A double podcast recording tonight at the Leicester Square Theatre and I was exhausted by the end of it. You'd think that just pissing around on stage for a couple of hours wouldn't take that much out of you, but it takes a lot of energy and concentration and it was hot as well. I like the value of doing two of these in one night, but it's as much of a challenge for the audience as the performers. With a Blitz style spirit we got through it, with lots of gags, some interesting conversations and quite a lot of things that would have gone better unsaid.
Nick Frost, my first guest is as down to earth and lovely as you might imagine him to be. I don't think we'd met before, but we were chatting away rather openly right from the get-go. I can't begin to contemplate what a mind-fuck his career must have been for him. In about 15 years he's gone from working in a Mexican restaurant to working with Spielberg and being a proper film star. And it hasn't turned him into a prick. It's quite remarkable.
And he deserves this good fortune and was so funny on the podcast that at one point I had tears running down my face and was unsure that I'd be able to keep talking. I am pretty sure they will one day make a film based on this interview, Frost:Herring, so save yourself the entrance fee and listen to it free on
iTunes and
the British Comedy Guide.
Although most of these podcasts descend into filth at some point, what I like about them is that the overall tone is different in each one. David Baddiel had just flown in from Krakow and I was a little drained too, so there was a more stuttering darkness to the second podcast (which will be uploaded on Friday). At one point I was so tired that I almost gave up the will to live halfway through a question as I struggled to find the right words, but as David pointed out afterwards part of the reason for me faltering was that I was paying him a rare compliment and it was as if my brain was rebelling. I was interested in trying to work out why Baddiel gets such vitriolic reviews (we all get a few, but he seems to get many), when it seems to me he has produced consistently interesting and varied work in many media for 20 years. But the fact he can't be pigeon-holed is maybe one of the reasons. As, I think, is the fact that he refuses to be ashamed of how clever he is. Because I am just as revelatory and squeamishly honest and crude as him, but rarely get picked up for it. I wonder if it's because I also make out that I am more stupid than I am. I am no genius, let's face it, and I am not as clever as Baddiel. But it interests me that as a society we seem to disapprove of intelligence or maybe we don't mind it if the clever person remains consistent, like a slightly bumbling professor, as we don't seem to mind Stephen Fry as much. But Fry is doubtless putting on a mask of modesty as he is aware that people are threatened by out and out intelligence, whereas Baddiel refuses to do that. You don't expect a sportsman to exhibit modesty about his abilities, or indeed anyone to pretend to be not as good at their job as they are for fear of acting superior. So why do we denigrate clever people for being superior?
I suppose maybe because most of us like to think of ourselves as intelligent people, maybe the cleverest of all, so we hate to be challenged in that field by someone who thinks they're cleverer.
Had we had more time and energy I would have liked to have delved into this more with David, as with his comments about offensive comedy. But we were all flagging a little bit and it was approaching 11 and it was time to go home. I think next time I have two guests (Armando Iannucci and Graham Linehan in 2 weeks time) I will interview them at the same time. It's good to still be playing with the format (I am also thinking of dropping the competition), but I also like the fact that nothing is set and no two episodes have to be the same. The standard has been high in this series and these two episodes were great fun. Hope you're enjoying them as much as I am.
