July 31, 2026 • 14 mins
Join us as we chat to esteemed comedian and idol of Keyzie, Alan Davies on his extensive Aotearoa tour for July and August 2026, unveiling his brand-new show, Think Ahead.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The whole Achy Big Show with Jason, Mike and Kesey.
Tune in week days at four on Radio Hdarchy.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
You know, over the years we've had some amazing guests,
but our next guest is truly a comedic legend. He's
a stand up comedian, he's an author, he's an actor,
he's a presenter. I'm talking about the one, the only,
the magnificent Ellen Davies. Get a Ellen, how's life? Oh?
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Very good?
Speaker 4 (00:28):
Thank you?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Well, what an intro.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
I'll leave now it's down here all the way.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
I've got to be honest with you. Keysy, here you
are sincerely were going to say I was his dad then, yeah,
who knows?
Speaker 4 (00:44):
Remember when you came.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Five years you met that woman in the.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Funnily enough, we did meet back then, Ellen, way back
in the day. For some of here was some sort
of festival going on. But Kesey here, you're his hero.
So he was saying to us when he came in today.
He hasn't had any sleep all night because he was
so worried about it.
Speaker 5 (01:05):
And he's terrified that I'm going to ruin things for him.
But I don't know how I could.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
You've got the look about you ruin anything.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Well, they will trust trust me, they will Ellen Jase
isn't lying For some reason. In twenty ten, I was
studying for a few years there and a friend of
mine this is during the age of and I feel
bad about it, but pirating TV shows and stuff I
was given.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Don't worry. I've been paid.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yeah, exactly right at the end of the day.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Right, this is this is sixteen years ago.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
I was given every episode of QY for the first
like ten or twelve seasons or something, and every time
I was hungover, which was a lot myself mainly, but
a lot of my flat and I would just sit
down and watch them on repeat. I think I have
got the first twelve seasons of you and Stephen Fry
like in my head locked away.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
The Golden Years.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Well they were, and so when I you know, because
Stephen Fry was here early. It was it last year
and I went to that and then I found out
you were coming. I bought take it straight away because
for some reason, you guys are just locked into my
brain from that era.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (02:06):
Is it weird for you to be on the other
side of the world and to know and I don't
know you've been to New Zealand a few times, but
there's a real love for British comedy here in New Zealand.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
Yeah, it's great for me because I can do here
and I really like New Zealand.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
It's a beautiful country and I could turn up.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Yeah, the people. I mean initially Jonathan Creek was the
number one show on television in the nineties.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
It was huge. And now QI there are just so
many episodes. Well that's the.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Same thing, is you know when you when you signed
up for QI, which is a comedy British sitcom panel show,
and they said the first season is.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Going to be called Season A. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
The twenty six seasons are going to happen, right.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
I didn't really mention that, did they not. The master
plan was slightly kept from me.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Where are you up to now?
Speaker 4 (02:55):
We've just recorded series X Wow. Yeah, extraordinary sitting in
the chair. Now everything's changed. Got a few of the
comedians weren't even.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Alive when.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
And I used to be this sort of stupid brat
in the corner and now I'm the old man, so
it's totally reversed. I don't know anything, but it's because
I'm senile.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
That's a general vibe.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
Yeah, yeah, but yeah, we've got WY and Z to do.
And then I'm emmigrating to.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
You're most welcome because mission at the top of the
introduction there, you're an author, you're a stand up comedian,
you're an actor and a presenter Wheelers Ellen Davies nist
Ale most comfortably amongst all those roles.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Well, it's the stand ups my thing.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
Oh, really, stand ups what I started doing stand up
when I was twenty two, and he did it for
five years before I got any opportunity on radio or
anything else.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
And I absolutely loved it.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
And now I met loads of the people that I
met men are still friends, you know, and and a
load of them ended up on QI so q I
when I was had a period where I wasn't doing
stand up, which I sort of regret now, yes, but
a lot of them were turning up on QI recording,
so I felt like I was seeing everyone and we
had an audience. But if I hadn't had Jonathan Creek
or QI or all those things, I'd be doing stand up.
(04:08):
That's what I'd be doing. And having the microphone and
being on the stage. It feels at home, you.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Know, Yeah, because when you're a set up comedian, like
getting stuff like the comedy panel shows and stuff that's
the stuff you see on tvaf my generation anyway, and
you think that's when you know you've made it. So
you go into that world and then you sort of
did you have like a break and then come back
to stand up, if you know what I mean, Like,
you know.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Yeah, I did.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
And I kind of was doing a lot of acting
for a time.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
Yeah, after Jonathan Creek and I was doing a couple
of other dramas. I played a barrister and that was
weird and it wasn't really funny, and then.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
And then I kind of got a little bit back
into it.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
And then I started podcasting in about two thousand and nine,
all about Arsenal, my football team. That was all we
talked about. Yes, but it was fun to do. It
was funny, and the only people who listened to it, like, yeah,
they'd find you. Your audience would find you. And I thought,
this is how this works. Now, you don't have to
just be on someone's living room every night of the week.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
People will find you and they will listen to your stuff.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
And I enjoyed being off the cuff and I enjoyed
making people laugh. So I got back into stand up
then and I toured New Zealand. Then I did two
tours back to back. There's a there's been a bit
of a hiatus for touring, but I've still been gigging.
And now I've put this show together called Think Ahead.
And really, because I'm thinking ahead, I mean, how many
(05:30):
I mean anything had happened right in the next few years,
how many more tours.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
I'm going to do?
Speaker 4 (05:34):
The range of things I can do in my life
is narrowing down. So but I feel as though I
as a comedian when I saw Dave Allen a show
in London and when he was sixty one years old,
and I've never laughed at anything so much in my life.
And you know, I've got a year till I'm sixty one.
I don't think I'm going to make.
Speaker 6 (05:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
Yeah, But I do feel like you can talk about
anything with that age. You've been through a life, You've
seen things, experienced things, and you're less concerned about withholding
stuff that perhaps you wouldn't have talked about when I
was younger, you know, more able to talk about.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
The whole picture.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
So I feel as though it's a good time later
in life is a good time to be a stand
up comedian? Actually, And the young comedians say, I can remember,
must think about when I started, if it got to laugh,
you'd say it. You wouldn't always know why it was funny. Yeah,
it was a little bit hit and miss. Some gigs
would be great, some wouldn't. You weren't a master of
the craft kind of thing. But I think as you
get older you can get the hang of it.
Speaker 5 (06:32):
The Whole Warky Big Show week days from four on
Radio Hiraarky.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Oh kid, I'm mass ho mock.
Speaker 6 (06:40):
If you want the chance to win all out on
ere competitions and staff and get amongst the live conversation,
tune into The Hodarky Big Show four to seven week
days on Radio Hiraarky.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
And I heard radio remember the Wary Big Show podcast?
Speaker 4 (06:58):
Is it?
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Also? You know? Because I found this as I've got older,
that you careless.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
I mean, I don't mean that, And you know it's
like I don't give a shit about it. I know
what you mean.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
You care.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
The consequences of things he's saying to can restrict what
you're saying to do. If you're thinking about that. And also,
you know, a lot of people live life by their fears.
You know, I don't want to do this because this
and this can happen. And I hate that feeling of
living life according to what you're afraid of it. In
other words, you're living life according to things that haven't
even happened yet.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
But that hasn't happened.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
But it could happen, but it hasn't happened, has it.
So let's carry on doing what we want to do
and say what we want to say. If things happen,
we can react to them, but let's not not say
things because the things that haven't even this is slightly
I feel at the moment there's a kind of a
bit of a cancel culture, and you know, there's always.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
That feeling in the air or.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
To be careful, you better watch out, And I think, no, this,
things haven't happened. I'm not going to be restricted by
things that haven't happened.
Speaker 5 (07:56):
Yeah, our boss is always telling us the opposite here
is just don't say.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Don't speak. We have a look in the studio when
we're live on the air out and when we give
each other a look and it's like, don't go there
because we know where it's going.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Yeah, we've got comedian Ellen Davies who's in from the
UK going on a massive to or across New Zealand.
Tickets available at Live Nation dot co dot nz.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Ellen.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
You know you mentioned you're sixty now and you've come
back out gigging again. Jase here he is apparently thirty nine,
but he was gigging when you were here in the nineties.
But he hasn't done stand up in a long long time.
Do you think he should get back out there as well?
Speaker 3 (08:34):
If you enjoy being up there, I mean, you've got it.
Speaker 5 (08:36):
This is surely it's it's whether the audience enjoyed as well.
I think they should be considered as well.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
That is a consideration, but that is something that we
will discover.
Speaker 5 (08:47):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Well, that's why I ask you that question, Ellen, because
because I'll never go back. I mean, during the time
that I was doing it, it was all fine and dandy,
but now I hate I hate the idea of going
back and doing stand that comedy. I'd rather be a
third rate rock DJ and just sit comfortably in my life,
you know what I mean. But you seem to me
(09:08):
to be a person that likes to keep pushing the
boundaries a little bit, keep keep yourself on edge.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
Well, I think it's just if you feel like you've
got something to say, or if you can feel some material.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Coming to yeah, you think, oh, now there's something happening.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
I was working I wrote a memoir a few years
ago called Just Ignore Him, about my childhood, and then
I worked on a second volume kind of following on
for that, called White Male Stand Up, about going into comedy,
and I was writing about things.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
That I'd never talked about on stage, you know.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
And while I was working on that book, I started
to have ideas for stand up around those some of
those areas, and that.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Was the show think ahead and once once I've thought
there's something.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
In this, yeh, I've got a bit of an idea.
I've been doing this a while here, I think this.
That's funny. That's funny, but that must be exciting. Right.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
So when you've got that and you actually feel like
you've got something that's worth getting up on stage again,
you're not forcing it, and then get an opportunity to
put something together, as you say, your passion as comedy
and being as stand up. When you get that urging
in and that feeling again, it must be exciting end
of a week because then you have to do some work.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
You have to do some work, you have to go
a long way from your family and your kids and
all of that. But that part of it, when the
show is just beginning to form and it's you know
what you want to say, but it's loose, that's the
best bit really, And then eventually you know it's by necessity,
it's got to settle down into something first of all
that I can remember, that's going to work, that's going
(10:31):
to be organized, and then you take the audience on
a journey. And this show is the most personal show
that I've done. But it's been the best received I've had,
the best notices, The audience reaction has been great, So
it's to be very gratifying.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Really.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Yeah, Well, I mean they say like, if you're writing,
for example, you know right about what you know about
you know what I mean, and it sounds like you're
dealing with real experiences in your life and bringing comedy
to it.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
Well. Also, if you're a comedian, the first thing you
need to establishes some sort of stage persona. You know,
how are you going to be when you're up there
and everybody's got a unique stage persona, whether it's edde
Yezard or Bill Bailey or whoever it is. And then
once you've that's there, you're sort of that's kind of
stuck with that, really, And mine was always a bit
people pleaser and a bit of a facade. And most
(11:18):
performers have got something going on behind the facade in
most people have, you know. But if you can take
the facade down a bit and show a bit more
of the stuff that previously might feel brought was a
bit shameful or was embarrassing, then you're really onto something,
you know.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
But it takes a while to do that.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
And the book White Mouse Stand Up is about taking
that down and not being ashamed of things that weren't
my fault, and then creating something and knowing that the
audience out there and there are many people in the
audience who've had difficult experiences as children or other stories
of their own. And then once you get everyone in
(11:57):
a room, we're all in this together, right, And that's
the nicest thing about being a storyteller, really, yes, And
I really feel that, especially now when everyone's just on
their phones morning, noon, and night to get everyone in
a room, phones.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
In bike, it's just listening and it's nice. It's as
old as the hills, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
And it takes a bit of courage to do that too,
you know, to be honest about things.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
And for you to then have to you, for you
to come on stage, to be you know, sort of
it's the culmination of decades of doing what you do
across so many different things. But then to be to
let the curtain down of britt and show who you
are as a person and talk about your experiences. To
then have the audience respond to that. You must have
been terrified the first time you did it, and yet
(12:42):
the reaction has been this is the best way I've
ever seen of them.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
Yeah, it feels like that, and yes it is. You
are unsure about how much of it is really just
for you, you know, you don't want to be a
self indulgent performer, and no one likes that, but it's
a median. Ultimately, laughter is still the barometer. There's there's
still a needle going and you can't have silence in
(13:08):
the room unless that's what you want that moment, and
that's a really good comedian. There are them about the
I spy to be like, they're like conductors, you know,
the audience are making the noise that they want them
to make, and it's quite an amazing skill, you know
it is.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
So you're you're on Hamilton tonight.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Yeah, yeah, I'm on my way.
Speaker 6 (13:32):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
So Hamilton, You've got Auckland, Totdung and Napier, Wellington, new Plymouth,
Pariser North christ Church finishing in Dunedan once again Live
Nation dot co dot z. If you want tickets and
you want to see Allen Davies live, Alan, I'd just
like to say, for me personally, seriously, like watching you
on QI years ago, this is I'm watching stuff that's
like twenty years old, you know. And now I'm on
(13:53):
a comedy panel show here in New Zealand, a sports one,
and a lot of what I do on there is
based off of like Ellen is always just a big
goa and you were never trying to be correct or win,
and so I've taken that away and I genuinely apply
that to what I do here. So I just like say,
it's really nice to meet you.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
It's it's a safe route to humor.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Allan Davies what an absolute pleasure mate,
The whole Achy Big Show with Jason, Mike and Kesey.
Tune in week days at four on Radio Hdarchy.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
You know, over the years we've had some amazing guests,
but our next guest is truly a comedic legend. He's
a stand up comedian, he's an author, he's an actor,
he's a presenter. I'm talking about the one, the only,
the magnificent Ellen Davies. Get a Ellen, how's life? Oh?
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Very good?
Speaker 4 (00:28):
Thank you?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Well, what an intro.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
I'll leave now it's down here all the way.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
I've got to be honest with you. Keysy, here you
are sincerely were going to say I was his dad then, yeah,
who knows?
Speaker 4 (00:44):
Remember when you came.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Five years you met that woman in the.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Funnily enough, we did meet back then, Ellen, way back
in the day. For some of here was some sort
of festival going on. But Kesey here, you're his hero.
So he was saying to us when he came in today.
He hasn't had any sleep all night because he was
so worried about it.
Speaker 5 (01:05):
And he's terrified that I'm going to ruin things for him.
But I don't know how I could.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
You've got the look about you ruin anything.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Well, they will trust trust me, they will Ellen Jase
isn't lying For some reason. In twenty ten, I was
studying for a few years there and a friend of
mine this is during the age of and I feel
bad about it, but pirating TV shows and stuff I
was given.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Don't worry. I've been paid.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yeah, exactly right at the end of the day.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Right, this is this is sixteen years ago.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
I was given every episode of QY for the first
like ten or twelve seasons or something, and every time
I was hungover, which was a lot myself mainly, but
a lot of my flat and I would just sit
down and watch them on repeat. I think I have
got the first twelve seasons of you and Stephen Fry
like in my head locked away.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
The Golden Years.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Well they were, and so when I you know, because
Stephen Fry was here early. It was it last year
and I went to that and then I found out
you were coming. I bought take it straight away because
for some reason, you guys are just locked into my
brain from that era.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (02:06):
Is it weird for you to be on the other
side of the world and to know and I don't
know you've been to New Zealand a few times, but
there's a real love for British comedy here in New Zealand.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
Yeah, it's great for me because I can do here
and I really like New Zealand.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
It's a beautiful country and I could turn up.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Yeah, the people. I mean initially Jonathan Creek was the
number one show on television in the nineties.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
It was huge. And now QI there are just so
many episodes. Well that's the.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Same thing, is you know when you when you signed
up for QI, which is a comedy British sitcom panel show,
and they said the first season is.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Going to be called Season A. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
The twenty six seasons are going to happen, right.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
I didn't really mention that, did they not. The master
plan was slightly kept from me.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Where are you up to now?
Speaker 4 (02:55):
We've just recorded series X Wow. Yeah, extraordinary sitting in
the chair. Now everything's changed. Got a few of the
comedians weren't even.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Alive when.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
And I used to be this sort of stupid brat
in the corner and now I'm the old man, so
it's totally reversed. I don't know anything, but it's because
I'm senile.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
That's a general vibe.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
Yeah, yeah, but yeah, we've got WY and Z to do.
And then I'm emmigrating to.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
You're most welcome because mission at the top of the
introduction there, you're an author, you're a stand up comedian,
you're an actor and a presenter Wheelers Ellen Davies nist
Ale most comfortably amongst all those roles.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Well, it's the stand ups my thing.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
Oh, really, stand ups what I started doing stand up
when I was twenty two, and he did it for
five years before I got any opportunity on radio or
anything else.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
And I absolutely loved it.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
And now I met loads of the people that I
met men are still friends, you know, and and a
load of them ended up on QI so q I
when I was had a period where I wasn't doing
stand up, which I sort of regret now, yes, but
a lot of them were turning up on QI recording,
so I felt like I was seeing everyone and we
had an audience. But if I hadn't had Jonathan Creek
or QI or all those things, I'd be doing stand up.
(04:08):
That's what I'd be doing. And having the microphone and
being on the stage. It feels at home, you.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Know, Yeah, because when you're a set up comedian, like
getting stuff like the comedy panel shows and stuff that's
the stuff you see on tvaf my generation anyway, and
you think that's when you know you've made it. So
you go into that world and then you sort of
did you have like a break and then come back
to stand up, if you know what I mean, Like,
you know.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Yeah, I did.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
And I kind of was doing a lot of acting
for a time.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
Yeah, after Jonathan Creek and I was doing a couple
of other dramas. I played a barrister and that was
weird and it wasn't really funny, and then.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
And then I kind of got a little bit back
into it.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
And then I started podcasting in about two thousand and nine,
all about Arsenal, my football team. That was all we
talked about. Yes, but it was fun to do. It
was funny, and the only people who listened to it, like, yeah,
they'd find you. Your audience would find you. And I thought,
this is how this works. Now, you don't have to
just be on someone's living room every night of the week.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
People will find you and they will listen to your stuff.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
And I enjoyed being off the cuff and I enjoyed
making people laugh. So I got back into stand up
then and I toured New Zealand. Then I did two
tours back to back. There's a there's been a bit
of a hiatus for touring, but I've still been gigging.
And now I've put this show together called Think Ahead.
And really, because I'm thinking ahead, I mean, how many
(05:30):
I mean anything had happened right in the next few years,
how many more tours.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
I'm going to do?
Speaker 4 (05:34):
The range of things I can do in my life
is narrowing down. So but I feel as though I
as a comedian when I saw Dave Allen a show
in London and when he was sixty one years old,
and I've never laughed at anything so much in my life.
And you know, I've got a year till I'm sixty one.
I don't think I'm going to make.
Speaker 6 (05:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
Yeah, But I do feel like you can talk about
anything with that age. You've been through a life, You've
seen things, experienced things, and you're less concerned about withholding
stuff that perhaps you wouldn't have talked about when I
was younger, you know, more able to talk about.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
The whole picture.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
So I feel as though it's a good time later
in life is a good time to be a stand
up comedian? Actually, And the young comedians say, I can remember,
must think about when I started, if it got to laugh,
you'd say it. You wouldn't always know why it was funny. Yeah,
it was a little bit hit and miss. Some gigs
would be great, some wouldn't. You weren't a master of
the craft kind of thing. But I think as you
get older you can get the hang of it.
Speaker 5 (06:32):
The Whole Warky Big Show week days from four on
Radio Hiraarky.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Oh kid, I'm mass ho mock.
Speaker 6 (06:40):
If you want the chance to win all out on
ere competitions and staff and get amongst the live conversation,
tune into The Hodarky Big Show four to seven week
days on Radio Hiraarky.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
And I heard radio remember the Wary Big Show podcast?
Speaker 4 (06:58):
Is it?
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Also? You know? Because I found this as I've got older,
that you careless.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
I mean, I don't mean that, And you know it's
like I don't give a shit about it. I know
what you mean.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
You care.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
The consequences of things he's saying to can restrict what
you're saying to do. If you're thinking about that. And also,
you know, a lot of people live life by their fears.
You know, I don't want to do this because this
and this can happen. And I hate that feeling of
living life according to what you're afraid of it. In
other words, you're living life according to things that haven't
even happened yet.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
But that hasn't happened.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
But it could happen, but it hasn't happened, has it.
So let's carry on doing what we want to do
and say what we want to say. If things happen,
we can react to them, but let's not not say
things because the things that haven't even this is slightly
I feel at the moment there's a kind of a
bit of a cancel culture, and you know, there's always.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
That feeling in the air or.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
To be careful, you better watch out, And I think, no, this,
things haven't happened. I'm not going to be restricted by
things that haven't happened.
Speaker 5 (07:56):
Yeah, our boss is always telling us the opposite here
is just don't say.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Don't speak. We have a look in the studio when
we're live on the air out and when we give
each other a look and it's like, don't go there
because we know where it's going.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Yeah, we've got comedian Ellen Davies who's in from the
UK going on a massive to or across New Zealand.
Tickets available at Live Nation dot co dot nz.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Ellen.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
You know you mentioned you're sixty now and you've come
back out gigging again. Jase here he is apparently thirty nine,
but he was gigging when you were here in the nineties.
But he hasn't done stand up in a long long time.
Do you think he should get back out there as well?
Speaker 3 (08:34):
If you enjoy being up there, I mean, you've got it.
Speaker 5 (08:36):
This is surely it's it's whether the audience enjoyed as well.
I think they should be considered as well.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
That is a consideration, but that is something that we
will discover.
Speaker 5 (08:47):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Well, that's why I ask you that question, Ellen, because
because I'll never go back. I mean, during the time
that I was doing it, it was all fine and dandy,
but now I hate I hate the idea of going
back and doing stand that comedy. I'd rather be a
third rate rock DJ and just sit comfortably in my life,
you know what I mean. But you seem to me
(09:08):
to be a person that likes to keep pushing the
boundaries a little bit, keep keep yourself on edge.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
Well, I think it's just if you feel like you've
got something to say, or if you can feel some material.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Coming to yeah, you think, oh, now there's something happening.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
I was working I wrote a memoir a few years
ago called Just Ignore Him, about my childhood, and then
I worked on a second volume kind of following on
for that, called White Male Stand Up, about going into comedy,
and I was writing about things.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
That I'd never talked about on stage, you know.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
And while I was working on that book, I started
to have ideas for stand up around those some of
those areas, and that.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Was the show think ahead and once once I've thought
there's something.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
In this, yeh, I've got a bit of an idea.
I've been doing this a while here, I think this.
That's funny. That's funny, but that must be exciting. Right.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
So when you've got that and you actually feel like
you've got something that's worth getting up on stage again,
you're not forcing it, and then get an opportunity to
put something together, as you say, your passion as comedy
and being as stand up. When you get that urging
in and that feeling again, it must be exciting end
of a week because then you have to do some work.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
You have to do some work, you have to go
a long way from your family and your kids and
all of that. But that part of it, when the
show is just beginning to form and it's you know
what you want to say, but it's loose, that's the
best bit really, And then eventually you know it's by necessity,
it's got to settle down into something first of all
that I can remember, that's going to work, that's going
(10:31):
to be organized, and then you take the audience on
a journey. And this show is the most personal show
that I've done. But it's been the best received I've had,
the best notices, The audience reaction has been great, So
it's to be very gratifying.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Really.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Yeah, Well, I mean they say like, if you're writing,
for example, you know right about what you know about
you know what I mean, and it sounds like you're
dealing with real experiences in your life and bringing comedy
to it.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
Well. Also, if you're a comedian, the first thing you
need to establishes some sort of stage persona. You know,
how are you going to be when you're up there
and everybody's got a unique stage persona, whether it's edde
Yezard or Bill Bailey or whoever it is. And then
once you've that's there, you're sort of that's kind of
stuck with that, really, And mine was always a bit
people pleaser and a bit of a facade. And most
(11:18):
performers have got something going on behind the facade in
most people have, you know. But if you can take
the facade down a bit and show a bit more
of the stuff that previously might feel brought was a
bit shameful or was embarrassing, then you're really onto something,
you know.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
But it takes a while to do that.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
And the book White Mouse Stand Up is about taking
that down and not being ashamed of things that weren't
my fault, and then creating something and knowing that the
audience out there and there are many people in the
audience who've had difficult experiences as children or other stories
of their own. And then once you get everyone in
(11:57):
a room, we're all in this together, right, And that's
the nicest thing about being a storyteller, really, yes, And
I really feel that, especially now when everyone's just on
their phones morning, noon, and night to get everyone in
a room, phones.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
In bike, it's just listening and it's nice. It's as
old as the hills, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
And it takes a bit of courage to do that too,
you know, to be honest about things.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
And for you to then have to you, for you
to come on stage, to be you know, sort of
it's the culmination of decades of doing what you do
across so many different things. But then to be to
let the curtain down of britt and show who you
are as a person and talk about your experiences. To
then have the audience respond to that. You must have
been terrified the first time you did it, and yet
(12:42):
the reaction has been this is the best way I've
ever seen of them.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
Yeah, it feels like that, and yes it is. You
are unsure about how much of it is really just
for you, you know, you don't want to be a
self indulgent performer, and no one likes that, but it's
a median. Ultimately, laughter is still the barometer. There's there's
still a needle going and you can't have silence in
(13:08):
the room unless that's what you want that moment, and
that's a really good comedian. There are them about the
I spy to be like, they're like conductors, you know,
the audience are making the noise that they want them
to make, and it's quite an amazing skill, you know
it is.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
So you're you're on Hamilton tonight.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Yeah, yeah, I'm on my way.
Speaker 6 (13:32):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
So Hamilton, You've got Auckland, Totdung and Napier, Wellington, new Plymouth,
Pariser North christ Church finishing in Dunedan once again Live
Nation dot co dot z. If you want tickets and
you want to see Allen Davies live, Alan, I'd just
like to say, for me personally, seriously, like watching you
on QI years ago, this is I'm watching stuff that's
like twenty years old, you know. And now I'm on
(13:53):
a comedy panel show here in New Zealand, a sports one,
and a lot of what I do on there is
based off of like Ellen is always just a big
goa and you were never trying to be correct or win,
and so I've taken that away and I genuinely apply
that to what I do here. So I just like say,
it's really nice to meet you.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
It's it's a safe route to humor.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Allan Davies what an absolute pleasure mate,
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