Like, the other day I DM'd a rapper
that I wanna get on the show
and he literally replied in five minutes
and was like, "Yeah, I'll do it."
And I was just like, "Oh, okay.
This cool, this is good."
[Interviewer] Who else are you keen to book?
I'm keen to book Drake.
So, fingers crossed.
[Interviewer] How would you describe yourself as a teenager?
As a teenager, so, well, in primary school,
when I was younger, I was quite popular in primary school,
and then as soon as I became a teenager
and went to secondary school, I wasn't popular at all.
And I was just involved
in a lot of extracurricular activities.
So, I was the library assistant in the library,
which meant I would return books in break and lunch,
which maybe is why I didn't have that many friends,
now I'm thinking about it.
I was also quite awkward, I think, as a teenager.
I had braces and glasses, which is never that great a look.
And I was also quite small, smaller than I am now.
So it wasn't the best.
I always had ambitions to be a performer,
but I can't really pinpoint exactly what type of performer
I wanted to be.
I think maybe at the beginning
it was more of, like, a presenter,
because growing up, watching TV,
presenters were huge
and that was mainly how I thought I could be
on television, if I was a presenter.
I also feel like I wanted to be an actress at some point.
I was really obsessed with Skins,
and I wanted to be in Skins,
which I probably would not have been cast in Skins,
considering I spent all my time in the library.
[Interviewer] You went to university
and you went to study fashion.
How did you end up studying fashion?
Well, yeah, I went to university, to Central Saint Martins
to study fashion journalism,
because another ambition of mine was
I always wanted to be editor of Vogue.
And so basically I used to, yeah,
wanted to be editor of Vogue.
That was how I would introduce myself a lot.
Like, I'd be like, "Hi, I'm Amelia,
and I'm gonna be editor of Vogue."
And so my mum told me,
"Okay, well, if you want to be editor of Vogue,
you have to go to Central Saint Martins
because that's where all the big fashion designers
and just people within the industry have gone."
So I set my mind on it from a very young age
that I was gonna go Central Saint Martins.
[Interviewer] Did you like university?
Did you enjoy it?
I liked the first two years,
because going to Saint Martins,
everyone there is just, I mean, hyper creative,
the most creative people you'll probably ever meet.
And everyone just came in
wearing the most insane outfits, that they'd made,
or you just never knew what you were gonna see,
and so much of the courses was all about collaboration.
So we'd be collaborating with the fashion designers,
the architect students, the graphic designers.
Everyone was in this big building in King's Cross.
So it really was fantastic,
and yeah, everyone there's talking about ideas,
rather than people, and I love that.
I love that about it,
so I'm really happy I went to a creative university.
But my tutors didn't really get me.
Not that they really didn't really get me,
but they didn't really get what I was doing.
So I was already doing Chicken Shop Date
at the time when I was at university.
I did the first episode when I was in my first year at uni.
And I think, they just didn't really understand it.
I mean, fair enough, it wasn't anything to do with fashion,
Chicken Shop Date,
but I also was always trying to
make content in my fashion study.
So fashion content or video interviews,
or funny, quirky things,
and I don't really think they understood it, really.
So I often came into clashes with my tutors
and I ended up really hating my third year,
because my tutors really didn't like my final project,
which was starting a YouTube channel.
They said, you know what they said?
They said that they all wanted everyone to make magazines.
And they were like,
"Everyone in the class had to make a magazine."
And I was like, "Guys, I kind of think that
maybe print is going down,
and maybe we should be doing video instead."
And they were like, "What are you talking about?
Absolutely not."
My IT teacher really liked me, 'cause I was a scholar,
and sent me an email saying...
Oh, also he knew that I wanted to be editor of Vogue.
So he sent me an email saying,
"There's this magazine that's run out of a youth club
in Royal Oak, in North West London, where I'm from,
they're looking for new contributors.
You should go.
And I was like, "This is perfect.
I've always wanted to write for a magazine.
This is amazing."
So me and my friend from my class, Cleo,
went on Wednesday evening after school,
and that changed my life
and I owe everything to becoming part of that magazine.
It was called The Cut and everyone there
was just into all different types of music
and different parts of culture that I never knew,
and especially UK rap and grime.
I was so obviously inspired by Popworld
and their really irreverent interviews that they did
where they would just take pop stars
and put them in completely different situations
and it was so fun and had so much energy,
and I was so bored of seeing the same interviews
with musicians that were just talking about
their musical influences and just serious things, I guess.
It just seemed quite tame at the time.
So yeah, I thought a date would be a great way
to do an interview,
and then someone said, "Oh, you should go on a date
where you would never actually go on a date."
So then I said, "Chicken shop."
So that's how it started,
and yeah, it was a column in that magazine
for three years.
So I would write up the interviews
and my friend would take photos.
And then when I was in my first year at uni,
after I'd done 10 interviews with the column,
decided it would be even better if it was filmed,
so just made my YouTube channel.
So the first filmed episode of Chicken Shop Date
was with Ghetts,
and yeah, I still can't believe
that he was the first episode,
'cause he's such a brilliant person to get.
Do you like pets, Ghetts?
I like cats, I like cats.
You know what? The truth is a lot of people,
they laugh when I say that I like cats.
Cats fascinate me.
They're very smart, very smart.
You know, like, sometimes it will just be,
you can be in a house alone and the cat
will be looking at something that you can't see,
and that fascinates me.
Yeah, they also jump really high.
He was just the perfect person to be the first episode,
because he was just so up for it
and has such a great bubbly personality,
and also, so just naturally funny
that I just hit gold, really,
struck gold, with that one.
[Interviewer] Were you a bit nervous to go in front of the camera?
Was I nervous?
Well, the thing is,
'cause I'd done a lot of the column already
and I was in character then,
I developed my character through the written column,
and I always felt like I was performing
even when there weren't any cameras there.
So I wasn't as nervous as I could have been.
I was just nervous
because I also produced the content myself.
So, with my friend, Marvin,
who also is from the magazine,
I found the shop, booked the crew,
not knowing what I'm doing.
I've never produced a shoot before.
I was 20,
and just scrambling around
making sure everything was going right.
So I think I was just really concentrating
on the production of it,
making sure that even that Ghetts showed up.
He was actually early.
But I was worried he wouldn't turn up,
and then the chicken shop owner,
it was in a Chicken Cottage,
we didn't tell him that we needed to actually shut the shop.
So he assumed that he could still serve his customers.
But the shop was so small that when the camera crew
was in there, no one could get in.
So there was a line of people outside the chicken shop,
just looking in,
and he was fuming that he couldn't serve anyone.
[Interviewer] So, where did the character come from?
Where's this prickly, fairly awkward character coming from?
The character's kind of just an exaggeration
of my own personality.
I think growing up,
I was a lot more awkward than I am now, and deadpan.
And people would always say that I was a bit cold,
but I just think that they're just reading me wrong.
I just think I have a face
where I look like I'm in a bad mood, but I'm not.
My face just...
I think I have a downturn smile or something.
I don't know what it is,
but I always look like I'm unimpressed.
People often are like, "Are you okay?"
I'm like, "Yes, I'm fine."
The first episode that blew up
was probably the Chabuddy G one,
because it was put on LADbible, actually.
Yeah, it was put on LADbible and it blew up.
So yeah, thanks, LADbible, for that.
What are your best chat-up lines?
Oh, best chat-up lines.
You wanna make some beige little f**kers together
and live the UKIP nightmare?
Hi, Chabuddy.
It's been such a gradual growth of the success of it
that I don't think there's ever been a moment
where I'm like, "Whoa, I've made it,"
or like, "Wow, it's huge,"
because it's been really steady.
But I wouldn't have had it any other way,
because I think that it just makes it even better
that it's grown over time
and I've built a following over time,
rather than just all of a sudden,
because I think going viral
and getting a mad amount of people looking at your content
and subscribing, and whatever,
when you're starting out can actually hinder you
or can, I think, be quite daunting,
because then there's so much pressure and expectation
when you are still finding yourself
and figuring your content out and what you're doing.
[Interviewer] What has been your favourite episode?
My favourite episode.
Maybe the Big Narstie episode is my favourite episode,
because I was trying to get Big Narstie on the show
for so long.
I remember being at Sonar Festival in Spain
and having these phone conversations
with someone loosely connected to him -
this was six, five years ago -
telling me that maybe they could get me a date
with Big Narstie,
and I was leaving the festival to do these calls,
with all my friends, thinking,
"Oh my God, we're gonna get Big Narstie on.
It's gonna be the second episode.
It's gonna be incredible."
And that never happened.
Until two years later,
finally, we got him on and it was just a big deal, I think,
'cause also the fans really wanted him on the show, too.
And he was so great and he was just the perfect guest.
Why are you called Big Narstie if you're so fun
and cuddly and cute?
So the name's got a meaning behind it.
What does it stand for?
Natural, artistic, respected, sexy, talented,
independent and educated.
The bigger the show gets,
the bigger the expectation to get a bigger artist is,
and big artists are always gonna be hard to get,
no matter how successful a platform you have.
Even people like Graham Norton
will find it hard to book certain guests.
So I think that's always just gonna be difficult,
but definitely it's got a bit easier.
Like, the other day I DM'd a rapper
that I wanna get on the show
and he literally replied in five minutes
and was like, "Yeah, I'll do it."
And I was just like, "Oh, okay.
This cool, this is good."
[Interviewer] Who else are you keen to book?
I'm keen to book Drake.
So, fingers crossed.
[Interviewer] In your private life and your dating life,
has anyone ever tried to take you
actually on a chicken shop date?
No.
Nobody has asked me out on a second date.
No, that's never happened.
I know, shocking. Shocking.
Shocking, but no,
it's actually quite awkward sometimes.
Well, I've got less awkward, but when I used to film,
when I started filming, I wouldn't talk to the guest before,
'cause, I don't know, I was quite method.
I don't know why.
There's no need, really.
So I wouldn't talk to them before
and then as soon as the cameras stopped filming,
I was like, "Okay, thank you, bye."
[Interviewer] What's your favourite thing about making the show?
I love getting excited about who I'm gonna have on next.
I love writing the questions,
trying to ask people
something that they've never been asked before.
The whole point of Chicken Shop Date
is to show a different side to that person's personality,
make something entertaining that is unique,
that they won't have seen before,
and I think that's why people like watching the show, too.
And then I love being in the edit.
I love editing.
I don't edit myself, but I sit in on the edit,
and I love putting everything together
and the puzzle pieces of what it's gonna be like,
because a lot of the show,
the awkwardness and my character
is actually made in the edit,
rather than when we actually film live.
[Interviewer] What advice would you give to aspiring
content creators who want to follow in your footsteps?
My advice would be just to be persistent,
I think is the best advice I could give.
Just carry on emailing,
carry on nudging people.
Carry on making your own content,
because people are gonna have to listen
and that's kinda what I've done.
Also, I believe that if you think that your idea is good,
then that's all you need, really,
because you just need that belief to carry you through,
to carry on making things.
So, yeah, that would be my advice.
Also, I guess, find your niche, I feel.
Like, find something that is a bit different.
I guess, like, it's the worst advice ever.
Like, "Think of an original idea. Do that."
But, really, yeah, I think that everything I've done
is kind of looking at how I can spoof something
that already exists.
Like, how I can take something that I've seen already,
but just add my own twist to it,
which is essentially what I've done with a dating show,
which is what Chicken Shop Date is,
and a music interview format.
Just spinning it a bit.
You don't have to think of something from thin air.
No one ever does that.
Everything is referencing something else.
So I think don't try and go and wind yourself up
by trying to think of something original,
because nothing is original, really.