674 - ZAC ALSOP - Losing The Sidemen’s Money, Dave’s £1,000 Bungee Jump, & Nearly DYING In A Tornado!

29:21And I'm like, yeah, man. Oh, you moved to Mexico? Yeah, so I think back in the, when I think about your era and the era you used to take the piss out of a lot, like they were, you had 100K subscribers, you'd probably get like 100K-ish views. And the second they started clabbing with each other, they all just turned into superstars because that became, you know, your subscription base. Now. Does that work so much now? No. No, no. What, collaborate? Yeah, if you get like, I don't know, if you put like Kallax in your video and you can, because you can both do that weird cross post thing now. Yeah.

29:59Would that just... I don't even know how that works. Do you... I'll do it. I'll do it. If people want to do it, I'll collab with them. I'll just ask you about chickens again. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Get me onto the shit I care about. Do you see a benefit for your channel when you go and do a Sidemen video? Sierra has all the best active and outdoor brands for the super athletic stuff, like running gear for cruising up the trail. Woo! And the super athletic-ish stuff, like fishing gear for chilling by the creek. Nice cast. Fitness apparel to push for higher reps. You got this. And golf balls priced so you can afford to lose one.

30:36Or a few. Head to Sierra or Sierra.com for the brands you want at the prices that let you do it all. From athletic to athletic, Sierra's got it. Propel Fitness Water with Gatorade electrolytes, zero sugar and vitamins. Propel hydrates better than water to help you get the most out of your workout and get back to your best self. What propels you? Propel with Gatorade electrolytes. I think in terms of. I don't see an uptick in views necessarily, but people it's just about being. I think the UK scene has always been great at like, you know, we've got like, they use the roster of people and like, you'll become known in that sphere.

31:17Like Jack Joseph is an incredible example. Stephen tries the same. I think Stephen makes amazing videos. Jack less so. We've talked to Jack about his content. At least like, I fucking don't know what I'm doing. But he is like one of the funniest people on the internet in other people's content. So he is so well known, like his face and his brand, whatever. And people aren't necessarily watching his vids, but that helps him all across, like, being invited to stuff or brand deals, whatever. So I think, yeah, I'm starting to get in a few more Sidemen vids, and it's always, like, it's great when you don't have to do shit in preparation for the vid and you just rock up and film.

31:54Like, it's super fun. Because you did, you won the hide and seek, didn't you? Well, I came second, but my team won. What does that mean? So basically, so this all starts, like, the sidemen invited me to a hide and seek on an island a few years back right and i knew that like 90 of the people competing are just like that like most people don't think they're going to win it whereas i was just like no one's like as motivated to just do a stupid amount of effort into something so i i went i i had plans to go to the island before i called them up um they basically like they killed off that idea but i was like look i'm i'm looking to rent the island for a production and didn't tell them who I was.

32:36And I was like, I'd love to do a recce. And they were like, oh, sorry, we've got a big production coming over. Like it's too much. So, and the Sidemen only told me three days in advance. I don't know whether I was like bottom of the barrel or they're just like, he's going to put in too much effort. So they were telling me. So they asked you, you knew, you found out where the island was. Yeah. Oh yeah, I figured out where the island was. They didn't tell you where the location is. How did you figure it out? Because I knew that it was like going to be, a certain distance from London and I basically worked out that this island called OC Island was rented for private use um it's got like hotel lots of areas to hide it just made sense for production so I was trying to get to the island it didn't happen um then I was just on on Google satellite for like the best part of the day figure it out right I know what they do in these in these hide and seek they make the map smaller I think it's going to finish in the middle there's a few educated guesses but i found a place to hide before i even got to the island so like everyone ran off at the start and i was like i know where i'm going what was your thought process what behind picking where you eventually picked um because they always like the previous one they'd done was in a stadium okay and they made the map smaller from the outside in so i knew on a the island say was like a bit of an oblong shape i knew they'd kill off one side of the island first another side of the island and you'd be left with the village in the middle with all the buildings so I made that educated guess and I rocked up right you got like H, AJ Tracy like all of these like big time celebs and rappers and shit and I was just there, I felt like a proper neek because I had a duffel bag full of like I had smoke grenades didn't use them at the end I had Did anyone else turn up to that shoot with smoke grenades?

34:23No mate, I felt like such a gimp when I was there because like you've got all these people and they're like that try hard fella over there I've got like a ghillie suit in my bag. Like I came for war. What were you hoping to do with a smoke grenade? Like a magician just throwing it on the floor and running. I think if Steve, if I threw a smoke grenade at you right now, you'd probably run away from it. Yeah. It was more deflection. So in these videos, because I've not seen the videos, if they catch you, can you run away? Within like a certain distance. So like, yeah. But basically I went into that way prepared.

34:57I had like a real thick hedge next to a lake. And my plan was that after a certain point, I'm getting in the lake. Like, so I was pond scum in that video. I spent two hours submerged in a fucking lake in a ghillie suit. They used about 10 seconds of the cliff. But I was in there for a while. What was that like for your skin? I was like, I had my head like with a ghillie mask on, like just above the water level. And they were like, I remember Simon was flying over me on a helicopter, to literally like 30 feet away and he couldn't even see me um so i was in the pond i went to all this effort then they announced over the tannoy they're like um you know you've uh there are 10 red buttons in the center of the map um you know you need to like the first 10 gets to the final and i was like i was like 100 feet from it so i like get out of the fucking pond like soaking wet and you can see the button could you and it was just over the i knew exactly where it was on the map so I um yeah I just ran over I was the first one to the final and I rocked up and all the camera crews there you smash the red button like these fireworks go off and they're like where the fuck have you been you're soaking wet you smell of shit um but then basically in that one in the final I I call it controversial there was like a big house yeah a hotel thingy and then there was like a shoreline, like the sea and then a massive thick hedge.

36:26They were like, oh, you've got two minutes now. The sidemen are getting in the back of this van and you've got two minutes to go and find your hiding spot. Everyone ran into the house and I didn't know how big this house was. Like I just spent like two hours in a pond. So I wasn't near it. So I just said, fuck it. I'm going to go straight head dive into the bush. And I panicked. Basically they had a sniffer dog, but the sniffer dog and the guy with the sniffer dog weren't in the back of the van. so they just saw me run and jump so i was like one of the first to get caught in the final so then i was like right chip on the shoulder this time around on the military base which was the recent one i'm i'm winning it like i i'm winning it i'm gonna make my own video about winning it and then that's gonna be um that's gonna be the the game plan so that one yeah it was everything the stars just aligned you know then the effort that you went through is unbelievable you know what's funny as well like on this time again i got told maybe like a few days out and we did the whole thing i paid some fella to go um go on a recce to find mil and it was on a military base of some sort right in a certain area because they got to tell you where you're going to be going ish yeah so i had a fella like spend half a day looking around to try and figure out it ended up being actually quite useless for the video anyway but um we had somebody scoping out military sites around the area.

37:46But it makes 20 grand on the line. Is that what it was? 20 grand? 20 grand. Like, I'm not just going to go in a, like, jump in a bush and call it a good end. If I'm going to spend a whole day out in nature with my face first in a bush, I'm going to try and win the 20 grand. Was it hard to win it whilst also making your own video? No. No? No. So you haven't got to worry about camera ops and stuff like that? No, because they were lovely and just let me have all the footage. Oh, right. Yeah, so this time round, the most recent one was like, you know, hide and seek on a military base. Yeah. And that's all you know.

38:25They said there's no ghillie seats allowed. So I think they made a rule most of the last time. No smoke grades. Yeah, no smoke grades. And yeah, that was kind of all you got to go off of. So I immediately went into planning mode. And the Australian YouTubers, Misfit Minds, were in the UK. to film a bunch of it and they're absolute legends like i watch like i do actually watch their video they're incredible like they're so funny yeah and i was like lads if i can get you invited like let's let's and on the first phone call we had like about it i was like i think i can get you an invite um and if we do we're putting the money on red at the casino it was always red always like we're gonna chuck it all on red and was red always your color or what made you pick red i don't even gamble but i just it was just what i said on the phone call and i and i remembered when we looked back through the footage that it was i said red yeah um so we put in a grand plan they got nick who's the large one uh so we were like right it makes sense for you to go in the sides catering van because they always have sides catering at the event so we printed him a sides t-shirt and that was his thing he was like i'm not gonna last out in nature so just like we'll put him with the the burger van we had seb well i don't know are you just hoping that people think he's working on it he was working well he was frying chicken like he was so they didn't know they so like you rock up to the shoot they they do their intro it's like right you got 50 youtubers and it's like go and then when they're like not looking so you go find your hiding spot he just slopes off takes his t-shirt off and he's got a sides uniform on underneath they gave him an apron and a cap and they're they're like yeah that's great like come in fry the chicken so he was working in the burger van all day snacking away um we had we had we had nick in the burger van which was great hiding in plain sight we had me and will who was um we were bushman so i was like i i thrive in the bush let's just get in the bush yeah um and then we had seb which was i think my there's just a beautiful brainchild i use a lot of like weird costumes and props and stuff for videos and i was like let's go to this costume store and we'll get you like a legitimate paramedics costume and that like for film and tv so he rented this costume it was like 150 quid um and yeah he basically had all the gear on underneath but put on this massive long coat um and then the second the game started he ran straight to the paramedics took it off and then he initially tried to convince them he was a paramedic and he obviously knows nothing about what it is to be a paramedic So they quickly figured him out, but they, again, they found it hilarious.

41:03So they, so Seb went on to win the whole thing because he was just in plain sight the entire time. So when the map got smaller, he didn't even have to run. He was just in the zone for the final. What is it? Is that the, that's not the paramedic guy? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that is, oh. And there's a clip, an amazing clip where like KSI walks past him. He's like looking around and he's like, have you guys seen anyone around here? And like this paramedic and Seb was just there like, nah, mate, sorry. and because obviously he doesn't know who the Misfit Bonds are. So we basically had like four irons in the fire.

41:37That's smart. And then with the whole plan that if any of us wins, we split the money, we go straight to the casino and we see what happens. Well, with the money, do they just wire you the 20 grand straight away or do you get like a large comical check or something? I think it's wired to you and now I think it's done properly. I don't know whether they used to. give cash but um yeah it was it was probably like two weeks before okay well and so then did you go so you went to the casino went to the casino the boy like the misfit mind boys were you know we they were only in town for like a few more days so we had to we had to put our own money into the casino and then like like um so basically yeah we it was really hard to actually bet the money really difficult what like the casino wouldn't accept the bet the casino wouldn't like they they didn't want to accept the bet like because they they it was a whole thing in the video right i had an idea to shoot this like crazy guy richie inspired like cinematic sequence you've got like let's go into war we come back with the winnings and then like i hired a limo like a big hummer limo um we had we took it all out in cash so we had like fucking 20 grand in cash um and we went through town i stopped at my mate's um clothing brand which is called percival in soho they decked out in all these red suits so we like brought and we dressed nick up as alan from the hangover so we shot this like here and we were actually just getting pissed like we had red buzz balls like everything was all about the red yeah um and then we got to the first casino in mayfair and you know it's a bit weird seeing lads in red suits rock up and they hate filming in the i was gonna say are they all right with cameras well we didn't tell them that so we all registered and then they they basically were like what are you guys here for and we're like oh we just want to play um we want to play roulette and then they were like right okay how much are you betting and we were like 20 000 pounds and they were like okay we're just gonna need to get the manager out so manager comes out he's like look lads i need to speak to compliance it's a bit weird like people don't normally come in with that much cash and it became a whole thing like the buzz of like getting there and like it was all just gone it took about two hours he was on the phone to a compliance team and they were basically like we've done some dude jitterlands we know who you guys are right we oh well they worked it out you didn't tell them no no and they were like we oh but well we signed up you gotta sign up to get to the casino ah right so then they did a search yeah and they were like look we don't know but we think you're gonna film it and we like it's not good odds for us to basically give you a 50 50 bet on red right he was like that's we make our money from keeping you in here for hours and you bet over time like yeah but then if you were to stay they're for hours only doing£100 bets.

44:21They're still getting the£5 ,000 if you lose. Yeah, yeah,£5 ,000. Well,£5 ,000 per person. It's four people, isn't it? So then they're getting£20 ,000. But would they have been better if you all said, we're just betting£5 ,000 each rather than... But I think they know that these lads are going to bet the£20 ,000. Oh, if they win. And if they win, they're going to take that. Yeah, they knew that we were in for... Yeah. Yeah, so after about three hours, we got told, nah, we're not having it. And we're like, fuck, man. The boys were literally leaving at 6 a.m. the next day. So it gets to the point where it's like midnight and we're like, fucking hell, we need the end to the video.

44:59But it's starting to feel like, oh, it's a lot of money, actually. Maybe we shouldn't do that. Maybe the signs are showing us, like, ah, we shouldn't do it, we shouldn't do it. Somebody said you should go to the one in Leicester Square. It's just like the, that's the weather spoons of casinos in London. They'll have anyone. That's the one I go to. And to be honest, like it was more our vibe anyway. Like the ones in Mayfair were full of like old blokes with escorts and shit like that. So we rock up, we're like, like we distribute the money between us all like in a certain way. And yeah, we put a camera guy up on the balcony above with a phone just like subtly.

45:37And yeah, we just, we were like, fuck man. Like I don't like all of us would be upset if we lost the money. That's the thing. Yeah. We were like, we need to do it. It would just be an incredible story. and then yeah lo and behold about 2 30 in the morning at this stage did you so could you could you physically then rock up to the table and put that yeah we rocked up with cash and like we bang it all on the table and he's counting it all in front of us and we were just like i'd be so nervous oh mate it was like i'm not a gambling guy like but the the fucking buzz man like before i can see I can see like like seeing it all go down and being like that is just ridiculous and then some fella barges his way in and he counter bets us like he gets like 200 quid and he's like right if you're on red I'm on black so we've got like this the whole table but you've done 20 grand already that's our counter bet yeah run your money up mate so yeah then yeah lo and behold the longest fucking spin of your life and then it lands on red and we yeah we were getting kicked out of the casino basically because we just fucking went did you go nuts we went absolutely nuts yeah i haven't actually even seen this video you should watch the the final like four minutes is just pure cinema like and it would we knew in the video if um you know if we didn't win all of that build-up would just make it so funny yeah so we were kind of it's kind of a win win win isn't it because people would probably like to see the jubilation the celebration yeah But then there's, as Brits especially, the failure of it keeps you humble.

47:15Do you know what I mean? We bought songs off licks. We bought gold and stuff like that to really build it up. And then if it just went completely flat, oh, we've just wasted our money. It would have been so funny. Would you have just ended the video there? Yeah, yeah. Maybe one funny line of just like, oh, fuck. But that whole situation was just nuts. And to make it even worse, we looked through the edit when we were putting it together. and the fella, we were in traffic lights near Big Ben and we were shouting to the commuters on their way home on bicycles like, we're going to the casino. Like, what should we bet on?

47:49And then this fella goes, Red 7. And we remember he said red, but I didn't remember Red 7. We looked back on the footage and it was Red 7. I've seen that. So had we... That is fucking insane. It would have been like 800 grand had we. But we would have never done that. No, no, no. But like, yeah, it's nuts. It's like something was in our favor that night. Like something was working in mysterious ways. Did they give you the 40 grand in cash then? Yeah. Yeah. That's mad. That casino hates you. Yeah. Do you know the sad thing? This is, I wasn't going to speak about this publicly, but I've been like, because there's something about cash, which is like, it's tax free.

48:30If it's from the casino, it's tax free. If I got paid from the Sidemen, it wouldn't be, I think, because it's like related to my career. so it's earnings from my career yeah um but because i got second the misfit minds basically gave me money as a gift yeah and then i took it to the casino doubled it so then i get tax-free casino so in my head i was like oh i've got this money and i'm gonna i'm quite stingy so i was like guilt-free spending i was gonna buy um like a vespa moped this summer i was gonna buy myself like i've never owned a car i've only ever had vans right so i was like i might get like a little little car this summer like little little classic and um in the last week i've moved house and somebody's stolen the cash what what the process of moving house how much was it it was so it's five grand that's missing out of the money um i've i found out two days ago no i looked in the little thing it's my fault man that video was filmed in november it's now june what was it in your office no it was in my it was in a little no i'm not telling you where it was it was it was in my bedside table and somebody in the process of moving house has stolen the money so i don't like i can tell that story and be like oh it's such a euphoric experience i've lost the sidemen's money oh yeah so was was there 10 grand did they take half of it or yeah so there's some like i spent a little bit of it and basically when you win from the casino it's in these plastic wraps so they're in divisions of like two and a half grand two and a half grand there was a couple there was a few of like thousand pound packets and then there was some like loose cash so they've left the smaller ones like like i think it's like maybe two thousand 2 ,800 quid left.

50:19Did you hire people to move out? There's about, I've got a list and I don't know whether it's going to be a video. It might be a video where I try and figure it out. Well, you've done videos like making people steal your phone and stuff before, haven't you? This is definitely... It's in my remit and I'm actually, you know, I'm pretty fuming about it. Yeah, as you should be. That video you touched on there, that was one of my favourites you did when you pickpocketed the pickpocketers. So if anyone doesn't know who Zach is. Your content's hard to explain. Yeah. There's like a niche. Ryan Trahan does that kind of content.

50:55Max Fosh, Will and E touches on it. It's quite like a, how would you even describe the content? Isn't it? It's just. Letterboxd, can you really? No, it's just absurd ideas. Yeah. It's going to ridiculous lanes to achieve something that is often very medial or silly in the grand scheme of things of life. But it's, yeah, I guess you can encapsulate it It was like either challenges or just fucking doing dumb stuff. I put your name into ChatGPT and was like, give me some interesting topics I can talk to you about. No secret. We're all fucking doing it. And do you know what? It kept going. It kept saying something along the lines of, be careful how you approach this topic because Zach touches on a lot of dangerous and risky ideas.

51:41And I was like, does he? and I looked and it was like, I broke Disney secret rules and I was like, I guess why I can work out why chat the broken and the rules. And then I tested pet friendly hotels with dangerous animals. So I get why chat thinks it's, do any of the videos you do feel dangerous in the moment? Probably, I think my, I think my, like how I view risk is from a very like rose tinted glasses nothing bad can ever happen but realistically yeah i do some pretty dangerous stuff i mean like a few years ago i went to tornado valley in america and i went there with the whole purpose to drive into it into the center of a tornado yeah now you say it is actually mental yeah and do you know what the worst part of that is like i was in a tornado proof vehicle there's like two or three on the planet and they're like custom-made vehicles that they put ballistics, bulletproof glass.

52:44They bulletproof these vehicles. They have hydraulic things which can go six feet into the ground. So if you're in a tornado, they just put these sticks into the ground. And it's an insane vehicle, but I rocked up and this vehicle was old. It had been through the wringer and it was also currently broken. So I rocked up that. That's the last thing you want from a tornado-proof car. that was like when Johnny Knoxville said to us and you met him the other day didn't you what a boy he said to us that when he first started doing the magazine before Jackass he tested bulletproof vests and he said he got a cheap one and we were like don't get sorry yeah carry on so this truck but like you know that was probably I was like these guys are experts I don't know what it's like to be in a tornado they seem to think this vehicle can handle it I'll just kind of trust them.

53:39But we go out chasing this tornado and I'd attached like a, it was like a jar to it. Cause my whole video was, I wanted to steal a piece of the tornado, bring it home and turn it into this like art piece. And so I'm like, we know we're going for the center of the tornado and we're chasing it for hours. And once we get into the, like the outer cyclone, you start seeing like trees falling down and like, like bits of houses, road signs all over the show and all the other storm chasing, who are in like just normal trucks, they're stopping. And then we're just like... So these aren't people that are with you.

54:14These are just other people that love them. Other people, yeah. Other, call them what you want. Like people with interesting hobbies, virgins. No, just like there's all sorts of people who do it. But this is like, this machine is like worshipped as a god. Like you see people go like, yeah, the Tim. But the roof is leaking and like it's an old, like I can't sit on one seat because it's just got a puddle of water on it and like I'm like I don't know how good this thing is like when was the last time this was inside a tornado yeah how's your jar meant to survive that's not a ballistics like a bulletproof jar is it yeah not much planning went into that I mean the thing is it it did like we put it in a part of the truck which was like it was a way it was shielded from the wind so it was like behind these big jagged bits so it was like really flush and then we strapped it in with like a like a yeah we we had a big magnet on the bottom so like a metal magnet and then we strapped it in with loads of metal straps and stuff i to be honest i let i let them do all that um but yes we did that and i mean perhaps we survived the truck was the truck did its job but i didn't realize so my my partner simone was out with me she was in america at the same time i was like oh look i've been called to go to kansas there's a tornado en route like do you want to come she was in the support truck but i didn't realize the support truck followed us so she was basically she didn't go as far in as me but she was in way more danger than i was like she was just in a regular truck and the driver was like 20 years old why did he keep going i don't know i only found that after she was like that was horrifying and i was like what do you mean like you guys stopped she was like no we didn't we couldn't see where we were going like it was just so yeah what could you could where you could you not see anything when no it was like you were in the vortices and there's so much like dust mud and when it's like when it rains you can't see anything you just wrap that it goes really dark and you're wrapped and you can just hear branches and stuff hitting the car you're literally in the middle of the tornado yeah yeah we intercepted it so it was coming across the road and we we drove into the center of it is there a bit whilst you're filming that where you're going video's not worth it nah i was hellbent yeah because i'd been there for like i'd flown to kansas and there's not much there like it's the literal center of the usa and i was in this barn like waiting for like five days and then nothing happened so i flew back to new york to film another video and then they're like looks like it's going to happen in the next few days so i flew back out so i was on call to go to kansas and it was like a fucking long journey so at that stage i was like we need to yeah what is the tornado question like how how does it how is that a thing is it do you know so i know why they i'm gonna butcher it but like why they always happen in tornado valley it or tip is because of like there's a mountainous region on one side and then there's some like other geographical thing and wind hits and they like accumulate and some big sciencey shit so is it just wind that's going It's a massive, powerful vortices, which like, yeah, it happens from the big clouds, like the storm clouds up above.

57:31They start spinning and twisting, and then that like inertia reaches the ground. And then, you know, once it hits the ground, it flips cars, it ruins, like it's really quite like, it destroys housing and everything. So, yeah, I guess to chat GPT's credit, I do some dangerous stuff. I also do some less dangerous, silly, like fun stuff. Right, well, I've got a list of, since we last saw you, it was probably three or four years ago, I've got a list of some of your most impressive videos here, or the ones that have performed the best, maybe. So I tricked packaged thieves with parcels made of cake, 3.1 million.

58:10I attempted the impossible hill climb, 19 million. Banger. I cheated the world's most dangerous race. That was the cheese rolling one, 12 million. I stole lava from a volcano, then sold it, 2.2 mil. The one we just discussed, I trapped a tornado in a jar then sold it as art, 13 million. Can I beat an ultra runner in the world's fastest shoes, 6.5 million. And then the one that stood out to me was I pickpocket at a pickpocket, 12 million views. Tell us about that. So you were like Leicester Square or somewhere touristy in London, I can't quite remember, and you sat and waited for your phone to be robbed.

58:49You had a prop phone, didn't you? And you waited for that to be robbed, and then you robbed that phone back off of the robbers, right? Yeah, so my producer, she was from New York. So my old producer, Molly, in her first month of being in London, she got her phone robbed. They literally stole it from her pocket outside a pub. And she was like hell-bent. She was like, we need to do something. And like, fuck these guys. And the phone, it like fired off a signal near our office. So we basically turned up to this house and we were filming it. And from athletic stuff, like a full court pickup game, swish to athletic stuff, like a half mile stroll.

59:29Get those steps in. Head to Sierra or Sierra.com for the brands you want at the prices that let you do it all. From athletic to athletic, Sierra's got it. Propel fitness water with Gatorade electrolytes, zero sugar and vitamins. Propel hydrates better than water to help you get the most out of your workout and get back to your best self. What propels you? Propel with Gatorade Electrolytes. It turns out it was like a pretty dodgy neighborhood. It was like a very... I spoke to a cybersecurity expert after who also does stuff with the police. And he was like, yeah, that neighborhood is rife. You shouldn't have went there.

1:00:06There was cameras outside everyone's houses. So we bailed on that idea because we had no end point. We just kind of wanted to see what was going on. and then it birthed like an idea of just like what is the funniest way to get revenge on pickpockets and it would be to beat them at their own game yeah so like we embarked on it ended up being like a two two and a half month long filming of this like video because we needed to like a learn how they operate then be figure out a method to actually get our own phone back from the pickpocket and then that just took absolutely fucking ages. What was the hardest thing?

1:00:44Was it to get someone to steal it? No, that was the easy bit. Yeah, that was the easy bit. Fuck, Starmer's Britain. Like, it was surprisingly easy. So the first day, we bought these fake dummy iPhones. They look really good. They're like heavy, but they just don't work. They're just bits of plastic. And we banged it on the table. I sat outside a pub. and yeah, it was in a high, like we knew it was a high football area for criminals and all of that Soho is because there's lots of little off streets, back streets so they can get away really easy. So yeah, it happened in the first two hours. I was sat there, like the bouncer from the pub was like, mate, your phone's going to get nicked.

1:01:25And I'm like, oh, thank you, mate. I know. Yeah. And soon enough, like some fella comes over, he's got a piece of paper, which it just has like nonsense on it. So you're looking at it, it distracts you, trying to figure out, is that a foreign language? Is he trying to communicate? They put it over the phone, like one hand there, the other hand goes underneath. When they pull the paper, the phone comes with it. It's really quite impressive. Like, you know, it's a bit of an art form. Did you know he was stealing it straight away? Yeah, yeah, immediately. So I was like, it was funny because when he came over, we spotted them walking past, and they often wear like touristy things.

1:02:00So you had like a Union Jack beanie on, and it was with a woman who was the spotter. and like my heart was going because I was like yeah come on um and so we started I started putting on an American accent I was like I'm so drunk and so fucking vulnerable right now and like the community then like he literally rocks up to the table and I'm like I'm just like no no I'm sorry man I don't have any change I'm sorry like I don't have any change and then the phone's gone and I looked up to the GoPro I go bingo and in that time fella was gone so I turn around i'm like where's he gone and then i'm like fuck what direction and so i just start running in one direction he literally disappeared into thin air so then we were like the footage back could you see where it got yeah he just went well he just went like the second it was off the table i was obviously distracted he just went straight down the street and then up a like a small alley right and we didn't have a clue so immediately then we knew like this is great for the video like it's annoying but it's great like if i build up yeah if i found him immediately and got him like it wouldn't have been fun so we know we know the method we now know like we need to be quick on getting to them and yeah we need to um we need to figure out how the fuck we're going to get the phone the phone's either in their pocket it's still in the hand some way to be honest we actually didn't know really what the ending we were working for was we just wanted to get revenge at this stage how do you weigh up the danger for a video because surely you don't want any form of confrontation with the person because you don't know what they'll do i'd hug you one a little bit Yeah, but, well, this is the thing.

1:03:28Mate, if they're going to be willing to steal a thousand pound phone, you don't, they're, they get it. They're often not melt, though, aren't they? They're not often, I don't know. I think one-on-one melts, but they are part of, we learned they're part of like an organized gang during the filming. So we were like, so my whole philosophy with that video was like, if the thieves watch it, which they definitely will because they speak and they've got these big WhatsApp groups and like they communicate, I want them to watch the video and laugh like I don't want them to watch that video and be like I need to get this I need to get this man yeah so like did you blur them I can't remember we blurred their faces and that was on so people like everyone was fuming that I did that and like but ultimately And I walk around the street with my dog and my partner.

1:04:15I don't want to get slumped in the head by some fellow who's got nothing to lose. And we spoke to security consultants about it who do work with the police. And they said the last journalist that tried to do an expose on how they operate and try and help people to not get them nicked, he got jumped like in the street. He got beaten the hell out of them. So I was like, I don't want the beef. I want to show people how they operate. Yeah. But also like, I don't care that much. Like phones are replaceable. If one of them come up to me with a knife and said, give me a phone, I'll give it to them. I don't care.

1:04:46Like, so, but that whole, that, yeah, that immediately was like, right, we know the phones are getting stolen. We know how to get the phone stolen. We know where. Now we need to come up with like a plan on how to embarrass them. And the next step from the plan was putting a sign on their back. So it would then test my ability to catch them back up, have that like interaction with them and basically figure out where the phone was. So the next one and, you know, in between this was weeks of film and we were going out on like Thursday, Friday, Saturday nights, like shout out my team. Like they were very patient and we would, you know, we were actually just drinking and having dinner, like trying to enjoy ourselves.

1:05:22And then whenever like someone came over, it was like straight back into action mode. so the second guy my method was to get a pound coin because often they ask for cash that's their like in like they're kind of asking for food for money uh money for food and so i i carried like a pound coin with me and that would be my justification for chasing him so when i got there i would be like you know so this fella stole stole the phone i immediately got up we ran he started running we're chasing him and i see exactly where he goes like down an alleyway left down another alleyway and I catch up to him on the street.

1:05:56I'm like, mate, mate, mate, mate. And he stops. And I've got the sign in one hand with a bit of sticky tape on it. I've got a pound coin in the other. I basically, I got a quid for you, mate. I got it. So he's thought I've chased him down to be a good smar. He's immediately disarmed. Yeah. So I like go to give him the quid. I'm like, right, there's nothing in his hand. It's got to be in his pocket. Yeah. I slapped the sign on his back and I'm like, good luck, man. So he walks off down Soho with a sign on his back saying, I am a thief. So I'm like, right, that's a little moral victory is silly it's not gonna teach him a lesson but like yeah that is what it is and then that evening um we got robbed by him again the same fella on the same evening which just shows how many they must do in a night like how they are um but he must not have remembered you either because surely by this point he's not got the sign on his back i think i'd remember the guy that ran up to me and tried to give me a pat but i so i i actually what it was freezing cold because we were filming in like november and december yeah and i put like this knitted balaclava on because i at the off chance that like so i don't think there was any way to recognize me i was pretty yeah i was pretty covered up yeah it was if he did fair play because he did not give a fuck but yeah we ended up finding that night we because we put air tags in the phone that night we found the phone um chucked behind a bin in an alleyway with the case and the air tag still in it so like we knew at that stage that they would be like right there's somebody doing something we don't know why or we don't know what they're doing but there's somebody up to something because he's taking two of the he's taking two fake iphones in one night so that yeah basically the video accumulates in in me getting trained in sleight of hand by this like one of those fellows who do the onstage pickpocket yeah that's cool turns out that's a skill set that takes a lot of time yeah yeah so that was never gonna happen um and then i was like right let's just be simple go back to the drawing board fishing wire difficult to see wrap a phone up in fishing wire when they nick it like the the phone would go in their pocket the fishing wire standing out and i'd have like a a little flag on the end so i could see the flag get dragged on the floor so we had about like 20 feet's worth of fishing wire yeah lo and behold like yeah the phone gets nicked goes in the pocket we see this little flag going across the floor so i just chase the flag and then um yeah i get really close to him and i like i make sure that we've got enough tension on the thing yank out his pocket and job and then i run off no confrontation job's good and i i like he's gonna get back thinking he's got a phone in his pocket he's gonna be like that's so good i've been pickpocketed that is so good yeah that's so good out of all of your videos which one is your is your wonderwall my wonderwall is the hill climb vid right the impossible hill climb video and that's that's recent isn't it yeah yeah it was from from um last year it was filmed but yeah man i think that is my i don't know how i could make a better vid than that i think like i love doing the silly stuff like you mentioned the like we tricked parcel thieves like my mate max who's a youtube cam op um we work with him all the time he always gets his packages nicked right from outside his house yeah and we were just having a conversation in the pub about it and i was like i think we can do something about it and um this uh creative producer that i work with elizabeth she was like why don't we like make hyper realistic parcels out of cake and i was like that is fucking brilliant because like the cake the whole cake trend on the internet was so big yeah but like we never thought and it was always around like tricking people like which one of these is cake yeah so like why don't we do that and trick the thieves it's like the perfect plan do you do you know straight away when when so who was it that had that idea did you say elizabeth right so so when she has that idea do you do you know instantly it's going to work yeah there's there's a figuring out process of like you know the the productiony bits of like she was trying to find the best of the best cake they're fucking expensive as well yeah i spent like 900 quid on a pair of well on a box a cake box of um airpod maxes i could have got real airpod maxes so like we we were we had to work with somebody who was good enough to like convince the thief but like yeah we knew immediately like it's it's an existing people are familiar with that whole like but it's cake so like suddenly you've got the pickpocket meets like this just hilarious prank and it's so like so silly and so fun like i love doing stuff like that but back to the hill climb like that is just there was a part of me on the internet that I wasn't showing and it was like this this motorsports like I'm just obsessed with like motorsports I grew up like four years old I was on a motocross bike my dad gave me an option when I was six years old he said look you can carry on like playing football or we can spend the weekends in a muddy field and like that like almost every weekend until I was 21 was spent racing up and down the country and like so I when I got into content when i quit motocross i got into youtube and youtube kind of filled that void of like adventure and chaos and adrenaline and uh but i never made videos about motorbikes no i never did it and i always just thought people aren't going to want to see it like it's not going to be that it's just like you know it was just a hobby so so for that to be your ultimate banger that's a real special moment i guess oh man every time i watch the video i cry yeah like it is something about it was on the ideas list for three years like i knew about this event and for people who don't know it's this insane hill climb it's a hundred meters tall and it's basically a sheer cliff and you've got to try and get up it on a motocross bike over its 17 year history one guy has made it to the top so that gives you an indication on how fucking stupid it is and these crash compilations of like people attempting it get tens if not hundreds of millions of views because people it's just it just doesn't make any sense yeah it's so ridiculously stupid similarly to the cheese roll like people see that and it's just it's just it's simple you go up or you go down a very steep hill carnage happens are people watching because they're hoping to see the injuries rather than the without accomplishment 100 without a doubt and that was kind of why i didn't want to make it because i was like it's a very it's like people are wanting to watch the crashes why would they tune in to watch me and my dad go on a bit of a journey and like bring back this old hobby that we used to do together and like try it i don't think that audience are going to watch a 30 minute long like personal story so there was all these reservations and and be like it's terrifying so there was a part of me that didn't actually want to do it yeah because that would mean i'd have to do it yeah so i i turned 30 last year and i was just like fuck man like i can't i can't get rid of that idea i just can't like it was always on the list it was always nearish to the top so i was like right i'm going to entertain giving it like a bit of time to work on the thumbnail ideas the title ideas and then bulk out what i think would be a nice story me and dad picking up an old hobby together bringing the team back together go on a road trip through europe train with the only guy that's ever done it and then like hopefully become the second person ever to make it to the top like that's a that's a banger story yeah um yeah man like we went out i hadn't been on a bike in like 11 years and i just like you kind of you get so far through the production that you kind of feel strong-armed by yourself that you you're going to have to go through with it yeah you've invested too much time to not yeah yeah and i just remember like i just rocking up to the hill for the first time like i know that the camera never does it justice it's the same with cheese rolling but like you get an idea that you're going to be scared but like when i arrived for the first time i couldn't even speak like my my dad in the video was like fuck off you're not doing it you're not you're actually not doing it and my dad's normally like yeah do whatever you want yeah super chill um and there was genuine like fear and concern from both of us like in three days time i have to try and ride a bike up there and i'm like i just don't see a world where was that possible was there a in your mind was there actually like a feasible chance that you would not even attempt at?

1:14:08In that moment, fear was very loud. I was like, I was thinking of ways, you know that voice in your head, like the anxiety where it's very good at rationalizing things. I was like, oh, how much have I spent so far? I feel like I've gone on a road trip with my dad. Maybe I can make a nice week of it. I'd tell the cam ops to go home. I paid them two days, right? It's like, it's not that, maybe five grand I've spent. I was like, do I want to be at the end of the week knowing that i bitched out yeah and like so i very quickly like whipped myself into shape and was like nah i'm doing it i just need to figure out like how to feel the most confident to do it but there was a voice in my head that was like not a chance in hell you're gonna get injured you're gonna fuck this up like you're not gonna be able to film bids for the rest of the year um but also there was a voice in my head that was like i think i can do it i think i've got the weird enough skill set from riding a bike since four and like the enough of a screw loose and also i'm very motivated by making a banger video yeah it's not all the stars aligned to make this one exactly how often do people attempt it it's a one so these hill climb events they are like sanctioned competitive events across europe they're quite popular but this one became so popular because i think they tried to make it part of a series and no one could do it so they were like this needs to be a standalone event it can't be part of like so it's it's a weird bunch of european like hillbillies that come out to do it once a year and people come from all over like from poland from all across europe to try it um so yeah so it's a one it's a it's a one weekend thing it's fucking chaos like there was just these people don't sleep for like three days they party some of them some of the riders on the hill are drunk like they'll down a pint before it and they'll just go for it like it's mental it's wow has anyone ever died doing it i don't know these events that's the first google search these events they do a very good job of like not disclosing stuff because they want to keep the party rolling yeah right um i know that when i was there there was a guy and this is the horrible thing because you're sat there and it's it's one of those things where you can't half do it if you you're at the bottom you've got a tiny bit of run up you need to get as much speed as humanely possible if you've got any chance in getting to the 100 meter mark at the top if not you are falling backwards down a cliff and and that is it like you either get to the top or you fall that like gravity will do its thing so you spend the whole day watching people annihilate themselves get carted off in the the ambulance another ambulance comes and make like two minutes before my go i was number 80 so I've watched 80 people, like 79 people attempt the hill.

1:16:52There was this old fella, bless him, man. Like he really gave it a good go. And he stepped off the bike and there's a tire wall, which you can grab. And he grabbed the tire wall and then it just slips out of his fingers. And then suddenly he's like facing the wrong way. He's falling down the hill and he like, he falls awkwardly, breaks a hip. No. Breaks a leg. He broke ribs, like punching his lungs. And he just ragdolls to the bottom. Like he's just a passenger at that stage. And he's like 20 feet in front of me, mangled corpse at the bottom. And like the event gets put on hold for like at least like half an hour because this fellow, they can't move it.

1:17:29And fuck. And I'm like, I have to do that very soon. How close are you to pulling out there? Still not? Nah, I was in there. Yeah. I was in there. Why is there just paramedics there waiting at the bottom? There was an ambulance at the bottom, yeah. Just your mate from Misfit Mind. You can't do anything, mate. I don't know, Bo. I'm here for the money. What's the closest someone got when you were watching? So, Peter, the competition, which I don't necessarily agree with, is measured based on how far the bike goes. So there's a lot of guys who go for it and they just throw the bike. So I think my closest competitor was 90, it was over 94 or 95 metres on the first day.

1:18:11Right. And you're doing it in the dark. So there's all these, it's lighting like this, lighting up the hill, and you're like, you can't see very well. And like, so yeah, I, at the end of the first, you know, it comes to my point, I've not seen anyone get to the top and I'm like, I don't, like, I don't know what's going to happen. And you must have expected that though, when only one person's completed it. That's true. And in fact, I'm glad that no one else made it to the top. But yeah, I was like, this is, this is it. You know, like I need to, I need to put in 110 % commitment. Otherwise I'm going to be back at the bottom of this hill.

1:18:43With a punch alone. Yeah. And I don't want that. so well when you when you post that and it gets like i think it's been up a few months did you say yeah almost 20 million views is there then do you then feel a massive pressure to try and replicate that kind of success with the next upload and the next upload not the next upload no but i think like yeah i'm not in that i'm not in that ballpark yet you know like 20 million views is fucking incredible celebrate it but i'm not going to be upset about the next one getting in a million yeah like and that one is such like people ask that why do you think that story appealed to people so much and i think i kind of played the youtube rules that i know of doing a great title great thumbnail crazy thing which is easy to understand man tries to get up very steep hill if not bad um and then i i tricked people into watching like quite a wholesome story about me and my dad and like the relationship between father and son and like all of that was genuine like but it was also like a deliberate choice you know we had that planned in the story before we even left so it was like we said the stars were like you were the only youtuber that could have done that yeah yeah yeah there was another youtuber from australia out there and he got like maybe 20 20 meters up the hill oh really yeah yeah so i yeah i i am the most qualified youtuber to do that yeah that's my domain that's unreal dude so let's flip it then do so have you ever done a video that you thought was a banger that hasn't performed well um i mean i like all my vids there are there are under performers like recently we had one where we um we ordered food to insane places yeah and the whole premise of that video we did one in like maybe three years ago where we ordered food to like the uk's largest maze and i was in the middle and it was like it was treading the line i thought of like being playful with the delivery guys to give them a fun like little side quest throughout their day and then they got like a really good tip at the end um so i really enjoyed filming that vid because the delivery guys were so wholesome like the ones that wanted to get involved were like like just had such a great time so i was like how can we level that up because we didn't do anything that insane in that vid so i was like right the the video opens i'm on the uk's tallest bungee jump from a bridge and i go to the bottom of the bungee jump and i'm the delivery driver has to deliver the food down to me at the bottom um and that video like i just think it was an editing issue with that video we we made it too long but that video underperformed but that is such a fucking good video like that that entire day so we did it in whitby and it was there's only i think two bungee jumps off a bridge in the entire uk have you ever been to Whitbeck no beautiful place like it is such a cool little seaside town and full of like real salt of the earth people but we um we've got the bungee hired for the whole day it's not not cheap and we're like we need I have faith that by the end of the day one of these delivery drivers in this town will just like they'll they'll be up for it we've got all of this list of pizza places takeaway places like Chinese takeaways and stuff I start ringing around and they're like oh no we're not not we don't have anyone in today to deliver i'm like fuck i don't know hang on a minute okay so it's only like it's still like 11 a.m like dominoes open we'll try dominoes dominoes comes and there's this like lovely bloke called dave and he immediately i'm like dave would you ever do a bungee jump he's like nah would i heck like like nah i'm not doing it um and i'm just like look come over just let's have a word i'm like look we're filming it's not that random i'm filming this video like i really want somebody to deliver pizza to me on a boat at the bottom.

1:22:21And he was just like, nah, like it's funny, but like nah. Gets in his car, drives off. And I'm like, right, okay, let's try some more places. Dave is the only delivery driver in the entire town that is working today. Did you have a backup plan if no one's willing to do it? It's a big production mishap. But I go into a lot of situations thinking, ah, it'll work out. Like often it does. but we were in a small town and there was only limited places that we could get stuff delivered from and Domino's was the only one so I order it again and Dave rocks up and he's like well he comes back again well because he's the only guy I'm like so I have a moment where I'm like fuck it I'm getting Dave back so we ring up order another pizza and Dave I'm like Dave I'm like mate I'm going to keep ordering pizza just so you know I was like is there any part of you like that would want to do it and and i could tell like you can start to get a sense like he's looking over the edge he's like oh like he's and then he's like no no no no i i've got i'm the only one in today i need i need to get cover like i can't be here for too long so i order another pizza then dave comes back again and i'm like dave look i i wasn't going to tell him about the tip i wanted him to actually do it but i said look i've got i'll give you 500 quid yeah um and he was like he was like what no he's like no no i can't i can't i can't and so he goes back half an hour goes by we're trying to frantically order pizzas from other counties other towns no one's delivering um and then um order another pizza dave comes back and and i can tell something's changed he's like grinning in the car and he's on the phone to his manager of the store he's obviously told her what's happening like all the deliveries are going to this bridge and um so i was like oh you're right, Dave.

1:24:12He's like, I got my manager on the phone. And I'm like, hello. She's like, right. Dave wants to do the bungee. I'm currently at home. I can cover him. Just give me like 40 minutes because Dave's got a few more deliveries he needs to do. I'm like, you are an absolute superstar. Like let, like let's make it happen. So Dave goes off, does his other deliveries. We order another pizza and, uh, and maybe we think we've, we think we've got it. We've been there since like nine in the morning and it's it's like 3 p.m at this stage and um so in the intermediary i was trying to convince random passers-by to do it yeah and we had like we had two people that did it out of those but we wanted a delivery guy so you shoot with them anyway do you mean we just shot it because like we were waiting for dave or something and we had this thing booked for the whole day yeah um so i was like we need like dave is such a funny character as well like he's such a funny dude and i was like if he does it at the end it will be the best like the best event to ever um so he comes back he's like like the the long walk across the bridge and we're like dave dave dave dave and i'm like trying to like be really positive hype him up be like dave this is like you are going to be terrified because it's it is terrifying um but just like just know it's it's completely safe this company's been doing it for years yada yada yada had you done it at this point i'd done it in the morning and i was shit right it was horrible yeah and uh basically he you know signs the waiver gets involved we tell him that he needs to hold the pizza for the whole time and he's like yeah yeah no problem no problem gets up onto the edge and then basically a storm rolls in and we're up pretty high and then suddenly there's like crazy winds like pissing it down like and he's up there for a little while and i'm at the boat at the bottom i'm like oh something's like happened like he's stalled out right not i don't know if he's going to do it or not i get like a radio down from the team being like look he's having a bit of like a panic on the on the edge sierra has all the best active and outdoor brands for the super athletic stuff like running gear for cruising up the trail and the super athletic ish stuff like fishing gear for chilling by the creek nice cast fitness apparel to push for higher reps you got this and golf balls priced so you can afford to lose one or a few head to sierra or sierra.com for the brands you want at the prices that let you do it all from athletic to athletic sierra's got it propel fitness water with gatorade electrolytes zero sugar and vitamins propel hydrates better than water to help you get the most out of your workout and get back to your best self what propels you propel with gatorade electrolytes and i'm like look don't just tell him i was like double the tip i was like i just want him to do it i want him to do it for him because i know that it's it's safe the whole crew's there like he would love it the moment he's on this boat at the bottom yeah it'll be horrifying for him to go do it but he will be happy with himself um and i want the good ending for the vid so i'm like just do whatever you can but don't like let's not force him but just like encourage him so my the cam up at the top starts going like i suppose you don't watch youtube do you dave and he's like nah nah like you had no idea what was going on he's like what do you watch she was like lorraine he was like you'll probably be on lorraine after this you will be the only delivery driver to ever and he was like coming around to the idea and he steps back to the steps back starts walking towards the edge and then it's just too much so basically we have this entire day in whitby and and we don't get the ending that we want he didn't do it he didn't end up doing it and and i know i know in my heart of hearts that like the video it was cut down obviously we had hours worth of interaction with dave and like he was he was having a great time but it just became a bit too much for him and the weather to be honest i wouldn't have wanted to do it it was torrential at the top right and so he bailed i come back up to the top i'm like look no hard feelings here's a tip for your time anyway yeah if you ever want to do it here's my number like just call me the bungee jump company was like we want dave to do it so we'll offer him a free bungee jump anywhere if he wants to do it anytime oh that's cool so i've left it in his core he's still to text he's not to text me yet but um yeah that one was uh so did that did that video go out then and you just that video went on youtube but you didn't use you obviously couldn't use or you could use it we did oh okay there was no other delivery drivers mate it was either i've spent yeah five thousand pounds on renting a bungee jump setup for the day yeah um but he was such a funny character that the audience are are on that journey with us they're following us to like getting him along closer to doing it and then it gets to the end and dave's on the edge and he's like nervous nervous nervous and it cuts to an angle basically it was my producer so we've got my producer with a pizza box in hand just jumping off the edge and she she like bless her she was on the fence about doing it but she was like i'm gonna save this shoot and then like we have a moment at the bottom where we like tell the audience like as you can tell that's a woman and dave bailed at the top but like like put a nice comment for dave in the comments so i hope that he's seen it and i hope that he's like have you not spoke to him since that day well i i i gave him my number i wanted it to all be like for him his own volition i didn't want to get back in touch and be like look dave like yeah right so i feel like you could get him to do something else at some point because that's just the character you've got now yeah people wanted him back like he was such a funny guy but like on you know on paper that video underperformed but like am i sad about it no not at all like that whole vid was hilarious is it a stupid question to ask if you're bothered by views um i think to some degree yeah i think i think it feels good when it's good yeah it feels less good when it's bad right yeah i i think i i do i think most youtubers have a weird relationship with it because it is you put a lot of your self-worth and value on that like number getting that one out of 10 and so getting the one out of 10 but like yeah as long as i've got you know there's that saying like life is good when you've got something like in the post like if you've got something to look forward to like getting delivered yeah i think that is kind of like if i've got stuff in the pipeline that i'm excited about and i'm i'm in that space of like i love i love like helping on the edits of the videos and like like executing on that vision which was just an idea like the month before and then i go straight into like another exciting video that i care about filming like you can't really be that sad you got yeah as long as you know i'm you don't ever want to fall off but you want to fall off gracefully if it's going to happen or just quit like i did yeah my last video did well i did the boris johnson thing oh yeah yeah and then i just never upload it again it's banger mate yeah just go out in in the sunset um so these this genre that you do and max fosch does and stuff do you think there's a shelf life for it and what what i mean by that is because commentary had its day back in the day kavos and me and i'm alex and people are fucking hell i was in a category with them too jesus christ uh but then so we sit we do see these trends on youtube but the videos that you make are so clickable and so watchable do you think there'll be a time when like mr beast and logan paul back in the day and and yourself have such big budgets and every idea is getting bigger and bigger and bigger does it get to a so when i click on one of your videos i want to see ultimately do you do the thing that you're doing right yeah but nine times out of ten you will pull it off yeah so it's getting to a point now where it's like if you went i went to the moon i'd go of course he fucking did do you know what i mean like he's just gonna have done it yeah yeah do you see what i'm saying there is there a point where the it's in the fatigue of it yeah i think i think first of all i'm not in the same i don't have the same budget as logan ford and also i'm not like kavos and i'm alex so they were two terrible comparisons um i don't know i think i have faith that like it's human psychology to some degree like i think we are hyper normalized to just how insane the world is right now and like there is insane stuff everywhere you look at all points of the internet but i i don't know i just have faith in like storytelling i have faith in like my ability to tell interesting stories i kind of i just think while there might be subtle differences people might crave a bit more like ryan train changed his entire vibe to just filming on iphones it felt more homemade but it was still these like well put together great storytelling like packaged well so like a lot of his stuff yeah so he'll have like these real they feel like you're close to and you're part of the video like I think there might be subtle changes in people's tastes around that sort of thing.

1:32:59But I think ultimately, like, what we do is kind of TV-esque. It's episodic. It's like big, big old, like, mission and task. And I don't see how that could really ever fall off. How important is the payoff then? Is the story the main part of it, really? Because the payoff's only the end of the video, isn't it? Obviously, you want the payoff, and hopefully, but everyone's loving that journey. yeah i think i think i'm more comfortable now with not getting that banger ending than like the dave example i knew that people would be so invested in him as a character as i was on the day that like you'd be genuinely gut like as long as people feel something at the end of the video like i was gutted that dave didn't do it the audience were gutted he didn't do it the same with the cheese roll in vid last year right like i developed this whole grand plan to cheat the event i hired five hollywood stuntmen the whole idea was that we were all dressed in these um i was gonna say gimp suits then they're morph suits so like our faces were covered we all look the same so when we got to the bottom if one of them wins i'll switch with them take all the credit um just like actors do to stuntmen so that whole grand plan people were like in for the ride like it's such a silly plan that could actually work and it almost worked yeah like we got second and third in the race so like you find that out right at the end of the video and and that video was like my second biggest of last year anything away from the video no if anything it tees up like a follow up where people are like right what's he got planned this time like how's he going to one up that one and you know that creates a massive pressure on us to come up with the ideas but it makes it more real as well if you were just winning every time you went for one of these things yeah yeah how has he faked this like there must be some kind of 100 yeah and you know i think that the same with the hill climb like I far exceeded my own expectations I won the event I got to the top I got over 100 meters but I crashed at the top so there was part of me after that I was so fuming on the way home I was like oh I didn't like I just can't be happy with that and I knew in my heart of hearts I need to go back so this year is like the redemption like if I get to the top and ride it out I've done everything I need to do there is no return but like this year we're thinking now how can it be different to the previous one like so yeah i think i think i'm comfortable with not getting the ending we we want and i think we filmed a great video at the cheese rolling um like three weeks ago what coming out soon coming out next week actually okay yeah so we um that'll be out by the time that this goes out yeah this is the wallace and grommet this is the wallace and grommet so like obviously it's very you're working within crazy confines for cheese roll because like you need in order to win the race you need to do the race that sounds obvious but like part of my plan last year I realized I'm gonna have to be part of the race to get to the bottom to take the credit for the win so it's like you're working with like how do you if I'm not going to be the one to win it how do I end up winning it and it's very difficult so this year I had to plan and and cheese rolling for those who don't know is carnage like there There is no signups.

1:36:11There is no official event. It doesn't exist on paper. No one takes control of it because it's so dangerous. And no one wants to be held accountable for what ends up happening there. Is it just the same day every year, is it? Same day. I think so. Yeah, same day every year. And there is like an organizing body of locals who, but like no one's kind of taking credit for it. So you rock up. You just got to get there early enough and you sit by the top of the hill for long enough. And then you're either in the second, third or first, second or third race. So I had the idea that if I could fill an entire race with people who let me win, that is possibly the scummiest thing you could do to a 200 year old tradition.

1:36:54But ultimately, like if all of these people are signed up to the event, they want to do the event and they almost like is giving them an excuse to not go ham. Like that's just people wanting to do the event. They're just organized by me. how how can you be 100 sure that one of those won't try and beat like when harder skis at the africa run that guy tried to beat him to the finish line that guy did beat him how is someone how can you be 100 sure no one's going to do that to you well well you can't and that's what makes the vid interesting like i you can't you don't know and and to be honest like last year my stunt man almost got beaten by somebody who was unconscious for 80 of the hill but just because he was rolling down he was rolling so quickly because he knocked himself out and he finished he would have finished second he just his body came to a stop five feet before the finish line so like i knew this year i'm going to try and fill the race with people knowing that that's a stretch because it's it's carnage at the top the event is bigger than it's ever been because of like viral videos and all the online clips and stuff so you know you're competing with people who have traveled from japan like america all over the world to do it so i knew i knew in my heart of hearts that i need to get enough people to fill a race but we ain't all gonna make it so i need to be quick enough to be competitive and you know at least give it a good go where i'm not being a pussy like i have done the previous two times so um yeah we we rocked up and and it was i basically put a big billboard in bristol which it was um looked a little bit like a maga poster i was there like like looking at the crowd and i was like for cheese for glory and i got signups through like a qr code and it got a bit of press and how many signups did you get we had like 90 and then the second we sent the follow-up about like this is what we actually need to need from you that got very quickly whittled down so i think we had about like 18 from the billboard in the end yeah and then i started like doing some outreach to like ski societies like like university students basically who like had i had a youtuber reach out to me when i was at uni with a fun day out coach to and from bristol unlimited beers like i'm like yeah i'll give that crack so the rest were like these ski students uh ski society people who just got a bit of a screw loose so um we rock up there's like i think just about like 28 29 of us the race has 25 in it and we get to the top of the hill and we realize that um it's way busier than any other year i've ever been and there's immediately like 50 people in the race and i was wanting to avoid the first race because the 23 time champ and the fella that beat me last year was going to run the first race he's a youtuber yeah so i'm german german yeah yeah to lico's name is so i was avoiding that one my goal was the second um but i very quickly realized that i wasn't even i wasn't even going to make the second so and and i had gone in disguise this year because last year i'd made such a big video about it and i and everyone i didn't want anyone suspecting that i was ever going to go so i'd been on bbc newsby on radio one i'd been basically doing interviews with the bbc saying that i am never going to be at the hill club again yeah like dispelling absolute like rumors just like and i'm quoted in the bbc saying like zach alsop uh youtuber has risked his neck multiple times but is now suffering with a slit disc so he won't be back yeah um which is true like I've got a bad back so I was I was convincing everyone I wasn't going to go and then I rocked up after four hours of prosthetic makeup in a bald cap looking like Wallace from Wallace and Gromit and the whole principle of that was like a like he loves cheese but b on the commentary they're going to be focusing on that that bald fella yeah um so yeah man I I ended up getting um two of us in the race.

1:40:43You what? Two out of 28. Out of the 28 I brought, only two additional people made it in the race. So the plan absolutely flopped. What do you mean? What, they only, only two got to the bar? Only two. No, could do the race. Only two even got in the race. Too many people were there. That was how chaos it was. What? Because it was just too full? It was way too full. So like, I booked a coach. I'd spent, I'd spent, god knows how much on a billboard for two weeks yeah i like all of this work and production effort to get these people to the hill and three of us make it into the race what were the others all right with it i think low-key yeah i think they were like they were all at the bottom when i got to the bottom and like so yeah the plan on paper absolutely flops but that also makes it really funny for the video because there's a moment at the top of the hill where i'm there i'm like I actually have to I actually have to go for it yeah don't reveal how you got on because that will be out now I won't but I do I will just say it might be faded now but I had a big old fucking scrape on my forehead did you for a couple weeks after I'm looking forward to it that makes it sound like it didn't go very well well your face is scraping on the floor I'm still here unless you rolled down really quickly you're the king of ideas as we've been chatting about I've had three ideas years of youtube videos ever and i want to tell so i want you i want to pitch them to you and you can brutally rip them apart if they'd never work yeah or tell me how you'd make them work okay and also they they may have been done before i've not checked this but these are genuinely to tell you if they have yeah yeah yeah okay fine now one that i think when i was when i was writing up my ideas i think maybe you've done something similar okay have you done a paparazzi you've on a paparazzi video yeah what was the premise of yours it was shit right to be honest i think i mean it was before it was post jay leaving and i was in this weird like i don't know what i'm trying to make i'm just doing some random stuff and i just found that whole world kind of interesting so it was more of like a bit of a documentary style like i was just doing the world's most hated job for 24 hours okay so like it was it was it was hard to get into that world because they're super secretive.

1:43:01Like they didn't want to be on camera, all that stuff. So yeah, mine was pretty pants to be honest. Like compared to my videos now and how we, you know, how we come up with the ideas, that one was a bit desperate. I remember what I remember seeing it. So my one is I spent a week paparazzi-ing the paparazzi and you find the biggest dick. He's in that video, I think. Yeah, yeah. Old fella. He's like, yo, I don't give a fuck what I do. Yeah. Paparazzi him and just get like the worst photos of him, put them in a magazine and just post them through his door all the time just to wind him up i don't know if that would work i mean i think it's a fucking brilliant idea when we come up with ideas we think like what is a good target for this video and like there's been a few which has been like i don't know the target has maybe been more abstract it's been like the system like the fashion week videos which always do well it's like we aren't taking the piss out of an individual we're taking the piss out of the idea of fashion week being so pretentious yeah that is like one of the best targets you can have because it's a globally recognized like scummy career where they like invade people's privacy they've been responsible for like all sorts of horrible stuff nobody's going to feel sorry for them no even on an individual level yeah like people are going to want to watch you like the same as pickpockets they deserve their comeuppance yeah and i think it's brilliant because you're doing what we did to the pickpockets you're just playing them at their own game yeah just so you can't complain about it because it's what they do it's so poetic like it would be so interesting to see how they react in that scenario i would consult a lawyer maybe on like maybe going to his door and posting stuff that might be harassment yeah fair enough uh also back in the days you remember when alfie and i were doing these kind of videos so we did the boris one and stuff like that we were we were looking into doing that one with that guy but he knows charlie bronson doesn't he does he yeah did you know about that so you know the guy i'm talking about yeah one who i think you feature in your video yeah he's yeah he's done like Like, Channel 4, like, he's owned being a...

1:44:55Yeah, yeah. He's on, like, Good Morning This Morning or whatever. Yeah, yeah. He's claiming now, and it's probably a PR stunt, but he's claiming that Charlie Bronson is his dad. Let me Google this real quick. That's not someone you'd want to do it to, though, is it? But wait, hang on. Is Bronson just, like... Is Bronson not in for life? Yeah, no, no. There's always talks that this is the year he gets out. Charlie? Oh. Charles Bronson pretended a paparazzo was his long lost son as part of an elaborate PR hoax as convict's brother vows to never forgive him for tricking their 93-year-old mother. Yeah, because this fella went on this morning and was like...

1:45:36That means you're all right, though. Yeah, mate, if anything, Bronson's going to be on your side. Yeah, true. That guy, yeah, he sounds like he's an attention-seeking, like, bit of a scumbag. He'd probably like having someone giving him the attention. yeah well yeah if you unless you caught him doing something well carry on you just maybe you become maybe the angle is like you become his mate somehow and then you the paparazzi feel like they're completely separate for you so he confides in you you get him opening up he's showing an emotional side to the guy then you turn on him ruin his life yeah yeah my other two were so this goes off the uh paris fashion week one yeah get my 82 year old granddad who's not been on a flight in 40 years and make him one of the top DJs in Las Vegas.

1:46:27I think that could be a good video. The payoff is getting him to come out at Omnia, whatever they do there, all that shit. That's unreal. Another, I guess, thought pattern we have is like, what do we call it? I think the technical word is dichotomy, but that sounds a bit wanky. It's basically opposite ends of the spectrum. You'd never expect to see Grandpa fucking shredding a set in like one of the world's biggest like nightclubs yeah yeah that contradiction makes people click like you know we we took um grandpa to fashion week and he made it to vogue magazine was in an after party with justin bieber lewis hamilton so like that video did so well because people see him in that environment and they're like you're breaking the mold like that's immediately interesting so it's a bit like when derren brown as well got them old pensioners to become pick pockets yeah yeah yeah yeah you're unassuming yeah that's brilliant and here's my banger that i think would work so on facebook you get all these fucking nutters like homophobics or whatever and on sport bible whenever they post something to do with women's football there's always pricks under there all their fucking shit right so i thought it'd be good to pretend to be uh i don't know what you'd be an agency putting together a charity football match yeah and you get 11 of these people to come but they play against a women's team that's really good and just they'll get smashed.

1:47:47The problem is if they win. That really goes to the worst. That's when you post it but you change the whole narrative that you were on their side the whole time. Yeah, yeah. I knew it would happen. You go hard into that persona. Oh yeah, I mean, you can, you always just not release the video. If anything, those fellas are just further entrenched in their own views which to be honest, they're never going to get convinced otherwise. True. Now, even if they lost, they'll probably say, you know, I've had a dodgy name for the past 20. I could have gone pro. But I think the people who do those comments, you wouldn't even need to lie to them you could just say we're giving you an opportunity prove it and they'd love it because they're in their heads they genuinely believe they would win yeah yeah yeah 100 i think that's brilliant as well because it's again that like it there's it opens up such a curiosity loop where like youth it's a strongly held opinion by probably a lot of blokes like even if they don't express it that they think like you know female sports not on the same level as men like and those kind of characters that are publicly commenting that are the fellas who comment on daily mails fucking articles on the website like they're them they're the archetype of people who would be funny to prank yeah because they just won't take it well no so that's brilliant like i think there was a fellow in the u.s who did it to um like basketball fans where they were like like the women's nba is track and he'd find them invite them to like a game for youtube and then like one of the all-stars of the sport would rock up and just make them look like an idiot so i need to see that right yeah that is brilliant yeah love it zach this has been brilliant mate um usually we've been doing episodes that are an hour this is almost two hours i could speak to you for two hours more there were points where i just didn't say anything for ages because i was like he's just so good to listen to yeah i mean you were kind enough to send me some prompts of stories that aren't out there we haven't even really touched on them so you're welcome back whenever you want, mate.

1:49:35I'm sure everyone knows who you are, but if they don't, they can go over and see you, Zach Alsop, on YouTube. Yeah, get on the YouTube. Have a little dip down the rabbit hole. Like I say, some of the best stuff out there. And before we wrap up, I want to just talk real quick about your mate and our mate, Russ Cook. When you first came on years ago, you told us about him. Yeah. And we... So the internet didn't know who he was at this point. And you were like, I know this bloke. He's a nutter. You need to get him on. So we trusted you and we had him on didn't we and i'll be honest i was looking in this like ginger lad's eyes and he was telling me he was going to run africa and i thought you're either mentally ill or you're going to do it and it turns out that he's both but do you do you have any other nutters that are i'll have a think mate yeah there might be a few i feel like i'm quite good at finding people who are brilliant.

1:50:30Yeah. Like Max as well. Yeah. Max, Russ, like I've got a good - Your scouting network is unbelievable. Your hit rate. Great talent agent. Yeah. I'll have a think boys. I'll get back to you on that one. Also it means he doesn't think much of us, never asked us to do anything. Well, he trusted us to like speak to Russ and then we got to be the first people to interview him after. So it was a full circle moment. We'll take that. What a moment that was by the way. What a moment. What a boy, man. Seeing him cross that line. oh my god yeah he's a special guy man yeah they don't make him like that anymore yeah i don't think they ever have they never will i can't i can't listen to that song anymore without getting emotional now really yeah yeah m m83 is it you know is it the one um it's the one at the end what is it fee outro so yeah molly was playing it on the speakers yeah when he crossed the line it was like a movie moment fuck me like I thought like go out we'll get a pod out of it it'll be worth it no fuck that it was I get chills when I think it was weirdly emotional wasn't it I never used this word because it's very American but it was awesome like that is the best way like we were just there on this hilltop in sandy sort of beach top in Tunisia and then we were there for about an hour you obviously wanted to be there to capture that moment you guys were there way before us and then out of nowhere, just all, because you have all, there was like some protesters there and the world's media and all this.

1:51:57So it was quite a hubbub going on. But then out of nowhere, you just see this fucking little ginger bloke in the distance. It was like Lord of the Rings. Like the minions running across the top of the hill. Yeah. It was insane. Yeah. Yeah. What a moment. And like the funny part about that finish line was like, he was so fixate. I was with him a week before to film my video in Algeria and stuff like that. So we were following like him to the finish line and it was gradually getting like more and more real that he was like he'd finally realized how big he had gotten in that time because he started the mission like a normal bloke 20 000 followers like like no brands what to touch it yeah and then like over the course of the week people start tracking him down finding him he rocks up on the last day there's like 200 people there to run a marathon with him like the whole experience was just insane but the team hadn't got a finish line for him so like that piece of red cloth is from my video like it was my oh i've got a finish line i'll bring the finish line oh they hadn't thought about the finish line so yeah i love that he hadn't thought about it either because he was just like i'm just gonna just do it yeah yeah it felt like it felt like the the media and the coverage it didn't if from an outsider's point of view i felt like it came in the last like 10 percent like it felt like no one yeah yeah is that right was it was it was a bit of the start right and then the midpoint was like oh this fella's still running the lane for africa and then like yeah the final month as well like all the money was raised all of the followers got like yeah it just became this you couldn't ignore it yeah because also like he did that tweet for and like elon musk were like a bit of a wanker now but like he brought attention to it like they like the whole video is just started going viral because he was like stuck and out like on the border yeah that whole mission was just insane man like what a boy.

1:53:42I'm so glad I met him. I responded to a DM. Like that was how it all came about for me. What, he messaged you? No, some other fella. Like he didn't even know I existed. Like it was some guy from Worthing was like, you need to have this fella like in a video. He's got a screw list, looked at his channel. He was, no one was watching him. He was doing a marathon down in a Corona every mile and like, you know, just doing weird shit. He's burying himself alive for a week. He buried himself alive for a week, the week before we filmed our first video together, which was a four-day hike across Scotland to the most remote pub.

1:54:11He had to learn to walk again the day before our hike. Like, what, yeah, what a boy, man. He was absolutely fucked when we did that. Yeah, he was a different person. Yeah, very fucked. Yeah, what a boy. No, but you should get the Misfit Mind Boys on. When they're next in the UK. I'd love to have a mind. They're such quality boys, and they're on an absolute tear at the minute. They've all got such fascinating little stories. is like Nick who's like he used to be like a professional like a famous DJ in Australia and stuff like they've yeah they've got stories for days and they're like their humour's very British I watch pretty much every one of their videos they're my like hangover watch yeah but they're not in your top four no no no I forgot about them yeah yeah Europa League we'll go for that what was I gonna say oh yeah I watch like the two hour complations I don't even know if it's on their channel or not yeah yeah people just upload them but they're great Zach you're great as well mate it's been a pleasure having you on for the shall we call it the Zach trick instead of a hat trick that's terrible Ledger Man this has been Jackmates Happy Hour podcast with me Jackmates Stevie White and the brilliant Zach Alsop go over to his channel and watch it it's not quite Gary Eats but it's decent watch Gary Eats then watch me good luck with the chickens mate

1:55:29Jackmates Happy Hour

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