Stephen K. Amos does the talking so that audiences can do the laughing.
Many will know the British comedian from his regular spots on UK television shows like ‘Live at The Apollo’ and ‘QI’.
Right now, he’s working the festival circuit in Australia, before he heads our way in May with his new show deconstructing the science of laughter.
The show is called ‘Now We’re Talking’, and it delves into what exactly laughter does to a person, physically and emotionally.
“And then I talk about how it’s important for us to keep talking in a world where there’s a lot of noise out there, and people aren’t listening enough,” Amos told Jack Tame.
But why is laughter so infectious? Amos says it’s do to with human connection.
“The mirror neuron – you see somebody laugh, you laugh.”
“It’s a shared experience, and on your own, I suppose people don’t want to look odd if they’re just sitting by themselves and then guffawing like a bit of a lunatic.”
“But it is, it’s good for the soul.”
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Teams podcast
from News Talks at b.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Stephen k Amos does the talking so we can do
the laughing. You'll have seen him on his regular spots
on UK TV shows like Live at the Apollo and
QI my favorite of the British panel shows, and right
now Stevens in Australia out on the festival circuit before
heading our way in May with his new show Deconstructing
(00:33):
the Science of.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Laughter and Steven's with Us this morning held a good.
Speaker 4 (00:37):
Morning, Good morning Jack, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
It's so good to be speaking with you. I have
very much enjoyed your contributions to British.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Panel shows over the years.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
I'm a real British panel show geek. So it is
a delight to know you're coming back to New Zealand
and you're coming back with a brand new show that
deconstructs the science of laughter.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
So tell us about that.
Speaker 5 (01:00):
Wow, well, that is an element of the show that's
absolutely true. I was asked in New Zealand good few
years ago now, so I'm absolutely thrilled to be coming
back after all this time. I've got friends who live
in the South Island a place called Picton.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Oh very good, it's not my aunt. My aunt lives
in that part of the world, so maybe you're buma
to her.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Maybe I will. There's not many people live there.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
So yeah, the show is called Now We're Talking, And
basically that is one of the elements in the show,
where I'm talking about what laughter does to our brains
and our body, how very important it is to have
people sitting close together at any kind of comedy show
because we.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Need you all to be infected with laughter.
Speaker 5 (01:43):
And then I talk about how it's important for us
to keep talking in a world where there's a lot
of noise out there and people aren't listing enough.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
So that's the essence of the show.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
I was going to say, the world has changed a lot.
I looked at up you were last in New Zealand
and twenty sixteen, So it feels like there's probably a
fear bit of content that you'll be able to draw
upon given the state of the extent to which the
world has changed in that time. So when I think
of laughter, I think you hit on a really important
point here. There's a social component, isn't here, Because if
(02:12):
you're watching a TV show by yourself, even if it's
really funny. Most of the time you don't laugh. But
if you have another person sitting next to you on
the couch, then for some reason you laugh.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
I don't know why is it.
Speaker 5 (02:25):
It's something to do with the human connection, the mirror neuron.
You see somebody laugh, you laugh. Is a shared experience
and on your own. I suppose people don't want to
look odd if they're just sitting behide themselves and then
go fororing like a like a bit of a lunatic.
But it is good for the soul. I mean, even
if you just walk down the street and you hear
(02:46):
somebody laughing uproariously, you've got no idea what they're laughing at.
You start laughing as well. I mean, that's wonderful. I mean,
I don't remember. Back in the day, there's be a
song by the Laughing Policeman which has when and it
just went on and on and then suddenly the entire
people or in the room or laughing.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
We don't know why. Really.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
I remember seeing an amazing short film once. It might
have been German, or it might have been scanning Avy,
and I can't remember exactly where it was from. And
it was the simplest concept, but it was beautifully done.
It was people sitting on a train carriage and one
person and they're all just sitting there in silence, looking
at their phones and looking out the window and that
kind of thing, and then one person just starts sniggering
(03:31):
a little bit, and then it starts to spread.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
And all this.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Film was was this the scene on a train carriage
where over three or four minutes, the laughter spread throughout
the train carriage and it.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Was actually, it was actually truly beautiful.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
It sounds kind of it might sound a bit corny
the way I'm describing it, but you could imagine it happening, right,
you could. You know, there is something profoundly infectious about it.
Speaker 5 (03:57):
Absolutely, but also in the same way that you can
imagine if someone comes into a room saying a party
and that person has just brought with them nega clive energy,
you feel that as well. Somebody grumping, making noises and
not looking happy. You avoid eye contact with that person.
Somebody comes into the room with a cheery disposition, Wow,
(04:19):
you're drawn to that person. It's great And you know
it's a cliche, but laughter is the best medicine. Yeah,
it absolutely is.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Yeah, no, I totally agree with that.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
It's the best medicine, and it's the universal language, which
I suppose when you're making I appreciate it's not the
full show, but when it's a component on the show,
you can be relatively assured that there is a subject
that is going to cross international lines pretty pretty smoothly.
Speaker 5 (04:43):
Well, and indeed it doesn't matter where you are, where
you come from if you think about this on a
basic human level. Babies learn to laugh before they can speak.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
Yeah, I mean that.
Speaker 5 (04:54):
It's not incredible when you just break it right down,
that's what it is. One of the oldest jokes in
human history is, of course, Peekaboo that you do with
your babies. Who's their Daddy's there and your baby starts Yeah, yeah,
that's a.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Very good point.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
I've got a one year old at the moment, and
he's just at that delightful stage where Peekaboo is an
enormous hit and I can just do little things to
make him laugh, and seeing him laugh, it's as though
I can feel my blood pressure relax or something like.
I feel a kind of physiological reaction as I as
I join him and laughter. You know it's a it's
(05:28):
an amazing it's an amazing thing, and you never really
consider it.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
I suppose no you don't.
Speaker 5 (05:33):
Now that's where I've taken time out in the show too.
I mean I should stress it's not a Ted talk no, no,
absolutely a comedy show.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Doctor Stephen is going to be addressing us about yeah yeah,
yeah yeah.
Speaker 5 (05:44):
And I will I will be guaranteeing that laughter will ensue.
Where I've been doing the show recently in Adelaide and
now in Canberra, and it's gone down I can say particularly, well.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
That's really good to hear.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
So so you're sort of on the festival circuit a
little bit at the stage of the year, right and
you you had a real.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Breakout back in the day at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
That was where you really started to connect with people.
So how do you reflect I don't want to suggest
that you've been in the game a long time, but
how do you reflect on the kind of on the
kind of changes in the comedy scene, in the way
in which comics travel and tour today compared to win
you started. Because from the outside it looks like there's
been an explosion in stand up comedy.
Speaker 5 (06:29):
Well, I think you're absolutely right, Jack, there have been
an explosion, and I think partly what's that got to
do with is the fact that people's tastes have changed
over the years. How people consume comedy has changed. The
gatekeepers who used to tell us and put on TV, etc.
What they thought was funny. That has changed, the advent
of social media where people can create their own stuff.
(06:52):
And what I've seen in particular in the last ten
ten or so years is the different voices coming through now.
When I was doing the End, I used to the
Edinbard Festival every year since nineteen ninety seven, for example,
and back then, for example, I would be one of
maybe two other black comedians there, or you wouldn't hear
(07:13):
of any LGBT voices, you wouldn't see.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
A many women.
Speaker 5 (07:19):
But now that the landscape, as I say, has changed,
and it's wonderful because every one of us has got
a story to tell. And you know, comedy is subjective.
What you do is you find your tribe. You know,
if you don't find someone particularly funny, don't go and
see them. That's how simple it is. But but I
think with comedy as well, and that laughing, it's very
emotional very emotive. I think people get so angry if
(07:43):
they didn't like a particular comedian or they didn't like
a comedy show, like music as well, Oh that band
is awful. It might be awful to you, somebody else
likes them. There is a reason for their success. You know,
let's try and balance things out.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
That's a very mature reflection.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Well, I just thought, because you know there are I mean,
you see these stories about you know, people either saying
one of two things, first of all, saying that you know,
this comedian isn't funny and this person shouldn't be saying this,
or you conversely hear the other side of the coin,
where you know, people moan about living in two censorious
a society these days. And I can imagine that you
(08:23):
sort of need to know where you stand on those
points if you're going to be getting up in front
of people and you're going to be and you're going
to be cracking gag. So where do you where do
you land on the continuum?
Speaker 5 (08:33):
Well, Well, the way I think the world has got
and this perhaps the negative side of social media has
got censorious, has got full of misinformation, downright lies, untruth.
People say whatever they want without recourse. But I think
in the in the in the arena of comedy, I
(08:55):
really do believe in freedom of speech. But also with
freedom of speech comes freedom of expression, whereby we can
react however we see fit, depending what it is you say,
that should be the payoff. I think any decent comedian,
any good comedian, should be able and allowed to tackle
any subject. Whether they tackle it and get it right
(09:15):
is another story. But let's not forget that we're in
the boundaries of comedy. It's a comedy show, and that
doesn't mean you say what you want to make people
laugh in a cheap, easy laugh, because we can all
do that. I'm pretty certain that every single one of us,
everyone of the listeners right now will said the most
outrageous things to a friend and family that you never
say an open company.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
You know.
Speaker 5 (09:36):
That's that's polite society. So for me and myself, as
I say, people like my stuff, people don't like my stuff.
I don't get involved in online spats with anybody. You know,
people people have said some stuff about me in the
past over the years. I don't get involved with it
because it's not I'm not adding fuel or oxygen to
something that's not going to benefit my life or my
mental space.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Very wise, very wise, And I'm one hundred percent with you.
I always just think context is so often forgotten.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
With these contexts and nuance, it's so easy to sit
behind your phone and you just have a comment and
at the end of the day, to be honest, Jack,
I don't want to hear I don't want to know
what people who know nothing think.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
No, this is that's a great attitude.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
I always think, you know, if you've taken the time,
whoever you are, anonymous keyboard warrior, to take, you know,
three minutes out of your day to write a horrible
message to me, I can only imagine how vacuous an
empty your life must be, because if that's a time, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
No, I can't imagine sitting I don't think I could.
Speaker 5 (10:39):
I could put my hand on heart and say, I
can look through all my social media over the years
and I've never written anything.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Horrible to anybody.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Good.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
I mean, how what benefit does it make you feel better?
My goodness? Gracious for me?
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Hey, why are the Brits so good at panel shows?
Why don't we see the Americans doing funny panel shows?
But I mean there are a diame. It doesen't in
the UK, and almost to a program, they are sensational.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
Do you know what. I don't know what the the
actual answer is. It could be.
Speaker 5 (11:11):
I mean, for example, the Americans are very good at sitcom,
maybe because they have lots and lots of writers.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
They're good at.
Speaker 5 (11:17):
Sketch in some in many respects, maybe because they have
lots and lots of writers. But with a panel show,
it's about getting about each person being individual, and it's
kind of in the moment, and it's funny, and some
people are very self deprecating on there. So you again,
like comedy, you find the ones you like and then
you go bang, oh yeah, that's that's he said, that's spontaneously,
(11:40):
that's funny.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
Maybe that's the secret.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Maybe I don't want to say the Americans aren't witty,
because I enjoy American comedies as well, but I think
maybe that's it. Maybe maybe there's something about the British
sensibility that just leans itself to being wittier in those
in those moments and those shows beat a suitor kind
of witty format, you know, Jack, Yeah exactly. You put
(12:03):
it on me, Steve, and yeah, you take I was
going to see all the comments flooding and I'll be
totally misrepresented here. And yeah, my final question for you,
you were in the Beetlejuice sequel.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
A couple of yes, So how did that come about?
Speaker 4 (12:19):
Well, it's one of those things.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
I'm just very grateful that over the years standup has
opened many different avenues to walk down through. I've done
a West End musical, for example. I mean, who would
have thought it? And then I got a call a
couple of years ago from casting people and they give
me a code name for this thing, and they mentioned
Tim Burton and I'm like.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
Whatever it is, I'm in.
Speaker 5 (12:41):
And then of course I find out with a script
that arrives a couple of days later, and it's watermarked
and it's highly tightly secure, and it's got a codbird
and I know exactly what it is, and I'm like boom.
Of course, and everyone has seen it, you'll know that
the scene that I'm talking about is it's a pastiche.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
It's quite a nod back to.
Speaker 5 (13:04):
A certain very famous music program in America in these
late sixties and seventies, and that's I think it's quite funny.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
I think it's the best scene, but I'm byased.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Yeah, of course you are. Yeah, yeah, no, no, we
can definitely agree on that point. Hey, thank you so
much for giving us your time. We are delighted to
have you coming back to our shores and look forward
to seeing you very soon.
Speaker 5 (13:23):
I can't wait. I'm absolutely thrilled to be coming out
to New Zealand. Yeah, it's been too.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Long for more From Saturday Morning with Jack Tame. Listen
live to news talks it'd be from nine am Saturday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Teams podcast
from News Talks at b.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Stephen k Amos does the talking so we can do
the laughing. You'll have seen him on his regular spots
on UK TV shows like Live at the Apollo and
QI my favorite of the British panel shows, and right
now Stevens in Australia out on the festival circuit before
heading our way in May with his new show Deconstructing
(00:33):
the Science of.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Laughter and Steven's with Us this morning held a good.
Speaker 4 (00:37):
Morning, Good morning Jack, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
It's so good to be speaking with you. I have
very much enjoyed your contributions to British.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Panel shows over the years.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
I'm a real British panel show geek. So it is
a delight to know you're coming back to New Zealand
and you're coming back with a brand new show that
deconstructs the science of laughter.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
So tell us about that.
Speaker 5 (01:00):
Wow, well, that is an element of the show that's
absolutely true. I was asked in New Zealand good few
years ago now, so I'm absolutely thrilled to be coming
back after all this time. I've got friends who live
in the South Island a place called Picton.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Oh very good, it's not my aunt. My aunt lives
in that part of the world, so maybe you're buma
to her.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Maybe I will. There's not many people live there.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
So yeah, the show is called Now We're Talking, And
basically that is one of the elements in the show,
where I'm talking about what laughter does to our brains
and our body, how very important it is to have
people sitting close together at any kind of comedy show
because we.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Need you all to be infected with laughter.
Speaker 5 (01:43):
And then I talk about how it's important for us
to keep talking in a world where there's a lot
of noise out there and people aren't listing enough.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
So that's the essence of the show.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
I was going to say, the world has changed a lot.
I looked at up you were last in New Zealand
and twenty sixteen, So it feels like there's probably a
fear bit of content that you'll be able to draw
upon given the state of the extent to which the
world has changed in that time. So when I think
of laughter, I think you hit on a really important
point here. There's a social component, isn't here, Because if
(02:12):
you're watching a TV show by yourself, even if it's
really funny. Most of the time you don't laugh. But
if you have another person sitting next to you on
the couch, then for some reason you laugh.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
I don't know why is it.
Speaker 5 (02:25):
It's something to do with the human connection, the mirror neuron.
You see somebody laugh, you laugh. Is a shared experience
and on your own. I suppose people don't want to
look odd if they're just sitting behide themselves and then
go fororing like a like a bit of a lunatic.
But it is good for the soul. I mean, even
if you just walk down the street and you hear
(02:46):
somebody laughing uproariously, you've got no idea what they're laughing at.
You start laughing as well. I mean, that's wonderful. I mean,
I don't remember. Back in the day, there's be a
song by the Laughing Policeman which has when and it
just went on and on and then suddenly the entire
people or in the room or laughing.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
We don't know why. Really.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
I remember seeing an amazing short film once. It might
have been German, or it might have been scanning Avy,
and I can't remember exactly where it was from. And
it was the simplest concept, but it was beautifully done.
It was people sitting on a train carriage and one
person and they're all just sitting there in silence, looking
at their phones and looking out the window and that
kind of thing, and then one person just starts sniggering
(03:31):
a little bit, and then it starts to spread.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
And all this.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Film was was this the scene on a train carriage
where over three or four minutes, the laughter spread throughout
the train carriage and it.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Was actually, it was actually truly beautiful.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
It sounds kind of it might sound a bit corny
the way I'm describing it, but you could imagine it happening, right,
you could. You know, there is something profoundly infectious about it.
Speaker 5 (03:57):
Absolutely, but also in the same way that you can
imagine if someone comes into a room saying a party
and that person has just brought with them nega clive energy,
you feel that as well. Somebody grumping, making noises and
not looking happy. You avoid eye contact with that person.
Somebody comes into the room with a cheery disposition, Wow,
(04:19):
you're drawn to that person. It's great And you know
it's a cliche, but laughter is the best medicine. Yeah,
it absolutely is.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Yeah, no, I totally agree with that.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
It's the best medicine, and it's the universal language, which
I suppose when you're making I appreciate it's not the
full show, but when it's a component on the show,
you can be relatively assured that there is a subject
that is going to cross international lines pretty pretty smoothly.
Speaker 5 (04:43):
Well, and indeed it doesn't matter where you are, where
you come from if you think about this on a
basic human level. Babies learn to laugh before they can speak.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
Yeah, I mean that.
Speaker 5 (04:54):
It's not incredible when you just break it right down,
that's what it is. One of the oldest jokes in
human history is, of course, Peekaboo that you do with
your babies. Who's their Daddy's there and your baby starts Yeah, yeah,
that's a.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Very good point.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
I've got a one year old at the moment, and
he's just at that delightful stage where Peekaboo is an
enormous hit and I can just do little things to
make him laugh, and seeing him laugh, it's as though
I can feel my blood pressure relax or something like.
I feel a kind of physiological reaction as I as
I join him and laughter. You know it's a it's
(05:28):
an amazing it's an amazing thing, and you never really
consider it.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
I suppose no you don't.
Speaker 5 (05:33):
Now that's where I've taken time out in the show too.
I mean I should stress it's not a Ted talk no, no,
absolutely a comedy show.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Doctor Stephen is going to be addressing us about yeah yeah,
yeah yeah.
Speaker 5 (05:44):
And I will I will be guaranteeing that laughter will ensue.
Where I've been doing the show recently in Adelaide and
now in Canberra, and it's gone down I can say particularly, well.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
That's really good to hear.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
So so you're sort of on the festival circuit a
little bit at the stage of the year, right and
you you had a real.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Breakout back in the day at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
That was where you really started to connect with people.
So how do you reflect I don't want to suggest
that you've been in the game a long time, but
how do you reflect on the kind of on the
kind of changes in the comedy scene, in the way
in which comics travel and tour today compared to win
you started. Because from the outside it looks like there's
been an explosion in stand up comedy.
Speaker 5 (06:29):
Well, I think you're absolutely right, Jack, there have been
an explosion, and I think partly what's that got to
do with is the fact that people's tastes have changed
over the years. How people consume comedy has changed. The
gatekeepers who used to tell us and put on TV, etc.
What they thought was funny. That has changed, the advent
of social media where people can create their own stuff.
(06:52):
And what I've seen in particular in the last ten
ten or so years is the different voices coming through now.
When I was doing the End, I used to the
Edinbard Festival every year since nineteen ninety seven, for example,
and back then, for example, I would be one of
maybe two other black comedians there, or you wouldn't hear
(07:13):
of any LGBT voices, you wouldn't see.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
A many women.
Speaker 5 (07:19):
But now that the landscape, as I say, has changed,
and it's wonderful because every one of us has got
a story to tell. And you know, comedy is subjective.
What you do is you find your tribe. You know,
if you don't find someone particularly funny, don't go and
see them. That's how simple it is. But but I
think with comedy as well, and that laughing, it's very
emotional very emotive. I think people get so angry if
(07:43):
they didn't like a particular comedian or they didn't like
a comedy show, like music as well, Oh that band
is awful. It might be awful to you, somebody else
likes them. There is a reason for their success. You know,
let's try and balance things out.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
That's a very mature reflection.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Well, I just thought, because you know there are I mean,
you see these stories about you know, people either saying
one of two things, first of all, saying that you know,
this comedian isn't funny and this person shouldn't be saying this,
or you conversely hear the other side of the coin,
where you know, people moan about living in two censorious
a society these days. And I can imagine that you
(08:23):
sort of need to know where you stand on those
points if you're going to be getting up in front
of people and you're going to be and you're going
to be cracking gag. So where do you where do
you land on the continuum?
Speaker 5 (08:33):
Well, Well, the way I think the world has got
and this perhaps the negative side of social media has
got censorious, has got full of misinformation, downright lies, untruth.
People say whatever they want without recourse. But I think
in the in the in the arena of comedy, I
(08:55):
really do believe in freedom of speech. But also with
freedom of speech comes freedom of expression, whereby we can
react however we see fit, depending what it is you say,
that should be the payoff. I think any decent comedian,
any good comedian, should be able and allowed to tackle
any subject. Whether they tackle it and get it right
(09:15):
is another story. But let's not forget that we're in
the boundaries of comedy. It's a comedy show, and that
doesn't mean you say what you want to make people
laugh in a cheap, easy laugh, because we can all
do that. I'm pretty certain that every single one of us,
everyone of the listeners right now will said the most
outrageous things to a friend and family that you never
say an open company.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
You know.
Speaker 5 (09:36):
That's that's polite society. So for me and myself, as
I say, people like my stuff, people don't like my stuff.
I don't get involved in online spats with anybody. You know,
people people have said some stuff about me in the
past over the years. I don't get involved with it
because it's not I'm not adding fuel or oxygen to
something that's not going to benefit my life or my
mental space.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Very wise, very wise, And I'm one hundred percent with you.
I always just think context is so often forgotten.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
With these contexts and nuance, it's so easy to sit
behind your phone and you just have a comment and
at the end of the day, to be honest, Jack,
I don't want to hear I don't want to know
what people who know nothing think.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
No, this is that's a great attitude.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
I always think, you know, if you've taken the time,
whoever you are, anonymous keyboard warrior, to take, you know,
three minutes out of your day to write a horrible
message to me, I can only imagine how vacuous an
empty your life must be, because if that's a time, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
No, I can't imagine sitting I don't think I could.
Speaker 5 (10:39):
I could put my hand on heart and say, I
can look through all my social media over the years
and I've never written anything.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Horrible to anybody.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Good.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
I mean, how what benefit does it make you feel better?
My goodness? Gracious for me?
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Hey, why are the Brits so good at panel shows?
Why don't we see the Americans doing funny panel shows?
But I mean there are a diame. It doesen't in
the UK, and almost to a program, they are sensational.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
Do you know what. I don't know what the the
actual answer is. It could be.
Speaker 5 (11:11):
I mean, for example, the Americans are very good at sitcom,
maybe because they have lots and lots of writers.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
They're good at.
Speaker 5 (11:17):
Sketch in some in many respects, maybe because they have
lots and lots of writers. But with a panel show,
it's about getting about each person being individual, and it's
kind of in the moment, and it's funny, and some
people are very self deprecating on there. So you again,
like comedy, you find the ones you like and then
you go bang, oh yeah, that's that's he said, that's spontaneously,
(11:40):
that's funny.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
Maybe that's the secret.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Maybe I don't want to say the Americans aren't witty,
because I enjoy American comedies as well, but I think
maybe that's it. Maybe maybe there's something about the British
sensibility that just leans itself to being wittier in those
in those moments and those shows beat a suitor kind
of witty format, you know, Jack, Yeah exactly. You put
(12:03):
it on me, Steve, and yeah, you take I was
going to see all the comments flooding and I'll be
totally misrepresented here. And yeah, my final question for you,
you were in the Beetlejuice sequel.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
A couple of yes, So how did that come about?
Speaker 4 (12:19):
Well, it's one of those things.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
I'm just very grateful that over the years standup has
opened many different avenues to walk down through. I've done
a West End musical, for example. I mean, who would
have thought it? And then I got a call a
couple of years ago from casting people and they give
me a code name for this thing, and they mentioned
Tim Burton and I'm like.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
Whatever it is, I'm in.
Speaker 5 (12:41):
And then of course I find out with a script
that arrives a couple of days later, and it's watermarked
and it's highly tightly secure, and it's got a codbird
and I know exactly what it is, and I'm like boom.
Of course, and everyone has seen it, you'll know that
the scene that I'm talking about is it's a pastiche.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
It's quite a nod back to.
Speaker 5 (13:04):
A certain very famous music program in America in these
late sixties and seventies, and that's I think it's quite funny.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
I think it's the best scene, but I'm byased.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Yeah, of course you are. Yeah, yeah, no, no, we
can definitely agree on that point. Hey, thank you so
much for giving us your time. We are delighted to
have you coming back to our shores and look forward
to seeing you very soon.
Speaker 5 (13:23):
I can't wait. I'm absolutely thrilled to be coming out
to New Zealand. Yeah, it's been too.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Long for more From Saturday Morning with Jack Tame. Listen
live to news talks it'd be from nine am Saturday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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