive

36:24

career before him. So why would she not? I

36:26

wasn't, but yeah. So

36:28

it's those two things really.

36:30

And it's very much

36:32

the change really from the

36:35

odd sort of life I have that

36:37

is still like living in a sitcom, you

36:39

know.

36:41

Yeah, I wanted to ask about that because before

36:44

I saw an episode of Meet

36:46

the Richertons, from the outside,

36:49

because the part of the joke is it's

36:51

presented as if it's real.

36:53

So when you see the adverts, if you see a post

36:55

or a billboard for Meet the Richertons, it

36:57

looks like it's a genuine reality

36:59

show. Do

37:00

you know what I mean? It looks like here's two funny things. But

37:03

it's not. And then I start watching it now. And I

37:05

start watching it. I was like, wait a minute.

37:07

This doesn't make any sense. Why would he be ringing into

37:09

the station? They must have set this up. And

37:12

then I was like, oh, oh, God, I'm an idiot. It's

37:14

all, do you know what I mean? It's all like a really light.

37:17

And it's a tribute, I guess, to how light the touch

37:19

is that it feels real if

37:22

you squint.

37:24

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And

37:26

we shouldn't have said we said it was a mockumentary.

37:29

But it's it's

37:31

I think we I think we I

37:34

think how we packaged it was wrong. I think we

37:36

should have just said it was a sitcom. Yeah,

37:38

yeah. It could really confuse

37:40

people, wow, people up. We sometimes

37:43

get phone calls, you know, from people

37:46

saying, what can you just tell me what's real?

37:48

What's not? It

37:51

shouldn't matter. But then it's because so a lot

37:53

of it is

37:54

a lot of it is real as well. You

37:56

know, it's not half and half. Is

37:58

it difficult to? navigate that in

38:01

terms of

38:02

how, I mean, God, there's so many questions about that

38:04

when you, because all standups, obviously, we play a version

38:06

of ourselves. Like, you're

38:08

inviting us into a version of your home

38:11

and a version of your marriage, and we're familiar

38:14

with your character as we

38:16

see you perform. Like, it's almost like, is

38:18

the you that's on Meet the Richertons

38:21

the same you

38:22

that is on Cats Does

38:24

Countdown? It's a

38:26

character. I think it's

38:29

a performance. It's a character. Yeah,

38:31

but it's the same on TV, but I think I'm

38:33

probably a bit more.

38:36

Yeah, yeah, it is. It's

38:38

a heightened in the same way. Everyone is a

38:40

bit out way. I mean, God,

38:42

stop me the other day now. She

38:44

was chatting. She was like, why are you

38:46

still in character now? She thought the whole

38:49

thing, the accent being from

38:51

whole, she thought it was all a character.

38:54

She was like, you don't need to be in

38:56

character for me now. I was like, I

38:58

think they never met anyone from a regional

39:00

area. Never moved out of haggis.

39:05

She didn't know it was a real

39:07

vice. But

39:09

yeah, it's all a heightened version.

39:11

Yeah, and it is. I mean,

39:13

we've got a script. It's scripted.

39:17

So we are acting. Because

39:20

it looks like I could believe that some of it was just improvised based on

39:22

how well we

39:25

go.

39:28

So are the scenarios scripted and then

39:30

you improvise within them? Or is it all line for

39:32

line scripted

39:37

and then you take a run at playing the scene

39:39

without the script? So yeah, the

39:41

odd occasion, the

39:44

script just says blah, blah, blah.

39:48

Okay. Just do just

39:51

what? And then

39:53

some, but mostly it has

39:55

dialogue, but we will

39:57

improvise round it if that makes sense.

39:59

sense. So we'll use that as

40:02

a basis, but we'll say what we want.

40:04

And more just to try and get that backwards

40:06

and forwards banter that,

40:08

you know, especially John, you know, whatever

40:11

me and Tim write for John, he

40:14

will always think of something funnier

40:16

and sharper in the moment. And so that's

40:18

mainly why we do it, you know, for

40:20

John, to be honest. And I

40:23

will then be able to come

40:25

back with something

40:26

not as sharp. But

40:29

I was throwing the cave ball,

40:32

we've sort of worked out what we do.

40:34

You know, I say something bizarre

40:36

and he sort of tidies it up.

40:38

Yeah, yeah, right.

40:41

And that feels like quite what's lovely to

40:43

watch about that is it feels like you've happened upon

40:45

that in quite an organic way.

40:47

Like the decisions you've made about which stuff

40:49

to share, which elements of your actual relationship

40:52

to heighten and to share, it

40:54

feels like it's as the result of something

40:56

sort of real and authentic, that

40:58

then you've made the right decisions about which bits

41:01

of it to heighten.

41:03

So it feels, you know what I mean? Like you could,

41:06

you could imagine a world in which it

41:08

was heavily written and you decided

41:10

on some characters and it kind of it

41:12

didn't it didn't work because it wasn't it

41:15

wasn't based on the right elements of you.

41:18

I don't mean of you, you can imagine a different couple, a different

41:21

comedy couple not having that

41:23

same kind of chemistry based

41:26

on the actual sparkiness between you.

41:28

As you say, you know, it feels like there's a real part of

41:30

your relationship which is based on enjoying annoying

41:32

each other.

41:33

Yeah, yeah. And being

41:37

a bit dysfunctional, you know, it wouldn't

41:39

work if we were really happy with each

41:41

other. And we're trying to just be honest

41:43

about what marriage is like. And

41:46

that, you know, how can

41:48

you if you're saying you're going to be with this

41:50

person for the rest of your life,

41:52

how can that be okay?

41:56

You know, constantly

41:58

disappointing each other.

41:59

there and then you know get

42:02

pulling your socks up and getting on with

42:04

it that's what

42:06

being married is it's it's a lot of

42:08

pressure to live with someone.

42:10

Is there is there a kind

42:12

of an almost therapeutic facet

42:14

to it whereby because you get to

42:16

complain about each other

42:18

to each other and make each other

42:20

laugh about it that it helps

42:23

smooth some of the edges?

42:25

Yeah it's love and we we we've

42:28

yeah totally yeah yeah it has

42:30

really helped more

42:33

that you just hardly bother to argue when you get in

42:35

if you've been filming or something.

42:37

I think

42:39

it's funny some people find it really uncomfortable

42:42

and like a one-trick pony

42:44

and then I just don't want to keep seeing you because

42:47

it is we it's the

42:50

whole thing is conflict and other people

42:52

absolutely revel in it I think it

42:54

really depends where you're at in your life what

42:57

your family's like you know arguing

43:00

in my family's love you know that

43:02

we're like Italian you

43:04

know it's

43:06

like that just you say what you've been

43:09

you have a massive argument and then you it

43:11

clears the air and

43:12

then you get on with it but John's

43:15

is very different you know

43:17

he internalizes internalizes

43:19

things and so it's been good for

43:22

his birth really yeah.

43:23

And with with Meet the Richardson's

43:26

are there elements of your relationship

43:28

that you've decided not to share are there

43:30

script things are there ideas you've had for the script

43:33

that you've gone oh this could go somewhere and then you've gone

43:35

actually I don't want to do that that's too much or

43:37

it's too personal or it might you

43:40

know there's a there's a risk that people who don't

43:42

realize it's made up would think that was real

43:44

is that kind of areas you've backed away from?

43:47

No we've overshared we've

43:49

shared every single facet

43:52

I mean this we're filming our

43:54

big series and in

43:56

and you know in May or June and

43:58

the following Our series is out

44:01

6th of April.

44:04

No, we've

44:06

overshared, we've shared too much and we've given

44:09

away everything, everything that's real.

44:11

Most storylines come from a real story.

44:15

Most of the surfer chats are things we've talked

44:17

about even that week, and then

44:19

we've brought it onto the surfer. I've

44:21

given my mum

44:23

out. My

44:26

mum had an affair with Johnny. She was with

44:28

Johnny Vegas. You

44:31

know, she did say to him,

44:32

you know, backstage, she

44:36

did say to him off camera, I will have sex

44:38

with you, Johnny, if you want me to.

44:40

She

44:43

didn't, you know, we've had everyone

44:45

in it, all our friends out there, our real neighbours,

44:49

you know, they're really in it. So

44:54

we had our daughter, our daughter,

44:56

it's an actress we've got

44:57

in the series that's coming out. It's

45:00

not our real daughter, but, you know, we did have our

45:02

real daughter in it, the first two series.

45:05

So

45:06

we've given too much away. Do

45:09

you have any regrets about that? Do you feel that it's

45:11

made you vulnerable in any way? Yeah, yeah,

45:14

I think

45:15

we didn't necessarily need to do it.

45:18

But I think, yeah, if

45:21

I could do it again, I wouldn't know. I

45:23

would keep real things back

45:25

and just try to make things open. So

45:28

you feel like you're not really

45:30

delving into your life.

45:33

Sean Locke

45:36

said to John years ago, because he mentored

45:39

him almost, you know, and had him under his wing. He

45:42

said to John, don't give your

45:44

own life away.

45:45

And John, that's just not how John works.

45:48

And I think really Meet the Richesons

45:50

probably is more of an extension of John's standup,

45:53

where John is so honest about,

45:56

I'm not a

45:58

comic who doesn't make anything.

45:59

up. You know most comics say

46:02

it's all real, it's bollocks most

46:04

people. I think everyone

46:06

makes the book. John doesn't make anything

46:09

up and he manages to find funny things

46:11

in the mundane

46:12

but I think Sean by the

46:14

sounds of it was a bit worried about him, you

46:17

know, giving everything away, you

46:19

know, knowing the names of everyone

46:21

in his family and you know with Sean he was private

46:24

really. No one knew the name of his

46:26

wife and his kids and where he lived

46:28

and you know but and so I think it's just

46:30

very very different ways of approaching

46:33

things, isn't it really? Before

46:35

we wrap up a couple of just

46:38

quick things. How do you cope when

46:40

things get tough,

46:42

when

46:43

you're stuck with a bit of script or you have

46:45

a bad gig or those kind of things? What's

46:47

your kind of reaction to that? Are you able

46:49

to shake it off or does it hit you hard?

46:53

It does because if it didn't

46:55

it's because

46:57

you care. If you didn't care you've

46:59

got to care, you've got to want to do a good

47:02

job.

47:02

I think I've got the experience

47:05

to know why something's gone wrong and if

47:07

it has genuinely been my fault I

47:10

do have to sort of have a word with myself and go

47:12

but

47:13

you're not feel bad

47:15

and not sort of beat yourself up about it of going

47:17

you're not perfect, you've let yourself down but you need

47:20

to make sure

47:21

that when you go out tonight you do you know

47:23

so being easy on yourself you're not a robot

47:26

you know and I think being easy

47:28

on yourself actually helps you do a better job, it

47:30

makes you more consistent by

47:32

not trying to be perfect you know

47:35

but yeah of course it hurts

47:37

yeah it feels such a privileged

47:39

job to do that if you if all

47:41

you've got to do is make an audience laugh

47:43

and you don't manage it it's I

47:46

would rather have a knife in my back.

47:48

What's

47:48

the what's the thing

47:54

that you tried in comedy

47:56

terms either the project you tried

47:58

or the joke you tried

47:59

that you could just never quite get

48:02

away?

48:03

A character act based on

48:06

John Prescott's wife, Pauline Prescott.

48:08

I had the wig.

48:10

I had lovely lines, you know, it was quite

48:12

Victoria Wood, you know, said, I

48:14

never dreamt that I'd have an extractor fan at my

48:17

age.

48:17

And it was like,

48:19

but it just never, we did it the second series

48:22

of Live at the Electric.

48:24

I did it on there, but it was so bad that they

48:26

didn't even put it in the show. I

48:28

sort of like didn't learn the lines and crumbled

48:31

and then just hadn't sort

48:33

of shocked it. I hadn't gigged it enough, but

48:36

you can't get,

48:37

there's not many gigs you can do as

48:39

a comedy, not all gigs

48:41

are live, you want as a character act, you know.

48:44

I was sometimes having to like go and do a normal

48:46

standup routine and then I would put a wig

48:48

on and try to do this character. It

48:52

never, it just never quite works.

48:54

And yeah, that Pauline Prescott.

48:58

What do you think is funny about

49:00

you? The

49:03

way I walk. Ha ha ha ha

49:05

ha ha ha.

49:07

That's a good quick

49:09

fire answer, but it's also a guard

49:12

is kind of an answer. I suppose what I mean is,

49:15

what do you think it is that

49:16

people find funny about you? Like

49:19

about your nature, because

49:21

you're someone who I think of as you've just got funny bones,

49:23

you're just funny. And I just wonder

49:26

if you could

49:27

put

49:28

any kind of description or kind of phrasing

49:31

on that, of what you think it is that people are connecting

49:33

with and they're laughing at.

49:35

I don't know, I think it is

49:37

the way I walk in my body. I'm not

49:39

quite, my

49:42

body's not quite right. Ha ha

49:44

ha ha ha. I didn't realise, but I

49:46

got like weird leg. I think my

49:48

legs are arms without fingers. Ha

49:51

ha ha ha. I don't

49:53

maybe look, you know, I'm not like,

49:57

you know, I'm not like, you know, five foot

49:59

eight with long.

49:59

legs and do you know what I mean? I

50:02

think physically

50:04

I don't sort of hold myself

50:07

like I don't know I have no idea.

50:10

I don't know.

50:13

It was a lovely answer, it was a great answer by the way. Are

50:16

you ambitious? I

50:19

am massively ambitious yeah,

50:22

yeah I do.

50:23

As I say I feel like I've only just got started.

50:25

You've said that a few times, I

50:28

love that you've got a real kind of day one mentality.

50:31

Get the next thing and go right now it's day one what's

50:33

next?

50:34

Yeah there's so much I want to, it's

50:36

my, I want my

50:39

voice I want to feel and you

50:41

know I want to feel like

50:43

you know my

50:46

words and I want a

50:48

style you know I want to

50:51

you know I'm

50:53

Carolina Henn and Victoria Woods.

50:56

I'm still grieving the loss

50:58

of them and what they would be doing

51:00

now. I don't

51:01

feel like

51:02

they're talked about enough anymore.

51:05

I don't feel like I'm

51:07

you know I'd like to I'd like

51:10

to sort of fund a statue for Carolina

51:12

Henn where she lived at

51:15

the sym for Victoria Woods. I don't feel like

51:17

they were incredible. We've lost like that's massive

51:20

that losing those two female comedic

51:22

voices but you

51:24

know I'm not saying I want to,

51:27

I don't think I'm as talented

51:29

as them

51:30

but I want to feel like I've

51:33

got a brand of humor where you

51:35

could watch something and say I know that's

51:37

Lucy Beaumont without trying

51:39

to sound like you say without

51:43

trying to sound a bit aloof that is

51:45

what I want you know.

51:47

What will it satisfy in you to achieve

51:49

that? I haven't,

51:52

don't feel like I've had a crack of the whip properly yet.

51:55

I did you know I enjoyed doing the Tuchlung

51:58

Bach was a massive learning curve and

51:59

I'm not writing on the second series,

52:03

I wrote on the first series, but that was a very producer-led

52:05

show. I learnt so

52:07

much, it was amazing and worked with incredible

52:10

people, but it wasn't totally

52:13

all mine. I want to

52:15

work on things where, and now it's

52:18

only from doing stuff, I want to work on

52:20

things where I've created

52:22

the concept and I've produced it and I've

52:24

directed it and I've cast it, you

52:26

know, and to

52:29

be able to have the responsibility

52:31

of doing that, you obviously have to work

52:34

for years, but

52:36

that's what I want. I want complete control

52:39

and I'm not there yet because I've got to learn

52:41

all these skills, you know,

52:43

I haven't directed yet, that's something,

52:46

you know, so I want, yeah, I want

52:48

to be able to do it and obviously that's

52:50

incredibly ambitious.

52:54

That's kind of, is that what they call being an oter,

52:56

like when you do everything and it's entirely your

52:58

vision?

52:59

Yeah, it's been a complete control freak and

53:03

your decisions are the best decisions and

53:06

then my decisions at the room and at the best

53:08

decisions because I've still got a lot to learn,

53:10

you know, so at least I know that, but

53:14

I'll keep working

53:16

until I really do believe

53:18

I'm good enough to have

53:21

control things, yeah. What

53:23

do you think has most held you back

53:27

in terms of your nature?

53:30

In comedy? Yeah. Predatory

53:35

male behavior

53:38

is what has, I've

53:40

had quite a few incidences where if you

53:43

were in any other, if you're

53:45

in any other workforce,

53:47

you would go to HR

53:50

or you would, and there isn't one, and

53:54

I think it's just everywhere and it's not

53:56

sort of talked about enough and

53:59

it upsets me when I

53:59

I hear about young female comics having

54:02

the same experiences. And

54:04

it seems, I thought it was for

54:06

a while, it was the same like five or six

54:08

people.

54:09

And now it's not now I could name

54:11

you sort of 10, 15, because of course people talk.

54:14

I mean, you know, like, comedy is

54:17

the biggest gossip ever.

54:19

So everybody knows.

54:21

Or if you don't know yet the ones I know, you

54:23

will do so.

54:26

But it's it attracts such

54:30

interesting, passionate,

54:33

raw, edgy,

54:36

wounded people.

54:38

But we've we don't sort

54:41

of talk about that. It also attracts

54:44

predatory men that are really messed

54:46

up. And sexually,

54:49

I've been repressed repressed for years

54:51

and get a bit of fame.

54:53

And, you know, display

54:56

these behaviors and it just gets covered up their agents

54:59

know, and their channels

55:01

know, and no one seems to be doing anything

55:03

about it. But

55:05

yeah, it's massively, it massively

55:07

as as, as, you

55:09

know, as much, you know, obviously I've talked

55:11

about the sexism as well.

55:14

But obviously, someone in

55:16

your private spaces, it stays

55:18

with you. And it's

55:20

just like,

55:22

is

55:24

it, you know, I've stopped myself, I was going to say men

55:26

don't have to deal with it. But they do

55:28

men do because if you're not that type of man,

55:31

you really hate that other men do that type

55:33

of thing as well. We all have to deal with it.

55:36

But

55:38

but yeah, there's been times I've

55:40

wanted to go on Twitter and just let people

55:42

know all the all the everyone

55:45

that we talk about that we're not allowed to say,

55:48

I've just gone this, this guy, this

55:50

guy, this guy, and this guy,

55:52

they are your your

55:54

young girls are not safe around

55:57

these men and their patrons of charities.

55:59

and they're paid the biggest sums of money

56:02

and you can't trust them,

56:05

you know. It

56:06

needs ridin'. How

56:09

long are we all going to just

56:11

in private say, God did you worry about

56:13

Sun Sun? Oh, that they've done that again,

56:15

you know. We know who they are.

56:17

There's no room for them. They're not

56:19

that good anyway. Do

56:21

you know what I mean?

56:22

It's not why.

56:23

People go on Twitter and sort of,

56:26

people suggest people without, you

56:28

know, people in our industry suggest names without

56:30

naming names and then all the comments underneath will be like,

56:33

well, you know, name and shame, name them then and you're like,

56:35

you're sort of legally prevented. You're legally

56:38

responsible and you can be done for slander

56:40

if something's not proved or have you. So there's no, there doesn't

56:42

seem to be any recourse other than sort of

56:45

so-called whisper networks whereby people

56:48

can get, I mean, I, with other male comics,

56:51

friends of mine, I've not done it for a while, but I

56:53

meet and go, hey, so who's on your list? Who else do

56:55

I need to worry about?

56:56

To try and foster amongst male comics the same

56:58

thing that is naturally endemic

57:00

amongst female comics where you have to meet and say,

57:02

you know, who have we got

57:05

a bit, have you heard the latest person, the latest addition

57:07

to the list, the latest person we've got to worry about?

57:10

Yeah, yeah. But,

57:11

you know, it's just, it's one

57:13

of them things, but,

57:15

you know, it's just, you know,

57:17

when you ask me that question, what's prevented

57:20

you? It's like,

57:21

I mean, who else, you know,

57:23

I don't want, I don't want this to be a problem

57:25

for any other, anyone else. I

57:27

want it stopping, you know, but for

57:30

like you say, it's not that easy, but it's

57:32

just important even like this just to be frank,

57:35

you know, I was going to make up something in my

57:37

head and I thought, I'll just be honest with you because

57:39

that has really, it has

57:41

really set me back, you know.

57:44

Thank you for that, Lucy. Let's

57:46

end on an upbeat note that kind

57:48

of honours how positive this situation

57:51

is, how positive your personal situation is

57:53

now and that honours the fact that you have not been

57:55

beaten by these kind of experiences

57:58

and that you have that you're kind of that

58:00

you have thrived regardless, what

58:05

is the contribution to comedy of which you're

58:07

most proud? Whether that's a joke, an

58:09

idea, a look, a moment,

58:12

what's the thing that you hold

58:14

in your heart most?

58:16

In terms of like

58:18

a moment. In

58:21

terms of anything, just something in comedy

58:23

that you think, well I've always got that. I

58:26

think it's to hollumbach, it's the

58:28

series I wrote on Radio 4 and

58:31

you know I'm

58:32

so proud of it

58:34

and there's just this one line

58:36

where they're

58:39

in a French restaurant and she's

58:42

Jean the character is, she

58:44

didn't really, she's out of her deck and

58:46

she didn't know what to order and

58:49

she ordered a main course and the waitress says

58:51

entrees and she says oh no just some

58:53

plates will be fair.

58:56

So yeah very silly

58:59

and old fashioned, that's just how

59:01

I like my comedy

59:03

and my men. That's

59:07

a double punch line to finish off and I'm

59:09

structurally satisfying. Thank you

59:11

so much Lucy, have a fantastic

59:13

time on the tour and I look forward to the new series of Meet

59:15

the Richardson.

59:16

Thank you so much.

59:23

I'm

59:46

going to be doing a comedian saying the unsayable

59:48

about the climate crisis and helping your

59:58

directors of sustainability. to recharge their

1:00:00

climate messaging. So if you're the sort of person

1:00:02

or organisation that has or knows a director

1:00:05

of sustainability, give me a shout via

1:00:07

the contact forms at Stuart Goldsmith dot

1:00:09

com. Exciting stuff there. And of

1:00:11

course, come and see me in Edinburgh. Can't believe I didn't

1:00:14

hammer that earlier on. From Stuart

1:00:16

Goldsmith dot com, you can find your links to come and see me

1:00:18

at 3.20pm in Monkey Barrel One

1:00:20

every day throughout August, apart from the 16th. It's

1:00:22

going to be fantastic by then. That, you

1:00:25

have my word. Goodbye for now. Thank

1:00:27

you very much to the team, which

1:00:29

currently stands as Nathan Wood, Susie

1:00:32

Lewis, Charlotte Wakeley, and

1:00:35

occasionally and whenever he wants back in, Moz.

1:00:37

So thank you to all of those. The music was by Rob

1:00:39

Smoughton and Peter Dobbing continues

1:00:42

to be your podcast consultant.

1:00:45

And it all happens for the benefit of

1:00:47

Brett Goldstein. So thank

1:00:49

you, everybody. Follow the socials at Stuart Goldsmith

1:00:51

Comedy. I've had a lovely gag there. Start to just

1:00:54

maybe go off again, which is

1:00:56

about Spotify. And the most fun thing

1:00:58

about making jokes in the perspective of a 45 year

1:01:01

old man on social media is that lots of

1:01:03

young people get really angry and OK, boomer

1:01:05

me, but I'm not technically a boomer. Ha!

1:01:08

Stick around for a post-amble in just a moment. Other

1:01:10

than that, bye

1:01:11

bye.

1:01:13

There we go, we went with bye bye there. Maybe that could

1:01:15

maybe that could be my unique sign off. Bye

1:01:17

bye. The

1:01:20

thing I didn't talk to you about last time, which

1:01:22

is remiss of me, was

1:01:24

Tough Mudder. Now, listen, this isn't

1:01:26

going to be me wanging on trying to convince you all to

1:01:29

start doing exercise.

1:01:30

I don't care about you. I mean, I

1:01:32

do care about you, but I care about you enough to know that wanging

1:01:35

on about telling you to do exercise is not going to work.

1:01:37

This is a parallel journey to

1:01:40

me learning about not wanging

1:01:42

on telling people to do better in the climate. Don't

1:01:44

worry. I'm going to try not

1:01:46

to be smug. I'm going to try not to get under

1:01:48

people's skin by

1:01:51

by what? By just by just kind of

1:01:54

it's so easy to be too much. God, I

1:01:56

had a chat with my mum and my brother recently,

1:01:58

and I was telling them both about.

1:01:59

ADHD diagnosis and

1:02:03

they had some questions and I

1:02:05

was sort of proving it to my brother by going,

1:02:08

well

1:02:09

you know how I'm a bit much? And he was like,

1:02:11

yeah. I was like, well there we go. I

1:02:13

don't know if that counts. That's not

1:02:15

proof. That's just social proof elements. But

1:02:18

anyway, the point is, I just

1:02:20

wanted to thank everyone on my amazing Tough

1:02:22

Mudder team. Tough Mudder, for those of you that don't know, is a,

1:02:26

well, it bills itself as a sort of terrifying

1:02:29

quasi-military force

1:02:32

march through mud and

1:02:34

horrendous kind of obstacles.

1:02:37

But really what it is, it's

1:02:40

a bit like torture garden, if you've ever been there. It's

1:02:43

sort of the entry-level,

1:02:45

mass appeal version of the thing that it purports

1:02:47

to be. See also, Lynx

1:02:50

Africa and the magazine, Just 17. But

1:02:53

so what it is really is a fun obstacle course.

1:02:55

You do get very muddy and if

1:02:58

you don't fancy any of the obstacles you could walk around them.

1:03:00

But we did them all. And it

1:03:02

was so fun. We did the 5k one.

1:03:05

It took about two hours because most of it, you're

1:03:07

not running 5k, you're running 500 metres and

1:03:09

then stopping and scratching your head and looking at a weird tower

1:03:11

thing and going, how the hell are we going to get up there? It's

1:03:14

so fun and it's particularly because

1:03:16

of the people you're with. And I was with Anya

1:03:18

Magliano, I was with Stuart Laws, with

1:03:21

Chaparac Corsandi, Jessica Foster-Q,

1:03:23

Esther Minito and

1:03:25

I can't have forgotten anyone.

1:03:28

That's everyone right? Oh

1:03:30

god, I'm going to have to check the WhatsApp group now.

1:03:32

I'm sure that's everyone but I'm so mortally afraid

1:03:34

of forgetting anyone. Come on, here

1:03:36

we go. Oh and Ivo

1:03:39

of course, I mean bloody ran the whole way with

1:03:41

Ivo Graham as he kept getting stopped and recognised

1:03:43

from Taskmaster. Great joy.

1:03:47

So that was the team and it was just a really,

1:03:49

really fun bunch of people.

1:03:52

I just recommend doing this to anyone. Do it for charity

1:03:55

in strict defiance of my stand-up

1:03:57

material from eight years ago. But...

1:03:59

it was a really, really fun thing

1:04:02

and I would really recommend it. I had been put

1:04:04

off by the kind of branding of it but like

1:04:06

so many things that appear

1:04:08

to be exclusive and beyond you,

1:04:11

see also surfing and golf. Once

1:04:13

you do them you go, oh it's just this, you

1:04:16

learn the rules, you accept your crap at it because you're

1:04:18

new and you just do the thing and then it turns out

1:04:20

to basically be... the reason I've chosen surfing

1:04:22

and golf is because both of those sports are a nice

1:04:24

chat kind of with... you know if

1:04:26

you do them with someone they're basically a nice chat

1:04:29

with occasional moments of excitement or sort

1:04:32

of drowning but

1:04:34

the key thing about them, the reason why they're fun

1:04:37

to do is because you just get to bob around having

1:04:39

a bit of a natter and that's kind of

1:04:41

my best bit about this. I have to say as

1:04:44

well I'm not going to be disingenuous

1:04:46

about this. I was pretty good at it and

1:04:49

it was... it's almost the only other than the 10k

1:04:51

last year. Look if you're not an exercise

1:04:54

person, if you're offended by it you'll have switched off by now so

1:04:56

I'm just going to be upfront about this.

1:04:58

The 10k last year and then the Tough Mudder were the

1:05:00

only opportunities I've had to sort

1:05:03

of test the fact

1:05:05

that I'm quite fit now compared to

1:05:07

how I was against a thing. So

1:05:09

I've been quietly... I always remember that

1:05:12

there's a thing Henry Rollins said when he got into weight lifting

1:05:14

when he was at school or he's at the college

1:05:16

or something and his power

1:05:18

lifting... I'm not using the wrong terms... the

1:05:21

guy who was teaching him how to do it said you're not allowed to look

1:05:23

at yourself in the mirror for three months and so

1:05:26

he just did look at himself in the mirror and then of course three

1:05:28

months is long enough that your body's physically changed shape and

1:05:30

then you have this enormous boost. I feel

1:05:32

like I've had an equivalent experience because I'm

1:05:34

not going racing, I'm not a will to win person,

1:05:37

I never time myself. I don't even use the bloody

1:05:39

what was it... map my run or Strava or whatever. I don't

1:05:42

use it anymore. I often don't take my watch with me. I just run

1:05:44

my little loop and I'm like there you go, I've run

1:05:46

and as a result

1:05:49

I haven't tested it against anything. So enormous

1:05:52

excitement when the 10k

1:05:55

thing was good and

1:05:58

when that came to have been that was fun.

1:05:59

But this there were three or four

1:06:02

things that I that I looked

1:06:04

at it I thought like, you know a really tall

1:06:06

wall that you've got to throw yourself out and just

1:06:08

get up it on your own And I managed

1:06:10

to do it on my own without any

1:06:12

help and the first time I did one of them I just kind

1:06:15

of it was just one of those some what's

1:06:17

your man's name Scott Pilgrim when he pulls forth

1:06:19

from himself the Sword of whatever it is. I

1:06:21

was like, oh my god I

1:06:23

can actually do this and then I was like ready

1:06:25

brick guy running around the place That's a 45 year

1:06:28

old reference of ever you've heard one. Um

1:06:29

So I really recommend them

1:06:32

and I'm so grateful I would never have said yes

1:06:34

to doing the thing where I'm not so excited

1:06:36

to have been asked I've been selected

1:06:39

for a team of cool friends. It

1:06:41

was I could have I literally rolled on the ground

1:06:43

like a puppy

1:06:45

so I'm very very grateful to the

1:06:48

team for their support and

1:06:50

and also it's just such a really nice

1:06:52

vibe and

1:06:53

If I'm allowed

1:06:56

and if enough of you ask for it, maybe

1:06:58

I'll do it as a reward for something I can't believe I

1:07:00

haven't already done this. I Could

1:07:03

post the very short video

1:07:05

of me Apparently misguidedly

1:07:09

treating the last minute the last

1:07:11

part of the Tough Mudder, which was a sort of electrifying

1:07:13

you through little wires thing Treating

1:07:16

it apparently incorrectly as a sort

1:07:18

of Catherine Zeta Jones in entrapment style

1:07:20

laser maze I legged I legged

1:07:23

it through it like a little biletic crab and didn't

1:07:25

get zapped And then everyone else charged

1:07:27

straight into it and got zapped loads. I

1:07:29

think the neater actually

1:07:32

She's slappin forwards into a puddle, you

1:07:35

know for which I have nothing but respect and admiration

1:07:38

Apologies there for the the rivals own

1:07:40

in my voice But I just

1:07:42

thought it was funny that I regret it because

1:07:45

everyone else got zapped and I'd quite like to have been zapped

1:07:47

But I just thought

1:07:49

well, I mean there's no rules here that say you have

1:07:51

to not try to get zapped And I was just

1:07:53

pretty limber guys and I seated my way through it

1:07:55

and

1:07:56

very happy about it, too So anyway, that's

1:07:58

a little blurb about that I highly recommend it. Thanks

1:08:01

once again to Lucy. Bye for now.