Munya Chawawa Calls Out Donald Trump (and Bob Mortimer)

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2:02I would like to because what happened this week does not happen to anyone, I would say, ever, let alone twice in one night. Are you okay? Sorry to... I still think you set it up somehow. No, I didn't set it up. You don't set something like that up. I wouldn't have the foresight or the ability, the practical ability to set someone like that up. It was like being in This Is Your Life or Surprise, Surprise. We did a chat at Spotify. Lovely people at Spotify. And then we get brought onto the stage. We're doing our thing. And then Ryan, the lovely host, goes, Oh, Jake, I think you might know someone in the audience.

2:41It's Mark from school. And I'm thinking, Mark from school's here. Mark's there. I've not seen him for like 10, 15 years. He's there in the audience. Me and Mark used to be in a band together. Oh, this is unbelievable. We used to be in a band called... And the band was called... The band was called Ready Salted, and then we changed it to... Why? That's like... It's such a shit name. It is a shit name. Like, you're expecting... You're just telling people we're shit. We're plain. We're bland. We're Ready Salted. We just wanted something that didn't start with the, and the only thing we could think of was packets of crisps.

3:16I don't know why. But then we changed it to the morning after. And I would stress none of us had had sex at that point. But we thought if we call ourselves the morning after people might think maybe these guys have had a few wild nights. It would be many, many years until that happened for either of us. Don't know about Mark. I'm sure he's got a very fruitful sex life. Does he look very different to what you... He looks like he's been doing some shagging. But then, Uno reverse, and then who starts talking to you? Oh, it's always dangerous, isn't it, when you throw it to the audience for questions.

3:53I said, does anyone in the audience have a question? First person to put his hand up. Well, this is, it's not so much a question, but how's your garden? What? What's going on? Well, I used to be a gardener. I was like, what? What? What? How is this happening? my gardener was in the audience we haven't had a gardener for years I was like oh my god and he went how's your garden I went this is wild quite threatening in a way isn't it how's your garden keeping might want to get a gardener back in maybe and then it was like oh I was nice I was alright I was nice well you sort of panicked a little bit because you had two gardeners in mind one that you used to have but then had to get rid of because they were too expensive and then the new one you're like are they the new one or the old one and I'm sorry what really sort of what really what really got me was what really got me was you said oh was I nice to you and he said oh you made me a cup of tea whole audience round of applause and I'm thinking what he's done the bare fucking minimum he's made him one cup of tea and he's got Spotify on their feet what a bloody guy we need to this is a men's this is a men's mental health podcast at times isn't it so I'm going to use it as an opportunity to say men do better one cup of tea and then fired and he's getting a round of applause I like you wow I really like you a lot and the only thing that can make this better is to throw a third person into the mix who's even more likeable than both of us put together but before I announce the guest wow there we go thank you thank you cup of tea and a segue what a man what a man what do we want what do we want people to do right now before we announce before we reveal the guest What do we want?

5:40Well, I appreciate the charm, but what do we want? When do we want it? Definitely now. That bit I can answer now. Okay, fair enough. Well, we'd love you to follow the podcast on whatever platform you listen on and subscribe on YouTube so you never miss an episode. Yes, that's absolutely right. Did I do it? You did it, you did it. Why do you have to do that? In case anyone was confused, we want you to follow it. You can follow it, but it might be hard to... you might be hired to plough a podcast. Unbelievable. That's naughty, isn't it?

6:16Tell the people who we've got. Okay, so I'd like to give some clues. He has built an entire world of characters, satire, comedy. He's BAFTA-nominated. He is an internet sensation. He's got a bit musically gifted as well. Yeah, decent voice. Also, your favourite phrase, eyebrows?

6:36It is the multi-talented Munya Chihuahua.

6:43Now how well do you know Munya? I've never met him. Never met him? No. Oh right. Is he good? Is he good egg? Great egg. We only book good eggs, don't we? We book good eggs, yeah. I'm excited about it. He's got a new wrestling documentary out. Ah, yes. And I know that you are a massive wrestling fan. Have you ever actually done any though? Wrestling? Yeah, I was the Scrum Lord. In Clash of the Comics? Clash of the Comics. Wow, how did it feel? Yeah, really good. Really? What was your walk-on music? Don't know. It was all a blur, mate. It was like winning my first cap for England. That's how special it was to me.

7:23Wow. I grew up wanting to be a wrestler. I used to wrestle on the triangle at the top of my road. The grassy triangle. Who's taking you on? at that age. My best mate Matt, we used to just wrestle up there, me and him. Anyone ever get quite hurt? Yeah, I made him cry once because I did the walls of Jericho on him. What are the walls of Jericho? What? What are the walls of Jericho? Come here.

7:48Lie down flat on the floor.

7:53The other way. What do you mean? On my front? The other way, yeah. There's only two ways to lie flat on the floor, isn't there? No, I'm scared. You don't hurt me. Okay. So, I would have got you in that. This is called The Walls of Jericho. Yeah. And I won't do it properly because I think it will actually break your back. Yeah. But, yeah. Oh my God. Oh my God. So I'd put them round my hips. Yeah. And then I would like just attempt to break your back. Like that. Until you tap out. Tap out. No. Tap out. What do you mean, no? How are you? I can get out of this still. No, you can't. Tap out or I will do it.

8:34For the audio listener, I'm lying on my front. Joey stood on top of me with his legs either side at my foot end. Tap out! Facing away and pulling my legs up so I curved like a... Like a... Like a... Ah! That felt quite... It felt quite nice.

8:52Are you okay? Yeah, yeah. I imagine that if you really went for it, that would have snapped my back in half. I could kill you. Yeah, I know you could. I actually know you could. You could break me in half with bare hands. Well, look, he's with Janet now. He's in the waiting room. I'm interested to know what he's going to want to talk about. He's a very disciplined guy. Maybe we should find out. Definitely. With haste. With great haste. What did I say? With haste. I just seconded that. With great haste. Always trying to top me, aren't you? No, he's joining in with you. I wish we were conjoined twins.

9:24Backing. I do not at all wish that. That's for another day. I don't wish that at all. Put that out of your mind. Let's get it in. Janet, could you please send in Munya? Yes. Thank you. All right, for a bonus episode, we'll be conjoined twins. Munya Chihuahua, everybody! I heard that. I heard that. You added an R into it. You said Chihuahua. Did I? That's my cousin. So it's not Chihuahua. Chihuahua. Like the dog, but more A's. Did you say AIDS? A's? A's. Definitely A's. I've heard about this. I've heard about this, the deliberate mishearing. Is it deliberate? Oh, I've got cauliflower ears, I can't hear anything.

10:09There's still a hole in there, bro. It also affects speech. There's not even a hole. Bro, how do you use AirPods? I don't. You've never used the AirPods? No, I have to do the over-ears. That's crazy. AirPods don't fit in here. So before signing up to be a professional rugby player, Yeah. Just know you ain't ever using Apple's earwear products. No, I used to have Walkmans. And I only ever had over-ear ones. Yeah. Especially in 1997 when I was crying my eyes out to Candle in the Wind. Is that George Michael? Elton John. Elton John. It was when Diana passed. Yeah. It was quite upsetting. You listened to that on your Walkman?

10:48Diana died and you said, my one in a Walkman, and you listened to that just walking around. It doesn't make any sense at all. Bro, we grieve in our own ways. Sooner work's gonna get me through this. First thing I get every guest to do is answer an intake questionnaire. What do I have to intake? Shall we begin? Yeah. Okay. Full name? Munyuradze. Yeah, don't even try it. Munyuradze, Oliver. King Caramel. Chihuahua. I used to have a name called King Caramel when I started on radio, 2Ks. It's a cool name. Yeah. I like it. Style sign? Capra Sun. What? I don't really believe in the moons and the planets, but if you put a Capra Sun in my hands, I know what kind of day I'm having.

11:46What's your occupation? Saturist. Is that a job? Well, you've made it. You want me to put that as your occupation? What are you thinking to put?

11:58Like, entertainer, actor, comedian. TV presenter. TV presenter, documentary maker. All right. You know what? Polymath. Polymath. You are the polymath of entertainment. Thank you, brother. Yeah. I'm going to put that on LinkedIn after this. What was your dream job growing up? Truly? I wanted to be David Beckham's hairdresser. Year seven in Zimbabwe, that is what I put down. Wow. I wanted to be David Beckham's hairdresser. What era of haircut was he in at that point? This was when he had the cornrows. Wow. Yeah, Black David. We do not talk about that enough, actually, genuinely. David Beckham had cornrows for a long time.

12:37Here's the thing. Remember, I didn't have internet back then. Yeah. So all I'm hearing is there's an amazing player called David Beckham. He likes someone called Spice, and he's got cornrows. I'm like, the dude's black.

12:50So were your career ambitions went from David Beckham's hairdresser to comedian or were there stages in between? I never wanted to be a comedian. Really? I just came out of lockdown and I was on the last leg and I was being introduced as a comedian and I was thinking, what the hell do I do here? Is that how it felt? You weren't thinking, I'm a comedian and then suddenly this is where you're being taken on to all these different TV shows as a comedian? I made videos that happened to... Comedy videos, which is true, but satire and social commentary. I came out of lockdown and everyone went, he's the comedian.

13:29Taskmaster, Last Leg, Have I Got News For You, 8 out of 10, Catsters Countdown, Celeb Bake Off. I don't know what, I didn't know what I was doing. Wow. And I just had to wing the whole thing. You've done a great job at it. Thank you, brother. You're doing a good job at it too, Joe. I just want to be a psychiatrist. Really? And I did want to do that too. Yeah. Oh really? I studied psychology at university. Interesting. Yeah. And my dissertation was unconscious biases towards people with autism. So however you want to riff with that.

14:07What's something that stresses you out? When people say fair enough, because so often it isn't fair. I think I use fair enough quite a lot. That's going to be a problem. Because fair enough is the equivalent of a low to medium powered hand dryer. It doesn't do anything. It just makes it worse.

14:30What do you think, Jake? I couldn't agree more. It's a cop-out. It's a complete cop-out. I use it all the time. Why are you only bringing it up as an issue now? I'm a little bit scared of you. What? I'm a little bit scared of you. That is wild. Money was giving me a lot of confidence, I would say. The moment you walked in the door, I thought, do you know what, I've got a new lease of life now. That's right, brother. We start on the Brown Panthers right here.

14:54When was the last time you were starstruck? Probably at the Olivier Awards. I was in a three-way Hollywood sandwich, seating-wise. Rosamund Pike, Tom Hiddleston, brian cranston wow surrounded triple threat fatal four-way yeah that was crazy and where was this award royal albert hall fancy yeah fancy and then a week later i delivered a letter there as part of an event and when i finished the letter unbeknownst to me benedict cumberbatch had been watching through the curtains and i walked out and i went to give him to dap him up and you know he did he hugged me straight with the hug yeah you know the technique for adapt yeah and you know what's so serendipitous or maybe full circle yeah is when i used to be a kid and i used to sit on the toilet i used to practice making the loudest clap possible just with my hands yes and so i can now transfer that into the dap all right check this out whoa whoa whoa whoa too flat cup what What'd you call me?

16:02Too flat. Too flat should cut, here we go. No. Oh dear. No, no, no. Not even a second chance. Wait, can we, can we, can we have a - Not even a second chance. Can we have a go, can we have a quick round of shit is clap? Whoa. Yeah. Just as - Not even a second chance. Well, fair enough. Okay, so, shit clap, good clap. We're gonna go first. You need to play that at uni. Good clap. Joe, you're up. Shit clap. Mate, that is not a shit plan. If I hear that at the end of the show, I'm ending it all. Munya? I already know this is going to bang. Ready? Woo! The power of a thousand Anchesters. There's your Pete Wicks clip.

16:48Almost.

16:54Before we carry on with what I think we should deal with today, what we can work on with you, Can you talk to me and Jake about kayfabe? Kayfabe is incredibly layered because it is the entire premise on which wrestling works. Okay? I grew up, I loved wrestling. I loved the stories. You know, and The Undertaker got buried by Kane. I believed my man was gone. Yeah. I was mourning. You can't bury your own brother. You can't. No, that's cruel. I was mourning there in year seven. I saw people thrown off buildings, set on fire, and I believed it all. right and as i got a little bit older i still believed it but i kind of knew it was fake because believing it was more fun believing it was more interesting and that's the premise by which wrestling works or used to work which is this idea of these arenas are filled with grown adults who kind of know that these beefs aren't real and these things aren't happening but it's just fun to believe it is and if you suspend your disbelief long enough you experience the full flavours of wrestling.

17:59So it's like people always call wrestling the male soap opera. You know, EastEnders, I've never watched an episode, but I know that people live and die for that show. You do not know what you're missing out of me. Exactly. But is it real? It's incredible. Sometimes it feels like it. Exactly. It really does feel like it. But deep down, you know it's not. But it's just fun for a moment to believe what if it was. What if that actually did happen to Phil or Maggie, Peggy? Peggy. Peggy. Peggy. Yeah. She's dead. She is dead. And Maggie never existed. And when, say, Janine is walking around just as the actor, people say, oh, you shouldn't have done that to Dad.

18:37Right. You shouldn't have done that to Mick Carr. You shouldn't have done this. You shouldn't have done that. And there we get into this idea of what happens when kayfabe leaks out of its designated arena. Like Joe walking around pretending he's a doctor. Yeah. Ask people to pop their trousers down. Pop yourself on the mat. First thing you said to me. And wanting to be a good podcast guest, I did it. And I will continue to do it. So is that where you took the inspiration for the characters that you created? Because you've invented Barty Kreese, Johnny Oliver. Right. And my favourite, the posh drill rapper, Unknown P.

19:15Sure. Yeah? Barty Kreese is never not funny, is it? Obviously, I've been aware of Barty Kreese for a long time, but you hear Barty Kreese, just the words will make you always laugh. So with that one, that was maybe my most Sacha Baron Cohen-esque moment, which is this forward planning at the conception of a character, hoping that if it blows up, the payoff happens. And so calling a newsreader Barty Kreese, which is really a play on the word, Barty Kreese, which is your ass crack, right? If it ever got to a point of national news, a professional newsreader would have to say ass crack on TV. And that is what happened.

19:54Sky News presenter was like, well, now we're joined here by Munya Chihuahua, whose character, Barty Kreese, has gone viral. In fact, it's spread all over social media. And now, let's get right into it. You know, hearing a newsreader have to say, let's get right into your Barty Kreese, is maybe worth more than a BAFTA. They're your characters. Right. But what I think we can help you with today is trying to understand whether Munya is a character Yeah. Are you ready to drop the kayfabe of Munya and dig a little bit deeper? Yeah. Weird phrasing, but yes. Let's begin.

20:43Munya, first question to you. Yeah? Are you more comfortable being yourself or playing a character? I think playing a character Is that like a defence mechanism? Is that because you don't like actual munya? Oh no, I like munya You like munya? I love to be myself and to all the very unconventional bits and pieces that make up who I am but culturally coming from Zimbabwe to living in England it's such a culture shock the things that are um you know the things that are praised and the qualities that are designed in zimbabwe all that we used to celebrate amongst ourselves as friends you know being academic wanting to try stuff putting your hands up in class even the minute i moved over to england it was such a culture shock because those are that's the first class one-way ticket to being bullied all of those things it was a boffin it was a boffin exactly i mean this is how it was for me in school first day the first break time of the first day all the boys lined up and they were all trying to convince me to say they were trying to teach me swear words to say in class in the next lesson they're like oh say prick it's like a really good word it's like a really good word you'll get extra house points yeah say this say that thing is my mom's from derby you know what i mean so i know i knew all those words anyway just from how she talks to me so that that didn't work but it was just like this desire instantly to get me in trouble and so I didn't play characters in school but my reasoning with myself would be when I then went into comedy doing these characters was an attempt was a chance to be people whom if you didn't like you could be like well that's fine because it's not my real personality you know but ultimately they are projections of myself who gets to see the real Munya then my very close friends if if I'm if someone is my good friend, it's like you're my brother, you know, or my sister.

22:42So you just get unfiltered me because I feel safe. Like I don't feel like people are going to judge me. I remember this one weird, it's a very weird story, but you know when things happen as you're a kid and they really stick with you. I had a friend come over for a sleepover and in the mornings, what me and my sisters used to do is there was this drink called Mazzoy, which is basically like Robinson's orange squash. And for whatever reason, we loved to put a bit in the cup and then fill it with hot water so it was like a hot orange drink and i remember in the morning we woke up from a sleep over and we're like callum callum have some of this hot mosaic and he drank it and then he went to school the next day and he basically told everyone he was like they're so weird in their family like they drink this hot mosaic drink and i remember all the kids were like yo is it true that you are so embarrassed it's so weird and i remember just being like never show someone your true self never show them like your weird idiosyncrasies whatever and as much as i try and move away from that i think somewhere deep down in the brain matter that experience is still there as like a red flag as a warning alarm bell never ever show your true self your true shades i'm with you on that you know i use that completely really used to rugby a lot and then continue because you're scared that if you put your complete self out there that because you're always guaranteed to get love or hate either way it doesn't matter everyone has got an opinion but if you put your real self out there you go oh they're actually judging me based on who i yeah so it's just versions of yourself that you can tolerate by putting out there because what do you do when if someone's like if someone dislikes or worse still loathes the very fabric of who you are you're finished because you're always gonna that is like an anchor to wherever you swim back out to you're always going to find yourself back in that place so i would say that the healthiest thing probably is to reach a point where you're oblivious to to that anyway and you've got the true self-acceptance of this is what i am but i know i'm not there yet but i'm trying to work towards that you know that's my that's my side quest that's my big mission in life what about wrestling were you a big fan of that growing up wrestling was my life yeah wrestling i i how many like coffee tables did i break practicing the moves of my sister suplexes moonsaults you name it it was as a kid it's like theater it's like theater with all the stuff that you you want it's kind of like you know when you're going through the rough and tumble phase of like being like a young boy wanting to fight and play fight it was like watching that with these real life superheroes because the you know they were massive seven foot freaking delts the triceps it was like watching superman and batman with the gloves off and then you have these storylines and you tune in and in zimbabwe it was really weird because the way that they operated tv was the only licenses they had weirdly were for uh wrestling like pay-per-view wrestling events which they show for free and then just all of jackie chan's films Those were the only two channels we had on Zimbabwean TV.

25:47So any given night, you were either sitting down to watch Jackie Chan or you were watching WrestleMania, Judgment Day, Backlash. And so, yeah, it absolutely laid a blueprint for being a charismatic entertainer. Yeah, is that where you got your biggest influence from? You obsessed with wrestling, developed all of these personas and characters, and that's what wrestling's known for. you've now done the same since I can't believe that you didn't want to grow up you grew up not wanting to be a comedian or anything like that and it was out of lockdown you were like oh all of a sudden I've found this if I really go back through my childhood and I'm like what's the one constant that was kind of like a signpost for my career or who I became you know who I went on to be wrestling was the constant it was every week watching it with granddad in the mornings and if we were in Zimbabwe staying up late to watch it with my sisters so yeah absolutely it was between that and spongebob i was obsessed with spongebob weirdly painted my whole yeah they are different different ends of the spectrum there yeah but i in year 11 i did i had my room was painted the color of spongebob but it had wrestling posters over the top of it right for in year 11 yeah that is a feast for the eyes yeah that's That's asking for intact virginity, isn't it?

27:07Yeah. I used to have stone cold sheets. The what? The sheets? Yeah. Right. He was on my bed. Right. What was the image? The whole body. This whole body was on your... Yeah, it was his whole body as my sheets. That's quite interesting. It was his whole body. Mm. It was in the... His little... What's it called? The one that had 316. Oh, his little waistcoat. waistcoat in his pants and his boots that folds like... And how did... what did that make you feel? Was it like comforting to sort of tuck yourself under stone cold every night? Ugh.

27:45What was the crossover between you sleeping under stone cold Steve Austin and then your sort of sexual awakening? There must have been some crossover. Yeah, did you always want to play rugby?

28:02Because as you've said eight times, it was his whole body. And you've been really clear to say it was his whole body. It was skin on skin.