The Joe Rogan Experience - Joe Rogan Experience #1289 - Eddie Izzard

00:00:01.000 Three, two, one, boom!

00:00:03.000 And we're live!

00:00:04.000 How are you?

00:00:04.000 What's going on?

00:00:05.000 I'm good.

00:00:05.000 I'm pouring coffee in the first seconds of our chat.

00:00:09.000 That's the good way to do it.

00:00:10.000 With a cafetiere, I think it is.

00:00:13.000 I think that's named in a French way.

00:00:15.000 A French press?

00:00:16.000 That's what they're called?

00:00:16.000 Is it called?

00:00:17.000 Well, I think it's called a cafetiere, but it's probably called a pot of coffee.

00:00:20.000 That makes sense.

00:00:21.000 There's a French word for it that we just ignore here in America.

00:00:24.000 They did a lot of the food.

00:00:25.000 You know, because you have herbs.

00:00:29.000 You know herbs?

00:00:30.000 And I used to do this bit of material, which I really enjoyed saying.

00:00:33.000 You know, the difference between British and American, you say this, you say that. 0.98

00:00:38.000 And you say herbs, and we say herbs, because there's a fucking H in it. 0.99

00:00:43.000 Right. 0.99

00:00:43.000 And I used to say, because there's a fucking H. And I thought, why has the H dropped off for America? 0.99

00:00:49.000 I think it's because a lot of French guys would have come over, emigration, and they would have done a lot of cooking. 0.99

00:00:54.000 These French guys know about cooking, and they do the herbs, and they cut the H off totally. 1.00

00:00:58.000 So I think that was an influence from that.

00:01:00.000 Probably Julia Child. 0.99

00:01:02.000 Julia Child, was she French? 1.00

00:01:03.000 Yeah, I think.

00:01:04.000 Wasn't she?

00:01:05.000 She is now.

00:01:05.000 I mean, she's into French cooking.

00:01:07.000 Oh, right, okay.

00:01:08.000 That was her thing, right?

00:01:09.000 Maybe Lafayette is sitting next to Washington and said, we will use Albs with this stuff here, and then we could do the Revolutionary War, and then you guys will win, and then we'll hate each other forever.

00:01:19.000 Well, you guys also do a lot of weird stuff, where you put like a U in color, and you have a Y in tires.

00:01:26.000 What do you put in tires?

00:01:27.000 T-I. R-E-S. Yeah, I think we had first dibs on the language.

00:01:32.000 Yeah, I don't understand what we did do there.

00:01:33.000 No, you guys got on the Mayflower and they said, okay, we're going to talk like this for now.

00:01:39.000 We're going to say woo!

00:01:40.000 A lot.

00:01:40.000 And we're going to get rid of the Y in tires.

00:01:45.000 We're going to invent tires.

00:01:46.000 Get rid of the Y. Yeah, I just think the U in color and honor is a U in honor as well.

00:01:51.000 And we've got it and you've got it out.

00:01:53.000 I think yours is more logical.

00:01:55.000 Honor.

00:01:55.000 For honor.

00:01:56.000 Yeah.

00:01:57.000 But not for herbs.

00:01:58.000 No, herbs is, I think that's more French influence.

00:02:00.000 I agree.

00:02:01.000 Yeah, I always wondered, because I grew up in Boston, and I always wondered, like, those were the first people to leave England and Europe. 0.98

00:02:08.000 Like, what the fuck happened to their language? 0.99

00:02:10.000 Because they developed the most disgusting brand of it. 0.99

00:02:13.000 Well, you've got your A's, your Boston A's, which I can't hear a strong Boston coming out of you.

00:02:17.000 Yeah, I got rid of it.

00:02:18.000 I heard myself on television once when I was like 19 years old. 0.98

00:02:21.000 I was like, holy shit, what is that? 0.97

00:02:23.000 Well, you guys had, or you used to have, the mother, father, brother, and it's the A. And we say mother, father, sister. 0.99

00:02:34.000 We don't have an R at the end of our mother, brother, father, sister.

00:02:38.000 And you in Boston, we say mother instead of mother.

00:02:42.000 And the rest of America has a much stronger R. And Ireland has that. 0.80

00:02:47.000 That's a very Irish-influenced...

00:02:50.000 And for us, the R, when I'm playing American, when I was doing roles like that, the R was the hardest thing to get.

00:02:57.000 Hard, hard tar.

00:02:58.000 I remember friends saying, hey, I was cooking this thing that came out like hard, hard tar.

00:03:02.000 And I thought that is the one to practice because that is just hard, hard tar. 0.73

00:03:06.000 We called it hard, hard tar, which just doesn't sound the same.

00:03:09.000 You've spent a lot of time over here.

00:03:11.000 The only time I've ever spent in England is working.

00:03:15.000 Like, a little bit of downtime, doing stand-up and hanging out over there, but most of it's just been working.

00:03:22.000 Either working for the UFC. I never really get a chance to really spend time in England.

00:03:26.000 I'd like to.

00:03:27.000 I'd like to do that, just to kind of understand you folks.

00:03:30.000 You're a different breed. 1.00

00:03:32.000 I think at the base, having played 45 countries now, I think everyone is actually the same when you get down below a level.

00:03:40.000 But, you know, if you're going to reach for you, there's got to be a number of things which...

00:03:45.000 Would make it seem different and brand names will be different than your sports stars, you know, everyone's sports stars, everyone's politicians, that kind of thing.

00:03:52.000 But underneath it all, it's going to be, there's going to be more mainstream people, there's going to be alternative people, there's going to be, and the whole spectrum now, like in the old days, it used to be everything was mainstream and a bit of alternative.

00:04:02.000 Now, I think your country, my country, we have a whole spectrum of what interests people.

00:04:07.000 It's much more open in that way.

00:04:09.000 Yeah, no, I certainly agree.

00:04:12.000 The collection of people is very similar.

00:04:15.000 It's just they're operating in a different environment, a different theater, right?

00:04:19.000 Yeah.

00:04:20.000 And, you know, we're tightly smashed together, what are we, 65 million, and you're 300 million, and you're such a large, your country is so large compared to us.

00:04:30.000 Yeah.

00:04:31.000 Because there was a thing of only 10% of Americans have passports.

00:04:34.000 But if you look at the area, something like that.

00:04:37.000 But then if you look at where the 10% can go in America, it's just so huge. 0.92

00:04:41.000 So it's slightly more understandable why a lot of Americans say, I don't need a passport because I'm just going to go to that place, which is miles away.

00:04:48.000 That's an understanding of you, but I think it would do everybody good to go somewhere like Asia.

00:04:56.000 Every time I go to Asia, I always think, okay, people are like this too.

00:05:00.000 This is an interesting thing to experience.

00:05:03.000 Thailand in particular, which I really loved.

00:05:06.000 Thailand is amazing because it's like, wow, they hit this perfect frequency where everybody's really friendly and really nice.

00:05:15.000 They call it the land of the smiles.

00:05:17.000 It's this very unusual environment there where everybody seems warm and greeting.

00:05:22.000 I don't think I ran into one rude Thai while I was there.

00:05:27.000 That sounds very interesting.

00:05:30.000 When I toured Asia, but unfortunately it was kind of in and out.

00:05:36.000 But that's interesting.

00:05:38.000 Thai is more than any other country.

00:05:40.000 Because I'm sure they must have a black market and a thing and some Thai gangsters. 1.00

00:05:44.000 Maybe they're very nice gangsters.

00:05:46.000 Maybe they're the nicest gangsters we know.

00:05:48.000 I'm sure they're not.

00:05:49.000 Ask you first before they shoot you.

00:05:51.000 I'm sure when it gets to the drug smuggling and sex trafficking and all the other things. 0.98

00:05:56.000 We're going to do sex trafficking, but would you mind awfully if polite drug smugglers?

00:06:02.000 I mean, they have obviously a very open environment.

00:06:05.000 When you see Bangkok, it's like Muay Thai fights and chaos and a lot of expats wandering around drinking. 0.99

00:06:14.000 It's a different sort of world over there.

00:06:16.000 But when I was there, I was in Chiang Mai.

00:06:19.000 And it's just super friendly people.

00:06:21.000 Beautiful landscape.

00:06:22.000 Very nice.

00:06:24.000 Have you been in Vietnam?

00:06:25.000 No, never.

00:06:25.000 Heard it's amazing, though.

00:06:26.000 But yeah, I mean, I find that from an American perspective, it would be very interesting people going there, even if they were there before and during the time of war or after, just to see how people are.

00:06:37.000 Because they fought for so long.

00:06:39.000 There's all the French stuff before that, the end of China, but even before America got involved.

00:06:43.000 And they call it a thousand-year war that they fought.

00:06:46.000 Anyway, it's interesting.

00:06:48.000 I hope new generations coming along don't bring the baggage of previous generations and we can all try and move forward into a world that's more positive even though it doesn't necessarily look like that.

00:07:00.000 Well, what has always been really interesting to me about Vietnam that I learned from Bourdain Was that they don't hold any grudges towards Americans, which I find incredible.

00:07:11.000 I got that sense of it.

00:07:13.000 I have not played there, haven't been there, but I got that sense that they were looking forward.

00:07:17.000 They just accept it, that it's the past, and they don't have any grudges.

00:07:21.000 It's an amazing attitude.

00:07:23.000 It is an amazing attitude.

00:07:24.000 I suppose it's better if you...

00:07:26.000 They did an empirical...

00:07:28.000 Is it Empirical Window?

00:07:30.000 They didn't do a massive conga.

00:07:32.000 In the end, America left, and so they got what they were... 0.88

00:07:36.000 I assume the majority of them were trying to get.

00:07:39.000 They can run it however they want to run it.

00:07:44.000 Yeah, it's tragic, the wars are getting into it.

00:07:47.000 I was going to be in the military when I was a kid.

00:07:49.000 That was one of my...

00:07:50.000 I wanted to be in Special Forces.

00:07:52.000 You look at me...

00:07:53.000 Now, being a transgender guy, yeah, that was where I was.

00:07:56.000 I know Trump wouldn't have let me in the forces right now if I weren't applied right this second.

00:08:02.000 But, yeah, so I follow everything.

00:08:05.000 I kind of run my life on a military...

00:08:08.000 That sounds a bit weird.

00:08:09.000 I run my career on a military thing.

00:08:12.000 It's quite difficult.

00:08:13.000 You know, any career, putting it together is kind of weird.

00:08:15.000 What's your next move?

00:08:16.000 What's this?

00:08:16.000 How so?

00:08:17.000 You strategize?

00:08:18.000 Oh, yeah.

00:08:19.000 Strategy up the wazoo.

00:08:20.000 I plan 50 years ahead.

00:08:22.000 Really?

00:08:22.000 Oh yeah.

00:08:23.000 Well if you think about it I came out as transgender 34 years ago.

00:08:27.000 That's not the first good thing that an agent wants to hear.

00:08:30.000 You're transgender? 0.90

00:08:31.000 That's 85!

00:08:32.000 This is such a hot thing.

00:08:33.000 This is, even now, they would say, okay, well, it's got a little better than it was for about 10 millennia.

00:08:39.000 It's a little better now, but it's still not the hottest ticket that everyone's...

00:08:42.000 We want transgender guys in here for this, that, the other. 0.95

00:08:44.000 It's not the top of the list.

00:08:46.000 Right.

00:08:46.000 And I've also got boy mode and girl mode, and I do dramatic films in boy mode, and then I'm touring in girl mode and doing stand-up.

00:08:53.000 And I campaign for politics in girl mode.

00:08:56.000 How do you do that?

00:08:58.000 I just switch, change, you know, take off heels, flat shoes.

00:09:02.000 Yeah, because if you were just talking, like if you didn't have makeup on and you didn't have the heels and the nails, you just seem male.

00:09:11.000 Yeah.

00:09:12.000 Well, I think it's genetically inbuilt.

00:09:15.000 You know, there's some...

00:09:28.000 I think there's quite a lot And if you analyze masculine and feminine, if you really get down to it, I find it impossible to come up with anything that was particularly masculine,

00:09:44.000 particularly feminine, except for the ability to build muscle mass is easier for men. 1.00

00:09:51.000 That's it.

00:09:52.000 But, you know, great footballers, soccer players, men and women, athletics runners, men and women, strong character men, weak character men and women.

00:10:01.000 Mathematicians, whatever it is, there's nothing that you can really say, ah, that is only a good shot with a gun.

00:10:08.000 No, anyone can do that.

00:10:10.000 We're all humans.

00:10:11.000 And we get fixated by the masculine and feminine.

00:10:13.000 Whereas if it's a tiger, if a tiger's attacking you and trying to kill you, you don't go, now, is this a girl tiger or a boy tiger?

00:10:19.000 We don't care about it.

00:10:20.000 And they don't care either.

00:10:21.000 The Tigers.

00:10:22.000 So you've always felt like you gravitated towards feminine things?

00:10:26.000 No, gravitated towards both.

00:10:28.000 I gravitated towards playing soccer.

00:10:30.000 I was in the first team for two years when I was a kid.

00:10:33.000 Was planning to do Office of Training Corps and then go Marines or paras and then go Special Forces, RSAS, which would be the equivalent of your Delta Force.

00:10:42.000 And that was a distinct plan.

00:10:44.000 I knew a lot about that.

00:10:45.000 And I thought, which war are they going to send me to?

00:10:47.000 Actually, which war are they going to send me to? 1.00

00:10:48.000 And it could be the idiots that I'm at school with will send me to the wrong war. 0.99

00:10:51.000 Because World War II is very clear, and then after that, every other war is kind of hazy. 0.99

00:10:56.000 But there's all this feminine side, girl side.

00:11:00.000 I'm not sure how to do it.

00:11:03.000 Even after 34 years, it's difficult to articulate.

00:11:05.000 But I wanted to express that.

00:11:07.000 And if I look more like a woman, then it would be much easier. 0.98

00:11:13.000 So I decided to do that in 1985 when it wasn't cool.

00:11:16.000 And I've had a lot of fights in the street, a lot of people screaming abuse at me.

00:11:21.000 I've taken a couple of people to court or just reported in police and then we went to court.

00:11:26.000 And yeah, you fight your fights.

00:11:29.000 Instead of going to do a military fighting thing, I've said, this might be Wrong for me to say this, but I say I've done Special Forces Civilian Division, you know, fighting people, screaming at people's feet, and I perform in four languages.

00:11:44.000 I've run over 80 marathons.

00:11:46.000 I'm going into politics next year, and yeah, and the transgender thing is in a better place than it was. 1.00

00:11:54.000 Back in 85. Well, it's certainly now.

00:11:57.000 I think because of probably Caitlyn Jenner and the movement that you're seeing to accept people that want to do whatever and anything they want to do.

00:12:06.000 Yeah, it is just we're more accepting of each other.

00:12:09.000 We do seem to be more...

00:12:10.000 What's the word?

00:12:14.000 It begins with a T. More open, more allowing.

00:12:18.000 There's a word for it which just walked out of my head.

00:12:20.000 But anyway, that word.

00:12:24.000 But, yeah, and at the same time, people are going around doing more killings and stuff.

00:12:29.000 Well, there's more people.

00:12:31.000 Yeah, there is more.

00:12:32.000 There's just sheer volume of humans.

00:12:34.000 And the population growth is insane.

00:12:37.000 It took us like 200,000 years to get to 1 billion.

00:12:41.000 Yeah.

00:12:41.000 And then it's taken us, I don't know, 50 years to get to 7.5 billion, which is scary.

00:12:47.000 Yeah, when I was a kid, I think the United States population was less than 200 million.

00:12:51.000 Now it's 300 million.

00:12:53.000 And global was, whatever it was, now it's 7 plus, bordering at 8 billion people.

00:13:00.000 When I came out, I think it was 6.5, I think.

00:13:03.000 That's just running away.

00:13:04.000 And one of the weird things is if we are having less wars, if we're getting better health to people, then more kids are around.

00:13:11.000 And some people in, I suppose, lower income backgrounds around the world, they will say, well, we need to have six kids because that's what, you know, for much money.

00:13:20.000 Yeah, that's what we do.

00:13:21.000 Yeah.

00:13:22.000 As economics get better, people have less kids and that hopefully that should calm down.

00:13:26.000 There should be a bottoming. 0.56

00:13:27.000 I think they feel there will be a leveling off of the population.

00:13:30.000 Yeah, I've read that theory that they believe that industrialized nations and westernized society, when people start having two careers, you know, and then two career households, people are less likely to have a bunch of kids.

00:13:43.000 Yeah.

00:13:44.000 So as people do better, they have less kids.

00:13:46.000 Yeah.

00:13:47.000 Yeah, so I'm a glasses two-thirds full person.

00:13:52.000 That's what I feel.

00:13:53.000 Instead of a glasses half full, half empty person.

00:13:56.000 So you're optimistic.

00:13:57.000 I'm a big, I couldn't be here.

00:14:00.000 Yeah.

00:14:00.000 In the hills with the nails.

00:14:02.000 I'm planning to do this.

00:14:03.000 I've got a film coming out and I'm touring the country and then I'm going to politics as well and When you first started wearing women's clothes and dresses and makeup on stage, did people think it was a gimmick?

00:14:15.000 What did they think?

00:14:16.000 They did.

00:14:16.000 I decided not to call them women's clothes.

00:14:19.000 I would just wear dresses.

00:14:22.000 You know, like women can wear trousers or pants. 1.00

00:14:24.000 We used to call that men's pants.

00:14:26.000 And I said, oh, they're pants. 1.00

00:14:27.000 Fuck it. 1.00

00:14:28.000 So, but yeah, I first started talking about it and not wearing anything. 1.00

00:14:33.000 Again, look kind of boy-like and male-like.

00:14:37.000 And you were talking about it like...

00:14:38.000 I had the first joke.

00:14:39.000 This is my first ever joke.

00:14:40.000 I had this about two years before I did it.

00:14:41.000 I said, look, you're doing stand-up.

00:14:44.000 So, if you're from a minority, it's kind of a good thing. 1.00

00:14:47.000 So, if you...

00:14:48.000 In stand-up terms.

00:14:49.000 So, if you're from a lower income background, you can say, rich people.

00:14:53.000 God, they're...

00:14:54.000 So easy for them.

00:14:55.000 If you're a woman, you say, men.

00:14:56.000 Ah, men.

00:14:57.000 If you have an ethnic background, you say, white people.

00:14:59.000 Oh, there's white people. 0.69

00:15:00.000 So if you're a white male, middle class, stand up. 1.00

00:15:03.000 Ah, it's useless. 0.99

00:15:04.000 So, thank God I'm a transvestite. 0.98

00:15:07.000 That was my first laugh.

00:15:08.000 And everyone thought, he's making jokes about something that he's not.

00:15:11.000 And they wouldn't believe me.

00:15:13.000 And journalists were going, I don't know why he's doing this.

00:15:16.000 Because he's doing pretty well now, but is this a joke?

00:15:19.000 So I thought, I better wear a dress and put some makeup on.

00:15:22.000 And then they said, okay, he's doing this.

00:15:24.000 He is serious, but he looks a mess.

00:15:27.000 This kind of baby elephant thing I was doing.

00:15:30.000 Okay, you've got to get your weight under control.

00:15:31.000 You've got a better haircut than that.

00:15:33.000 And you've just got to fail a lot.

00:15:34.000 And there's a humiliation period.

00:15:35.000 I mean, this is the weird thing about coming out.

00:15:38.000 It's kind of humiliating.

00:15:39.000 People say horrible things. 0.99

00:15:43.000 What the fuck is that? 1.00

00:15:44.000 Somebody said to my face right there as I was walking out of a restaurant. 0.99

00:15:48.000 So I thought, that's not very nice. 1.00

00:15:50.000 And you have to be able to deflect it and go, well, you're obviously a scumbag. 1.00

00:15:53.000 So fuck you, man. 1.00

00:15:55.000 Is it mostly men? 1.00

00:15:57.000 Yes, and occasionally women. 1.00

00:15:59.000 Occasionally women, but, yeah, I mean, you know, people have lower character or lesser character. 1.00

00:16:05.000 If you're a strong character in yourself, you don't care.

00:16:07.000 Live in that live. 0.97

00:16:08.000 What the hell?

00:16:08.000 You know, people, okay, it doesn't quite look together, but, you know, life's tough enough.

00:16:12.000 But if you want to put someone down, you raise your own status by doing it, and they will do that.

00:16:17.000 And so I have stood in the street, and people have unloaded, you know, swear words, invective to me, and I've just...

00:16:28.000 And there's literally two or three of them or one of me just screaming at each other.

00:16:33.000 And I just won't back down now.

00:16:34.000 This happened recently.

00:16:35.000 It was nine months ago.

00:16:36.000 Someone outside my house in London just having a go at me.

00:16:40.000 They knew who you were as well?

00:16:42.000 Yeah, they did.

00:16:43.000 They knew exactly where I lived.

00:16:44.000 We said, we're going to do your house. 1.00

00:16:46.000 Who the hell is this asshole? 1.00

00:16:49.000 Just because of the way you dress? 1.00

00:16:51.000 Well, he added that into it.

00:16:54.000 There was an altercation over.

00:16:56.000 I was just packing my car up because I was just driving home to see my dad.

00:16:59.000 And somebody said, you've got to give me a ride in your car.

00:17:02.000 And I said, someone heckles me like that in the street.

00:17:05.000 I just come back with the phone.

00:17:06.000 You will never have a ride in my car.

00:17:08.000 I have to give you whatever I have to give you.

00:17:10.000 So that happened.

00:17:11.000 And then this guy went off.

00:17:12.000 And yeah, this and that and the other.

00:17:14.000 And he's just screaming at me and so on.

00:17:17.000 Shouting back at him, giving him word for word. 1.00

00:17:19.000 And then I went, I said, who is that idiot? 1.00

00:17:22.000 And they said, oh, that's this guy. 1.00

00:17:24.000 Oh, he's a known, he's a nutter. 0.96

00:17:25.000 You know, he's just, he does this. 0.96

00:17:27.000 I went, all right, maybe I should mention it.

00:17:29.000 Because he said he's going to do my...

00:17:30.000 I'll mention it to the police...

00:17:32.000 No, it doesn't matter.

00:17:33.000 Two weeks later, same thing.

00:17:35.000 Who's shouting at me? 1.00

00:17:36.000 Oh, it's the same dickhead. 0.99

00:17:37.000 So I thought, right, next time I go possibly station. 0.99

00:17:39.000 So now he knows where you live.

00:17:40.000 Well, he always did.

00:17:41.000 He was right in front of the house.

00:17:42.000 That's always fun, isn't it?

00:17:43.000 Yeah, well, and he said, we're going to do your house when you're away.

00:17:46.000 So that was his opening gambit.

00:17:48.000 We're going to do your house when you're away. 1.00

00:17:50.000 I'm letting you know they're a coward. 0.93

00:17:53.000 Yeah, well, it was not very positive. 0.92

00:17:56.000 He didn't run a PR company, I don't think.

00:17:57.000 That's kind of terrorism, right?

00:17:59.000 They're trying to strike terror on you when you're away.

00:18:02.000 Well, yeah.

00:18:02.000 Well, that is, yes.

00:18:04.000 That is the hatred thing. 0.99

00:18:06.000 Did you think about just going out there and fucking them up? 0.98

00:18:08.000 I don't think I'm quite that... 0.98

00:18:10.000 I would have liked to.

00:18:11.000 If I'd gone through the military thing, if I'd gone through it, I would have learned how to do that, you know?

00:18:15.000 And I never have craft my guard myself up to the thing.

00:18:19.000 I do need to craft my guard myself up, but I haven't...

00:18:22.000 Got there.

00:18:23.000 Well, we were talking before, and you were trying to tell me that you were lazy. 1.00

00:18:28.000 I'm like, fuck you. 1.00

00:18:29.000 I saw that thing that you did, that documentary, where you ran a series of marathons in a row with no training at all. 1.00

00:18:35.000 And I remember thinking before that, I had this opinion of you.

00:18:39.000 And the opinion of you was you're a funny guy, you're a funny comedian, you have good stand-up, you obviously work hard at it.

00:18:48.000 But then I saw that.

00:18:50.000 And I was like, oh, okay, there's something going on there.

00:18:54.000 Like, that was a different kind of human being.

00:18:55.000 The kind of human being that could push themselves into doing that day after day after day.

00:19:00.000 And I looked at your feet where your skin was literally falling off and you're taping everything up.

00:19:04.000 And, um...

00:19:06.000 That's a person that's got...

00:19:09.000 You have an iron will.

00:19:10.000 That's a very unusual will for a comedian who doesn't really exercise.

00:19:16.000 When you were doing...

00:19:17.000 I mean, you maybe exercise a little bit, but you weren't in shape.

00:19:20.000 No.

00:19:21.000 And you decided to run how many marathons in a row?

00:19:23.000 Was it the UK one?

00:19:24.000 The first one.

00:19:25.000 Yeah, that was 43 in 51 days.

00:19:28.000 43 marathons in a row in 51 days with no training.

00:19:32.000 At a day of a week.

00:19:33.000 I did have training, though.

00:19:34.000 Six weeks training.

00:19:35.000 Yeah.

00:19:36.000 Which is not a lot.

00:19:37.000 But they said that, you know, sometimes if you run a marathon, you should train for nine months before that.

00:19:41.000 Yeah.

00:19:42.000 And I thought, well, if I'm going to do 43, that's going to be, I'm going to be training forever.

00:19:45.000 Yeah.

00:19:46.000 And I can't be bothered with that.

00:19:47.000 So I, but you know, and it's happened in your Civil War, in maybe in any war, I'm somewhat encyclopedic about your Civil War and Revolution War to a bit and World War II, but on the spot training, you know, training as you go along.

00:20:02.000 That's what I did.

00:20:03.000 The first 10 marathons trains you for the next 33. Trevor Burrus What was it like when you got over the first day though?

00:20:09.000 First marathon, you must be like, what the fuck? 0.99

00:20:11.000 No, first day is okay. 1.00

00:20:12.000 Really?

00:20:12.000 Because, well, it's all in your head.

00:20:16.000 It's more mental than it is physical.

00:20:18.000 And so the first marathon, I've heard of people running marathons, run, walk, stagger, not very fast, get it done, boom.

00:20:24.000 The second marathon is weird, because you go...

00:20:27.000 I've done one.

00:20:28.000 I'm on the second.

00:20:29.000 And you can't really rejoice.

00:20:30.000 You can't punch the sky.

00:20:31.000 You can't put a medal around your neck.

00:20:33.000 You've got up at 5 or 6 in the morning and it's midday and you're going through your second one.

00:20:38.000 And then you're through the third one.

00:20:39.000 And then you're through the fourth one.

00:20:40.000 And then it was raining and my feet were shredding.

00:20:43.000 For the moisture?

00:20:44.000 It was, yes, it made it too soft and they were rubbing on the running shoes and I didn't know how to, how do I fix it when I'm actually wearing on it all the time?

00:20:55.000 So we started bathing it in surgical spirit, which you call something else.

00:21:00.000 It's an ethanol method.

00:21:02.000 Anyway, it's some sort of alcoholic spirit and it takes the moisture out of your feet.

00:21:09.000 True.

00:21:10.000 So it became like stones.

00:21:13.000 It's kind of like...

00:21:13.000 Anyway, if anyone looks up surgical spirit, if you Google it now, you'll see what it's called in America.

00:21:19.000 But it's some sort of alcoholic thing that just removes moisture.

00:21:22.000 And so it made my feet...

00:21:24.000 My toes like little stones...

00:21:25.000 And kind of tough.

00:21:27.000 And actually that got us through.

00:21:28.000 And then I started, and also apparently, because I did 27 marathons in 27 days in South Africa in 2016, and that was, the temperatures were crazy on that.

00:21:36.000 But it seems that the body will switch on a healing property that we've got latent in ourselves that we don't use, and you will heal quicker.

00:21:45.000 You'll heal faster the more you get.

00:21:47.000 So you get stronger in both the British one and the South African one.

00:21:50.000 I got stronger as I went on.

00:21:52.000 Really?

00:21:52.000 The first 10 days are the key thing.

00:21:54.000 And after that, it's kind of easier.

00:21:56.000 You're used to it. 1.00

00:21:57.000 Your body just adapts and understands this crazy asshole is going to do this crazy asshole. 1.00

00:22:01.000 And the brain goes, what kind of marathon shall we run today? 1.00

00:22:04.000 As opposed to, what the fuck are you doing? 0.99

00:22:07.000 What kind of marathon? 0.99

00:22:08.000 Yeah, well, I think that's what the brain is doing.

00:22:09.000 Because the first day, the brain is going, you're going to do what?

00:22:11.000 This marathon.

00:22:13.000 Okay.

00:22:14.000 The second day, the brain is going, now we're doing another one.

00:22:18.000 Third day, fourth day, fifth day.

00:22:19.000 This is insane.

00:22:20.000 And then day 10, the brain is going, okay, you're on this kind of kick or something.

00:22:25.000 I understand.

00:22:26.000 Let's try a better marathon.

00:22:27.000 Don't push it too hard.

00:22:28.000 The brain starts talking to the body and somehow it levels up.

00:22:34.000 Then it gets surreal.

00:22:35.000 Marathon 18, Marathon 23. I remember Marathon 31. That was a lovely...

00:22:40.000 It's just so weird.

00:22:42.000 Yeah.

00:22:42.000 But it was fun.

00:22:43.000 And you own the road.

00:22:44.000 You know, Woody Guthrie, this land is our land, this land is my land.

00:22:48.000 You become like it's your land.

00:22:52.000 It's everybody's land.

00:22:53.000 Because you're running on the roads of this country I grew up in.

00:22:56.000 And you feel that the roads, the fields, the birds.

00:23:00.000 I didn't listen to any music.

00:23:02.000 It's like a safety thing for traffic.

00:23:03.000 But also, you could hear everything that's going on.

00:23:06.000 Birds, rivers running.

00:23:09.000 I ran past somebody's house.

00:23:11.000 This was on about day two.

00:23:13.000 And there was a river running there and it went through the back of this guy's garden.

00:23:16.000 And he said, oh, hello.

00:23:18.000 I went and visited him and I washed my feet in the river.

00:23:22.000 And then I put the socks back on and I carried on running.

00:23:24.000 I thought, you can do weird things.

00:23:25.000 I took blackberries out of the bushes like I did when I was a kid.

00:23:29.000 It just became a feral, this holistic or feral marathons.

00:23:33.000 That's what I was doing.

00:23:34.000 It's not run.

00:23:34.000 It's not people shouting from the sides.

00:23:36.000 No one cares, really, which is fine.

00:23:39.000 And I'm just wrapped up in this other place.

00:23:43.000 And it's beautiful.

00:23:44.000 I mean, it's really zen.

00:23:45.000 Well, it seems like it would change you, like accomplishing something like that, like on the last day, the last run.

00:23:53.000 When you cross the line, what was that feeling like?

00:23:56.000 Well, there's a picture.

00:23:57.000 You brought up that picture.

00:23:58.000 They put up some flags and stuff.

00:24:00.000 That was beautiful.

00:24:01.000 I tried to do a five-hour marathon.

00:24:03.000 Now, if you know the speed, it's two hours is what they're trying to break down.

00:24:06.000 So this is really slow.

00:24:07.000 But then having done 42 marathons, maybe it's fair.

00:24:11.000 And I missed it by about 30 seconds.

00:24:14.000 But it was...

00:24:15.000 It was beautiful to finish it.

00:24:17.000 I was really quite strong all the way through.

00:24:19.000 I didn't stop at any time.

00:24:21.000 That was good.

00:24:22.000 In South Africa, though, I did 27 in 27 days.

00:24:26.000 Salute to Nelson Mandela's 27 years in prison.

00:24:28.000 And day five, they put me in hospital because they thought my kidneys were given up.

00:24:33.000 Were you experiencing rhabdo?

00:24:35.000 Is that what it is?

00:24:35.000 Rhabdomyolysis.

00:24:36.000 You know about rhabdomyolysis.

00:24:36.000 Yeah, I got rhabdo in 2012. How'd you get that?

00:24:46.000 I was on an anti-cholesterol drug, just a sort of health drug.

00:24:51.000 Your cholesterol is a bit high, take this thing once a day.

00:24:53.000 And side effect is rhabdomyolysis, which I couldn't spell, being dyslexic.

00:24:58.000 And I was peeing brown pee.

00:25:01.000 And there's no real pain, a lot of lethargy.

00:25:05.000 I was really tired.

00:25:06.000 I thought, And this is without exercise, you were getting it?

00:25:11.000 That was on marathon three and marathon four.

00:25:14.000 So I had trained...

00:25:15.000 Had I trained before that?

00:25:16.000 I'd done some training before that one.

00:25:17.000 I'm a bit weird with my training.

00:25:19.000 But yeah, so there wasn't a huge amount of training before that one.

00:25:22.000 But third marathon...

00:25:24.000 And I started peeing a bit of brown pee.

00:25:25.000 This was not through the whole series of marathons, or it was?

00:25:29.000 No, well, I tried to do South Africa twice.

00:25:31.000 So 2012 was my first one.

00:25:33.000 After day four, on an anti-cholesterol drug, trying to control my cholesterol, and I started brewing brown pee.

00:25:42.000 And then they said, you've got to go to hospital now.

00:25:44.000 The guys are going to put fluids through you. 0.89

00:25:46.000 You have to go and see a specialist.

00:25:47.000 The specialist said you can't continue this 27 thing because you have to get all this stuff out of your system.

00:25:53.000 Otherwise, the kidneys – because it shreds the muscles into the bloodstream, clogs up kidneys, kidney failure.

00:25:59.000 Very dangerous.

00:26:00.000 A lot of fighters get it.

00:26:01.000 Really?

00:26:02.000 Yeah.

00:26:03.000 A fighter died from it recently in Boston in the Massachusetts area.

00:26:08.000 Yeah, it's apparently something that happens when fighters overtrain as well.

00:26:14.000 Sometimes they're not doing it scientifically, so they're not analyzing their heart rate, their heart rate variability, and they don't know that they haven't really truly recovered and they continue to push themselves because they want to prepare harder.

00:26:26.000 They have this sort of mental mindset, just train harder and you'll be better off.

00:26:32.000 But that's not necessarily the case if your body can't physically keep up with the recovery.

00:26:36.000 Yeah.

00:26:36.000 And sometimes they'll go into a fight overtrained, and then they wind up getting robbed out from the fight.

00:26:42.000 It's happened several times.

00:26:44.000 And it's caused a few deaths.

00:26:45.000 Yeah.

00:26:46.000 Well, they said this.

00:26:47.000 You said, you carry on running now in 2012, and you won't make it to 2016. Did you get off that medication?

00:26:53.000 Yeah.

00:26:53.000 I would think that all that running, you wouldn't need that medication.

00:26:57.000 I would have thought.

00:26:57.000 But, you know, they check you out, and you say, your cholesterol's just a touch high.

00:27:00.000 Those motherfuckers. 1.00

00:27:01.000 Wow. 1.00

00:27:01.000 You know, you'll be on this for the rest of your life. 1.00

00:27:03.000 That stuff scares the shit out of me, those statins. 1.00

00:27:05.000 Yeah. 0.66

00:27:06.000 It goes to a scary place.

00:27:08.000 But 2016, day 5, bloods were looking a bit weird.

00:27:11.000 Day off, so day 27, I did double marathon.

00:27:14.000 And that was kind of an interesting day.

00:27:17.000 So you run one marathon.

00:27:19.000 Last day of your run, you've only done 25 marathons, and it's the day 27. And when you go through that finishing, the final flag where you should be waving flags, you've got another marathon to go.

00:27:31.000 My brain, I thought, this is kind of good, but it's 90K you're going to do today.

00:27:36.000 Ignore it, carry on.

00:27:38.000 And it was a rough, rough old day.

00:27:40.000 That's five hours, then another five hours.

00:27:42.000 Five hours plus, then another five hours plus.

00:27:45.000 In the end, it was six.

00:27:46.000 I took 11 hours and 50 minutes to run 90K. So I did double marathon in 11 hours, 10 minutes.

00:27:52.000 That's damn good. 0.86

00:27:53.000 Yeah, it was good enough. 0.85

00:27:55.000 And they got a Comrades Marathon in South Africa, which is 90k, and they got a 12-hour cutoff.

00:28:00.000 So I said, I will do 90k in 12 hours.

00:28:02.000 The double marathon was 84, and then I did another 6k after I'd finished it.

00:28:07.000 That last moment must have been orgasmic.

00:28:10.000 When you finished, it must have been incredible.

00:28:13.000 Finishing the 84 was beautiful.

00:28:14.000 You finished at the steps of Nelson Mandela's statue, where he was made president, and that was beautiful.

00:28:21.000 And rough.

00:28:22.000 I'd had to speed up in the last hour because of complications, so I actually got faster.

00:28:26.000 I don't know if you've ever done a thing where you're knackered and knackered and said, now go...

00:28:30.000 Why'd you have to speed up?

00:28:32.000 There was a thing called Sport Relief I was doing it for.

00:28:35.000 So it was raising money and I wanted to finish inside the camera window.

00:28:39.000 They had a window until 3.15 South African time.

00:28:43.000 Police escorts were needed at certain bits.

00:28:45.000 Otherwise you'll get carjacked and you won't survive this bit.

00:28:49.000 So I said, can't we just ignore the carjacking thing?

00:28:51.000 No, you can't ignore it.

00:28:53.000 So I said, okay, stop the clock, put me in the thing, drive me to Pretoria, stop me off, and then I'll run there, and we'll just continue it on there.

00:28:59.000 So we had to do that.

00:29:00.000 So we got behind because I wasn't running, because I had to be driven across this dangerous point of road to be dropped to Pretoria, and then I just had to run the kilometers off.

00:29:10.000 So they have like a carjack area?

00:29:12.000 Yeah, they have certain areas where it's kind of out there, there's no one really out there, and you just go along there, and anything can happen.

00:29:20.000 So my field producer, Fixer, he was just saying, we don't do this.

00:29:26.000 You can't go there.

00:29:28.000 So I said, well, just get me closer to the finishing line, and then I'll just run around.

00:29:31.000 It doesn't really matter where I'm running now.

00:29:33.000 We know it's Pretoria.

00:29:33.000 We know we need to finish.

00:29:34.000 I need to just run that distance.

00:29:36.000 So I ran the distance off, but the time had got behind, so I had to speed up From 7.5 kilometers an hour to 10 kilometers an hour.

00:29:45.000 So an extra third of the speed, which was kind of evil.

00:29:49.000 I moaned a lot that day.

00:29:50.000 I was just a moaning, whining, God, I can't do this.

00:29:55.000 But I was never considering not doing it.

00:29:57.000 And I got there.

00:30:01.000 The live feed to London finished at quarter past, and we got there about 13 minutes past.

00:30:06.000 We had about two minutes, and they just caught it before they went off air.

00:30:09.000 It was like, you know, like in a film, you know, it was perfectly designed. 0.99

00:30:12.000 I just knew if I got that, probably I'd get more money, I'd raise more money, an extra 100 grand, because we've seen this idiot finish. 0.99

00:30:17.000 He's actually doing it, you know. 0.99

00:30:20.000 So that was beautiful.

00:30:21.000 And then I talked to the, this is a very interesting thing, because you know if you're talking to, it was a press, I talked to the press after that, but it was a Sunday.

00:30:27.000 And so they kept talking, normally they say, we can't talk anymore, we've got two minutes, and then we've got to talk to important people, go away.

00:30:33.000 That's what normally happens if you're talking to live press, national press.

00:30:36.000 But I was on the thing, and they just kept talking to me, because obviously a slow news day, nothing was happening. 0.98

00:30:40.000 And they say, we've got this idiot who's just run, you know, 27 marathons. 0.92

00:30:44.000 And they kept asking me other questions, and what favourite colour do you have? 0.99

00:30:46.000 And How big are your legs?

00:30:50.000 I don't know what they were asking me, but in the end, these two interviews I did with National Press, I just said, I'm going to go away now.

00:30:57.000 I'm going to stop this.

00:30:58.000 I had to stop my own interview, which I've never done in my life, and I realized they've just got no one else to talk to.

00:31:03.000 They're desperate.

00:31:05.000 Did you notice a big change in public perception of you once you completed those marathons?

00:31:10.000 Yeah.

00:31:12.000 The, yeah, the certain community, and if you're a transgender guy and you come out, certain people go, wee, but I crossed into a line of, well, if you're going to do that, and you, I hate, I know you do some comedy, you do the drama stuff, we think you're a bit, you know, bonkers and out there, but fair play. 1.00

00:31:27.000 I got this sort of, I got to pass a fair play to you.

00:31:30.000 If you're going to...

00:31:31.000 Do that.

00:31:32.000 And I was trying to do selection.

00:31:34.000 You know, SAS, they have selection.

00:31:36.000 Your Delta Forces, Navy SEALs, they all have this thing that can you just go on and on and on?

00:31:41.000 It's the stamina thing.

00:31:43.000 And that was my civilian selection for my own whatever civilian special forces.

00:31:49.000 Just to understand yourself.

00:31:51.000 Yeah.

00:31:51.000 I know I can go a lot further.

00:31:53.000 I mean, coming out as transgender, when you're straight, I'm straight transgender, so I fancy women.

00:31:57.000 So I'm a wannabe lesbian. 0.75

00:31:58.000 So if you come out, you could stay in the closet.

00:32:02.000 And down the millennia, if we go back to the ancient Egyptians and further, there's probably a lot of guys that said, I'm not going to tell anyone about this.

00:32:09.000 I fancy women. 1.00

00:32:10.000 I just won't mention these kind of feelings in my head.

00:32:14.000 And I thought I should mention it because if people shout and scream at me in the streets, I will...

00:32:21.000 I will fight that, at least verbally fight that, or, you know, if they start going for it.

00:32:26.000 I have had one fight in the streets.

00:32:27.000 And I landed one punch.

00:32:29.000 Yeah?

00:32:29.000 Yeah.

00:32:30.000 I taught myself jujitsu.

00:32:31.000 You had a fight on the streets because of this?

00:32:33.000 Yeah, yeah.

00:32:33.000 The guy was just giving me, oh, Tracy, oh, what, oh, he's all dressed up and...

00:32:39.000 And I was a street performer for four years at Covent Garden.

00:32:42.000 So I was living on the street, you know, not living, I was working on the streets and, you know, just knew a lot of people going around.

00:32:47.000 I just said, Matt, you don't have to be like this.

00:32:49.000 We can all, there's space enough for everyone.

00:32:51.000 Live and let live.

00:32:52.000 Kept giving me stuff.

00:32:53.000 He was a bit drunk, I realized.

00:32:54.000 So he was just going to stay on that wicket.

00:32:56.000 Keep saying.

00:32:57.000 And I said, just chill out, chill out. 1.00

00:32:59.000 And then the third time, I just said, oh, just fuck off. 1.00

00:33:02.000 And I went... 1.00

00:33:03.000 No, I unloaded a load of swear words on him, and then he swung for me, which was the handy thing, because that came up in court.

00:33:11.000 And then I swung back, and I landed one punch, which I was pleased about.

00:33:14.000 And I was doing the wipe-on, wipe-off stuff.

00:33:16.000 I was doing this blocking.

00:33:17.000 You were blocking?

00:33:17.000 Yeah, from a jiu-jitsu book.

00:33:19.000 I taught myself jiu-jitsu from a book, if you can believe that, which is, you know, you get these books with the different moves in it, and you can't teach yourself that.

00:33:25.000 But I did judo when I was six, actually, as well.

00:33:27.000 So I liked the idea of doing these things, but I felt judo was always at the bigger kid...

00:33:32.000 You all get in pajamas and the bigger kid just throws you around a bit.

00:33:35.000 I could never quite get the hang of it.

00:33:36.000 I couldn't throw the bigger kids.

00:33:38.000 I could do it now, but I've never...

00:33:40.000 Anyway, yeah.

00:33:41.000 This is a fantastic video online of a very old judo expert.

00:33:47.000 I think he's in his 70s or his 80s.

00:33:50.000 And he's working out with these young men.

00:33:53.000 And you see his mastery of judo as these young, powerful men try to manipulate him and throw him around and he effortlessly, watch this, this old man, when you see him, he's very, very old.

00:34:06.000 And he's throwing these guys around and me as a martial arts expert, These men are not doing this willingly.

00:34:13.000 This is legitimate.

00:34:14.000 Like, even that guy tries to throw him.

00:34:16.000 And this is a black belt who's trying to throw him. 1.00

00:34:18.000 But he's so good, and his use of balance and leverage is so amazing.

00:34:24.000 He just knows where to be.

00:34:25.000 Like, see how he just throws himself into a perfect position?

00:34:28.000 I mean, it's really stunning to watch.

00:34:30.000 And this looks like it was from the 50s or something like that.

00:34:33.000 Because it's really old.

00:34:34.000 Yeah, does it say?

00:34:35.000 It just says 75-year-old judo master.

00:34:37.000 I mean, this is an old man, and the young man is much larger than him.

00:34:42.000 I mean, significantly, like 25% larger than him, at least.

00:34:46.000 Maybe even, he looks like he's twice as big as him.

00:34:49.000 And he cannot throw this old man.

00:34:51.000 It's really amazing.

00:34:53.000 Judo is a beautiful art.

00:34:55.000 He's going more and more full on, isn't he?

00:34:57.000 He's going, I gotta get this.

00:34:58.000 He's trying.

00:34:59.000 I mean, he knows that this guy's a master.

00:35:01.000 But it's just, look at that.

00:35:03.000 Like, it's incredible.

00:35:04.000 I mean, the way that guy's body can toss these people through the air, and yet they are helpless.

00:35:11.000 They can't do anything to him.

00:35:12.000 There's no way that...

00:35:13.000 Look at that.

00:35:13.000 Boom!

00:35:14.000 Three times.

00:35:14.000 75 years old.

00:35:17.000 I mean, that hurts my hips just looking at that.

00:35:20.000 You can have many different martial arts that you're given?

00:35:24.000 Yeah.

00:35:25.000 Which ones?

00:35:25.000 Jiu-jitsu and striking martial arts.

00:35:29.000 My background was in striking, which is in Taekwondo, and then eventually kickboxing and Muay Thai, and then I got really into Jiu-jitsu when I got older.

00:35:37.000 And Jiu Jitsu, what's the difference in Jiu Jitsu?

00:35:39.000 Jiu Jitsu is grappling.

00:35:40.000 It's always choking people.

00:35:42.000 It's not throws like Judo.

00:35:44.000 There are throws in Jiu Jitsu, but it really comes from Judo.

00:35:48.000 It comes from the ground fighting aspect of Judo, which is not as emphasized.

00:35:52.000 But the Brazilians... 0.87

00:35:53.000 Really, really emphasized it.

00:35:56.000 They figured out what the best way for a smaller person to defeat a larger person is through leverage.

00:36:05.000 Jiu-Jitsu is really the only martial art...

00:36:08.000 that I can think of that works like you think of a martial art in a movie like in a Bruce Lee movie like there's all these people and they were always bigger than Bruce Lee but Bruce Lee fucked them all up but in the real world that doesn't usually work like the bigger people have such a giant advantage when it comes to like striking like you're never gonna see like a heavyweight in the UFC fight a bantamweight A person weighs 135 pounds.

00:36:34.000 It's just too much of an advantage.

00:36:37.000 In jiu-jitsu, it's legitimately possible for a 140-pound man to strangle a 200-plus pound man and do it relatively easily if they're talented.

00:36:48.000 I saw a documentary on Bruce Lee and he had The Way of No Way, which really appealed to me.

00:36:54.000 I mean, it's like a philosophy, quite apart from a fighting philosophy, but to be so trained up in so many things that they do not know what you're going to do.

00:37:05.000 And I kind of adopted that.

00:37:07.000 Well, he had to overcome significant prejudice to adopt that perspective because when he was studying martial arts, you were supposed to be loyal to your style.

00:37:17.000 So if you learn Kung Fu, you were supposed to be a Kung Fu man for life.

00:37:20.000 You weren't supposed to also dabble in boxing and wrestling and all these different things that he was interested in.

00:37:25.000 He was interested in taking what's useful from all different martial arts and applying them.

00:37:30.000 So in a sense, he was really the founder of mixed martial arts, which you see today.

00:37:34.000 In the UK, they have cage warriors, and the US is UFC, and it's worldwide now, the art of mixed martial arts, of putting all the different styles together, and you can do whatever you want within the rules.

00:37:47.000 No, I liked the attitude of that.

00:37:49.000 It's sort of a life attitude.

00:37:50.000 I mean, there's obviously the fighting attitude of it, and then there's the life attitude of just be prepared for anything and everything.

00:37:57.000 Yeah, and be like water.

00:37:59.000 That was his other thing.

00:38:00.000 Just go around things.

00:38:02.000 Move through things.

00:38:03.000 Don't headbutt things.

00:38:05.000 Figure out what's the best way.

00:38:06.000 What's the best path?

00:38:09.000 Yeah.

00:38:09.000 You know?

00:38:11.000 Yeah, I just...

00:38:15.000 I haven't learned...

00:38:18.000 Well, I think I'm waiting for someone to give me a really hard time and I say, now, I am checking in and I am learning martial arts.

00:38:24.000 Do you live in England?

00:38:25.000 Yeah.

00:38:26.000 There's so many places for you.

00:38:28.000 And here.

00:38:28.000 And I'm...

00:38:30.000 I live everywhere because I'm always touring and filming and so I just keep moving.

00:38:36.000 But yeah, I know.

00:38:37.000 But you've got to make the time, especially if you're moving around all the time.

00:38:40.000 You'd have to line it up so, okay, we're going to check in with this guy and that place.

00:38:44.000 And you'd have to take it.

00:38:47.000 It's got to be something that you're serious at as opposed to dabble.

00:38:49.000 I didn't want to dabble.

00:38:51.000 Like stand-up.

00:38:52.000 When I'm filming, I still do stand-up when I'm filming.

00:38:55.000 And if I'm doing stand-up, I will think about doing drama.

00:38:59.000 Drama and comedy, they're kind of related but different.

00:39:02.000 So I keep pushing both.

00:39:05.000 You've got to keep everything.

00:39:06.000 Match fit for life.

00:39:07.000 Like marathons, I can drop marathons now.

00:39:09.000 I just did three marathons.

00:39:11.000 I just dropped three marathons.

00:39:12.000 I got home from playing Australia, took the train up to Berwick-upon-Tweed on the Scottish border, ran up to Dunbar, which is one marathon, ran across to Edinburgh, second marathon.

00:39:21.000 Are you running a marathon with other people, or are you just running it for yourself?

00:39:24.000 No, I just get a backpack, put my stuff in there, change of clothes, wash kit, off I go, no backup.

00:39:29.000 And is this something that started because of the series of marathons that you did?

00:39:33.000 Yeah, and I want to stay match fit for life.

00:39:35.000 Because that's what, I noticed that everyone's a natural, all animals are natural animals.

00:39:40.000 And then there are the wild animals, which we were, and then there are domesticated animals.

00:39:43.000 We are self-domesticated.

00:39:45.000 But we are actually designed to be wild.

00:39:48.000 We're supposed to be match fit for life.

00:39:50.000 And I think as time goes on, you know, people get back into training or whatever.

00:39:55.000 They say, oh, that really hurts.

00:39:56.000 So I backed off.

00:39:57.000 I think it hurts because you're not doing it enough.

00:39:59.000 I'm not sure if this is pure science.

00:40:01.000 This is just a feeling for me, maybe, that I need to stay fit and running and swimming and whatever I'm doing.

00:40:09.000 And the less I do, the more the body punishes me.

00:40:12.000 If I'm doing it all the time, if I'm always – I try and run every morning.

00:40:15.000 I almost did it this morning.

00:40:17.000 I had to get up and do stuff today.

00:40:19.000 But if I miss one, then that's kind of good because that's a recovery time.

00:40:23.000 But I would just do HIIT training, high-intensity interval training every morning.

00:40:28.000 And then the ability to just drop three marathons, drop seven marathons in seven days.

00:40:32.000 You love that.

00:40:33.000 Yeah.

00:40:33.000 I love to have that in my back pocket.

00:40:35.000 And I don't think that's not allowed.

00:40:37.000 That's not in the list of things you're supposed to have.

00:40:39.000 But I know I can do it now.

00:40:41.000 And I can do it with just a backpack on.

00:40:43.000 Well, you can do it, too, because you have autonomy.

00:40:44.000 You can kind of do whatever you want to do, right?

00:40:46.000 Yeah, in the earning your living when you want to go make the time.

00:40:51.000 Yeah.

00:40:51.000 But there's also the actual...

00:40:52.000 That's not supposed to be in the list of what humans do.

00:40:56.000 Right, right.

00:40:57.000 You don't just go off and run three and three or seven and seven.

00:41:00.000 And I love that.

00:41:01.000 That's kind of...

00:41:02.000 That's out there.

00:41:04.000 Well, there's clearly people that are doing that.

00:41:06.000 Yeah.

00:41:06.000 Oh, yeah.

00:41:07.000 Everything I've done, someone's done way more than I've done.

00:41:11.000 Yeah.

00:41:11.000 And I kind of know that.

00:41:12.000 I feel that even if I don't know that for sure. 0.80

00:41:14.000 I have one crazy friend.

00:41:15.000 His name's Cameron Haynes, and he's actually a famous bow hunter, but he's also an ultra-marathon runner.

00:41:21.000 And when he prepares for these, like, Bigfoot 200s, or it's like 200-plus miles, or the Moab 240, 238 miles in the desert...

00:41:28.000 He runs a marathon a day.

00:41:31.000 So we run a marathon every day and then he works a full-time job.

00:41:34.000 He's legitimately crazy.

00:41:36.000 And, you know, he always does that. 0.98

00:41:38.000 He doesn't take any days off.

00:41:39.000 And he works, so he'll run a marathon a day, so he'll get up really early at dawn.

00:41:43.000 Really early, run in the morning, run at lunch.

00:41:45.000 Running at dawn.

00:41:46.000 It's beautiful.

00:41:47.000 In Africa, if you can imagine, the African dawns I got coming up. 1.00

00:41:50.000 Were you worried about something running up and grabbing you?

00:41:52.000 What, on that thing?

00:41:53.000 I wasn't.

00:41:54.000 I mean, they told me I was supposed to have security.

00:41:56.000 I wasn't.

00:41:57.000 I was kind of cool.

00:41:57.000 Well, that's for people.

00:41:58.000 Were you worried about people?

00:42:00.000 Yes.

00:42:00.000 Were you around any hostile animals?

00:42:02.000 I was in a mountain zebra national park.

00:42:07.000 Ooh.

00:42:07.000 And, you know, if you've ever been on a safari, they tell you to sit in this sort of shower-bang big open-topped vehicle.

00:42:15.000 It's got metal bars over it.

00:42:16.000 And they say the animals, they know the shape of that.

00:42:18.000 They know it's metal and metal doesn't taste very good.

00:42:20.000 So you'll be fine.

00:42:21.000 And there's a guy with a gun and you feel good.

00:42:22.000 But when I went there, of course, they said, well, you're running outside near the vehicle.

00:42:28.000 And I thought...

00:42:30.000 Is this right?

00:42:31.000 This would probably be good television, but I don't...

00:42:34.000 Okay, I'll just stay close and if something's coming.

00:42:36.000 And they did.

00:42:37.000 I said, what about...

00:42:38.000 How are the lions doing today?

00:42:39.000 They said, the lions have eaten yesterday.

00:42:41.000 They're fine.

00:42:42.000 And they told me, you know, and that's what lions...

00:42:44.000 They never go off for snacks.

00:42:46.000 Lions are kind of organized like that.

00:42:48.000 We ate yesterday, we ripped apart some animal, and we don't need to go and have a bag of Christmas.

00:42:51.000 So they knew?

00:42:52.000 They knew that the lions were welfare?

00:42:53.000 Yeah, they knew where they were, and that they were okay.

00:42:55.000 But they said the buffalo are around, and they can stamp you to death.

00:42:59.000 I didn't know buffalo are so...

00:43:00.000 Black Death, they call them.

00:43:01.000 Really?

00:43:02.000 Yeah, they call them Black Death.

00:43:04.000 They're responsible for so many...

00:43:05.000 They're not as responsible as hippos.

00:43:07.000 Hippos are number one. 1.00

00:43:08.000 But they fuck a lot of people up, man. 1.00

00:43:10.000 They don't take any shit. 1.00

00:43:11.000 Can you think about bulls? 1.00

00:43:12.000 When people try to ride bulls, Yeah.

00:43:15.000 Like domestic cow bulls.

00:43:17.000 They're ruthlessly aggressive animals. 1.00

00:43:19.000 I mean, they'll fucking throw you through the air. 1.00

00:43:22.000 Now, think of them, but wild. 0.99

00:43:25.000 And in Africa, and fighting off lions.

00:43:28.000 And that's African buffaloes. 0.81

00:43:30.000 I mean, they are ferocious animals.

00:43:33.000 And they're just...

00:43:33.000 I didn't know what I had to do.

00:43:35.000 I know that with hippos, if you come in between their water source, then they'll just kill you. 1.00

00:43:41.000 They'll fuck you up. 0.99

00:43:42.000 I didn't know what I had to do to buffaloes, whether I had to write to their grandma. 0.99

00:43:47.000 Yeah, if they find you to be a threat at all, they're just so powerful.

00:43:50.000 They just launch you in the air.

00:43:52.000 There's a great video that I was watching this morning of a lion that was trying to take out a small buffalo, and the other one got behind the lion and launched it through the air.

00:44:01.000 It was literally flying, like 40 feet in the air, like flipping head over heels.

00:44:06.000 Because the strength of this thing to take a giant cat and just, with its head, just whoop!

00:44:12.000 And just flies!

00:44:14.000 That wasn't the one with the crocodile in it as well, was it?

00:44:16.000 No, no.

00:44:17.000 This was one that was on the side of a dirt road.

00:44:20.000 Alright.

00:44:20.000 Have you heard about the crocodile one?

00:44:21.000 Go to Busy Wild on Instagram.

00:44:24.000 I think that's the...

00:44:26.000 Have you heard about the crocodile?

00:44:27.000 Yes, I saw that one.

00:44:28.000 That's interesting, isn't it?

00:44:29.000 Because I feel the buffalo there are acting like the local townspeople.

00:44:33.000 Yes.

00:44:34.000 And I think the lions are the SS, and the crocodile is another form. 0.89

00:44:40.000 Yeah, this is it.

00:44:40.000 This is the video.

00:44:41.000 So it looks like the lion's attacking this one.

00:44:43.000 Look at that.

00:44:44.000 Boom! 0.99

00:44:45.000 Well, it's actually not nearly as high as I thought it was.

00:44:48.000 Maybe I'm thinking of another one.

00:44:50.000 Yeah, that one's pretty good, though.

00:44:52.000 I mean, just to see it do that.

00:44:54.000 Oh, you know what I'm thinking of?

00:44:55.000 I'm thinking of Relentless Enemies.

00:44:56.000 That's what I'm thinking of.

00:44:57.000 There's actually a documentary about this one particular strain of lion.

00:45:05.000 Apparently, the river split sides, or the river changed its path, and it turned this area into an island.

00:45:14.000 And the lions had to adapt, because the only thing they could eat was buffalo.

00:45:19.000 I think?

00:45:44.000 There's a whole documentary.

00:45:45.000 It's a National Geographic documentary, I think.

00:45:47.000 It's really good.

00:45:48.000 But it's just incredible to see these things walking around.

00:45:50.000 I mean, they look cartoonish.

00:45:52.000 They're like the Hulk.

00:45:54.000 So it's hard to tell.

00:45:55.000 You'd have to compare them to a regular lion, but there's some images of these things walking around.

00:46:00.000 They just look so much larger than a regular lion because they just had to adapt.

00:46:06.000 And I would think that if you're running around, like, if you're running...

00:46:11.000 You gotta think, like, you look like something that's trying to get away.

00:46:14.000 Well, me running in that park?

00:46:16.000 Yeah.

00:46:16.000 No, I was right next to the green vehicle.

00:46:18.000 So the big metal green vehicle was there, and they just said, stay close.

00:46:22.000 So I was one door flip away from, I just launched myself into the, it was open top, so I would have been in that vehicle before they got to me.

00:46:30.000 I hope.

00:46:31.000 Did you hear about that woman from, she was an editor on the Game of Thrones, and she was in one of those parks, and she had a window rolled down, and they told her, keep your windows rolled up at all times.

00:46:42.000 She was trying to take better photographs, and the cat reached in and grabbed her, and pulled her out of the vehicle and killed her.

00:46:49.000 This was last year.

00:46:51.000 And they're a dangerous creature.

00:46:54.000 Yeah.

00:46:55.000 And you're just out there running with them.

00:46:57.000 Yeah, well, I, they, um, yeah, this is, oh, is that a picture of it?

00:47:01.000 Yeah.

00:47:01.000 Oh, God, they have a picture of it happening?

00:47:04.000 Yeah, it was in 2015. Oh, was it really that long ago?

00:47:07.000 Yeah, I just looked it up, yeah.

00:47:08.000 I thought that was last year.

00:47:09.000 No, it was.

00:47:10.000 My facts are terrible.

00:47:12.000 Time's fine, bro.

00:47:13.000 Look at that, though.

00:47:13.000 That is just so awful that they actually caught it on camera.

00:47:17.000 Well, she just thought it was, you know, she was safe.

00:47:20.000 She's in the car.

00:47:21.000 I reached in, grabbed her, and pulled her out. 1.00

00:47:24.000 Yeah, I... You're out there running around.

00:47:26.000 I would have...

00:47:28.000 There was a guy with a gun next to me. 0.89

00:47:30.000 I hope he's a good shot. 0.99

00:47:31.000 He said he knew how to shoot things.

00:47:34.000 I don't know.

00:47:35.000 I played my cards, you know?

00:47:37.000 Yeah.

00:47:37.000 Sometimes you play your cards.

00:47:39.000 Well, it must have been kind of exhilarating, too.

00:47:40.000 There's something about it, right?

00:47:42.000 Well, there.

00:47:42.000 I was talking to the Zebras.

00:47:45.000 I just...

00:47:46.000 I went out because, you know, obviously they were not dangerous.

00:47:48.000 There's a whole load of non-dangerous ones.

00:47:49.000 It was actually the first day on the...

00:47:51.000 It was about marathon 10 or 11 or something.

00:47:55.000 And I felt, you know, once you're over the 10 mark...

00:47:57.000 And I've never got there.

00:47:59.000 You know, if you'd done the whole South African thing and failed...

00:48:01.000 And people were tweeting about me.

00:48:02.000 Eddie is a... 1.00

00:48:03.000 You know, Africa kicked your ass. 1.00

00:48:05.000 You know, you just go... 1.00

00:48:06.000 TIA, you know, this is Africa. 0.93

00:48:07.000 You're going to take us on. 1.00

00:48:09.000 We're a huge fucking continent. 1.00

00:48:11.000 TIA? That's what they're saying? 1.00

00:48:12.000 This is Africa? 0.98

00:48:12.000 No. 0.98

00:48:13.000 Yeah, it's a big Africa. 0.98

00:48:14.000 Because Africa is... 0.97

00:48:15.000 Did you tell them, hey man, I was on medication?

00:48:18.000 No, well, it didn't really matter.

00:48:19.000 They were just in that whining.

00:48:20.000 So I just had to come back.

00:48:22.000 And I tried three times to come back.

00:48:24.000 And then I came back.

00:48:26.000 Three times?

00:48:27.000 Yeah, I kept trying.

00:48:28.000 Can we set the data?

00:48:29.000 Can we get back and do the thing?

00:48:30.000 No, we haven't got enough money to be able to do that.

00:48:32.000 We won't be able to set up.

00:48:34.000 And then suddenly, it's on, it's on, it's on.

00:48:36.000 And I couldn't train again.

00:48:40.000 So I thought, let's just go.

00:48:42.000 Get it done.

00:48:43.000 And then day five was in hospital.

00:48:44.000 Day six was in hospital as well.

00:48:46.000 After two-thirds of the marathon on day six, I had to go to hospital.

00:48:49.000 For what?

00:48:51.000 Well, it kept...

00:48:52.000 What happened?

00:48:54.000 My doctor had gone away, but my trainer thought...

00:48:58.000 He thought, I just didn't look good.

00:49:01.000 It was, you know, 35, 38 degrees, whatever, you know, and I'm used to...

00:49:05.000 What is that, like 120 Fahrenheit?

00:49:07.000 Oh, sorry.

00:49:07.000 Yeah, I'd say 110, 115, somewhere up there.

00:49:11.000 And I was not used to that.

00:49:15.000 And so I would have made it, I feel, but he wanted me to see an expert.

00:49:20.000 So I saw a nephrologist.

00:49:21.000 I didn't even know what the word meant.

00:49:23.000 Nephrologist?

00:49:24.000 Nephrologist is a kidney expert.

00:49:25.000 I thought that would be a renal expert, but no, it's a nephrologist.

00:49:28.000 And this very cool black dude, and he was there in South Africa in East London, it's called, it's the city.

00:49:34.000 So it's the big place, and he's going, what are you doing?

00:49:36.000 Who are you?

00:49:37.000 I'm running for Mandela. 0.61

00:49:38.000 What?

00:49:38.000 Well, I'm doing this thing.

00:49:40.000 Okay, and he said, it's okay.

00:49:43.000 We've checked out your kidneys.

00:49:44.000 You're all right.

00:49:45.000 Your blood's, it's your hydration.

00:49:48.000 Hydration is terrible.

00:49:49.000 So we're going to put three liters into you, and you'll be peeing like a horse. 0.97

00:49:53.000 All night.

00:49:53.000 And I didn't pee once.

00:49:55.000 So yeah, that's what you're saying.

00:49:58.000 You need some hydration.

00:49:59.000 And after that, it got better.

00:50:02.000 And so day 11, I got into this national park.

00:50:06.000 So there's no one else there, just me and animals and the security people and whatever with me.

00:50:12.000 And it was kind of beautiful.

00:50:14.000 It was just beautiful.

00:50:15.000 And the sun was great.

00:50:16.000 A sunset going down.

00:50:18.000 There was a rainstorm as well in the middle of it.

00:50:20.000 There were wild animals out there.

00:50:22.000 I don't know.

00:50:22.000 I just felt, again, this zen, weird place of beauty.

00:50:26.000 And also knowing I'm getting stronger.

00:50:27.000 I'm getting stronger.

00:50:28.000 I've gone through the barrier.

00:50:31.000 And I also, because I'd run four marathons, then a day off, and then the fifth, sixth day, I ran two-thirds of a marathon.

00:50:37.000 So I'd run four two-thirds marathons in six days, which is not good numbers for your head.

00:50:41.000 You need five and five, or something and something, but four and two-thirds marathons in six days just didn't work.

00:50:46.000 And then I ran another marathon, and I said, hang on.

00:50:49.000 I've got to run a marathon and a third and get these numbers matching up.

00:50:52.000 So I caught up the third marathon and then it was always day seven and I've run six.

00:50:58.000 Eight marathons in nine days.

00:50:59.000 It was always one day behind.

00:51:01.000 So I thought last day I'll do a double marathon and that'll be a good climactic end of my South African thing.

00:51:08.000 What is going on with your mind when you're doing this?

00:51:11.000 Because you're not listening to any music, and you're in this sort of meditative state where you're just left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot.

00:51:19.000 Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out.

00:51:22.000 I'm saying it's kind of zen, but it's not in a kind of like I'm listening to my heartbeat or anything.

00:51:27.000 It's more like...

00:51:28.000 I just feel...

00:51:37.000 It's just some sort of beautiful thing of maybe, because that's what we used to be as humans.

00:51:41.000 So maybe I'm reaching back into some past memory.

00:51:44.000 We humans just used to be out on the plains and we were looking for honey, wild honey or berries or some root stuff.

00:51:51.000 And if we could trap something, I don't know what it is.

00:51:54.000 I can't quite work out what it is, but I just find it beautiful.

00:51:57.000 And I do know that you're getting vitamin D in, you're getting stronger from that.

00:52:02.000 Somebody once read my hand.

00:52:03.000 I never do the hand palm reading, but I was at a Halloween party and there was a palm reading.

00:52:08.000 I'll try it.

00:52:09.000 I'm in a good place.

00:52:10.000 Let's read my hand.

00:52:11.000 And I can't remember what she said, except you need to get out more.

00:52:14.000 You need to get outside more.

00:52:16.000 And I thought, okay.

00:52:17.000 I always felt that I needed to be out back doing stuff.

00:52:20.000 Because when I was a kid, I lived for soccer, for football. 1.00

00:52:23.000 I used to run like a crazy idiot. 1.00

00:52:24.000 I loved that game. 0.99

00:52:25.000 And then from the age of 12, I went to a school that didn't play it, and I never played sports before.

00:52:29.000 This is one of my gifts to myself.

00:52:31.000 Accident, I think.

00:52:32.000 From the age of 12. You know, in your teenage years, your bones are already moving and setting.

00:52:36.000 And at that time, I was hardly doing anything.

00:52:38.000 So I think my knees have never gone.

00:52:41.000 People say running on the knees.

00:52:42.000 My knees have not gone.

00:52:43.000 I've got a whole theory about the heel of the foot, which it should never, you know, you should, you know, sprinters are always on the toes.

00:52:50.000 All running should be on the toes.

00:52:52.000 And I think if the heel hits, that's what causes the knees to scroll. 0.61

00:52:56.000 I could be wrong on No, no, that's correct.

00:52:58.000 That's not how people are supposed to run.

00:53:00.000 That was actually changed by Nike.

00:53:02.000 They developed a running shoe with a fat heel, and they changed the way people run.

00:53:05.000 They changed their gait, and it's responsible for a lot of injuries.

00:53:09.000 I think so.

00:53:10.000 And I notice on horses, if you look for the heel of a horse, it's right up by their bum, because the hoof is the toes, and then you go all the way up that leg, and right by the bum, that's the heel.

00:53:21.000 It's just an enormously long foot.

00:53:24.000 And you go, well, that's never going to hit the ground.

00:53:26.000 And dogs don't do it, cats don't do it.

00:53:28.000 We are the ones that use this heel thing. 0.99

00:53:30.000 Obviously, initially, for walking, to make us balance when we went from the chimpanzee gorilla stage into the, you know, we need to get balance.

00:53:38.000 Yeah, but even then, I mean, most people, if you just give them, if they're barefoot, like children, for example.

00:53:42.000 Like, one of the things that I was reading this book about...

00:53:45.000 I think?

00:54:01.000 And that you're so used to being protected in this cast that everything sort of just gets mushy inside of it.

00:54:07.000 And then you're also striking down on the heel, which is a very unnatural thing.

00:54:10.000 And when I watch my kids run, like my kids will run with me sometimes, and they naturally know to run on the balls of their feet.

00:54:18.000 That's how they naturally run.

00:54:19.000 And when people start running heel first, that's where all the problems come.

00:54:24.000 It's just not a normal way for people to run.

00:54:26.000 Yeah.

00:54:26.000 And I was also initially in South Africa running on certain road surfaces where they just dropped, instead of doing a tarmacadam kind of covering, they had just put rocks, obviously some lorry had come along and this truck had just dropped rocks out of the back to sort of hold together the mud in the rainy times.

00:54:45.000 And very uneven surface, very hard on the foot.

00:54:48.000 And I was doing these very thin-soled, running in very thin-soled shoes.

00:54:53.000 What kind of shoes are you running with?

00:54:55.000 Well, I kept changing them now.

00:54:57.000 But there were the Vibrams and then there were Vivo barefoot ones.

00:55:01.000 Oh, so you were running in barefoot?

00:55:02.000 Were you running marathons in barefoot shoes?

00:55:03.000 Well, initially I was.

00:55:05.000 And then my trainer, it just got so hard that my trainer said, look, you're going to wear these.

00:55:09.000 And then I left it to them to choose my physio.

00:55:12.000 He was Olympic level.

00:55:13.000 So he said, right, these are going to be better for them.

00:55:15.000 I prefer you not to be in these.

00:55:16.000 So I said, okay, you tell me what shoes to wear.

00:55:18.000 I'll take care of running the marathons.

00:55:20.000 But I do remember seeing little South African children running on the roads next to me.

00:55:25.000 Where they're going, hey, we'll run with you.

00:55:27.000 And they had completely nothing on their feet.

00:55:28.000 And they could deal with these sharp rocks.

00:55:30.000 I thought they were really sharp.

00:55:32.000 Every few steps were going, whoa, ow, ow.

00:55:34.000 And they were just laughing and running along.

00:55:40.000 Because their feet had built up, like, in this very...

00:55:43.000 Ah, this is South Africa, yeah.

00:55:46.000 Is it weird to watch this?

00:55:47.000 No, it's kind of fun because I go right back there.

00:55:51.000 I ran with flags.

00:55:52.000 That's a beautiful thing.

00:55:54.000 And I was running in the Eastern Cape, and they're looking at a white guy.

00:55:57.000 What's a white guy doing?

00:55:58.000 And this is a very rural area.

00:55:59.000 So I learned to say, Molo.

00:56:01.000 Molo.

00:56:02.000 That was in the African National Park.

00:56:03.000 That was the rain.

00:56:04.000 That was the...

00:56:10.000 That's the truck there on the left.

00:56:12.000 You can see the thing.

00:56:14.000 And this guy just turned up out of the blue to track me down.

00:56:18.000 What did he give you?

00:56:19.000 He just gave me a letter saying, thank you for doing stuff.

00:56:22.000 But if I ran with the flag and I said molo to people and I'd learn to say, how are you?

00:56:30.000 This guy seems like he's wearing women's clothes as well.

00:56:33.000 Yes, he's wearing a skirt, and I think he's a transgender guy with less hair than me. 0.99

00:56:38.000 Yeah, he's bald, but he's a transgender guy.

00:56:40.000 Now, do you take hormones or anything?

00:56:43.000 No, but I could.

00:56:44.000 I could transition.

00:56:45.000 But then I've also got these boy genetics going on in me.

00:56:47.000 I really think it's genes.

00:56:48.000 I think they're going to find out how it works, but I can't prove that at the moment.

00:56:52.000 But...

00:56:53.000 If I transition over, then I'll just be on the other side of this kind of fence that we give ourselves.

00:56:59.000 And I've decided, okay, I'm gender fluid.

00:57:01.000 I'm just going to have, like a superhero, boy mode and girl mode.

00:57:03.000 Like the human torch can go flame on, flame off.

00:57:06.000 When do you decide some days today I'm boy mode?

00:57:09.000 I can, but I tend to do sort of block periods now.

00:57:15.000 But when I campaign, I'm in girl mode, but I'm doing films, dramatic films, I'm in boy mode, unless I play the transgender character. 0.99

00:57:23.000 Do you have to think about it?

00:57:24.000 Not really, no.

00:57:25.000 But it's easier for me to be in girl mode because then if I can deal with that, you know, some people stare at you and I have a confidence now.

00:57:34.000 I carry myself with a certain confidence.

00:57:36.000 They go, oh, he seems to be quite confident, so I'll just relax about that.

00:57:39.000 And I can actually – I can control other people's embarrassment because if they don't know what to do, I'd say, hi, how are you?

00:57:45.000 Can I have a cup of tea?

00:57:46.000 Oh, yeah, well, we sell tea.

00:57:47.000 Oh, no, that's why you're here.

00:57:48.000 All right, okay.

00:57:49.000 So I can just relax people by just chatting to them.

00:57:53.000 And then boy mode is quite easy for me to do because I just go boy mode.

00:57:58.000 And I scrub up quite well in boy mode.

00:58:01.000 Do you...

00:58:02.000 But you've given thought to transitioning?

00:58:04.000 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:58:06.000 But, you know, part of me wants to be Steve McQueen in The Great Escape, and part of me wants to be Elizabeth Taylor in...

00:58:16.000 Looking like her in a cat in a hot tin roof.

00:58:18.000 Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?

00:58:19.000 No, cat in a hot tin roof, more like, which I just saw on the plane yesterday.

00:58:22.000 Oh, okay.

00:58:22.000 So these are the two looks I go between and I'm going, well, I, kind of both of them.

00:58:26.000 And as a kid, I thought, you know, can't I look more like Clint, Steve McQueen?

00:58:30.000 Because I kind of fascinated by Steve McQueen.

00:58:32.000 And what he went through to get to where he was.

00:58:35.000 And he was so driven.

00:58:36.000 I don't know if you know about the Steve McQueen story.

00:58:38.000 But you know that he was in a film with Paul Newman.

00:58:41.000 And he was like 93rd on the list of credits.

00:58:44.000 Someone up there likes me.

00:58:46.000 If you watch it, you can see him.

00:58:48.000 There's a knife fight between Paul Newman and Steve McQueen.

00:58:51.000 And he's like a heavy, you know, young thug, kind of heavy guy.

00:58:56.000 But he's just a small player.

00:58:59.000 And then the second film he's in with him...

00:59:01.000 Is Towering Inferno, where they are equal billing, and I think Paul Newman is first and Steve McQueen is higher.

00:59:10.000 If you look at the names on the poster, Paul Newman comes in from the left, so his name is first and Steve McQueen is on the right, but higher than Paul Newman.

00:59:20.000 That's how they got that equal billing.

00:59:22.000 How do you put equal billing if you're going to start reading from the left?

00:59:26.000 Right.

00:59:27.000 And if you remember the film, they come out as two guys you say, yeah, they're both decent guys.

00:59:34.000 Yeah, these are both heroes.

00:59:35.000 Yeah, that's a funny thing with actors, right?

00:59:37.000 Billing.

00:59:38.000 They want to make sure that their name is read first.

00:59:42.000 Well, I mean, you've got to have egos to do these things.

00:59:45.000 I mean, so many things need an ego to do them.

00:59:48.000 And then hopefully you can dial your ego down when you come off stage.

00:59:53.000 Some people can't do that.

00:59:54.000 When it comes to billing, if you know about Steve McQueen, and his mom was a sort of sometime prostitute and had men in and out of the house, and his dad was just never there.

01:00:05.000 And he found himself through a boys retreat, you know, because he was breaking the law and they sent him off to this place and they told him to talk these kids how to train wild horses.

01:00:17.000 And that was one of the first things he did.

01:00:19.000 And he was just so ambitious.

01:00:21.000 And with Yul Brynner in Magnificent Seven.

01:00:26.000 Because if you know that film at the beginning, it's got Yul Brynner.

01:00:29.000 Do you know that film well?

01:00:30.000 I don't remember it.

01:00:32.000 Magnificent Seven is a great film.

01:00:34.000 So it's got Yul Brynner with his coloring and no hair but such an amazing look.

01:00:40.000 And Stephen McQueen at the beginning.

01:00:41.000 They go up to Boot Hill.

01:00:42.000 To bury this Indian guy up at Boot Hill.

01:00:45.000 And people are not allowing it.

01:00:47.000 There's racism in the town.

01:00:48.000 And they both go up and they ride shotgun.

01:00:50.000 Again, two heroes.

01:00:51.000 But he was, he was, Yul Brynner was the top guy.

01:00:54.000 And apparently, you see what Brynner's doing?

01:00:58.000 You see what his caravan is, man?

01:01:00.000 God, he's got all this stuff here.

01:01:02.000 And he just wanted to be the top guy.

01:01:04.000 And he got there.

01:01:05.000 And it's a beautiful story.

01:01:07.000 It doesn't end brilliantly.

01:01:08.000 But, you know, Bullet is great.

01:01:11.000 Great Escape is great.

01:01:12.000 Yeah, he was a fascinating guy, Steve McQueen.

01:01:16.000 He became a race car driver.

01:01:17.000 Like, serious race car driver.

01:01:19.000 Yeah, he came second in the one before...

01:01:22.000 There's a documentary on...

01:01:25.000 On Le Mans.

01:01:26.000 Le Mans race, the 24-hour race.

01:01:28.000 And he did a race in America, which I think was a 12-hour race.

01:01:32.000 And they came second.

01:01:33.000 With a broken foot, he did it.

01:01:35.000 And he was just – he's kind of a force of nature.

01:01:38.000 But he would also do crazy things.

01:01:40.000 I mean really crazy things, which are just not – Well, he died fairly young too, right?

01:01:44.000 Yeah, at 50 he died.

01:01:44.000 He died of cancer.

01:01:46.000 Smoking and drinking.

01:01:48.000 Yeah, I don't know what it was.

01:01:50.000 We still don't know why people get cancer.

01:01:52.000 My mum died when I was six.

01:01:55.000 And she was a nurse and never smoked.

01:01:57.000 And she died of bowel cancer.

01:01:58.000 I mean, what is that?

01:02:01.000 Nothing makes sense.

01:02:04.000 Unless you put in random into the world.

01:02:07.000 That's my theory of the universe.

01:02:09.000 It's a good theory.

01:02:10.000 Yeah.

01:02:10.000 If you put random in, it makes sense.

01:02:12.000 After 13.5 billion years, we've had about 300 years since the Enlightenment.

01:02:17.000 And I just think we're lucky enough to be here.

01:02:19.000 We've had five great extinctions, and we could have a six, or we could look after ourselves.

01:02:23.000 Treat other people as you'd like to be treated yourself. 0.53

01:02:26.000 That great rule.

01:02:28.000 Do unto others as you'd have done unto you.

01:02:30.000 If we all did that tomorrow, the world would all work.

01:02:35.000 Yeah.

01:02:36.000 How do we do that?

01:02:37.000 How do we get that going?

01:02:38.000 Well, it's better than it was.

01:02:40.000 Yes.

01:02:40.000 It's better than it was, even though it seems kind of hellish.

01:02:42.000 If anyone's pissed off with politics at the moment, track yourself back.

01:02:45.000 If you're going to look at politics from any time back in history, it's always been hell. 0.99

01:02:49.000 It's always been rubbish. 0.99

01:02:50.000 It's always been all over the place. 1.00

01:02:52.000 Yes.

01:02:55.000 I think transparency as opposed to opacity, if that's the word.

01:03:01.000 You know, the more transparent things are, the more we can check, hey, that guy's lying about that.

01:03:05.000 If we could work out what's a lie and what's not a lie, that would be really nice.

01:03:09.000 I don't know if we could have lie detectors on all the time.

01:03:13.000 I think it's going to be mind reading.

01:03:16.000 I really think that we're going to have technology within the next 50 years that allows people to definitively understand whether or not someone's being honest.

01:03:25.000 It would make it.

01:03:27.000 I'm sure someone could get a bad side of that, but you think up front, you think there's a lot of good stuff on that.

01:03:32.000 Someone could say, this is going to happen.

01:03:33.000 I want this to happen.

01:03:35.000 A lot of people's scams are going to fall apart.

01:03:38.000 What do you call them, Ponzi schemes?

01:03:40.000 Yeah, Ponzi schemes, pyramid schemes.

01:03:42.000 Yeah, a lot of that's going to fall apart.

01:03:44.000 Why are they called Ponzi schemes?

01:03:45.000 Was a guy called Mr. Ponzi?

01:03:46.000 Yeah, I think so.

01:03:47.000 There's a bunch of those little terms, like Fagazi.

01:03:50.000 Jeff Ponzi, I think so.

01:03:51.000 Fagazi is one that people use for fake.

01:03:54.000 There was a limousine company that was writing bad checks, Fagazi Limousine Service, and it became like a thing on the East Coast where, oh, this guy, he's a Fagazi cop. 0.97

01:04:03.000 That means you're a fake cop.

01:04:05.000 Yeah.

01:04:05.000 Wow.

01:04:06.000 Yeah, Figazi became a big word.

01:04:08.000 Charles Ponzi, there he is.

01:04:09.000 Jeff Ponzi. 0.98

01:04:09.000 Look at that dirtbag. 0.98

01:04:10.000 Look at him. 0.96

01:04:11.000 He looks happy.

01:04:13.000 1920. He's about to leap over his own walking cane.

01:04:16.000 The roaring 20s, just ripping people off.

01:04:18.000 Do we tell people, as you're listening, please look up Charles Ponzi on Wikipedia.

01:04:26.000 So that's it.

01:04:27.000 And how did he die?

01:04:28.000 Did he explode?

01:04:29.000 Hopefully he exploded.

01:04:30.000 He got hit by a meteor.

01:04:33.000 So you are running for something now?

01:04:35.000 What are you doing?

01:04:37.000 I've said that for nine years, quite consistently, I would like to say that I was going to run in 2020. We had set terms in our politics, like you always had.

01:04:48.000 You've had a four-year.

01:04:49.000 We arranged it into a five-year, but then we've gone back to the old system, which is where the The Prime Minister of the country can choose when they have an election and it can be anywhere up to a day, you know, the next day after the election or up to five years later.

01:05:04.000 So we have no idea.

01:05:05.000 So the Prime Minister can decide, you know what, we'll have another election in two weeks.

01:05:09.000 Yeah, and they wouldn't do that for them.

01:05:11.000 But, you know, like we had a general election in 2015. And then in 2017, having been in for only two years, Theresa May was persuaded that if you go for an election now, you're going to win big.

01:05:22.000 You're going to win tons of extra seats and then we'll be able to do whatever we want.

01:05:26.000 But in fact, they lost seats in that election.

01:05:28.000 So, you know, sometimes they grab it.

01:05:30.000 Sometimes you go in the fourth.

01:05:33.000 There's a traditional thing of going in the fourth year because if you've got all the economics going and everything's pretty good, okay, let's go now.

01:05:39.000 We've got a year to spare, but let's go in the fourth year because we know we're in a good place.

01:05:44.000 And then you have to allow, I think, six weeks for an election campaign.

01:05:48.000 But yeah, we do that.

01:05:50.000 I think other countries do that.

01:05:51.000 But I'm sure to America, you go, that sounds crazy.

01:05:54.000 But anyway, that's what we've been doing for some time.

01:05:57.000 What are you going to run for?

01:05:58.000 Member of Parliament for some constituency, hopefully in England, would be my thing, as opposed to United Kingdom, because there's Wales and Scotland.

01:06:05.000 Is this a step?

01:06:07.000 No.

01:06:07.000 Are you going to move further along the line?

01:06:10.000 Are you going to eventually...

01:06:11.000 No, that would be...

01:06:12.000 Once I stand for an MP, then I would...

01:06:14.000 Glenda Jackson, I don't know if you know Glenda Jackson, she did this.

01:06:17.000 Well, Arnold Schwarzenegger, you know about him, because he went away and then came back to creative work that he was doing to...

01:06:24.000 doing films, but he went away for seven years, so I will go away for a period of time and put my career to hibernation.

01:06:30.000 And just do politics.

01:06:32.000 Just do politics.

01:06:33.000 But you have a set period of time where you're going to do this and then afterwards you're going to retire?

01:06:37.000 No, I would do it.

01:06:38.000 No set period of time.

01:06:40.000 I'm just going to go off and work as hard as I can, as far as I can, and then I come back when I choose to come back.

01:06:46.000 So no stand-up, no nothing during that time?

01:06:48.000 You could do stand-up if you're raising money for charity, if I'm raising money for the Labor Party or my party.

01:06:53.000 I think that would be allowable.

01:06:55.000 I think my constituency members wouldn't mind that if I was raising money for constituency.

01:07:00.000 But if I was just doing it for myself, well, you can write books.

01:07:05.000 You'd have to write books and articles.

01:07:06.000 It's all a bit hazy, but I'm not sure if you have the same system.

01:07:10.000 We have a similar system.

01:07:11.000 My friend Doug Stanhope was running for president briefly, kind of as a lark, and realized that he really couldn't do stand-up.

01:07:19.000 Because if he did stand-up, he would have to allow equal time for everyone else who wanted to perform.

01:07:25.000 who also had some like his stand-up performances were then thought of as political campaign performances Something along those lines. 0.59

01:07:34.000 It was like some weird bullshit that he was going to have to navigate that he decided to just back out of it. 0.99

01:07:40.000 But he was bullshitting the entire time. 0.99

01:07:43.000 He was just doing it for fun. 0.98

01:07:44.000 No, I'm going to do it.

01:07:46.000 I'm going to go in.

01:07:47.000 I think a lot of moderate people don't go in.

01:07:48.000 I consider myself a radical moderate.

01:07:50.000 I do radical things with a moderate message.

01:07:52.000 And I've already done a number of things like that in my life, so I'm just going to take that in and...

01:07:58.000 What's your goal?

01:07:59.000 My goal is to try and encourage my country and the world to go in a positive direction.

01:08:05.000 I think I've been saying this politically that I think this is our last century on Earth or it's our first century on Earth.

01:08:12.000 I think the next 80 years is for everything.

01:08:14.000 We're going to choose everything here.

01:08:15.000 We're either going to wipe ourselves off the planet or we're going to make it a fair world for 7.5 billion people where you have a right to have a fair world, enough democracy and transparency, enough Money to live a life, to have a family.

01:08:26.000 Not everyone, not billions of people living on $1 a day or $2 a day.

01:08:31.000 So I think we need to get to there because then immigration raises its head, your country, my country, every country in the world, and that's all people moving around because they haven't got enough money to live on or they haven't got enough security because there's a war, civil war. 0.96

01:08:44.000 And if we could get beyond that, then a lot of those problems drop away.

01:08:49.000 But going into politics and talking about a global vision of the future and whatever is slightly – it's a very difficult thing to do because people are going to say, oh, you've just asked for that.

01:08:59.000 How is that helping this global vision?

01:09:01.000 But I just thought – We seem to be trying 1930s politics again in political areas, so I thought, well, I'm going to look for a vision, a positive vision of the future.

01:09:11.000 And I know when I came out as transgender in 85, there was no way I could imagine anything.

01:09:16.000 I didn't know where it was going to go.

01:09:17.000 I just thought I need to go out there, I need to argue or discuss at least.

01:09:21.000 Try and set up a positive image version, you know, because I'm not sure what age you are, but I think you're 51. You're 51. So, you know, I'm 57. So remember in the earlier years of our lives, it was just so out there.

01:09:34.000 Transgender, you didn't even talk about it. 0.98

01:09:36.000 I mean, there were gay and lesbian people out, but transgender was like some crazy out there place. 1.00

01:09:40.000 What the hell are you on about? 0.98

01:09:42.000 And that was when I came out in the middle of that.

01:09:46.000 And it wasn't an easy thing.

01:09:49.000 But I just thought, if I'm not going to do Special Forces, I'll do this civilian Special Forces.

01:09:53.000 That is a hilarious group of choices.

01:09:56.000 Special Forces or Transgender.

01:09:59.000 Well, I did the civilian special forces.

01:10:01.000 And then I had to fight on the streets and argue with people.

01:10:04.000 And it's all mental, isn't it?

01:10:06.000 If you're in a...

01:10:07.000 It isn't any way the same because people are shooting bullets at Union.

01:10:10.000 People are dying and getting blown up.

01:10:12.000 So I know there's a massive difference there.

01:10:14.000 But everything in the end is psychological.

01:10:16.000 And if I wasn't going to do that, I was going to try and do this.

01:10:20.000 And I would take risks in these areas of...

01:10:25.000 I'll go out and people say things in the street or whatever they do and do that and then I'll run the math.

01:10:30.000 So you were going out knowing that you might have to be in an altercation?

01:10:35.000 Yeah, I was sure that was going to happen.

01:10:37.000 Teenagers, they just point and scream at you. 1.00

01:10:40.000 Yeah, they're little assholes. 1.00

01:10:42.000 Teenage boys, they scare the shit out of me. 1.00

01:10:44.000 My friend Eric Crisp, he said it to me once, because he was dealing with some teenage boys in his hometown, and he was like, the teenage boys are the most fucking dangerous animals on the planet, because they have all this testosterone, no one's really giving them any guidance yet, they're sort of just out there wild, 0.98

01:11:01.000 and they're trying to outdo each other, one-up each other. 0.97

01:11:04.000 And then they're cruel.

01:11:07.000 They're cruel.

01:11:07.000 And they also are insecure.

01:11:09.000 And so one of the ways to combat that insecurity is to try to make someone else feel like shit. 0.98

01:11:13.000 It's like some weird natural instinct that people have. 0.99

01:11:16.000 Well, that's what gossip is.

01:11:20.000 Gossip is mild hatred.

01:11:21.000 And gossip, when you say so-and-so, they're less.

01:11:24.000 You lower their respect or their value or whatever by saying something.

01:11:31.000 Or you can do it as an action.

01:11:32.000 And in doing so, you raise your own.

01:11:34.000 Yes. 1.00

01:11:34.000 By saying, at least we're not them, because they are a shithead. 1.00

01:11:37.000 Sure. 1.00

01:11:38.000 And they're less than us.

01:11:38.000 And that has gone on since the dawn of time, unfortunately.

01:11:44.000 Well, that's where you see the social currency of today's shame climate, like shaming people for this or that, or attacking people for whatever various things they're doing, trying to get public shame against people.

01:11:55.000 Especially people that haven't really done anything wrong.

01:11:57.000 What they're doing is they're trying to do that to elevate themselves. 1.00

01:12:00.000 And they see someone in the public eye, see someone who's famous or rich, and they're saying, that person's a fucking loser. 0.99

01:12:06.000 And they're, you know, a sports figure is a perfect example. 1.00

01:12:09.000 You know, like some super athlete, and they drop a ball. 1.00

01:12:12.000 You fucking loser! 1.00

01:12:13.000 You know, and they're doing this to sort of maximize this sort of, this, like, this downfall, this... 1.00

01:12:22.000 If they see anything that's going wrong with that person's life, and if they can accentuate that and pump it up, but somehow or another, they think it elevates them.

01:12:30.000 It actually does the opposite.

01:12:31.000 It's terrible for them.

01:12:32.000 It's terrible for everybody.

01:12:33.000 But they have this natural instinct, this competitive instinct to push down the person they think is elevated too high.

01:12:41.000 Well, I think that leads into the trolling thing online, that if you can do it from behind a firewall of, no one knows who I am, and...

01:12:49.000 I remember there was some – we have banknotes like your banknotes that had a woman on the back of one of our banknotes. 0.81

01:12:55.000 The Queen's picture is on the front.

01:12:57.000 And then they changed it up every few years and they took the woman who was on the back of – I think it was a 10-pound note or something.

01:13:04.000 They took her off and they changed it.

01:13:06.000 And then there was this campaign.

01:13:08.000 We need to get a woman on the back of another different note. 1.00

01:13:11.000 It's not going to be that. 1.00

01:13:13.000 And two people trolled this, I think two women saying, you should die, you should be raped. 1.00

01:13:19.000 I mean, hellish stuff. 1.00

01:13:20.000 One of them turned out to be a woman who was actually attacking another woman. 1.00

01:13:23.000 And you think, what's going on in your head?

01:13:26.000 Where's that coming from?

01:13:27.000 But behind this firewall, you can go to any place of...

01:13:31.000 It's almost like they don't think that a person that they're attacking online is an actual person.

01:13:36.000 They're not getting the social cues from them.

01:13:39.000 They're not looking them in their eye.

01:13:40.000 I just think it's a piss poor way to communicate with people.

01:13:43.000 I don't do any communicating with people online.

01:13:47.000 I don't go back and forth with people on Twitter.

01:13:49.000 I don't go back and forth.

01:13:51.000 I don't comment on things.

01:13:53.000 I don't anything. 0.91

01:13:53.000 I talk so fucking much as it is doing this. 0.91

01:13:56.000 I'm like, I said enough. 0.98

01:13:58.000 If you don't know how I feel about things, Jesus Christ. 0.99

01:14:01.000 If you listen to this goddamn podcast, that's me. 0.99

01:14:03.000 I don't need to comment on other shit. 0.99

01:14:05.000 I definitely don't need to comment in text form back and forth with the person and try to explain myself. 0.99

01:14:11.000 There's no benefit in it. 1.00

01:14:12.000 I used to, when I was doing stand-up in the clubs, some people might shout out, fuck off you. 1.00

01:14:17.000 Ah, so, you know, from the front. 1.00

01:14:18.000 And I thought, well, you're drunk, you're an idiot, whatever, I don't care. 1.00

01:14:20.000 And I would not think that person really knows what they're talking about. 1.00

01:14:23.000 So I wouldn't go into a thing.

01:14:24.000 I would try and destroy them with, you know, puttimes and stuff.

01:14:28.000 But that's what's happening online if someone's coming to you.

01:14:31.000 And I used to not worry about them before.

01:14:33.000 And suddenly I was worried about them.

01:14:34.000 I thought, no, actually, I'm not worried about them.

01:14:37.000 It's just literally like thousands and millions of hecklers.

01:14:41.000 It's really what it is.

01:14:42.000 It is.

01:14:42.000 It's a heckling thing.

01:14:43.000 The last one I did was I said something and someone said, Eddie Izzard, fuck you. 1.00

01:14:49.000 And I wrote back, no, fuck you. 1.00

01:14:52.000 And I just thought that was a very witty response. 1.00

01:14:57.000 That's like five-year-olds.

01:14:59.000 That's what they say. 1.00

01:15:00.000 You're a loser. 1.00

01:15:01.000 Yes, exactly. 1.00

01:15:02.000 He was the loser, and then they disconnected. 1.00

01:15:06.000 It's so stupid. 1.00

01:15:07.000 You never really feel good about it, even if you get a real good zinger on somebody. 1.00

01:15:10.000 You're just like, what am I doing with my life?

01:15:13.000 Yeah, my dad's bigger than your dad thing.

01:15:17.000 That's what's going on.

01:15:18.000 And my dad wasn't terribly tall, so I could never use that language.

01:15:21.000 What does it matter?

01:15:23.000 Yeah, and does that really work for him?

01:15:25.000 No, he keeps bumping into storeways when he goes, he's much too tall, my dear.

01:15:30.000 So you guys are dealing with Brexit, right?

01:15:34.000 Yeah, we've got a...

01:15:35.000 How's that change the climate of England?

01:15:38.000 Well, it's made it very toxic, kind of like what's happening over here.

01:15:42.000 It's all gone polarized.

01:15:46.000 Like with the build the wall stuff?

01:15:48.000 Yeah.

01:15:49.000 And it's one side or the other and there's no one in the middle.

01:15:53.000 In a way, if you look at secession and American Civil War, that was bound to happen at some time.

01:16:01.000 If you go back to the Constitution in 1787...

01:16:07.000 That was supposed to happen.

01:16:08.000 And I think once you've...

01:16:09.000 European Union, no one's ever tried, from countries that have hundreds of years of history, to choose to try and learn to live together, work together, some shape or form.

01:16:18.000 This tricky thing we're trying to do.

01:16:19.000 It's the hardest thing politically that's ever been done in the history of the world.

01:16:23.000 And I think...

01:16:24.000 Because I'm saying the American model with Native American lands and rolling over Manifest Destiny is a different model.

01:16:30.000 It's a different way of things happen.

01:16:32.000 It's a different time as well.

01:16:33.000 Yeah, different time and Native Americans didn't have this idea of, oh, we mark this off and we've registered this land.

01:16:41.000 So the idea that people learning to work together is tricky.

01:16:47.000 At some point, someone was going to say, I think we'd like to change this or we'd like to move out.

01:16:50.000 So this fight was bound to happen.

01:16:52.000 And so it's very toxic.

01:16:56.000 It's...

01:17:00.000 I'm not getting too right at the center of it because you could just, you know, probably like you have on your news broadcast, you could listen to people talking hours and hours and hours.

01:17:12.000 What do you think about it?

01:17:13.000 What do you think about it?

01:17:14.000 And it doesn't seem to get anywhere.

01:17:15.000 So I've worked out what my worldview is, this worldview that everyone's got to have a fair chance in life.

01:17:21.000 I know that automation is happening right now, so there's going to be a whole load of people who won't be able to get jobs because the unskilled labor force, their jobs are going to get automated.

01:17:31.000 That's going to get tricky.

01:17:32.000 So the universal wage is probably going to have to come in.

01:17:36.000 Universal basic income?

01:17:37.000 Yeah, universal basic income, which everyone's going to have to get.

01:17:39.000 It's not going to be a negative thing.

01:17:41.000 It's going to be something, okay, then you can go off and you can retrain or you can live your life.

01:17:46.000 And then there's artificial intelligence parity by 2050, next 30 years.

01:17:50.000 And that's, what does that mean?

01:17:51.000 We can't even work out what that means.

01:17:54.000 I think it's going to get harder before it gets easier.

01:17:57.000 And so I'm going to just, I always do the long game.

01:17:59.000 I always do the long game.

01:18:00.000 So, you know, I came out back in 85 and I just thought, well, hopefully it'll get better over time.

01:18:06.000 And now...

01:18:07.000 This will roll up in 2019, and it's definitely better than that was.

01:18:10.000 But it can go backwards, forwards, backwards, forwards.

01:18:12.000 But I just...

01:18:13.000 I'm going to try and shoot for that, and everyone have a fair chance in life.

01:18:18.000 And as to Brexit, where that goes, you know, positive, negative...

01:18:22.000 You know, I'm against it, so I was just going to fight it.

01:18:24.000 I don't need to think about whether I'm against it.

01:18:26.000 I just know...

01:18:29.000 The younger people are coming online to vote now.

01:18:31.000 They're old enough to vote, and 78% of them want to be part of Europe, and the older people who are passing away, probably 78% of them wanted to be out of Europe.

01:18:40.000 So it's a fear thing, like a fear of immigration, fear of...

01:18:43.000 Well, there's a thing.

01:18:44.000 We have to be brave and curious rather than fearful and suspicious.

01:18:48.000 And these are the two ways I think people can go.

01:18:51.000 If we're brave enough, we can be curious and say, Hi, how are you?

01:18:54.000 Where are you from?

01:18:54.000 And what do you do?

01:18:55.000 Can we learn from you?

01:18:56.000 Can you learn from us?

01:18:57.000 I think that is the way for humanity to go forward.

01:18:59.000 Or you could be fearful and suspicious.

01:19:01.000 Hang on.

01:19:01.000 No, back off.

01:19:02.000 Outside.

01:19:03.000 I don't want to talk to you.

01:19:04.000 I don't want to know about you.

01:19:05.000 And that's the fearful and suspicious way.

01:19:07.000 And I think we have to be brave and curious.

01:19:11.000 Otherwise, we're not going to make it.

01:19:12.000 So for us in America, you're essentially dealing with a bunch of different countries that speak a bunch of different languages, whereas we're dealing with a bunch of different states that speak the same language.

01:19:24.000 But it's kind of...

01:19:25.000 It doesn't make any difference.

01:19:26.000 Yeah, it's interesting.

01:19:27.000 Because I thought if everyone could get the hang...

01:19:28.000 Because English has become a lingua franca for the world.

01:19:32.000 Hasn't made much difference.

01:19:33.000 And America shows you can be completely at loggerheads whether you're saying the same words or not.

01:19:37.000 I think if you're not saying the same words, it's easier for people to say, who are these people?

01:19:41.000 We hate them because they can't understand a single word they're saying.

01:19:44.000 That's easier. 0.98

01:19:45.000 But it's an easier way to be xenophobic slash racist on it.

01:19:48.000 And I've always said that xenophobia is just a racist with a xylophone.

01:19:53.000 Which is my joke, which I got to use somewhere in a political situation.

01:19:57.000 But it doesn't seem to make the big difference in the end.

01:20:02.000 We have enough ways of translating and stuff.

01:20:05.000 And most people in most countries now can reach for English if they need to.

01:20:10.000 You know, like some people, I think Putin will always speak in Russian.

01:20:14.000 Any leader of a country will probably use their own language first, talk to their own country people first, and then they might throw in something in English or in an interview.

01:20:21.000 But we can work out from vibe where most people are coming in.

01:20:28.000 Well, I think that we're probably pretty close to some form of viable translation technology, like Google had these Google Earbuds.

01:20:37.000 Yeah.

01:20:38.000 You can do it on the Google app without even the earbuds.

01:20:41.000 If you go to Google Translate and you hit the microphone on there, you can just say, hello, good afternoon, and if it's on the French button, it'll come out in French.

01:20:49.000 I haven't done it in the field.

01:20:51.000 I would like to get out to somewhere out in the sticks.

01:20:55.000 Actually, I should test that.

01:20:56.000 I'll make that a...

01:20:56.000 The Googled earbuds, I think, the idea is that if you were talking to me in French, it would translate instantaneously to English.

01:21:03.000 You know, it's probably a beta version of it now, or like a clunky version of it.

01:21:08.000 But ultimately, we're going to have something that allows you to do that.

01:21:11.000 There's also Google Lens.

01:21:13.000 I used that when I was traveling.

01:21:14.000 Or you could take the camera and you look at it, and it translates foreign languages into English.

01:21:20.000 That's on Google Translate, yeah.

01:21:22.000 So the Google Translate verbal one at the moment does line by line.

01:21:25.000 So you have to say a line, receive a line.

01:21:28.000 Yeah, I mean, just think about what technologies existed 20 years ago and how much more advanced they are now and then add that to translation and that exponential increase.

01:21:37.000 We're probably going to lose a lot of these barriers of misunderstanding.

01:21:42.000 It is interesting.

01:21:43.000 I do think we have created some amazing positive things going forward and we tend to bank them We're good to go.

01:22:07.000 There's less racism, less immigration problems.

01:22:10.000 Everything's less.

01:22:11.000 And when everyone runs out of money, they get pissed off, totally understandably.

01:22:14.000 But we need to make the economy of the world work, and then it would be an easier place.

01:22:20.000 But how do we do that?

01:22:21.000 How do you make the economy of the world work?

01:22:23.000 Yeah, no.

01:22:25.000 Yes, that's an easy line to say and it's very difficult to work it out.

01:22:29.000 But I do think as you gradually learn to live together, work together, as we gradually come together, I mean, it's like in the European Union, say in America, if certain parts of America or European Union are having a tough time, then money goes to those places having a tough time to try and get them back on their feet so that they can come back in and start making enough money to be able to help other parts.

01:22:47.000 And that's the idea.

01:22:48.000 Yeah.

01:22:49.000 And that's logically a model that should be able to work in the world as we head towards it.

01:22:56.000 Because we know that wars are terribly expensive and a lot of people die.

01:23:01.000 That doesn't seem to get anywhere.

01:23:02.000 Surely we should have learned this as we go back.

01:23:05.000 So, wars of conquest, I don't think they're going to happen anymore.

01:23:08.000 Quote, like, you know, the idea, we're going to invade this thing, like the old empire stuff.

01:23:11.000 Yes.

01:23:12.000 Which I think the Nazis did the last version of that. 0.84

01:23:15.000 Right, wars of conquest are now being replaced by wars of defense.

01:23:19.000 Wars of defense or wars that are hidden behind things, you know, under some other auspices.

01:23:25.000 Pretense.

01:23:25.000 Yes, you know, we need to, we've come in to defend these people, but they didn't need defense.

01:23:29.000 What was Grenada about?

01:23:31.000 I still don't know what Reagan was doing in Grenada.

01:23:34.000 Tenly veiled attempts to control natural resources.

01:23:37.000 Yeah, well, I think that's what a lot of these are.

01:23:40.000 Yeah, and you know, and then it's economic wars as opposed to...

01:23:44.000 And then stopping terrorism in its tracks and trying to keep these radical terrorists from taking over certain countries and strongholds, but we really haven't done a good job of that.

01:23:55.000 And there's political will you need to do that, and then...

01:23:59.000 People in their countries, understandably, don't like people dying abroad.

01:24:04.000 And then, you know, wars of defense, do they...

01:24:08.000 I wonder whether that's going to happen.

01:24:10.000 You know, there's this thing called right to defend, the idea that countries that are better set up should be able to go in or should be willing to go in and defend people having a really tough time and try to get the politics to work on that.

01:24:24.000 You know, if someone is menacing...

01:24:26.000 You know, when Hitler was menacing... 0.95

01:24:28.000 Within his own country, no one did anything like that.

01:24:30.000 When Stalin was menacing in his own country, because about 30 million died under Stalin.

01:24:34.000 But no one went in.

01:24:36.000 No one said, hey, we've got a whistleblowing.

01:24:38.000 Time to go in and help.

01:24:40.000 We didn't go in.

01:24:41.000 Well, we don't even go in for North Korea.

01:24:43.000 I mean, we're in this weird position with North Korea where we have this military dictator who's clearly...

01:24:49.000 Oppressing his entire nation and this was strange to see in 2019 the limited internet I mean they have like an intranet they have like their own version of the internet where they have a few websites you could visit yeah they've got everybody locked down and extreme poverty extreme hunger like the the ones that have escaped from North Korea I mean if they've had these soldiers and they're malnourished they have parasites it's It's an awful,

01:25:15.000 awful condition.

01:25:16.000 It's happening right now.

01:25:17.000 And if you see when North Korea does military maneuvers, it looks like the Nazis. 0.70

01:25:21.000 And you thought, well, that Nazi thing, well, you know, I don't like the Nazis at all.

01:25:25.000 But how do they get all these people doing that?

01:25:27.000 You say, oh, North Korea could do it.

01:25:28.000 Well, hang on.

01:25:29.000 This is just a thing.

01:25:29.000 If you spend all your time just marching up and down, you can make that happen.

01:25:34.000 And Lenny Riefenstahl can go and film it and...

01:25:36.000 With low angles and make it look dramatic.

01:25:40.000 Make it look fearsome.

01:25:42.000 Yeah.

01:25:43.000 But we're better off globally than we were during World War II, right?

01:25:48.000 The world is better off.

01:25:49.000 The world is better off in the Western world.

01:25:52.000 It's more progressive and more open-minded since you came out in 1985 versus in 2019 where we're sitting here today.

01:25:59.000 It's a different world.

01:26:00.000 It's a different environment.

01:26:01.000 That's why I'm glasses two-thirds for.

01:26:03.000 I do think we are in a better place.

01:26:05.000 There is more tolerance.

01:26:07.000 It does go a few steps forward, one step back.

01:26:09.000 Always.

01:26:10.000 Always.

01:26:11.000 You're always going to have Charlottesville, there's Nazi rallies. 0.94

01:26:14.000 You're always going to have weird pockets of racism and things where you're like, I can't fucking believe this is still happening.

01:26:20.000 You're going to have a little of those setbacks.

01:26:22.000 I don't know.

01:26:23.000 There was something like in Germany, something like 10,000 people were wanting to vote for the Nazi party, or maybe it's more, but that's a country of 80 million, so let's get the perspectives right.

01:26:33.000 If certain things happen and they're on television, you go, whoa, and that's obviously why they do them, to create an outrage, get on television, and you go, wow, it's all over.

01:26:40.000 It's happening everywhere.

01:26:41.000 Oh, well, no, it's in this small place.

01:26:45.000 Yeah.

01:26:46.000 I mean, sometimes, well, the beautiful things that human beings can do is stunning.

01:26:51.000 We, you know, we have so many stories of just amazing things that humans do.

01:26:55.000 And then you put the horrible things that we can do, that goes on forever.

01:26:58.000 If there was a God, I don't believe in a God, but if he did come down and say, what have you guys doing? 0.99

01:27:02.000 Who are these bastards? 1.00

01:27:04.000 And you guys, well done, you guys, but who are these bastards? 1.00

01:27:06.000 Well, I don't, you know. 0.99

01:27:07.000 Well, they've always said the Lord works in mysterious ways.

01:27:10.000 So, look at the world.

01:27:11.000 I know. 0.98

01:27:11.000 Pretty fucking mysterious. 0.98

01:27:13.000 Yeah. 0.92

01:27:13.000 Maybe it's evidence they're correct. 0.92

01:27:14.000 I think World War II was a test for God, because 60 million people died, and at some point we were thinking, okay, how many people need to die before you come and blow a whistle and just say, whoa, what's the guy with the mustache doing?

01:27:25.000 Let's get him off the board.

01:27:26.000 Flick him off the board.

01:27:27.000 That was my test for God, and he didn't come, so I think it's up to us kids. 0.97

01:27:32.000 Well, he didn't come when we, I mean, what they did, the Nazis did, was obviously horrific, but what we did when we dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that's pretty fucking horrific as well.

01:27:42.000 No intervention whatsoever from the big guy. 0.88

01:27:44.000 No.

01:27:45.000 No, he didn't come in.

01:27:46.000 I mean...

01:27:46.000 He didn't catch the bomb in midair going, hey, there's kids down there.

01:27:49.000 There's women down there. 1.00

01:27:50.000 These are not soldiers.

01:27:52.000 This is a city.

01:27:53.000 I need to say this, and I know I'm not taking the...

01:27:56.000 The Japanese... 1.00

01:27:57.000 I thought the Nazis were fanatics, but the Japanese at that time took it even more fanatical.

01:28:03.000 You know when the last Japanese soldier surrendered?

01:28:05.000 You know what year that was?

01:28:06.000 It's like 1980 or something.

01:28:08.000 75, I think it is.

01:28:09.000 That one you can Google.

01:28:10.000 He was on an island.

01:28:12.000 I mean, how fanatical do you need to...

01:28:15.000 Oh, they're committed.

01:28:16.000 Still 1975. I think it's 74 or 75. Yeah, okay.

01:28:20.000 I give up.

01:28:21.000 Well, they have an amazing warrior culture.

01:28:23.000 I mean, you think we were talking about martial arts.

01:28:25.000 A giant percentage, including judo and jujitsu, of martial arts came from this one island.

01:28:31.000 I mean, they perfected so many different martial arts.

01:28:34.000 And it's more the Japanese than any other country in Asia.

01:28:37.000 Well, I think the Thais did it best.

01:28:42.000 I think the Thais developed the best striking style, and then the Japanese developed the best grappling style.

01:28:48.000 But the Japanese are known as more warlike than the Thais.

01:28:51.000 You never hear of the Thai, or did they used to...

01:28:53.000 The Thais figured out the best way to gamble on fights. 0.92

01:28:56.000 They figured out the best, most brutal style of fight, and that is they incorporated a lot of things that other people didn't, including leg kicks and knees and elbows, and they fought really often.

01:29:10.000 To this day, they have Lumpini Stadium and all these different stadiums in Bangkok.

01:29:15.000 They have...

01:29:16.000 These stadium champions and they have matches on a consistent basis and so these people are fighting from the time they're really really young like they're taking like six and seven year old boys and girls as well and they're sending them off to these Thai camps and teaching them how to fight and then having them fight you know they'll have a hundred fights by the time they're 16. Wow.

01:29:38.000 With Thailand, it's very strange because they're so friendly. 1.00

01:29:43.000 They're so smiley and friendly, yet they developed probably the most fearsome, striking style on the planet.

01:29:50.000 Yeah, I can't.

01:29:51.000 And then they've got, there's a transgender thing going on as well. 0.99

01:29:54.000 Yes, they've got a lot of that going on over there.

01:29:56.000 In the Venn diagrams of what's going on there, what is intersecting here?

01:30:01.000 So much great food. 0.98

01:30:03.000 I mean, they have so much cool shit, beautiful environment. 0.99

01:30:06.000 It's a weird place, man. 0.99

01:30:08.000 Thailand's a weird place.

01:30:09.000 I love it.

01:30:10.000 Do they film Apocalypse Now, though?

01:30:11.000 I think they did...

01:30:12.000 Was that in Vietnam?

01:30:14.000 No.

01:30:14.000 Maybe they did some of it in Thailand.

01:30:16.000 I think they did some of it in Vietnam.

01:30:18.000 No, they did nothing in Vietnam.

01:30:19.000 It was too close dates-wise.

01:30:22.000 Was it Thailand?

01:30:24.000 I bet. 0.99

01:30:25.000 I mean, it took fucking forever. 0.99

01:30:26.000 It makes sense. 0.98

01:30:27.000 Philippines.

01:30:28.000 No, that's right.

01:30:29.000 It was Marcos.

01:30:30.000 Yeah.

01:30:30.000 Because Marcos kept saying, I want the aircraft back.

01:30:34.000 I want the helicopters back.

01:30:35.000 So the helicopters are coming and they piss off somewhere.

01:30:38.000 Isn't it funny when Marcos, when that whole regime went down, all we heard about was Mel DeMarcos shoes.

01:30:44.000 Yes!

01:30:44.000 That's all we remember, the whole thing.

01:30:46.000 The Beatles had a bad time there because they were invited to a place that they didn't know about.

01:30:50.000 Oh, right, and everybody got mad at them.

01:30:51.000 Yeah, and that's when they last toured.

01:30:53.000 And they were in the back of a truck.

01:30:54.000 They were holding on literally in the back of a truck.

01:30:57.000 Why are we playing all these places?

01:31:00.000 That's when they started getting a hold of their...

01:31:01.000 We're going to do what we want to do rather than what someone else wants to do.

01:31:06.000 So, I mean, I'm with you in that I am ridiculously optimistic.

01:31:12.000 Oh, that's good.

01:31:13.000 I think that, I think people, I mean, I follow Steven Pinker's logic of that people will sort of look at the horrible things that we have today and say, God, this world is terrible.

01:31:25.000 There are definitely terrible aspects, but this is without doubt the greatest time ever to be alive that we've ever seen, at least in recorded human history.

01:31:33.000 I would agree with that.

01:31:34.000 I think communication is a giant part of that.

01:31:37.000 It is.

01:31:38.000 This global world, which we thought was going to be a beautiful thing, and then people said, oh no, it's a hellish thing.

01:31:44.000 In fact, it's got beautiful aspects and some hellish aspects, as any invention has.

01:31:49.000 Like the internet, hey, you can teach someone how to save their life on the internet.

01:31:54.000 Ah, you can also teach someone how to make a bomb on the internet.

01:31:57.000 I think this is always the way.

01:31:58.000 Every next step we get, we will have some positives, then we'll hit all the negatives, and then we'll go back to some more positives.

01:32:04.000 So...

01:32:06.000 Yeah, I've got to be optimistic.

01:32:08.000 Yeah, well, I am an optimistic person.

01:32:09.000 Otherwise, I just wouldn't be here.

01:32:10.000 But this military aspect that I mentioned, I'm flipping back to that.

01:32:14.000 But yeah, I do try and think I need to do this.

01:32:16.000 I think that's a good thing to do now.

01:32:18.000 I need to do that.

01:32:18.000 For nine years, I've been saying I'm going to politics, so I'm going next year.

01:32:21.000 But it might not be a general election.

01:32:23.000 I try and plan ahead because if I randomize it, if I just float, because a lot of people do, wow, this happened, and then that happened, and that could be a wonderful life.

01:32:33.000 But I have my river analogy.

01:32:34.000 If you're canoeing down a river, If you go at the same speed as the river, it could throw you onto rocks, it could give you a wonderful ride, it could be anything.

01:32:42.000 But it's up to the river.

01:32:43.000 Whereas I pedal like crazy.

01:32:44.000 Sometimes I backpedal like crazy.

01:32:46.000 I have actively backpedaled against things.

01:32:49.000 And sometimes, usually I'm pedaling faster than the speed of the river to try and guide myself through the river.

01:32:54.000 You see that whenever I do these canoeing, well, anyone driving a boat through a river.

01:33:00.000 When I look at human interactions objectively, part of me Yeah.

01:33:21.000 Or relies upon negative things to reinforce positive things.

01:33:26.000 That this yin and yang that we exist under, that we see the horrors of war and horrific poverty and all these terrible things and horrible violence, we see this and it actually serves to reinforce our desire for positive things and push our society in a more positive direction.

01:33:46.000 I mean, I almost think that this is When we see national tragedies and shootings and all these different terrible, terrible things, there's all this fear and anger and frustration, but there's also action.

01:33:58.000 And we might think there's a lack of action by politicians, or a lack of action by the police, or a lack of action by whoever we think should be responsible for mitigating these horrible situations that happen.

01:34:12.000 But publicly, the social fabric of the world, the way people communicate and interact, I think it reinforces our desire to not have that happen.

01:34:21.000 It reinforces our understanding of peace and our love of peace.

01:34:27.000 And I think that these bad things that we see in our world, they almost propel us towards a better world because human beings are constantly striving for improvement and innovation.

01:34:40.000 This is one of the things that we do.

01:34:41.000 We want things to be better and bigger and faster and stronger and we want our society to be better at all times.

01:34:46.000 We never say, this is good, let's keep it just the way it is.

01:34:48.000 We never say that.

01:34:50.000 So my thought is that even what we're experiencing in this country, it seems at times that we're almost like on the brink of civil war between the right and the left and people lying on both sides and conflating people's opinions and changing people's perspectives in order to suit their own narrative. 0.87

01:35:07.000 That I think that this, ultimately, all this angst, and you see it from the outside, and you look at it and you go, what the fuck are we doing?

01:35:14.000 I think it's a natural part of the way human beings figure out life.

01:35:21.000 Shall I respond to that?

01:35:23.000 Sure.

01:35:23.000 Yeah.

01:35:26.000 I think...

01:35:28.000 I think almost the same as you.

01:35:29.000 I would articulate it slightly differently.

01:35:31.000 I noticed that humanity only sometimes gets going and does things when it's right up against the wall.

01:35:36.000 You know, sometimes it needs these things to go on.

01:35:38.000 If you took a World War II scenario, we went right to the wire on that, and then suddenly we came back.

01:35:42.000 And maybe not even...

01:35:45.000 It wasn't even the political will on that.

01:35:48.000 If the Japanese hadn't bombed Pearl Harbor, we wouldn't have had you guys with us for D-Day and all the forces and the money and the armaments and the tanks. 0.93

01:36:02.000 The Shermans coming in, you know, we needed that coming in. 1.00

01:36:05.000 And without the Russian people, we wouldn't have won World War II. And they were in this agreement. 0.99

01:36:11.000 So I can't quite work out humanity.

01:36:13.000 I do think positive.

01:36:15.000 I do think the negatives, you can appreciate the positives more.

01:36:17.000 I do think one thing on...

01:36:18.000 On the Brexit, Brexit hate thing that's been going on is a lot of young people are coming on saying, so we're going to lose all this stuff, the ability.

01:36:24.000 We could travel to Europe without visas.

01:36:26.000 We can work there.

01:36:27.000 We could retire there.

01:36:28.000 We can get a health care there.

01:36:29.000 All across Europe.

01:36:30.000 And that's concerning.

01:36:30.000 We cut off.

01:36:31.000 And our roaming charges are going to go up.

01:36:33.000 All that.

01:36:35.000 People are valuing what they could lose a lot more.

01:36:41.000 Yeah, the yin and yang.

01:36:43.000 I think it's going to go on this way.

01:36:46.000 And also, once we get to a good place, I've noticed that a lot of people will say, okay, I'm not going to be politically active anymore.

01:36:52.000 I'm just going to carry on doing my life and other people can sort things out.

01:36:56.000 I've noticed that people will get activated to get to a result, maybe an election result or something or a referendum or whatever it is, and then they will just back off.

01:37:04.000 They get frustrated.

01:37:05.000 Yeah.

01:37:05.000 Well, they just think, well, that's done.

01:37:07.000 That's bagged in a positive way, maybe.

01:37:09.000 And just say, but now I'm not even going to pay attention to what's going on.

01:37:12.000 But things will start rolling backwards.

01:37:14.000 So I think we're going to keep having it like that.

01:37:17.000 Maybe the percentage of positive things to negative things has never changed over all the years, over the last 10,000 years.

01:37:26.000 It's just there's more people in the world doing more positive things than doing more negative things.

01:37:30.000 Maybe humanity hasn't changed because our brain sizes haven't changed, even back to the caveman days.

01:37:35.000 Even back the last 100,000 years, the size of our brains has not moved.

01:37:39.000 So if you went back to 70,000 years ago, we would still be able to have conversations like this, even though we wouldn't have the radios and the things.

01:37:46.000 It would be more on our tribe.

01:37:48.000 I think our tribe is better than your tribe.

01:37:49.000 Actually, Steve, I don't know if our tribe is better than that tribe. 0.99

01:37:52.000 I just think maybe there's some good people in that tribe and there's some shitheads in that tribe. 0.96

01:37:56.000 We need to maybe trade with them more. 0.99

01:37:57.000 We can go to war with them, but then we could die, and Shirley could die, and Kenny.

01:38:01.000 And Roger at number 22. Because those conversations were happening in a slightly different way, I think, all the way back.

01:38:08.000 And they weren't all just going, me, food, you, nice, good, three, five.

01:38:13.000 It wasn't that.

01:38:14.000 It was maybe millions of years ago, but not 100,000 years ago.

01:38:19.000 And we only started speaking 100,000 years ago.

01:38:21.000 So what we've developed since then.

01:38:23.000 I'm fascinated by us as human beings because we were just another animal.

01:38:28.000 And now we are...

01:38:30.000 We are kind of an amazing animal.

01:38:32.000 We've lamented beautifully.

01:38:33.000 We landed on the bloody moon.

01:38:34.000 You guys landed on the moon, which I as a child thought that we landed on the moon, but in fact you guys landed on the moon.

01:38:39.000 But Apollo 11, they kept it quite open.

01:38:42.000 I think Michael Collins in the command module said, this is for the world, and there was this kind of feeling in Neil Armstrong.

01:38:48.000 It's a nice, yeah.

01:38:50.000 I grabbed hold of that.

01:38:51.000 As a kid, I was growing up.

01:38:53.000 You know, a bit younger than me.

01:38:54.000 It's a pretty weird thing to think that we went from not being able to talk to space travel in 100,000 years.

01:39:00.000 Yeah.

01:39:01.000 I mean, that's what they think, right?

01:39:02.000 They think that people didn't have real language 100,000 years ago?

01:39:05.000 Yeah, Fox P2 genetic.

01:39:06.000 I think it's about 100,000 years ago that that's when it came up.

01:39:11.000 And the first words we said was, let's go to the moon in 100,000 years.

01:39:14.000 What's your name?

01:39:15.000 Jack Kennedy.

01:39:15.000 Okay, Jack.

01:39:16.000 Good idea.

01:39:17.000 Well, let's put it on the back burner for a moment.

01:39:18.000 What do you think happened that turned us into this?

01:39:21.000 Do you ever stop and think about it?

01:39:22.000 No.

01:39:22.000 Well, I don't think it's a bloke upstairs floating in the clouds because they used to live in the clouds and then we flew through the clouds and no one ever mentioned, hey, he's not in the clouds.

01:39:29.000 So it's a randomizer thing. 0.99

01:39:33.000 Like dinosaurs, 165 million years of those bastards. 1.00

01:39:37.000 And all they did was eat... 1.00

01:39:40.000 Kill, eat, kill, poo, and have sex. 1.00

01:39:44.000 That's all they did. 1.00

01:39:45.000 Those four things for 165 million years.

01:39:47.000 We've had 300 years since the enlightenment of human rights and democracy and stuff like that.

01:39:52.000 If we say the Greeks did a great thing, but really it's the last 300 years. 0.99

01:39:55.000 They had 165 million years of that.

01:39:57.000 But why did they come along when we had all these creatures in the sea and suddenly huge ones?

01:40:02.000 Something happened, something twisted.

01:40:05.000 Randomizing thing, maybe we'll never know.

01:40:10.000 But it has happened, and I just don't think a bloke did it upstairs with a big beard who said, now is the time that you speak, and now you make handbags, and now fight wars with the MG42. I just think it happened,

01:40:28.000 and we need to roll with it.

01:40:30.000 And try and make humans work on this planet.

01:40:33.000 Because then we're going to be going to Mars soon.

01:40:35.000 And you can just see it in the future.

01:40:36.000 If we've got it going on Mars, at some point the Martians are going to say, we want to vote.

01:40:39.000 We've got our own Martian government.

01:40:41.000 You earthlings.

01:40:43.000 They're going to treat us the same way Americans treat the British. 0.96

01:40:47.000 Yeah, and then the Martians come back and attack us. 1.00

01:40:49.000 The Martians are going to actually come.

01:40:50.000 You could just see that in some sort of, you know, 100 years down the line.

01:40:54.000 Yeah, it could definitely happen.

01:40:55.000 You know, and I... So I despair about humanity, and I celebrate humanity.

01:41:04.000 I do this thing, actually, which I think is nice.

01:41:06.000 I'm going to say this, because obviously I'm doing a tour at the moment here in the U.S., but I'm going to come out of this U.S. tour on the 75th anniversary of D-Day, and I fly to Cannes in Normandy.

01:41:16.000 Are you doing a stand-up tour?

01:41:18.000 Yeah, I'm doing a stand-up tour of the whole of America.

01:41:20.000 Are you doing any dates in L.A.? Yeah, I'm at the Dolby Theatre from the 26th to 29th of June.

01:41:27.000 Okay.

01:41:28.000 The Dolby that was the Kodak.

01:41:29.000 I want to come out.

01:41:30.000 Yeah, yeah.

01:41:32.000 I'll look at it later.

01:41:33.000 We'll work at it.

01:41:34.000 Don't worry.

01:41:35.000 Yeah, it's all on EddieIzzard.com.

01:41:36.000 But I go to Normandy, 75th anniversary of D-Day, and they fought the Battle of Normandy in German, obviously on one side, and then French and English on the other side.

01:41:46.000 And so I do three shows in German.

01:41:48.000 First show, 50 minutes in German, and then I do 50 minutes in English, and then 50 minutes in French.

01:41:54.000 And then we have a buffet, and everyone hangs out, and I meet everyone, and all the German speakers, the French and the English speakers.

01:42:01.000 That's beautiful.

01:42:02.000 That is incredible, that you're doing stand-up in multiple languages.

01:42:06.000 Yeah.

01:42:07.000 How long did it take you to learn that?

01:42:09.000 Well, I did French school for eight years.

01:42:11.000 I did German school for two years.

01:42:13.000 So it was partly a sort of low-level political thing.

01:42:17.000 I just thought, if I'm an English guy going to France and doing it in French, then maybe a French kid would go, well, I'm going to do it in English.

01:42:23.000 Right.

01:42:23.000 And now the Germans are doing English, the Russians are doing English, the Spanish.

01:42:27.000 Everyone's going to English because you can have a Hollywood career, potentially, or be on television in English.

01:42:33.000 You can also tour the world in English now.

01:42:35.000 You can use it as a bridging language.

01:42:38.000 We were talking about Google Translate.

01:42:39.000 I know French kids.

01:42:40.000 French kid, my friend, Yasin Berlus, has performed in Helsinki in Finland, and Finnish kids have been watching in the second language.

01:42:47.000 They've been watching in English and listening in English.

01:42:50.000 And he's been performing, a French guy performing in English, so they met and laughed in a second language, which I think is an amazing thing.

01:42:57.000 But now you can tour the world that way.

01:42:59.000 So I'm going to go to Normandy, and it's a commemoration that the battle happened, and it's 75 years ago, and it's a celebration that now we don't go to war in those three languages anymore.

01:43:12.000 And you have different 50 minutes for French, different 50 minutes?

01:43:17.000 Exactly the same ideas.

01:43:20.000 But the words are all, obviously, either German or French.

01:43:23.000 I'll give you an example.

01:43:26.000 I said, Caesar.

01:43:27.000 I talked about Julius Caesar.

01:43:28.000 I said, Caesar, did he ever think that one day he would end up as a salad?

01:43:33.000 Oh, this warlike guy, he's now a salad.

01:43:36.000 And in French, César, est-ce qu'il a jamais imaginé?

01:43:38.000 Did he one day imagine qu'un jour, il finirait en salade?

01:43:41.000 One day he would finish up as a salad.

01:43:43.000 In German, César, est-ce qu'il a jamais imaginé?

01:43:45.000 Did he ever think that he one time as salade end up would have?

01:43:52.000 So you've got the verb right at the end, but they still laugh at the same place, but maybe about half a second later, split a second later.

01:43:59.000 As salad end up would have.

01:44:01.000 So you have to really have a deep understanding of how to structure those sentences.

01:44:05.000 It's just practice, really.

01:44:06.000 You know, anything in life, you can do it.

01:44:09.000 If you were taken out of here, you don't speak any language.

01:44:12.000 I don't speak anything.

01:44:12.000 So if they took you and suddenly, for some reason, you had to be in any other...

01:44:18.000 Thailand, say.

01:44:19.000 Say somebody dropped a big block of heroin into your thing, just as a test, as a social experiment.

01:44:23.000 And they filmed this all.

01:44:24.000 And you say, hey, he's smuggling.

01:44:26.000 So you have to go to Thai prison.

01:44:28.000 This is kind of an extreme example.

01:44:30.000 Anyone.

01:44:30.000 And then you'd be learning within one month.

01:44:33.000 You'd have basic sentences going.

01:44:34.000 Anyone who goes to prison is going to have...

01:44:36.000 Sure.

01:44:37.000 If you work in a restaurant, anywhere you work where no one's giving you any English coming in, you just have to pick up the words and our survival instincts would pick them up.

01:44:45.000 And then you might have a strong accent, but you, me, everyone, we can pick it up.

01:44:51.000 So I just, again, I can set up this artificial scenario of I have to do this.

01:44:57.000 So I had to learn French.

01:44:59.000 So I started performing.

01:45:00.000 This show, this Wunderbar show, which is a German title...

01:45:04.000 Meaning wonderful.

01:45:05.000 And I started it in French.

01:45:07.000 So I jumped...

01:45:07.000 Because I improvised to work.

01:45:09.000 I don't write anything.

01:45:10.000 I just go and go, Hey!

01:45:12.000 Chickens! 0.61

01:45:12.000 What's going on with chickens? 0.61

01:45:13.000 Chicken with a gun?

01:45:14.000 Dangerous?

01:45:14.000 You don't write your act?

01:45:15.000 No, I just improvise it.

01:45:17.000 Really?

01:45:17.000 And I sort of workshop it endlessly until it gets...

01:45:20.000 Ah, that's a good thing.

01:45:21.000 And then you memorize it.

01:45:22.000 Well, I know it because I said it last time.

01:45:24.000 So in French, I'm just going, les poulets, les poulets sont dangereux, non?

01:45:28.000 Un poulet, Donald Trump, c'est la même chose.

01:45:30.000 Do you record and listen to recordings?

01:45:32.000 Yeah, record every show and never listen to them.

01:45:34.000 Ah-ha! 0.98

01:45:35.000 You record on your phone or do you have a professional setup?

01:45:37.000 No, we have a professional setup.

01:45:39.000 So we're sometimes not with the laughter mixed in.

01:45:42.000 I've just been listening back to the German shows in Berlin and the laughter is very low in the mix.

01:45:47.000 So I'm saying these jokes and going, is anyone laughing that we...

01:45:50.000 Oh, so it's just from the microphone.

01:45:51.000 Yeah, there's a feed there, but they had another one, but they had it mixed low.

01:45:55.000 But yeah, you need to have a second microphone on the audience and just bring that mix up. 0.99

01:45:58.000 Right.

01:45:58.000 Or maybe bring it right up.

01:46:00.000 Yeah.

01:46:00.000 It's incredibly funny.

01:46:01.000 But I just found doing it in another language, it's a positive thing.

01:46:05.000 It sends out a nice message.

01:46:07.000 It's hands across the water.

01:46:08.000 Can we learn from you?

01:46:09.000 Can you learn from us?

01:46:09.000 And the comedies I do is sort of Python-esque.

01:46:13.000 Monty Python type surreal comedy and so I just need to find that audience in France, that audience in Germany, that audience in Thailand if I was there.

01:46:21.000 I've played Kathmandu.

01:46:22.000 I met a kid from Kathmandu in New York on the streets.

01:46:26.000 He said, are you a comedian?

01:46:27.000 I said, yeah.

01:46:28.000 Where are you from?

01:46:29.000 He said, I'm from Kathmandu.

01:46:30.000 Wow, Kathmandu, a kid from Kathmandu.

01:46:33.000 What are you doing here?

01:46:34.000 Well, I'm a student.

01:46:35.000 But your English is good?

01:46:36.000 Yeah, it's pretty good, yeah.

01:46:38.000 Well, can I do a gig in Kathmandu, you think?

01:46:40.000 He said, yeah, I think you can do a gig in Kathmandu.

01:46:42.000 So I said, okay.

01:46:43.000 That was in 2010. It took me seven years I got there.

01:46:46.000 2017. How was it?

01:46:48.000 It was good.

01:46:48.000 Unfortunately, less to the locals, they'd had these couple of earthquakes, which you tend to think, oh, everyone has earthquakes, but no, they hadn't had them for ages, and suddenly they had two bad earthquakes.

01:46:59.000 So they were getting over that.

01:47:00.000 So I was mainly aid workers, unfortunately.

01:47:03.000 But I was there.

01:47:03.000 But I can go back.

01:47:05.000 But, no, it was a nice setup, but I played, you know, I went all through and played in Tokyo and I played in Hong Kong and in Shanghai and had all the guys from, because you have the people from the Communist Party come along to check you out.

01:47:21.000 So I'm not going specifically in on certain things, but anyway, you know, my stuff is all...

01:47:26.000 The people from the comedy what?

01:47:28.000 The Communist Party.

01:47:29.000 You know, the...

01:47:30.000 Communist Party.

01:47:30.000 Yeah.

01:47:31.000 You know, because it's Shanghai.

01:47:32.000 I thought you were saying...

01:47:33.000 It's mainland China.

01:47:34.000 Comedy Party.

01:47:34.000 No, sorry.

01:47:35.000 The Communist Party.

01:47:36.000 Yeah, sorry.

01:47:37.000 It's just me mangling my words.

01:47:38.000 Oh, so they come and check you out to make sure you're not violating anything?

01:47:41.000 Yes.

01:47:42.000 Certain areas you're not supposed to go, you know, whatever.

01:47:45.000 I don't know.

01:47:45.000 I just want to do the gig.

01:47:47.000 But it wasn't like I was going to change.

01:47:49.000 I have weird stuff about Gandalf talking to butterflies and talking about my ancient kings like Henry VIII and William the Conqueror and stuff.

01:47:58.000 So apparently they stayed.

01:48:01.000 They normally disappear after a while.

01:48:04.000 But anyway, so it's good to get out.

01:48:06.000 As you said, play the world.

01:48:08.000 See the world.

01:48:09.000 Travel broadens the mind.

01:48:11.000 Yeah, I don't play very many places.

01:48:13.000 I played in Australia and England.

01:48:15.000 I've done gigs in Stockholm and Northern Ireland, Dublin, a few other places in Europe.

01:48:22.000 But most of the time when I go on vacation, I just go on vacation.

01:48:25.000 I just go to experience it, just to have fun, just to be there.

01:48:30.000 So have you never written your act down?

01:48:34.000 No, I couldn't.

01:48:35.000 See, I used to do sketch comedy, like a Monty Python thing, and I wrote those.

01:48:41.000 And then I was doing a street performer for four years, and that's very unwritten.

01:48:47.000 That's very difficult to write.

01:48:48.000 It's difficult to actually develop material for that.

01:48:50.000 So I did that for four years, so I got into this thing of...

01:48:52.000 Street performing, like how so?

01:48:54.000 What would you do?

01:48:55.000 We were double-acted initially, me and my partner Rob, and we did weird things like escaping from a woolly jumper.

01:49:02.000 He'd just wrap a woolly jumper and I would tend to escape.

01:49:05.000 A woolly jumper?

01:49:05.000 What is that?

01:49:06.000 A woolly cardigan, a woolly pullover.

01:49:08.000 You call them pullovers?

01:49:09.000 Okay.

01:49:09.000 Yeah.

01:49:10.000 Like a sweater?

01:49:10.000 Yeah, sweater.

01:49:11.000 So instead of a straitjacket, he said, we take this woolly sweater. 0.86

01:49:15.000 Just ridiculous. 0.98

01:49:17.000 Yeah, ridiculous. 0.99

01:49:19.000 Making a bowl of cornflakes disappear because... 0.98

01:49:23.000 You ate it?

01:49:23.000 Yeah, I ate it.

01:49:25.000 So at its best, they go, this is insane. 0.99

01:49:28.000 These guys are crazy. 0.61

01:49:29.000 And they clap and they give us five pence. 1.00

01:49:31.000 And when it was at the worst, they go, these people are insane. 0.97

01:49:33.000 This is awful. 0.92

01:49:34.000 And they walk away.

01:49:35.000 Then we did sword fighting.

01:49:36.000 That was good because I directed Three Musketeers at university.

01:49:41.000 So we were showing you how to kill someone when drunk, when you do all these different moves.

01:49:46.000 So that was quite fun.

01:49:47.000 Then I went solo and I was doing escapology from chains and ropes and then from a five-foot unicycle from a pair of manacles.

01:49:53.000 Escapology meaning escapology.

01:49:55.000 Is that a real thing?

01:49:57.000 Escapology?

01:49:57.000 You guys really call it that?

01:49:58.000 Yeah.

01:49:59.000 What do you call it?

01:49:59.000 I don't know.

01:50:00.000 I don't think there's a name for it.

01:50:01.000 I've never even heard of that.

01:50:02.000 I think Google will tell us there is an escapology.

01:50:06.000 Escapology.

01:50:07.000 Does it exist?

01:50:07.000 Houdini?

01:50:10.000 There's a thing called Escapology Live Escape Games, World Escape Rooms, and there's a bunch of them.

01:50:15.000 I don't know if it's the same thing as Escape Rooms.

01:50:17.000 No, those are Escape Rooms.

01:50:19.000 Escapology should be an art form, it sounds like.

01:50:22.000 It's not really an art form.

01:50:24.000 Well, no, Houdini was an artist of that.

01:50:27.000 I was a...

01:50:28.000 I was a jobbing, crafting person.

01:50:30.000 There it is.

01:50:31.000 Practice escaping from restraints.

01:50:33.000 There you go.

01:50:34.000 Yeah.

01:50:34.000 There you go.

01:50:35.000 Steel boxes, barrels, bags, things.

01:50:36.000 So I was escaping from ropes and chains.

01:50:39.000 You made a conscious decision to do this, like, on the street?

01:50:42.000 Like, this is how you're developing?

01:50:44.000 Yeah, that was developing, because I couldn't get my sketch comedy thing wasn't going.

01:50:47.000 There's a thing called the Edinburgh Festival we have.

01:50:49.000 Yeah, Scotland.

01:50:50.000 Yeah, you know that one.

01:50:51.000 So I did 12 of those in the end, right?

01:50:53.000 Before I took off, so...

01:50:54.000 I did three doing sketch and then about four doing street.

01:50:58.000 But on the street, you have this freedom.

01:50:59.000 You know, the freedom when things are working a bit and it's really kind of feral.

01:51:05.000 No one's checking you up.

01:51:07.000 No one knows what you're doing.

01:51:08.000 You're just on the street.

01:51:09.000 Right. 0.64

01:51:09.000 So I was useless at this. 0.64

01:51:12.000 And then I developed a confidence, a gut confidence.

01:51:14.000 You know that the stomach's really important.

01:51:15.000 It probably isn't fighting as well.

01:51:16.000 There's something that comes out of the...

01:51:18.000 There's a confidence center in the stomach.

01:51:21.000 Really?

01:51:22.000 Yeah.

01:51:22.000 There's something about the stomach.

01:51:23.000 You look into it with fighting.

01:51:24.000 I think it's neurons, right?

01:51:26.000 Everything joins there.

01:51:28.000 There's something to do with it.

01:51:29.000 Anyway, I developed this confidence on my own to go and stand on...

01:51:34.000 If you've ever heard of the film My Fair Lady or seen the film of Eliza Doolittle, that is set on Covent Garden.

01:51:40.000 It's a massive piazza, massive square.

01:51:44.000 Washington Square Park in New York was another street-forming place.

01:51:48.000 So it's a big open place.

01:51:49.000 And I could stand up there on my own and talk to no one and build up an audience.

01:51:53.000 I would set out these tea cozies, which are little animal tea cozies, ducks and hamsters, weird things, things that just look like animals, and put them on the floor.

01:52:02.000 And people thought, this guy's crazy.

01:52:04.000 And then I'd start talking and there'd be literally no one there sometimes.

01:52:07.000 And I'd say, good afternoon.

01:52:08.000 I'm going to do a show.

01:52:10.000 Welcome to the invisible audience.

01:52:11.000 Very nice to have you here.

01:52:12.000 And I had this confidence, if I just kept talking, a bit like, you know, in your podcast here, you know you can keep talking.

01:52:19.000 And I'd go on, yeah, there's some visible people here as well.

01:52:22.000 This is Jack and Kenny.

01:52:23.000 And I would just go on and on until I built up about 20 people.

01:52:27.000 Then I could start the show and then we'd get into it.

01:52:29.000 And if you're doing an escapology show...

01:52:31.000 In the end, you're going to get out.

01:52:32.000 You've worked out how to get out.

01:52:34.000 And so there will be a definite end.

01:52:36.000 And then you can say, now, don't go.

01:52:37.000 And please, can you give me some money?

01:52:39.000 So that's how I earn my living.

01:52:41.000 But that's the ninja training of performing.

01:52:43.000 Because I learned to perform when people didn't even want to see me.

01:52:47.000 Because normally they've come into a room.

01:52:49.000 And Lisa goes, OK, who is this guy?

01:52:51.000 I don't know.

01:52:51.000 But we're in the room.

01:52:52.000 So let's drink a beer and watch.

01:52:53.000 But if they're on the street, they don't have to watch.

01:52:55.000 They can just walk off.

01:52:56.000 And they often did.

01:52:58.000 So it was a tough...

01:52:59.000 I lost all my confidence on the street.

01:53:02.000 In fact, there's a thing...

01:53:04.000 Army does this, you know, break you down, build you back at the Marines, break you down, build you back up.

01:53:09.000 They also, in drama school, they break you down, build you back up.

01:53:13.000 This kind of idea.

01:53:14.000 I accidentally broke myself down and built myself back up on the streets of London.

01:53:19.000 Wow.

01:53:20.000 It's kind of beautiful.

01:53:21.000 That's why I was creatively born.

01:53:23.000 This new version that had this thing.

01:53:26.000 Okay, we're going to talk about chickens.

01:53:27.000 How many chickens does it take to change the light bulb? 0.94

01:53:29.000 Well, quite a lot, really.

01:53:30.000 Because, you know, they can't.

01:53:32.000 Unless they had a friend with it.

01:53:33.000 Maybe a dog could help them.

01:53:35.000 Or they could rig up something.

01:53:36.000 You know, I just waffled over stuff.

01:53:38.000 And if it didn't hit a punchline, I didn't care.

01:53:40.000 I just carried on.

01:53:41.000 It just kept going.

01:53:41.000 And then the confidence thing gets you through.

01:53:44.000 He just talks for hours.

01:53:46.000 So if you release a special, and you've released comedy specials before.

01:53:50.000 Yeah.

01:53:51.000 How do you develop new material once that special's been released?

01:53:54.000 I will do work-in-progress shows, which I took from Lily Tomlin, who did a lot of work-in-progress shows, and then she did her show on Broadway, I think.

01:54:02.000 And I thought, because I used to do the old tour, and I used to tour, tour, tour, until at the end we'd film it.

01:54:07.000 And I'd begin the next tour with the old tour and just keep improvising in the show, because I'd only improvise on stage, and by the end of the next tour it would be a different show.

01:54:16.000 But that didn't sort of work for people because they said, we want a completely new show.

01:54:20.000 So now I do this WIP shows, work-in-progress shows, and I will go on stage and muck about, just talking about chickens or banjos or helicopters.

01:54:29.000 So do you have a structure when you start?

01:54:31.000 Like, say if it's the day after your special's done, and now you have to work on a whole new special, you're doing a work-in-progress show.

01:54:38.000 How do you develop your material?

01:54:39.000 I would start with my life.

01:54:40.000 I did it once where I'd just say, okay, let's go through my life and So you may not know this, but I was living in Northern Ireland and I was born in Yemen.

01:54:48.000 I've done this where I went, trawled through my life.

01:54:51.000 I need some sort of structure, otherwise I'm stuck.

01:54:53.000 I also found that once I'd recorded the show, like last tour, I toured for five years because I just found there were no rules on touring.

01:55:03.000 I could just keep going back.

01:55:04.000 I did 45 countries, so I could just keep on going.

01:55:07.000 And I found there were certain things I'd developed after we'd recorded it that were interesting and worth keeping.

01:55:13.000 So I said, okay, well, that's not in the old show.

01:55:14.000 I'm going to pull that and start off the new show with that little bit, which is that little piece of material, which is fun.

01:55:23.000 And I was training on a marathon, and dogs were woofing at me.

01:55:26.000 I ran past the house where a dog was woofing at me.

01:55:29.000 And this is in the show now.

01:55:30.000 And I suddenly thought, for the first time ever, because dogs have woofed at people all since the beginning of time, I thought, what is the dog actually trying to say?

01:55:37.000 If the dog had Fox P2 injected into him so he could suddenly talk, what would he say to me?

01:55:44.000 What is that woof woof woof?

01:55:45.000 What does that mean?

01:55:46.000 And so it goes into, he's basically saying, assassins!

01:55:50.000 He's shouting, assassins are here.

01:55:52.000 I know.

01:55:53.000 I'm a dog.

01:55:54.000 It's my job. 0.97

01:55:55.000 Get a gun.

01:55:57.000 Because all dogs are very sure.

01:55:58.000 You've never heard an unsure dog in your life.

01:56:01.000 When they're barking, they're sure.

01:56:02.000 They are absolutely sure that it's assassins.

01:56:04.000 It's not the postman.

01:56:06.000 It's not the guy with the hamster outside.

01:56:09.000 Assassins are here. 0.69

01:56:10.000 Alarm, alarm. 0.84

01:56:11.000 Danger, Will Robinson.

01:56:13.000 Why have you never written anything down?

01:56:16.000 Well, initially I started to write stand-up, but I would go...

01:56:20.000 I was trying to type it or write it.

01:56:23.000 So if you go into a super...

01:56:27.000 I'm dyslexic, so I'm slow.

01:56:29.000 Supermarket.

01:56:31.000 And there, I just thought, I couldn't write.

01:56:38.000 I seemed to be fast if I was just ad-libbing it.

01:56:40.000 So you go to the supermarket, there's a guy there, and it's always fruit.

01:56:43.000 You go in and there's fruit.

01:56:44.000 There's fruit, fruit, fruit, fruit, fruit.

01:56:45.000 And I found that if I just did it by finding it with the words, And you're supposed to squeeze it, aren't you?

01:56:51.000 And so I just think, all the things I can think about fruit.

01:56:54.000 So why is it fruit there?

01:56:55.000 Why not toilet paper?

01:56:55.000 You never go in the supermarket and toilet paper there, because they'd say, well, that's a poo shop, you know?

01:56:59.000 You have to go in.

01:57:00.000 It's a fresh shop.

01:57:00.000 We've got fresh fruit here.

01:57:02.000 So we're a very fresh shop.

01:57:03.000 Okay, that's why the fruit's right up the front.

01:57:05.000 And you've got to squeeze it.

01:57:06.000 But how much do you squeeze it?

01:57:07.000 And how do you know?

01:57:08.000 Is that the right pressure to squeeze it?

01:57:10.000 And what if it explodes?

01:57:11.000 So I would just keep chatting.

01:57:12.000 And if it didn't work, you'd just move on.

01:57:14.000 And that's how I developed...

01:57:17.000 And this very conversational style that I have, which people say it's supposed to be improvisational.

01:57:23.000 It's just I'm always ready to improvise at any point.

01:57:28.000 Some people, if you write a thing, you say, well, that is how that piece goes and it's locked in.

01:57:32.000 But if you improvise a thing, I've noticed, I came up with this thing of molten material.

01:57:36.000 When you first create a new idea and it's working, it's very open and live, like Quicksilver, like Mercury, and then you can add another bit, another bit, another bit, and you can add another bit.

01:57:45.000 Once you've got it into a shape, then it becomes locked down, it becomes like a prayer, and you can lose the joy of it.

01:57:50.000 It becomes a recitation, and I thought, so don't ever have it locked down.

01:57:55.000 Keep it open.

01:57:57.000 Keep it always loose so that every time you say it, you're saying it a bit differently.

01:58:01.000 And that's the style I've developed.

01:58:03.000 And so I can improvise at any point in the show.

01:58:08.000 I can just stop it and go, what are walls?

01:58:10.000 Why have we got walls?

01:58:11.000 We've got walls.

01:58:12.000 You know, most animals in the world don't have walls, but we've got walls and they're that good.

01:58:18.000 You know, when it's raining, they don't have walls, but they're okay.

01:58:21.000 Should we have walls?

01:58:22.000 You know, I just waffle about walls.

01:58:23.000 Okay, don't talk about walls ever again.

01:58:26.000 No, I'll show you.

01:58:27.000 So if I don't get anything out of it, I get jokes on the way out.

01:58:30.000 I get laughs on the way out if I don't get it on the way in.

01:58:32.000 So that's the technique I've developed.

01:58:34.000 Now when you say dyslexic, so if you read something, what do you see?

01:58:37.000 I see it, but I get word blindness.

01:58:40.000 Word blindness?

01:58:41.000 I just see other words, long words.

01:58:43.000 I couldn't...

01:58:44.000 Rhabdomyolysis took me ages to say, let alone to spell.

01:58:50.000 I just find it...

01:58:51.000 I sub-vocalize, so in my head I'm going...

01:58:57.000 Jack, what are you doing here?

01:58:59.000 I would almost say that, you know, when you're kids, they actually read it out loud.

01:59:02.000 And I'm not reading it out loud, but I'm saying it in my head.

01:59:05.000 And other people, they can do a page, you know, they do this speed reading, and they just, and they could just take in whole pages.

01:59:12.000 And it's stunning.

01:59:13.000 I can't.

01:59:13.000 I don't understand that either.

01:59:15.000 That's tricky.

01:59:16.000 So my spelling was cat with a K, ceiling with an S. Very logical spelling.

01:59:21.000 My writing is all over the place.

01:59:22.000 Bigger letters, smaller letters, bigger letters.

01:59:25.000 And they tested me and they said I'm severely atypically dyslexic.

01:59:30.000 So I have a huge mental map memory.

01:59:33.000 I can hold a lot of things in the memory in my head.

01:59:36.000 So that's just sort of a permanent distinction?

01:59:38.000 Like this is just who you are?

01:59:39.000 There's no way to fix that?

01:59:40.000 It seems so.

01:59:41.000 I haven't heard of anyone...

01:59:43.000 Coming out of dyslexia and saying, now I can read much faster.

01:59:46.000 Now I can do things.

01:59:47.000 I just think you're stuck with that.

01:59:49.000 But it means you think sideways, and I think a lot of creative people are dyslexic, I think.

01:59:54.000 Sideways?

01:59:54.000 Yeah.

01:59:55.000 So you see clouds.

01:59:56.000 You see a lion in the clouds.

01:59:58.000 You see a train going through the sky.

02:00:04.000 It's a creative thing.

02:00:07.000 Juxtaposing things on your wall, you have a juxtaposing thing, which is...

02:00:10.000 They don't lead from one to the other.

02:00:11.000 They can be fighting right against it or completely bonkers or out of it.

02:00:16.000 Just looking here in the room, you know, and linking things together.

02:00:19.000 I think creativity, we're always trying to throw ourselves in comedy by something that's weird and opposite and funny.

02:00:28.000 Caesar, you should, you know, I'm going for the salad line when I said that, Caesar, do you ever think it was salad?

02:00:33.000 And then it seems to make people laugh.

02:00:35.000 They go, oh yes, he's a salad. 0.95

02:00:37.000 This guy murdered a million Gaulish people. 0.97

02:00:41.000 And he ends up as a salad?

02:00:42.000 He's not a cognac?

02:00:43.000 Napoleon gets a cognac, a brandy.

02:00:45.000 But he's a salad?

02:00:47.000 What's that about?

02:00:48.000 So, yeah, this is my dyslexic traits.

02:00:51.000 But I think you get dealt these cards when you're born, whatever genetic cards they are.

02:00:56.000 And the art of life is to play your cards as well as you can.

02:01:03.000 And the art of comedy is to relay your life in a humorous way.

02:01:07.000 Very much.

02:01:07.000 And that's your unique fingerprint.

02:01:09.000 Yeah.

02:01:10.000 As you know, if we all have...

02:01:12.000 Because people say, well, I seem like another comedian.

02:01:13.000 Well, talk about your own life and your own perspective.

02:01:16.000 It's got to be different to the next person's because no two people are the same.

02:01:19.000 Is that what you enjoy the most?

02:01:21.000 The stand-up?

02:01:22.000 Yeah.

02:01:22.000 No, dramatic films I probably enjoy the most because I wanted to do that when I was a kid.

02:01:26.000 I discovered that films existed.

02:01:28.000 I broke into Pinewood Studios, one of our big studios, when I was 15. Broke in?

02:01:33.000 Yeah.

02:01:33.000 Like illegally?

02:01:35.000 Yeah.

02:01:36.000 What'd you do?

02:01:37.000 Well, I was watching a film, Battle of Britain, and at the end it says, filmed on location in Spain and England, and at Pinewood Studios, Ivor Heath Bucks.

02:01:47.000 And in the 70s, and if you remember, we didn't have videos.

02:01:50.000 We couldn't freeze things.

02:01:51.000 We just had to scribble things down.

02:01:52.000 So I was scribbling down stuff off the end of films.

02:01:54.000 And I said, Pinewood Studios, Ivor Heath Bucks.

02:01:56.000 Okay, Ivor Heath, what is that?

02:01:58.000 So Bucks, okay, Bucks is short for Buckinghamshire.

02:02:01.000 Ivorheath must be a town?

02:02:03.000 It's a weird name, town.

02:02:04.000 City?

02:02:04.000 Village?

02:02:05.000 No, it must be a village or a town.

02:02:06.000 So I got a map of the United Kingdom, which had alphabetically every town and village and city there going, listed alphabetically.

02:02:14.000 And I went all the way down, and I found Ivorheath.

02:02:16.000 Okay, that's where it is.

02:02:17.000 So I took a train from the south coast of England up to London, a tube train, an underground train, to a place called Uxbridge, then a bus to...

02:02:26.000 This roundabout, and I got off, and I said, it's Pinewood Studios, and they said it's about half a mile down that road, so I marched down the road, and I got to the big gabled entrance where all the big stars would come in, and I went up, and I hadn't got this bit worked out, so I went up and I said, I'm going to be in films.

02:02:44.000 Can I come in, please?

02:02:46.000 LAUGHTER It's what?

02:02:49.000 I want to be an actor.

02:02:51.000 Can I come in? 0.98

02:02:53.000 Just piss off, kid. 0.98

02:02:55.000 And he just told me to piss off, and I thought, no, I've come miles. 0.98

02:02:59.000 This is a big...

02:03:01.000 So I thought, there must be another way in.

02:03:03.000 So I went up, and there was another entrance that was near it, but it wasn't the main star entrance.

02:03:07.000 It was just the kind of more lorry entrance, the track entrance, the bringing stuff in.

02:03:13.000 And I saw people going in and out.

02:03:14.000 There was a drawbridge, a bit like where Eagles Dare, the film.

02:03:18.000 Anyway, there's someone on the gate, and some people were showing them passes and stuff, and other people were just walking in.

02:03:23.000 So I thought, okay, you've got to have the confidence to walk in.

02:03:25.000 So I did...

02:03:27.000 The 15, 16-year-old confidence, and I just marched in.

02:03:31.000 And suddenly I was through, and I was in.

02:03:33.000 I was into Piper Studios.

02:03:35.000 So then Spielberg broke into Universal.

02:03:37.000 I broke into a thing.

02:03:39.000 He got a career going pretty immediately.

02:03:41.000 I didn't get nothing going.

02:03:43.000 Well, you were 15. I know.

02:03:45.000 What did you expect was going to happen?

02:03:47.000 What was your anticipation?

02:03:48.000 Well, anticipation was, as I've said in a piece of stand-up, because...

02:03:53.000 I had to walk at a certain speed.

02:03:55.000 If you're moving at a certain speed, I thought, no one's going to stop you.

02:03:57.000 So you can't creep around looking, what's this?

02:04:01.000 Because they say, what are you doing here?

02:04:02.000 You know, I just thought, in fact, it's kind of loose inside studios.

02:04:05.000 No one really knows what everyone else is doing.

02:04:07.000 So you can actually creep around a bit.

02:04:10.000 But I moved around at a certain speed, and I sort of marched.

02:04:12.000 So I was marching down streets and up aisles and past studios, and I was hoping someone would go, hey, you!

02:04:19.000 Kid, yeah?

02:04:22.000 You're marching around.

02:04:23.000 Yeah, we're doing a film called The Marching Around Kid.

02:04:26.000 Our lead kid has just exploded.

02:04:28.000 Can you continue marching?

02:04:30.000 Yeah, I can march around.

02:04:31.000 Can you say words?

02:04:33.000 I can string a few words together.

02:04:34.000 How did you leave?

02:04:35.000 I marched out at the same speed.

02:04:39.000 We're done here.

02:04:40.000 I marched around for two hours, and I marched out.

02:04:42.000 And I have since filmed twice or three times in Pinewood.

02:04:47.000 And every time I go back and I'm actually filming there, I go, I broke in here.

02:04:51.000 And I just walk at very slow speeds down the streets, knowing that anyone can stop me.

02:04:56.000 And I go, I'm just filming around the corner.

02:05:01.000 So I love films.

02:05:02.000 And I just finished my first film, Six Minutes to Midnight, that I've co-written and produced in.

02:05:07.000 What is it?

02:05:08.000 It's set just before the beginning of World War II. I grew up in this little seaside town.

02:05:15.000 America has a seaside town as well from the old days when people used to go to seaside towns before they all went to the hot countries.

02:05:22.000 And it's called Bexel on Sea.

02:05:23.000 It's now Hastings, Brighton.

02:05:26.000 Anyway, south coast I think.

02:05:28.000 And there were 26 schools there.

02:05:29.000 For some reason, 26 schools, it was linked up.

02:05:32.000 There was an Earl Delaware that had set the place up.

02:05:34.000 Anyway, one of these things, new.

02:05:36.000 And one of them had young girls, German girls, who were linked to the Nazi high command.

02:05:43.000 And they were over to learn English and make friends and be ambassadors.

02:05:47.000 Because there was, you know, obviously fascism in Germany and there were fascists in Britain and they were making friends.

02:05:53.000 And that was the idea.

02:05:55.000 Hitler had this idea of linking up with British and taking everyone on, which some people in Britain were for, and obviously a lot of us were against.

02:06:03.000 And so it sat around this girls' school.

02:06:06.000 And I was showing the badge, the blazer badge.

02:06:08.000 All the girls had a blazer, a blue blazer. 1.00

02:06:10.000 And it had a badge, and it had the name of the school, Augusta Victoria College.

02:06:15.000 Bexhill on sea, and at the top it has a British flag and then the Nazi swastika next to it.

02:06:21.000 And I thought, holy cow.

02:06:23.000 I've just never seen those two flags right next to each other in the same bed.

02:06:27.000 So I thought, there's a film in that.

02:06:28.000 So we've made a film.

02:06:30.000 Wow.

02:06:31.000 Judy Dutch is in it, Jim Broadbent, both Oscar winners and myself.

02:06:35.000 And when will that be released?

02:06:36.000 Rolling it out from the end of this year, from fall, as you call it, autumn fall this year.

02:06:42.000 So your love of acting and creating films, that's your primary creative...

02:06:48.000 Even Trump's stand-up.

02:06:49.000 I do love stand-up, and I can do stand-up whenever I want.

02:06:52.000 Isn't it weird that Trumped is still a word?

02:06:53.000 I know.

02:06:54.000 Isn't it weird?

02:06:55.000 I know.

02:06:55.000 It's weird.

02:06:56.000 He must love that that word exists, that Trump actually means to one-up and better.

02:07:02.000 I'm not even going to go there.

02:07:04.000 It's crazy, right?

02:07:05.000 Yeah.

02:07:05.000 It also means making tricks.

02:07:07.000 You trump things and you can make tricks.

02:07:09.000 Oh, really?

02:07:09.000 Yeah.

02:07:09.000 I didn't know that.

02:07:10.000 We have tricks and cards.

02:07:12.000 How many tricks have you got?

02:07:13.000 That was Tricky Dicky Nixon.

02:07:14.000 So that's another person who did one or two lies and untruths down his career.

02:07:20.000 Yeah, he was also a bad guy.

02:07:23.000 So, anyway, yes, I do love stand-up.

02:07:26.000 Well, I was never planning to be a stand-up.

02:07:27.000 I was going to be a sketch comedian in comedy.

02:07:29.000 Well, I was going to be an actor, and then I thought, I can't do...

02:07:32.000 In my teenage years, I had no sexual self-confidence.

02:07:35.000 The transgender thing didn't play a part in it. 1.00

02:07:37.000 I just...

02:07:38.000 I was playing football to soccer up till 13, so I was going, hey, I'm a runabout guy.

02:07:42.000 I'm kind of fast, athletics, whatever.

02:07:44.000 Then I go to a school, I'm nothing, and there's no girls here, and I can't do this, and oh, whoa, body's changing, all that.

02:07:50.000 And I just lost all my confidence, and I just thought, I can't, and I was quite small.

02:07:54.000 So at school, it was all about tall kids, you play the romantic lead.

02:07:58.000 Small kids, you're the slave and the servant.

02:08:00.000 So I thought, okay.

02:08:01.000 Forget this.

02:08:02.000 I'll do comedy.

02:08:02.000 I'll do the comedy because I love the comedy.

02:08:04.000 And Monty Python discovered them.

02:08:06.000 I thought, okay, I'll do the, darling, I love you.

02:08:08.000 You're made out of cheese.

02:08:09.000 I have my knees on fire. 1.00

02:08:12.000 You know, I just make up rubbish. 0.97

02:08:13.000 And I thought, okay, that's easier.

02:08:15.000 So I did that.

02:08:16.000 And it wouldn't take off.

02:08:16.000 My career just wouldn't, you know, left school, dropped out of university, couldn't get it going.

02:08:20.000 And by the time it got going, when I was about 30, I thought, I'm now going to hold on to this comedy and start doing drama at the same time.

02:08:27.000 So I've run these parallel things.

02:08:29.000 And I'm going to be on Broadway at the beginning of next year, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf with Laurie Metcalf.

02:08:37.000 Oh, wow.

02:08:38.000 Scott Rudin production.

02:08:39.000 Oh, interesting.

02:08:40.000 That was a great movie.

02:08:41.000 Yeah, great movie.

02:08:42.000 As I said, I'm doing Who's Afraid of Elizabeth Taylor, and I'm playing Richard Burton.

02:08:48.000 Yeah, so that's an amazing production.

02:08:50.000 You know, I'm performing with Judi Dench in films in a Stephen Frears film, Victoria and Abdul.

02:08:54.000 So I'm getting great drama roles now.

02:08:56.000 I've pushed a long time to do that.

02:08:57.000 But normally if you do comedy, they won't let you do drama.

02:08:59.000 If you do drama, you don't really do comedy.

02:09:01.000 That's sort of breaking down though, right?

02:09:03.000 Steve Carell.

02:09:04.000 Steve Carell.

02:09:04.000 He has moved out.

02:09:07.000 I'm not sure if he's doing the comedy so much anymore, but exactly where Steve Carell's gone.

02:09:11.000 John Lithgow could also say he was someone who had a very much dramatic career, but then he did Third Rock for the Sun, which he was beautiful in, and he was nominated every year and won two Emmys and nominated six times.

02:09:21.000 Just fantastic work.

02:09:22.000 Yeah, I was on news radio at the same time.

02:09:25.000 I was also on the same network.

02:09:27.000 Right.

02:09:27.000 Yeah.

02:09:28.000 Yeah, his stuff was...

02:09:29.000 He's great.

02:09:30.000 Yeah.

02:09:30.000 He's a great actor.

02:09:31.000 Yeah, he's stunning.

02:09:33.000 You know, he played Churchill in The Crown, Winston Churchill.

02:09:37.000 A darker side of Churchill that people don't know about, which I knew about.

02:09:40.000 Well, he's a guy that really has a love of theater, a love of performing.

02:09:45.000 When he talks about it, you can see his goosebumps raise, and you can see he gets excited.

02:09:52.000 Yes, I can absolutely feel that.

02:09:54.000 I mean, he's played such a range of characters.

02:09:55.000 If he's playing evil, you just think, this guy is so evil.

02:09:59.000 When he's playing the character in The Third Rock for The Sun...

02:10:06.000 It's just so beautiful.

02:10:07.000 For some reason, I couldn't download it in Britain, but I found a place I could find it.

02:10:13.000 I've watched every single episode, and now I'm going through the second time.

02:10:17.000 So it's just beautiful stuff.

02:10:20.000 So when you got into stand-up comedy, when you first started doing that, what is the scene like in England?

02:10:27.000 Was there comedy clubs where you could go to an open mic night?

02:10:31.000 How do you start your career?

02:10:32.000 We were copying you guys.

02:10:34.000 I think Lenny Bruce set up the more alternative version.

02:10:38.000 But I still think in America, it's always stayed kind of mainstream, but Lenny Bruce was definitely doing alternative.

02:10:43.000 I noticed you got a lot of Lenny.

02:10:44.000 I love that guy.

02:10:45.000 Yeah, and I played him on stage, and that was a wonderful thing.

02:10:48.000 What did you play him in?

02:10:49.000 What was it?

02:10:50.000 Lenny.

02:10:51.000 You know the film was from a stage play?

02:10:53.000 The Dustin Hoffman film?

02:10:54.000 Yeah.

02:10:54.000 Really?

02:10:54.000 That was a stage play.

02:10:56.000 Dustin Hoffman was fantastic in that movie.

02:10:58.000 He was so close.

02:10:59.000 And the guy who plays him in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is very good as well.

02:11:04.000 I know.

02:11:04.000 That's very interesting, isn't it?

02:11:05.000 Because I'm watching that and I'm thinking, okay, now I've gone through the clubs myself, but I did mine in the 80s and into the 90s, and that's in the 70s.

02:11:15.000 50s.

02:11:16.000 Wow.

02:11:16.000 And I sort of take myself there.

02:11:18.000 And then there's Lenny there.

02:11:18.000 And I'm thinking, I know Lenny.

02:11:20.000 And I play them.

02:11:21.000 I used to die.

02:11:23.000 Oh, God, that's me.

02:11:24.000 Look at that.

02:11:25.000 But I was doing the stand-up.

02:11:28.000 See, that's the photo.

02:11:29.000 I put that together.

02:11:31.000 And I called him the Jesus Christ of comedy because as a Jewish guy, he died for us to give us the freedom of speech.

02:11:42.000 He died for freedom of speech because in the end...

02:11:44.000 A little bit of heroin too.

02:11:46.000 I know, but to mix it together, he shouldn't have conflated the two.

02:11:49.000 But he meant that we could say what we wanted to on stage.

02:11:52.000 Yeah, the Mrs. Maisel thing makes it a little, it's a little homogenized, like him, like even his struggle, it's almost like it's no big deal.

02:12:02.000 Are you in the latest season?

02:12:03.000 Yeah.

02:12:04.000 Is it three or two?

02:12:05.000 Well, three hasn't released yet.

02:12:07.000 They're filming it right now.

02:12:08.000 I've gone through both of them.

02:12:09.000 It's really good.

02:12:10.000 It's not accurate.

02:12:12.000 Like, historically, it's way off the mark.

02:12:14.000 There's no woman who was talking like that back then.

02:12:16.000 There was no Mrs. Maisel.

02:12:19.000 No, I really liked it.

02:12:20.000 And it's interesting.

02:12:23.000 She... 1.00

02:12:24.000 Yeah.

02:12:25.000 Like, Norm Macdonald got mad about it.

02:12:27.000 Did he?

02:12:27.000 He's like, yeah, there was no woman like that back then.

02:12:31.000 Can we give it to the fucking show, man? 0.99

02:12:33.000 The Hulk's not real either. 0.99

02:12:34.000 There's no guy who becomes the Hulk.

02:12:36.000 Can you enjoy it?

02:12:37.000 I really like Norm Macdonald.

02:12:38.000 I love him.

02:12:39.000 Yeah.

02:12:41.000 She was swearing like a soldier on stage.

02:12:45.000 Yes.

02:12:46.000 Very quickly.

02:12:47.000 Very quickly.

02:12:48.000 Which that was, I found, I don't know how she ramped into that, and then she ramped down out of it. 0.99

02:12:53.000 It was, that was something.

02:12:54.000 And then she went to France on one episode and did stand-up that someone was translating.

02:13:00.000 That was weird.

02:13:01.000 I have done it in French, and I don't think I could have got that.

02:13:05.000 I don't know why.

02:13:06.000 That scene just seemed to be a slightly shark.

02:13:08.000 It's not jumping a shark, going up to the shark and swimming around a shark.

02:13:11.000 It was artistic interpretation.

02:13:13.000 Yeah.

02:13:14.000 It wasn't realistic.

02:13:16.000 But it was still...

02:13:17.000 As a person who makes a living doing stand-up comedy, I was willing to let that suspension of disbelief take place.

02:13:24.000 And I like the sexual relationship.

02:13:27.000 It's almost coming back.

02:13:27.000 The husband's almost coming back into the frame.

02:13:29.000 And his...

02:13:31.000 And his fight there.

02:13:33.000 Because, yeah.

02:13:34.000 But I did watch it.

02:13:35.000 I binge watched it all.

02:13:36.000 That's what I'm doing now.

02:13:36.000 I just sit down now and I just watch everything.

02:13:38.000 And then I move on.

02:13:41.000 But, yeah, Lenny.

02:13:43.000 How do we get into Lenny?

02:13:45.000 We were talking about something else.

02:13:46.000 But anyway, no, it was great playing Lenny.

02:13:48.000 But, oh, yes, I was doing the stand-ups.

02:13:49.000 And I was just told by director Peter Hall, I'll leave the stand-up to you.

02:13:54.000 So I had no direction on it.

02:13:55.000 So I just did it as close as I could to how Lenny would have done it.

02:13:59.000 Did you listen to a lot of recordings?

02:14:01.000 I did.

02:14:02.000 It's very difficult for British kids, or maybe even American kids of today, to know, because he's doing a lot of hipster references, a lot of, you know, the Sophie Tucker references, and there's a Lawrence Welch, is it?

02:14:14.000 Welch?

02:14:14.000 Welch, yeah.

02:14:15.000 We don't know those guys, so when he was doing it, it goes to Sophie Tucker, and they're going, I've got to look up Sophie.

02:14:20.000 I've had to look up some of the punchlines or a number of the references because without the references you can't get it.

02:14:26.000 This is a trick I do in Universal Humor that I take either huge references or explain my references so that, you know, Caesar, everyone probably knows about Caesar, and if they don't, well, yeah, anyway.

02:14:37.000 Well, as good as Lenny was, it's really hard for people to listen to that comedy today.

02:14:41.000 It doesn't necessarily transfer.

02:14:43.000 Yeah.

02:14:44.000 Well, he's talking about Nixon.

02:14:45.000 And you're going, oh, Nixon, Nixon.

02:14:46.000 No, this is Vice President Nixon.

02:14:49.000 This is Eisenhower's Nixon. 0.64

02:14:50.000 Different thing.

02:14:53.000 So I worked out that nearly all my stuff is non-dateable.

02:15:00.000 I don't do any topical stuff.

02:15:01.000 I don't do party political stuff.

02:15:03.000 So it should not date.

02:15:04.000 I do historical stuff because that never dates.

02:15:07.000 Caesar is not going to come back.

02:15:09.000 Now Caesar's changed his whole thing.

02:15:10.000 He's much nicer now.

02:15:11.000 He's come back from the dead and he's cleaned up his act.

02:15:14.000 So, I've tried to do that, and Python did this as well.

02:15:17.000 You do stuff, it just doesn't really date.

02:15:18.000 Most of it doesn't date.

02:15:20.000 Which is a handy thing, so the stuff can stick on.

02:15:24.000 But much stand-up does.

02:15:25.000 And it's also, the culture is so significantly different between the late 50s and 60s, where Lenny Bruce was sort of starting out and making his mark, versus today.

02:15:35.000 It's like the things that were naughty back then, the things that he could say that were controversial.

02:15:40.000 They were nothing today.

02:15:42.000 Literally, it's a non-controversy.

02:15:44.000 Well, there was one that still was when he said, how many people using the N-word and the S-word, you know, he just went to all the racial epithets.

02:15:55.000 And I did this.

02:15:57.000 I used to do that on stage every night, and that was still striking.

02:16:01.000 Tense.

02:16:01.000 Yeah.

02:16:02.000 Yeah, but the sentiment behind it was that these words only have power because they're forbidden.

02:16:06.000 Because we give them power.

02:16:07.000 And if you could use them again and again and again, and for the gay community, they've taken the word queer, they've claimed that so it doesn't have the force anymore.

02:16:16.000 And that is a truth.

02:16:18.000 That was a true analysis that he did.

02:16:20.000 Yeah.

02:16:21.000 Yeah, it was...

02:16:22.000 We had some still jokes.

02:16:24.000 There was a...

02:16:24.000 Unfortunately, accidentally, a friend of mine stole one of his jokes and didn't know.

02:16:29.000 He actually just thought of the same premise.

02:16:32.000 Yeah.

02:16:32.000 And the premise was...

02:16:36.000 That homosexuality in some places is illegal.

02:16:38.000 And what do they do if they catch you? 1.00

02:16:40.000 Well, they lock you up in jail with a bunch of men who want to have sex with you. 1.00

02:16:43.000 And that was Lenny Bruce's line. 0.99

02:16:46.000 Like, dig.

02:16:47.000 Homosexuality is illegal, right? 1.00

02:16:49.000 So what do they do? 0.99

02:16:49.000 They put you in jail with a bunch of men who want to have sex with you. 0.99

02:16:53.000 You know, like, that was his whole, like...

02:16:54.000 And, like, that still would work today.

02:16:57.000 Like, if there was a place where homosexuality was illegal today and you did that joke, it's a good joke. 1.00

02:17:02.000 It's, like, set up punchline.

02:17:03.000 It's all right there.

02:17:04.000 Yeah.

02:17:05.000 Lenny was ahead of us.

02:17:06.000 And, you know, his early stuff was more mainstream than you could ever believe.

02:17:09.000 Oh, yeah.

02:17:10.000 He was doing...

02:17:10.000 Way, way, way.

02:17:12.000 Same as Carlin.

02:17:13.000 Have you listened to Carlin's early stuff?

02:17:14.000 No, I've heard of it.

02:17:15.000 Oh my god, it was like a typical Jack Parr Tonight Show set.

02:17:21.000 It was all really down the middle, squeaky clean, and he wore suits, and He was a clean cut.

02:17:29.000 You ever seen Carlin in the early days?

02:17:31.000 I think I've seen him once.

02:17:33.000 Yeah, I do know.

02:17:34.000 Wasn't there a tie and a suit?

02:17:36.000 There was a change.

02:17:36.000 Well, Lenny had a complete change.

02:17:38.000 And that thing in the film where he says, you'll never play here in, what's the area in upstate New York?

02:17:44.000 Catskills?

02:17:44.000 Catskills.

02:17:45.000 You'll never play in the Catskills again?

02:17:46.000 I want to play in the Catskills again.

02:17:49.000 I remember when I watched it first, I thought, oh, that's a terrible thing to have.

02:17:53.000 But now that I know what that was, it was a certain belt of, you know, how you're going to play.

02:17:56.000 Look at that.

02:17:57.000 That's George Carlin.

02:17:58.000 Wow.

02:17:59.000 Play a little bit of this.

02:18:01.000 It's crazy.

02:18:03.000 From the Merv Griffin show.

02:18:05.000 Big hassle.

02:18:06.000 We never see how the Indians prepare.

02:18:11.000 Look at it.

02:18:11.000 It's their attack, right?

02:18:13.000 How awful that suit is.

02:18:14.000 Now, the Indians were good fighters.

02:18:15.000 Just because they started in Massachusetts and wound up defending Malibu doesn't mean...

02:18:23.000 But it was that sort of style.

02:18:25.000 You know, he had that...

02:18:26.000 I mean, that's what you did back then.

02:18:28.000 This is the Merv Griffin show.

02:18:30.000 I mean, you really didn't have any options.

02:18:31.000 That's how you performed.

02:18:32.000 Yeah, yeah.

02:18:33.000 Otherwise, they wouldn't let you on.

02:18:34.000 Yeah, that's what you did.

02:18:35.000 Did he change on a dime?

02:18:36.000 He got arrested a bunch of times, you know?

02:18:39.000 And he became a marijuana enthusiast.

02:18:42.000 A little bit.

02:18:45.000 The times changed.

02:18:47.000 And I think you can only sit back and observe for so long before you start commenting on things.

02:18:53.000 And then he shifted and he became...

02:18:55.000 And I think he was also experiencing Pryor.

02:18:59.000 Like Pryor, of course, was...

02:19:01.000 I think Lenny Bruce was the original.

02:19:04.000 But Pryor was the one who made it insanely personal and he was insanely vulnerable on stage.

02:19:10.000 And also...

02:19:12.000 He had a point to a lot of the things he was doing.

02:19:15.000 I mean, I think if there's a great...

02:19:16.000 I don't think there's a greatest stand-up of all time, but if there is, it might be prior.

02:19:20.000 You know, that he just...

02:19:21.000 He had this perspective that was just wholly individual, like wholly him.

02:19:27.000 Except 10 years later, that's what he looks like.

02:19:29.000 Yeah, that's crazy.

02:19:30.000 The beard really does change.

02:19:32.000 Yeah, I mean, he was...

02:19:34.000 Look at him. 0.99

02:19:35.000 He's got, like, a fucking Steve Jobs outfit on now. 1.00

02:19:39.000 Yeah, he became a hippie. 1.00

02:19:43.000 Hair got longer.

02:19:45.000 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

02:19:46.000 Now, Richard Pryor, I think Richard Pryor is...

02:19:50.000 For me, he was...

02:19:51.000 Because I had this base of Monty Python, which is what I was going to do.

02:19:57.000 And then I had Richard Pryor and Billy Connolly, Scottish comedian, Billy Connolly.

02:20:02.000 Those two, Billy talks just so relaxed when he's talking to large groups of people.

02:20:06.000 And what Richard was doing...

02:20:09.000 It was the acting out of all the characters thing.

02:20:11.000 That was the wonderful thing.

02:20:12.000 That's what I do.

02:20:13.000 What are you going to do?

02:20:15.000 No.

02:20:17.000 The dog says, come on in.

02:20:19.000 Hey, come on in.

02:20:20.000 To burglars.

02:20:21.000 Yeah, you come in.

02:20:22.000 You shall not leave.

02:20:24.000 Yeah, Dobermans.

02:20:25.000 Yeah, playing these different voices and characters and what he could do.

02:20:29.000 And that was just stunning to me.

02:20:32.000 Yeah, he was something special.

02:20:33.000 Look at him back in the day, too.

02:20:35.000 That's literally him on the wall back there, the mugshot.

02:20:38.000 That's the same era.

02:20:41.000 Could that have been that night?

02:20:43.000 Yeah, might have been that night.

02:20:45.000 There's some fantastic recordings that I don't know where they are now, but they used to be able to buy them.

02:20:51.000 I bought them at a truck stop, and they were from Red Fox's Comedy Club, and they were cassette tapes.

02:20:56.000 And I was doing a road gig, and I think I found them, and I bought a bunch of them.

02:21:01.000 And these recordings were, they just had set up a tape recorder, and he was doing these random sets at Red Fox's Comedy Club.

02:21:11.000 It was a lot of experimenting, a lot of ad-libbing, a lot of, I mean, he was clearly high on stage.

02:21:17.000 I mean, he would go on stage high a lot, and he would just ramble about stuff.

02:21:21.000 And you would see these bits forming and coming out of that, and then some of those bits eventually would be on some of his more famous albums later.

02:21:30.000 It was great, great stuff.

02:21:32.000 Just to see this guy who was just so...

02:21:34.000 If you go from your traditional stand-up comedian from 1960, like you were seeing George Carlin on stage, to what Pryor was doing in the 70s.

02:21:45.000 It's just so different.

02:21:47.000 So radically, radically different.

02:21:49.000 He took it to a different place.

02:21:50.000 You were talking about the scene in Britain.

02:21:52.000 Interesting.

02:21:52.000 We don't really have much of a film industry.

02:21:55.000 We don't have it as quite a set.

02:21:57.000 Obviously, it's huge in America compared to what we have.

02:22:01.000 We have quite a good TV industry.

02:22:04.000 But we tour like crazy.

02:22:08.000 So there's lots of tours in 100-seaters, 500-seaters, 1,000-seaters, 2,000-seaters.

02:22:13.000 That goes on endlessly all the time, way more than it used to before.

02:22:19.000 And there's lots of clubs, and a lot of them were just room above a pub-type clubs.

02:22:24.000 So I believe the clubs in America were much more set up.

02:22:26.000 There was a bar thing, the system.

02:22:28.000 People come out and do the drinks.

02:22:29.000 And it was quite a cash outlay to get this club going.

02:22:34.000 And it would be, you know, most nights of the week.

02:22:36.000 We'd have it one night a week.

02:22:37.000 It'd just be a function room in a pub that existed for maybe hundreds and hundreds of years because all these pubs used to be taverns, drinking.

02:22:44.000 And it wasn't used.

02:22:47.000 Some guy would say, hey, I'll run a club up here. 0.98

02:22:49.000 I'll take the door money, you take the bar money.

02:22:51.000 And that was the deal.

02:22:52.000 So a lot of amateurs running it.

02:22:54.000 So we had lots of clubs.

02:22:55.000 We had about 60, 70, 80 clubs in London that you could zip around.

02:23:00.000 That many?

02:23:00.000 Yeah, it was a ridiculous amount.

02:23:01.000 And so for me, what the Beatles had with playing in Germany, I had with London and we all had with playing in London.

02:23:10.000 You could do four in a night quite easily on Friday and Saturday.

02:23:15.000 You just jump in taxis and zip between different gigs.

02:23:17.000 Like they do in New York.

02:23:18.000 Yeah.

02:23:19.000 But it was just so many clubs.

02:23:21.000 Oh, wow.

02:23:22.000 So it was beautiful.

02:23:23.000 I think it's less now, but there's lots of open mic nights now, and so many people wanted to get into it.

02:23:29.000 There's no top to the career now.

02:23:32.000 People are playing in an arena.

02:23:33.000 I started doing arena tours.

02:23:34.000 I'm now doing more theater tours on this one.

02:23:37.000 My audience has got a bit older, but anyway, jumping between the two, like playing Hollywood Bowl here, you know, in LA, that's such a beautiful thing to play.

02:23:46.000 And the Greeks got it right. 1.00

02:23:47.000 The laughter rolls down the hill.

02:23:49.000 I've played it twice now, and it's just gorgeous.

02:23:51.000 Yeah, I've never played there, but I've been there for a few times for a few different things.

02:23:55.000 I saw Annie there, and I saw the, what is it?

02:23:58.000 Oh, yeah.

02:24:01.000 Nightmare Before Halloween, yeah.

02:24:03.000 For Christmas.

02:24:04.000 So Annie, the musical?

02:24:05.000 Yeah, they do the musical there.

02:24:07.000 They do a version of it.

02:24:08.000 And they do the Nightmare Before Halloween where they play the movie and then they have a symphony.

02:24:14.000 And the symphony...

02:24:15.000 I didn't think Annie would be your kind of... 0.98

02:24:16.000 I have kids.

02:24:18.000 You needed to say that.

02:24:19.000 I didn't enjoy it.

02:24:20.000 All right. 0.99

02:24:21.000 I'm bored out of my fucking mind. 0.99

02:24:22.000 No, I must have. 1.00

02:24:23.000 But I was high.

02:24:24.000 I'm just going to leave it there.

02:24:25.000 No, sir.

02:24:25.000 Annie's your kind of gig.

02:24:26.000 It always comes in.

02:24:29.000 Yeah.

02:24:29.000 Well, I like everything.

02:24:30.000 I like a lot of things that you would think I wouldn't like.

02:24:32.000 You know that for the people of L.A. or people of the world, I believe that Hollywood Bowl is a L.A. park.

02:24:40.000 So you can actually go up there and have your sandwiches anytime you want.

02:24:44.000 Yeah.

02:24:44.000 Which is a beautiful thing.

02:24:45.000 I do that.

02:24:45.000 I can drive up there because it looks like don't come in here.

02:24:47.000 There's barriers and stuff.

02:24:48.000 But no, you can park up and go in.

02:24:50.000 It's a park.

02:24:50.000 It's still a park.

02:24:51.000 I love that space.

02:24:53.000 It's just great.

02:24:54.000 And I knew that Monty Python had played there, so I thought, I've got to play there.

02:24:57.000 Well, it's beautiful, too, because it's all outdoors, and LA has such amazing weather, and you look around, you see the houses in the distance, and it's a special little spot.

02:25:05.000 It is beautiful.

02:25:05.000 Yeah.

02:25:07.000 I know Dave Chappelle's done some gigs there.

02:25:08.000 I think Chris Rock did a gig there.

02:25:10.000 It must be a fun place to perform, too.

02:25:12.000 Yeah.

02:25:13.000 It just works.

02:25:14.000 That amphitheater thing, I think it was the Greeks.

02:25:18.000 It came out.

02:25:18.000 Democracy and amphitheaters.

02:25:21.000 Do you still go to clubs at all?

02:25:23.000 I don't so much.

02:25:25.000 I was reading the definitive thing on Robin Williams and how he would jump into clubs and do stuff and go on.

02:25:33.000 And I... That doesn't really work for my stuff.

02:25:36.000 I tend to get a small – I can do a club like for the work-in-progress shows I was doing.

02:25:41.000 I was taking – they have the Al Murray Club in Islington – no, Angel in London, sort of northeast London.

02:25:52.000 And they had a show going on at 6, one at 7, and I would take an hour of that and just do that again and again and again.

02:25:59.000 So I'll take an hour and I'll go out for an hour and workshop the show.

02:26:04.000 As opposed to coming on and doing 15 minutes off the top of my head.

02:26:09.000 Because I find that if I'm completely going scattergun, just trying to find funny, that doesn't really help me.

02:26:14.000 I need to keep crafting the stuff.

02:26:16.000 You need more time.

02:26:17.000 Yeah.

02:26:18.000 And also I don't need...

02:26:19.000 If it's a...

02:26:20.000 If it's a comedy club, they want it faster, they want it quicker, they want it smoother.

02:26:23.000 And I'm not looking to hit the gags.

02:26:25.000 I'm just looking to find things and have the space to stop and go, what is it about cheese?

02:26:30.000 Right, right.

02:26:31.000 Why has it got two E's in it?

02:26:32.000 I just want to waffle around until I go, okay, that's a good one.

02:26:35.000 I'll keep that pit.

02:26:36.000 Right. 0.99

02:26:37.000 Do you ever feel like when you're doing that, like, Jesus Christ, I've got to get off this fucking subject. 0.89

02:26:42.000 Like, there's nothing there? 0.74

02:26:44.000 Well, yeah, I do that.

02:26:44.000 But then I do this thing.

02:26:45.000 I write on my left hand, like it's a note to self, and I go, if I do pig farming, talking about pigs and stuff, I go, never talk about pig farming.

02:26:53.000 Are you guys all pig farmers?

02:26:54.000 All right, I'm not talking about that.

02:26:55.000 Never talk about cheese again.

02:26:56.000 Cheese jokes do not work, especially in northeast London.

02:27:00.000 You just try and get laughs on the way out.

02:27:03.000 And the career is over.

02:27:05.000 Cheese is taking over my life.

02:27:07.000 Do you do some gigs dressed in your girl mode and some in boy mode?

02:27:14.000 I can.

02:27:15.000 I can.

02:27:15.000 I can do it whatever mode I want now.

02:27:17.000 It's a complete human torch thing.

02:27:19.000 I can flame off, flame off.

02:27:20.000 I can wear a dress or I can wear trousers and it doesn't matter.

02:27:25.000 And they don't give a monkeys either.

02:27:27.000 That's interesting.

02:27:28.000 Well, they're your fans.

02:27:30.000 Yeah, yeah.

02:27:31.000 They're coming to see you.

02:27:32.000 Do they get disappointed if you dress as a man?

02:27:38.000 Like, hey, we came to see girl mode.

02:27:41.000 I don't know.

02:27:44.000 I shouldn't care.

02:27:45.000 I can't be on stage going, oh, I wonder if this...

02:27:48.000 Because that's nothing to do with the comedy.

02:27:50.000 And I do think some people thought it was...

02:27:52.000 He's going to talk about lipstick for two hours.

02:27:55.000 LAUGHTER So anyway, another lipstick I know is cool.

02:27:58.000 Do you dress it at all?

02:27:59.000 Do you dress it at all in your act?

02:28:00.000 I do, but diagonally.

02:28:01.000 I will do it diagonally.

02:28:02.000 Diagonally?

02:28:03.000 Yeah.

02:28:03.000 So it's never the front part of the thing.

02:28:08.000 I will just say...

02:28:10.000 I don't know.

02:28:12.000 I just...

02:28:14.000 It would not be the front of the subject.

02:28:17.000 I might point it in passing.

02:28:20.000 So I'll talk about Ancient Kings stuff, weird banjos, dogs fighting cats, anything like that.

02:28:26.000 And then I might mention it just in passing as opposed to, let me tell you about being transgender.

02:28:32.000 I just don't do that.

02:28:33.000 Am I talking about the fights?

02:28:35.000 I talked about the fight I had, which was in the street, and that this guy was saying this, and I said this, and so...

02:28:42.000 I built the fight into a huge thing, a huge standoff stuff, so I can make that into something.

02:28:47.000 But no, it's not...

02:28:49.000 Because it's supposed to be the background...

02:29:01.000 Do you find that more today than ever people are asking you questions about transgender issues because they're at the forefront?

02:29:10.000 No, less, actually.

02:29:11.000 Less?

02:29:11.000 Yeah, less.

02:29:12.000 Really?

02:29:12.000 There was a point.

02:29:13.000 You were the spokesperson?

02:29:15.000 It was on, and they would, yes.

02:29:17.000 Well, if not a spokesperson, I was someone who was going to talk about it, at least.

02:29:21.000 Right.

02:29:22.000 Tell us all about this.

02:29:23.000 And I'd do an interview, and if it was an hour interview, about 40 minutes would be on that.

02:29:28.000 And then when they came to write it, they thought, well, I'm just writing all about this.

02:29:32.000 All right, let's put that back a bit.

02:29:34.000 And they used to balance it out when they wrote the interview out.

02:29:38.000 Would you rather that they just accept it and just not bring it up?

02:29:42.000 I'm fine with it now.

02:29:43.000 After the marathons, it all...

02:29:46.000 It changed.

02:29:46.000 Yeah, it changed.

02:29:47.000 Because they said, oh, so...

02:29:49.000 Because I used to say action transvestite and executive transvestite.

02:29:52.000 I was in New York.

02:29:53.000 I was playing New York, and they said, article, a guy was found living in one of the caves in the park in New York, and he was found to have a lot of women's shoes in there, so he's probably a transvestite. 0.87

02:30:04.000 And I went, okay, well, that's weirdo transvestite. 0.99

02:30:06.000 I'm not living in a cave. 0.83

02:30:07.000 I'm traveling business class on the planes. 0.93

02:30:09.000 This is executive transvestite. 0.89

02:30:11.000 So I came up with that one. 0.64

02:30:12.000 Then the action transvestite was just kind of a fun, because I was more kind of boysy about things, and I'll give people grief in the streets if they give me grief.

02:30:20.000 And then after the marathons, it became a different thing, and everyone just went, oh.

02:30:27.000 I've had some, you know, I remember a guy, this was a very interesting altercation, because there's hardly any words in it, so I live near Victoria Coach Station in London most of the time when I'm around, and I was walking down there, and anyway, it's a coach station,

02:30:42.000 so people are traveling all over Europe from there, and I walked up, and I was in girl mode, and this guy looked at me, he said, hey, Eddie Izzard, you run all those marathons, and you wear all that clobber, which is And then he went,

02:30:59.000 oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

02:31:01.000 And it was just like he was giving me a pass.

02:31:03.000 He was going, well, okay, okay.

02:31:05.000 Yeah, they have to.

02:31:06.000 Yeah.

02:31:06.000 Well, that's what my...

02:31:08.000 I mean, I didn't have a negative opinion of you.

02:31:10.000 I had a positive opinion of you.

02:31:11.000 But my positive opinion of you elevated once I saw you did those marathons.

02:31:16.000 That's a person with an iron will.

02:31:17.000 That's a different kind of person.

02:31:19.000 It was so...

02:31:21.000 Huge, what you did, that everyone had to respect it.

02:31:24.000 Like, they knew they couldn't do it, or if they could do it, they haven't, you know?

02:31:29.000 That actually does cover it.

02:31:31.000 Yes, I hadn't talked about it.

02:31:32.000 You accomplished something pretty spectacular.

02:31:34.000 It was beautiful, and it did about five things at once, and it was raising money.

02:31:38.000 Yes.

02:31:38.000 So I think I've raised about four and a half million pounds, about six million, seven million dollars.

02:31:44.000 So that feels great, and that's with their help, because the organization is good at raising the money.

02:31:50.000 And it gave me this confidence, this health thing, back from when I was a kid.

02:31:55.000 A lot of us were running around kids.

02:31:56.000 How old were you when you did that?

02:31:57.000 First one was, I was 47. So you're 47 and you just decided, yeah, I'm off.

02:32:06.000 It was training.

02:32:07.000 I wanted to do something.

02:32:08.000 It's an adventure as well.

02:32:10.000 And, you know, I think you have to live life as an adventure.

02:32:13.000 Otherwise, life is too hard.

02:32:15.000 But if you look at it as adventure, it means there are highs and lows built into it.

02:32:20.000 And I got this health kick out of it.

02:32:26.000 It was just a number of things.

02:32:28.000 And then I could meet people.

02:32:29.000 I remember on the first marathon, I met three army sergeants.

02:32:33.000 And they said, we've heard you're doing this.

02:32:35.000 This is from the British Army.

02:32:36.000 And I was just having something that we...

02:32:39.000 Halfway through my...

02:32:40.000 What was it?

02:32:40.000 About my 10th marathon.

02:32:42.000 He said, we heard you're doing this.

02:32:43.000 And they were chatting to me, you know, because I know forces and I'm of that mentality.

02:32:47.000 I'm very happy to chat.

02:32:49.000 And suddenly I thought, wow, this is an interesting respect thing.

02:32:51.000 And they said, we're trainers.

02:32:53.000 We train.

02:32:53.000 We work out the training regimes for the Army.

02:32:57.000 And so we were very interested in what you're doing and what you...

02:33:00.000 Seemed to be able to do.

02:33:01.000 So they just found it fascinating.

02:33:03.000 And I found that fascinating.

02:33:04.000 I could suddenly talk to service people in a certain way, sports people in a certain way.

02:33:09.000 Everything just shifted.

02:33:11.000 And people from different ethnic groups, some people are very down on...

02:33:16.000 Some ethnic groups are down on being transgender or whatever.

02:33:19.000 But if you're doing that, then it says, okay, we put these two together and...

02:33:23.000 You're in a different place.

02:33:24.000 So it has completely changed the way a lot of people react to me.

02:33:32.000 Yeah, I can only imagine.

02:33:33.000 They don't necessarily come to the comedy, but that's fine.

02:33:36.000 But they respect you.

02:33:37.000 Yeah, it's just certain different things happen.

02:33:39.000 And I like to chat to people.

02:33:42.000 I found that chatting is very important.

02:33:44.000 Because if you see someone and it's a bloke, they're wearing makeup, whatever, and you get lipstick, and you go, people can go, ooh.

02:33:50.000 But if you say, hi, nice weather today.

02:33:52.000 And they go, oh, yeah, it's quite nice.

02:33:55.000 And then they're on a different footing.

02:33:57.000 They're trying to put you into a place of normalcy.

02:34:00.000 Yeah, well, I'm trying to put myself in.

02:34:01.000 They will allow me in.

02:34:04.000 They will allow me in.

02:34:05.000 Okay, it seems normal.

02:34:07.000 The talking is the most important thing.

02:34:10.000 Just chatting away and being boring.

02:34:12.000 I have a natural boringness.

02:34:14.000 I think maybe everyone has a natural boringness.

02:34:16.000 I think the really interesting people probably just blow up in their 20s and stuff because they just do stuff that's too far out.

02:34:22.000 But most of us are pretty boring, and then we add layers of interestingness on top to...

02:34:28.000 To reach that level of, okay, I think I'm quite interesting now.

02:34:31.000 I think I've got enough interesting going on.

02:34:33.000 But my boringness in chatting, I am trying to talk about weather or wood or walls or, you know, trees or banjos.

02:34:41.000 So that introduces the normalcy.

02:34:43.000 Yeah.

02:34:43.000 The boring chatter.

02:34:44.000 I won't say...

02:34:46.000 I won't say, we've got to do something extreme now.

02:34:48.000 I'll just chat about...

02:34:50.000 Yeah.

02:34:52.000 Normal things.

02:34:52.000 Yeah, where'd you get that jacket?

02:34:53.000 That's quite a good jacket on you.

02:34:55.000 It won't work with me.

02:34:56.000 Just talk about things.

02:34:57.000 Be human.

02:34:58.000 Be a human being.

02:35:00.000 The biggest controversy in America in terms of transgender people, probably the biggest, or one of the biggest, is competing in sports with biological women.

02:35:11.000 That's the biggest one.

02:35:12.000 Yes.

02:35:13.000 If you're asking me for answers on that, I haven't really got them.

02:35:18.000 I know...

02:35:19.000 Yeah.

02:35:20.000 I've got a good one for washrooms, as you call them.

02:35:24.000 What's your take on that?

02:35:26.000 Urinals, as you call them.

02:35:27.000 We call them urinals.

02:35:28.000 Just chuck them all out, and everyone just...

02:35:30.000 It's all cubicles.

02:35:32.000 And we already do that in restaurants.

02:35:33.000 We already share...

02:35:49.000 I've heard of it working in a school as well.

02:35:51.000 There was less bullying in the loos.

02:35:54.000 So it's the idea, it's regression of technology, I take it.

02:35:58.000 So get the urinal, chuck it out the window. 1.00

02:36:00.000 Everyone has a cubicle.

02:36:01.000 Just go to the loo and then use the mirrors and then go away.

02:36:05.000 And so everything being for both genders?

02:36:08.000 Yeah.

02:36:08.000 You just make it all even and then we get outside a lot of problems.

02:36:13.000 Some people will have pushback on that and have other reasons why they don't like it.

02:36:16.000 A lot of women don't want to be in a washroom with men, though. 1.00

02:36:19.000 Well, they already are going into, if they're sharing it in the loo's in the airplane, if they're sharing it in a...

02:36:24.000 Yeah, but an airplane is one, you know, it's only one person to go in there. 0.99

02:36:28.000 I think their concern is there's, you know, some men are fucking creeps. 0.74

02:36:32.000 And some women just want to have a place where they could just be themselves and just check their makeup and go to the bathroom and wash and talk amongst other women. 1.00

02:36:41.000 I understand that.

02:36:42.000 It's just I've, you know, if you think about anything that's going to change anything, there's usually something that won't change.

02:36:50.000 Right, but the only reason to do this is to accommodate people who are transgender in a way that it seems like it doesn't put them in a position where they can be judged because everyone's doing it.

02:37:01.000 Well, if it stops bullying in schools, then there's a number of things in there that it can make easier.

02:37:09.000 It just makes a whole area of things a lot easier.

02:37:12.000 How would it stop bullying, though?

02:37:15.000 I don't know.

02:37:15.000 I'm just giving you the figures that have...

02:37:18.000 What have they said?

02:37:19.000 Well, they just said that they tried it in a school and the bullying went down.

02:37:23.000 So if there's girls and there's boys together, it's like boys will bully the boys or girls will bully the girls.

02:37:27.000 But if you have them all together, they don't.

02:37:30.000 It seems so.

02:37:31.000 And they just punish the creeps, which is really what you, I mean, if someone's being a creep in a bathroom, the problem is the creep, it's not the bathroom.

02:37:38.000 Right.

02:37:39.000 Yeah.

02:37:40.000 Anyway, so this is, you know, I haven't scientifically proved this with chemicals and a slide rule or whatever, but it's an idea that gets us to a better place and surely we're all somewhere on the spectrum of something.

02:37:54.000 So the idea that...

02:37:58.000 That anyone who is expressing themselves in a different way, that that is a problem.

02:38:04.000 If you take it by just straight, if we all went back to how we used to think that there was just men and women and everyone had straight sex, even that sex, no one would talk about that.

02:38:13.000 People, you know, Victorian age and your equivalent Victorian age, no one would talk about that.

02:38:17.000 That was all horrible. 0.74

02:38:19.000 Sex was, procreation was dirty. 0.99

02:38:20.000 The whole idea of everything. 0.96

02:38:22.000 So...

02:38:25.000 I'm trying to get to a practical place where people just go to the loo and behave like adults.

02:38:30.000 Even the kids seem to behave more like adults, which is interesting.

02:38:33.000 That makes sense.

02:38:34.000 I see what you're saying.

02:38:36.000 Yeah, that is the concern, right?

02:38:38.000 We have a system in place, and someone tries to change the system, then people get upset.

02:38:44.000 And that always happens.

02:38:45.000 Yeah.

02:38:45.000 I mean, but also women do queue forever and men don't queue at all.

02:38:49.000 Right.

02:38:50.000 Or queue much less.

02:38:51.000 But this makes it so easy.

02:38:52.000 It makes it so easy.

02:38:53.000 Cueing evens that out.

02:38:54.000 Right.

02:38:55.000 And everyone just behaves like an adult.

02:38:58.000 Yeah.

02:38:58.000 It's just a toilet.

02:38:59.000 The Romans used to have it with open plan toilets.

02:39:02.000 Yeah, I've seen that.

02:39:03.000 We have made it into a problem.

02:39:04.000 We have...

02:39:05.000 Made this a whole psychological problem.

02:39:08.000 Whereas the Romans just sit down there and have a poo and have a chat. 1.00

02:39:10.000 And once they did make it a problem and categorize people by gender, then it became this thing, and now you don't want to change that.

02:39:18.000 Well, yeah.

02:39:19.000 They might have had male and female toys in the Roman times, but just the fact that they were more open about the idea that it's bodily functions. 0.88

02:39:25.000 It's just normal.

02:39:26.000 And we've, you know, back before we came in, we were just going out into the woods and the forest and having a poo.

02:39:32.000 And it was just having a poo, and now we feel it's a big... 0.55

02:39:35.000 Problem having a poo.

02:39:36.000 We don't like the fact we have a poo.

02:39:37.000 We don't want to admit that we have the poo.

02:39:39.000 Does the Queen ever have a poo? 1.00

02:39:40.000 Maybe never.

02:39:41.000 Has the attitude, besides the marathon thing, has the attitude culturally shifted in the UK the same way it's shifted in America where people are more?

02:39:51.000 Yes.

02:39:51.000 I think the more and more people are out and positive.

02:39:56.000 I mean, you've basically got to...

02:39:59.000 From every group.

02:40:00.000 This is ethnic groups.

02:40:01.000 This is from women.

02:40:01.000 This is from anyone that feels slightly out of the loop.

02:40:04.000 If you can have any positive role models that go out there that do other things, just something that's nothing to do with sexuality, you're very good at cooking.

02:40:12.000 You're on television for this.

02:40:14.000 It tends to be television helps.

02:40:16.000 You're a great sports star.

02:40:17.000 You're this, you're that.

02:40:18.000 Those things, people say, well, there's a positive role model, and they are of a different color or of a different sexuality.

02:40:24.000 And that just helps everyone.

02:40:27.000 Adjust their mindset.

02:40:28.000 And the younger people come through and that's all they know.

02:40:30.000 I know about this person.

02:40:32.000 I mean, like, you know, in baseball, do you see the famous documentary, Baseball?

02:40:39.000 Ken Burns?

02:40:40.000 Yeah, the Ken Burns one.

02:40:41.000 And that black people, after the Civil War, black people were playing baseball.

02:40:46.000 And then there was some guy who was very powerful.

02:40:47.000 He said there would be no black people in major leagues at all.

02:40:51.000 And it was blocked from about 1890, something like this, all the way through...

02:40:58.000 To 1950s.

02:40:59.000 So it was actually happening and then it went backwards.

02:41:02.000 Yeah.

02:41:03.000 So there was a positive role moment.

02:41:04.000 Well, why ever that happened?

02:41:07.000 Things can go backwards and things go forwards.

02:41:09.000 And I just think, you know, if we're trying to get to a world where everyone's living that live...

02:41:14.000 Yeah.

02:41:15.000 That's really what we need, right?

02:41:16.000 Just live and let live.

02:41:17.000 As long as you're not interfering with other people's lives, as long as you're not doing something that somehow or another fucks with someone else, who cares?

02:41:25.000 Why would anyone care?

02:41:27.000 I mean, I think people care because they're unhappy with themselves.

02:41:30.000 I think that's the only time people care.

02:41:32.000 And my...

02:41:34.000 My issue with this that I've come across is with athletes.

02:41:39.000 It's with transgender athletes competing against women, particularly in my field, in fighting.

02:41:44.000 There's been some, there have been, at least there was one very vocal case, one very public case, of a transgender athlete who was male for 30 plus years, transitioned over for a couple years, for two years, and then started fighting women.

02:42:00.000 Didn't tell them that she used to be a man.

02:42:04.000 And it became a giant issue.

02:42:06.000 And people were outraged and angered.

02:42:08.000 The women who got beat up were angry because they got destroyed. 1.00

02:42:12.000 Two of them did.

02:42:13.000 And then she was public about it and then started fighting women that were willing and knew. 1.00

02:42:18.000 You've got to say things up front.

02:42:19.000 I came out.

02:42:24.000 I think one of the interesting things about it is that there are no real answers, that it's one of those things where you just got to go, huh, what do we do here?

02:42:37.000 And this is what I think one of the more unique things about being a person is that we have this opportunity to look at this unusual circumstance and communicate about it and try to figure it out.

02:42:50.000 Communication.

02:42:51.000 Yes.

02:42:51.000 The whole thing.

02:42:52.000 I just knew, on my personal thing, if I came out, if we started talking about it, we'd get in a better place than not talking about it and just saying it's a negative thing.

02:43:00.000 When you came out, did it give you a feeling of relief?

02:43:04.000 Unbelievable.

02:43:04.000 I mean, you know, because you've got this secret, and the secret is I did self-analysis.

02:43:10.000 I lay on a bed and said, why am I thinking this way?

02:43:12.000 What is going on?

02:43:13.000 Why do I get that?

02:43:14.000 What are the thoughts?

02:43:16.000 Because you still like women. 0.99

02:43:18.000 Yeah.

02:43:18.000 So, okay, here's the clearest way I can show it.

02:43:23.000 There was a woman on television.

02:43:25.000 She said, my daughter, she was 12, and she was upstairs.

02:43:28.000 She was wearing my makeup, and she was wearing my heels, and I told her to get that stuff off. 1.00

02:43:31.000 What are you doing?

02:43:33.000 She said to her daughter, who was 12, and that was from an age point of view.

02:43:36.000 And I just thought, well, that's what I'd be doing at 12. That's what I was doing in my stepmother's clothes and stuff.

02:43:41.000 So I thought, well, hang on, I'm having the exact same desire to express myself in that way.

02:43:47.000 So I just wanted to express myself in that way, and I was told, like, by society, you're not allowed to.

02:43:52.000 And I just thought, well, you know, some people are allowed to, and I'm not.

02:43:58.000 I gave myself permission.

02:43:59.000 I said, I'm allowed to.

02:44:01.000 And it's not hurting anyone else.

02:44:03.000 And I was stealing the makeup, and after that I started buying the makeup because the police got me.

02:44:08.000 You got caught stealing makeup?

02:44:09.000 Yeah, and I go back into the shop in Bexhill and I say, I'll buy this lipstick, thank you very much.

02:44:14.000 And I always make a point.

02:44:16.000 They say, yeah, it's him again with the bloody lipstick.

02:44:20.000 So, yeah, it's...

02:44:22.000 So you just had this desire to express yourself in a way.

02:44:25.000 Yeah, just like some women do, and some women don't. 1.00

02:44:27.000 Some say, I'm not going to wear any makeup.

02:44:28.000 I'm not going to paint my nails.

02:44:29.000 Yeah.

02:44:30.000 And if I look very female, then I might wear different things or express myself in a different way, but I look kind of more boyish, more male-ish, so I have to choose certain clothes,

02:44:46.000 certain look.

02:44:48.000 And I do it that way.

02:44:51.000 And quite a lot of people are sort of going, okay, fair play.

02:44:54.000 That seems okay.

02:44:54.000 And you're looking fairly well put together.

02:44:57.000 That's what I get to.

02:44:59.000 So when you finally came out, the relief, though, you could just be yourself.

02:45:04.000 Yeah, and you don't tend to look terrible.

02:45:07.000 When you first go out, you go, well, that doesn't work with that.

02:45:10.000 Why was I wearing that?

02:45:11.000 That's crazy.

02:45:12.000 But you've never had that teenage girl chance to be able to try things out and have your peer group say, you're not wearing that, are you? 0.99

02:45:17.000 Because that's rubbish.

02:45:18.000 Okay, so then I gradually learned, okay, how does makeup work? 0.72

02:45:21.000 Okay, that's how it works.

02:45:22.000 So you gradually get better at things.

02:45:23.000 Don't buy that.

02:45:24.000 That color doesn't work.

02:45:25.000 Oh, it can work.

02:45:26.000 But the relief is huge because you've no longer got this hellish secret.

02:45:30.000 Yes.

02:45:31.000 And then you can begin the dialogue.

02:45:33.000 I didn't really have a dialogue with anyone at that point, but on stage, I could talk about it.

02:45:37.000 The hell is secret.

02:45:39.000 I have friends that are in the closet, and they don't know what to do.

02:45:43.000 And even comedian friends, they don't talk about it.

02:45:46.000 They hide it.

02:45:48.000 And I'm like, God, if you just let it go.

02:45:51.000 I mean, people in this day and age, the people that will accept you...

02:45:55.000 That's the people you want anyway.

02:45:57.000 The people that don't accept you, you don't want them.

02:46:00.000 That's their own problem.

02:46:02.000 It's this live and let live thing.

02:46:03.000 The people that don't want you to be who you actually are to fit their own narrative in their own head. 0.99

02:46:08.000 Those people are the crazy ones. 0.95

02:46:10.000 It's not you. 1.00

02:46:11.000 It's really obvious they're gay people. 0.94

02:46:13.000 It's really obvious they're transgender people. 0.94

02:46:15.000 It's really obvious.

02:46:16.000 No one's just making this up.

02:46:18.000 And back through history as well.

02:46:19.000 Yes, forever!

02:46:22.000 I say quite often, you know, this is a genetic thing because I didn't feel I got up, you know, when I was 23 and a half and I said, I think I've all become all transgender now.

02:46:31.000 No, I was four or five when I first knew, and it has not moved those thoughts.

02:46:36.000 That's interesting.

02:46:37.000 So I think it is for most gay, lesbian people I've talked to, I just think it's locked and it's built in. 1.00

02:46:42.000 It's something you get given these cards, as I say, and we're trying to be upfront and be positive and express ourselves.

02:46:48.000 Well, it only makes sense when you look at the other variabilities.

02:46:50.000 The other variables when it comes to people's personality, their body shape, their mentality, their drive, their ambition, all these different variables.

02:46:59.000 It only makes sense that there's feminine and masculine variables and that these shift back and forth with certain people and that certain people are just like they're somewhere like where you are, where you have boy mode and girl mode.

02:47:12.000 And I would imagine that you're talking about it so openly and that you're just so free with it.

02:47:18.000 That there's probably people out there that are listening to this. 0.98

02:47:20.000 They're like, God damn it, that's me! 0.96

02:47:22.000 And the youngest young people around the world, I have met people who are talking about it in school. 0.98

02:47:30.000 Actually, when I came back from South Africa, my co-writer, Kellen Jones, he said, can you go in?

02:47:35.000 My daughter's in class, and they've been talking about your runs in South Africa.

02:47:39.000 So I went in, and they could talk about racism, because I was running a salute to the Mandela, 27 marathons to his 27 years he had to spend in prison.

02:47:47.000 So they could talk about racism, but they could also talk about being trans, transgender, or self-identifying and LGBT stuff.

02:47:54.000 Because there was some kid in the class who was already identifying, wanted to identify as a girl.

02:47:59.000 And so they were being positive.

02:48:01.000 And these kids were eight, I think.

02:48:03.000 So it's way different to our childhood.

02:48:05.000 Our childhood was just, do not talk about it, do not mention it.

02:48:08.000 And if you mention it, you're going to get your head kicked in by your peer group.

02:48:12.000 And that's why I never mentioned it at school.

02:48:15.000 Especially, you know, I fancy a girl so I could...

02:48:17.000 Just going that route.

02:48:19.000 Did you run into girls that had an issue with it?

02:48:26.000 People that I know less of, but if you talk about relationships, it gets really tricky because it reflects upon people's relationships with yourself.

02:48:35.000 But it's cool, and I've never been great at relationships.

02:48:40.000 That's always tricky.

02:48:42.000 I got this career thing, and I worked out how I could work that, and I could just keep...

02:48:54.000 Yeah.

02:48:55.000 Yeah.

02:48:58.000 Yeah.

02:49:04.000 Can't be everything.

02:49:04.000 Get everything working.

02:49:05.000 No.

02:49:06.000 But I'm okay with that, and it's all good, and I enjoy things.

02:49:13.000 On stage, I try and make myself laugh.

02:49:15.000 This isn't comedy.

02:49:16.000 This is my trick.

02:49:17.000 I actually just try and I'd live, and I go, oh, that's funny.

02:49:19.000 So I'm going off of this weird trip.

02:49:24.000 I'm going to tell you this bit.

02:49:25.000 This is a later show in Wunderbar.

02:49:28.000 But I talk about J.R.R. Tolkien.

02:49:30.000 I talk about the imagination.

02:49:31.000 We have written all these stories.

02:49:33.000 And the animals haven't done that.

02:49:34.000 All the wild animals don't seem to have written any stories.

02:49:36.000 I haven't heard of any good ones.

02:49:37.000 But we've written that.

02:49:38.000 J.R.R. Tolkien.

02:49:39.000 And I say J.R.R. Tolkien.

02:49:40.000 A.R.R.R. Tolkien was born.

02:49:42.000 J.R [...

02:49:55.000 It's a South African accent.

02:49:56.000 And then Birmingham is all like this.

02:50:01.000 And then I said, when he's five, he turns to his mother because he realizes he's called J.R [... 0.99

02:50:21.000 And it's such a stupid line to go on. 0.97

02:50:23.000 There's no logic to where I'm going. 1.00

02:50:25.000 And his mother's going, what are you saying, J-R-R-R? I can't understand it.

02:50:28.000 Because she's still in South Africa.

02:50:31.000 So I'm spending time going into this sidebar, which is making me laugh.

02:50:36.000 And I think a lot of the audience are going, what is he on about?

02:50:38.000 What is he on about?

02:50:38.000 What is he wittering about?

02:50:40.000 And you can't really even hear what I'm saying.

02:50:42.000 But I just do this strangulated accent.

02:50:44.000 And in the end, he has to talk in a Yorkshire accent to get his mother to understand if he could cut down the number of hours in his name.

02:50:50.000 And he becomes J.R.R. Tolkien.

02:50:53.000 So that's typical of my stand-up where I just go off on a tangent.

02:50:57.000 To make yourself laugh.

02:50:58.000 Yeah.

02:50:59.000 And I think it's sort of funny, a little bit funny, but it's probably more funny for me.

02:51:03.000 Well, if it's funny for you, though, it's funny for people that are listening because comedy is contagious.

02:51:07.000 Yeah.

02:51:07.000 Yeah, and if the person on stage is having a good time, then the audience would probably have a better time.

02:51:12.000 And this thing of it's not being locked down, that it's living and breathing in front of them, they do love that, and you put more energy into the next bit, and then this, and then that, and the other thing.

02:51:23.000 Yeah, so I do love stellar because it's, you know, you can just do it and do it and, you know, there's no one.

02:51:30.000 Well, I was a double act.

02:51:31.000 I was a four-person act.

02:51:32.000 And whenever you, if you're even just a double act, if you go off on a tangent, then you have to look across to your partner and your partner's going, what?

02:51:38.000 Where are you going?

02:51:39.000 You might want to go with it.

02:51:41.000 You might not want to go with it.

02:51:42.000 Keep to the script.

02:51:43.000 But on your own, you could just go off.

02:51:46.000 And Lenny Bruce, you know, the gigs he did in front of the band, you know that thing in the film, that part of the film?

02:51:52.000 Yes.

02:51:52.000 And he's trying to make the band laugh and there's the people, the raincoats in the front and the strippers coming on.

02:51:58.000 And because when we did the play Lenny, we had a live actual jazz band on the stage, a real good jazz musician.

02:52:05.000 So I was trying to make them laugh in just the way that Lenny had.

02:52:08.000 I was trying to crack them up because I would go off script and I could do this.

02:52:12.000 And that was just beautiful.

02:52:13.000 And they said, you're riffing, aren't you?

02:52:15.000 You're just riffing like we're riffing.

02:52:16.000 And I thought, whoa, this is weird.

02:52:18.000 This is...

02:52:19.000 It was really nice to cruise down his life and do stand-up as close to him as I could.

02:52:26.000 Even the mainstream, I did more mainstream stuff and then the really edgy stuff and the weird stuff and where Jesus comes at the back and you've got St. Pat's Cathedral, that whole sequence where he's got, call the Pope, call the Pope, Jesus is here.

02:52:41.000 And yeah, that was fun.

02:52:45.000 Yeah.

02:52:46.000 I got very ill doing it.

02:52:47.000 How?

02:52:48.000 Well, you started off dead, naked, and then you put your clothes on and you start going backwards.

02:52:54.000 Oh, so the play starts off dead.

02:52:56.000 Yeah, you start off dead by...

02:52:58.000 So when he killed himself in the bathroom.

02:53:00.000 Yeah.

02:53:00.000 And then as you start, and you're talking to either God or...

02:53:04.000 I think I'm talking to a judge who is a bit like a God at the beginning of it and explaining things as I'm putting my clothes on.

02:53:10.000 So you start off naked. 0.98

02:53:11.000 Then you have simulated sex with my wife about a quarter of the way through the film. 0.98

02:53:17.000 So that was interesting doing that. 0.99

02:53:19.000 And then you end up dying at the end of the film.

02:53:21.000 So it took a lot out of me, three months of that.

02:53:26.000 So emotionally?

02:53:27.000 Yeah, emotionally.

02:53:28.000 It drained you, and then you physically got ill.

02:53:29.000 And I've never been ill out of a show, but it just took me down.

02:53:34.000 I just was not well enough.

02:53:35.000 So you think it was just contemplating his existence, his life, and what he went through?

02:53:40.000 I think it was, yeah, I think part of his journey, and also it was physically very grueling.

02:53:47.000 It's mentally...

02:53:49.000 And physically quite grueling and mentally really grueling.

02:53:51.000 And together, I was knackered and I probably just wasn't drinking enough water.

02:53:55.000 I should have, you know, I tend to think, I don't know, this is a me trait, definitely, that I will just carry on until I get ill.

02:54:05.000 I won't necessarily think, okay, you're going into a stress period now, so let's get some good water on, let's eat some healthy food so that nothing comes in and takes you out.

02:54:14.000 You just bulldoze your way through things?

02:54:16.000 Yeah, I tend to bulldoze.

02:54:19.000 We just bulldozed through three hours.

02:54:21.000 Did we?

02:54:21.000 Yeah.

02:54:22.000 It's three o'clock.

02:54:22.000 How's the clock there?

02:54:23.000 Yeah.

02:54:23.000 I was thinking, I have no idea how long.

02:54:25.000 Isn't that crazy?

02:54:26.000 Yeah.

02:54:26.000 It's like a time warp in here.

02:54:28.000 Well then, you're good at it.

02:54:30.000 You're used to it.

02:54:31.000 I once did a street show for about two hours without starting, which was quite beautiful.

02:54:37.000 Because on the street, if you imagine it, there's no nothing.

02:54:40.000 Edinburgh Festival, so you know the Edinburgh Festival.

02:54:42.000 And there's this place called The Mound.

02:54:43.000 So there's people milling around.

02:54:44.000 So I was almost starting a show, and I was just mucking about for two hours.

02:54:47.000 I was just there, kind of not starting, kind of starting, kind of chatting, kind of playing around.

02:54:52.000 Beautiful.

02:54:54.000 I've done the most fun things on the street because no one's in charge of anything.

02:54:57.000 There's just no rules.

02:54:59.000 Yeah, I've seen Dave Chappelle do that.

02:55:01.000 Dave Chappelle did that in Montreal.

02:55:03.000 We were doing this club soda and then he came downstairs after we did it.

02:55:07.000 I think he was like 18 or 19 and just took his hat off and started doing stand-up and had people put money in the hat.

02:55:13.000 He was doing stand-up on the street.

02:55:14.000 I was like, look at that.

02:55:15.000 It was pretty wild.

02:55:17.000 Pretty free.

02:55:17.000 As you see in Washington Square Park, he used to do that.

02:55:21.000 Charlie Burnett was famous for that.

02:55:24.000 Charlie Burnett was a guy who was one of the original street stand-up comics in New York, and he would do that in Washington Square Park and gather everyone around.

02:55:32.000 There's video of it that people could watch online.

02:55:34.000 I think he might have come over to England at one point.

02:55:37.000 Did he?

02:55:37.000 I think he might have.

02:55:38.000 He was brilliant.

02:55:39.000 Brilliant performer, really good at grabbing people and grabbing their attention, and Dave learned a lot from him.

02:55:46.000 Eddie, thank you very much, man.

02:55:48.000 Thank you.

02:55:48.000 This was a lot of fun.

02:55:49.000 I really enjoyed it.

02:55:49.000 I really appreciate you coming here.

02:55:51.000 I'm glad we got a chance to sit down.

02:55:52.000 Absolutely.

02:55:53.000 And tell people about your tour, where they can find where you're going to be, tickets, all that jazz.

02:55:57.000 EddieIzzard.com, that's where it's happening.

02:56:00.000 And I am, next two and a half months, all the way up to mid-July, I'm around, so 40 cities.

02:56:08.000 Beautiful.

02:56:08.000 All in America.

02:56:09.000 Yeah.

02:56:09.000 And I've already played all 50 states.

02:56:12.000 Which is kind of beautiful.

02:56:13.000 You played Montana?

02:56:14.000 I played everywhere.

02:56:15.000 Where'd you go in Montana?

02:56:17.000 I'm not sure.

02:56:17.000 What's the capital city?

02:56:18.000 Billings, I think?

02:56:19.000 Yeah, I think we played Billings.

02:56:20.000 If not, it was near Billings.

02:56:22.000 Helena.

02:56:22.000 Helena?

02:56:23.000 Is that it?

02:56:23.000 Yeah.

02:56:23.000 What about Wyoming?

02:56:25.000 You did Wyoming?

02:56:25.000 Yeah, all of them.

02:56:26.000 Alaska?

02:56:27.000 Yeah, I made a point.

02:56:28.000 I played Alaska twice.

02:56:29.000 Wow.

02:56:30.000 We ended up in Hawaii, but played every single one, including Mississippi and Alabama as well.

02:56:33.000 That's awesome.

02:56:35.000 So, everywhere.

02:56:36.000 But it's nice.

02:56:38.000 I just love playing, you know, I just love playing around the world.

02:56:42.000 Onward.

02:56:42.000 Good luck to you.

02:56:44.000 Thank you.

02:56:44.000 Appreciate you.

02:56:45.000 Thank you.

The Joe Rogan Experience - May 02, 2019

Joe Rogan Experience #1289 - Eddie Izzard

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Transcript