April 2, 2024 • 52 mins
Meet Bishop Briggs, a British-American singer and songwriter. Her single "River" peaked at number 3 on the US Alternative Chart and has been streamed more than 485 million times on Spotify. Listen to Bishop Briggs and Craig discuss her musical career, having kids and their special Scottish connection. This one is not to be missed. EnJOY and go listen her music now!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Craig Ferguson Fancy Rascal Stand Up to Her continues
throughout twenty twenty four. For a full list of dates
and tickets, go to the Craig Ferguson show dot com
slash tour. See you out there, the Greig Ferguson show
dot com slash Tour.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
My name is Craig Ferguson. The name of this podcast
is Joy. I talk to interest in people about what
brings them happiness.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Please welcome today an artist who is emerging as one
of the most important, powerful young voices in her field.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
She's also well she's not Scottish, but she's Scottish.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
You'll see Bishop Breaks.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
What I'm fascinated by because you work under the name
Bishop Breaks.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Yeah right, and of course what many people.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Outside of Scotland may not know as Bishop Brigs a
little town school. It's very very close to where I
grew up and I think I'm probably at the same
age as your parents, right because I'm sixty one?
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Do I know them? Well?
Speaker 3 (01:12):
They said the name of when when I this is
so like having parents that don't live in the US.
But I sent them a message through WhatsApp, right about this,
and they're like, oh, he lives in starts with a P.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
He's from prison to prison, He's from prison.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
He's from Pleasant. No, no, I must stay away from
him because he's he's telling you. I'm telling you, No,
I was from I was from Springburn. Okay, so springs
a P in there. There is second second letter.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
If you didn't get that from what I said.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
I did. Kind I knew where I was from even
before you started talking, so it wasn't a big deal
for me. Smart did you? You didn't grow up in Scotland.
It's a shame because I think you've got a very
Scottish accent. Do you go there a lot? Do your
parents still take you there? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (02:02):
That's like where I grew up going and our whole
my whole family still lives in Scotland and Meshop Briggs. Yeah,
but my mom and dad actually live in Hong Kong currently.
Just to make things a little.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Spicy, confusing, your parents sound very international? Yes, well I
grew up very internationally. Is that what happened?
Speaker 4 (02:19):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (02:19):
So my I was born it's just going to get
very confusing. But I was born in London and I
when I was four moved to Japan, not my own
that would be a too.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
It's strange.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Well have you ever seen that thing in Japanese? Steve?
Even they let four year old kids walk around? I know,
is that beautiful?
Speaker 3 (02:35):
That is a great way to describe growing up there,
I will say, really yeah, just so safe and like
just amazing culture.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
And I didn't go to Japan until I was god,
I don't know, like fifty years old or something, but
trying to go into Japan when I was young, I
wouldn't have come back. I had to go, and that stayed.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
It's a dream.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
It's a wonderful place.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Yeah, so live there for six years and then Hong
Kong eight years. So my mom and dad are still there.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
All right, what is it the why are they?
Speaker 4 (03:01):
What are they up to?
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Yeah? What are they spies?
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Well my dad is very charming and he does have
a gold chain that he wears every day.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Right, Okay, but no, it was just your dad, your dad.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
It's so weird because you do look like everyone in
my family.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
Yes, and that's why. And I think you'll understand this too.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
I think sometimes people are like, oh my gosh, you'll
get along so well, like what a great connection, which
is true. But you put them in this category of
family very quickly. Yeah, so you overshare, which is perfect
for today.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Well, it's I'm not going to make you overshare. I don't.
I don't want you to feed. Don't you don't feel guarded.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
You're not making me overshare. Your freckles are oh yeah,
you know what I mean, Like the features are.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
I think when you get into your sexties, they're not
freckles anymore. I think they're just like there's age, it's
not freckle as a young person's game.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
And I think now it's just like liver spots and stuff.
Oh my god, it's bad. But listen, so you go by,
you go to Scotland a lot. Then, yes, did you
listen to Scottish artists? You have a very dramatic and
big sound. As an artist, you're very intensely emotional. Your
your music is very emotional and very powerful, and I
(04:22):
wondered if there was any influence from Scotland in there.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Well, I will say growing up in Japan, I mean
there's influence from Scotland in the sense that my mum
and dad were obsessed with music, right, and so we
would go to karaoke bars, which at the time wasn't
weird being in a bar at that age, But.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
No, I still think karaoke is okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
And so that's where really where like I became obsessed
with music and got really into motown music and yeah,
and there was like this gospel choir teacher that appeared
at my school.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
That makes sense with how you how you ended up
as an artist or where you are right now is
an urbist anyway, because you are very It's it's big.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
It's like it's almost religious the stuff you do, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
So I played a show in Scotland. I want to
remember the place, really small place, but it's so iconic,
like every.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
There you go, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's the place.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Every like famous comedian has played there, yeah, everybody. But
what I didn't know and my dad told me after
because of course, you know, he came to the show,
which I'm so glad for, was it's quite an infamous
place where they will tell.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
You if they don't like you.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
At Glasgow, they will tell you sure.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
And just when you were asking if there was any
influence from Scotland, I was performing this is like the
first song and there's a little bit of a build up.
I hear the crowd saying something, but I don't recognize
what they're saying. It's not a lyric. It's sort of
like in between each lyric and they're going.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Here, we here, we here, we fucking.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Gold obsessed and anyways, I will say that energy of
like we're going to give our all, We're going to
put it all on the table.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
We are super present that I really relate to in
terms of music.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
I feel that that entry very a great description of
the Scottish audience as well. I started out when I
was doing stand up with Scottish audiences. And the thing
is about it what you describe is perfectly accurate that
it is. It's about how present they are. So it's
not that they're tough, it's just that they won't let
you get away with it. They're there, yes, and they
will be participating in the show, so you better be
(06:41):
as well. Yes, And I think that it's it's a
fascinating place.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
I don't live there anymore. I live in Hong Kong.
Where do you live now?
Speaker 4 (06:55):
I live in la.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
In Los Angeles?
Speaker 4 (06:58):
Yeah, what about you?
Speaker 2 (06:59):
I lived in Los ange Liz for twenty three years. Okay,
have you had a place called New York.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
No, it's a little time in the East Coast. It's
kind of a fishing village. It sounds interesting if you
like the smell of weed and peepee when you walk
around weed and peepee and peepee.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
Yeah, that's actually what I felt when I hugged you.
I said, oh, weed and peepee.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Woh no, way, come on, I'm no longer your father.
I don't. I don't have a daughter anymore. Peepe peep.
First of all, I don't I smoked weed in years.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
Do you smoke weeds?
Speaker 1 (07:36):
I don't.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Oh no, I've done it. Okay, I'll tell you something quick. Okay,
you went to the dentist. It's a first mistake.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
Why don't go?
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Don't go? Law?
Speaker 4 (07:48):
Well yeah, same now Scottish.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
It's the kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Well, so I go to the dentist and they're like, okay, amazing.
So how long have you been chained smoking?
Speaker 4 (07:58):
For yes?
Speaker 3 (08:00):
And I'm a vocalist, not that that excuses anything, but
so I was never into cigarettes, never smoked weed. Like
I was like, this is my thing, right, I need
to protect my vocals. But it really is like British teeth.
Scottish you know, it's a thing.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
You have a baby?
Speaker 4 (08:16):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Was it? Actually you're pregnant, Yes, yeah, it's a pregnancy.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
You're kidding.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
No, it happened to my wife too, really yeah, yeah
yeah yeah? When what was it? I don't know. There's
something affects your teeth.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
I think sometimes some women and my wife she's not Scottish,
but our background is Scottish.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Like, yes, And when our youngest was born, she.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Because she's got like American teeth, like you know, and
she had to get like she had cavities for the
first time and I had to get her wizen teeth
out and.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
All that stuff. Okay, so it's the baby. It's nothing.
It's not Scottish teeth. Okay, yeah, how about your baby?
Speaker 4 (08:49):
Needless, he's a year and a half.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Oh my god, are you getting any sleep? No?
Speaker 3 (08:55):
No, Well, honestly, right at this exact moment, I'm not
because do you know about this thing? Well, it's it's
way too boring. I definitely don't want to talk about it.
But it's the twenty month sleep regression. It's like this
infamous thing.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Is this anything sounds familiar? I didn't know there was
a name for it. But I had two children that
growing growing up. Well, the youngest one's thirteen, but they're
still they're growing up.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
There was a reason I was going to bring up
the teeth though it was related to something.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Because your baby's teething, maybe is that what's happening. No,
it was before for the child is chain smoking and weed,
and yeah, I was so went there you go, father,
But I still listened to you.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
But when he asked that, I instead of being like,
oh no, like I don't do those things, I was like,
I've smoked the weed three times in my life and
so unnecessary. And you could see he was just like,
I'm going to vomit, Like this is way too much information.
But so I have done it three times in my
life and I like three times. I cleaned my apartment
during it, and it was very, very positive experience.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
I did no care for weed at all. I mean
I took all the drugs, yeah, and the drink. I
took it all. And I hated weed the most. Weed
and speed were the two that I hated.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
Oh my god, I want to know all. I want
to know all your stories.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
I've never done drugs, you know what I think now,
I think that is by far. Like when I was
doing drugs, I haven't done drugs now going thirty two years.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Right, yeah, so I was younger than you are now
when I quit, right, And there was no phananel when
I was a kid, That's what I was going to say, right,
so there wasn't like that so scary now, oh my god,
like just you take it and you're dad, right. I
think I would a I don't know if i'd have
made it through that, right, because you can just you
just take crap that's lying around.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
Terrifying.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Yeah, it's awful.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
So I'm glad to hear you don't do drugs, me
and your father and your mother because we've all been
talking on.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
What's that exactly, know WhatsApp group you say that's coming
in to find that they don't call you beshop?
Speaker 3 (10:56):
Do they know they call me Sarah because so my
full name is Sara I McLaughlin.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
I knew that, which I can't use of course because.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
The beautiful there.
Speaker 5 (11:07):
Yeah, it was just like it wasn't really you are
fucking Scottish girl. You've got a fucking attitude of a
Scottish girl. You got way with nothing. I got away
with nothing going home.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Right, So so you don't do the drugs and you.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Don't do the drag because you said my mom and
daughter are listening right, So yeah, never done.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
No, but I actually have. I haven't I had.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
I don't get that vibe from you would were you're
drawing into music right away with you because you said
like your parents were obsessed with music. Yes, people of
especially Glaswegian specially Briggs of our generation me and your parents' generation.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
The music was everything, yes, everything. Yeah, it was all
music all the time, and American music mostly.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
And the shows that my dad went to, like it
was like, oh led Zeppelin came through. I'm like what,
You're just incredible everybody right, yes, yes, that's where he went.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
I saw Queen there like three times on the Sheer
Heart Tack album, and I mean it's like it's like
right at the beginning slash there, So I mean.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
It's there, you know, I mean it's I mean, if
you that'd be crazy.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
I love to meet. We probably have, especially if he's
charming with a gold chain. I bet you.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
I know.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
Well, his nickname is Cheeky Charlie.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Wait, Cheeky Charlie for Bishops. I'm pretty sure. I know,
I might even know money.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
I know you're joking, but there's a part of it
that feels real.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
It doesn't feel real. This is what's freaking me the
I think.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
But look, I bet ask your dad, like as your
mom and dad did they go to Maestros. Maestross is
another club they would have gone.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Oh my god, I bet you are saying things that
are really ringing a bell because that's one of the
places that they went to together.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
I performed there with an actor from Bishop Briggs. What, Yeah,
you know the actor of Peter Capaldi. Yes, Peters from
Bishop Briggs.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
Oh, I didn't know that.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
And I were in a band together when we were
eighteen nineteen years old as a drummer. Peter was a
singer Peers from Bishop Briggs and I'm from how I
grew up in Common All but I'm from Springbourne and
my mom used to work for his dad at the
ice cream pa.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
Oh my god, I know.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Anyway, so we used to perform there. So I bet
cheeky Charlie Bishop Briggs so has performing Oh yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Wow, it's really interesting too. Like I I was just
listening to something on the way over. I don't know,
I don't know why I can't revew am I not
going to? What was it?
Speaker 1 (13:39):
That's cuzy, You've got it base.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
It's this very provocative, sort of fun podcast called the
Canceled Podcast.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
All right.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
They were talking about really finding their way with being
on stage and and these two people, you know, they've
kind of turned into moguls, but they really at their
core are entertainers. You know, even if it's just them
talking on a stage, you know, people are there, they're
drawn in, right, And they were talking about different things
(14:07):
that they did growing up, you know, even like eighteen
onwards whatever, Right, different things they did to find what
they liked to do. But it actually was all under
the umbrella of entertaining, and some of it fell. Oh,
I don't know why. I don't really like this feeling.
And it's just interesting where your life took you and
(14:28):
what you you know, you're on stage playing drums, right,
but you do comedy, But do you do a talk show?
You know?
Speaker 4 (14:34):
It's like, but you find your thing as you go.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
You do.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
I think though that I I was talking to someone
with this recent actually because I've never been able to
find what I do. I don't really do I do.
I do whatever I do, But basically I guess it
goes back to stand up and really stand up. I
think stand up is a musician's discipline. True stand ups.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
I'm not talking about. There's a different type of stand
up now. There's those short form like forty five second
stuff or social media, and it's not any less valid.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
It's just a different thing, different thing. Yeah, But what
I do is a kind of long form, live thing.
That's what I do. Yes, and it has a I
do it like a show and a lot of stand ups,
you know, old timey stand ups that I'm friends with,
Jay Leno or you know people who who do it
like that. They think like musicians. Robin Williams always say
(15:28):
that as well. It's like jazz.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
So it's just you know, it's just you got your
improvis Did you watch his documentary?
Speaker 1 (15:34):
I did not, but oh it's so good. But we
were we were friends.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
Okay, Well it's very inspiring.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Yeah, but he was very inspiring. Man. Were you interested
in comedy at all?
Speaker 4 (15:44):
Comedy?
Speaker 3 (15:45):
No?
Speaker 4 (15:45):
No, well I didn't even think too.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Well, it's I don't know if you grew up in Japan,
it's not. Is it culturally a thing in Japan? Would
you see it? You speak Japanese?
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Okay, So in Japan I just relied on cuteness, you know.
That's how I got around. Cute, cute, so I didn't
have to do anything. In Hong Kong, I learned Mandarin
and Cantonese and studied French, so a bit all over
the place. Oh, I think it's good what I was
going to say though, And I wonder if you feel
this too. It's very humbling when your whole family's from Scotland,
because there's you don't actually think you're funny.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
Because everyone is.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Everyone's funny.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Everyone is funny and also like at times ten times funnier,
and they're like, no, I work at the bakery.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
So I'm impressed that you you I know exactly the
area that you're from, right, and I'm impressed that you've
still you know, went forward.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
You know, well, I just ran away. That's what it
was a fuck because everything else was funnier but smart. Yeah,
I mean yeah, Lewis Capaldi, who's Peter's nephew. Everybody's related,
like you're my daughter. I mean well my brother. Yeah, yeah,
(16:56):
it's all. It's all. It's all part of the same
five millions Scottish people, right, and that's enough though you
don't want any more than that.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
That's not true.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Oh, that's way more than enough. The Craig Ferguson Fancy
Rascals Stand Up Tour continues throughout the United States in
twenty twenty four. For a full list of dates and tickets,
go to the Craig Ferguson show dot com slash tour.
So you are there, listen. I want to talk to
(17:29):
you about the music though, because your music is singular
in the sense that it has a well I was
talking about earlier. But the drama and the and the
kind of the.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Bigness of you as an artist that at thirty is
quite that's where you are right at the thirty years old.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
It's huge. So what were you listening to when you
were a teenager when you were coming through.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
I was listening to Aretha Franklin.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Okay, edit, James, Yeah, it makes sense.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
Oh it is reading.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Yes, But then there was the whole angle of like
Queen Janis Joplin, so McJagger, you know, it's there was
still that performative aspect.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
I've never seen you live. Are you very well?
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Did you have to come to a show?
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Yeah, I would love to come to Well.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
I go crazy on stage, really, Oh yeah, I'm running
non stop, jumping up and down like laying on the ground.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
I love it crazy.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
You know.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
I worked with Mike Jagger for a while.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
What.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Yeah, we were writing now this. Yeah, well, I've got
to tell you this story because it's about performance. So
we were writing a screenplay together for a movie that
was never made. But during the Bridges to Babylon tour,
I was on tour with Meg and we were writing
during the day.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Stop that's true. Stop. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
So the first time I met him, I was in
Istanbul and he said, well, come to the Shadow and
you can say the because I'm going it's just a shoow.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
But you get an idea for it down the front.
And I was like all right.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
So I went to the show and I was down
the front and jeez, I mean, what a performer. He
really threw down and it was unbelievable. And then after
I was talking to him, we went out for dinner
stuff and I said, wow, you really threw down tonight.
It was just a midweek show. Yes, and he said,
it's always stayed with me, and I want you to
always remember this. He always said, Now I never pied money.
(19:10):
Is see someone who was shy. That is so good,
that fucking great, And he's like because he's not, he's
running around like crazy.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
When he's not on stage, he's an intelligent, thoughtful, clever
human being. But when he's out there, oh my god. Yes.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
I don't know if this is a Scottish thing or
if this is just a human thing, but I definitely
or maybe just being creative, but I definitely always have
that urgency to prove, you know, and even if like
the proving it's not necessarily validation, it's like proving that
like we are in sync, you know, like that we're
(19:48):
having we're sharing a human experience, or like I'm I
don't know something.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
No, I think you're right.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
I think it's an emotional desperation, right, I think it's
an existential crisis.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Actually it is. Well I don't get I mean.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
No, I'm laughing because I'm like, yeah, I think so.
I think I think that describes it perfectly.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Like the most alive I ever feel is like when
you're on a stage doesn't matter. It can be a
huge stage or it can be a tiny stage. But
when when I'm in tune with the audience and when
it's working, oh my god, and they're laughing, Oh I'm laughing,
and it's and it's like and it's to say, I've
talked to musicians about it. It's the same thing.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
You get into that area where information is coming in
from not you, yes, yes, yes, something else is happening.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
I always feel that.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Isn't that strange? Like I think athletes call it the
zone and all that stuff. There's something weird about it.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
It's funny because I love a good athlete documentary. Yeah,
because I really feel like and which is crazy, but
I do feel as though I can relate to that
headspace of like, no matter what your day has been, right,
you have to mentally put that to the side and
you know, finally step into joy, especially with like you know,
(20:57):
with what we're describing and.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
That shift you know, that focus, you know, and it has.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Something beautiful because it because it's it's where you can
be okay, yes, yes, you know when people say, how
could he go on stage?
Speaker 1 (21:10):
When that terrible thing happens, you go I totally understand.
Where else you going to fucking go right?
Speaker 3 (21:14):
You know?
Speaker 2 (21:15):
And it's like if you feel so bad, yes, uh,
you know you have to do something. You've a tragedy
in your life. I have a dragon, and it's like
you do it with that. Yeah, and it's it's like
you have to. It's relief.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
And the people that have gone to the show, not
the people that are talking about it. The people that
have gone to the show are like, oh, I'm so
glad you did that. Like, I'm so glad we got
to just have a moment take away there and like
actually be better in society now. You know.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Are you familiar with a comedian called Take nataro?
Speaker 3 (21:47):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (21:48):
It rings A.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Bella is a great comedian.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
She's a really really proper, real stand up I've seen
some little I may have probably online and stuff.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
She's very famous. Yeah, but take cancer diagnosis during the
day one day and she went up. She's famous for this.
She went up and did a show that night and
talked about it that night. I mean, she's on the
other side of it and stuff. She came very fair.
It was a big moment for her in her career talking.
(22:19):
But I totally understand why she did it. I totally
get it. People, how could she do that? Like, I
get why she did go forbid? I should ever have
to do it like that, but right, but I get
why she did.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
It and who was interesting. My husband is in music
as well, and so we have these you know, certain
days we both have writing sessions separately, and you know,
where you work with a producer you work with, And
there was one particular artist that he was supposed to
write with for her project, right, and she canceled because
(22:51):
of mental health that she was having tough mental health day, right,
And we were talking about how if we like we're
doing this because our mental.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Health is so poor, right, every day is a total.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Exactly, and so you know, I really felt for that
artist just I want to say that straight away, but
it was really interesting just the discussion that we both
had after of like, like, it's actually as much as
it's difficult to get up and go to said session,
it's so healing once you're there.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
And I feel that way with stage as well.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
Yes, the build up to doing that is so difficult,
and then when you're there, I feel such a sense
of feeling understood.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Yeah, or I am where I'm meant to be in
the universe. Yes. Are you a religious person?
Speaker 3 (23:37):
I would say I'm more spiritual, right yeah, okay, so
you're not churchy, but you're God conscious in some way right. Well,
you know, like it's very Scottish Irish Catholicism and it
is the thing, you know, But I definitely have learned
of other people's experiences and I'm like, okay, I did
not experience that, you know where it it sort of
(23:57):
there's a lot of guilt, like deep seated guilty.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
You probably escaped cheeky pusher breaks.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
And funny you say that because it really was all
cheeky Charlie yeah, him.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
Are you still close to your parents?
Speaker 4 (24:14):
Yeah, of course. I mean I thought them every day.
I'm obsessed with them.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Yeah, that's fantastic. Yeah, they did tell me that. By
the way, WhatsApp I do?
Speaker 4 (24:26):
I do?
Speaker 3 (24:27):
And by the way, my child, I'll show you a
picture after but bright blue eyes, the rosiest, rosiest cheeks,
and the palest.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
Skin, and I'm like, that's my uncle.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Jah, both my boys. Really.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Yeah, So it brings me so much joy because it's
just like it just looks like you know who you
grew up with you know.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Here's the thing about about your music. Then, did change
when you became a parent?
Speaker 3 (24:52):
You know?
Speaker 4 (24:52):
Honestly, I think, hm hmm, I'm not sure.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
There was so much that happened before I became a
mom that almost like becoming a mom was like I
can finally breathe, right, So I don't know, you know,
I don't know if that was the thing that changed it.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Yeah, I mean, and also it's it's also your kid
is for a year and a half, year and a half.
It's airly to know. I mean, these are big life shifts.
Speaker 4 (25:18):
I mean, I'm curious your answer. First of all, okay,
what's your answer to that?
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Well, what I became a parent. Yeah, it was a
complete story for me. I became a different person. It
was as significant in my life, but not in the
first day. It wasn't like that day.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
But the two biggest shifts in my life were getting
sober when I was twenty nine, and then when my
first son was born when I was thirty eight, and
I was like, I within about six months or something,
I was like, oh, it's different.
Speaker 4 (25:55):
It helps you prioritize.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Yeah, well, you go from being the star in the
movie of your own life to being an extra in
a movie of somebody else's life. Yes, you're a supporting player, right,
You're no longer cheeky Charlie. I know you know your
bishop breaks is mom yead mom and dad.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
And there was something I was going to tell you
there about what you're describing with Oh you know. I mean,
I'm curious if you feel this way too. But I
found it affected my tolerance for any negative relationships in
my life because now I felt like I was an example,
you know, to to this little person where it was like,
(26:37):
you're not. I also think I saw like a different
softness in myself. Now I had a little bit more
like kindness for myself. So when someone you know wasn't
super kind to me, I'd be like, hey, like I'm
a kind person. Like I now see myself as a mom.
So I now have like a deeper understanding of what
that all means, you know, I think.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
So I think it gets Look, it's not for everybody,
you know, people that don't have kids and do fine.
But I I don't know who I would be without
I haven't experienced that. I don't know what it would be.
Maybe i'd be something I didn't know. Here's my theory.
Most great philosophers, yes, don't have kids.
Speaker 4 (27:19):
I know it's well that they know of.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Well no, well I think they didn't. They weren't present. Yeah,
because they're because they always thinking about themselves. Okay, fuck
yourself anything. Here's the thing.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Have you ever been in a conversation with someone and
they're like, I don't want to have kids and there's
someone in the group that's like, oh my god, you
would love it.
Speaker 4 (27:43):
And I'm like, they know themselves better than we do.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Yeah, they really do.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
I think it's so it's one thing if someone's like,
there's there's a room in the conversation depending on what
it is. Sure, but when someone tells me I don't
want to have kids, I never saw that for myself.
I'm like, absolutely, you do your thing. Yeah, it's not
for everyone, no, but yeah, I definitely sense to shift
with becoming.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Yeah, did it priority?
Speaker 2 (28:09):
I mean, if it didn't have any effect on your
creative or you're not aware of it having an effect
on your creatively, maybe yet.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
Well, because I feel that thing that you described of
like it's an outer body experience. So it's hard for
me to say, you know, in that realm what it affects.
But I know that in the business side it affects priorities.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Yeah, my god, Well that's why I ended up doing
a fucking late night show because I was getting divorced
from my son's mom and I.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Was like, I can't be out of town. I need
a gig, which is in la I didn't know that.
Speaker 4 (28:45):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
That's why I ended up doing the Fly. I never
want to be a late What do I know about
late night television? Fucking classicow? But I was here and
I'm like, I need a gig.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
But it's interesting what your perspective is on that of
like what am I doing here? It's funny because that's
what connects it because then everyone can see a little
bit of themselves in you.
Speaker 4 (29:06):
You know, Yeah, it's interesting.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
It is.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
So here's my prediction for you. By the way, if
it hasn't already.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
I didn't know you were.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
Oh yeah, have you have you been asked to do
a song for a James Bond movie?
Speaker 4 (29:22):
My god, that is my goal.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Oh my god, it's so obvious that you have to
do it.
Speaker 4 (29:27):
Thank you so much. That is that is one hundred
percent my goal.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Really, yes, of course, of course I love that. I
love that for you because it feels like like the
big kind of Shirley Bassy. Yes, but my dad you
still say chilly Bassie. Oh, it's the old woman. He
loved Chili Bassie. I love Chili bass Oh my god, Goldfinger,
(29:51):
Oh yeah, we did me a favorite. You covered that song?
Speaker 4 (29:55):
Yes, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Maybe that's the start of everything. Well, if you are psychic,
I should start with that.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Yeah. Maybe.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
I mean, I don't know what they're going to do
with Bond because they killed them in the last one,
so they're gonna.
Speaker 4 (30:05):
Have to see I have Well, I'm psychic as well.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
You were going to say that.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
I also have a prediction, which is I think that
they should make a Bond movie that's just about the women,
like they're the Obviously it's all about the women, you know,
of course you see the movies. But I'm just saying
they are really like leading the way. I could just
see that happening.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
I don't know, I can see it happening too.
Speaker 4 (30:27):
I've been trying to write a song with that in mind, right,
a song for.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
A Bond movie that hasn't yet been made. I fucking
love that. Trying yeah, yeah, you'll do it.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
It's fine. Clearly you're qualified, it's fine. Are you very instrumental?
Speaker 3 (30:41):
Do you?
Speaker 1 (30:41):
What do you work on? What do you write?
Speaker 3 (30:43):
I play piano, right, yeah, but it's very sad charts.
There isn't a lot of happy court.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
The black Keys. Oh yeah, you got to use the
black keys because the way keys of the black Ones are. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (30:56):
Yeah, I do a little minor, yeah, a little minor
walk down.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
You ever aware of a Glaswegian artist called Alex Harvey?
Speaker 4 (31:03):
Yes, right, oh my god, yes, wow. You're saying so many.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
People that I tell you of Alex Harvey. I don't
know if it's true, but I heard this from somebody
that worked with the band. Alex died years and years ago.
He was a drinker and stuff. But the Sensational Alex
Harvey band wanted to do an album without him. So
his band wanted to do an album without him and
call it sab Cessational Alex Harvey Band without Alex. And
(31:30):
and they went to him and they said can we
do that?
Speaker 1 (31:32):
And he said, I you can on one condition And
they said, they said, you don't use the chord e.
And I don't know if that's true, but that is great.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Wow, But the legacy of musicians from that part of
the world's fascinated by musicians like bands like Mogai. I mean,
it's crazy the influence of you familiar with Roddy Frame.
Speaker 4 (32:04):
Oh my god, this is so crazy.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
I mean, you're just you're naming all the people that
you know, I grew up in my like were in
my home, you know, because of my.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Dad, right, because your dad and I have the same agent, right.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
And weirdly went to the same shows. Well, that's that's crazy, right,
It's still well, okay, here's the thing. Part of my
freak out, just for anyone that's listening, also is like
the craziness.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Of being in l a right, you know.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
And and also you know, Okay, here's the thing. There's
this do you know what my gym is? It's like
little toddler classes. I've spent so much, so many, so long,
so long. Anyways, there is this woman in there and
she has a thick Irish accent.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Yeah, I know, I know the gym you're talking about.
Speaker 4 (32:54):
Really.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Yeah, I've been there when my youngest was young.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
Oh my god, Okay, Yeah, She's never going to come
up to me and say I think you're from Donegal.
I think some of your family's from Donegal, and so
it can be. And by the way, I insert myself
in those situations, you know, if it's you know, the
right timing or whatever, where I'll be like, whereabouts are
you from? And I try and find that connection, you know, elsewhere.
But it's such a holding card to have an accent
(33:20):
which I don't have, right, you know, to feel connected
to others and for them to hear your voice across
the room and be like, hey are you from? Like
when my mom, My mom is literally a celebrity when
she's when she's in La.
Speaker 4 (33:31):
Right oh at the Ralphs. Yeah, we love Moira, Oh
we love My.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Parents used to come in there going now. But when
they were here, oh, it was all like that, like
La became a different place. Yes, you know Wu Tang clan. Yeah,
all right, snow. Rizza from Wutan. So we did this
bit on the Late Night show years and years ago.
(33:59):
My mom to visit and Rizza was on the show
and I said to Rizza, we this comedy, but like,
just take my mom out shore La film in the
car and He's like sure. So Rizza went out and
he took my mom to Roscoe's Chicken and waffles. It's
like this real scene, right, it's a scene and uh.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
But the thing is risen and my mom got on
really well, and so they kind of kept in touch.
And my mom my mom. My mom said to me
a couple of years later, she said, hey, son, tea
in the park is happening. I was like, uh huh,
he says a big it's a big rock festival. Mom.
She went, yeah, well, I've just noticed on the listings
that Wu Tang are coming. I went, yeah, Wood Tang.
(34:40):
I probably went well. I was thinking I might get
in touch with Rizza because I was going to take
I was going to take the ladies from my fright,
it's care to see Wu Tang. I was like, I'm
not sure, Mom, I'm.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
Not yeah, and we say I'm not sure, and then
they write directly and then yeah, we got.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
I think if it would happen now that she would
have gone, but social media wasn't quite where it was then,
or she would have just they would have gone touch
and done it.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
Because he's a great guy. He's a lovely man. So
I love the idea of my mom.
Speaker 4 (35:13):
And do you have that other band?
Speaker 1 (35:15):
Yeah, he said a lot of different projects.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
Okay, because I think I performed with him at Coachella.
I came out as a guest and I sang the
Florence and the Machine part. Oh my god, if this
is ringing a bell for me?
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Yeah, yeah, I'm with that musically literate enough to.
Speaker 4 (35:29):
But and he was the nicest person in the entire world.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Well that sounds like, yeah, so much charisma, very charismatic.
It doesn't shy away from marijuana as much as you
and I do.
Speaker 4 (35:43):
Marijuana pep.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
I don't know about the pepe, but you can't sell
the pep over the under the marijuana. But I think
that it's fascinating to me because you have a very
odd story. So you grew up in Hong Kong, yes,
and then how do you end up here? Well?
Speaker 3 (36:01):
I just thought, la is you know where I thought
I was going to come down the escalator at LAX. Yeah,
I would say, who is that amazing vocalist over there?
Speaker 1 (36:12):
Right that?
Speaker 3 (36:13):
And and if you could see what I looked like
a you know, not that it matters, but if you
could have seen what that person looked like, yeah, twenty
ten me, Yeah, it was, it was.
Speaker 4 (36:22):
It was a look. It was definitely a look.
Speaker 3 (36:24):
And yeah, but so that's why I came here as
it should be, as it should be. I mean, you're
trying to make an impression.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
You were what twenty No.
Speaker 4 (36:32):
I was seventeen and a half.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Seventeen and a half. Yeah, Charlie must have been his
fucking skin.
Speaker 3 (36:38):
Oh he was. And but my sister was going to
school here, so she was two years older than me, right,
so that I had someone.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Here right now? Okay, yeah, oh okay, that's that's a
story then.
Speaker 4 (36:50):
Yeah, so that made a big difference. Economics major, just
like me. No, I'm joking. No, I went to school
in Hollywood Boulevard.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
Did you. Yes, musicians Institute really.
Speaker 4 (37:01):
Yes, we're all acclaimed.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
So you're right on the piano. Yes, do you play
only the piano? Yeah, you play the guitar?
Speaker 4 (37:11):
No, Well, I took classic guitar, but it was it
was not for me really, yes.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Why now, why would an instrument not be for you?
Speaker 3 (37:21):
Well, this, in particular was because I was socializing too
much in the class. Unfortunately, it was unfortunate.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
And that that has nothing to do with the guitar.
Speaker 4 (37:30):
That's I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (37:31):
That's why I said it very softly, like, oh, it
wasn't for me, you know, like nothing to the guitar,
but also there is it is a totally different thing
to learn.
Speaker 4 (37:41):
Oh sure, yeah, what do you play everything?
Speaker 1 (37:43):
Drums?
Speaker 2 (37:43):
I play a little guitar, but I'm bad at it.
I'm so bad at it. I don't I Don'm not
good enough at it to allow myself to let anyone
hear at it.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
But I can. I can drum a bit. I'm all right.
I love that. Yeah, and that's okay. Do you know
Katie Tunstall? Oh, my god, of course, just like my
like one of my bad friends. You know her?
Speaker 3 (38:01):
Know her?
Speaker 1 (38:01):
Yeah, Oh my god, you never met her. No, she's
the greatest.
Speaker 3 (38:05):
She started, she started the entire movement of of everything
I know, truly, even doing the loop pedal. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
She's amazing. Yeah, I know. I mean she's like it's
like it's like one old one man band with the
guy with the symbols on his knees and it's like
the bass drum on his back, and she's unbelievable. Yeah,
that is.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
By the way, do you feel that you attract musicians
in your life, because like, at your core you are
a musician.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
I think like a musician, and I toured like a musician,
and you know, and you met Tomas who works Tomass
Like when he's not working with me, he works with
Dinosaur Junr. You know what I mean, He's Yeah, I
my world. I'm more comfortable like that, right because as
corporate as the world is, yes, and particularly in music, has.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
A terrible corporation kind of infestation at the music business.
But it's core the actual performers are still many of
them are still pure in the sense of that they
have the kind of that I want to say, rock
and roll because but you know what I mean, that
kind of like iconoclastic kind of fuck you attitude. Yes,
(39:18):
that I think is that's a clutch mechanism that exists
between us and them, right, And because I think the corporation,
like what I was doing late night, I love to
do the show, yeah, but dealing with fucking television executives,
you know, I mean, yes.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
It gets old. And in your business.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
I think it might be changing about though, with social media,
is it where you guys can get directly to your
audience again or not?
Speaker 1 (39:47):
Right?
Speaker 4 (39:47):
Well, I mean I kind of wonder. Yeah, I'm interested
to know how much late Night.
Speaker 3 (39:53):
I mean, it feels like late night isn't evolving at
the same pace as other things, because I just think
if you did a little you know, selfie video to
TikTok saying like an example of what one of your
jokes was going to be for you know, the opening
monologue or something, and it did really well, this is
the equivalent of with music, that little clip did really well. Right,
then you just show it to the TV execs, right,
(40:16):
and they say, oh, of course you can use that joke.
Look how well it did. There's like proof of concept.
But I just wonder what it would be now.
Speaker 4 (40:23):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
I don't know what it would be.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
I mean with with executives, it wasn't so much the
joke by joke thing or note by note thing. It
was more it was more about the general kind of vibe, like,
you know, don't be too much like this, don't be
too much like that, don't say too much like this,
don't don't go there.
Speaker 4 (40:45):
You know, And I think I could imagine it to
be very isolating.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
It's the worst you gotta be careful of that.
Speaker 2 (40:52):
The more successfully become because you got some big fucking
shit in front of you. You should be very careful
because success is I've looked, I've had some myself, and
I've seen others get it, and it's extremely dangerous.
Speaker 3 (41:05):
Yeah. I mean, this is sort of a very specific story,
but I had I tried this this new therapist, and
I had sort of taken a break from therapy being pregnanty,
you know, all this stuff. And so I tried this
new therapist and I'm sharing, you know, the worst periods
of life, you know, and that's what I'm sharing. She goes,
(41:27):
you just seem very comfortable, and I was like, oh, good,
you know, wait whatever. Then she goes, oh, you know,
there's just you just yeah, you're quite charming something like that. Okay,
And I realized as the conversation is going, and I've
by the way, and I feel like I can imagine
you doing this too. I have worked really hard to,
especially if I'm in a therapy situation or something where
(41:49):
I'm seeking help, to really undo any performative things. I'm
not there to be funny, I'm not there.
Speaker 1 (41:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (41:55):
And so I was really, you know, not not in
that space. But I realized as it was progressing, and
that was really what she was taking out. She couldn't
stop that, you know, like that commentary, and I realized
that's why so many comedians, that's why so many people
that are in entertainment. They start to feel so isolated
(42:17):
because now I'm in a situation where I'm letting her down.
You know, I'm being a bummer. Now, you know, if
I really lean it, she she's really being entertained. And
now I'm gonna I'm gonna, you know, be such a bummer.
So now I feel like I can't share. And then
there's something with you know, maybe they find out what
you do and they don't have a full awareness or
scope of what that means, so then it seems very glittery.
(42:39):
Then it's very exciting. Yeah, and so now okay, I'll
tell you something. Halfway through, she goes.
Speaker 4 (42:46):
Does that?
Speaker 3 (42:47):
She goes, is it a guy that you worked with?
And I was like, no, she goes, I was just
wondering if it was another one of my clients. Then
you're but I left feeling so isolated because it was
like the pain isn't a loud And then also by
the way, when they are like, wow, that's so cool
that you did X, Y, and Z, then you're like
(43:09):
absolutely like, I'm so grateful for that.
Speaker 4 (43:12):
That's you know, it's not that I'm not you know,
And then you're does that make any sense?
Speaker 1 (43:17):
Of course it does. Okay, I'll shoot I'll tell you
an exact example. When I knew that I was going
to leave late night television in my heart, here's what
it was.
Speaker 4 (43:26):
Tell me.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
I was walking in the building. I was about halfway
through the run. I was about five years in, and
I you know, I walk by, as I did every day.
You get your parking space, and you walk in. There's
my name's and big layers there, and I walk in,
and my pictures everywhere, my picture everywhere with really famous
people in the world. Yeah, my pictures everywhere, and my
name's on all the stationary and and everybody I meet,
(43:48):
some people are actually wearing jackets and stuff with my
name on their jackets. And yeah, and everybody I meet,
about one hundred and fifty people that work there. Everybody
I run into, all they want to do is make
sure I'm okay mmm. And that's not right, right, that's
not fucking right. I Mean, it sounds like it'd be fun,
but it's.
Speaker 3 (44:09):
Weird because and if you're not, then you've now ruined
their day. They're very stressed trying to sort it.
Speaker 2 (44:15):
They're trying to figure it out. Of course, it may
not be any to do with them. Like you come
in like you you get indigestion, and they're like, God,
he's on the war path, you know, and I'm like,
not in the war. I have to go to the bathroom,
you know.
Speaker 3 (44:27):
I mean it's like, well, because you're you're always on,
which I think is what messes with your brain.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
That's why I think you have to That's why I'm
very grateful to my children because all the ways through
late night, my children were young, and so they just they.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
Balanced all of that right right anywhere. Yes, it was
like sho Showbaz.
Speaker 2 (44:48):
And then we finished filming at six o'clock and I
was home changing diapers by half past six.
Speaker 3 (44:55):
Do you when you speak to other people that were
also late night hosts, don't really.
Speaker 1 (45:01):
It's not a community.
Speaker 4 (45:02):
It's not like a you know, there's only like a handful.
Speaker 3 (45:05):
I know.
Speaker 1 (45:05):
Jamie Kimmel said that to me once, he said we
should get together. There's so few of us.
Speaker 4 (45:09):
Yeah, I'm like, but do they share the same experience
that you?
Speaker 1 (45:12):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (45:13):
I think I've talked to I remember when Seth Myers
was starting, he said he called me because it's kind
of the thing you do as you call around and
I was congratulating them and stuff, and I said, you'll
go crazy and he said, no, I won't go crazy.
And then I did his show a few years later
and I said, have you gone crazy yet? And he
hadn't and I don't And I don't think he has
gone crazy yet, So maybe maybe it was me.
Speaker 3 (45:37):
No. I think it also depends on how much is
being micromanaged too. Yeah, you know, when they're like, you
have to ask this specific question this, I don't know,
just it takes out any the formality of it takes
turns into like a robot.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
Yeah, I guess. I mean Lenno and I have friends
and he's, uh, but what's his history Scottish mother?
Speaker 3 (45:57):
Really?
Speaker 4 (45:58):
Oh my god, dam up?
Speaker 1 (46:00):
Yeah. In the stand up mother, oh my god, you
said you're you do you have relations in Donegall?
Speaker 4 (46:07):
Yeah, so that's my dad's side of the family.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
Like Grannie MacGuire was from Donegal. I bet we really,
we really bet you we are McGuire maguire maguire from
from Donegall.
Speaker 4 (46:18):
Macy.
Speaker 1 (46:19):
Yeah, by McGuire from Donegall, she married my grandfather.
Speaker 4 (46:26):
Yeah wow, that's okay, we'll have to do something.
Speaker 1 (46:30):
Yeah. And then the north end of Glasgow with all
that Irish Donegall yeah probably yeah, wow, Yeah that's weird.
Speaker 4 (46:37):
That is weird.
Speaker 2 (46:38):
Yeah, but Beesy McGuire married a Protestant so they stopped.
Oh yeah, which was a big deal.
Speaker 4 (46:44):
That's a very big deal.
Speaker 3 (46:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:45):
Yeah, and I was raised I mean yeah, but I
was yeah.
Speaker 3 (46:50):
Yeah, And what's your connection to faith? Just because you
asked me, I'm just curious.
Speaker 1 (46:57):
I feel like it's uh, I'm very are you familiar
with Saint Augustine, you know when he said trying to
understand the mind of God is like trying to pour
the ocean into a cup. Wow. I was like, okay,
that I really connect to that.
Speaker 4 (47:15):
Yes, I think it's such a loaded question.
Speaker 1 (47:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (47:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
It's when I meet atheists and very intelligent people, some
of them many, and they have this kind of unshakable
I know thing, and I'm like, it seems very fundamental
a stance for such an intelligent questioning person, right. I
remember having a conversation with Stephen Fry about it, and
Stephen said, because Stephen's an atheist, and I said.
Speaker 4 (47:40):
Do you see casual you having a conversation with him?
Speaker 1 (47:45):
But will be and Stephen and Jicky Charlie Briggs were
all at the same age. I haven't known Stein for
a long time. And he said, when people say do
you believe in God, it's really you've got to define
the word God before you start, yes, asking that question.
I mean, is it's such a big giant thing. Yes.
Speaker 4 (48:03):
Also, I mean.
Speaker 1 (48:07):
No, I don't buy that.
Speaker 4 (48:08):
Yeah, but I don't. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (48:11):
I don't know how far into this we go, but
I will say so I've I've been an alan on
you know for many many years, and my partner is
openly sober and and so like that community is very
and I'm not a drinker, right, So that is all
(48:31):
at the forefront. I wouldn't say sober just because I
know what he does and it feels different from what
I'm doing. But regardless, and one of the biggest first
things they say is like, have the idea of God
be whatever?
Speaker 1 (48:48):
What does you understand it?
Speaker 3 (48:49):
There we go, Yeah, absolutely, And that was really freeing
for him with his history with religion, and you know,
and I think it was.
Speaker 1 (48:56):
Really hear.
Speaker 2 (48:59):
It was all that goddam God thing. But I get sober.
I get sober in London, but very early on I
went to Glasgow because I had to kind of repair myself.
And I'm in meetings with people who were members of
the Coenist Party. There's they're atheists, right, you know, but
they're but they're sober. So there is a there.
Speaker 1 (49:16):
I mean, I don't it doesn't frighten me away all
that the idea of God.
Speaker 4 (49:21):
But I also think that's something that the program helps with.
Speaker 3 (49:23):
Is like it it's an undoing and like it's it's
a very I will say for like our relationship and
our lives, Like our life is the definition of like
the gift that sobriety can give you.
Speaker 1 (49:37):
And so with that mine too. Yeah, nothing in my
life before sobriety. So yeah, nothing, Yes, there's nothing before.
It's nothing. It's like it's like the world before Little Richard.
There's nothing. Yes, you know.
Speaker 4 (49:52):
Did you watch the podcast about Little Richard?
Speaker 3 (49:54):
No?
Speaker 1 (49:54):
Okay, you need to fucking love a little Richard.
Speaker 4 (49:57):
Okay, Well there's a lot going on.
Speaker 1 (49:59):
Really was he a bad boy?
Speaker 3 (50:01):
No?
Speaker 4 (50:01):
He was missing and some people you did.
Speaker 1 (50:05):
He was on the old late night show.
Speaker 4 (50:07):
Oh you know what, they used clips from your show.
Speaker 1 (50:10):
I look forward to the check. Yeah, it was amazing.
Speaker 3 (50:16):
Yes, well yeah they show you saying that oh really yeah,
as in showing his brightness and incredible you know, energy,
and yeah, just making sure he's okay. It was like
the summary of the podcast. But it's very very good.
Speaker 1 (50:29):
Yeah, it's so good.
Speaker 4 (50:30):
I don't know the name, it's just oh, it's so good. Yeah,
look it up, I can talk.
Speaker 2 (50:34):
Will you come back and do another episode because I
feel like we've only scratched the surface.
Speaker 4 (50:39):
I would love that.
Speaker 1 (50:40):
And we've been talking for by an hour. They're waving
at me from the booth.
Speaker 4 (50:46):
Oh my god, literally it's felt like ten minutes.
Speaker 1 (50:48):
Yeah I know. Yeah, but so let's do it again
and give your mom and dad my best Moira and
Chazz and Chazz fucking bad. I know them. We'll definitely know,
we'll definitely know.
Speaker 4 (51:03):
Every time you say I bet I know them, your
accent gets thicker.
Speaker 2 (51:06):
Well, yeah, because I'm excited about it. Did you did
your parents accents changed when they moved? Because that gets
such a fucking hard time from people in Scotland about
my accent.
Speaker 3 (51:18):
Yeah, they would they had to slow down the way
they were talking, right, Yeah, especially if they were excited.
Speaker 4 (51:24):
Oh my god, if my dad's telling you a joke,
Oh it's over.
Speaker 1 (51:27):
Which for me that's difficult in my line of work.
But all right, look we'll do this again.
Speaker 2 (51:35):
We will you in the meantime, will write the Bond thing, right,
write the Bond song, because you're clearly.
Speaker 1 (51:42):
Destined to do that. Thank you. I would love that,
and it's it's been an absolute joy of me.
Speaker 4 (51:48):
Thank you too.
Speaker 1 (52:00):
No
The Craig Ferguson Fancy Rascal Stand Up to Her continues
throughout twenty twenty four. For a full list of dates
and tickets, go to the Craig Ferguson show dot com
slash tour. See you out there, the Greig Ferguson show
dot com slash Tour.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
My name is Craig Ferguson. The name of this podcast
is Joy. I talk to interest in people about what
brings them happiness.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Please welcome today an artist who is emerging as one
of the most important, powerful young voices in her field.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
She's also well she's not Scottish, but she's Scottish.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
You'll see Bishop Breaks.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
What I'm fascinated by because you work under the name
Bishop Breaks.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Yeah right, and of course what many people.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Outside of Scotland may not know as Bishop Brigs a
little town school. It's very very close to where I
grew up and I think I'm probably at the same
age as your parents, right because I'm sixty one?
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Do I know them? Well?
Speaker 3 (01:12):
They said the name of when when I this is
so like having parents that don't live in the US.
But I sent them a message through WhatsApp, right about this,
and they're like, oh, he lives in starts with a P.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
He's from prison to prison, He's from prison.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
He's from Pleasant. No, no, I must stay away from
him because he's he's telling you. I'm telling you, No,
I was from I was from Springburn. Okay, so springs
a P in there. There is second second letter.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
If you didn't get that from what I said.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
I did. Kind I knew where I was from even
before you started talking, so it wasn't a big deal
for me. Smart did you? You didn't grow up in Scotland.
It's a shame because I think you've got a very
Scottish accent. Do you go there a lot? Do your
parents still take you there? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (02:02):
That's like where I grew up going and our whole
my whole family still lives in Scotland and Meshop Briggs. Yeah,
but my mom and dad actually live in Hong Kong currently.
Just to make things a little.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Spicy, confusing, your parents sound very international? Yes, well I
grew up very internationally. Is that what happened?
Speaker 4 (02:19):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (02:19):
So my I was born it's just going to get
very confusing. But I was born in London and I
when I was four moved to Japan, not my own
that would be a too.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
It's strange.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Well have you ever seen that thing in Japanese? Steve?
Even they let four year old kids walk around? I know,
is that beautiful?
Speaker 3 (02:35):
That is a great way to describe growing up there,
I will say, really yeah, just so safe and like
just amazing culture.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
And I didn't go to Japan until I was god,
I don't know, like fifty years old or something, but
trying to go into Japan when I was young, I
wouldn't have come back. I had to go, and that stayed.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
It's a dream.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
It's a wonderful place.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Yeah, so live there for six years and then Hong
Kong eight years. So my mom and dad are still there.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
All right, what is it the why are they?
Speaker 4 (03:01):
What are they up to?
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Yeah? What are they spies?
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Well my dad is very charming and he does have
a gold chain that he wears every day.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Right, Okay, but no, it was just your dad, your dad.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
It's so weird because you do look like everyone in
my family.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
Yes, and that's why. And I think you'll understand this too.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
I think sometimes people are like, oh my gosh, you'll
get along so well, like what a great connection, which
is true. But you put them in this category of
family very quickly. Yeah, so you overshare, which is perfect
for today.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Well, it's I'm not going to make you overshare. I don't.
I don't want you to feed. Don't you don't feel guarded.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
You're not making me overshare. Your freckles are oh yeah,
you know what I mean, Like the features are.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
I think when you get into your sexties, they're not
freckles anymore. I think they're just like there's age, it's
not freckle as a young person's game.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
And I think now it's just like liver spots and stuff.
Oh my god, it's bad. But listen, so you go by,
you go to Scotland a lot. Then, yes, did you
listen to Scottish artists? You have a very dramatic and
big sound. As an artist, you're very intensely emotional. Your
your music is very emotional and very powerful, and I
(04:22):
wondered if there was any influence from Scotland in there.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Well, I will say growing up in Japan, I mean
there's influence from Scotland in the sense that my mum
and dad were obsessed with music, right, and so we
would go to karaoke bars, which at the time wasn't
weird being in a bar at that age, But.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
No, I still think karaoke is okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
And so that's where really where like I became obsessed
with music and got really into motown music and yeah,
and there was like this gospel choir teacher that appeared
at my school.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
That makes sense with how you how you ended up
as an artist or where you are right now is
an urbist anyway, because you are very It's it's big.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
It's like it's almost religious the stuff you do, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
So I played a show in Scotland. I want to
remember the place, really small place, but it's so iconic,
like every.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
There you go, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's the place.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Every like famous comedian has played there, yeah, everybody. But
what I didn't know and my dad told me after
because of course, you know, he came to the show,
which I'm so glad for, was it's quite an infamous
place where they will tell.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
You if they don't like you.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
At Glasgow, they will tell you sure.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
And just when you were asking if there was any
influence from Scotland, I was performing this is like the
first song and there's a little bit of a build up.
I hear the crowd saying something, but I don't recognize
what they're saying. It's not a lyric. It's sort of
like in between each lyric and they're going.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Here, we here, we here, we fucking.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Gold obsessed and anyways, I will say that energy of
like we're going to give our all, We're going to
put it all on the table.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
We are super present that I really relate to in
terms of music.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
I feel that that entry very a great description of
the Scottish audience as well. I started out when I
was doing stand up with Scottish audiences. And the thing
is about it what you describe is perfectly accurate that
it is. It's about how present they are. So it's
not that they're tough, it's just that they won't let
you get away with it. They're there, yes, and they
will be participating in the show, so you better be
(06:41):
as well. Yes, And I think that it's it's a
fascinating place.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
I don't live there anymore. I live in Hong Kong.
Where do you live now?
Speaker 4 (06:55):
I live in la.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
In Los Angeles?
Speaker 4 (06:58):
Yeah, what about you?
Speaker 2 (06:59):
I lived in Los ange Liz for twenty three years. Okay,
have you had a place called New York.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
No, it's a little time in the East Coast. It's
kind of a fishing village. It sounds interesting if you
like the smell of weed and peepee when you walk
around weed and peepee and peepee.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
Yeah, that's actually what I felt when I hugged you.
I said, oh, weed and peepee.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Woh no, way, come on, I'm no longer your father.
I don't. I don't have a daughter anymore. Peepe peep.
First of all, I don't I smoked weed in years.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
Do you smoke weeds?
Speaker 1 (07:36):
I don't.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Oh no, I've done it. Okay, I'll tell you something quick. Okay,
you went to the dentist. It's a first mistake.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
Why don't go?
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Don't go? Law?
Speaker 4 (07:48):
Well yeah, same now Scottish.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
It's the kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Well, so I go to the dentist and they're like, okay, amazing.
So how long have you been chained smoking?
Speaker 4 (07:58):
For yes?
Speaker 3 (08:00):
And I'm a vocalist, not that that excuses anything, but
so I was never into cigarettes, never smoked weed. Like
I was like, this is my thing, right, I need
to protect my vocals. But it really is like British teeth.
Scottish you know, it's a thing.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
You have a baby?
Speaker 4 (08:16):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Was it? Actually you're pregnant, Yes, yeah, it's a pregnancy.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
You're kidding.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
No, it happened to my wife too, really yeah, yeah
yeah yeah? When what was it? I don't know. There's
something affects your teeth.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
I think sometimes some women and my wife she's not Scottish,
but our background is Scottish.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Like, yes, And when our youngest was born, she.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Because she's got like American teeth, like you know, and
she had to get like she had cavities for the
first time and I had to get her wizen teeth
out and.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
All that stuff. Okay, so it's the baby. It's nothing.
It's not Scottish teeth. Okay, yeah, how about your baby?
Speaker 4 (08:49):
Needless, he's a year and a half.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Oh my god, are you getting any sleep? No?
Speaker 3 (08:55):
No, Well, honestly, right at this exact moment, I'm not
because do you know about this thing? Well, it's it's
way too boring. I definitely don't want to talk about it.
But it's the twenty month sleep regression. It's like this
infamous thing.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Is this anything sounds familiar? I didn't know there was
a name for it. But I had two children that
growing growing up. Well, the youngest one's thirteen, but they're
still they're growing up.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
There was a reason I was going to bring up
the teeth though it was related to something.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Because your baby's teething, maybe is that what's happening. No,
it was before for the child is chain smoking and weed,
and yeah, I was so went there you go, father,
But I still listened to you.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
But when he asked that, I instead of being like,
oh no, like I don't do those things, I was like,
I've smoked the weed three times in my life and
so unnecessary. And you could see he was just like,
I'm going to vomit, Like this is way too much information.
But so I have done it three times in my
life and I like three times. I cleaned my apartment
during it, and it was very, very positive experience.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
I did no care for weed at all. I mean
I took all the drugs, yeah, and the drink. I
took it all. And I hated weed the most. Weed
and speed were the two that I hated.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
Oh my god, I want to know all. I want
to know all your stories.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
I've never done drugs, you know what I think now,
I think that is by far. Like when I was
doing drugs, I haven't done drugs now going thirty two years.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Right, yeah, so I was younger than you are now
when I quit, right, And there was no phananel when
I was a kid, That's what I was going to say, right,
so there wasn't like that so scary now, oh my god,
like just you take it and you're dad, right. I
think I would a I don't know if i'd have
made it through that, right, because you can just you
just take crap that's lying around.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
Terrifying.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Yeah, it's awful.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
So I'm glad to hear you don't do drugs, me
and your father and your mother because we've all been
talking on.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
What's that exactly, know WhatsApp group you say that's coming
in to find that they don't call you beshop?
Speaker 3 (10:56):
Do they know they call me Sarah because so my
full name is Sara I McLaughlin.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
I knew that, which I can't use of course because.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
The beautiful there.
Speaker 5 (11:07):
Yeah, it was just like it wasn't really you are
fucking Scottish girl. You've got a fucking attitude of a
Scottish girl. You got way with nothing. I got away
with nothing going home.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Right, So so you don't do the drugs and you.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Don't do the drag because you said my mom and
daughter are listening right, So yeah, never done.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
No, but I actually have. I haven't I had.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
I don't get that vibe from you would were you're
drawing into music right away with you because you said
like your parents were obsessed with music. Yes, people of
especially Glaswegian specially Briggs of our generation me and your parents' generation.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
The music was everything, yes, everything. Yeah, it was all
music all the time, and American music mostly.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
And the shows that my dad went to, like it
was like, oh led Zeppelin came through. I'm like what,
You're just incredible everybody right, yes, yes, that's where he went.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
I saw Queen there like three times on the Sheer
Heart Tack album, and I mean it's like it's like
right at the beginning slash there, So I mean.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
It's there, you know, I mean it's I mean, if
you that'd be crazy.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
I love to meet. We probably have, especially if he's
charming with a gold chain. I bet you.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
I know.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
Well, his nickname is Cheeky Charlie.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Wait, Cheeky Charlie for Bishops. I'm pretty sure. I know,
I might even know money.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
I know you're joking, but there's a part of it
that feels real.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
It doesn't feel real. This is what's freaking me the
I think.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
But look, I bet ask your dad, like as your
mom and dad did they go to Maestros. Maestross is
another club they would have gone.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Oh my god, I bet you are saying things that
are really ringing a bell because that's one of the
places that they went to together.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
I performed there with an actor from Bishop Briggs. What, Yeah,
you know the actor of Peter Capaldi. Yes, Peters from
Bishop Briggs.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
Oh, I didn't know that.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
And I were in a band together when we were
eighteen nineteen years old as a drummer. Peter was a
singer Peers from Bishop Briggs and I'm from how I
grew up in Common All but I'm from Springbourne and
my mom used to work for his dad at the
ice cream pa.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
Oh my god, I know.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Anyway, so we used to perform there. So I bet
cheeky Charlie Bishop Briggs so has performing Oh yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Wow, it's really interesting too. Like I I was just
listening to something on the way over. I don't know,
I don't know why I can't revew am I not
going to? What was it?
Speaker 1 (13:39):
That's cuzy, You've got it base.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
It's this very provocative, sort of fun podcast called the
Canceled Podcast.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
All right.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
They were talking about really finding their way with being
on stage and and these two people, you know, they've
kind of turned into moguls, but they really at their
core are entertainers. You know, even if it's just them
talking on a stage, you know, people are there, they're
drawn in, right, And they were talking about different things
(14:07):
that they did growing up, you know, even like eighteen
onwards whatever, Right, different things they did to find what
they liked to do. But it actually was all under
the umbrella of entertaining, and some of it fell. Oh,
I don't know why. I don't really like this feeling.
And it's just interesting where your life took you and
(14:28):
what you you know, you're on stage playing drums, right,
but you do comedy, But do you do a talk show?
You know?
Speaker 4 (14:34):
It's like, but you find your thing as you go.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
You do.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
I think though that I I was talking to someone
with this recent actually because I've never been able to
find what I do. I don't really do I do.
I do whatever I do, But basically I guess it
goes back to stand up and really stand up. I
think stand up is a musician's discipline. True stand ups.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
I'm not talking about. There's a different type of stand
up now. There's those short form like forty five second
stuff or social media, and it's not any less valid.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
It's just a different thing, different thing. Yeah, But what
I do is a kind of long form, live thing.
That's what I do. Yes, and it has a I
do it like a show and a lot of stand ups,
you know, old timey stand ups that I'm friends with,
Jay Leno or you know people who who do it
like that. They think like musicians. Robin Williams always say
(15:28):
that as well. It's like jazz.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
So it's just you know, it's just you got your
improvis Did you watch his documentary?
Speaker 1 (15:34):
I did not, but oh it's so good. But we
were we were friends.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
Okay, Well it's very inspiring.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Yeah, but he was very inspiring. Man. Were you interested
in comedy at all?
Speaker 4 (15:44):
Comedy?
Speaker 3 (15:45):
No?
Speaker 4 (15:45):
No, well I didn't even think too.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Well, it's I don't know if you grew up in Japan,
it's not. Is it culturally a thing in Japan? Would
you see it? You speak Japanese?
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Okay, So in Japan I just relied on cuteness, you know.
That's how I got around. Cute, cute, so I didn't
have to do anything. In Hong Kong, I learned Mandarin
and Cantonese and studied French, so a bit all over
the place. Oh, I think it's good what I was
going to say though, And I wonder if you feel
this too. It's very humbling when your whole family's from Scotland,
because there's you don't actually think you're funny.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
Because everyone is.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Everyone's funny.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Everyone is funny and also like at times ten times funnier,
and they're like, no, I work at the bakery.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
So I'm impressed that you you I know exactly the
area that you're from, right, and I'm impressed that you've
still you know, went forward.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
You know, well, I just ran away. That's what it
was a fuck because everything else was funnier but smart. Yeah,
I mean yeah, Lewis Capaldi, who's Peter's nephew. Everybody's related,
like you're my daughter. I mean well my brother. Yeah, yeah,
(16:56):
it's all. It's all. It's all part of the same
five millions Scottish people, right, and that's enough though you
don't want any more than that.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
That's not true.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Oh, that's way more than enough. The Craig Ferguson Fancy
Rascals Stand Up Tour continues throughout the United States in
twenty twenty four. For a full list of dates and tickets,
go to the Craig Ferguson show dot com slash tour.
So you are there, listen. I want to talk to
(17:29):
you about the music though, because your music is singular
in the sense that it has a well I was
talking about earlier. But the drama and the and the
kind of the.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Bigness of you as an artist that at thirty is
quite that's where you are right at the thirty years old.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
It's huge. So what were you listening to when you
were a teenager when you were coming through.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
I was listening to Aretha Franklin.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Okay, edit, James, Yeah, it makes sense.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
Oh it is reading.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Yes, But then there was the whole angle of like
Queen Janis Joplin, so McJagger, you know, it's there was
still that performative aspect.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
I've never seen you live. Are you very well?
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Did you have to come to a show?
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Yeah, I would love to come to Well.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
I go crazy on stage, really, Oh yeah, I'm running
non stop, jumping up and down like laying on the ground.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
I love it crazy.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
You know.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
I worked with Mike Jagger for a while.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
What.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Yeah, we were writing now this. Yeah, well, I've got
to tell you this story because it's about performance. So
we were writing a screenplay together for a movie that
was never made. But during the Bridges to Babylon tour,
I was on tour with Meg and we were writing
during the day.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Stop that's true. Stop. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
So the first time I met him, I was in
Istanbul and he said, well, come to the Shadow and
you can say the because I'm going it's just a shoow.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
But you get an idea for it down the front.
And I was like all right.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
So I went to the show and I was down
the front and jeez, I mean, what a performer. He
really threw down and it was unbelievable. And then after
I was talking to him, we went out for dinner
stuff and I said, wow, you really threw down tonight.
It was just a midweek show. Yes, and he said,
it's always stayed with me, and I want you to
always remember this. He always said, Now I never pied money.
(19:10):
Is see someone who was shy. That is so good,
that fucking great, And he's like because he's not, he's
running around like crazy.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
When he's not on stage, he's an intelligent, thoughtful, clever
human being. But when he's out there, oh my god. Yes.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
I don't know if this is a Scottish thing or
if this is just a human thing, but I definitely
or maybe just being creative, but I definitely always have
that urgency to prove, you know, and even if like
the proving it's not necessarily validation, it's like proving that
like we are in sync, you know, like that we're
(19:48):
having we're sharing a human experience, or like I'm I
don't know something.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
No, I think you're right.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
I think it's an emotional desperation, right, I think it's
an existential crisis.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Actually it is. Well I don't get I mean.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
No, I'm laughing because I'm like, yeah, I think so.
I think I think that describes it perfectly.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Like the most alive I ever feel is like when
you're on a stage doesn't matter. It can be a
huge stage or it can be a tiny stage. But
when when I'm in tune with the audience and when
it's working, oh my god, and they're laughing, Oh I'm laughing,
and it's and it's like and it's to say, I've
talked to musicians about it. It's the same thing.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
You get into that area where information is coming in
from not you, yes, yes, yes, something else is happening.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
I always feel that.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Isn't that strange? Like I think athletes call it the
zone and all that stuff. There's something weird about it.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
It's funny because I love a good athlete documentary. Yeah,
because I really feel like and which is crazy, but
I do feel as though I can relate to that
headspace of like, no matter what your day has been, right,
you have to mentally put that to the side and
you know, finally step into joy, especially with like you know,
(20:57):
with what we're describing and.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
That shift you know, that focus, you know, and it has.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Something beautiful because it because it's it's where you can
be okay, yes, yes, you know when people say, how
could he go on stage?
Speaker 1 (21:10):
When that terrible thing happens, you go I totally understand.
Where else you going to fucking go right?
Speaker 3 (21:14):
You know?
Speaker 2 (21:15):
And it's like if you feel so bad, yes, uh,
you know you have to do something. You've a tragedy
in your life. I have a dragon, and it's like
you do it with that. Yeah, and it's it's like
you have to. It's relief.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
And the people that have gone to the show, not
the people that are talking about it. The people that
have gone to the show are like, oh, I'm so
glad you did that. Like, I'm so glad we got
to just have a moment take away there and like
actually be better in society now. You know.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Are you familiar with a comedian called Take nataro?
Speaker 3 (21:47):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (21:48):
It rings A.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Bella is a great comedian.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
She's a really really proper, real stand up I've seen
some little I may have probably online and stuff.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
She's very famous. Yeah, but take cancer diagnosis during the
day one day and she went up. She's famous for this.
She went up and did a show that night and
talked about it that night. I mean, she's on the
other side of it and stuff. She came very fair.
It was a big moment for her in her career talking.
(22:19):
But I totally understand why she did it. I totally
get it. People, how could she do that? Like, I
get why she did go forbid? I should ever have
to do it like that, but right, but I get
why she did.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
It and who was interesting. My husband is in music
as well, and so we have these you know, certain
days we both have writing sessions separately, and you know,
where you work with a producer you work with, And
there was one particular artist that he was supposed to
write with for her project, right, and she canceled because
(22:51):
of mental health that she was having tough mental health day, right,
And we were talking about how if we like we're
doing this because our mental.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Health is so poor, right, every day is a total.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Exactly, and so you know, I really felt for that
artist just I want to say that straight away, but
it was really interesting just the discussion that we both
had after of like, like, it's actually as much as
it's difficult to get up and go to said session,
it's so healing once you're there.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
And I feel that way with stage as well.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
Yes, the build up to doing that is so difficult,
and then when you're there, I feel such a sense
of feeling understood.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Yeah, or I am where I'm meant to be in
the universe. Yes. Are you a religious person?
Speaker 3 (23:37):
I would say I'm more spiritual, right yeah, okay, so
you're not churchy, but you're God conscious in some way right. Well,
you know, like it's very Scottish Irish Catholicism and it
is the thing, you know, But I definitely have learned
of other people's experiences and I'm like, okay, I did
not experience that, you know where it it sort of
(23:57):
there's a lot of guilt, like deep seated guilty.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
You probably escaped cheeky pusher breaks.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
And funny you say that because it really was all
cheeky Charlie yeah, him.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
Are you still close to your parents?
Speaker 4 (24:14):
Yeah, of course. I mean I thought them every day.
I'm obsessed with them.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Yeah, that's fantastic. Yeah, they did tell me that. By
the way, WhatsApp I do?
Speaker 4 (24:26):
I do?
Speaker 3 (24:27):
And by the way, my child, I'll show you a
picture after but bright blue eyes, the rosiest, rosiest cheeks,
and the palest.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
Skin, and I'm like, that's my uncle.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Jah, both my boys. Really.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Yeah, So it brings me so much joy because it's
just like it just looks like you know who you
grew up with you know.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Here's the thing about about your music. Then, did change
when you became a parent?
Speaker 3 (24:52):
You know?
Speaker 4 (24:52):
Honestly, I think, hm hmm, I'm not sure.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
There was so much that happened before I became a
mom that almost like becoming a mom was like I
can finally breathe, right, So I don't know, you know,
I don't know if that was the thing that changed it.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Yeah, I mean, and also it's it's also your kid
is for a year and a half, year and a half.
It's airly to know. I mean, these are big life shifts.
Speaker 4 (25:18):
I mean, I'm curious your answer. First of all, okay,
what's your answer to that?
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Well, what I became a parent. Yeah, it was a
complete story for me. I became a different person. It
was as significant in my life, but not in the
first day. It wasn't like that day.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
But the two biggest shifts in my life were getting
sober when I was twenty nine, and then when my
first son was born when I was thirty eight, and
I was like, I within about six months or something,
I was like, oh, it's different.
Speaker 4 (25:55):
It helps you prioritize.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Yeah, well, you go from being the star in the
movie of your own life to being an extra in
a movie of somebody else's life. Yes, you're a supporting player, right,
You're no longer cheeky Charlie. I know you know your
bishop breaks is mom yead mom and dad.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
And there was something I was going to tell you
there about what you're describing with Oh you know. I mean,
I'm curious if you feel this way too. But I
found it affected my tolerance for any negative relationships in
my life because now I felt like I was an example,
you know, to to this little person where it was like,
(26:37):
you're not. I also think I saw like a different
softness in myself. Now I had a little bit more
like kindness for myself. So when someone you know wasn't
super kind to me, I'd be like, hey, like I'm
a kind person. Like I now see myself as a mom.
So I now have like a deeper understanding of what
that all means, you know, I think.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
So I think it gets Look, it's not for everybody,
you know, people that don't have kids and do fine.
But I I don't know who I would be without
I haven't experienced that. I don't know what it would be.
Maybe i'd be something I didn't know. Here's my theory.
Most great philosophers, yes, don't have kids.
Speaker 4 (27:19):
I know it's well that they know of.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Well no, well I think they didn't. They weren't present. Yeah,
because they're because they always thinking about themselves. Okay, fuck
yourself anything. Here's the thing.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Have you ever been in a conversation with someone and
they're like, I don't want to have kids and there's
someone in the group that's like, oh my god, you
would love it.
Speaker 4 (27:43):
And I'm like, they know themselves better than we do.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Yeah, they really do.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
I think it's so it's one thing if someone's like,
there's there's a room in the conversation depending on what
it is. Sure, but when someone tells me I don't
want to have kids, I never saw that for myself.
I'm like, absolutely, you do your thing. Yeah, it's not
for everyone, no, but yeah, I definitely sense to shift
with becoming.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Yeah, did it priority?
Speaker 2 (28:09):
I mean, if it didn't have any effect on your
creative or you're not aware of it having an effect
on your creatively, maybe yet.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
Well, because I feel that thing that you described of
like it's an outer body experience. So it's hard for
me to say, you know, in that realm what it affects.
But I know that in the business side it affects priorities.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Yeah, my god, Well that's why I ended up doing
a fucking late night show because I was getting divorced
from my son's mom and I.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Was like, I can't be out of town. I need
a gig, which is in la I didn't know that.
Speaker 4 (28:45):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
That's why I ended up doing the Fly. I never
want to be a late What do I know about
late night television? Fucking classicow? But I was here and
I'm like, I need a gig.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
But it's interesting what your perspective is on that of
like what am I doing here? It's funny because that's
what connects it because then everyone can see a little
bit of themselves in you.
Speaker 4 (29:06):
You know, Yeah, it's interesting.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
It is.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
So here's my prediction for you. By the way, if
it hasn't already.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
I didn't know you were.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
Oh yeah, have you have you been asked to do
a song for a James Bond movie?
Speaker 4 (29:22):
My god, that is my goal.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Oh my god, it's so obvious that you have to
do it.
Speaker 4 (29:27):
Thank you so much. That is that is one hundred
percent my goal.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Really, yes, of course, of course I love that. I
love that for you because it feels like like the
big kind of Shirley Bassy. Yes, but my dad you
still say chilly Bassie. Oh, it's the old woman. He
loved Chili Bassie. I love Chili bass Oh my god, Goldfinger,
(29:51):
Oh yeah, we did me a favorite. You covered that song?
Speaker 4 (29:55):
Yes, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Maybe that's the start of everything. Well, if you are psychic,
I should start with that.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Yeah. Maybe.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
I mean, I don't know what they're going to do
with Bond because they killed them in the last one,
so they're gonna.
Speaker 4 (30:05):
Have to see I have Well, I'm psychic as well.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
You were going to say that.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
I also have a prediction, which is I think that
they should make a Bond movie that's just about the women,
like they're the Obviously it's all about the women, you know,
of course you see the movies. But I'm just saying
they are really like leading the way. I could just
see that happening.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
I don't know, I can see it happening too.
Speaker 4 (30:27):
I've been trying to write a song with that in mind, right,
a song for.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
A Bond movie that hasn't yet been made. I fucking
love that. Trying yeah, yeah, you'll do it.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
It's fine. Clearly you're qualified, it's fine. Are you very instrumental?
Speaker 3 (30:41):
Do you?
Speaker 1 (30:41):
What do you work on? What do you write?
Speaker 3 (30:43):
I play piano, right, yeah, but it's very sad charts.
There isn't a lot of happy court.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
The black Keys. Oh yeah, you got to use the
black keys because the way keys of the black Ones are. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (30:56):
Yeah, I do a little minor, yeah, a little minor
walk down.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
You ever aware of a Glaswegian artist called Alex Harvey?
Speaker 4 (31:03):
Yes, right, oh my god, yes, wow. You're saying so many.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
People that I tell you of Alex Harvey. I don't
know if it's true, but I heard this from somebody
that worked with the band. Alex died years and years ago.
He was a drinker and stuff. But the Sensational Alex
Harvey band wanted to do an album without him. So
his band wanted to do an album without him and
call it sab Cessational Alex Harvey Band without Alex. And
(31:30):
and they went to him and they said can we
do that?
Speaker 1 (31:32):
And he said, I you can on one condition And
they said, they said, you don't use the chord e.
And I don't know if that's true, but that is great.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Wow, But the legacy of musicians from that part of
the world's fascinated by musicians like bands like Mogai. I mean,
it's crazy the influence of you familiar with Roddy Frame.
Speaker 4 (32:04):
Oh my god, this is so crazy.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
I mean, you're just you're naming all the people that
you know, I grew up in my like were in
my home, you know, because of my.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Dad, right, because your dad and I have the same agent, right.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
And weirdly went to the same shows. Well, that's that's crazy, right,
It's still well, okay, here's the thing. Part of my
freak out, just for anyone that's listening, also is like
the craziness.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Of being in l a right, you know.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
And and also you know, Okay, here's the thing. There's
this do you know what my gym is? It's like
little toddler classes. I've spent so much, so many, so long,
so long. Anyways, there is this woman in there and
she has a thick Irish accent.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Yeah, I know, I know the gym you're talking about.
Speaker 4 (32:54):
Really.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Yeah, I've been there when my youngest was young.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
Oh my god, Okay, Yeah, She's never going to come
up to me and say I think you're from Donegal.
I think some of your family's from Donegal, and so
it can be. And by the way, I insert myself
in those situations, you know, if it's you know, the
right timing or whatever, where I'll be like, whereabouts are
you from? And I try and find that connection, you know, elsewhere.
But it's such a holding card to have an accent
(33:20):
which I don't have, right, you know, to feel connected
to others and for them to hear your voice across
the room and be like, hey are you from? Like
when my mom, My mom is literally a celebrity when
she's when she's in La.
Speaker 4 (33:31):
Right oh at the Ralphs. Yeah, we love Moira, Oh
we love My.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Parents used to come in there going now. But when
they were here, oh, it was all like that, like
La became a different place. Yes, you know Wu Tang clan. Yeah,
all right, snow. Rizza from Wutan. So we did this
bit on the Late Night show years and years ago.
(33:59):
My mom to visit and Rizza was on the show
and I said to Rizza, we this comedy, but like,
just take my mom out shore La film in the
car and He's like sure. So Rizza went out and
he took my mom to Roscoe's Chicken and waffles. It's
like this real scene, right, it's a scene and uh.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
But the thing is risen and my mom got on
really well, and so they kind of kept in touch.
And my mom my mom. My mom said to me
a couple of years later, she said, hey, son, tea
in the park is happening. I was like, uh huh,
he says a big it's a big rock festival. Mom.
She went, yeah, well, I've just noticed on the listings
that Wu Tang are coming. I went, yeah, Wood Tang.
(34:40):
I probably went well. I was thinking I might get
in touch with Rizza because I was going to take
I was going to take the ladies from my fright,
it's care to see Wu Tang. I was like, I'm
not sure, Mom, I'm.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
Not yeah, and we say I'm not sure, and then
they write directly and then yeah, we got.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
I think if it would happen now that she would
have gone, but social media wasn't quite where it was then,
or she would have just they would have gone touch
and done it.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
Because he's a great guy. He's a lovely man. So
I love the idea of my mom.
Speaker 4 (35:13):
And do you have that other band?
Speaker 1 (35:15):
Yeah, he said a lot of different projects.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
Okay, because I think I performed with him at Coachella.
I came out as a guest and I sang the
Florence and the Machine part. Oh my god, if this
is ringing a bell for me?
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Yeah, yeah, I'm with that musically literate enough to.
Speaker 4 (35:29):
But and he was the nicest person in the entire world.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Well that sounds like, yeah, so much charisma, very charismatic.
It doesn't shy away from marijuana as much as you
and I do.
Speaker 4 (35:43):
Marijuana pep.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
I don't know about the pepe, but you can't sell
the pep over the under the marijuana. But I think
that it's fascinating to me because you have a very
odd story. So you grew up in Hong Kong, yes,
and then how do you end up here? Well?
Speaker 3 (36:01):
I just thought, la is you know where I thought
I was going to come down the escalator at LAX. Yeah,
I would say, who is that amazing vocalist over there?
Speaker 1 (36:12):
Right that?
Speaker 3 (36:13):
And and if you could see what I looked like
a you know, not that it matters, but if you
could have seen what that person looked like, yeah, twenty
ten me, Yeah, it was, it was.
Speaker 4 (36:22):
It was a look. It was definitely a look.
Speaker 3 (36:24):
And yeah, but so that's why I came here as
it should be, as it should be. I mean, you're
trying to make an impression.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
You were what twenty No.
Speaker 4 (36:32):
I was seventeen and a half.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Seventeen and a half. Yeah, Charlie must have been his
fucking skin.
Speaker 3 (36:38):
Oh he was. And but my sister was going to
school here, so she was two years older than me, right,
so that I had someone.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Here right now? Okay, yeah, oh okay, that's that's a
story then.
Speaker 4 (36:50):
Yeah, so that made a big difference. Economics major, just
like me. No, I'm joking. No, I went to school
in Hollywood Boulevard.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
Did you. Yes, musicians Institute really.
Speaker 4 (37:01):
Yes, we're all acclaimed.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
So you're right on the piano. Yes, do you play
only the piano? Yeah, you play the guitar?
Speaker 4 (37:11):
No, Well, I took classic guitar, but it was it
was not for me really, yes.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Why now, why would an instrument not be for you?
Speaker 3 (37:21):
Well, this, in particular was because I was socializing too
much in the class. Unfortunately, it was unfortunate.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
And that that has nothing to do with the guitar.
Speaker 4 (37:30):
That's I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (37:31):
That's why I said it very softly, like, oh, it
wasn't for me, you know, like nothing to the guitar,
but also there is it is a totally different thing
to learn.
Speaker 4 (37:41):
Oh sure, yeah, what do you play everything?
Speaker 1 (37:43):
Drums?
Speaker 2 (37:43):
I play a little guitar, but I'm bad at it.
I'm so bad at it. I don't I Don'm not
good enough at it to allow myself to let anyone
hear at it.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
But I can. I can drum a bit. I'm all right.
I love that. Yeah, and that's okay. Do you know
Katie Tunstall? Oh, my god, of course, just like my
like one of my bad friends. You know her?
Speaker 3 (38:01):
Know her?
Speaker 1 (38:01):
Yeah, Oh my god, you never met her. No, she's
the greatest.
Speaker 3 (38:05):
She started, she started the entire movement of of everything
I know, truly, even doing the loop pedal. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
She's amazing. Yeah, I know. I mean she's like it's
like it's like one old one man band with the
guy with the symbols on his knees and it's like
the bass drum on his back, and she's unbelievable. Yeah,
that is.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
By the way, do you feel that you attract musicians
in your life, because like, at your core you are
a musician.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
I think like a musician, and I toured like a musician,
and you know, and you met Tomas who works Tomass
Like when he's not working with me, he works with
Dinosaur Junr. You know what I mean, He's Yeah, I
my world. I'm more comfortable like that, right because as
corporate as the world is, yes, and particularly in music, has.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
A terrible corporation kind of infestation at the music business.
But it's core the actual performers are still many of
them are still pure in the sense of that they
have the kind of that I want to say, rock
and roll because but you know what I mean, that
kind of like iconoclastic kind of fuck you attitude. Yes,
(39:18):
that I think is that's a clutch mechanism that exists
between us and them, right, And because I think the corporation,
like what I was doing late night, I love to
do the show, yeah, but dealing with fucking television executives,
you know, I mean, yes.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
It gets old. And in your business.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
I think it might be changing about though, with social media,
is it where you guys can get directly to your
audience again or not?
Speaker 1 (39:47):
Right?
Speaker 4 (39:47):
Well, I mean I kind of wonder. Yeah, I'm interested
to know how much late Night.
Speaker 3 (39:53):
I mean, it feels like late night isn't evolving at
the same pace as other things, because I just think
if you did a little you know, selfie video to
TikTok saying like an example of what one of your
jokes was going to be for you know, the opening
monologue or something, and it did really well, this is
the equivalent of with music, that little clip did really well. Right,
then you just show it to the TV execs, right,
(40:16):
and they say, oh, of course you can use that joke.
Look how well it did. There's like proof of concept.
But I just wonder what it would be now.
Speaker 4 (40:23):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
I don't know what it would be.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
I mean with with executives, it wasn't so much the
joke by joke thing or note by note thing. It
was more it was more about the general kind of vibe, like,
you know, don't be too much like this, don't be
too much like that, don't say too much like this,
don't don't go there.
Speaker 4 (40:45):
You know, And I think I could imagine it to
be very isolating.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
It's the worst you gotta be careful of that.
Speaker 2 (40:52):
The more successfully become because you got some big fucking
shit in front of you. You should be very careful
because success is I've looked, I've had some myself, and
I've seen others get it, and it's extremely dangerous.
Speaker 3 (41:05):
Yeah. I mean, this is sort of a very specific story,
but I had I tried this this new therapist, and
I had sort of taken a break from therapy being pregnanty,
you know, all this stuff. And so I tried this
new therapist and I'm sharing, you know, the worst periods
of life, you know, and that's what I'm sharing. She goes,
(41:27):
you just seem very comfortable, and I was like, oh, good,
you know, wait whatever. Then she goes, oh, you know,
there's just you just yeah, you're quite charming something like that. Okay,
And I realized as the conversation is going, and I've
by the way, and I feel like I can imagine
you doing this too. I have worked really hard to,
especially if I'm in a therapy situation or something where
(41:49):
I'm seeking help, to really undo any performative things. I'm
not there to be funny, I'm not there.
Speaker 1 (41:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (41:55):
And so I was really, you know, not not in
that space. But I realized as it was progressing, and
that was really what she was taking out. She couldn't
stop that, you know, like that commentary, and I realized
that's why so many comedians, that's why so many people
that are in entertainment. They start to feel so isolated
(42:17):
because now I'm in a situation where I'm letting her down.
You know, I'm being a bummer. Now, you know, if
I really lean it, she she's really being entertained. And
now I'm gonna I'm gonna, you know, be such a bummer.
So now I feel like I can't share. And then
there's something with you know, maybe they find out what
you do and they don't have a full awareness or
scope of what that means, so then it seems very glittery.
(42:39):
Then it's very exciting. Yeah, and so now okay, I'll
tell you something. Halfway through, she goes.
Speaker 4 (42:46):
Does that?
Speaker 3 (42:47):
She goes, is it a guy that you worked with?
And I was like, no, she goes, I was just
wondering if it was another one of my clients. Then
you're but I left feeling so isolated because it was
like the pain isn't a loud And then also by
the way, when they are like, wow, that's so cool
that you did X, Y, and Z, then you're like
(43:09):
absolutely like, I'm so grateful for that.
Speaker 4 (43:12):
That's you know, it's not that I'm not you know,
And then you're does that make any sense?
Speaker 1 (43:17):
Of course it does. Okay, I'll shoot I'll tell you
an exact example. When I knew that I was going
to leave late night television in my heart, here's what
it was.
Speaker 4 (43:26):
Tell me.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
I was walking in the building. I was about halfway
through the run. I was about five years in, and
I you know, I walk by, as I did every day.
You get your parking space, and you walk in. There's
my name's and big layers there, and I walk in,
and my pictures everywhere, my picture everywhere with really famous
people in the world. Yeah, my pictures everywhere, and my
name's on all the stationary and and everybody I meet,
(43:48):
some people are actually wearing jackets and stuff with my
name on their jackets. And yeah, and everybody I meet,
about one hundred and fifty people that work there. Everybody
I run into, all they want to do is make
sure I'm okay mmm. And that's not right, right, that's
not fucking right. I Mean, it sounds like it'd be fun,
but it's.
Speaker 3 (44:09):
Weird because and if you're not, then you've now ruined
their day. They're very stressed trying to sort it.
Speaker 2 (44:15):
They're trying to figure it out. Of course, it may
not be any to do with them. Like you come
in like you you get indigestion, and they're like, God,
he's on the war path, you know, and I'm like,
not in the war. I have to go to the bathroom,
you know.
Speaker 3 (44:27):
I mean it's like, well, because you're you're always on,
which I think is what messes with your brain.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
That's why I think you have to That's why I'm
very grateful to my children because all the ways through
late night, my children were young, and so they just they.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
Balanced all of that right right anywhere. Yes, it was
like sho Showbaz.
Speaker 2 (44:48):
And then we finished filming at six o'clock and I
was home changing diapers by half past six.
Speaker 3 (44:55):
Do you when you speak to other people that were
also late night hosts, don't really.
Speaker 1 (45:01):
It's not a community.
Speaker 4 (45:02):
It's not like a you know, there's only like a handful.
Speaker 3 (45:05):
I know.
Speaker 1 (45:05):
Jamie Kimmel said that to me once, he said we
should get together. There's so few of us.
Speaker 4 (45:09):
Yeah, I'm like, but do they share the same experience
that you?
Speaker 1 (45:12):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (45:13):
I think I've talked to I remember when Seth Myers
was starting, he said he called me because it's kind
of the thing you do as you call around and
I was congratulating them and stuff, and I said, you'll
go crazy and he said, no, I won't go crazy.
And then I did his show a few years later
and I said, have you gone crazy yet? And he
hadn't and I don't And I don't think he has
gone crazy yet, So maybe maybe it was me.
Speaker 3 (45:37):
No. I think it also depends on how much is
being micromanaged too. Yeah, you know, when they're like, you
have to ask this specific question this, I don't know,
just it takes out any the formality of it takes
turns into like a robot.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
Yeah, I guess. I mean Lenno and I have friends
and he's, uh, but what's his history Scottish mother?
Speaker 3 (45:57):
Really?
Speaker 4 (45:58):
Oh my god, dam up?
Speaker 1 (46:00):
Yeah. In the stand up mother, oh my god, you
said you're you do you have relations in Donegall?
Speaker 4 (46:07):
Yeah, so that's my dad's side of the family.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
Like Grannie MacGuire was from Donegal. I bet we really,
we really bet you we are McGuire maguire maguire from
from Donegall.
Speaker 4 (46:18):
Macy.
Speaker 1 (46:19):
Yeah, by McGuire from Donegall, she married my grandfather.
Speaker 4 (46:26):
Yeah wow, that's okay, we'll have to do something.
Speaker 1 (46:30):
Yeah. And then the north end of Glasgow with all
that Irish Donegall yeah probably yeah, wow, Yeah that's weird.
Speaker 4 (46:37):
That is weird.
Speaker 2 (46:38):
Yeah, but Beesy McGuire married a Protestant so they stopped.
Oh yeah, which was a big deal.
Speaker 4 (46:44):
That's a very big deal.
Speaker 3 (46:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:45):
Yeah, and I was raised I mean yeah, but I
was yeah.
Speaker 3 (46:50):
Yeah, And what's your connection to faith? Just because you
asked me, I'm just curious.
Speaker 1 (46:57):
I feel like it's uh, I'm very are you familiar
with Saint Augustine, you know when he said trying to
understand the mind of God is like trying to pour
the ocean into a cup. Wow. I was like, okay,
that I really connect to that.
Speaker 4 (47:15):
Yes, I think it's such a loaded question.
Speaker 1 (47:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (47:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
It's when I meet atheists and very intelligent people, some
of them many, and they have this kind of unshakable
I know thing, and I'm like, it seems very fundamental
a stance for such an intelligent questioning person, right. I
remember having a conversation with Stephen Fry about it, and
Stephen said, because Stephen's an atheist, and I said.
Speaker 4 (47:40):
Do you see casual you having a conversation with him?
Speaker 1 (47:45):
But will be and Stephen and Jicky Charlie Briggs were
all at the same age. I haven't known Stein for
a long time. And he said, when people say do
you believe in God, it's really you've got to define
the word God before you start, yes, asking that question.
I mean, is it's such a big giant thing. Yes.
Speaker 4 (48:03):
Also, I mean.
Speaker 1 (48:07):
No, I don't buy that.
Speaker 4 (48:08):
Yeah, but I don't. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (48:11):
I don't know how far into this we go, but
I will say so I've I've been an alan on
you know for many many years, and my partner is
openly sober and and so like that community is very
and I'm not a drinker, right, So that is all
(48:31):
at the forefront. I wouldn't say sober just because I
know what he does and it feels different from what
I'm doing. But regardless, and one of the biggest first
things they say is like, have the idea of God
be whatever?
Speaker 1 (48:48):
What does you understand it?
Speaker 3 (48:49):
There we go, Yeah, absolutely, And that was really freeing
for him with his history with religion, and you know,
and I think it was.
Speaker 1 (48:56):
Really hear.
Speaker 2 (48:59):
It was all that goddam God thing. But I get sober.
I get sober in London, but very early on I
went to Glasgow because I had to kind of repair myself.
And I'm in meetings with people who were members of
the Coenist Party. There's they're atheists, right, you know, but
they're but they're sober. So there is a there.
Speaker 1 (49:16):
I mean, I don't it doesn't frighten me away all
that the idea of God.
Speaker 4 (49:21):
But I also think that's something that the program helps with.
Speaker 3 (49:23):
Is like it it's an undoing and like it's it's
a very I will say for like our relationship and
our lives, Like our life is the definition of like
the gift that sobriety can give you.
Speaker 1 (49:37):
And so with that mine too. Yeah, nothing in my
life before sobriety. So yeah, nothing, Yes, there's nothing before.
It's nothing. It's like it's like the world before Little Richard.
There's nothing. Yes, you know.
Speaker 4 (49:52):
Did you watch the podcast about Little Richard?
Speaker 3 (49:54):
No?
Speaker 1 (49:54):
Okay, you need to fucking love a little Richard.
Speaker 4 (49:57):
Okay, Well there's a lot going on.
Speaker 1 (49:59):
Really was he a bad boy?
Speaker 3 (50:01):
No?
Speaker 4 (50:01):
He was missing and some people you did.
Speaker 1 (50:05):
He was on the old late night show.
Speaker 4 (50:07):
Oh you know what, they used clips from your show.
Speaker 1 (50:10):
I look forward to the check. Yeah, it was amazing.
Speaker 3 (50:16):
Yes, well yeah they show you saying that oh really yeah,
as in showing his brightness and incredible you know, energy,
and yeah, just making sure he's okay. It was like
the summary of the podcast. But it's very very good.
Speaker 1 (50:29):
Yeah, it's so good.
Speaker 4 (50:30):
I don't know the name, it's just oh, it's so good. Yeah,
look it up, I can talk.
Speaker 2 (50:34):
Will you come back and do another episode because I
feel like we've only scratched the surface.
Speaker 4 (50:39):
I would love that.
Speaker 1 (50:40):
And we've been talking for by an hour. They're waving
at me from the booth.
Speaker 4 (50:46):
Oh my god, literally it's felt like ten minutes.
Speaker 1 (50:48):
Yeah I know. Yeah, but so let's do it again
and give your mom and dad my best Moira and
Chazz and Chazz fucking bad. I know them. We'll definitely know,
we'll definitely know.
Speaker 4 (51:03):
Every time you say I bet I know them, your
accent gets thicker.
Speaker 2 (51:06):
Well, yeah, because I'm excited about it. Did you did
your parents accents changed when they moved? Because that gets
such a fucking hard time from people in Scotland about
my accent.
Speaker 3 (51:18):
Yeah, they would they had to slow down the way
they were talking, right, Yeah, especially if they were excited.
Speaker 4 (51:24):
Oh my god, if my dad's telling you a joke,
Oh it's over.
Speaker 1 (51:27):
Which for me that's difficult in my line of work.
But all right, look we'll do this again.
Speaker 2 (51:35):
We will you in the meantime, will write the Bond thing, right,
write the Bond song, because you're clearly.
Speaker 1 (51:42):
Destined to do that. Thank you. I would love that,
and it's it's been an absolute joy of me.
Speaker 4 (51:48):
Thank you too.
Speaker 1 (52:00):
No
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