May 1, 2025 • 7 mins
Comedian and TV star Alan Davies gave Clairsy & Lisa a call ahead of his stand up show in Perth in November. He told the guys why it's taken 10 years to come back to town, why his son thinks he's Doc Brown from Back To The Future and his surprise world record he created on the long-running British game show, QI.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Alan Davies is coming back to town for the first
time in ages.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Where has he been? Where we're going to call hospitals.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
The Think Ahead Tour is Tuesday, November twenty five at
the Riverside Theater. Tickets are available through ticket Tech from
this morning. I would get in too sweet. Good morning,
Alan Davies.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Good morning to you now.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
As I said, where have you been? It's your first
tour of Australia in a decade.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
I don't know where that time went. I don't know
where it went. Took a whack that did, and then
I was a third child here he took.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
I then kept.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Gigging but not touring, and I didn't have a full show.
I had half a show, so I'd be gigging around.
I haven't been out of stand up, but now I'm
accumulated enough. And also I'm sixty next year. I've got
to do it before it's too late.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
I'm sixty this year.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Stop.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
We're not geriatric.
Speaker 5 (00:53):
Yes, just the byeline for my.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Show, as I spent more time in the pharmacy than
the gyp.
Speaker 6 (01:01):
Yes, I did see that man, he said Ellen and
Davies sinks he's money McFly, he's older than Doc Brown
and that line, you need to stop getting enemies to
write your press releases.
Speaker 5 (01:10):
That's because I fit my youngest, my youngest back to
the future of the musical. And he looked and he
got the brochure and there's a picture of Doc Brown
in it, and he just looked at me and looked
in the picture and he.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Basically was saying, that's you fly skateboard.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
We're going back, all right.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
So what are you thinking ahead about?
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Well, you know the show, because I put the show
together over month, John an idea down here, think of something,
put that together with that, and then it kind of
reveals itself to me by the end of it, as
much as surprise.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
For me as anybody else.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
But there's quite a lot in there about my kid.
It's quite a fair bit about its functions.
Speaker 5 (01:52):
You know, your everyday.
Speaker 6 (01:53):
Observation, don't radio station. We'll playing lots of continents and stuff.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
So god thinking ahead, not thinking out loud.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Working terror.
Speaker 6 (02:08):
But as time goes on, do you find that you've
actually with life experience so you become a better comedian
as such? And maybe someone else has robbed to tell
you that that. Do you feel like there's more material
and you know what to do with it.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Now I feel comfortable up there. Yeah you do. You
know what you're doing, and it is something that gets
better with age. The best best stand the Bible saw
with Dave Allen the Great when I saw him. He
was sixty one when I saw him, and he was
absolutely fantastic.
Speaker 5 (02:35):
Yeah, it's not that there's no barrier.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
In fact, well, when I think about myself, as in
my twenties, I say, what a fool you.
Speaker 5 (02:49):
Experience and wisdom.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Counts for something, But then you can't get upstairs. So
you know it's.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
About maybe you can keep in mind the funny side
of it, then you know you're all set. We all try.
I spent half my life trying to remember what I
came into a room for.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
So you know you've done a lot of that.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
I don't have to go into a room did not
know what I've been. I might have been in a
room for an hour.
Speaker 6 (03:21):
Open the think I head to it might be a
bit of forward planning.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
So you don't do it.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Yeah, yeah, I may or may not be.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
You'll be fine. You'll be a good company.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
One thing of course, about as we age the you
know you're the things that you've done, the list gets longer.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
You outlasted Stephen Frye on Q I.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Yeah, I think that show had such.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
A long standing success.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Because it's me, of course, it's.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Just me, As the kids would say.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
It's the behind the scenes expertise of a team of
researchers and all I do is try and ruin it.
People like it and that's great and I'm I'm very
glad popping in Australia. That's the bonus.
Speaker 6 (04:20):
Yeah more actually, yeah, yeah, very much so speaking of
Stephen for unless you when I had a lovely chat
with Stephen a few months ago, are you as big
a cricket tragic as he is?
Speaker 3 (04:30):
I do have the cricket bug as well. Yeah, that's
the thing that he and I normally in contact over.
If I ever seen it will be it will be
at Lord's usually. So yeah, we love the cricket.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
Have seen that?
Speaker 6 (04:42):
You haven't seen that Freddie Flintoff documentary. It's a ripper
at the moment.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
I will look at that, you know, And he did
a really good series. I don't know if I've seen
it here where he took a load of kids, kind
of slightly disadvantaged kids who didn't know much about cricket,
and he took them out to India talking about to
play cricket. Took them to India and it was such
a good broke and it was really good.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
I like, yeah, it's very lovable. Freddie.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Do you do you still hold the Guinness World Record
for most Christmas crackers cracked in thirty seconds?
Speaker 3 (05:11):
You know someone else tried to beat it. I mean
really really, you know that's so I can do more
than that. Oh, we're well done, because I just they
just empty the box of crackers in front of me
in the middle of Q said all those and I
broke the world record, and then people spat out to
beat me. You are find one of your own.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
Yes, yeah, and leave his record alone.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Yeah, I'm with you on that.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
Hope you've got a plaque on the wall or something.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Not a funny joke in any of them.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
That's true, true, but we still read them out. We
still giggle in sympathy. Do that in pain.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
I like to write my own I like to bespoke
my Christmas crackers.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Yes, a business in that.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Well, you got too much time.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Oh it's a very small Christmas gathering. One or the other.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Alan would you ever consider reprising Jonathan Creek.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
But it's not going to happen so long now. Yeah,
David love him dearly the right and creator. Yes he's
part that he's part of that one. But it was
a great privilege of my life to play that character.
And yeah, good, good memories. Really though at the time.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
I moaned about it, I got to learn those lines.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Yeah, can I go home.
Speaker 4 (06:39):
Tiring? Yeah, we do. We do have a moment at
the time and then look back.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Yeah exactly, well we we look forward to the third
installment of your memoir coming out later this year.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Yeah, lord, why male stand up right?
Speaker 4 (06:55):
And that is my title.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
But that's what I've always been. And now someone said
to me, basically, is that a rallying cry? Is it
about canceled Gould?
Speaker 5 (07:04):
Just no, it is not.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
It's about being a comedian. It's about my life. In
comments in the book, you know, you can go a
little bit stand ups, a bit skin deep a lot
of the time, but you can you can dwell on
things a bit more and go a bit deeper. So
that's what I'm trying to do.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Looking forward to it, mate, I love that you have
to explain why it's called white male stand up well.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Literally doesn't mean anything except what it says exactly well.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
As I said, tickets are available from this morning for
the Think Ahead tour and I'd get in really quick
to get those. It's Tuesday, November twenty five. We we
look forward to you coming to town, Allen.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Looking forward to it to see you there.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
We'll see we can get some cricket at the Whacker
for you too. That would be nice to see you Alan.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Bye bye
Alan Davies is coming back to town for the first
time in ages.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Where has he been? Where we're going to call hospitals.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
The Think Ahead Tour is Tuesday, November twenty five at
the Riverside Theater. Tickets are available through ticket Tech from
this morning. I would get in too sweet. Good morning,
Alan Davies.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Good morning to you now.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
As I said, where have you been? It's your first
tour of Australia in a decade.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
I don't know where that time went. I don't know
where it went. Took a whack that did, and then
I was a third child here he took.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
I then kept.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Gigging but not touring, and I didn't have a full show.
I had half a show, so I'd be gigging around.
I haven't been out of stand up, but now I'm
accumulated enough. And also I'm sixty next year. I've got
to do it before it's too late.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
I'm sixty this year.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Stop.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
We're not geriatric.
Speaker 5 (00:53):
Yes, just the byeline for my.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Show, as I spent more time in the pharmacy than
the gyp.
Speaker 6 (01:01):
Yes, I did see that man, he said Ellen and
Davies sinks he's money McFly, he's older than Doc Brown
and that line, you need to stop getting enemies to
write your press releases.
Speaker 5 (01:10):
That's because I fit my youngest, my youngest back to
the future of the musical. And he looked and he
got the brochure and there's a picture of Doc Brown
in it, and he just looked at me and looked
in the picture and he.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Basically was saying, that's you fly skateboard.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
We're going back, all right.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
So what are you thinking ahead about?
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Well, you know the show, because I put the show
together over month, John an idea down here, think of something,
put that together with that, and then it kind of
reveals itself to me by the end of it, as
much as surprise.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
For me as anybody else.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
But there's quite a lot in there about my kid.
It's quite a fair bit about its functions.
Speaker 5 (01:52):
You know, your everyday.
Speaker 6 (01:53):
Observation, don't radio station. We'll playing lots of continents and stuff.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
So god thinking ahead, not thinking out loud.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Working terror.
Speaker 6 (02:08):
But as time goes on, do you find that you've
actually with life experience so you become a better comedian
as such? And maybe someone else has robbed to tell
you that that. Do you feel like there's more material
and you know what to do with it.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Now I feel comfortable up there. Yeah you do. You
know what you're doing, and it is something that gets
better with age. The best best stand the Bible saw
with Dave Allen the Great when I saw him. He
was sixty one when I saw him, and he was
absolutely fantastic.
Speaker 5 (02:35):
Yeah, it's not that there's no barrier.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
In fact, well, when I think about myself, as in
my twenties, I say, what a fool you.
Speaker 5 (02:49):
Experience and wisdom.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Counts for something, But then you can't get upstairs. So
you know it's.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
About maybe you can keep in mind the funny side
of it, then you know you're all set. We all try.
I spent half my life trying to remember what I
came into a room for.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
So you know you've done a lot of that.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
I don't have to go into a room did not
know what I've been. I might have been in a
room for an hour.
Speaker 6 (03:21):
Open the think I head to it might be a
bit of forward planning.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
So you don't do it.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Yeah, yeah, I may or may not be.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
You'll be fine. You'll be a good company.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
One thing of course, about as we age the you
know you're the things that you've done, the list gets longer.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
You outlasted Stephen Frye on Q I.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Yeah, I think that show had such.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
A long standing success.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Because it's me, of course, it's.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Just me, As the kids would say.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
It's the behind the scenes expertise of a team of
researchers and all I do is try and ruin it.
People like it and that's great and I'm I'm very
glad popping in Australia. That's the bonus.
Speaker 6 (04:20):
Yeah more actually, yeah, yeah, very much so speaking of
Stephen for unless you when I had a lovely chat
with Stephen a few months ago, are you as big
a cricket tragic as he is?
Speaker 3 (04:30):
I do have the cricket bug as well. Yeah, that's
the thing that he and I normally in contact over.
If I ever seen it will be it will be
at Lord's usually. So yeah, we love the cricket.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
Have seen that?
Speaker 6 (04:42):
You haven't seen that Freddie Flintoff documentary. It's a ripper
at the moment.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
I will look at that, you know, And he did
a really good series. I don't know if I've seen
it here where he took a load of kids, kind
of slightly disadvantaged kids who didn't know much about cricket,
and he took them out to India talking about to
play cricket. Took them to India and it was such
a good broke and it was really good.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
I like, yeah, it's very lovable. Freddie.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Do you do you still hold the Guinness World Record
for most Christmas crackers cracked in thirty seconds?
Speaker 3 (05:11):
You know someone else tried to beat it. I mean
really really, you know that's so I can do more
than that. Oh, we're well done, because I just they
just empty the box of crackers in front of me
in the middle of Q said all those and I
broke the world record, and then people spat out to
beat me. You are find one of your own.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
Yes, yeah, and leave his record alone.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Yeah, I'm with you on that.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
Hope you've got a plaque on the wall or something.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Not a funny joke in any of them.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
That's true, true, but we still read them out. We
still giggle in sympathy. Do that in pain.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
I like to write my own I like to bespoke
my Christmas crackers.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Yes, a business in that.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Well, you got too much time.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Oh it's a very small Christmas gathering. One or the other.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Alan would you ever consider reprising Jonathan Creek.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
But it's not going to happen so long now. Yeah,
David love him dearly the right and creator. Yes he's
part that he's part of that one. But it was
a great privilege of my life to play that character.
And yeah, good, good memories. Really though at the time.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
I moaned about it, I got to learn those lines.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Yeah, can I go home.
Speaker 4 (06:39):
Tiring? Yeah, we do. We do have a moment at
the time and then look back.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Yeah exactly, well we we look forward to the third
installment of your memoir coming out later this year.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Yeah, lord, why male stand up right?
Speaker 4 (06:55):
And that is my title.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
But that's what I've always been. And now someone said
to me, basically, is that a rallying cry? Is it
about canceled Gould?
Speaker 5 (07:04):
Just no, it is not.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
It's about being a comedian. It's about my life. In
comments in the book, you know, you can go a
little bit stand ups, a bit skin deep a lot
of the time, but you can you can dwell on
things a bit more and go a bit deeper. So
that's what I'm trying to do.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Looking forward to it, mate, I love that you have
to explain why it's called white male stand up well.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Literally doesn't mean anything except what it says exactly well.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
As I said, tickets are available from this morning for
the Think Ahead tour and I'd get in really quick
to get those. It's Tuesday, November twenty five. We we
look forward to you coming to town, Allen.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Looking forward to it to see you there.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
We'll see we can get some cricket at the Whacker
for you too. That would be nice to see you Alan.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Bye bye
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