#325: Fame, Cancel Culture & Redemption - Dapper Laughs (Part 2)

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1:09career enders i call them i come straight out and go bang and if they go all right that's that's that's where we're at let's dial it down yeah what's going on how long you've been together and she was like it's my stepdad it was fucking unbelievable and i just stopped the show and i was just like who's shouting turn the lights up pull the lights up And he's like, you're f***ing f***, mate. Didn't really have any comedy to come back with, so I just meant, let's f***ing go outside then. But as soon as the show was finished, I was like, go check if that c*** is outside. And this would be amazing.

1:39Then you post it and you go, what have I done? F***. Big British big boy. James O 'Brien. I'm a bit more nervous about putting my stand-up out. Not because of the content of it, because it's because what I love. This is going to get me in trouble on here. I f***ing know it is. And I've been writing a section in my tour about first times.

2:01See, that's what I didn't want to say. That's what I didn't want to say. Welcome to the Eventful Lives podcast. I'm your host, Dodge, and I'm the founder of Bournemouth 7s, the world's largest sport and music festival. On this podcast, I speak to proper characters of all lived eventful lives. Do us a favour and hit that follow button and be sure to check us out on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok at Dodge Woodall, We've now had over 100 million views. Dan, welcome back to the show, mate. It's good to be here, mate. Yes, have it. I'm buzzing. I remember, I think it was, was it two years ago?

2:36Yeah, it was about two years ago last time you came on, and we had a proper laugh on that one. So we've been back and forward for a couple of years, and now you're finally here. Yeah, man, yeah. I'm still sober. I was sketchy back then, weren't I? You were actually a year clean. I was bang on a year when I walked in here, yeah. That's right, a year clean, and we celebrated. and I remember looking at you going, he's not 100%, he's not 100 % but fucking what you went through and got through to do. You found a 65-day sober. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, the funny thing is that about a year, you got the bug, the sobriety bug, you're going around telling everyone you're sober but in the back of your mind, you're like, I need a session.

3:12You're like, and especially on a year because you're like, how the fuck am I going to celebrate? Do you know what I mean? Let's roll the way back. Yeah. what do you miss about not getting on the sesh oh mate fucking what a question to hit me with man um probably probably seeing my helmet in my pubes no shaft no no it's it's it's i don't know if your sesh dodge mate but it's fucking bad it gets but no um i think it's chatting shit man like i love talking and having conversations like this and the social aspect of the session you know getting off your nut fight i'll tell you what it's a bit like you'll put some of the guests on your podcast like fight stories yeah do you know i mean just making up fight stories that's what i used to do because i can't really fight so just making up pure bullshit standing in the kitchen talking to people you're never going to talk to again coming up with business ideas fucking all of that jazz um that social aspect of it apart from that you know the session always starts off as saying fun and then it moves into saying fun with a little bit of dodginess and then it's just dodgy in it it's just like paranoia um towards the end i was just sniffing gear on my own fucking coming up with weird scenarios in my mind in my house with the curtains closed like what was the last thing i was thinking of i was thinking about it the other day yeah i can remember i was sat in my flat once and like just in like i call them fort loops cocaine fort loops just thinking i wonder if chewbacca has got like a human dick or the dick of a dog you know the lipstick dick yeah yeah like what has he got like i was watching star was going what corey's that geezer got you know is it one of the lipstick ones sniffing gear mate that's the sort of shit that's when you know you've got to stop yeah yeah what was the point what was the point when you needed to say well i have to stop was there one point when you hit your rock bottom oh mate no there was a few i mean it's anyone that anyone on a serious note anyone that gets anyone that's in active addiction will know that everything tells you that it's still all right you know so much shit you could lose your just something simple like you lose your driving license because you've been drinking and being on it and then because of that you lose your job and you're like oh fuck it that's not the drinking drugs it's just a fucked up weekend and then the next thing you miss is is leaving you and before you know it everything's gone but it takes a long time and they're all mini rock bottoms but for me i was suicidal um when my father passed away i my and i broke up with my missus i actually moved in with my drug deal I was fucking living in the room in his house.

5:36And that was a rock bottom for me. But that was five years before I got sober. I actually called the Samaritans. I was going to take my own life. But five years later, it was when my missus had had enough. And I couldn't see the kids. And I was kicked out. And I looked at it like, this ain't me. Like, I'm meant to be. In my mind, I was a success. But all of a sudden, she was telling me to stop going out drinking. And I couldn't. I was selfish. I was picking that over her. you know people say it's a disease and it's like an addiction and that it's still a choice you know it still is a choice you know you're still an arsehole you're still being a twat and that's what it does check turns you into a selfish person and um some lads get sober and manage to keep their families um and some lads don't and uh when you lose your family and you try to get sober it'll be 10 times harder so i'm lucky yeah amazing but what was interesting there you roll back a little bit you said oh that i went straight to the samaritans there's actually there's an app out there now there's a company called jack just ask a question dot app oh wow it's unbelievable so it's like um everything's video there so at the moment you go and i'll commit suicide or whatever you want to do you type it in and see what comes up and normally there's reams and reams and reams on google what this is is an app that's um user friendly that's video led so if you've got if you're depressed there's someone they're talking about depression there's like 10 questions on depression that you're listening that's brilliant it's amazing it's it's going to be a it's going going to be a unicorn business.

6:59You know, I've got this men and their emotions group. I've got 60 ,000 lads in there. It's on Facebook. Oh, cool. I've created it and turned it into a charity. I'll have to share that in there. Share it. Yeah, let's chat. It's unbelievable. Unbelievable. Like, the amount of people have gone on to Jack and massively helped themselves rather than making some bad decisions. Right now, I'm on a mission when it comes to suicide in men. And, you know, it's really simple. In my group, you can post anonymously and other lads can wade in with lived experience. It's like watching Jeremy Carl. yeah makes you feel better about yourself no and everyone else is fucked yeah do you know i mean i used to love watching that and then they're all arguing about the same shit me and the missus are you're watching it you're like yeah mate we're all fucked it's a bit like that in my group but in a nicer way you know what i learned is not not counseling i went counseling and that but counseling and talking to a professional ain't for everyone because it's quite it can seem quite condescending whereas if you've got other lads with lived experience chipping in and for me i'm a big believer in counseling but and i think any lads out there struggling should try it because professional help on untangling your mind is what you need but ringing the samaritans for me that night reshaped what i thought strength was you know i mean being vulnerable lads being vulnerable is actually really strong you know if you can if you can have accountability and go this is what i'm doing wrong and this is what it's making me feel like and someone can give you the answers to it then you're you're you're on step one right but fuck me i'd love to listen back to that phone call to samaritans yeah because i mean i mean it was a dark time i was thinking about slitting me wrists but the um my dealer had fucking white carpet and like a brand new one which ironically i probably paid for because i was buying so much bugle at the time but i didn't want to fuck his carpet up and we're going through that process gave me enough time to think i can't ring my mum because i'll scare her i'm not talking to shelly i don't want to tell my mates about it because it's embarrassing so i remember that name samaritans i thought i'm going to ring it fair play i was off me nuts i must have been chatting shit i probably ended up telling her about fights i'd had at some point but but she um she just she just listened and gave me some advice and a perspective that's what you need yeah and um yeah man how's your life how's your life been obviously you were on the show a couple of years ago yeah and you were a year clean and it was before you were touring before going on and i remember when we did that podcast it really helped me man yeah yeah like i i mean it look listen it helped it helped it helped me in in in different ways one i was doing loads of podcasts at the time and a lot of them were quite dark because it was all about addiction and sobriety and stuff and this one kicked off really funny man remember i can remember i was just telling you a story about how i got expelled yeah i'll just tell you it and i can remember us laughing i thought i never met you before but we're having the right laugh and that loosened me up and reminded me that i'm a comedian yeah and and it actually turned into a really funny but and i was telling you before we got on that i'd never had so many dms and And I definitely do think it helped with my profile.

9:49It reminded people that... You are properly fun. I'm a professional comedian. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The amount of messages that I got through, coming in at Instagram, coming in at LinkedIn, coming in at Facebook, coming in on YouTube, I was like, bloody hell, like people had a proper laugh listening to it. Yeah. And actually saw you, the real you. Yeah, thank you, man. I must have sold some tour tickets, because shortly after that, I sold out 60 dates. That's right. I'll probably owe you a bit of dough, but... No, you can keep it, mate. Tell me about your world on that tour. what's touring like? Mental it's the best Luke just with us that you met the other day he's here with us he come on the road for the whole tour last time and he'll tell you it's great fun but it's a lot of pressure but it's great it's amazing every night every night is like how many did you do that year?

10:3660 60? yeah it was over a year though so give me an example would you be like back to back times three? no no no it'd be like two shows max two maybe three I'd done once but two shows, you get burnt out. There's only so much you can take, positive and negative, when you're on stage. There's only so much adulation. I never used to be able to come off stage and I had to get high off stage because I'd come off and I'd be like, I'm the fucking boy. And then you're in the hotel room. I used to take brownies and chocolates with me and leave them in the hotel room because I felt like I needed to do something.

11:08When I got off stage, apart from wank, but do you know what I mean? I'd go in and I'd have a brownie. I'd be like, ugh, lie in bed. yeah what's the feeling like before you go on stage what's the feeling like i want to really get down into this like you're selling a tour yeah are you like the i imagine the capacities up from a thousand to two thousand and roughly around on that tour it was five five thousand to a thousand five hundred five hundred thousand yeah yeah um i think we've done one fifteen hundred yeah um but this story's a thousand to two going around uh 70 dates um all right so you you're like Are you guaranteed your money up front for those 60 days?

11:47No. You can. You can. Normal touring comedians will get a deal like that. So they go, wallop, there you go. I'm paying you a couple grand or whatever it may be. Yeah. So you'll get Live Nation will come to you and go, right, a sellout on this tour is£2 million. We'll give you£1.5 million up front and sell it for you. Yeah. And I did have a deal like that before I got cancelled for half a million back in the day. and I took, I think I took 300 grand of it and then they were going to pay the rest in instalments and then the tour got cancelled and I spunk loads of the money and I ended up getting fucking sued and it ended up costing me loads of money.

12:25So then when you come clean sober and you weren't cancelled, you did a 60 day tour. But it's different now. Did they give you a lump up front? Nah, the big boys don't work with me. I've got to do it myself. So everything is done myself. I work with a company called Bound and Gagged Comedy and they will get the venues for me. But just basically the administrational side of it, they'll get me through the door. But even that was difficult. On the tour that I'd done just after I'd come off this, I'd done 10 dates. And basically, no one would take me because they thought the press, there was going to be petitions and the press and all this fucking mental.

12:57He managed to string together 10 dates and said, if you sell these out and no one fucking dies at a gig or something, do you know what I mean? Or you don't get cancelled or say anything mental, then we'd try and do more. we sold the first 10 out so quick the money talks then they just all opened the doors and then we sold 60 of them out but i'd have to promote it so they just give me the venues they give me the dates they give me the ticket links and then me and luke and the rest of my team jade and all that we we um create the marketing we sell the tickets then when the ticket revenue comes in there's a split between me the promoter and the venue yeah okay um so yeah so yeah so the quicker you can sell it out the mesh unless you spend a market in the more you're making but on on the actual on the actual night it's every show's different i like to try and keep it so every show's a bit different but there's like a framework to the show so i'll have jokes that i'm going to do but get get into them is the exciting bit you know i mean i try and use the audience to get to different parts of the show you know find characters within the audience and all that but it's always the same you never know it's going to be you hear the audience out there that terrifies you do you do you test the order as soon as you go on going what audience if you're going into Leicester we go to Manchester yeah yeah I have like I what I do is I hit the audience hard first of all with four or five fucking awful horrific naughty yeah like bad like jokes like do I mean like career enders I call them I come straight out and go bang and if they go oh all right that's that's that's where we're at let's dial it down yeah you know I mean further north you get them they fuck they want it hard yeah you know what I mean um so I come out and normally hitting with some clangers and i can gauge where we're at um but to be honest with you i'm at a point in my career now where people that come they know what to expect so was there any was there anything on tour that really stood out for you um yeah there was yeah there was um uh we had two gigs in brighton at the comedia which i think were the two the two there were just some there were like comedy club gigs they weren't because the rest were theaters these were comedy club so it was a club built for comedy they actually didn't have us back that's how good it was like it was fucking off the chain funny um like anything went that night and uh actually the staff in there were like it's too much like so they fucking kept like we can't go to brighton that it was so it was so good no venues in brighton will take us now um but at that night when i came out there was a woman and a man sat right in the middle and he had a beautiful long beard and i'll come out and i was like yeah what's going on mate i love that beard i was like i bet you love it do you get hold of it when he's going down on you and all this and she was like going i was like yeah so what's going on how long you've been together and she was like it's my stepdad it was fucking unbelievable so the whole i was like what the fuck are you doing bringing your stepdaughter to this gig sitting at the front and i was like nuts and we were just ripping him all night right every joke that I could bring back to them two but he was a laugh in his tears off she was like I mean it was a must have been a fucking awkward drive home do you know I mean but something was going on you know what I'm saying but um the beautiful thing about that situation is uh I put the video up right and it and it it got quite a lot of views and comments and people liked it and I always wondered I wonder if they're going to get the ump that'll put the video up and then I got a dm from from her probably it was a year it was a year after that video had gone out so just about a year after the show and i got a dm from her saying i just wanted to let you know that my stepdad that night that um that night that we went was one of the most special nights for him because he's a big fan and i fucked him no i'm joking no no but uh said no it's such a big night um for him he was such a big fan of yours before he come and you involving him in the show was beautiful um but since then he got prostate cancer and died in that short space of time okay and um and and he said but we as a family me my mom we've got that video and we watch it and so so i found some other little edits and i put another thing together and put it out from but it made me just think fucking hell like how you know i'm just about to go on another tour and that man's not with us yeah yeah yeah so that was that was a that was a beautiful poignant moment and um a memory now that's in her that will be in their minds forever um but yeah they wouldn't no respect i had loads of venues that had difficulties when we went you know with the audience and who is any time in the audience someone's really kicked off and you're like you give it back to him he's giving it back to you so much that actually you get to a point you know what this could kick off here i've been knocked out twice on stage have i not told you these stories i told you yeah yeah yeah i've been i've been not yeah i've been i say knocked out first time i went down but i weren't sparko do you know i mean i could have done more but i was Luke.

17:42On this last tour? On the last one, yeah. Go on. Fucking Boily. Like, I came out, and when I was on my way to Blackpool, I was getting tweets, we're going to fuck your show up, me and the boys are coming, and I was giving it to him thinking they were fucking around, but he was like, no, we're going to fuck your show up. You ain't coming to fucking Blackpool. Like, the fuck? So I was reared up for it, but I didn't know if they were going to try and fuck it, and it's a massive, massive, it's the theatre, Blackpool Theatre, I think it's called. It's huge. It's like three tiers, and that was about a thousand people and um right at the top tier i was out and i could just hear this constant you're shit fuck off you're shit and now if if people are heckling you and they're just shouting stuff out like about what you're talking about you can deal with it you can stop the show and go what do you say and then come back with something waiting but if someone's just at you they can fuck the pace of the joke up all the jokes have got a beat it's like a beginning like you lean them into a reveal and if that there's a special moment where there has to be a little gap before you drop a punchline if there's anything in that in that moment in that silence it fucks it and after the one or two times any comedian on this planet would get fucking angry and i just stopped the show and i was just like who's shouting turn the lights up pull the lights up and he's at the top and he's like you're fucking shit mate you're fucking shit and um i'd lost it didn't i didn't even i didn't really have any comedy to come back with so i just went let's fucking go outside then like i'll meet you outside and everyone was like what i was right in the middle or the beginning of the show i was like let's just go outside then and then kevin my comedy director was like just do the show like just do the show and i was like oh what suddenly snapped out of it i was like what am i doing yeah and i was like um what did i say i can't remember what i said now it was something like i can't remember what i said but i said something else and then the audience turned on him okay and the audience yeah the audience were out out and then there was a bit of a ruckus up the top i think someone had and then i was like yeah wait for me outside mate and then uh yeah they got him out and we got a big cheer and i had a beautiful feeling that the audience were with me do you know what i mean and i was like i'm so sorry you know what i mean i would try and think of something funny but i was so angry yeah yeah and they were like nah we love you carry on and the problem with that was it was quite early in the beginning of my tour and i didn't really feel like i was meant to be on tour again i still had a bit of imposter syndrome from being cancelled so i'm still a bit fragile now i don't give a fuck yeah i love it i'm there so I probably would have dealt with it a bit different but as soon as the show was finished I was like go check if that cunt sounds so I was waiting for you because he was a lump wasn't he and if you're watching I was only joking tell me about all the sketches you're getting up to these days which I'm seeing which are absolutely properly funny the sketches you do with Keir Starmer or James O 'Brien and that sort how come you've gone into the sort of politics sketches I think I'm getting pissed off with I think I started getting well I got into politics when uh when we went into lockdown yeah you know um i i i don't i never thought i was intelligent enough to do political satire i thought that politics was was uh you know an upper class man like a really intelligent man's game and i was just a bit of a lad but when i saw how they were blagging us up in in lockdown you know when boris would come on and go right today you know the covid rules are you can go to the pub but only till about 11 and then you've got to come leave and you can sit outside and you're like what so covid won't get us outside all right so covid don't get us before 10 30 they're either going okay um they can hand you a pint but they can't give it to you you have to take it that's the rule for today you're like like they didn't fucking put the pint on there do you know what i mean all this madness and you're looking at boris going what they think we're fucking thick mate yeah do you know what i mean groups of four only you know you can go to a park you know whatever fucking couldn't go and see your grandma when she was dying all that stuff and i i think i thought wow they really do control us because i used to think that politics was something i used to think look as long as i make a load of money who gives a fuck what they do as long as i make a bit of dough who cares but the difference is like they can fuck everything up for us um and i just started to make sketches to show people how stupid the government thinks we are so i'd play the characters oh my god yeah have you heard covid you know you can't do it you know fucking courage not allowed out past 10 play these characters and that turned into um what the press called my comedy and other people online called right wing comedy anti-establishment anti-government stuff is now labeled right wing and that's when i really started getting into it because i was like how the fuck i googled right wing like you see who comes up you see who comes up who's far right i'm like what my granddad's indian i didn't know i was racist it's mental I think my granddad's not like he's like what are you doing my granddad's like proper Indian yeah and um so I used to get into it's alright I'm allowed to say I'm Indian you know what I mean I'll show you a picture after I ain't a blag he's probably honestly when um when I was younger growing up people like my mates would be like who's that Indian fella at your birthday party like they didn't know I was like it's my granddad I can remember someone said I hope we don't get groomed I was like fucking hell grandma no no No, my grandma's...

22:57Indian's going, I'm off. I'm not watching this. My grandma's Irish, right? Yeah. My granddad's Indian. So I'm a product of immigration myself. So when I talk about these subjects... You feel comfortable saying it. I feel comfortable. But a lot of people are like, I can't believe you're saying that with a comedy. And when I really got into creating characters around, say, for instance, James O 'Brien on LBC... Mate, that is properly funny. Thank you, yeah. It's got to be the funniest one of the lot. Yeah. I mean the big ear I was going to bring it I can't believe I said to you this morning bring the big ear please why didn't you bring it honestly just getting out the door I had to pick up my new t-shirt and then I forgot to pick up the ear just all my kids mate yeah fucking explain to the viewer out there the LBC James O 'Brien big ear yeah I get pissed off right I get pissed off when the lefties when they're really hardcore left leaning press I get pissed off when they talk about people with views of similar to mine with such disregard when when they when they think we're thick yeah and uh james o 'brien's is the worst for it you know he'd come on and he'll be like anyone that's on the marches and knuckle dragging you know fish and chip eating right wing thug and and all this and he says mental stuff like you know the the lads that are coming off the boat are valued to this country and all like just stuff that you just think to yourself there needs to be a conversation here.

24:20It's not as easy as calling everyone in the country that has got a problem with this right wing. So then I just really exaggerate that fucking, that mindset, that left, you know. I like to let Afghan men babysit for me and all this shit. Do you know what I mean? Really just fucking push it. You know what I mean? And I've got, I reckon that he sees them because I've had a couple of invites. Yeah, I've had a couple of invites from LBC, you know, people like, do you want to come on and discuss it? I'm like, I'm good, but I ain't that good to actually talk to the geese. Do you know what I mean? I don't want to get mugged off.

24:54I know where my IQ level is. Just let me take the piss out of him. I ain't going to debate him. But I think, what did I say? I said, I've done one that I think pissed quite a few people off that actually know him or associate with him. I opened it with, I was taking the piss out of their reaction to Tom Skinner being on Strictly Come Dancing. And I was saying that he's radicalised Rylan and that Rylan's going to get a, he's going to paint a red cross on Rylan's teeth and all of this shit, right? And I opened with him saying, yes, my wife and my wife's boyfriend's favourite show, Strictly Come Dancing, and people got the right ump about it, you know?

25:32Why? I don't know. I think I must have touched on something. But yeah, so it's just basically my way of, it's basically my way of speaking for quite an underserved audience or an underserved demographic. Yeah. You know? I think you get a lot of support with it. People find it properly funny because you've basically got one ear out here, haven't you? Sorry, one headphone there. Because he always has his headphones like that and he's got a massive ear. So I bought a massive ear. I don't know if you've seen now, there's a lot of comedians that have copied that sketch now. Have they? Yeah, there's two or three other, I mean, I saw Andrew Lawrence doing one the other day and there was another comedian that does James O 'Brien now.

26:06Do they thank you for it? They give you, oh, I think this has come from Dapper. No, of course not. No, okay. No, but I take it as a bit of a compliment. So how does your mind work then? Do you think, right, I've got, would you get up and go, right, he's annoying me. You know what, I'm going to have to take the piss out of him. And would you just go and by the ear, go, right, this is what I'm writing down, or will you just speak? Are you reading off some bullet points of what you're going to talk about? How does it work? I think that I've got, I think I've got like, my ADHD is like a superpower because my mind goes and my body just follows.

26:36So, yeah, so I'm like, I see James O 'Brien, I'm watching him. I'm like, this geezer is a twat. I've got to be this geezer. I've got to show this geezer how much of a twat he is and I've got to show everyone. Just to let him know. Just to let him know. So then Luke that's here now, I'll be like, Luke, find me a massive ear. Find me a massive ear and a wig. Do you know what I mean? Or I'm like, what was the other one the other day? What one are we working on now? We've got Keir Stimer wig. What's the weirdo that does the fucking climate stuff? What's his name? You know, the climate he believes in, net zero and all that shit.

27:08Weird dodgy teeth. Fucking, what's his name? He's another politician. Ed Miliband. Miliband, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I said, see Ed Miliband, get me some teeth. I was like, no, they need to be worse. He's on fucking, they all arrive. I'll whack it on. I'll have an idea about what I want to say. So I'll get a massive A4 pad and I'll be like, write the points down of what I want to talk about and then have arrows exaggerating them. I'll look at it and then I'll just dash it away and then just hit the camera and just fucking improv. And go for it. Improv, yeah. And is it a first time hit? Would you go and go, oh, do you know what?

27:39That wasn't quite right or would you? Only if I've made a mistake. if I've stopped or I've come out of character. Yeah. But I try and do it so it doesn't need to be edited. If you watch the videos, they'll be three minutes in one. I can see it. You can't normally see a transition. There's no transition at all. No, no, no. I don't. Once I'm in, I like to do it because once my mind's in, In the character, you're away. More comes, yeah. Keir Starmer, I created Keir Starmer, the character, just because I was ranting about him so much. I wanted to give it a bit more depth because I felt like I was just coming across like a bit of a twat, you know, because I just really dislike Keir Salma.

28:17I think the whole population does, doesn't it? Yeah, well, it's not just because he's a wet rag. He's got the backbone of Stephen Hawking. Do you know what I mean? He's like, there's nothing about him. I don't know if that's going to offend people, but it's a good view from... You get it. But what he allows, do you know what I mean? What I like to show is the hypocrisy. So like with Angela Rayner, yeah yeah you know him backing her and then letting her go and then still saying she was amazing um and and then looking at the hypocrisy in comparison to what he said about other people what he's done you know having a housing minister that's fucked up on a fucking stamp duty whatever 40 grands 40 grands and then having like all the people in the position with got done you know might as well have had a fire service person that got done for arson you know what i mean Yeah, yeah, yeah.

29:08Like, shit of picking, and it's just a way of just showing it. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Do you think, do you think like Keir Starmer actually has just got people around him? Has he actually built that team around him? Or was he just in for himself and all of a sudden there's people around him going, I'll take that role, I'll take that role. Because I look around and go, that's not a squad that I'd pick. Mate, do you, they're not business people. That's what I'm saying. They don't run businesses. I've got three businesses. Yeah. You are the leader. You go, right, I want you in that position, you in that position, and you build a team around you.

29:36It feels like there's no team around you. If you wanted to build fucking 1.5 million houses, would you not get probably someone that has ran the biggest development firm in the fucking UK to run it? Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Not someone that fucked up buying free houses. Do you know what I mean? It blows my mind that that's not how the government is set up, the experts in those fields that have got a proven record. Because at the end of the day, the UK is a business now. They've got money coming in and money going out and they're trying to sit on a profit. What do you think about it? They said there were 22 million blackout.

30:05within a year they're$22 billion in a black hole when he took over he said isn't that$50 billion after a year don't believe that bullshit because they're like we're$22 billion in a black hole but we're sending out $22 billion in foreign aid to Africa or whatever you're like why so who's in your accounts department that's going listen the country's fucked but we're going to send some money help people once we've helped ourselves you know I think that that's like just I know this would probably be a bit controversial talking about it but the boats and the irregular, as they call them, migrants that are coming over.

30:38The thing that really pisses me off about that situation and making content about it and talking about it, and I had to do a video on it recently, is that the left and the majority of people in the UK think they've got to get out of jail free card by just simply going, I don't want to talk about it, you're racist, right? And that's what pisses me off. That's why I do content about it, right? Because I'm a product of immigration myself. You know, I think that controlled immigration has been brilliant for this country and could continue to be. Anyway, we got a bit political back then. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

31:06But yeah. Give me a sketch of how you do it on Keir Starmer. Oh, Keir Starmer is, he's got a really unique voice, right? So you've got to be nasally like that, but you've got to try and get all your words out at once. So he's very much like that. So he's all the words out. But great British people. You've got to be careful because you turn into Brian, what's in that? Yeah. Would you say Gandhi? You turn into a bit, like you're talking a racist. you turn into a bit like Bane maybe or what's the phone jacker geezer? I don't know. But yeah. Yeah, you can get a bit like that. What's his name on phone jacker?

31:43Bondone or something. I can't fucking know. But yeah, it's more like the great British people. Great British people. Like that. Yeah. That's a quality sketch as well. I can't stand him. No. I can't stand him. I don't know. Anyone does like him? You know what annoys me about it is that before, I don't want to go into politics too much, but just the lads chat. Yeah. before he come in I thought I don't know this guy he's like I'm not really into politics he's going to say he's doing all this this this this he's lied 15 times yeah he's come in he's lied 15 times gone everything against what he said he was going to do that's the bit we all grew up as kids like man you tell the truth son yeah you tell the truth you tell the truth I think that's the thing you gain respect I think that's the thing especially with the working class working class people in the UK it's called authenticity being real yeah and I've learnt I've learnt that through righting my wrongs or talking about online you know the mistakes i've made other lads respect that and and lads will go like fuck me if he can turn his life around after he's been an arsehole and he's admitted it and his missus is like giving him another crack at it because he's shown that accountability and you know we have freedom of speech here and you're looking at your gaslighting the whole country like we'd have more respect for you if you went listen if you tweet shit in this country you're getting nicked yeah yeah and actually we don't give a fuck who's coming across the borders because we need the voters or whatever reason it is you know people will go all right okay at least you're saying at least you're saying it yeah but when it don't you're like mate we're fucked do you ever do you ever do you ever get paranoid like not now not now when you don't drink and do drugs but you ever do like these sketches and go oh mate am i going to be the next one that someone's going to try to clobber you know you see like people getting clobbered for uh facebook things or whatever do you ever think when you do a sketch like am i going to get the call up or someone knock on my door or you or you like nah i don't care i couldn't give a fuck about that i care more about um i care more about i do get anxiety when I talk about um if I do quite a heavy I've done quite a heavy one on James O 'Brien and the marches the way that he was painting the marches I got actually I actually got quite frustrated I know that there's racist at the marches but not everyone at the marches was racist just like not everyone that comes over on the boats is a wrong thing do you know what I mean um but I've done a video about that and um what worries me is people having the wrong perception of me but I've got you can't you can't create comedy content with that worry you have to just run with what's in your mind but what i'm not fearful of the state or fearful of police or getting nicked that make great content that just fucking elevate me as a voice you know like it did with graham linton when he got nicked suddenly he's a global fucking um mouthpiece for council culture now you'll be selling out tours and shit um but what what does bother me is that my following that has stuck with me my whole life and the ones that believe in me if they misinterpreted something or if something was fed to them through the media like it was before you know they managed to convince a lot of people that I was a fucking pro-rape misogynist just because of jokes.

34:31That's what fears me. That's how they're comfier. Have you noticed how big your fan base has got over the last couple of years? Like you've got a lot of love going your way because you are properly funny and you say how it is. I don't know if I know. I'm just working on content. Okay. You don't really notice that. Nah. I see my numbers. You see your numbers. That's what I'm saying. You see your numbers getting bigger. You see that every time you're passionate and you're very good at social media. I remember chatting to you last time off air. You were like, mate, I know what works. I know what don't work.

35:01I know what works. I know what don't work. You're like the guru, really, of making great content and getting numbers and figures. Do you get a buzz off seeing numbers and figures? Yeah, I mean, yeah, 100%. I mean, Luke will tell you now. I've got a lot of stand-up clips. Luke's constantly on me. That's got to go out. That's got to go out. I've got a lot of stuff that I'm very conscious about. my stand-up comedy for me is like my my true the rawest form of my art and it's what i love but like i love making i'm notorious maybe even um you know one of the first to make a sketch comedy content in the uk ever you know before it was even a thing um on vine and everything like that so that's what people know me for but i'm a bit more nervous about putting my stand-up out because it's it's not because of the content of it because it's because what i love so i've got such a backlog of that stuff to go out um but um when when something does bang yeah there's nothing better there's nothing better because i'm like what i'm thinking and feeling i'm not alone okay and also you've got to remember it's fucking mental in my mind right so i'm like oh my god i'll get in here right i'll put uh lbc but i'll change it to fucking lefties on the back i'll sit in front of the mic i'll rant about the fucking immigrants or whatever or the lefties view of the immigrants and the situation or whatever and this would be amazing.

36:19Then you post it and you go, what have I done? Fuck. Fuck. What have I done? What have I done? And like Shelly will always come in and go, what the fuck was that? I'm like, just wait. All right. And then when it bangs, I mean, it doesn't always go your way, you know. Luke will tell you. There's been occasions where I delete stuff, you know, because I never delete stuff because of a negative response to it. But if it's just dead, if it's not going anywhere, You'll go off. I'll go, do you know what? It's not my best work. And you shouldn't really. I mean, anyone else that works in the industry always says, leave it.

36:54It could grow. But also, I just... But you know. I've got the anxiety. I'll be sitting with it going, that's a shitter. Yeah. And I ain't a shitter. Yeah, okay. So where's the bit then, the anxiety? Like you go, bang, I've put it out. And then you're seeing the comments coming in. You go, these are good comments. Then you see a couple of bad comments. Do you focus on the bad comments? Always. You always do. I end up arguing especially on Twitter X I end up arguing Are you big on X are you how many followers you on X 430k something like that and how many got on Instagram close to a million now is it Facebook two and a half million yeah are they your main three yeah yeah TikTok's 1.1 and YouTube's 80k I've always struggled with YouTube but a lot of people YouTube's tough yeah yeah I've always struggled with YouTube I just I don't know I think I think that if you do my type of content, it's hard anyway.

37:46There's a lot of people that have started years after me that have got much more followers than me because their content is the same as, like, as good as mine or better than mine but in a different field that's not offensive and divisive. You see, because you can watch a video of mine and agree with it and laugh with it, laugh at it, but it's like your secret little fucking, I don't want anyone else to know I like that. So you ain't liking it or sharing it or commenting. Because your mates are seeing it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. do you know what i mean i might be having a fucking dig at something yeah or something that's very true yeah like i've i've looked at stuff before i'm gonna make that's probably fun and then i've liked it and then next day other people come up again oh i saw you like that thing did i went you don't realize yeah everyone else can see that you've liked it yeah yeah yeah yeah that's what you gotta be careful with like all the sexy girl pics and that on instagram my wife's like what the fuck is your for you page i'm like babe what the fuck that i'm doing research for a video have you ever gone to bed with anxiety fall in a kip and then the first thing you do wake up you want to see what comments are there straight away i'm terrible i honestly i'm i'm sometimes if i put some because i because when i'm in the moment of creating yeah once i've created there's no going back once i've made it there's no going back it's going out um and i might know through the process of creating it that this is divisive this is this ain't gonna i'm gonna lose some people on this one um but there's something in me where if it's if it's if it's an idea it has to come out i have to say it because ultimately it's something i believe in and it's something that i find even if it's not about politics or anything it's just a fucking funny thing yeah but it's like at the expense of something or someone that people are not going to like yeah um i'm trying to think of an example you know but yeah I don't know let me think of an example you know yes no I don't know no because I haven't posted them yet so I'm going to wait but I've got a load of them in there and I'm like come on give us a hint of it I don't know really I don't know let me have a think

39:55shit I don't know because I'm going to do it as a video come on All right, I'm writing one in my mind at the moment, right? In fact, I woke up at four o 'clock this morning thinking about it, right? This is going to get me in trouble on air. I fucking know it is. But I wanted to put it into my stand-up set. But I woke up at four o 'clock in the morning this morning thinking about this. And I had to email it. If you've got my phone, I'll show you. I don't know if my phone's on charge. But I had to email it to myself. So I emailed it to myself at four o 'clock because I was like, I need to open my emails and see this shit in the morning because I'm going to forget.

40:24And I've been writing a section in my tour about first times. and, you know, losing your virginity in all of that jazz. And it went on to, like, you know, first time you slip a digit to a bird, finger a bird or whatever, and girls giving you hand jobs. And then I was thinking, how come women are so shit at hand jobs? Like, they are so bad at hand jobs, right? They always have been notoriously bad. And then I was thinking, how can I let my audience know, visualise how bad Shelly is at hand jobs? Do you know what I mean? Because I put proper effort. Remember when you were growing up, you put effort into a finger and a bird.

40:55You'd learn about it. Do you know what I mean? you wouldn't go straight in you'd go around the edges you'd let them know that you know where that where the uh clit is you'd just give it a little thing they go you're like yeah do you know what i mean you'd tell them you wouldn't even just be down there you'd be in the ear like that so they know do you know what i mean all this effort we put in and girls just like fucking shit and i was trying to visualize how i could describe i was trying to visualize i was trying to visualize how I could make the worst visual aspect of how shit Shelly is and giving me a handjob and I thought of Harvey Price trying to get the last bit of ketchup out of a ketchup bottle

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42:56I thought we were talking at one Yeah, I heard him going Oh, what a day And then me going And then me going Fucking hell Shelley, is that it? And then me going Fuck off you cunt

43:17see that's what i didn't want to say it

43:25oh mate how your mind is wired mad in it wired i know so it was something like that then you're waking up eating man yourself going i've got to do a sketch on that yeah and would you take that on tour that that is going in the tour now yeah because if it's gold like i don't know why that come to me do you know what i mean and uh and it's not meant to be out of order it's just meant to be a visual thing of him doing it because that's how sort of unsexy she looks like when she's like fucking you're just like give it here i'll do it myself um but uh so no offense katie or harvey um shit that's gonna be bad but keep it in man fuck it clip it would you have you ever ever been taken off social media if you have to start a new account again um or has anyone like put a shadow ban and goes like me oh man yeah my my all my accounts at the beginning well i had to i had to um i don't think i lost any of them but they all got shadow banned they all got shadow Shadowband means...

44:30Yeah, but you can see, if you know where you're looking, you can see the strikes. Like on Instagram, you can see the strikes. You can go in. You've got three strikes or... Yeah, you can see. And it's time, isn't it? It takes time. It's like three year, two year on one. It just takes time. So a shadowband means what? Your posts and people, they just won't show the view. If they search, that's another way you can find out if you're shadowband is if you go on your social media on another account and search for yourself if it doesn't come up. So on Instagram especially. So if you go on a different account and go to the search bar and search Dodge.

44:59If it doesn't come up, you're shadow banned. Okay. So I had that on all of my accounts. I went through a long period of time of just getting abuse on my content because of what the press had done and also the content not getting out there. So now when I look at my numbers on Instagram, I'll be honest with you, it makes me happy. I look and I see like 10 ,000, 15 ,000, 20 ,000 likes and stuff like that. Is that right? I'm like, wow. I'm like, wow, this is how it's supposed to be. And how many people would have looked at it and not liked it in case they see other people? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, like a shit video for me should be 100k, 100 ,000 views.

45:32On a short form content? On a minute, yeah. In a minute. It should be 100 ,000 and a good one should be a million. That's where it's kind of sitting now. So that's nice. So do you know once you've posted in the first hour? Oh no, in the first 10 minutes. Whether it's going or not. Okay, what do you notice on Instagram in the first 10 minutes? What sort of numbers do you want to be on in 10 minutes to go, mate, I'm on 7 ,000 already or 15 ,000 already? Oh no, for 10 minutes it wants to be about 10k, 10 to 20k. for me and in in you you'll be able to tell straight away because the way the algorithm works is especially on tiktok but they're very similar tiktok and instagram is you it will show your video to say for instance it will show your video to 10 people yeah if three people like it yeah out of that then it will like go up and it will show to another 20 and if like three people plus someone comments then it'll go up so so if you see straight away when you put a video out that you've instantly got a couple of likes and a couple of comments then it's just going to keep okay keep growing what's your what's your method behind it being such good so good on social media how are you hooking people in are you thinking i've got to get them in the first three seconds you have to so in what way though because i see that you're moving the camera moving the camera around a lot and what's your what's your go-to is it the word you use straight away or yeah i think that you have to give them you you there's different ways to do it i think the classic way to do it is to to subconsciously ask a question that you're going to answer at the end of the video so they have to stay well um you know i wouldn't do it in this way but um if you would say for instance you were going to do something on the controversy of the marches yeah and you'd be like i'll tell you why everyone isn't marches isn't racist okay but before i say that or wait till the end of this to find out that yeah but i don't i don't really that that's because mine's sketch-based comedy you have to hit them with possibly one of the best best jokes in it straight away and then dial it down and then build it up so your opening five seconds needs to be hooky hooky it needs but it needs for me it needs to be funny and also the subject matter has to be clear because you've got to remember what you're competing with is this it's just if i always imagine that you go no no yeah no no so you've got to go kiss tom is a cunt you're like okay cool yeah okay which is your go-to social media which is the one straight away you go i need to bang this out first see if it works and then what i'll do i'll copy and paste and i'll spread it across other social platforms facebook really is it facebook is it yeah is that because the audience is over 30 would you say um i think weirdly i'm just not that bothered about i even though i've got two facebook pages so i've got like what's my personal facebook page like mates yeah well it's family yeah yeah it kind of is it's like a pro it's like a normal facebook page but i've got 450 000 followers on it because you can get followers on the page yeah and on that one um i just go fuck it let's just see like i don't really care yeah like i really just don't care but um instagram for me is kind of like my shop window i feel don't want to be too well i just want i just want quality stuff on there yeah i don't really want i don't want to test the market on on instagram so your test on facebook if you like it if they like it and the numbers are going well and it's your shop windows instagram then you're banging on it yeah because the algorithm is builds you know so video to video to video to video to video if you chuck clangers on there then you've got a build yeah okay tick tock for you tick tock i'm i'm a little less conscious i don't really see tick tock as my audience even though there's like 1.2 million on there now i i i kind of feel i kind of feel like it doesn't really dish it does distribute to your audience your audience sees it you don't really know who that audience is is that what you're saying yeah that's right I feel like do you know what I mean it's the world Instagram I feel like they're my people so TikTok I've got a bit more respect for than Facebook but again I'm not I don't really give a fuck about TikTok I'll just whack anything up do you ever get the fear that you could get cancelled again from the venues yeah because the venues the biggest because at the end of the day you know when we talk about putting content out putting content out and you're like I don't give a fuck actually as a business owner yeah free comments there's lots of things i'd like to put out yeah but i don't because i'm thinking i don't want to i don't want my views to go out there i just want to be a host i don't want to give my full-on views of what i feel just in case it has a knock-on effect for other businesses but your business is selling tickets yeah um my business is selling tickets to festival yeah i mean and and your business is selling tickets to uh venues and you've got 60 venues if you ever over push the mark would you ever go oh man i could lose 10 venues because of that video post or something yeah but i think that i'm so i've been through it now that i know i know like i know what common sense is what's okay and what isn't you know and i know that i know deep down inside that morally that my views are not really you know i don't have misogy i got i don't have misogynistic views i don't have racist views although stuff can be interpreted to the wrong by the wrong person but i'm not stupid you know these days it's gonna have to take a fucking lot for you to convince people that i'm doing something wrong yeah because there's so much support yeah but ultimately it's down to the owners of the venues anyway so there is always that risk and i don't do the although i make good money from touring i don't i do it because i love it it's the most important thing to me doing stuff yeah apart from obviously my kids and my family but I could lose my social media tomorrow and but if I could never perform live on stage it's what I did before social media on the cruise ships and everything it was a stage you know I believe that I'm skilled as a live entertainer and being up there is the dream you know that's the dream what's the buzz for you when you're up there because when you're up on stage if I'm doing a talk on stage just bright lights I can't see no one there might be like hundreds of people in there but you can't see anyone is it exactly the same for you how would you know how are you buzzing off the crowd if you can't really see you feel them you feel the energy and the and the laughter but there's like a there's there's there's like a sweet spot that you keep that you could you aim for every every show it's like you have stuff that you know works right so you have you have jokes that because right now i've just finished working my material for this tour so for the last four months i've been out doing 10 minutes five minutes 10 minutes to and then it's really difficult because i kev my comedy director this weekend we had three gigs i I opened in Windsor then I had to drive an hour to close fucking I can't remember where it was somewhere else three gigs in one night I'd done two in one night and then one the next night so I opened somewhere closed somewhere and then I was doing another one the next time his name's Kevin Shepard he's been my comedy director for the last couple of years and what he really works on is one making sure that I'm not going to get cancelled so he'll take that fucking idea like I've just blurted out one here and he'll shave the edges off it so he'll say yeah let you know he's not going to tone me down but he's going to make it bulletproof yeah okay you know i mean so he'll be like it doesn't matter because what it all what what matters is your sounding board basically yeah yeah brilliant but just go yeah but but also as well he's he's he's like he's um he's um he's like a specialist uh with a stagecraft so for instance what i like to do is because i'm a sketch comedian is what i like to do is i'll become harvey in that sketch yeah do you know what i mean i'll tell the beginning of the joke and then i'll become the characters within it on stage that's what i love doing like lee evans my favorite he becomes the things and what kev will do is either dial it down tone it up be careful to stand that way make sure you're holding the mic like this you know don't come don't come too far forward because the light is you know so there's a hell of a lot of technical stuff that comes into it you know if i move too quick or or what like what word to finish on do you know i mean there's there's a lot of like you know you might say you know um there's different ways to word things but in comedy there's specific um uh there's specific like you know do it in sets of patterns yeah patterns and words what some words are punchier than others and he'll fine-tune that shit for me so he'll direct the show um but yeah and uh we've been out testing material so i've been dying on my ass really for the last you know uh three or four months ago no that doesn't work that doesn't work that does work how brutal are you of your own comedy oh it has to work Are you that brutally right?

53:50How does it work? Are you going, right, I've done that. I can't repeat what I did last year. No, you can't, no. But would you take a couple of bits from that? No, I mean, towards the end of the tour last year, we were testing subject matter. So instead of jokes, subject matter. So I'd be like, what's the next tour going to be about? Well, what I wanted the next tour to be about, because the last tour was heavily based on me, on my journey through drugs and then recovery, and then my family. And I was like, I'm a bit fed up with talking about me. what I want to talk about is the world. So I really wanted like a nostalgic show.

54:22I wanted to look back at what life was like before the internet, how we were the last, how we were the last generation before the internet. So looking at things like, you know, kids these days, they don't know they're born that, you know, you can fucking have a wank over anything you want on the internet. Do you know what I mean? You just, you type in a guy fucking a goat and it will come up. But in our days, back in our day, if we wanted to see that, we had to fuck a goat. Do you know what I mean? So it's like, that's just not that. The show ain't about that. But I mean, that's just an example.

54:48but you know and how different the world is now and politics of now to then and loads of nostalgia that's great mate that's a great subject that's a great subject I wanted it to be like real nostalgic so you know shit that they don't get now like going and playing Knock Down Ginger or going and knocking round for your mates so you're coming out they don't do that now do you know what I mean all that stuff so bring back all that memory all that memory's from our audience everyone wants nostalgia the idea of this podcast Eventful Life is nostalgia people who were at it in the 80s and 90s need to tell their story and that's why we've done 330 odd episodes now people telling a story because once they're brown bread no one's going to know their story yeah so we got it it's going to be on youtube for the next hundred years or and it is yeah and and it and we we we've been forgotten like the 40 the 40 year olds the 50 year olds you know it's all about our kids now and the world of today how it was for us that you know like i've got memories watching my mum you know dancing around the kitchen holding a glass and wine singing whitney houston and stuff like that yeah and and then you suddenly realize everyone's mum was doing that back then.

55:45You know, all of this stuff. So once I tapped into that, I was like, this is a feel-good show that people want. That's a great, you've got a great market there. Yeah, and then, so we're going out testing it and Kev purposely takes me to comedy clubs that don't know me or a little bit higher brow. So testing it is you're going to a smaller comedy club just getting a feel whether there might be 50 people in there just to know if you're getting the laugh or not. Yeah, and it's very difficult because there's no segue into it, you know, so when I go on stage, I'm like, good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

56:10Welcome to the tour show. Boom, boom, boom into the audience. a couple of like naughty jokes and then and then i'm like right this is a show about nostalgia and you know i'll get into i draw i'll play some music or whatever i'll get him into it but when you go in a comedy club it's like welcome to the stage dan o'reilly you're bang on fire so you go who remembers when your mum used to dance around you know you're straight into it so there's no warm-up there's no warm-up so so it has to be powerful and you can tell if there's a murmur when you're when you're when you're on the when you're on the when you're describing the joke before you drop the punchline if there's a murmur of laughter and you've got that excites you and then that slows you down so you can slow down and play with it but if it's silent you kind of rush to get to the punchline okay so that's all in the art form like it's about it's about when they say work in the material it's not just about seeing if if it if it works what it's really about is getting out slowing it down and finding how much you can get out of it how much how much performing it instead of delivering it yeah okay but also listening the power of listening yeah yeah you're there telling a joke or telling something slowing it down and listening to get a vibe whether you can just slow it down even more and really milk that because because what a lot of people and i've been working with a few younger comedians or up-and-coming comedians which i'm really enjoying at the moment you know there's these young lads that are like i've never really had it before that that they're kind of like looking up to me a little bit and then i'm like getting them to come and open on my warm-up shows so i'm phoned a few shows that my finger they're coming out like oh how do you write you know what do you how do you come up with your ideas and stuff and it's so good for my ego and like making me feel like i should be here and should be doing what i'm doing and just giving them the tips that I've learned and makes me realize how fucking difficult it really is.

57:46For instance, your nerves tell you to get to the fucking point of the joke, right? But the beautiful, the beautiful fucking nuance laughter is in the description of, or is taking them on the journey to the punchline. But you have to have so much confidence and ability to sense when to talk and when not to talk. Because if I say something like, when I told you that story about what we were talking about with the catch up and all that you were creasing up on the lead up to it more than you well maybe as much as you was at the end but a true craftsman has to let the audience laugh while they're talking so actually when you're on stage you talk at this pace you're like that it's not like so I was walking down the road and then this geese had come over you know you have to let them laugh and then carry on but that's totally opposite to what you do in your short form content oh yeah just short funk on stage you're slowing it down yeah you go what um when you're when you're doing a show how long is your show is it an hour hour and a half do you do 245 minutes how does it work kev will come out and do 15 minutes to warm them up yeah and then he'll do like the p's and q's so he'll say you know um like for the first half of my show i don't mind if people want to get involved do you know what i mean so um but then for the second half it'll be a bit different but he'll come out and do 15 and I'll do 30.

59:04Yep. And then they'll have a break and then they come back and I'll do an hour. Oh, so you do an hour to finish. Yes. An hour, but that's not normal. Actually. A lot of comedians, 45 and 45. Don't they? Well, actually I was touring. I've done a gig with a big touring comedian. I won't say who he is, but I've done a big gig with him and he was, he's got a massive tour. And I said to him, you know, what's your setup? And his warmup goes out and does 20 minutes as a break. And then he comes on and does 45. So his whole tour shows 45. and I said to him really and he was like listen people don't want too much and you want to leave them with more but I just I've got an eggy feeling about turning up at a venue seeing a warm up and then having a break and being on your break going I'm here for the fucking for the geezer so I'd never put a break in before they'd seen me but yeah what's the what's the what's the what's the name of the movie you've just done oh Sessions mate yeah Sessions didn't I ask you to invest I did didn't I I'm sure I DM'd you did you I'm sure I DM'd you yeah what'd I say fuck men's mental health no I'm joking no no I think I don't remember you I think I don't know I must have done invest into the movie yeah I think because I fucking I struggled I had some it was really difficult we had some major fuck ups on it like whose idea was it I wrote it I wrote it you wrote a film yeah so Sessions was it meant to be funny was it no no No, it's, so when we were last doing our podcast, when I last done my podcast, it was a one pager around that time.

1:00:36So I was fucked. And through my first year, when I'd done my podcast, Minister Sobriety had a producer on that. And he's a writer. And I wanted to really show, I wanted to show cocaine culture. I wanted to show how the UK has been gripped by cocaine culture and how it's turned into like just an alcohol, but more like the drink. because for me growing up from the age of like 16 17 mate it was like weekend beers coke right it was just it wasn't even a thing it was like if if in fact i don't know if i know anyone that that didn't do it or hasn't done it i don't think i do right and um and if someone weren't getting on it that was weird like it was just ingrained in us and then i wanted to show um in in in some way in a film um how that goes from that to you know your life progresses into having kids getting getting married having a mortgage having a business and how that party for some people they struggle to stop it because it turns into a coping mechanism they need the weekend because the week's been so hard they need that blowout and i wanted to show that transition from it ain't fun no more now you're losing your missus now you're losing your thing and i wanted to tie in um an element around suicide in men the connection between cocaine culture so i used my story uh as a basis to write it.

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1:03:14But I wanted it to be a feature, a cinematic feature. So we wove in a criminal element into it and then we wove in a love story into it. Yeah. And then we made it really interesting and it took two years to write. Okay. And when's it coming out? Well, it's just, we've just finished the editing process now. So now, now is the exciting time where we take it and we see if a Netflix or an Amazon want to buy it. But it almost never got made. That's why I was messaging everyone for money. I messaged everyone, everyone that I could think of. fucking wayne linicott eddie earn fucking like uh charlie sloth fucking anyone that i've ever seen that has got a bit of business about them i had a point where i was just like i'm fucked so what happened is you can go out to companies and say uh right the film's going to be x amount of millions to make um basically you it's a bit of a risk but you say look we give you a percentage of the film for x amount and then we give you your money back plus 20 for instance or whatever if you make the film and sell it and it makes money.

1:04:16But I was in a bit more of a unique position where I can say, I've got millions of followers. We're going to promote the making of the film throughout the process. And then we're going to monetize. If we don't sell it to Netflix, if we don't sell it or whatever we sell it for, we can also sell it to the fans. And I worked out if just 8 % of my following bought the film at£5.99, it returned like 3 million or whatever. So I had a fail safe, two bites at a cherry business deal to make this film plus it's amazing subject matter it's going to help people it's tied to the tied to this important messaging um and i managed to get a couple of big companies on board big companies for for finance and they um were fully financed uh the film um and i'd put 100 grand in myself uh for the lead up um you know to get to get the production team in to get everyone on board which I was happy to do and potentially take out later on.

1:05:11Coming up to when I first needed to get the money in from these investors, we were a couple of months out. One of them wanted to change some stuff and put some trans elements into it, into this story to make it more commercial, which I just couldn't do. And it was so much money that they were putting in because they wanted to make it more commercially viable. But I stood hard on the point because the whole reason why people like me, our story and the story of cocaine culture and sesh culture is only glamorized in like your rise of the foot soldier films like there's never a serious film about it or about this sort of working class the truth yeah the truth of the truth of what young lads in britain uh are going through why they're killing themselves the real truth was shame and guilt and why they're killing themselves you know in my story there wasn't trans people and that issue wasn't part of it and actually i thought that it was uh i thought that it would undermine the um the credibility and the realism of the film and my following especially would see through that.

1:06:09So it's something I wouldn't twist on for money. So I lost funding and then I lost funding because they dropped, other people dropped and it was like a house of cards and then before I knew it, the cameras were rolling and I was fucking in deep. I had no money. What year was this? What was that, a year ago? Last year? Was it last year? Last year. So I had to raise the rest of the money. How much in total did it cost? I'd rather not say, but a lot. Like, a lot. More than half a bar? Mate. More than a mil? Yeah, really? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and I had to find that fast. And you've got to remember, right, if your director, your director's there, right, he's like, right, we need money for this, this, this, and this.

1:06:58Everyone's waiting week to week for their paychecks. Everyone's waiting for their paychecks. you can't even get a cut you can't even get your film cast unless their agency x amount in in like a fucking escrow or in the thing so i'd add i'd have my hundred grand in there to show everyone that we're ready to go but then once we went like i was like no one can find out like just my inner circle i was like we need to find this money fast like but a lot but a few people around me went like just ditch it we're out i was like you can be out like i'm making it like yeah so i looked into putting my house up so i put my house up to take all the money out of my gaff um um that's a big big gamble gambling your house i gambled my house on the festival 2008 9 10 11 12 the pressure you get under if your house is on the line mate well you're going to make it at work and you know no way you work no way yeah yeah man and i so i went into that and god bless my wife god bless my wife i said to her look it's it's important it'll resonate there's it's a culture there's an audience for it worst case scenario i'll spend the rest of my life selling it to my followers we'll get the money back and her attitude was you know through what I'd done is why we lived in that big house I'll do it again which is a big one for her, sold my villa in Spain sold my McLaren do you know what I mean I had to buy a fucking people carrier I got a fucking people carrier but when I look back at that who did you have to say this is the business model were you just going solo and I'm going to wing this, wing this and people pulled out there must have been someone you've gone to what is the business model of making a movie do you know what i did i went back to i went back i went back to basics how i market my tour yeah and um i went um i made a i made a series of videos saying um saying this is the project this is this is well first of all i went to my network and i said i'll take anything from fucking 10 20 grand from anyone and this is the deals this is what it is if you believe in me you know and do you know one thing one thing i learned through that process is there's no point having celeb mates there's no point having all these big celebrities follow you on instagram and that um you know uh unless you can you unless like there's someone because we don't know each other we're not friends unless we can do something together i'm like look you've got a massive following you've got loads of money will you invest in this and uh when i first started reaching out to people i realized that once they said no i've burnt that bridge yeah like 100 once i've said no like there's certain people in the industry now that Well, once you've said no.

1:09:23No, no. Once I've asked them and they've said no, it's awkward. It's eggy. It's eggy. They're like, oh, right. So he wanted to thank out to me. That palar saying as cool as I thought he was. He's just half the money. But I was fully prepared to burn every fucking bridge. So I did. I did. I just went to everyone. Did anyone get back to you? None of the celebs. I think it's difficult with celebrities and people with high status because they get everyone on them, especially if they're rich, especially if they've got lots of money. So I didn't really take it as disrespect. I put it out. I put it out to everyone you could imagine.

1:09:51and a lot of them were like we'll look at it we'll come back to you but i'm like it's now which which is the worst thing for a fucking financial pitch and what you go i need money for this but yesterday but yesterday and you seem desperate so how's it a good deal if you're desperate do you know what i mean how come so uh but i put i thought right who's going to believe in this film um and it's people that have been on this journey with me so i set up a marketing campaign on my social media and i said look this is where which was difficult because i had to do it in a way that didn't scare the execs on the film and didn't scare the so so actually i had to put my own money in as much as i could you know they're coming to me going right it's 90 grand this week so i'm finding 90 grand you know through selling my shit my business partner's selling his gold selling his watches and shit and then next week well it's 120 grand this week and all the while trying to blag these social media campaigns without putting them on my story so the sort of actors saw it so i was doing paid advertising on the back end of my social media so it was circulating this is the pitch this is what it is if you want to find out more get in touch with me and then i had to walk through thousands of time wasters and then a few key people come through and was like fuck it we're back here and a couple of people come in for some big lumps and then it was all drips and drabs and one day i woke up and went fucking we've done it it's funded yeah it's funded and just as the just as it was funded i was getting the first look of the film coming back so i sat in my office and watched it and i was like fuck mate amazing that is some story.

1:11:16Mate, good for you mate. Yeah, it was mental. That's ballsy. That is ballsy, putting that on your line. Everything on the line. Where are you at today with it then? How does the business model work? You've got a movie, it's been funded, how did you split all the shares up? You go, someone waxed in a ton, under a G's, how are you splitting where you're on 1 % or you're on 5 %? How are you doing that? It's divvied up mate, like a business would be. So, you've got on one side, it's kind of in half, so on one side you've got like the director, the actor, and the producers they'll all have little percentages that are within their deals and then you'll have like an investable which is like the rest of it and it's just divvied up pro rata to what you're putting in to the budget so say for instance the budget's a million and you're putting underground in then you should technically be getting 10 right um and what's the business model of you selling it onto someone so say so netflix really like it what lump will they give you and say right we're going to pay this if we hit certain numbers have you spoken which only of them uh no well uh through someone i know amazon got wind of it and we spoke and i but i haven't sent them and shown them anything i said that they could potentially get a first look at it but this whole gap this is a game now yeah so the way that the way that you've got to do it right is these companies they will see films all the time there's different ways you can do it you can take an idea to them and ask them to make it but i believe it's better to come with them a package with something and yeah and then you go tangible yeah tangible and then you say this is what I want for it.

1:12:40This is how much it costs me. What number have you got on it? I don't want to say. I don't want to say any numbers, mate. No, but have you got a number? Oh, yeah, I know a number that I need. You need a number to go, right, I know that I'm going to pay everyone back for that. And the investors are going to get their money back. And the drink on top. Well, if there's a drink on top, fantastic, because that can go into the next film. But as long as I get my investors their money back and we can all go again. Do you think you'll be able to get a deal to pay everyone back? Yeah, I do, because... And how long are you giving yourself to get that?

1:13:07Well, this is the thing. I've got two options right so you can either take something like this and you can go and knock on Netflix door and ask them to come and watch it with you and then you tell them this is the culture this is the people this is a whole generation they're going to get it's the name sessions people are going to click on it they're going to watch it it's a beautiful film it's got to make they've got to watch it and go I like it it's a great film by the way it's fucking brilliant right so they've got to watch it can I get a look at it I couldn't send it to you you couldn't but if I have a screening I'll bring you down okay yeah definitely have you had good feedback on it Yeah, yeah, we have.

1:13:37Have you had good feedback of not people that just want to tell you it's good? Yeah. Well, there's three... Well, you've got to be arse with yourself. Yeah, well, the first time we got it, we've got to show it to people and people go, I don't like that, I don't like that, we should change that. So that was straight, that's right. So it's changed a lot, yeah. Have you shown anyone away from your circle? Yes, yeah, yeah. Sit down with me, how long is it? Hour and a half? Hour and 20? Hour? Yeah, but it would go to them and they'd watch it in their own time. But yeah, other directors... see i'm i've done my bit on it yeah and i've had to let it go to take my ego out of it because i'm in it yeah so i'm only watching myself other people that are more experienced than me have changed it and i've allowed that but what i was not going to allow was um execs like so for instance if you don't if you if you if you take an idea to netflix yeah or to amazon or something it's going to go into their corporation right and if they think it's good they want their stamp on it so they'll go i'm changing that yeah and i can tell people i've changed that okay so i wanted to get the story right but then the edit the fixtures and fittings and how cinematic it looks and the all of that stuff okay let the pros play with that so i took my ego out of that but there's two ways we can go about this i can take it to these people and say who wants this and how much will you give it to me do you want to buy my film do you want to buy my film or i can take it to um festivals right because i believe it's like a festival film it's so important it's about suicide prevention and and then and then have them see it and then come to me and say what do you want for it that's where i want to be because it's not really just about would you ever think of searching someone something like that someone like irving welsh who's that you know is it irving welsh you did train spotting oh wow oh yeah okay do you know someone who's done training someone's been there got a t-shirt he's got yeah mate do as a photo can you watch that for now and let me know if i'm on the right tracks here or not that's good but i i think it i don't you've got to remember there's a director attached to it already that's made it he might not like that but wouldn't it be nice to get feedback of someone who's got who's done an amazing movie one of those lines yeah i mean yeah i would love to actually that's you've got me thinking now yeah because this is the stage now we can change it once once the button's pushed on it we can't um because i love i love the idea i love the name i love everything about it i'd love to see what it's like yeah because you need to ask i'm gonna let you watch it i would love to watch it and no one would to see it yeah all right luke we'll well we'll make that happen and and i'll take some honest feedback you know me i'll get proper honest feedback yeah yeah yeah um yeah and it's so difficult though mate because i don't know what's going to happen with it but what's more important to me like i can sell it and get the money back on it i know i can through my through my audience i know how to do that but with netflix or amazon it goes out to the world yeah and then everyone sees it and that's more important to me are you the main character in it yeah yeah i played the myself with great great actors i've acted in quite a few films and i've done acting before so if you do so the business model rather you're paying those actors to be there a monthly fee to be there or you're just saying like you're on a day rate i need you on i need you five days for this month to do yours better than you're off yeah so i say for instance that day you negotiate a thousand pound a day and they're doing 10 days it's 10 grand yeah yeah and then everyone will have their everyone's fees will be uh staggered so the director will take a proportion a proportion of proportion.

1:16:48So at the moment, you're there being the front man and shelling out. Oh, mate, yeah. Shelling out, shelling out, and nothing's come back yet. Oh, no, I've set up a limited company. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm fucking, everything, every penny that I had saved and is in it. So if, you know, it's not... So have you given yourself a timeline to go, do you know what? I need something now. What are we sitting in now? We're sitting in October. Are you saying, do you know what? By December, I want an answer. Or are you just going to go, do you know what? let's see if someone but it's at the moment and i haven't really spoken about this before but i'll just be honest with you at the moment it's that's a conversation that i've got to have with my investors so on their contracts there'll be a set amount of time that i've said that they that if returns are coming it'll come or that you know this is where we get the returns on on their investment but the way that i want to do it now by taking it into festivals will prolong that but i've got to have respect to my investors even though i own the film i want to say to them this is what I believe can we push further if not then we'll move that process quicker but I'm in deep man into it but I truly believe you know when you know you know when you know you know mate I'll know I'll know straight away yeah I'm really excited to see yeah it won't go further than me as well and I'll be I'll be probably straight on a YouTube channel wouldn't it I'll get fuck all back for it Dodge Woodall YouTube channel with that below I made 400 quid off that mate thanks

1:18:11before we finish up then give us a this has been wicked man yeah it's been wicked mate give us a give us a heads up on your tour coming up oh thank you dodge mate because you definitely helped me with the last one so i really appreciate that i appreciate you oh i loved it when you said you want to pop back i was like fucking let's go yeah um i've done a i haven't done many podcasts since but some of them are so difficult you know uh wanting to go over the old same stuff and I feel free on it to have a laugh so it's been good we kick off on the 3rd of October in Middlesbrough which is a big show so anyone in Middlesbrough there's about 30 tickets left for that and that's the sellout and that hopefully will be our first sellout of the tour what's the capacity of that roughly I think it's was it a thousand yeah something like and how many gigs you got in total at the moment there's 60 down so it's about there's about 65 ,000 tickets to go we've I think we've done about 20 I think we've done about 20 ,000 so all as you get closer and closer yeah they're all filling up at different times yeah um have you got an app that goes right newcastle middlesbrough london brighton you can see the numbers coming through yeah it's called luke yeah yeah well i'm on that every day when obviously only in a festival who's buying vvip's buying vip is yeah i've got i've got in my office i've got a massive white board it's got uh every every date how many tickets are sold and how many are left because then we can plan the social media marketing accordingly yeah perfect yeah and your own your own what i love about this you're your own marketing machine that's it how many full-time staff have you got um i've got uh the work for me personally on my stuff five five full-time five full-time all year all year full-time wages so what's that that's probably yeah that's a fair bit of money yeah um but then uh across across the other businesses i mean across the other businesses uh i've got a gym as well um in woken there's about i don't know there's about 16 people in there yeah we got the nightclub and the bar there's a few more people in there the bar the bar the nightclub world it's gone it's gone it's gone it's gone so and film production film production three or four on on that but we i mean when we were at shooting the film we had over 100 people yeah it was fucking it was in fucking the invoices bro yeah i'm sure i'm sure dan absolutely love this oh mate thank you absolutely love this i really appreciate your time i really appreciate everyone's then what i've seen the difference between you today to what you were two years ago it's a completely different day do you think yeah mate and then not in a nice way you were you were coming out of you know you're coming up to a year you're still thinking after a year i've done a year fucking congratulations what's new you're like a fresh new beast right now do you know what you know what it is just to finish on this i think anyone out there i mean also i've got two more kids yeah four don't i don't know why give me the ages i don't know why um so i've got a uh 10 day old yeah 10 day old uh a one and a half year old a six year old and an eight year old and i had three girls and i just i had three girls and then when my missus was pregnant this time i got the snip uh me and luke got the snip the same week his didn't go too well he's fucking he's in a bit of pain.

1:21:16I think they cut one of his dicks off. I got a snip because I was like, it doesn't matter what it is, girl or boy. I'm not having no more after four because four is fucking mental anyway. And I got a boy. And I was like, that's got to be my dad up there, my old man up there giving me a boy. What's his name? Jax. Even if it was a girl, I was just going to bully it into being a boy. You can now, isn't it? Get the TikTok algorithm going. Stand up when you piss. Just get him going. Dodge, thank you, mate. Quality, mate. you're a good man I wish you all the best mate on your tour you come and see this one yeah mate when you were down in Bournemouth or whatever when you were down in Bournemouth March yeah yeah yeah I'm there mate good man thank you guys good man cheers Dan bye wicked mate hi guys I really hope you enjoyed that as much as I did can you do us a favour and leave us a review as it massively helps us grow the show cheers guys

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