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he's the most loving person ever I want him to have a relationship with my kid I mean that's why I wasn't going to do this on this and
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I'm where I'm now getting emotional um writer an award-winning comedian you are in for a treat oh God that's tequila what is the reason
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why you're a comedian I use humor to connect with people and have always done so growing up wanting my dad's approval
00:00:34
and definitely not receiving it it dented my confidence but it also made me like I would one day make him proud
00:00:41
If people really knew you what would they be most surprised about I do feel the pressure and I do feel the anxiety
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but worrying about stuff that is not worth worrying about a bad review rejection online trolls so many times
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I'm just like why don't I just delete all social media from my phone I would be such a good thing for my mental
00:00:58
well-being I have a little bit more sensitive vulnerable than I tell people do you doubt yourself yes what impact
00:01:04
does that have on you overworking not prioritizing family and I'm not present when I should be present Roxy's pregnant
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now how are you honestly feeling about it now I'm regretting putting this on camera what you're doing is incredibly high stakes art where are you smoking I can
00:01:21
see that I've got a punchline about of a [ __ ] behind a wheelie bin I mean that's not
00:01:31
before this episode starts I have a small favor to ask from you two months ago 74 of people that watch this channel
00:01:37
didn't subscribe we're now down to 69 my goal is 50 so if you've ever liked any of the videos we've posted if you like this channel can you do me a quick favor and hit the Subscribe button it helps this channel more than you know and the
00:01:50
bigger the channel gets as you've seen the bigger the guests get thank you and enjoy this episode
00:01:56
[Music] I've sat here with so many incredible Comedians and it's funny because there's there's an ongoing stereotype with comedians that they get into comedy for a variety of different reasons a lot of comedians have said to
00:02:15
me you know comedians themselves are depressed in some way then I had Jimmy Carter says but say to me when you meet a comedian you should ask him which of their parents are depressed
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um and then I sat here with um one particular comedian who really didn't fit into any of those um stereotypes at all what is the reason
00:02:38
why you're a comedian in your own words I think in the most reductive way it's because I use humor to connect with people and have always done so and so I
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think I've always enjoyed uh making people laugh and that's felt to me like a great way to connect with people whether that be in real life or my
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audience when I'm up on stage and I think there are you know lots of different reasons that people become
00:03:08
Comedians and there is this kind of the sad clown Trope and that's definitely one that does exist and I think there
00:03:14
are people that use comedy for other reasons but for me uh I don't think I fall into that category necessarily I I think I I have always loved comedy and stand up
00:03:27
as an art form because I just really enjoy making people happy and making people
00:03:33
laugh and using comedy as escapism as escapism yeah from well from you know it can be from whatever like if you've
00:03:45
had a bad day at work and you come and see a stand up on stage and they make you laugh um bring you out of a dark place or um if you're you know on your phone and
00:03:57
watching the news and depressed about the world and then you can go and forget about all of that and you know it's a
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great way of I think you know just going and completely relaxing and listening to
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someone else Entertain You and uh I think that for me like that's what I see my kind of Duty as a comedian as your parents are comedians yes I spend a lot
00:04:22
of time watching the wittering white holes yeah on YouTube your father in particular is
00:04:27
absolutely [ __ ] hilarious yeah it just do you think your sort of comedic Edge came from there or because you have
00:04:34
siblings right yeah who aren't comedians they're not comedians I mean they're both pretty funny people and there was a lot
00:04:41
of laughter in our household when we were growing up and I definitely think my dad in particular was my kind of most you know
00:04:49
dominant early comic influence because again I would watch how uh he used humor and how making people laugh was this way that he had to kind of
00:05:02
unlock people and he was an amazing wreck on to her and told these incredible stories and I watched how
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people would hang on his every word and I remember being really in awe of that and thinking oh I'd love to not only
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amuse him uh when I'm able to do so but also you know emulate him and and try to
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be um you know uh someone that people enjoy the company of and the presence of because of my kind of like wit I guess and so yeah he
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was definitely like for me the person that influenced me the most when I was thinking oh yeah that's definitely
00:05:37
something that I would be interested in pursuing when was that point where you thought I could pursue comedy
00:05:44
professionally as a real job um I don't know I do I think it probably wasn't until the Edinburgh Festival when I went to the Edinburgh Festival in my teens and saw stand-up comics I mean
00:05:56
prior to that like most of my knowledge of Comedy have been stuff that I'd seen on TV and movies and Laurel and Hardy
00:06:03
and Norman Wisdom and that felt like you know hilarious but kind of very alien in
00:06:09
a way and then going up to Edinburgh and seeing like stand-ups performing and people that were maybe slightly closer
00:06:15
to me in age and were talking about um things that I could relate to and all of a sudden I was like wow this is like
00:06:22
genuinely a viable career path had I know that they were probably all up there performing for a month at
00:06:29
Edinburgh and hemorrhaging money and not filling out the venues every night it's like a really really difficult career
00:06:35
path uh for the vast majority of comedians but like I was kind of young and dirty eyed and just saw you know the
00:06:43
the the incredible aspect of it which is um you know the other thing that appeals
00:06:50
to me about comedy which is that it's a way of doing something that isn't a real job and isn't sat in an office doing
00:06:56
something that to me would be kind of mind crushingly boring it's a creative Pursuit which I think I would always
00:07:03
have been gravitating towards was there not a lot of influences in your life telling you that comedy is not a real
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job like I remember yeah a lot who those influences and what were they saying and
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why didn't you listen um well so at school I was always talking about trying to do stuff off my
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own bat and do sketches and um taking a show to Edinburgh was my idea and the school were very anti that
00:07:29
at the time and the Drama teacher thought it was a waste of time my parents were very very keen that I
00:07:36
didn't necessarily pursue um a career in the like Arts I think because my dad was an agent and he'd looked after loads of really successful actors but he'd also looked after a load
00:07:49
of actors that had been out of work and had really struggled and my mum had had a career as an actor that hadn't
00:07:56
necessarily given her the Fulfillment that I think she'd wanted it too and you know she'd had some sort of bit Parts on
00:08:01
television and then had to give it up and so they were very aware that you know that it was a very very competitive
00:08:09
industry and so they were very keen that I made sure that I focus on my studies and have something to fall back on if I
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were to not make it in uh you know the Arts I mean it was a little ill thought through because
00:08:23
the other passions that I had were things like art and so I ended up going to University to study history of art
00:08:29
which I didn't necessarily think is you know of of Industries to fall back on like art history is not the most
00:08:35
transferable skill and then also by pushing me away from you know going to drama school or becoming an actor which would have been the other thing that I would have wanted to do at that age I I
00:08:47
was so frustrated that I wasn't able to do that that I went and I did the degree and then I was like well I need to
00:08:52
perform in some way oh my God I could do stand-up and they'll have no control over that so then I started doing stand-up as my side hustle uh and you
00:09:00
know they pushed me into comedy which again is like a really really competitive industry and
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um you know if they'd wanted me to become a lawyer or a banker which they always claim that
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they did they went about it completely the wrong way in hindsight hindsight's such a
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wonderful thing what do you think if if you could reverse the clocks now and you could be Jack's parents and you
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could make the decision for Jack at that age that really pivotal age what he did next
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in the with the intention of accelerating his career his happiness his his talent what what should and what
00:09:41
would you do as Jack's parents in hindsight oh I don't know I'd push him towards drama school no no I I think they probably they did probably play it right it was the weird thing in a
00:09:53
roundabout way it all sort of worked out okay um and I don't like don't begrudge them
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for any of those decisions um and they were which people are always surprised to hear it's like well they're
00:10:06
not surprised to hear it now because people have seen my relationship with my family and you know we have a I I call
00:10:12
it I call it a travel log but some people have pointed out it is also almost like a reality television show
00:10:17
where like the Posh Kardashians and so people have been exposed to my family and can see that you know we have an
00:10:23
unusual relationship but we are very close but people are always surprised to hear that it was always the case even
00:10:29
when I was you know away at boarding school we still have had like a really good connection I in fact always say
00:10:36
that going to boarding school was probably quite helpful to my relationship with my parents if anyone has seen my father he's he's quite he's
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better in small doses and I think having that distance from him was probably very healthy and is why we had such a good
00:10:50
relationship um so yeah there's a lot of things where at the time I was like oh God why are
00:10:55
you doing this and I I mean when they sent me to boarding school I was I was so upset I was like I do not want to go
00:11:01
I'm happy with my friends I want to stay in in London with them at this school and I was really struggling at that
00:11:08
school and I wasn't coming out of my shell and I hadn't found you know any of my kind of passions or interests and there was no one cultivating any of them and so they looked at that and thought
00:11:20
we need to do something and make change and they found this school in Oxford which I went around and they
00:11:29
met lots of teachers and it had a far more kind of like um it I don't know it had like an eccentric
00:11:36
feel it felt like a better fit for me but it was a boarding school and so they took me out of the school that I was
00:11:41
struggling in and sent me to that boarding school and I remember being oh my God I was so upset I was like no please like honestly Daddy I don't want
00:11:47
to go and he said to me at the time he was like look it's fine if you go then you don't like it you can come back after a term and I promise you if you
00:11:54
turn around and you tell me that then you can come out and go back to the school that you're in London I was like okay well that's you know something that
00:12:01
I can hold on to and I remember that really helped get through the first um home away and then I asked him subsequently many years later I was like you know when he said that it really helped he's like I had no intention of
00:12:13
doing that even if you had been very upset you were there for the year I'd got you in it had been very hard to get
00:12:20
you in there and you were staying whether you liked them or not and I didn't know whether that's him sort of slightly being a
00:12:25
nuisance but there may have been some truth to it didn't you around like 11 or something auditioned to be Harry Potter yeah that's crazy yeah I did a bit of
00:12:36
child acting again just because I was sort of adjacent to that world and I saw you know my dad in that industry and my
00:12:43
mom and my mum was still acting back then I was so enamored of it so as a kid I did want to do it and you know
00:12:52
I had a few uh sort of quite a low level um acting jobs as a child with like single lines in TV shows I got dubbed in
00:13:03
one because I couldn't deliver the line properly I had one line which was uh it's not a monster it's a rabbit and and
00:13:10
I and the day just developed a speech impediments on another Monsters the rabbit and when it actually went out
00:13:15
they'd redubbed me so it was another child's voice coming out of my mouth so I'd had that job and then I'd had one other job where I had no lines I had another job that I got and and I swear
00:13:26
this is true but I I'd have to I can't remember exactly how it happened but I I got like demoted I got cast in a part
00:13:33
which was like quite a good speaking role and then like on the day all of a sudden I was it was Goodbye Mr Chips
00:13:39
with Martin clunes and all of a sudden I was like at the back of the class and had no lines and I can't
00:13:44
for the life of me understand how that happened I mean I was very young at the time maybe I was just so terrible they
00:13:51
saw me in the rehearsal and thought nah you're now um out of shot right at the back
00:13:58
um and then Harry Potter yeah so that was around the time that obviously I was doing these little acting roles
00:14:04
and then there was this audition of Harry Potter and they did an open casting at my school they came with a
00:14:10
casting director to to kind of audition loads of kids and they were doing it around the country and there was a lot
00:14:16
of like uh excitement about this because obviously the book was so popular um and I remember calling my dad and
00:14:22
saying they're doing this open casting and I'm gonna enter myself into it and he was like oh no that's a complete waste of time I was like what do you
00:14:28
mean it's like well they never cast anyone of these open castings it'll be some casting director's assistant assistant uh you know it's it's a
00:14:36
complete waste of time if you genuinely want to audition for Harry Potter I will get you in front of the casting director so he drove down to Oxford took me out
00:14:44
of school for the day got me down to London through some connections of his managed to get me an audition with the
00:14:51
casting director of Harry Potter uh I went in to the um casting room and completely tank the
00:14:59
audition because I was not a very good actor as a child as is proven by the track record up until that point I also
00:15:05
hadn't read the book um because I've just never been a great reader and uh I'd read like the first
00:15:11
couple of chapters and then got bored and I didn't have any knowledge of the the plot of Harry Potter and that was exposed in the audition as well and so
00:15:22
it was about as bad as an audition could go and I came out and I looked and it was like yeah I don't think you need to
00:15:28
worry about it about that one and then the I think the nice heartwarming end to this story my
00:15:35
dad having been you know outrageous in his behavior and the the nepotism being out of control in the open casting uh they cast Emma Watson as
00:15:47
Hermione and she did get cast from just uh entering through the correct channels and not calling up her dad and asking
00:15:54
him to get her in front of the casting director and she had that wonderful life-changing opportunity which she
00:16:00
earned and that's the way that it should be look at all of that and I go that that phase of your life it doesn't seem like
00:16:06
there was a ton of self-belief because you've got your dad sort of chiming in at parts saying subtly saying the odds aren't good son
00:16:20
indirectly and then you know the the being sent to the back of the classroom in the acting thing you do subtle knocks
00:16:26
yeah does that stay with you as you go into comedy and is that an accurate assessment of how you were feeling at that point yeah I definitely was not very um confident at that age
00:16:38
um and I was quite I was quite odd and eccentric and in the right company and in a safe environment and around my kind
00:16:46
of family I think I was a little bit more confident but at school I certainly wasn't I was very awkward like very like
00:16:54
unfortunate looking child as well I had huge buck teeth um and glasses and like a cowlick and
00:17:01
you see photographs of me from then and you look like a kid that would not have a lot of confidence and then had the like you know massive braces in my face for for a long
00:17:14
period of my childhood and that may you know that there was definitely a lack of confidence because of that and you know
00:17:21
the various knockbacks and and then realizing oh I quite like acting and Performing and you know for
00:17:27
for years I would audition for all of these school plays and I would never get cast in anything and
00:17:33
so that didn't help and and also you know I guess wanting my my dad's approval which I always did you know right from the
00:17:44
get-go and and definitely not receiving it like that it did it dented my confidence but it
00:17:49
also made me like I don't know I think it gave me a kind of resolve that I would I would one day
00:17:56
achieve it and I would make him proud and uh you know because he'd been sort of dismissive or you don't want to become an actor and you're never going to become an actor that made me want to do it even more and be like oh no I I
00:18:07
really think I can do this um and then with the comedy thing the other aspect is that he was and Remains the
00:18:14
hardest person to crack ever like he doesn't love anything and you know I I I I do have that like overriding memory that as a kid like I always was desperate to
00:18:26
try and make him laugh and to to like crack him and to just if I could get him to laugh like that felt like such an
00:18:33
achievement and even to this day you know like when it comes to do shows or if I'm doing things with him like he's a
00:18:40
really hard like tough crowd he's got as you've seen like a real I mean resting [ __ ] faces the kids are calling it and uh yeah if I can even get
00:18:52
like a smile from him it transports me back to being you know 12 or 13 years old and having that same thing of I really want to make him laugh this has he had any sort of acting qualifications
00:19:03
or anything because when I saw him on Chatty Man yeah with you um I was thinking God he's an
00:19:10
unbelievable actor he's an unbelievable actor like he's you're right just a steel face yeah yeah
00:19:16
no he's had no training at all but I guess just because he does so so little and and gives away so little that I
00:19:23
don't know that almost feels like it's performative and maybe it is to an extent but no he's yeah he's had
00:19:29
absolutely no training whatsoever for you go off and you do the you go up to Edinburgh you see that that's a big
00:19:36
inspiration for you what happens next how did you go from there to doing shows and climbing up the comedic ladder very very quickly
00:19:48
so then I yeah I went to Edinburgh with a Sketcher with two of my friends from school and we did it um at the Pleasants
00:19:55
and we did a month in this tiny room that's now a disabled toilet that's how small it was
00:20:01
um and there was like you know 10 seats and US performing this sketch show we had no idea what we were doing it was all kind of cobbled together sketches that we'd
00:20:13
copied from not the nine o'clock news and League of gentlemen and got terrible reviews
00:20:20
but um in the middle of it I came out and did stand up and I'd never done stand up
00:20:26
before and I thought that stand up was just something that you could do I'd never done a gig I literally just walked
00:20:32
out in the middle of this sketch show and did 10 minutes of stand up um it was described by One reviewer as Jack
00:20:39
Whitehall appears on stage in the middle of the show and does an impression of what he thinks the stand-up is
00:20:46
and that is a pretty fair assessment of what it was but um a guy called Ben cavey who uh was a
00:20:54
producer at the time came to that show and saw me and saw that there was I had some promise or it was something
00:21:00
that he recognized in me that he thought you know I had some potential and so I then uh went and met with him when I
00:21:09
was down in London he worked for Tiger aspect to a great production company made Mr Bean Catherine Tate Benidorm all
00:21:15
of these shows and with him I started developing um he asked me to uh do tour support for
00:21:28
uh horn and Corden uh when James Corden and Matt horn were doing their double act around the time of Gavin and Stacy because he was working on a show with them and he said oh there's this guy who
00:21:39
I saw at Edinburgh he's really funny he's very new very young uh you're doing these
00:21:45
warm-up shows of your sketch show you should get him to come out and uh he could do some stand-up before you go on
00:21:52
and so I did support for them and that's how I met James and how I met Matt who would end up being in my sitcom and
00:21:57
James and Matt were kind of quite instrumental in me getting my first television gig as well
00:22:03
so uh they um they did a big brother's big mouth and they were like the guest hosts on that
00:22:10
and they were meant to do a whole series and they had to pull out and because they'd seen me do stand up for them as
00:22:16
their warm-up hacked James like was very good at kind of you know speaking to whatever the person was at Channel 4 and saying oh you know you should get to host this show is Jack
00:22:28
um and so yeah I ended up doing like live TV hosting Big Brother's Big Mouth which was the show that kind of had created Russell Brand and I was
00:22:40
I was 18 or 19 19. I was I was young and very very very inexperienced like my comic Persona was you know all over the shop because I hadn't like found my voice yet and I was
00:22:55
already on TV I got definitely got catapulted onto television far too quickly like I always say this like you
00:23:01
look at like Mickey Flanagan or John bishop or any of the kind of like really established comedians when they break
00:23:06
and they become TV stars they've been doing it for 10 years and they've honed their act and they know exactly who they
00:23:13
are and you get like the finished article when I was put on TV I was like still basically an open mic comedian
00:23:21
almost I mean I'd done paid gigs but I was still like going on and talking in a mockney accent because I hadn't worked out what like like that I could be
00:23:31
myself on stage I was so terrified to to go up onto a stand-up comedy stage and talk in my voice because I was like they're all Gonna Hate Me No One's Gonna want so like listen to some public
00:23:42
school by waffling on so I'm gonna have to disguise that and I'm going to go on and I'm going to talk like Danny Dyer
00:23:47
and so for the first couple of years of my like stand up where I do that and all
00:23:53
these other comedians afterwards they would be like oh yeah well you've got some great stage presents but you just you haven't found your voice
00:23:59
yet and I was like oh well could you could you tell me what my voice is and they're like that's not really how it works you need to find your voice and
00:24:05
you'll go on a journey I was like just cut the Yoda crap like just what is my voice and I found it so frustrating but
00:24:13
that is a process that you have to go through as a comedian you need to find your voice and my problem was when I was trying to find my voice
00:24:20
I I didn't even know who I was as a person back then I was 18 19 years old like I'm like at that age like I didn't
00:24:26
think you've like formulated who you are and so I was in this kind of weird like
00:24:31
period of flux where I was trying all these different comic personas I settled on this one that was like basically a
00:24:38
kind of like a homage to Russell Brand it was so inauthentic it wasn't who I was but you know it gave me a kind of a little bit of a I guess a little bit of an armor that I
00:24:51
was hiding behind a kind of character almost and it gave me some confidence and so I
00:24:57
was I was I was in that kind of like period of my um like development when all of a sudden
00:25:03
I was doing like live television for the first time and I watch some of the footage back of me from those early days
00:25:10
and I want to hide behind the sofa it's so cringe I've got this big shock of like electric hair I'm wearing the skinny jeans I look like I've just fallen out of the Holy arms and I'm
00:25:22
talking in a way that just Bears no correlation to like who I am it was it was it's very strange do you know do not have imposter syndrome around at all because you know you come in at 19 20
00:25:35
years old to an industry full of you know veterans and people that look like they know what they're doing yeah
00:25:41
because they're playing a good job of like no knowing what they're doing do you feel that at that young age
00:25:46
yeah I think I did feel a little bit of that um but yeah I think I I was just probably I don't know it's so ambitious that
00:25:58
uh I went into those dressing rooms and even though I was kind of in awe of a lot of these people again I was just
00:26:04
like well I really want to kind of prove myself and every time I had a bad gig you know it always my takeaway would be
00:26:11
well I need to just like get better then and I will get better and I know I can get better
00:26:16
um and I and I yeah I think I had quite a lot of resilience uh I was naive but then I obviously probably helped get through some gigs
00:26:29
that if I'd been a little bit older I would have been like why the hell am I doing this and also you know obviously
00:26:34
it I mean it helped very much that I come from a background of privilege and that I was
00:26:40
you know wasn't having to support a family or pay a mortgage and I could kind of pursue this Fool's Erin for a bit what's a what's a bad gig you know for
00:26:53
for someone like you what does that feel like what does it look like um I think and I've had so many bad gigs back in the day it was going and doing
00:27:05
10 minutes in a pub and Performing to 20 people you're set up to fail really because it's never going to be a Stormer because the environment is not conducive
00:27:18
to Comedy because you're in a noisy Pub fighting against a you know fruit machine and some of the people are on their phones
00:27:28
some of the people are sort of half listening to you has like a tinny microphone terrible sound system
00:27:34
uh and you're going on like 10th on the bill and everyone's a bit drunk and you're never gonna kill that gig and then you will go out and you do 10 minutes of your material
00:27:46
and it like barely raises the titter and then you've got to get on a train and go back to London and be in your own thoughts for two hours like that's
00:27:58
pretty soul-crushing but I don't know why I don't know why I like and there were a lot of those at
00:28:04
the beginning I think probably because I was like still at that point I was living in Manchester with all of my mates in a student house and having like a great time didn't have many worries in
00:28:17
the world because it was 18 19 and I was going off and doing these gigs and sometimes they
00:28:23
go well and sometimes I would crash and burn but I don't know it just didn't like I
00:28:29
didn't I didn't feel the pressure that that's what was so amazing about that period of my life is
00:28:35
that I just don't remember feeling any pressure and now if I tank a gig or I go out and you know mess up the Brit Awards
00:28:42
I do feel the pressure and I do feel the anxiety of it all and I and I didn't have as much professional anxiety back
00:28:48
then because I was sort of on a relatively upward trajectory um and you know it all felt so
00:28:59
full of possibility I just think I was sort of unburdened by all of the kind of anxieties that I would have now as a
00:29:06
comedian and a performer reminds me of my conversation with Louis Capaldi he told me about singing in pubs
00:29:13
in Scotland and like no one was really listening yeah he almost talks about it as if he would prefer to go back and do
00:29:19
that now because it because there's no Arenas there's no expectations there's no pressure and I actually think he said
00:29:25
on the podcast I think he said like I just want to sing in a pub in Scotland yeah um your success and his success have meant
00:29:32
that that's you know that's I would say not it's certainly possible yeah but even if you
00:29:38
were announced it as being in a pub expectation would show up yeah yeah and I and I do and I and I and I connected
00:29:44
with his documentary in in that aspect when I watched it and saw like him articulate some of those elements
00:29:50
because that is it is so true and you know you yeah you do a show now and you're
00:29:56
putting it on in an arena and like the level of expectation is so much higher and you've got to shift you know a huge
00:30:04
amount of tickets there's going to be reviewers there you've got to entertain like a vast crowd if it goes wrong like
00:30:12
that's a news event and back then there was none of that like I'd die in a pub you know if Jack Whitehall crashes and burns in
00:30:23
the middle of an empty forest does he make a sound and my forest was a pub in Preston does
00:30:30
that make does that make it less fun is there like a I enjoyed it in a really in a way in a way and I still do to an extent when I'm like maybe more so now
00:30:40
like when I'm working it through there is like a say the masochistic thing that quite
00:30:46
enjoys like the the tricky gigs and like working out why why it hasn't worked and what I need to do to to get it to work like I do but I mean the pressure now does that make it less fun
00:30:58
oh the pressure sorry yes um because you've used the word professional anxieties a few times yeah yeah I mean
00:31:05
that element of it does for sure and I don't remember feeling that when I was in my kind of early 20s but all of a sudden they sort of creep up on you and you're
00:31:15
you're in your own thoughts a lot more um and constantly like like I don't know just thinking about
00:31:28
uh about like I just for me it's like worry that it will all go away and like that's
00:31:35
that's always like the the kind of the great the greatest fear is that it's just going to stop and and I and I've loved doing it but yeah there are there are lots of other added pressures that
00:31:47
weren't existent when I started doing it and I I look back on it and uh yeah do kind of like miss that headspace a lot of people can relate to that I that fear of
00:31:58
um worrying that it'll all go away even you know people that have climbed the corporate ladder they've gotten to a
00:32:04
certain position and I've seen it a lot of times with some of my friends and even in some of my companies where
00:32:09
people will say to me that they're just trying to kind of hang on to where they are yeah and when you have that mindset it can it can it seems like it can be
00:32:16
quite unenjoyable because there's that constant sort of as you describe anxiety [Music] um but also I I'm not sure if everyone does their best work when they're kind of
00:32:27
hanging on because there's there's not this sort of mental freedom to fully Express or to relax or take time off so
00:32:34
I'm not sure if we do our best work it is that is that what you're saying you feel like you're you have a constant
00:32:41
worry that everything you've built might someday change and I guess the more important question is where do you know
00:32:47
where that's come from in you the idea that it could just no I mean I don't know I don't know where it comes from but and and if I don't know
00:32:57
and I do and it's not like a cancer culture thing of me going oh look I'm worried I'm going to say something and then all of a sudden like I'm gonna get canceled and then I'm never going to be able to do shows again it doesn't it's
00:33:08
not even like linked to that although obviously there is like a small chance that that could happen I don't I didn't necessarily feel
00:33:16
like uh I push the boundaries in such a way that that feels likely but yeah I don't know how I've I've allowed that to sort of creep up on me
00:33:28
um and I think I think the the the key to not uh allowing that to consume you is
00:33:35
to sort of just try to refocus your mind on like what's important and you know ultimately some of the things that are you know the concerns that like build up
00:33:50
as professional anxieties ultimately aren't as important as long as you do it like ultimately as long as I'm still
00:33:58
doing stand-up and still doing what I love and still getting to you know act and perform it doesn't necessarily
00:34:04
matter you know how how I'm doing that I'm doing what I love and and that should be
00:34:10
enough and and then also just like refocusing my energies on like my work life balance and focusing on what's
00:34:17
important my relationship family those are the things that make me happy and as long as those are working
00:34:23
then I think I will feel fulfilled um and so I think it's yeah it's how like frame that in in my head even from doing this because I'm
00:34:34
not a journalist or in fact I didn't go to a podcast school or whatever yeah I still sit here and go how the [ __ ] is this
00:34:41
still a thing like how are people still listening to this we admitted I mean Jack did Productions beforehand but you jack you've never done anything like this before have you I've never done
00:34:51
anything like this before so it's all a little bit what the [ __ ] is going on here just kidding yeah and hopefully
00:34:59
nobody notices us that's like almost the feeling because you almost assume that all of your
00:35:04
competitors or other people that are doing it in your space they have some certificate yeah it's like giving them
00:35:10
the right yeah yeah and a rule book that we're that we're not privy to yeah um can you relate to any of that that
00:35:17
feeling that like yeah you know I mean there is yeah and there is no kind of like playbook for it is is there like
00:35:23
with a career and with you know with all of it so I I like the worst thing you can do is start like comparing yourself to other people and
00:35:36
like thinking about that too much as well and I mean so so many times I'm just like
00:35:42
why don't I just delete all social media from my phone I think I would be such a good thing for my like mental well-being
00:35:49
I just haven't quite brought myself to do it yet but maybe that's something that I should try that it's just like
00:35:55
the worrying about stuff that is not worth worrying about it's like I wish I want to get better at that I really want
00:36:01
to like work at that what impact does that have on you that I'm not present when I should be
00:36:06
present I think that's that's where I feel it it is most frustrating in my life is when I'm worrying about [ __ ] nonsense that doesn't need to be consuming me and I'm not present with
00:36:18
friends and family and uh people that I need to like give more of myself to what's an example of something that might consume you like a little troll online or like a review or I mean yeah I
00:36:30
mean that can it can take me out for a couple of days uh like rejection uh professional rejection not getting a part in something uh a bad review things
00:36:41
like that and then for a couple of days I'll sort of be spinning out and then you know I'll catch myself doing it and
00:36:48
be like what am I doing I don't need to do that I have more Sensitivity I think than I
00:36:54
sort of let on I've always sort of build myself as being quite resilient and thick-skinned which I am to a degree but
00:37:01
I think there are things in elements where I am a little bit more sensitive and vulnerable than
00:37:07
than I uh than I tell people you and me both yeah you and me both and I think obviously in different jobs that I've had I've had to be I've been the CEO of the companies so you kind of learn to
00:37:20
put up a everything's fine yeah but some you can be behind the scenes like spinning out a little bit for a couple of days based on
00:37:26
something when you say spinning out what does that if I'm Roxy yeah your wonderful partner yeah what would Roxy
00:37:32
observe when Jack is spinning out that I'm in a sort of weird Fugue State because I'm also one of those people
00:37:38
that's just like I'm a barrier I don't articulate a lot of uh of these emotions and I and I do and I definitely I don't know whether it's because of my
00:37:49
background or my upbringing but I'm someone that doesn't really want to burden people with them I feel like as
00:37:55
well as a comedian as a funny person again I like I feel like I'm letting people down if I'm like a Debbie Downer and talking about stuff that uh is gonna
00:38:07
you know kill the mood I just I don't like conflict I I don't like uh to depress people so I think I sort of I like yeah bury it all
00:38:21
put on a brave face and then um yeah just maybe not quite myself so you probably wouldn't even realize it was going on but I think for rocks it's
00:38:32
it's hard because yeah sometimes I'm just like a little bit away with the fairies but that's because I'm having
00:38:37
this like internal dialogue is everything gonna be okay oh my God they hate me no no you're
00:38:44
gonna be fine and that's all going on and I'm like yeah yeah fine yeah someone said to me once they said the people
00:38:49
that care most about the Applause which tends to be like performers and Comedians and stuff also care the most about the booze yeah do you think that's
00:38:56
accurate yeah like it's not possible just to care about one side of that Spectrum you can't just care about the
00:39:01
Applause and then say oh please don't matter I don't care I'm invincible yeah yeah no definitely it's definitely
00:39:07
yeah it's definitely feedback and you know like audiences that upset me or online trolls
00:39:14
I mean I do consume quite a lot of that if I if I'm brutally honest with myself I'll probably consume more of it than I
00:39:20
should um and read it and and again I'm like I think it's fine I think it sort of
00:39:26
bounces off me but maybe it does everything that's not me as much and I'm like it's all stored away somewhere
00:39:34
um you know it's good but I don't know I also like part of me and I I'm not encouraging
00:39:41
people to troll me online I'm like there is a good it's good to like keep your ego in check as well I do like like constructive criticism as well I think is very useful and like some feedback
00:39:54
because if you didn't have any of that and you were just like you you just went on the reaction to the audiences of paid
00:40:00
punches that have come to see you and clearly I like onside and it's like a home geek because they're you know fans of userable ticket to you and that was your only like
00:40:11
interaction and that was where you kind of garnered what like your relationship with the public was you would think you were just like the Messiah so it's quite good to be
00:40:24
reminded yeah there are some people that find you a bit much and but has their feedback those people those trials has
00:40:31
it made you a better comedian um I mean every now and again I get quite good like
00:40:36
you know joke from something that someone said oh okay no I don't think it's maybe a better comedian woman but
00:40:42
someone calls it says on Twitter that my new hairstyle looks like a Tesco's value Richard Hammond I'm like
00:40:48
[Laughter] those are quite rare normally it's like why is this Posh [ __ ] on television every time I turn it on no I can't one
00:41:01
when you when you bury stuff though like a seed it kind of grows I always always think this and I think it certainly
00:41:06
changes us over time all the things we have buried like even if we don't ever express it or whatever I feel like it
00:41:12
kind of just infects our character a little bit yeah that's certainly what's happened to me for sure for sure yeah just over time I think slowly the things
00:41:19
that I've like buried or ignored they kind of just weigh me down a little bit and you might
00:41:25
become a little bit snappier or a little bit you know more impatient or negative about the world or whatever
00:41:30
is that the case with you yeah I think for me the main way it it affects me is is like it's like a photo it is ultimately just like a focused thing it's like focusing on it it makes me
00:41:43
focus on the wrong things and that's the thing that I struggle with most of my life is my like
00:41:48
is work-life balance I think I'm terrible at work life balance and I always have been because I started when
00:41:54
I was 17 and I just didn't stop and so I used to hate going on holidays I was like on a holiday it's a complete waste
00:42:01
of time and I would I remember like calling my agent and my dad from a beach somewhere going I can't wait to
00:42:07
get home and I've always had that like weird attitude um to like work and wanting to work work
00:42:14
work work work work and and I'm I'm about to have quite a big life event and I think that will what life event Jack I'm about to have a baby which I'm like I'm so excited about and also I'm just
00:42:26
like the thing that I pray that it does is just completely like shifts my focus and and I'm so excited to have
00:42:33
this little being in the world that is more important than anything else I think that's going to be such a healthy thing and I know that's not necessarily
00:42:39
the reason to have a child I probably should have worked through some of these things before the baby arrived but like
00:42:45
that's an element of it that for some people might be quite daunting but I think that's going to be amazing and I'm
00:42:50
really really excited and I can't wait to be a dad and I'm like it just it's just really really cannot wait to like
00:42:57
sort of step up to the plate and and and try to be the best dad that I can be and have that as my focus and and when I'm
00:43:04
focused on that and or thinking about all the other stuff I think it's gonna just be great maybe that's quite a glass
00:43:10
half full well yeah it sounds like a conversation that I've been having with myself but also with my partner where I've said to
00:43:16
her because she's scared that I'm I might just keep working yeah I think she asks me once every month she goes are you gonna be like this when we have kids together yeah I'll go no no I'll change
00:43:27
yeah when the baby comes I will be different yeah I'll I'll just cancel stuff I'll say no to everything yeah I know I'm having all
00:43:37
of these conversations um yeah but I've always said you don't know yeah you don't know what will happen none of us have ever experienced that feeling that some of our friends I'm sure have explained to where your
00:43:50
priorities shift upon the arrival of this Arsenal maybe well you know baby Arsenal
00:43:57
work do you think I've asked a few people this because when I meet someone that describes themselves as being a bit of a workaholic I wonder where they drew whether they
00:44:09
are driven or whether they are being dragged which which resonates more with you do you think you're driven or do you
00:44:15
think you're being dragged I think I'm driven I think I'm if yeah I'm driven I think
00:44:22
it would be quite helpful to be dragged back a bit sometimes I definitely think it would be good
00:44:29
because I have this weird career where I I act and I write and I do stand up as well it's very easy to fill my entire diary all the time
00:44:40
um and if I look at it like in a couple of months I'm like I'm not doing anything there you know I was meant to be filming
00:44:47
a movie then and it's been delayed now and I've got two months I was like well I need to do stand up and I'm going to write a script and uh I'm gonna produce
00:44:55
as well and I have a production company so I'm constantly developing things and I just like and that all comes from me
00:45:02
that's not people going oh Jack can we we've got this Gap can we do this now it's me going we can do this now and we can feel this now and we can develop
00:45:08
that and I can write this and and I cram so much stuff into you know my schedule
00:45:14
uh and I think again like you know professionally it might be better to to take a beat sometimes and prioritize like taking some time off as well and having a little bit of headspace I mean
00:45:28
the pandemic is weirdly a time when we were forced to do that and I found found it very helpful creatively to to not be
00:45:35
working all the time and and this stand-up tour I've had longer to prepare for it than I've ever had and I've had
00:45:42
way more kind of headspace and space to like like live my life a bit which is so important when you're creating and you're writing especially when you're trying to you
00:45:54
know write personal material you need to live your life you can't be working all the time because then all of your experiences are going to be professional
00:46:00
ones no one wants to go and watch stand-up comedians had a load of jokes about what it's like being on set and like
00:46:08
anecdotes about like uh you know uh script reads and whatever like that's not interesting comedy material for anyone and fame as well I don't think is necessarily always the best uh kind of
00:46:20
you know source of relatable stand-up so I think it's really important as a comedian to have that time to go and like live your life and build up some experiences and and
00:46:33
find inspiration as it naturally occurs rather than trying to force it and on a personal level um that that conversation about work-life balance and giving yourself some time and not just cramming
00:46:44
everything into the calendar what are the consequences of you not being balanced as it relates to your
00:46:50
personal life though I think yeah I I I seem to sort of that's the perennial mistake that I make is overworking not prioritizing
00:47:02
friends and family and and then having to sort of make up for it and I don't want to always be making
00:47:07
up for it um and I think I'm quite good at making up for it and uh you know I then put a lot of pressure on myself oh I've got to like see all of these
00:47:20
people and and make sure that I cram in a load of social situations and sneaking a little holiday there and and that and I wish I didn't have that approach because
00:47:33
then Everything feels rushed and I'd prefer it not to feel as rushed I'd prefer to yeah just uh bit like it's all gonna be fun when the baby comes it's all gonna jump
00:47:46
how are you feeling overnight how are you honestly feeling about about you know Roxy's sort of five months
00:47:53
um pregnant now how are you honestly feeling about becoming a dad I'm feeling excited it's hard it's a weird one because like sometimes it feels very real and then
00:48:06
sometimes it's just a sort of abstract concept an idea and it feels very very surreal um and it sort of flips between both of those things on almost like a
00:48:19
daily basis uh and sometimes I've feel quite overwhelmed with thinking about it other times I'm like like barely engaged to it at all because
00:48:31
I'm so distracted with other things and so it's a really weird emotional place to be in right now like this sort of
00:48:37
run-up to having a kid and and I've spoken to lots of friends that have been in this period as well and a lot of them
00:48:43
have said that that's quite normal as well but you know again there's sort of no right way to be feeling at any one
00:48:50
time um and uh you know you're thinking about her and and looking after her she's had some like
00:49:03
health issues as well and so we've had a bit of a journey to get here and and so there's it's it's quite it's quite a
00:49:11
scary period as well like that I know I'm just really looking forward to the moment when the baby was born and then
00:49:17
I mean I say that like then and then you can relax no it's then like 18 18 years and so it doesn't stop then
00:49:28
um again like maybe I've just framed it in in quite a a positive way uh but yeah
00:49:36
I'm I don't know I am I'm ex I'm excited about being a dad because I never thought that I would get to it this early either I honestly because my dad was you know
00:49:47
50 nearly 50 when he had me he really he was 50. I've made that my mouth is right yeah he was nearly 50 and so I was like
00:49:55
well I'll be an old dad you know I'll you know live my best life and then when I get to 50 then I'll just pop out a
00:50:02
couple of kids be great um and honest and always thought that that was the case uh and then ultimately started looking at friends and seeing
00:50:13
how happy they were and my sister with her niece and my niece not Honey's my sister and my niece and thinking oh you know what maybe I maybe I do want that and
00:50:25
and then like began to really like yearn for it and I was lucky that I met Roxy he was just the right person and my
00:50:31
person and we felt like we were both ready and so yeah um it it's it's a I think people will be
00:50:40
surprised when they find out that I'm a lot of people were with friends and family when I told them I think because
00:50:47
they just didn't think that I was necessarily ready for it which again like in my weird mentality just makes me
00:50:53
go I wanted to prove you I'm gonna show you how I'm gonna be the best start over so is there a
00:50:59
fear because I think if I'm being completely honest with myself and I don't think I've said this before when I
00:51:04
think about the prospect of having a child which is again something that I really want to do and I see myself as
00:51:10
having four kids and I also see myself as hopefully being a really attentive present father there is a little bit of a thing in my
00:51:16
head that goes you don't have any time as it is still yeah so something's gonna have to give
00:51:22
and it's gonna be your career in some respect like there's going to be some element of reduction in your career and
00:51:28
maybe that's okay but if I think about it practically I'm already using all 24 hours in a day yeah
00:51:34
so where's it going to come from yeah that's definitely a thought across is my mind and being realistic about it as well and not
00:51:46
it's not something that you can like just like you're not going to want to like just
00:51:52
schedule it in or I can do a little bit of family time here and then I'll go and uh do some uh you know tour dates in
00:51:58
Australia or like I think yeah it's that that's gonna need to be like a significant moment of like change because I'm not going to
00:52:11
want to work in the same way that I've worked that's why this like yeah this last year
00:52:17
has felt a little bit like I don't know like in in my head I am definitely like mentally prepared for that I was like the baby is coming in September I'm gonna have it's gonna be
00:52:29
really there I'm gonna do a tour and then I'm and then I'm gonna I don't wanna be having a tour sort of like
00:52:35
hanging over me I wanted you to do it now and um weirdly a lot of the comedians that I'm
00:52:42
friends with I was like yes I'm doing a tour and then having a baby in September was like you're gonna regret putting that tour in then you're gonna yeah
00:52:49
because then when the baby's like two that's when you don't notice a lot of comedians start getting out on tour because they want to get out the house if you look at all of them yeah they do
00:53:01
I won't have that excuse the tool will be done and then you'll be at home for two years changing nappies you excited
00:53:08
about that yes I am and I actually yeah I'm genuinely happy I'm very excited to do that and to like roll up my thieves and get involved and
00:53:20
be a Hands-On dad and now I'm regretting putting this on camera because she's gonna have that
00:53:26
clipped up you remember when you said this to Stephen upstairs now there's a poonami that
00:53:33
needs attending to yeah I was just saying that for the sake of the podcast and you've got this tour coming up called settle down yeah you're doing a lot of dates in a lot of places yeah
00:53:47
how many dates are you doing jack I'm doing I would say at the time of recording maybe 40 50
00:53:55
dates they keep getting added and so it's hard to keep count and I actually in my head mentally it would be quite good to just think of it as being 40 because that sounds quite manageable but
00:54:06
it may be a few more now how are you honestly feeling about it give me all the emotions uh weirdly I'm actually
00:54:12
kind of excited for it to just start and to just be doing it um the bit that's a bit of a slog is is the sort of build up to it and the writing of it and the getting it already in time
00:54:25
and booking all of the venues and doing the promo and talking through the design and you know it's a whole you know
00:54:31
production and it's just and it all has to come through me um it's quite hard to delegate when
00:54:37
you're you're building something like that and so I'm really really excited to just be then on the road doing the shows
00:54:44
and that's all I have to worry about um and and I remember that I remember this feeling before in the run-up to the
00:54:51
show being like I'm just desperate for the first one to to come about so I can then just like actually be doing it and
00:54:57
then when I'm on the road I love it I try to not do too long of it all um in terms of like you know a lot of comics will go out for like six months or a year and I find
00:55:09
I mean you know quite brewed away just after a while I just begin to hate the sound of my own voice and get bored of
00:55:15
the material and I don't know I I like doing it in quite kind of condensed burst and uh you know then like keeping
00:55:24
some kind of like momentum going and doing a couple of shows having a day off and a couple more shows
00:55:30
and and I love it I I honestly it's like I've had a long period away from it uh you know four years is the biggest Gap I've had between tours and I I'm just
00:55:43
I'm excited to be doing it again and they're they're like I was talking to the I can't remember
00:55:49
who it was but I was talking to an actor a successful actor it's this is about the appeal of stand up and how you never
00:55:55
really get that moment no matter how big of a movie you you make like you might go to a Premiere and it gets a great
00:56:01
reaction and and that's amazing and you have good reviews and it does great the box office or whatever but like that
00:56:07
Thrill of the live experience I think it's why so many actors want to be musicians and end up in bands and
00:56:13
whatnot so they can have that like experience and like that thing of like going out in front of a
00:56:19
huge crowd and and like having that live experience and connection with them is like the best thing in the world and it's so hard to replicate that anywhere else
00:56:32
what's what's influenced this this show in terms of the jokes in terms of the humor in terms of your style what what are the key influences or the differences from previous tours well if
00:56:45
it's I call it settle down because it is sort of about this period of my life where I am settling down becoming a
00:56:52
little bit more of an adult a lot of my comedy before and my previous tours it's
00:56:58
all about being the sort of man child and that's kind of like I guess you know on stage on this sort
00:57:05
of floppish man baby and telling stories of drunken hijinks and putting my foot in it and generally just being a bit of a sort of clown
00:57:17
and and this this show has a element of that and an element of me being self-aware enough to be like this is definitely the like the last show where I can be telling those stories and maybe
00:57:29
this is the last moment of my life where I can lean into that and you know that was the sort of feckless misadventure that was my 20s and now
00:57:41
I've entered into my 30s I've got a mortgage and a girlfriend and a dog and a baby on the way and I am now
00:57:49
you know going to be forced to settle down whether I like it or not and so it's about this like like this
00:57:55
transitional moment of my life and you know talking about the anxieties and the fears of that and like oh my God if I
00:58:01
got everything out of my system and um you know I I don't know I so it's it's it's a lot about that if I got everything up but I just don't wanna and I I'm not having a pop at him but like
00:58:13
maybe I haven't and then but I don't know I was gonna say I'll be lucky I'd be like you know a great dad until the kid's 18 and then I'll I'll be in
00:58:26
what my 50s so I could just I'll go like if I haven't got it all out my sister maybe
00:58:32
that that's what happens the kid turns 18 and I'll go from like Gary lineker to Wayne lineker like that and I'll have
00:58:39
this other period when I'm in my 50s and 60s and I'm getting out and clubbing in
00:58:46
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and I think if you try it you'll find out why people see you on stage and I always find this really interesting about comedians because I watch these
01:00:45
comedians I've watched you for many many years of my life Jimmy Carr Russell Howard Etc
01:00:51
um and then when I meet these people they surprise me obviously because they're not yeah in
01:00:58
Jimmy Carr's case telling like filthy one-liners when they got here although when Jimmy Carter arrived the team texts me and said Jimmy Carter just walked in
01:01:03
and cracked a joke about riding someone's mum downstairs I thought oh God here we go but then when he came up here a completely different person there
01:01:10
was a thoughtful person incredibly thoughtful person um what do you think people would be if
01:01:16
people really knew you if people really knew the jack that Roxy your partner knows
01:01:21
what would they be most surprised about about you versus their image of you from TV
01:01:27
yeah this is something I I think about a lot um that kind of disparity between the
01:01:33
the comedian that you see on stage and the comedian that is there in real life um and I think I'm relatively close to the the person that you see on television or the person that you watch
01:01:45
on stage obviously that's like a heightened version of myself and I think the reality is the thing that people
01:01:51
will find most surprising is that sometimes I'm quite a quiet person I'm quite introspective
01:01:58
um I can be a little bit shy in some social situations uh I think people would be
01:02:05
surprised at that but then I'm also so conscious I was like oh I don't want that to ever come
01:02:11
across as me being rude or aloof and and yeah I get a little bit of kind of social anxiety as well I I think I definitely drink is like a crutch
01:02:22
because I find it so much easier in certain situations that are overwhelming to have a drink and and I find I maybe
01:02:28
lean on that a little bit too much um so I think all of those aspects aren't necessarily things that you would look at me and think oh he's gonna have all of that going on but
01:02:42
I'm also I'm aware of it so I always feel like I don't want to be a disappointment in real life as well to people especially you know fans or whatever if I meet people and they have
01:02:54
an expectation of me I always feel the need to kind of you know not not let them down I think that's why I've always said it's like so much easier if you're Jack D or even my dad it's like his
01:03:06
Persona is sort of grumpy deadpan that's very easy to maintain in reality yeah mine is this is like over enthusiastic
01:03:15
yeah clown and I'm like oh that is that's quite a lot to to maintain all of the time and especially if you're having a bad day or you're tired or you know you you to have that spark
01:03:28
um in your day-to-day life can be quite tiring when you when you look back on what got you to where you are now you're at the top table in your game when you look back at the components
01:03:39
that got you here what are those components if you're your son or daughter was asking you for those components
01:03:46
um I would say important elements that I have but I I do think um I always say this to comedians I do think you have to build a resilience
01:04:00
um and you know the ability to kind of learn from your mistakes and your missteps and take on
01:04:08
board criticism and use it to get better uh that's definitely an important aspect I think recognizing
01:04:21
people that could be good collaborators could be uh helpful I've been very lucky that I've had a lot of really really great people
01:04:34
around me um that guy mentioned Ben cavey of work with him for nearly 15 years my writing partner Freddie I've had some really good agents
01:04:46
uh my dad who's been amazing and has always kind of helped advise me and and and finding those those kind of people that you can sort of work with
01:04:58
and put around you and people as well that will challenge you and people that will call you out if needs be
01:05:06
I think if you surround yourself with the wrong people that's a very sure-fire way of heading off in the wrong
01:05:11
direction and I feel very lucky that I've got good people around me and have always been able to find good people to
01:05:17
put around me and and build good relationships with people that are important ultimately that's having a
01:05:23
good judge of character as well I think that's a really important um aspect um your work ethic is clearly one of them yeah I think work ethic is good to have
01:05:35
for sure um although I feel yeah now maybe we can just tone it down a little bit work ethic is good for the kind of takeoff
01:05:48
but then maybe there's there's a different speed that you can find once you're able and yeah cruising yeah
01:05:55
what else though because we haven't really talked about the creative Brilliance in terms of what you're doing is ultimately art at the end of the day
01:06:01
and there's got to be something that's separating your art form from others is it in the process is it in just a natural thing is it a muscle you've built over time when I think about the
01:06:12
your the content you've crafted to go on tour with I know technically it is but it's always such a hard one with comedy because I'm like I'm thinking of some of the
01:06:26
routines and I'm just like Stephen I've got a punchline about wanking off a tram behind a wheelie bin I mean that's not hot
01:06:37
but I if we're in America right now I'd be like yeah We're British and I'm like oh no no but
01:06:46
there is no I insist there is a there's it's a talent and it's an art it's one that I couldn't come near when I look at I look at with such awe because not only are you
01:06:57
because it feels to me like there's such a clear Successful Failure with every line you deliver yeah whereas in every
01:07:03
other game even this podcast yeah some things might be interesting some things might not be but there's no there's no instant feedback on every line that I
01:07:08
deliver boom boom boom boom boom so I think it's incredibly high stakes art and something that I could never ever I shouldn't say never ever do I could do it but I wouldn't do it
01:07:19
anywhere near one percent of what you could do it so when you think about why you're so
01:07:24
good at it have you been able to diagnose that people hate these questions because they have to say nice things about themselves
01:07:30
no I'm yeah I mean you're right that you can't you can't uh like Coast it with stand up because it is it is it is pretty brutal that is for
01:07:42
sure and uh you do get immediate feedback on every single joke that you put out into the world uh but I don't why why I'm any more
01:07:55
successful at it than anyone else um I don't know I mean I I don't know whether I'm like the if I look at my faults I'm going straight back to my
01:08:08
faults but I don't think I'm like the greatest writer I think I'm a good writer and I can come up with like good
01:08:15
jokes and good routines I think I'm I'm better like I'm better at um performing it I I don't know I think that's something that I've learned like I can
01:08:26
really sell a joke uh which is maybe sometimes to my detriment because you know I could could write better routines if it weren't but I don't need to I
01:08:39
don't know that makes it sound like I'm lazy because I'm but I but I don't I I'm really
01:08:44
like working the material as much as I can to try and make it as good as it possibly can be
01:08:50
um I can I've got good really good delivery basically I think I'm very good at delivering uh objects do you doubt yourself yes
01:09:02
I read a quote I think that answer made that above you some of my material can occasionally be
01:09:09
a bit ropey but I can bloody well sell it I really quote Sky News I'm still sort
01:09:16
of dogged by a slight sense of imposter syndrome and the feeling that at any point someone's going to come and tap me
01:09:22
on the shoulder and tell me that I need to go on a plane and go home yes that's it back to telling inappropriate jokes in a
01:09:27
in a pub to 30 people yeah constantly I feel like that especially yeah with the with the acting and because again with the acting it
01:09:40
like even more so because like I didn't go to drama school I didn't know what I'm doing and I've been afforded the
01:09:45
amazing opportunity of being able to be in some great shows and some big movies now and again like I've tasted that in
01:09:54
the same way that when I had that experience of startup I was like oh my God this is amazing and I love this and
01:09:59
uh now it's going to be really hard if I can't do that anymore and but how do you be happy then if there's that constant I don't know I wish again why could could someone
01:10:13
tell me no that's not how it works it's like the voice thing again I'm like please just say what's the answer
01:10:21
um but that but I I always find I do this as well by the way in any kind of like
01:10:27
um Deep dive interview and you're a wonderful interviewer because you know you are able to like get your uh interviewees to open up more than they
01:10:39
normally would and I feel like I have done that today but whenever I do that I then and it normally happens in print
01:10:45
and it's why I stopped doing print interviews I don't really do any print interviews because I'd read them back I was like oh
01:10:51
my God I sound so depressing it's just like self-flagellation for three pages and I just feel like I read it back and I'm like is that a reflection of who I am as a person because I don't think I'm
01:11:05
as depressing as I sometimes come across when I'm talking about myself I think I don't know I don't know why but when I
01:11:16
you know I don't know why that is the case yeah in print interviews I mean the reason I
01:11:22
try and avoid print interviews as much as I can as well is because you get a really narrow perspective and it's and what I love about podcasting you're a
01:11:29
podcaster as well is you get it all yes so you can see all of the yeah all of the color and the whole picture so you
01:11:36
can see and that's what I love about this especially the way we do it here because we do we these podcasts last a long time as you can tell yeah
01:11:42
um and there's really no editing at all so it is what it is exactly and I think actually if you
01:11:48
've heard our interaction written down verbatim in print you would probably read it back and go
01:11:54
that's quite a sad man yeah but then if you watched and listened to us then maybe you would ascertain that it's not all doom and gloom I'm just
01:12:07
I get a little bit morose when I'm being introspective I think it's really important that particularly the point that even someone in your position has those
01:12:19
insecurities about losing their position the self-doubt all of those things that everyone has every day and all in all of their jobs and really like the reason why I start this podcast actually I've come to like learn
01:12:31
why we do this podcast it goes back to the word you said at the very start which was about connection yeah you said at the start when you're most authentic
01:12:37
when you're most open people feel connected yeah what you also do for them in those moments is you liberate them
01:12:43
from thinking that they're inadequate and broken yeah so by you saying it you've just liberated a ton of people
01:12:48
from thinking that those thoughts that they've been having make them actually an imposter that's why we call
01:12:54
it a syndrome because it's actually just a perception we have which is usually like flawed in some way as it relates to
01:12:59
acting though you are you got a movie coming up robots yeah yeah that's coming out this summer
01:13:05
um which uh was a movie yeah we shot that a couple of a couple of years ago actually been waiting a while for it to go through the editorial process which is another element that I find so
01:13:16
frustrating with films is that you film it and then it takes years for it to come out and uh you've got and you've
01:13:21
even done it but I I yeah that that was a again like a great experience really fantastic people to work with writer director that I really got on with and Shailene who's a fantastic
01:13:34
actress who's having you know a blast working with her and that's again like that's that's one
01:13:41
of those things where I'm like that that was a moment I was really happy I really enjoyed the whole process
01:13:47
was working with very good people very nice people it was a very happy set very creative environment and uh yeah like
01:13:55
that was one of those moments where I was like I'm I'm very professionally content your father
01:14:01
do you um do you think he's proud of you now clearly from the origin of your story that he was a big sort of figure
01:14:07
in your life that you tried to impress and please yeah def but I think you know he is
01:14:13
proud of me and he's expressed that and and continues to express it my um and my mum as well like they're so sweet
01:14:20
um I'm so happy that they've you know had this kind of Second Wind in their lives as well maybe with my dad's it's a third or fourth win I don't know but
01:14:33
yeah they still come to my shows and you know call me afterwards and things and watch me on TV and then if it's something good they'll text me and
01:14:47
you know that means a lot still um are you still trying to impress him I think so I think so because when I do something that he doesn't think is
01:14:59
good enough which you know does happen from time to time he will let me know he's very honest and he's one of the few
01:15:05
people that will like really cut through everything and just like be very honest with me
01:15:13
um I mean the other thing that we haven't sort of touched upon and again is is something that's very present in
01:15:19
my mind with all of this in terms of having a baby in terms of you know trying to achieve as much as I
01:15:26
can in my career is that I want to do all of it with him around and obviously I know that that's
01:15:32
not going to be the case forever uh and so I think that yeah I mean that's why oh God I said I wasn't gonna do this on this
01:15:44
and I'm where I'm now getting emotional I am I wanted to have a a baby because I wanted him to be around to know my child
01:15:54
and to spend time with my kid uh I've seen how amazing he is with my niece he's the most loving person ever and so I want him to have a relationship
01:16:10
with my kid and then yeah I I wanna do all of these things and um you know have success in my career that
01:16:22
I can share with him and he can see these things and and enjoy them and if the you know yeah I I I love having him there for all of that and uh
01:16:35
so yeah I do still think a lot about impressing him and uh his his approval still means a hell of a lot to me
01:16:47
it's such a beautiful thing you know it's such a beautiful thing yeah and why that closeness you have with your father
01:16:52
so much and even when I I see you like doing you know gigs and stuff together and doing like you know you did the
01:16:58
Netflix thing with him it's such a special thing it's I feel I'm so lucky as well that I've had the opportunity to
01:17:05
do it and you know it's it's never lost on me the the amazing thing about doing that show as
01:17:12
well is having people that come up to me and they say you know like I watched it with my dad and you know I have
01:17:19
you know a really good relationship with my dad and we watched your show and then we went away and we did a trip together
01:17:24
and it was one of the I'm so happy that we did it and uh you know or and on the flip side of that is yeah I have people that you know maybe lost a parent and uh have watched the show and
01:17:36
really connected to it because it's reminded of them of the relationship that they had with their
01:17:42
um father when when they were around and and I think you know I just I know I know how lucky
01:17:49
I am to have had that um that experience with him and continue to have experiences with him and to work with him and and it never feels like work when I'm doing stuff with him it
01:18:00
honestly you know it's I mean partly because of the the shooting hours that he insists upon and
01:18:08
the hour-long break for lunch uh with a wine present wherever we are whatever you know the situation is you know but just hanging out with him
01:18:19
it just feels like that's it it can never feel like work because it's it's it's my dad and and yeah I I
01:18:28
cherish like hanging out with him so much there's so much banter when you guys are together
01:18:33
on the screen but I I wondered you know from hearing what you've said about him today like does he does he truly know
01:18:39
what he means to you and the impact he he's had on your life I think so but I think mainly from hearing me talk about it when he's not there because I don't think I
01:18:51
necessarily would ever articulate these feelings to him just because that's not like the nature of our relationship the reality is a lot of the time when we're talking we're
01:19:02
talking about you know we talk about work stuff quite a bit we talk about football we'll talk about
01:19:10
current affairs things like that but we don't really talk about our emotions never really have
01:19:15
um but I think he knows it and I think I think he's yeah he I think he's very very very aware of it um and I'm glad that he is as well I'm glad that he knows how much
01:19:26
he means to me because um I don't think I would necessarily be able to say it to him if he were sat in front of me
01:19:39
a lot of people can relate to that yeah for some reason it's bizarre isn't it yeah I don't know I I yeah I I I look at him
01:19:47
and I'm like oh what will I from will take from him when I become a dad and you know I think he's a he's surprisingly he is more
01:19:59
affectionate than people think like that because that's obviously not an aspect of him that you ever see on any of the
01:20:06
Netflix shows or on his podcast or or whatever but like I don't know just yeah what what watching how he is with my niece and and knowing what he was like when we were like very little it's like
01:20:19
I yeah I want to be like that and and he he took a decision in his life as well you know he had a very successful career and was a producer and an agent and then he really did he he did wind it all down
01:20:33
and stop when we were kids and spent I mean I know again we went to boarding school so we were away for
01:20:40
for for a period of of our youth but he did you know spend a lot of time with us
01:20:46
and he was very like present in our lives and and wasn't as consumed with work uh and and I think that was a good a good decision of his
01:20:58
and so I think that's why I'm aware that it's even more important like to make sure that I address that
01:21:06
what life balance thing when my child comes along because I do want to have enough time to like you know be
01:21:13
attentive and present parent I think about this a lot with with my dad I've talked about it quite often on this show that the last thing I want to have is is almost like regrets of words unspoken
01:21:26
when my dad's my dad's 70 odd years old now and um we've not had the closest relationship
01:21:32
over the years and I've also struggled like I've I took him to the World Cup and stuff but we never really talk yeah
01:21:38
yeah you know what I mean yeah yeah yeah yeah and I find it much easier to say things to him maybe on
01:21:43
this podcast or on text maybe yeah but to say it's such a strange thing that with my partner I can be open and expressive but with my dad it's like
01:21:55
yeah you know and I worry if I'm being honest about the regrets of the words unsaid yeah so there'll be times where it might be Father's Day or other days or maybe his birthday where I'll just
01:22:06
try and express it yeah you have do you write it down yeah but it is it's hard isn't it it's where if someone doesn't receive it how you want it to be received as well it can it
01:22:22
can make it very difficult yeah and there are you know especially like men of that generation it's just very
01:22:28
because it must have been so different with his his father and so and yeah just it's just not a way of communication that we're is used to so I
01:22:40
do think that's why sometimes it can be a real struggle to say some of those things because if you said them to
01:22:46
anyone else then you know that they would go on a an elicit a kind of emotional response that you would be
01:22:54
yeah welcoming yeah and it's and it's hard when it's not like that we have a closing tradition on this podcast where
01:22:59
the last guest leaves a question for the next guest not knowing who they're leaving it for and I have such a bad issue reading
01:23:05
handwriting okay what do you place oh what do you pledge to do this year to live life fully while you still make a difference
01:23:22
what have I pledge to do um I'm going to be more present and attentive with the people that I love and I cherish and
01:23:34
hold close to me they're gonna clip Roxy's gonna clip that she's gonna play it every time I'm
01:23:41
gonna change some nappies as well yeah I will change a nappy okay it's already gone down to just being a singular nappy but I will do a nappy that will happen
01:23:53
Well Jack thank you thank you so much for your time today um I'm incredibly excited for your tour I'm actually
01:23:58
coming with my team that sounds a little bit amazing dodgy but I'm I'm I will be attending your tour with my team um I believe we're going to the London
01:24:09
show and I'm very very excited because I've been a big fan of yours for a very very long time um and your particular style of um
01:24:14
comedy and performance I think is what makes you exceptional at what you do but also a very necessary voice in comedy because you I I just think where we are in the
01:24:25
world with public discourse and polarization if there was ever a time for comedy it is now and so it's so
01:24:32
lovely that with everything going on with the macro economic backdrop and all these things we have great comedians out there adding a little bit of joy to
01:24:38
people's lives and that's really what you're what you do through your work from from my observation if anybody wants to come to the settle down tour
01:24:45
tickets are on sale now um on the internet wherever you get them he's doing [ __ ] [ __ ] tons of dates
01:24:52
um so I hope to see some of you at the London show in particular because I'll be there um but yeah thank you Jack
01:24:57
thank you very much it was lovely to chat yeah thanks so much for having me on as you might know this podcast is now sponsored by the incredible Airbnb and Airbnb have saved me many many times
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