Finlay Christie - Youngest Ever Winner Of So You Think You're Funny

Reece Kidd interviews comedian Finlay Christie in the fifteenth episode of Kidding.

Finlay Christie is the youngest ever winner of the distinguished So You Think You’re Funny competition at 19, Finlay follows in the comedic lineage of Peter Kay, Lee Mack, and Sarah Millican. Three years later, his debut Edinburgh show “OK Zoomer” was nominated for NextUp’s “Best Show” award, earning him a reputation from Chortle as "the voice of his generation."

With a YouTube channel boasting over 300k subscribers and a notable presence on TikTok, Finlay has successfully bridged the gap between stand-up comedy and digital content creation. His online series, such as "When they go to a foreign country in a Hollywood film" and "Asking black and white people the same questions about…", have garnered millions of views and made him a prominent figure in the digital comedy space.

Beyond his digital success, Finlay has appeared on a variety of television platforms including 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown (Channel 4), The Stand-Up Sketch Show (ITV2), The BBC New Comedy Awards, Get Off My Phone! (Dave), and Jokes Only An AI Can Tell (Channel 4). He has also graced the stage at Montreal’s Just For Laughs festival and performed across Europe for the Comedy Store.

This episode delves into Finlay's early start in comedy, from the initial stages of starting in comedy to encountering the brutal realities of open mics, the challenges of going viral, and the importance of embracing cultural differences. Reece and Finlay discuss the value of creativity within constraints and share insights into preparing for major comedy events like the Edinburgh show. They also touch on content creation strategies, offer advice on pacing oneself in the industry, and look forward to Finlay's upcoming stand-up special Ok Zoomer.

They also discuss a range of offbeat topics, such as North Korea boat tours, influencer culture, barbers.

Finlay's Instagram

Follow Kidding on social media for clips, live event info and behind the scenes
Kidding Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kiddingpodcast/
Kidding Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kiddingpodcast
Kidding Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU49TsZVIbI7vak-EKOBSbA

Follow Reece:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reecek1dd/
Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@reecekidd

Transcript

0:00

So in this episode of Kidding I interview Finlay Christie. At 19 he became the youngest ever winner of the prestigious So You Think You're Funny competition. His material, based around his experience as a Gen Z, led Chortle to describe him as the voice of his generation. So young, but you've been doing stand up for so long. You started when you were 7 years old? Sort of. So my first gig when I was about 6 or 7, it wasn't like a circuit gig. I was performing for children and families at this thing called the Comedy Club for Kids. But I started properly. I'd do that once a year maybe, once every few months and just die horribly. I got to see people die who went on to do great things. I used to see James Acaster die there and Robin Ince die. Just everyone though. Only two people I saw ever did well. It was Nick Doody and who else did well? Michael Legg did really well there. They smashed kids' family gigs. Now Matt Green does amazingly there. Ada Camp, stage name, does amazingly there. But yeah, I saw so many people die there back in the day. So if a picture of you as a child died, would they not laugh out of sympathy? I guess the parents would smile at you. You knew they weren't throwing bottles, but they were throwing M&Ms. They were kind of... You knew it was a bad gig if you heard children turn to their parents and be like, Mummy, what's he doing? Why won't he stop? When will he start singing? Yeah. Children would occasionally cry. I prefer that to someone swearing and telling me to get off the stage. What was the drive of 7-year-old Finlay? I loved comedy. Scullman? I don't know. It was just my favourite thing ever. It's just the best, isn't it? Comedy. I loved every comedy. I listened to cassette tapes with old stand-up and sketch shows on them. I really liked Steve Martin. So my first ever gig I went on in a white suit and more bunny ears. You had impressions, didn't you? Maybe I did. Maybe I did a few impressions. And then from there, what led to the first actual gig, you would say, then? In university? Yeah. At uni, I was like, OK, I've got to join some societies. I knew I wanted to do comedy, but I didn't want to commit to it. I thought I needed to do a sport at uni because I'd never been into sport at school. So I did American football for a year. I was terrible at it. And then I tried second year. And then I tried second year. I went, OK, I'll do comedy. And I went to the workshops and I was just focused on writing jokes. And I was doing them at the student nights. But I didn't think I'd actually end up on the circuit. But then my friend, Patrick Healy, I went to an open mic with him because you need to bring people to perform at open mics. They were called bringer shows. And I went to one with him and he smashed it. And I went home and I was like, so jealous. I was and I just thought I need to get good so I can be good like because people were coming up to Patrick after the gig, including a friend of mine, Mamoon, who I do content with and who I'm now. He's like my closest friend in comedy. But back then I met him for the first time and he doesn't remember this. But he went up to Patrick, who'd smashed it and he shook his hand and went, that was amazing, man. And you said that was your first gig. And then I stuck out my hand and I went, nice to meet you. I'm Philly. And he went, yeah, yeah, yeah. And he carried on talking to Patrick. And so I just thought, yeah, I've got to write some jokes that that actually work. So I went back to that same open mic like a few weeks later. So none of the jokes from the kids shows carried over then? I might have tried one at the start, but they were they were all about kids love jokes about poo and wee. That's their taboo. So, you know, the same way sex jokes will always make a drunk adult crowd laugh. Jace but poo and wee, that's their Freudian thing that gets them. So, yeah, that's cool. So how did you do? Remember the first set? How did it go in what the adult one of the kids one? No, the adult one. Yeah, I actually did some jokes that still ended up in my Edinburgh show. I did. I did a list of uni societies that I think should exist. And I did I did a joke about. I was I was a stoner in first year, so they were they were very kind of Norm MacDonald-y like, isn't this weird? You ever thought about that? And so, yeah, they didn't really have punchlines. They were just kind of like things you scribble down in a notebook. Were you the same? What kind of how did you start out? What kind of material? I don't have a better origin story. Mine was like my ex was potentially cheating on me and I was like, I will do comedy about this to process it. Oh, so like a proper that's like a proper. What's his name? Pete Holmes. That was his origin story. Yeah, yeah. That's quite common. That's quite common, I think. I wandered down to the lion's den. I was like, oh, yeah, I'm going to do that. That's quite common, I think. I wonder down to the lions and I was like, oh, you people seem really cool. And then I realized that they call it being a sigma male. Yeah, that's a sigma male like like American Psycho things. It's like, it's like, yeah, like I'm going to shut women out of my brain and I'm going to focus on grinding out and getting really good at something. And talk about the person. It was really actually like proper pathetic and really what would the word be? It was fresh. Yeah, fresh like live processing of the event as she broke up as we officially ended it. My name was getting called up to go on stage and I was like, wow, probably shouldn't go up now, but I went up regardless. I would have loved to watch that. That's what stand-up's about. They are the authenticity of my performance. People were like, wow, why is he about to cry? The next guy came up and he was like, do you know when some comedian should just kill themselves? I was like, no, which I thought was very funny. But the table I was at as I told them what was happening, they did not find it as amusing. One poor girl was trapped in the tube in the way home with me and you could just see the disappointment. You found it funny. You were like, so true. I should. I thought you have to laugh. I have to laugh, no? I suppose I didn't have the context. I guess you were trying to process your trauma through laughter anyway. So from the first gig, how did you change the writing then to improve? So your friend got a handshake and then you went back a couple of weeks later. What changed? My first gig was OK. It was quite a supportive crowd. And I think the thing is I just tried different stuff every time. I would just write down whatever I thought was funny and then in the week and then try all of that. Fearlessly? Oh, yeah. Unreal. Because when stand up doesn't matter to you and you're performing and you're like a young kid that no one expects to be good and you're seeing everyone else die and you're in a room with like 20 people. It's like, who cares if this goes badly? So, yeah, I'd write silly stuff and then go up and I was like, if I never do the same thing twice, eventually I'll land on something. And eventually I sort of had a few good jokes and then I was like, OK, I'll just keep doing these. You just do those over and over again because that's all you've got. And then they get better gradually. And were you coming into London as well with your friend to do open mics here or was it all in the university? Well, I was. Yeah, I went to uni in London. So, yeah, yeah, they were. They were both. They were both. I did both the gigs at uni and gigs open mics. What about you? Where did you start? In London as well. In London. Yeah, but don't worry about me from that. When? When? When? When did you start? I've come up to one year, so I'm very new. I'm very new. The thing is, it's in the grand scheme of things. We're, you know, we're all very new. Yeah, but you have your So You Think You're Funny success and the success of OK, Zoomer. Getting to the show. That's massive, dude. That's in like, that's in top, top percentile stuff to get to. No one cares about us. No one can really care. Do you really not think so? No one. I really admire the fact that you got to the R show. I think that's like my criteria for people. Like, there's no respect at all for them before that point. Really? Yeah. I'm clearly like, just watching Sigma videos at home. I feel like they don't have an R. I think, yeah, I don't know. But eventually, if you stick around long enough, you're going to get an hour. You're going to write an hour of jokes. Well, do you not think, like, for example, So You Think You're Funny, do you not think that was a stamp of validation? Oh, yeah, that was probably the, that was like the best night of my life. Because that's, just because I never thought it would happen. And I never thought, like, oh, I'm going to be a comedian. I just thought, oh, this is something I like doing. And then I just completely surprised myself. I thought, getting to the final, that's amazing. Think about all the people who've been in the final. And then I actually said to, I saw my friend Erica, like, smash the gig. And I was like, oh, she's going to win it. That was amazing. And I said to her afterwards, I was like, if you've not won this, I'm, you know, I'll be blown away. And then they were reading out the names and they said third, so and so. And I went, if they don't say your name second, you're first. And they said second, someone else. And I went, they're going to say your name. And they said my name. And I was mortified. I was genuinely so humiliated. I walked up and I was doing this. I had my head in my hands. And then I just spent the next 10 minutes just apologizing to her. And then I went to the after party and the whole after party was just people going up to her and saying, we thought you should have won. Genuinely. So the night was bittersweet. She genuinely should have won. But she won another competition. So that's just very funny. Just the shame of you. Oh yeah. I was so, oh, it was the worst. Big up Erica though. Erica Eeler. Very funny. Were you like going in competitively to win that then? No, not at all. So what was the process? Were you up when you did the first, like the heat, for example, was your five minutes very strong? It was. Or seven minutes, right? Yeah, it was, I was alright, I guess. Yeah. My five was the five I'd been working on for the last year. So yeah, it was, it was, it was tight. It was pretty tight for an open micro, I guess. But if I'd done that, like a, I mean, I still do, I still do a couple of jokes from it, but they're better now. I've worked on them even since then. Yeah, but yeah, I guess it was all right. I'd never done it in a big room. So I didn't know that it was, I'd done it in front of 30 people again and again and again. So, you know, you have no concept of what that's going to be like when you translate it into a room with 100 people. So the heat was like the biggest gig I'd ever done. Where'd you do your heat? Backyard. Okay. Which I used to work behind the bar there and they fired me. For what? Because I was never there. Yeah, I was never there. As I said, I was a stoner and I loved, I loved comedy. So I was always just, I would always sneak out and watch the shows and yeah. But then I got to go back and I smashed my heat there. Were you nervous at all for the final? No, because I wasn't. That's a lie. I was because it was a big crowd, but I wasn't worried about the competition. I'm not a competitive person. I wasn't competitive about comedy back then. You get, I think competitive people get competitive because they're like good at team sports when they're younger, but I never was. And I gave up on all of them because I hated the competitive aspects of it. From the outside, you seem very driven though. Do you think? Yeah, I think so. I just love it though. I just love doing it. I don't want to have some comedians have this attitude of like, I'm going to crush everyone. No one else deserves to be here. Yeah. I will kick the fun out of the room. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But then I just want, I just want to like, I'm so terrified that I'm not going to be able to make money from this. So I just keep, keep working out of fear, I guess. Well, is that what led to the YouTube videos and stuff? No, that was because I couldn't, that was because, uh, oh, why was that? That was because I like, I like, really liked TikTok. Did you download it in lockdown? Yeah, I did. I knew I was in trouble because I tried to back out of the app and then it does like the shows you another video thing. I was like, oh, it's got me. I'm in trouble. Yeah. There was nothing to do and it just deletes hours. Hours. So I was just, I was like, this app is amazing. And then I saw the type of comedy content that people do on it and I was like, this reminds me of the kind of sketches I would film as a kid, you know, you get a camera and I had like iMovie on my dad's laptop as a kid. So I was like, uh, I was like, oh yeah, I could make sketches like this. And I had all these standup ideas that I couldn't test because there were no gigs. So I went, oh, I'll just put, I'll just do these as sketches. And I didn't, I didn't have a standup style then. So it was all these random ideas. I love the videos. Thanks man. I genuinely laugh out loud and that's so rare for me online. Especially the series you did where like the film, like the film sets and stuff. Like I think they're so good. You sound like the people, people, the way people compliment you about content on in your DMs is like, fair play mate. Yeah. I don't usually laugh because it's a bit gay to laugh. But you know what? Fair play. They always, they always say it like they're embarrassed to compliment me. No, but they are. But obviously there's so much writing goes into them as well. Cause you're not just like, I'm going to throw a sketch up today. There's a lot of work that goes into it. Oh yeah. There's a lot. Yeah. Can you go from like idea to what's that whole process? I just do a bit a day for something like, um, like a whole sketch a day. No, no. Like I'll do, I'll write a sketch maybe over a week and I'll start on the first day and write down initial ideas. Might do some research. I might watch some films like the film that I'm trying to parody. Um, and then yeah, every day I'll just go and I'll just go back and go, well, is this still funny? No. Yes. And then you shoot it in one day, one take. Sometimes, sometimes two days, but generally generally one day. Do you have an acting background? Sort of. I wanted to be an actor when I was a kid. I did some child acting. I did the voice work on the CBB show. Yeah, I did that. I did CBBs and I did a BBC show. I was, yeah, they did a thing. I was in a sort of David Mitchell, Robert Webb vehicle. You were a small child complaining about illness or something? Were you a chimney sweep? Do you know what? Was I a chimney sweep? I was a Victorian child. Okay. But I was a posh Victorian child. Typecast again. Every single time. I was a child. I did a thing recently where I was, where I was like a French, I was a French Victorian child and they put me in like a powdered wig and stuff. I'm always, it's always like, yeah, posh Lord. What do you want? What role is your dream? Gangsters. Why can't I be in The Wire or something? Have you got a different accent you put on? For your sketches, you sometimes do a different accent. I've heard you do like a gangster accent. Love an accent. East London gang. Oh no, it was like every gangster on YouTube. I did a bit of a, did one of those, yeah, those gangsters you see on YouTube talk about, talk about how they used to, it's always cocaine smugglers. Yeah, we used to get two Samsonite suitcases, put a scratch in one of them and we put them through and then we'd have a fellow, he would say, he would say, oh, one of them was full of 20 kilos, one of them was full of dirty clothes. I know so many smuggling techniques from watching, from watching like gangster videos. They're always wearing the suits, they're always reformed and they're super wise and I always love the video. They put them in, yeah, they stick them in like an old pub, they make them wear two suits. There's always reformed gangsters and they always talk about it, but they're like, I don't want to glamorize it. And that's why I've got five books out about how cool it is to be a gangster. They always say the same shit though. It's always, it's just always makes, it's just always, yeah, I don't, the regret is the thing that they talk about that makes me laugh because they're always like, do I regret it? They never regret things. They're like, do I regret it? But they talk about how horrible it is and they go, but I don't regret any of it because it made me the man I am today. Rich. What a traumatized like man, yeah, full of, like you've killed, you know, God knows how many people. Displaced families, you know, there's, there's people in, in the global south who, you know, that you've, you've, you've completely fucked over, but, but I don't have regrets, but I've got no regrets. I love watching the actual videos as well and being like, that's a person I aspire to be like, oh, I love it. I absolutely love it. My favorite one's Marvin Herbert. Have you seen him? He's the guy in the East London suit wearing guy that I know. No, that's, that's, oh, what's his name? Bobby Cummins. OBE. It always says OBE at the end. And then Marvin Herbert is, he's the best one. So he's the one with the glass eye. Okay. Cause he got shot, he got shot in the eye and got shot in the eye in Spain and he, the way he tells all of it. Yeah. The way he tells his stories, you just think like he is, he's one hard, one hard fucker. Cause the way he tells the story about being shot in the eye is like, he's like, oh yeah, he shot me in the eye and then he shot me in the dick. And then I went, go on then cunt, do your job. Do it again. If someone shot me in the dick. Game over. I'd be like, what do you want? Please stop. And then he says, and then I just called the ambulance from my phone. After I shot him. I'd be passed out if someone shot me in the dick. I'd be trying to shoot myself. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I'd be asking him to shoot me again. Can you get it right? In the middle of the forehead, please. So from, let's go back to the story. Take your phone. It gets amazing. So other than the win, was there any struggle? Any struggle? Like was there a weird gig? Well, you know, my childhood. You know me, I'm from the streets, man. No, there was never any struggle at all. No bad gigs? Oh, bad gigs. I thought you meant like, um, like family, financial struggle. Typecasted. Um, with, oh, bad gigs. I've had more, way more bad gigs than good gigs. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, of course. What comes to mind when I say bad gigs? Bad gigs, sorry. Well, I did latitude kids tent last year. Why do all those kids gigs? Yeah. Well, they, they're at their midday and they pay well. So you could still do a midday gig and then still make money in the evening. So I did latitude kids tent full of sweaty kids and their parents weren't there. The parents just leave them there. So rather than it's being like families, it's all unattended kids that are hot. Cause the, you know, it's all, it's so, uh, they were all just, they were all screaming at me walking up on the stage, just nothing I could do to take it back. I, but I afterwards, I was like, there's no one in the world that could have played that gig. So it's fine. You're doing your climate change stuff. I was doing, what was I doing? I've got a, I've got a joke about perfume that I do in my Edinburgh show. Um, uh, it's basically just me saying toilet over and over again. And that wasn't working. And that kills. We can just explain that to the kids that are on the stage. You're like, guys, you don't know what you're watching. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm a genius. That toilet bit kills with normal kids. You guys are, uh, festival crowds. And you aren't even discerning. You don't even know comedy. Were you doing all the weird gigs in London before? I guess after. So you think you're funny, you get access to a lot better gigs. Oh, do you want to hear a mad, a mad open mic story known for being the longest open mic set three, four hours. So I go, put a stick, a million acts on all doing all doing five hours each. And, um, yeah, they, they just went on for ages and you'd have the most insane people do it. Uh, and there was a guy, he went, he goes up on stage and he's wearing a fedora and a trench coat. And so he looks, you know, he's got a neck beard and he just looks like the meme of an incel. So he goes up and he says, he goes, I promise I'm not weird. And that gets a laugh because you're like, oh, he knows, he knows that he's, that he's this. So I'm thinking, oh, he's self-aware. So he's, you know, he's not going to do weird stuff. And then he goes, how do I prove to you that I'm not weird? What do all human beings do? We all bleed red blood. And then he pulls out a kitchen, a genuine, a kitchen knife and he slices his own head open on stage. His head. Yeah. And screaming as he does it. And then, and then as he's like bleeding all down his face and his shirt, he goes behind the banner with all people's faces on it. And he pulls out a sort of a world map that he has done loads of diagrams on. And then he's, and then he goes, the CIA did mind control. And then he starts talking about MK Ultra whilst like he's bleeding down his face. It's like a huge cut. And I said to him backstage, I was like, I was like, that was like genuinely quite spectacular. You know, regardless of whether it was, you know, you made a lot of people feel uncomfortable, but it was real showmanship. Like well done. And he said, he said, thanks. Yeah. People have been really enjoying it. But I think I'm going to have to stop doing it because I'm losing a lot of blood. You were also working in like that professionally, weren't you? You were making TikToks professionally. Yeah. Well, from doing that, I got a job in, in TikTok marketing. Yeah. Oh, full of research. Yeah. I'm excited because I'm a big fan of the, it was actually the YouTube shorts where I initially seen you because I'll get explained how I met you. I met you once at Roast Battle. Huge fan, went up fanboy, I was like, I've loved your YouTube. I was like, he was this weird little gremlin man. And yeah, cause I'd been watching the shorts of all the, and I was like, wow, he's fucking smashing it. Thank you. And then I seen you at the Roast Battle and then I connected that you were doing stand up as well. Cause I wasn't following you on Instagram. I was just seeing you from YouTube. So I was a big fan of the process. So I dived in. Cause you must, you've learned a lot from that because you created like probably more shorts and more short form sketches than anyone. Ah, I hadn't thought about that, but yeah, maybe. Well in that period anyway, because you went, I guess fully for it. I was one of the first, first comedians to do it. Yeah. I remember it back in the day on TikTok in lockdown, which was the peak of TikTok. If you were on TikTok then that was the best time for it. Now I don't know if the algorithm has changed or something, but the things you have to do to get viral on there. Ah, it's the nature of any sort of entertainment or media, I guess, but more and more insane. I mean, that Mizzie kid, that's what you've got to do to go viral is, you know, something illegal. Well, I guess it wasn't illegal, but, but you know, something that when people ask me like, what do you have to do to go viral? I always just say it, just anything controversial. If you talk about race or, you know, like my entire explore page when it comes to like stand up and sketches and like man on the street stuff, it's just hype. Like it's stuff where you go, oh, I don't know if this is right. Like the fellow with the, the American fellow with the big lips who goes, oh, yo, you, you know, you, you see, you got a turban, what are you hiding under there? Like stuff like, stuff like that is, that's what goes viral. Cause that's what Russian kids repost. You know, that's yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, but you're, you're already, it was like that controversial. No, I'm saying that's what, that's what goes viral now. Okay. But either that or something that's kind of quite right on something that's right. Just so the complete opposite, something that enforces a kind of a left-wing way of thinking, something that kind of affirms that. Like that's, I think that's why the Hollywood country stuff went, did well. First of all, cause I speak Urdu in it. So that got shared by loads of people from Pakistan, but also cause I, it's, it's making, it's righteous in the sense that it takes down something from Hollywood. So people, people go, yeah, this is based. I like doing the, I like doing the film parodies because I've done lots of them and I want to have a library of them to look back on. I care less about the strategy now than I did back then. Back then when I posted that, I was thinking in the back of my mind, probably this is, it's going to go viral cause it's based. Hmm. Yeah. By the way, I, I'm going to, I don't know what base means. Oh, how do you explain it? This is our first moment. I was waiting for this boomer versus fucking JNC. Oh yeah. You're an old, old millennial. I think so. Yeah. It's decrepit. Yeah. A Northern Irish millennial, which probably pushes me to like boomer. Yeah. Yeah. So deep. We have to go. But based for people, for countries where they have wifi, you'll know this already, but based is like, Oh, how do you, how do you describe it? It's sometimes used as an ironic term, but I think it means kind of like very, very politically wise, like a politically kind of dialed in. So if you have a base. Ever been politically dialed in. So I've never heard it before. I don't know. Is that based? Based? Like BASED. Oh, you don't know. You don't need a spell. No, that was a bit, that was over the line. We do have English spelling. I studied English for one year. In university. Well, your English was fantastic. Thank you very much. I've been working in my entire, I was going to talk about your French, but I'm not going to give you that. Sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm not going to give you that alias anymore. So you did stand up in French. I was just listening to Eddie Azad talk about how he's doing it in, he's doing stand up in French now and he talked about it like ninja training. He was like, when you do it in French, you go back to English. It's like people learn how to drive monster trucks before they drive cars. It is ninja training. It sharpens you up when you go back to English. It's so much easier. That's not why I did it. I just wanted to do it because I thought I was like, I like hanging out with comedians. So I want to hang out with French comedians. So that's yeah. And what's the story with speaking French? You've just been speaking it from... I studied it. Studied it. Studied it. Don't drop GCSE French. You're like, ah, okay, let it go. I loved, it was one of the only things I was good at, at school. I was really bad at like maths and science and wasn't great at the humanities. I wasn't good at putting together essays really when I was younger. So languages was, they just sort of stuck in my mind. I think about words and phrases a lot. And the sound, that's the kind of thing that just sticks with me. So I had a good memory for vocab and grammar and stuff. Yeah. What about you? I can speak a bit of Spanish and I have been known on stage for some reason to go, yo hablo español. And then I try to engage with the crowd and who knows what happens. I also tried it in Italian. Don't speak Italian at all. Don't know where that comes from. Say chau, como está? And then they're like, oh, and I'm like, fuck me. That's funny in itself. I think it's funny for bravery, but like, yeah, but in Spanish I'm okay, but not to, there's no aspiration. There would be a, I have an aspiration to do standup in it, but like I'm so far away from that. The thing is you can still do it. I mean, it limits you in that you kind of have to talk about very basic stuff, but you can still do it. That kind of limitation can be quite funny. Yeah. I don't even try. Yeah. Yeah. Estoy blanco, soy de Irlanda. Hola. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like when you see comedians with an accent, sometimes it's way funnier because they have an accent. That's true. And also you have an angle, which is that you're, so I mean, and it's a really great angle to have a lot of comedians that read it really well. Like you're an alien in this foreign land and you, you have that observational thing. Have you ever noticed this weird thing is so much more pronounced when you're in a foreign country. Oh yeah. I'm going to be the biggest English speaking Spanish hack of all time. I'm going to be like, Oh, you guys say you're shedding the milk. What's that about? If you can, like you can make a career. I was just going around Europe and every like European city has like the one guy that they use for comedy, English speaking comedy. He does all the corporate events. He hosts all the, whenever, whenever an American act comes over to their show, he'll open for all of them. And usually they aren't great. Lam was to do comedy full time after. So you think you're funny? Is that when it switched? No, not even. I've really, I mean, I've never been to a comedy show. I've really, I mean, after, after, so you think you're funny. The people who ran it were like, you should probably drop out of uni now and do comedy. And did you drop out? No, I still had a year of uni left and I was going to, I was going to go live in France for a year. So I said, I said, no, bye. You were sorry. You were doing for everyone that's new to French and Chinese and you wanted to do a master's abroad or something? Yeah. Well, I was doing, I was like, your abroad was part of my degree. I was always going to do it. So everyone was saying, oh, now that you've won this, you should stay. And I thought about it and then I thought, I thought, you know what? No, I'm just going to, I'm going to finish my degree and then, you know, if it's, if it's still there when I come back, great. If it's not, I love languages as well. I had a secret plan in my head that I was going to go and do stand up in Chinese. Wow. And I thought there'll be a way bigger audience over there. I love China. I love China as well. I love, yeah. I love Chinese culture. I love the language. I used to teach out there. It's, and I just had the best time. When did, what time scale did you teach at the university? That was after, so you think you're funny. Like a month, like a September afterwards, I taught in China. No, wait, did I? No, it was before it was before, I think it was before Edinburgh. And yeah, no, it was before Edinburgh. I taught in China that summer. And yeah, and I, and I, that's, that's what I thought it was going to do. So I thought, no, forget doing it in, in England. I'll, I'll just keep getting good at languages and then I'll do it in French and China. And what a niche market you would have. Exactly. And I thought in my head I'll get away with not being as good because there's a guy over there that does it who's great. You know what I mean? So I thought if I work hard enough, I can be as good as him. And what, what sort of level of Chinese are you at? What sort of proficiency? I can talk about dumplings. I lived there for three months and I got bobo, no intonation in my accent. They were like, oh wow, you're so good. What was the first one? Bobo. I'm trying to say no. Bobo, Bobo. I've just embarrassed myself. Oh, boot, a boot. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh yeah, that's good. Yeah. Hello goddess. Did you have a, did you have a Chinese name? No, I worked in an English company so they were really like this guy is doing the white monkey job. Oh, okay. Nice. That's the dream. That was so good. They give me so much respect for so little. It was like a, it was like an entrepreneurial abroad thing and they just took me for dinner out of body. She had a horrible time. She had taken me everywhere and I was like useless. So did you have, did you have, do you have like any interesting like cultural experiences out there? I did, but I don't know if I can mention it. It's really quite bad. No, I'll say it. I'll probably cut it out. No, so I've never, I've never really discussed it. So I, I said I wanted to go see North Korea, like the, the river, please fill in the cultural gap in my knowledge there. I know. I wouldn't know. Okay. Well, there's a river between North Korea and the South of China and you go along and a big boat. And I told her, Oh, I want to do it. But in the mistranslation, she took boat tour to mean private boat tour. And we took a private boat tour into North Korea and it actually went past like the, into the North Korean territory. What did you get to see of North? Cause I've always wanted to do that. I've always wanted to go. I got to see a soldier standing like really like skinny just with a gun, just like looking out at me. Cause she was supposed to bring them water, but we didn't bring them water. And like I was with a Chinese family. You didn't bring the water. He had a gun. I thought it was going to be a boat tour. And then like the Chinese dad was like, Hey, isn't this cool? And I was like, Oh, I'm going to get murdered. And my body's like, are you happy? She had very little English. Oh my God. It was wild. It just fascinates me that place because it's so cut off. Yeah. Cause China's cut. One of the things that's cool about China is that it's so feels so insular, but then North Korea is another level of that. Yeah. It's wild. I want to go. I want to go. You want to go? I did. 100%. Get the YouTube series on the go. Fascinates me. And then the circus that they run for Kim Jong-un, you know, I think they've still got like, Are you not scared at all about trying to steal a artifact? I would be scared, but then that's the exciting thing about traveling. Most of the places that you go to now, it's one of those places where, you know, God knows how long before, before there's Starbucks in North Korea. So you know, it's one of those places that you want to go there before it gets Westernized because now you go abroad. People always talk about going to China or, you know, Vietnam in the 80s. And it's like, they're like, that's when you had to go. That's before everywhere started looking like, everywhere started looking like Stockholm, everywhere. These little hipster cafes pop up everywhere. Yeah. I mean, that's, that's what Thailand does. It's not just a bunch of older hippies just being like, I should have been here before. It's all poke bowls and stuff. I went to Thailand recently and it's, it's, it's part, you know, the touristy thing does mean it's a lot of fun. It's a playground. It's perfectly set up for you to have a good time. But yeah, it is. It's not as sad as other places, but I mean, obviously they've got the whole sex tourism industry that's very shady and stuff. I didn't know about this at all. You're not a scumbag you are. I've been multiple times. Oh yeah. I don't know if we've got time to talk about that. I've got some stories about that. I went to a massage thing, genuinely, naively not knowing like me and my friend, we did not know that they give hand jobs at the massage place. Did you not know when they line them all up and went, who do you want? No, no, because they didn't. They were just like, come in, come in. They're all wearing like really like, like clothes. I don't know. I'm not going to sit, but like in retrospect I should have known. And I walked in and we legitimately did not get hand jobs. But the more I tell people that they think we both got hand jobs, we didn't. I think we're the only people ever to pay the regular massage fee. They didn't even know how much an actual massage without a hand job costs were like, I don't know, 300 baht. Fuck off you weird little man. And that was that. So, but yeah, it exists. My story from that is that we went to a place. I went with my cousin, absolutely battered. I got, I got tugged off. They did the whole, they cover themselves in soap and then they rubbed themselves. They take you to a room, they shower with you. They cut themselves in soap and then they like, you know, they just sort of rub their bodies all over you. And then I got, I got tugged off and then we talked about, then we just, you know, we sort of talked for about five minutes about like, just life. She was like, she was like, we said about cats and she was like, we would start talking about our cats. And I felt like, oh yeah, I don't know. It was weird. I. Here's 2000 baht. I don't know. I didn't want to think too much about whatever, you know, horrible context was surrounding why she was there. But then I came out and my cousin was there and he goes, you knew that was going to happen. And I went, what do you mean? And he, and I went, obviously we're going to get tugged off. And she goes, and he goes, mine fucked me. And I went, what? And he goes, yeah, mine just, mine just shagged me. She just pulled out, she pulled out a condom and stuck it on me and then, and then started going and I went, and I went, but we paid the same. And then he was pissed off because he got shagged and he didn't want to get shagged and I was pissed off because I didn't get shagged. So that was a terrible night. You're back the next time by yourself being like, we have to make this money up somehow. Yeah. Yeah. So back to the comedy. Yeah. So back to saying you think you're funny. No, but were you, yeah. Are you still doing the like consultation or whatever for Tik Tok? No, well, I'm actually going in to do some freelancing stuff for them next week because comedy is going really well. But yeah, but no, I was down to two days a week for a long time and then, and then I quit in about October, November last year. That's very smart. That seems to be the smartest approach is to just drop that. Were you there two days or were you like, were you still giving them those two days? I feel like I've started to be very absent minded. I started to disappear. Oh no, I was, no, yeah. Towards the end I was, I was like, this is, this is an office that I use to do comedy admin and then occasionally I'll look at the deck or whatever, but I was like, it was good for the routine of, yeah, I would go in and I would use their space to, yeah, to send bookers emails and stuff. And then occasionally I'd be like, yeah, yeah, this is a Gen Z thing that's cool that Spec Savers should do to increase profits. And what was the work was just big company comes, make a TikTok and then you tell them why? Yeah, essentially it would always be the same. I was a creative, but obviously they don't want you to be creative. They want you to use an idea that has been proven to work. So say Spec Savers does come in and say, yeah, we need, we want to do a TikTok campaign. I go, okay, well here's some, I'll go on TikTok. I'll search glasses. And then I go, well, the most viral video on glasses is of someone doing like transitions where they put different glasses on and it's to music or whatever. So I'd go, I'd tell Spec Savers that it was a trend and I go, look at this piece of content. This is a huge trend on TikTok where they, you know, everyone loves to do glasses transitions. It's a big hashtag. It's really cool. My friends are talking about it. They'd go, okay, interesting. Okay. We'll give you however much money to make three pieces of content. And then we had an in-house studio where they would shoot the content or we would get influencers to do it. We try to avoid that as much as possible. Why is that? Well, cause just so many times you, you know, influencers, they're not used to making stuff to fit a brief and we're not paying them huge amounts of money. So they just half ass it and we get the cheap ones because our budget was small. So they're people that don't really know how to make videos. And then we give them a rough, we give them a really lazy brief and they're really lazy with it. It's interesting because I've been on both sides of it. I've been an influencer and then I've been the influencer, marketer or whatever, and they both hate each other. I hate every brief I've ever been given. I'm like, this is terrible. You know, I want these, fuck these brand guidelines. And every time I've ever been on the other side, I've been like all influencers are brain dead, gen Z piece of shit. So our content is a, it's a pretty soulless, pretty soulless game as far as the corporate side is concerned. But are they still really being like, here's the guidelines we need you to follow? Do they not give people freedom? No, they, they very little. What is that? Just cause they're afraid they're going to go off the? Yeah. I shot, I shot a video for Deliveroo once and they were like, we want a video where it was the guidelines started off very loose. We were like, we want a video where you show excited Deliveroo moments, like coming to the door, seeing if it's there out the window, checking your phone repeatedly. And I was like, okay, how about I do a sketch where lots of people are knocking on the door. And every time I open it, it's someone that's really important, but they're not the Deliveroo driver. So then I opened the door and it's like my long lost father or something. And then I go, oh, piss off. I'm trying to, I want my Deliveroo, you know? So I thought that was a funny idea and I was like, I'll shoot that. And they were like, yeah, they were like, okay, good. I'll shoot. I was like, shoot something like that. And they were like, cool. And I shot the video and then I did the long lost father thing. And then they were like, we don't think this is, lots of people have lost relatives due to COVID. So we don't think this is in good taste. And I was like, okay, well, how about I do that? like, um, we think this is not, this is not very Deliveroo, this idea. Could you maybe, what about if you were just looking out the window and looking excited? And I was eventually, eventually I just said, I'm not doing this. But that's good. You have the freedom to do that. Yeah. Yeah. I could have, I could have done it like that was the way I was making money, like in lockdown and stuff, but. So that was the income there. Branded stuff. Branded stuff. Yeah. Well, it seems to be like really good path for creators now. Yeah. But then I just hate it's, it's the limited, I did one recently express VPN. We're like, we want you to do some film parodies for us. And I wrote them a script and sent it to them. And they were like, you don't mention any of the films you're parodying. Yeah. That's the point. They just don't, you know. Well, why don't, are you going to start your own agency in the future where you do all this for them and then they'll have to understand. I hope someone, I hope someone does start an agency that. Like a content agency that is based around actually making good content. Yeah. That says to brands that just forget your brand guidelines, like we'll make something that's funny and good. Well, Minescape seems to have a lot of freedom for that. Yeah. There are brands that do well. I look, most of them are in house. The ones that do really well. But yeah, it's. I'll get you out of the dark hole of despair. Yeah. But Adam, for then let's go the whole way to the okay. Zoomer. How did you create that? Cause that's a lot. And ours are a long time to get to it. It seems anyway. I didn't have an hour. I mean, I had 15 minutes the year before I went up and did some work in progress shows with my friend, my moon. And we did half an hour each of which had about 10 of crowd work. And then like five of completely new every time. So the format would be 10 at the top. It would be like me do half an hour and then my moon does half. Oh no, I understand that. But like in your half an hour, was it like start with your best stuff? Crowd work and then it was open with crowd work and then do like my 15. That's good. And then do like sort of new, it's like cut in with it. And then my moon would come on and do half an hour of completely new. Half an hour. Oh, what a hero. It was when shows were still socially distanced. So imagine a huge room and it's one seat and then maybe the length of this room and then another seat. Wow. So imagine what that's like to do. You're coming on cold. I'm used to having an MC. I'm used to being in the middle on a lineup. You come on cold to a room where it's like exam conditions. They're sat like. With masks. It's crazy. And then, sorry, I'm just getting comfortable. Yeah. And then I died. Those four shows, it was only four shows. They were the hardest shows ever done. They were like so they were like brutal, brutal deaths, like genuine silence. And that made me go, OK, I really need to I know what I need to do to, you know, to do well at Edinburgh. So I'm really glad I did those because then I went, OK, you need to all my material needs to be on a topic. I need to make the bits long to keep people's attention. And then they need to have sections that have me that, you know, they have a point if you're standing up there for long enough. So I thought I can't just be funny the whole time. So I was like, OK, well, what's my unique perspective? I'm a young person. This whole industry, the whole thing makes me feel young. I'm always the youngest person. I can't talk about certain things because the audience don't get my reference points. So I kind of boxed into this show has to be about that. So so I was like, OK, all right. You know, I'll finish the hour and it'll all be about it'll all be about young people. So that was when I was like, OK. And then I and then the next gig I did, I wrote I wrote a I wrote 10 minutes about kind of how I think my generation is quite flippant and doesn't care about a lot of stuff. And then pretty like all of that pretty much ended up in the show. And then and then I kept telling people like this is what the show is about. It's about how people how my generation don't really care. People kept going. But your generation does care. You know, what is your very socially conscious generation? And people kept telling me it was a terrible idea. And I was in crisis mode for like six months before the hour. I really thought it was going to go terribly. But then in the months leading up to it, it forces you to kind of pull something out of the bag. So I did it and it was it was grueling. Edinburgh is just is very grueling. But the cliche of it is that it makes you a better comedian and it did do so. What are your survival tips? Drink. Yeah. Just stay drunk the entire time. Don't worry about your diet or anything. Just like as much dopamine as you can get because you're going to need it. So I was just drinking and I was doing a lot of drugs and and and. Were you just doing your show or you jumping on other spots as well? I was jumping. Oh, yeah, I was jumping. And yeah, just the social aspect, because it makes you hate comedy and comedians and audiences. So just just hang out with, you know, I met friends up there. I made really good friends with people, with comedians that aren't in London. So I wouldn't have. Eric Rushton is now a really close friend of mine. Keep seeing him on Facebook. Unbelievable. He's so funny. He's so funny. And we we started hanging out in Edinburgh and and thank God we did. His blog was the hardest I laughed in Edinburgh wasn't at a show. It was at his blog, which he does this thing called comedians. He does an unrecorded podcast and this thing is called Comedians in Edinburgh drinking chai lattes. And the gimmick is there's an unrecorded podcast. So he has a conversation, doesn't record it and then does a write up of what happened, but plays very fast and loose with the truth. And they are hysterical. Oh, like them. That's funny. Yeah. So, yeah, read those. Read those. And then I and then we did one and he's there. There's one of the one of those is with me and he is saying the one the one that he did about me, I can't remember. He he. I think he made jokes about me getting a lot of pussy or so, I think. And if it isn't that, we're just OK. They will be young boys. He made some joke about how, which I was doing this in the conversation, I was bigging up like how well I was doing whilst he was talking about how badly he was doing. Show wise or personal relationship wise? Comedy wise. Oh, comedy wise. Because the show did went on really well. Yeah. Oh, and personal relationships wise, by the way, Eric, Eric Rush is doing a lot better discussion. He is the king of Facebook. He gets so much female attention, genuinely. I believe it is insane. Yeah, I think he's one of three people I follow on Facebook. So that's he's got his in high caliber people. His clips are great. But you did have success with that. I remember reading it like the show did well. You did well. You got nominated for something. Nominated for something. I didn't get nominated. I didn't get nominated nominated, which is for like the Edinburgh newcomer thing, which is like the goal if you're going up. So I didn't get that. But I sort of knew I wouldn't get that. And I because the competition was so strong and Edinburgh caters to a certain type of thing. And there was this there was a show up there that was actually the premise of it is quite similar to mine. It's sort of a character show. But the premise of it is quite similar to mine. And I've been hearing so much buzz about that show. And I thought, well, that's going to be I knew for months before going up to Edinburgh with all the buzz about that show that that was probably going to get nominated as that this is the show about Gen Z. But just in case of time. Yeah, I'm sure I'm sure it was a great show. I but I I didn't want to go watch it because I thought, what if I go watch it and I go, this is way better than what I'm doing. And then just for my own personal interest, getting up to that. And were you just being really disciplined about the new material to get up to the time? Oh, yeah, just out of fear. Just out of fear, I was I was writing all the time and just trying it out. It was the most stressful year of my life. I was I was I was writing an Edinburgh show. I was writing a script that I was trying to get made. I was just. I was just break like genuinely. Like breaking down all the time because I couldn't because I felt I wasn't I felt I wasn't up to it. I remember I broke down at like a like a drinks, like a production company party and because Laura Laura Smith just asked me, she was like, how are you all right with everything? And I just completely I just completely broke down and started crying. She took me into a side room and like calmed me down. It was just that first year of comedy where like people, you get a lot of buzz around you and suddenly people were saying, you've got to do this, you've got to do this. You feel you feel the need to kind of jump on everything and do it and do it well. And it was way it was way too much for me. And I should have. Yeah, I've just completely burnt out that the Edinburgh show and the script and the content and this job. I mean, I was working about five or six jobs. So it was just ridiculous. I'm so much happier now that I'm not. I'm just focusing on stand up and content and not not really worrying too much about the other stuff. Yeah, it was a crazy year. Yeah, well done for doing it, dude. Thanks, man. Yeah, because very, very impressed. One very tough to get up there and do the the or so well done. Well, I mean, if I can like like pass any advice on just from the stupid decisions that I made, just. Don't rush, don't rush to get it all done. Don't do an Edinburgh show when you've only got 15 minutes. I hadn't even done a 20 minute set. Like and it like, I'm really happy with the show. I'm really happy with how the show turned out. I'm like seriously proud of it. And I think it it's entertaining all the way through and it has a point. And it's like it's really, really it's great, I think. But. I didn't need to force myself to write it in that time. And so, yeah, take I just say, take your time, like Toby, don't be worried. Go to France for a year and come back. Things are still going to be there when you. Yeah, when you come back, live, live your life, it's a it's a. It's a stress, it's stressful, and. Did you not think there's like the pressure to just do everything, all the content, all that and stuff, do you think it's just all made up? Well, I mean. I think you can take your time with it more than. Agents and industry will tell you to take your time with it. I think just. Focus on making something that. That you're proud of and give yourself the time that you think you need to do that. Very wise words and quit your day job. Seriously, yeah. Because that was ridiculous that I was still doing that whilst I had. A script to finish in an hour long show to write. Yeah, see, I'm so I'm kind of messed up. I was like, nice. That's that's sigma sigma. I'm like, nice. That was sigma. I was full sigma last year. Yeah, the quit the quit in the day jobs is just. Keep asking people like, when did they decide to quit and stuff? But I suppose you had the established content. Did you have did you have the agent before you quit as well? Yeah, I had an agent. I've had an agent since since I was about 19, which is I'm very lucky. Well done. You took a chance on me, really. So that was so you think you're funny time? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And then was there other competitions you were doing? They're just like, no, I want to get in and I'm fine. They know after that one, I just thought I thought, oh, the fact that I've won that means I never have to do one again. Yeah, which I was. But then my sort of true. It's the biggest one, I think. Well, it's it's I don't know if it's the biggest one. I feel like. British comedian of the year and BBC New Comedy Award are also very big, respected ones. But that one. I just yeah, I did. I did the BBC New Comedy Award not because I wanted to, but because I was advised to. And I just didn't. It was going out on TV and we weren't getting paid for it. So I just thought, well, I'm just going to do. I don't want to burn new stuff. So I just did my old set and. And it was fine, but it wasn't like particularly elegant material. It was. It was the stuff I'd done for so many years. It was it was the stuff I'd done for so you think you're funny and. I could I could tell it wasn't what the competition were looking for. But I didn't I didn't really care about that. The competition is so. And who the hell watches TV? That's what I keep saying. Yeah, my controversy thing is people keep going about live with the polo and stuff. I'm like, I don't know where to watch it. No one watches it anymore. But I kind of feel bad because a lot of people are like aspiring for and working really hard. And I'm like. Doesn't mean anything anymore. People like I was talking to someone at Live Nation about this and he was saying, yeah, people used to know people used to know exactly when it was going out and who was going to be on it. And millions of people would tune in viewing figures on TV. Now, it's we're talking like hundreds of thousands on stuff like live at the Apollo, like lower than single Instagram clips on a lot of cases. Well, the YouTube video will get more views than the than the program when it's shown live. But why are people like have you ever had any difficulties because obviously you've had a lot of success from the get go with the online content, but there must be old school comedians that are like, what are you doing? And they. Oh, I mean, I'm in green rooms all the time with comedians who go, yeah, but these young guys, you know, they can make this they can make this content. No effort at all. These crowd work clips. They're always going on about the yeah, but it's not good crowd work. It's terrible crowd work. Well, then post your crowd work clips if your crowd work clips are good. Thank you for being angry. I'm angry. I guess I'm in the in the room. I'm like calm, but I'm thinking like, well, if you can do it better than do it. Yeah, like they whine so much. Yeah, they can make videos, but are they are they as good as us? Are they it doesn't matter if they're as good as you. Yeah, because these people are never going to know who you are. Yeah, I think it's really like entitled. I don't know. But in my head, imagine any other small business that was like, we're the best barbers or whatever, but they've never told anyone they're a barber. They're not posted upwards. And then they're like, yeah, that other barber that posted on Instagram. These young barbers posting their fades on Instagram. I hope it's the exact same. It probably is. And then so that's really cool. You got OK, so you got the agent. I was but do you even need any agent when you have that like content behind you? It depends how hard you're willing to work. I think you probably have to work a lot harder if you don't have an agent. But I mean, I think I'm pretty sure Adam Rowe and Vittorio, who used to be with with the same agency as me, I think they're both now going solo and smashing it. So, yeah, I think if you're willing to work hard, but I mean, Vittorio is just shout out to him. He has a northern Irish man. Came to London. I am devastated he exists. An insane, insane work ethic. Yeah, it's really admirable. And he's such a good relationship with his fans and and. Oh, but you have that as well with the YouTube community. You're. Yeah, but I feel I mean, I mean, I I can't sell tickets like Vittorio does because they know me for my sketches and stuff. But they haven't I don't really do crowd work clips or anything like that. He's got loads of crowd work clips and that's what he's known for. And what I really like as well is he's figured out how to actually record it and not make it look he's the only like first of all, it's good. And then he records it well. He's he's really good at making it look professional. He's not because these older comics, they do do crowd work clips, but then they film it from the back of the room. The audio is not there. Yeah, you can't hear using those those horrible like auto subtitles that are massive on the side of the screen. And yeah, the thing is, yeah, I mean, he just knows how to I mean, I like having worked in content. That's how I know how to like algorithm stuff. I know how to sort of cheat it and get people to watch stuff. But Vittorio, man. Well, what are your what are your overview? Is there like top tips that people can do to improve the content from the get go? Like what mistakes are people are making? Oh, well, don't yeah. For a start, have your title at the top and have it be something that piques people's interest. The whole way through the video. It doesn't need to be controversial. Yeah, yeah, yeah. See my clips. We'll make it click, baby. Yeah. I mean, the BuzzFeed guy who invented that is a genius, you know, just make it make it something that they need to watch to the end to know whether they agree with it or not. So like when Vittorio had that clip go viral, where he's talking to like a cancer patient in the crowd. I like it. It's very funny. And it's amazing. And it's and it's because yeah, it's because it's you see cancer in the title. I need the follow up video where she returned, which was equally as good. I know. And then he made a YouTube video. See, I love seeing all the connection because it's like it's just really admirable when you take away the whole, oh, they're doing something different. I hate when anyone like criticizes people for trying to be innovative at all. So I think it's cool. So yeah. So yeah, I'd say have a title, make it grabby. And you make it very punchy as well. It's almost like very punchy. It needs to be and needs to have a punch at the start. And he's never punched in the middle and it needs to have a better punch at the end. And you're like, showing yourself. You're changing. I think you were interested in everything. And it needs to have it needs to. That Matt Reif guy, he's so he's the guy that he's he's like the most viral comedian, probably. And he has angle changes and he has his they look amazing and he looks amazing. He smiles as well on that point. He you're shooting your special soon in the Bill Murray. Yeah. Okay, Zimmer. Yeah. And he's done his own special. So are you doing it independently or is it with a production company? I'm doing it with with a guy called Ben Kent who does he I work with him on stand up sketch show this show on ITV and he filmed my friend Red Richardson special shout out Red Richardson and Bobby Mayer the year is podcast got another great podcast. Bobby Mayer is very funny. Very lovely. But yeah, filming it filming it with with him. Are you going to release it on YouTube? Put it on YouTube. That's the way did I get excited for that? I think that's the following this first step is Andrew Schultz and all those people. Adam Rowe. He releases all the specials excited for that. That's amazing. Very excited because I want I'm excited for people to know that I don't just do sketches. But you already had the stand up sketch show on YouTube. You have one clip. Yeah, but I put people. Yeah, it was on my YouTube. The whole thing. The world for the stuff from stand up sketch from the first series from well from the series first series that I did. Yeah. Okay. But then when I put my special up, that's that's the true mark of like should I buy tickets to see this person? I hope I mean, I hope when people see it, they think this guy's good. And you've got the next work in progress already started after that or is going to work. I have I haven't planned I'm working out new stuff in new material stuff. I've got like a new 10 that works. So then I'll just try and work that up into a new I think by the time that the special goes out, I'll probably have a new 20 and then I'll and then I'll maybe wait for that to get a bit of traction and then put some more shows on. So yeah, well, I'm very excited to watch. Okay, zoomer chose the best venue in it. Yeah, for that's going to be amazing. Sean Wallstead, especially ever seen in YouTube. It's going to be so such a good place for it. I don't think there's a better place to shoot it in London personally, to be honest. Yeah, so intimate. Well, they don't let me they don't let me gig at Top Secret. Why not? The way that they the way that they book is just weird. You've got you've got to do it on the day. Okay. I've filled my calendar up before in a while. Have you done Top Secret? No, just a gong show. Just a gong show. The gong show. That's yeah, but I've got my first weekend coming up in there. So I'm excited to say it's my favorite. I used to go all the time. It's the best. The best. I love it. It's right in my house. That's why I like it. Well, I'm really excited for okay. So I'm good luck with the show. Thanks. Thanks for having me on course. You've been amazing. Thank you very much. Did you want to shout out all the socials since you have them all? Yeah, big up. Shout out. Follow me at Finlay comedy. Follow who follow Eric Rushton. Oh, that's nice. Follow follow Reese kid. Follow Jamie D'Souza. Follow my moon. Ella gab. Follow just just follow follow all my mates. Make sure to watch. Okay, zoomer, which will hopefully be on. It'll be in YouTube. It'll be the shows. Yeah, follow Russell Hicks. Follow the memories of me isn't it? Of my friends. How many friends do you forget? Excellent. And if everyone's enjoyed it, please give it five stars on Spotify and Apple podcasts.