-Our next guest is a very funny comedian whose stand-up special
"Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999"
was recently nominated for a Critics' Choice Award.
Please welcome to the show James Acaster.
How are you, James?
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Very well. Thank you, Seth. So good to see you.
-My only regret is that we're not meeting in person.
Is it safe to assume that you're Zooming in from London?
-That is not safe to assume.
Actually, I'm in a little place called New York City!
Make some noise!
[ Cheers and applause ]
-But you're not here.
-No, I'm in a little place called 29 Rockefeller Center.
-Okay.
-That is where I spend a lot of my time in New York.
I'm loyal to that building. I will not set foot in 30 Rock.
I'm 29 Rock till I die!
[ Laughter ]
-You have long been a supporter of 29 Rock.
It's a very overlooked building, so I totally understand.
-[ Laughter ] -29 Rock forever.
You can watch "Sunday Night As Live," my favorite show.
It goes out every week.
Hey, congratulations on your special, which I adored.
It is chock-full of jokes.
It also talks a lot about the last few years of your life.
And it's two hours, and it flies by.
You must be pleased with the fact
that it was nominated for a Critics' Choice Award.
-That's very kind of you.
Yeah, I am very pleased, excited about the Critics' Choice Award.
Also, you know, I like to get my hopes up.
It came out the same year as "Inside," by Bo Burnham,
so I can just chill out and let whatever happens happen,
which I think we know what's gonna happen.
The last special I released was 2018,
which was the same year
that Hannah Gadsby released "Nanette."
I have a rule that I only release specials
when geniuses completely reinvent the genre.
And then that's when I drop something.
'Cause the pressure is off.
-One thing I would say,
none of them have anything on you,
as far as coming up with a title as inventive as yours.
How did you come up with this title?
Because I don't think anybody else, any other comedian,
would have dared called a special this.
-They wouldn't have dared. They're all too scared.
And, unlike me, they didn't have the experience that I had
when I had a microwave lasagne,
and it was hot and it tasted rubbish.
So I put it in the fridge, then I watched "Queer Eye"
and I got drunk, and then at 3:00 in the morning,
I was so drunk and teary after watching "Queer Eye"
that the idea of eating the cold lasagne
was actually appealing to me. I ate that.
It was the most delicious thing I've ever tasted.
Like, all the béchamel sauce kind of congeals
and has a foamy Haribo sweet texture to it.
It's very good. And then I got on a text group.
It was 3:00 in the morning.
No one else is awake, so I've got to do a solo.
They're my favorite times to go on the text group,
is when you get to do a jazz --
Like, just complete stream-of-consciousness solo
and tell them everything that's on your mind,
but not in one block.
In loads of little short jabs,
each thought as it occurs to you.
And I just was like, "Cold lasagne is delicious!
It's the best thing ever!
This is the happiest day of my life!
The best year of my life was 1999."
And then I started going, "I hate myself.
And I've just realized how much I hate myself."
'Cause the drunkenness kicked in.
And then I changed the group name
to "Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999," passed out.
Then the next morning, my agent texted me, saying,
"We need to name the show,
'cause the tickets go on sale tomorrow,"
so I just gave them the most recent name I'd come up with.
[ Laughter ] -
Bravo, bravo.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Now...
[ Laughter ]
Some who might not know your incredible work
as a stand-up might have first discovered
you when you were on "Great British Bake Off."
You had a -- You were a meme. You know this now.
-I know this now. -You know this now.
It was, "Started making it.
Had a breakdown. Bon appetit."
[ Laughter ]
And, now, this was -- you --
I heard you sort of blamed this on America,
because this was jet-lag-induced.
-Yeah, I was coming back from America.
I was jet-lagged.
And then it turned out to be the first thing
that got me known in America.
Also, what you guys don't know is,
all the memes that you love are comedians abroad.
That's what you guys don't know, is that ---
That meme of the baby? Just like that?
That is a really edgy comic from Scandinavia, that baby,
who makes Bill Burr look like a wimp!
-They're all -- -They're all -- All the memes
are comedians abroad who you guys haven't heard of.
That's why the memes are so funny.
-[ Laughter ] -But, yeah, I was jet-lagged,
so I did really bad on "Great British Bake Off."
And then when I said to them,
"Started making it, had a breakdown, bon appetit,"
I was not lying. That was the truth.
And then you lot laughed at it,
and it was your fault to begin with,
'cause your country's too far away.
[ Laughter ]
-You've done a lot of panel shows in England,
a lot of chat shows.
What was your first talk-show experience here in the States?
-Ever heard of a gentleman called Conan?
-Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-Conan O'Brien, his name is.
Real piece of work.
-[ Light laughter ] -Real piece of work.
I'm glad he's off the air now.
I can't remember what happened to him,
but he deserves everything he gets.
I went on his show, and it went bad.
And also, the night before,
I had visited a Mexican food truck in L.A.,
and I didn't ask anyone
for tips of which truck to go to beforehand.
And let's just say
that when I was on Conan's show, doing the stand-up,
some of my insides were trying to burst into my outsides.
And within --
And bear in mind, the audience didn't know this,
but they could sense it -- because no laughs.
They weren't on my side.
And then, within half an hour of being on the show --
and I wish this was a lie --
I went to a steakhouse and [bleep] my pants.
[ Laughter ]
Like, literally [bleep] my --
Not I went to a steakhouse and then got scared of,
like, "Oh, what about when that airs?"
I literally did a [bleep] in my pants.
Like, it came out of my butt and into my pants.
The last place I wanted it, Seth.
-[ Laughter ] -Last place I wanted it.
I wanted it either to stay in my butt
or to find a new home in a toilet.
I didn't want it in the pants I was wearing,
which, by the way, in the U.K. is underwear.
But in this case, the [bleep] got on both.
So actually, to be fair,
it was a moment that translated across the ocean.
-Yeah. -I [bleep] --
I [bleep] both things. And that's Conan's fault.
And I'm glad that he's now --
I'm glad that he will never be on TV again,
because his show made me [bleep] myself.
-Well, I think one thing we can agree on, I hope,
at least in your estimation, this has gone better than that.
-Yeah. Oh, I'm here.
And you can't see, 'cause it's like this,
but I am just sat on the toilet just in case.
-[ Laughter ] -Better safe than sorry.
-Fool me once, Seth.
-Hey, thanks so much!
I really do hope next time is in person.
-I do, as well. You're a lovely man.
-James Acaster, everybody. "Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999"
is available to purchase on Vimeo.