Hope You're both well - I'm loving in the show so far.
I'm sure you've heard that. Thank you.
What episode are you on?
I've only seen the first two on the Quest, which I like to take my time in.
No rush. No rush.
I've enjoyed it.
And it's one of those with an elevator pitches.
When someone describes the show to you, your instant reaction is just,
Oh, yes, I like the sound about when this was first described to you.
Was your reaction?
Oh, yes. I quite like the sound of that.
Yeah.
For me, it was pretty immediate just because I had been such a fan
of Lee Sung Jin's and Steven's for so long, I just hadn't.
Even though we all worked together on Tuca & Bertie, we really didn't work together
in a very intimate way.
I never recorded with Steven in a booth.
We've never been on camera together.
I think I
had had one conversation with Sonny and so when you,
you know, work with people on film and TV, it's it's so your
it's not just the development and the shooting,
but it's like also doing all this press afterwards.
You spend a lot of time with these people.
And so I was like, yes, these are people
who I'd love to spend a lot of time with, who have incredible taste, who are always
really grounded people, but they're always drawn
to doing something that they've never seen or heard before that feels honest.
And so it was really like the people first for me and then the
the story was secondary just because I had so much trust in them,
you know,
I mean, if you look at Steven and everything he's done,
I don't think he has like a single, Ooh,
I want to make people go mining for it now.
But I don't think he has a single dud.
He always chooses, like, great projects.
I got. That's really
the. How far do you guys back?
Do you guys go there now? You know, Have you guys known each other? What?
And do you remember when you first man I reached out to Ali after
I saw her brilliant stand up special Baby Cobra in 2016?
Yeah, I remember just being like, Whoa, whoa.
And I was like, I don't even do I even reach out?
I'm just like, That was incredible. I don't even remember what I said.
I want to go dig back.
I was on Twitter. Yes, on Twitter. But,
you know, I've just always admired Ali like someone
like she's just holding it down.
Like she's just so.
Allie Yeah.
And that's, like, amazing.
And so,
yeah, getting to work with her has, has kind of
been even greater because I get to know you even deeper.
And I think, like, it makes sense why
it makes sense.
You know what I mean? Yeah, that's cool.
Are you guys going any way kind of petty about, like, the characters, Like you
hold grudges and let them kind of consume you? What?
You're quite good at letting things go.
I'm not like that.
So, like, if I get wound up on something, I have to address it right away.
And then.
And then I release it or I try to.
I think when you have resentments, when you hold things in, and that's something
Amy certainly does, and that's something that's like very different from me.
I don't I try and I try to release as much as possible and not keep it all in.
I'm similar.
I like to kind of just get it out and like let it go.
But if I don't get a chance to let it go, I can go there,
but I don't get really petty.
I just really like try to get it out of my body as fast as I can.
I get really petty - drives my wife mad... but I
think like in a way, when you have a kind of fight with someone, be it
a stranger or friends can eventually kind of lead to a different sort of closeness.
Bit can be quite kind of intimate because if I ever get into like a debate
on a football pitch of an opposition player, weirdly afterwards,
they're always the one most likely to go for a drink with because it kind of broke
that social barrier.
Yeah, yeah.
You see the other person a little clearer and like you're being vulnerable
with each other. Fighting is a vulnerable thing.
Like you're getting to see stuff that you are not.
You don't normally show people at all. You're losing control.
Yeah, like when you raise your voice.
That's such an ugly thing to reveal.
And if you roll your eyes or anything like that, like that is
those are such ugly expressions and like to reveal.
And if someone is still there to talk to you after that, it's so intimate.
Yeah, yeah.
You just been so vulnerable with each other.
That's pretty cool.
Be funny.
Quite a vulnerable emotion then to show as actors on screen
because I mean, it's so many different emotions .
It's sort of like feeling scared of being happy in terms of feeling angry.
How did you find that on set when you kind of
have to let your character be loose in that way?
Mm hmm.
It's it can be fun. It can be exhausting.
Uh, you
know, I mean, physically, you lost your voice a bunch of times.
Yeah, I lost my voice.
I think about that all the time now
because I'm just, like, so careful with my voice.
I think about that in, like, you just kept talking.
Yeah, You just had to keep doing the scenes with it, boss.
Yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah. Because I did it.
Because, of course, I mean, you know, the characters
become this kind of constant state of kind of anger I just watched.
That must have been quite exhausting.
Did you have to book a kind of retreat or just a massage afterwards or something?
We should have.
Yeah, we should have.
Yeah. Yeah, totally.
Totally. Yeah.
Just a detox was certainly necessary.
Um, but also, like, the thing itself is, is you're getting,
you know, life is life is weird because you get to work
and do this and then you get to come home and like, not have to do it.
Like, not that you're doing that at home, but like, not have to, like,
touch that emotional state anymore. So,
uh, yeah, it's, it's all the things
because I know.
Thought it was like many kind of stand up comedians
or comedy's very kind of personal and you kind of bear a lot of yourself
kind of on stage in a kind of brilliant way.
I was wondering,
is there a different experience when promoting something
new that you've created, like be that someone out there in the world,
but you're doing so via a character that's been written rather than as yourself?
Is the character almost like a shield in some ways?
Well, I would I mean, I would say even with my standup, what people don't realize
is that that is still an abstraction of,
you know, in like, of, of, of who I am.
And same thing with
this project too.
I think what's
I mean, what's really different this is just be doing this with friends
when standup.
I do love that I do everything by myself
and I'm really excited to go on tour again this summer and get back into that
because I took a big break from that when I did Beef.
But for this show it is really nice and comforting.
I would say not not The Shield, but just to share this with other people.
You know, like it seems like people like it so far.
But also it didn't wasn't received well, like
at least I got these friendships out of it and at least we're like
all falling together and receiving like that feedback to them.
But also we're
receiving like great feedback together and that's really nice, you know?
And you mentioned that kind of breach
of a fear when you kind of take a bit of a break
away from the comedy that you lose a kind of rhythm.
And did it take a little while to get back into it?
Yeah, I was really scared because that's the longest break
I've ever taken from doing standup
and I get really worried about that muscle atrophying.
But I have been I have been doing it for so long now.
I started when I was 23 years old.
I'm 40 years old now, so it was like, oh, and, you know,
other veterans in comedy, they take really long breaks.
And so I in fact, and I'm really like grateful
that I did because I think it's been really good for my standup.
Yeah. Well, thanks so much for time today, guys.
Best of luck with the show.