S11 EP41: Russell Howard

0:02Hello, I'm Rob Beckett. And I'm Josh Widdicombe. Welcome to Parenting Hell, the show in which Josh and I discuss what it's really like to be a parent, which I would say can be a little tricky.

0:12Josh Widdicombe:So, to make ourselves, and hopefully you, feel better about the trials and tribulations of modern day parenting, each week we'll be chatting to a famous parent about how they're coping. Or hopefully how they're not coping. And we'll also be hearing from you, the listener, with your tips, advice, and, of course, Tales of Parenting Woe. Because, let's be honest, there are plenty of times when none of us know what we're doing.

0:36Hello, you're listening to Parenting Hell with... Jacob. Can you say Rob? Rob. Beckett? Beckett. Can you say Josh? Josh. And Widdicombe? Widdicombe. Well done. Widdicombe.

0:54Josh Widdicombe:There we go. Oh, that's Jago. Lovely. Very, very well done. 25-month-old son, Jago. I doubt you'll guess where we're from as I don't have a hint of accent despite living here my whole life. Birmingham. Perfect for our guest, Rob. Bristol. Yes. The Bristol accent is a life choice, though, isn't it? It really is. Russell Howard hasn't really got it, has he? I think you can choose to get rid of it, I think. Can you indeed? Yeah, I think so. I think people from Bristol make a decision. Do you? You double down or you slide in. And which would you make the decision to do? It depends what I'm doing. I've been a listener since I was pregnant and I've been eagerly awaiting the day that Jago can have a go at your intro and it actually be intelligible.

1:35Josh Widdicombe:I love the podcast. I'm so grateful to have something I can tune into every week that helps ease the guilt I feel from my various parenting choices, mainly those involving screen time. It's like having a parenting support group on the drive to work. Thank you for keeping it going. You're England's best agony uncles. All the best, Maddie. England's in fucking trouble then. um there we go we haven't had any um dilemmas have we sent in i think people realize we're not very good at answering them i don't know i just ask someone else i tell you i've got a dilemma go on i um i'll get that you're now mate yeah that's the same for the record you wait till this gets just filled um yes so basically this my daughter my two daughters with my two daughters and a few of my younger daughter's friends.

2:24Now, I've got a really funny photo of my daughter's. When I was in Tokyo, I was one asleep on the train and one had drunk too many drinks, like fizzy drinks, and needed a wee and sat there. It looked like she was about to burst, right? She sort of got her arms all tense and looked into the side. It's a really funny picture that we sort of have a little laugh at. It came up on my phone. My daughter saw it, and then she was laughing. And then my other daughter said, oh, can I see and show everyone? And I said to my oldest, do you want everyone to see? And she was like, no, not really. Because she was like, it's funny for us as a family, but I don't think she wanted loads of people just laughing at her in this photo.

2:54Josh Widdicombe:Who are these people? My younger daughter's friends. Oh, right, sorry. I think she just felt a bit like, oh, no, it's a bit much. So I said, no, she doesn't want everyone to see it and to laugh at it like that. So then, because it's a photo of her and she doesn't want everyone to see it. And then the younger one's like, but it's a photo of me as well. I'm in it. I want to see it. And I'm like, yeah, but then I don't want to show you. And then it feels like I'm excluding your friends. I was like, let's just not look at the phone anymore. And then the younger one starts sulking that she can't see the phone.

3:17And he's just like, I don't know what the right one, what's the right thing to do here, Josh.

3:21Josh Widdicombe:I think you've done the right thing to not show the photo because the photo is laughing at the older one, isn't it? Really? Yes, because the other one's just not doing much. And it's fine if she's in on the joke, but she maybe doesn't want to share that with lots of people. You've got to respect that as well. Totally, totally. I think you've done the right thing there, Rob. But it is the classic situation where having two kids is very difficult because sometimes you have to make a decision that's going to fuck one of them off it's not you versus them as in not like parenting is you but it's not like do i draw a line because i want to i don't think they should do this or or they do you know it's not like a decision where it's like this is me parenting one child yeah it's the decision of how do i mediate between two children that want different things and both it's not like a yeah it's a different you've got to make a split second decision to decide your stance and how you're going to implement it and make sure it's the right decision and then do that immediately with live living people well exactly you know in law absolutely keep talking all of the laws come from previous ruling well not all of them but like laws come from previous rulings in courts don't they so it'll become like a if there's a new a court case that makes a ruling then others use that ruling later on that's a bit like parenting so now you've delivered that rule that's something that needs to be implemented going forward now that is now the rule going forward because the case of uh daughter one versus daughter two over photos shown to friends is is now the statute if they get to have a full trial like present evidence and a judge make a final decision in their own exactly yeah exactly you're doing it straight away you're going i think that is murder just off the bat yeah immediately and you will be sentenced to death.

5:10Josh Widdicombe:Now let's enjoy the rest of our day out. Yeah, exactly. So there you go. Russell Howard, Rob. Yes, Russell Howard. Great guest. Dad, slightly older dad as well. He's in his mid 40s, isn't he? You always think of him as about 28, Russell Howard, but he had a kid at 43 and what's quite interesting is already super successful and now integrating a child into that as opposed to having a child on the way up. Should we bring on Russell? Yes, this is Russell Howard. Russell Howard, welcome. Fucking hell, lads. Do you want to do that again? That's the beauty of this show. We don't really give a shit and the audience are quite forgiving.

5:52But given that you're sort of like a digital Ant and Deck, I was just thinking, they very rarely speak over each other. And then, do they ever have a rift? I've never seen it. That would go viral, wouldn't it? Ant and Deck going, do you want to stop stepping on my lines, Ant? Yeah. I mean, I think they might have had a couple of crosswords when he crashed his car drunk into a roundabout. But on screen, I think they're quite chilled. Yeah, they do. But you were implying he was in the back. Yeah, he's always to his left.

6:20Josh Widdicombe:And if he's driving the car, he has to run alongside him sometimes. That's why he couldn't see his blind spot, isn't it? How the heck was that? Well, that's the problem, isn't it? That you just go, he's got me. He's definitely got me. To the point, you know when they've got like, you know, you do your driver's license and the guy's got the brakes and he just presumed that Anna had all that. um so do you know what i wanted to say russell because i i don't know if i've ever said this is that i saw one of your gigs it was kind of quite a big moment in my life oh really um yeah i know you did i've got i've got the same story i think you might have we might have been going to comedy when russell was in his too big and too good for comedy clubs peak and then was just roofing gigs you know when you're you know you're you're sort of too good just to be doing 20 minutes and you need longer and then you're just cramming it all in tell yours first this is horrible starting on resilient up i didn't want to start like this i don't remember that experience myself rob but um so i saw your ashton court festival oh yeah yeah 2003 um my friend was at union bristol and we went to that music festival and i didn't know who anyone was and john richardson was on and he did a kind of impression of a dolphin.

7:34Is that a thing? Yeah, he had a really... He's still doing that, isn't he? He had a really... Yeah, John had a bit about, remarkably, given that he was sort of born and raised in Lancaster and to my knowledge, I've never seen a live dolphin, had a really extensive and funny bit about dolphins. And it led up to this incredible impression of a dolphin. And then suddenly you get like, it's quite a big tent. It's probably about 500 Bristolians. Yeah, it was... Fucking hell, that wasn't bad. That actually sounded like a dog food. I'll tell you what, he's got serial killer's eyes, but he's got a range of animal voices I've never seen in my life.

8:10But yeah, well, thank you. That's very sweet of you, Josh. Well, that was... We'll get on to parenthood in a minute, but that sort of follows on... I saw you up the creek, and you just were doing 20 minutes, I think on a Sunday, but you had done a bit of... I don't think you'd done maybe a bit of telly, but not much, but you just came on, and I've been going to up the creek a lot, and you see a lot of the old school acts have their set routines, and there's references from 20 years ago. And then you've got the newcomers in the middle working out how to do it. But you just came on and it was nonstop, bang, bang.

8:38And there wasn't a let up. And then you're watching it going, oh my God, this is just like nonstop. And you're doing stuff that, because you're similar to my age, I could get a bit more than some of the older lads. But for you now though, like because that kind of comedy club or smaller theatre where you can be yourself and chat and throw lines out as Russell rather than the comedian. How do you find being in an arena? Because you've got, you know, you've got another arena tour. you've been in arenas for years and years now well is it possible to bring that in or how do you find the difference between those two venues so i purposely kind of i'm not really doing tv anymore so i was i did arenas because i had to kind of fit a tour in quite quickly when i was doing telly and now i kind of do so i'll do like four nights in the theater so like you're nice so i would i would far rather do that and then that way my wife and son can come up and we can kind to hang out in like so you're gonna take them on tour mate i've done it i took them on tour to america i took them on tour to europe we did like a tour bus it was incredible wow how old how old is it one kid you got one yeah he's 18 months old 18 months yeah so he was um his the first time he was on stage was the sydney opera house which is pretty cool he did uh he did the warm-up um and was pretty good

9:56Josh Widdicombe:he hasn't found his voice yet has he he's not quite he's very similar to his to answer your question i kind of i i think those those 2000 seater venues somewhere like the palladium or the kind of the liverpool empire those rooms where they're obviously massive but you can still be kind of small i think yes there isn't a bad seat in yes any of those venues even if you're sort of way at the top um whereas like i really loved doing arenas and there was so much fun and it had to be this kind of all-powerful monologue where you just like wallop them for like an hour and a half but creatively you stand still or i did i i was never i i never felt You can't improvise on the stage.

10:41You've got to just give them what you've written. It's this kind of sort of ocean that's just flowing and you're smashing it and you can't then stop and bring it down. I've seen people do it and it's really impressive when you see, I remember seeing Chappelle kind of busking at the O2, which was wild. But he's got such charisma that he was able to kind of make it, and he was following Chris Rock. Chris Rock had just done his set that he did on Netflix. and then Chappelle basically just came on and went, you all right? And it was so compelling to see someone just dick about at the O2. I suppose you can use the screens, though, for the small moments and act outs in your face and facial expressions because they zoom up.

11:22But, yeah, that's what I was saying because it felt like, you know, the kind of act you are, you're perfect to really get involved and improvise all the way through. Would you go to the audience now a bit more? No. No. Don't you go to them anymore at all? Well, it's just, it's been, it's been ruined by, by all these kind of like crowd work sets. Don't you think? I find they're a bit more bullshit of crowd now than they were because they, they feel like they're part of the show. Oh no, I just think I like not to sound kind of nostalgic for my youth, but I, you know, you guys will be the same. There's no problem with that.

11:56No problem with that. I'm not on it.

11:58Josh Widdicombe:This is bread and butter. You look at like, you know, So Kitson and Ross Noble and Jason Byrne and Rob Rouse and Andrew Maxwell and these Phil Kay, like genuinely brilliant improvisers, whereas now it's kind of like, you know, what do you do? Your mum's a whore. Yeah. Or, you know. Where'd you learn to listen to a helicopter? Yeah, but it's just, it's just, this is good stuff, guys. I'm just getting it down, if that's all right. But it's stockies. That's what blows my mind, that those kind of stock lines that you'd see Jonglazaks doing are now kind of done by a lot of kind of improvisational heavyweights.

12:34And I just, I don't know, it just, it makes me ick now. If you're kind of, if something happens, I love it, and you can kind of create something, but I would never kind of go to somebody and sort of say, what's your job, what do you do? I always used to use the crowd work as a pivot, really, where I'll chat to them a bit, like to warm them up slightly, and then get something out of them out of a babysitter or being late for work or what time they've got to be up, and then spin it into the routine. So then it looks like you've just got, oh, and you're off and then that once we're off we're off yeah but and then that weirdly that's what makes the gig it's i always call it that liquid funny so you have 15 minutes of liquid funny that is so specific to the room where some woman called mandy has got a cat and she's got to be back for the babysitter or whatever and then you you're able to bring your material into the room but that could it's so for the room it can't go viral no whereas now that whole idea of i find it so funny that you're improvising specifically not for the people in the room but for people on the phone so you're just going what do you do and you're kind of looking to this audience that aren't there and yeah you know i just it's not it's not really for me i kind of if things happen organically let them go but i don't really want to berate and i also remember what it feels like to be in the front row and that panic of going oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god you know but some people love it though i'd have broken his hand up when i'm pete the pillow man i'm pete the pillow man i'm like what the fuck and three years ago he was in the front row because he was sat on a pillow and i'd spoke to him about this pillow yeah and he's peaked and i was like what i was like and he's like yeah i had a growth but it's gone now i'm like fucking hell i think you should read brand as pete the cancer survivor not pete the pillow man yeah but that but that's lovely and because you've done a really nice thing with it and you you didn't that's what I mean it's when you can kind of turn moments into something sweet and funny and unique rather than right let's just shit this out for the masses the worst part was that all the mcs did it when I was new there'd be two when Brokeback Mountain came out and if there was a man in a sort of played or cowboys kind of shirt collared shirt with a czech pattern on it would just be homophobic you gave them like that kind of stuff because of Brokeback Mountain and I was like, this is mental, but they're all dead in it.

14:49Can you imagine, can you imagine what would have happened if the guy went, yeah, no, I am. Oh, for sure. Yeah, fair enough. Is this your boyfriend? Yeah, it is, actually. Actually, he's my husband. Yeah, you're married. Yeah, yeah, it's legal now. Is it? Yeah, the touring's legal, right, so they're all people. You're not going to believe this.

15:11Josh Widdicombe:David Cameron. So, Russell, you take your family on tour, Like, what would your day be like that? Do you feel like, because we've, I've done that a bit and stuff like, but I find, are you literally with your son before the gig or are you like, right, I need to shut off? I had a moment, really just one of the oddest moments we were doing a gig in, where were we? I think we were in Seattle and because we were on a bus, so the bus would drive from, let's say, Portland. We did a show in Portland. What's that? How big is this? like what picture like how is that for a family oh so the way it works it's called a star bus right and uh i've done a bunch of these in america and i famously in my head had um i had dolly parton's tour bus one year yes which was incredibly exciting and our driver who's a guy called cadillac jack he'd come out of retirement to do this kind of one last tour and he used to drive steve martin So he had so many brilliant stories.

16:16It was great. Was he a huge Russell Howard fan then? Was he just in some debt? Why was he back out of the room? No, I think he was in debt. He was in debt. He was such an, he didn't know anything about stand-up other than he'd sort of told with Steve Martin and just that he was like a mate of his. And he'd been, because he was also, he was a Vietnam War veteran. And he told me this fascinating story that, I mean, it's great in the dead of night when you're driving to Minneapolis, that the US government gives veterans uh i think four viagra or six viagra a month they kind of send them and he was basically bemoaning the government just like just kind of jesus christ like just stop sending me viagra do you know what i mean it's like i can't use all this damn stuff like it feels like it feels like they really try to pressurize me to go out and try and bang women and i can't do that anymore russ and i was like yeah i know you mean jack it's left there mate there was a lot going on So he was driving.

17:13My tour manager, Kumar, would be in, you have like six bunks. So Kumar would be in one of the bunks. I would be in one of the bunks. My wife's friend was in one of the bunks. And my support act, Joe Maggio, was in one of the bunks. And my wife and son were in the kind of big bed at the back of the bus that they would sleep in. And it had a kind of a little kind of shower if they needed it. And there was a little cot. so they would kind of go off so so basically what would happen is we would drive from one venue to the next overnight and then park up outside that venue and then in the morning we would kind of wash in the venue in their showers and sometimes they're amazing sometimes yeah i'll tell you what is a gamble is when you've got a uh an eight-month-old son and he's wants to sit on the green room carpet.

18:09And you're like, who was on last night? It was a metal band, wasn't it? Up you get it. Up you get it. Come on. It was folk. Go on. There you go. You're fine. So yeah, that was pretty murky. And then what would happen is my wife would get ready to go to bed to put my son to sleep in the bus while we would do the show. Oh, perfect. And she was having a shower and he was in my arms with 15 minutes to go before going on stage in Seattle. And that was a really, you know, you kind of need that hour. But there's just no world in which you can say to your missus, can you bring the child in with you whilst you wash yourself for the first time today?

18:51Because I'm incredibly busy. I need to think of my thoughts.

18:56Josh Widdicombe:The other thing with that hour is, and I know this, maybe we've all got different things we do that hour, but what I want to do is zone out by looking at my phone. do you know what i mean or just do nothing like so it's it's almost even worse to go could you just take my son because i just want to look at instagram mindlessly yes i'm not it's not like i'm pacing and remembering the show or something i just need to almost not exist if that makes sense all right it's it's a funny thing isn't it all kind of like it's so interesting the rituals that everyone goes through i remember it was a really brilliant moment during lockdown or the beginning of the lockdown that or maybe no we were just coming out of lockdown and i was doing these shows at clapham grand and michael mcintyre texted me and he was like you know can i come and do do do 10 minutes i said absolutely and it was so i mean have you got 10 michael but it was so funny because he hadn't gigged for a for a year and you could see him backstage kind of like revving himself up it was incredible to see someone such a talented comedian just he was just chatting to people and just trying to get it it was you know that thing where you're like wow you forget even someone as incredible as him this is clearly his process he's got to go and find strangers and just make them laugh and just yeah yeah yeah because i try and zone out but then about 20 minutes before i go and annoy the sound engineer or the tour manager i just need to speak at people for a bit just to warm up slightly or otherwise it's just like such a cold opening i used to do that for my tv show it was like i would go up i'd be away from the guys i wrote the show with and i just go up for like an hour to kind of just chat to the researchers and sort of and do exactly that and clearly they're busy i do that with wardrobe yeah i'm gonna sit there I'm incredibly, like, making a last-minute, you know, Royal Guards outfit or something, and I'm just sat there going, can we watch Top of the Pops 2 on your screen in there?

21:00It's funny, but that kind of very, I don't know, like low-level just chat with strangers is, it's so invaluable. But hopefully there'll come an age where my son is able to just chat with me and that'll be nice, you know. At this point, he was just kind of looking at me and I was looking at him. Did your wife enjoy it though? Because, you know, it's a lot of ball like moving around. It's great for you because you get to see your son and stuff, but like it would probably just be easier in the house. Yeah, but the bus. The bus became, it was a moving house, so we had everything. And, you know, we were in, so she went with, one of her mates came.

21:38So then they, you know, when we were in Europe, they kind of went to the Van Gogh Museum and they kind of, then the next day they're going to the, we were in Paris and they're kind of mooching about and then right we're in Vienna and they're kind of off and they were doing stuff. So it was brilliant. So she had a friend. Yeah, that makes a difference. Travel is depressing, isn't it? Well, yeah, exactly. Can you just – because I was just like making notes and trying to write stuff about the place we were in and whatnot. So, yeah, it was great. I would thoroughly recommend it. And also it was kind of, you know, my wife was on maternity leave and when do you ever get the opportunity to kind of travel from Paris?

22:14Yeah. Yeah. Paris. Like I've got the, yeah, the itinerary was nuts. We were just like did Berlin and then kind of, you know, Munich and Vienna. And it was, it was incredible. It was so much fun. Will they be coming on this one as well? Well, hopefully my wife's back at work now, but she works Monday to Wednesday. So I booked it Thursday to Sunday. So she can do it.

22:36Josh Widdicombe:Switch and Nottingham. She can't get out of those ones. Russell, this is it. Well, but you know, it's a bit different wandering around fucking Ipswich for the day. She can spend a Saturday and Sunday in Stockton. It's a bit like, but can she do it on a wet Tuesday in Stoke?

22:55Anyone can tour in Amsterdam.

23:00My day kicks off with a refreshing Celsius energy drink. Then straight to the gym. Pre-K pickup, back home to meal prep. Time for my fire station shift. One more Celsius, got to keep the lights on. When the three alarm hits, I'm ready. Celsius. Live. Fit. Go. Grab a cold, refreshing Celsius at your local retailer or locate now at Celsius.com. Early birds always rise to the occasion for summer vacation planning because early gets you closer to the action. So don't be late. Book your next vacation early on Vrbo and save over one hundred and twenty dollars. Rise and shine. Average savings one hundred and forty one dollar.

23:36Select homes only. So are you driving around in a bus for that one? And then you just go for the tour manager and she'll start home. Yeah. So I'll kind of like back and forth and, you know, get back whenever I can. So then you'll have the baby like Monday to Wednesday, essentially. And then you hand over for the, for your tour shows the weekend. Yeah. You've absolutely nailed it so far. It's actually bulletproof system. Well, it was, that was the plan really. And it's worked really well. And also you then at the minute, I'm kind of like, when you're in kind of like standup mode, it's so much fun.

24:09And then when you're in dad mode, you don't kind of, you know, it just feels like the perfect mix of like, you know, of doing the two things.

24:16Josh Widdicombe:What I find interesting is like, so you, I'd say you and Rob are the two people I know that are most kind of teethy. Teethy. Yeah. But Rob's natural. He's all natural. Easy to work with because they'll provide a lot of stuff and I could just sit there. So it's been a lovely morning. The two people I work with that you like love comedy and stand up. I've got a theory that almost every comedian who I'm friends with wanted to be a musician but became a comedian. But I'd say you two don't really fall. Maybe the two exceptions. But if you go, Ramesh would have done anything to be a hip hop act. Acast wanted to be a drummer.

25:03Josh Widdicombe:Joel was in a metal band. Ed Gamble would be in a heavy metal band. Nish Kumar would be Bob Dylan if he could be. All these people wanted to be musicians but became comedians, but you two are comedians, right? So what I find interesting is, like, that was the central thing of your life, right? And then you've had a kid. And how have you found it as, you know that phrase, like the pram in the hallway is the death of creativity or whatever. It's not that. But it's like, how have you found it has affected your relationship with work? what do you know what has made me think i've i to bring up mcintyre again um i have such respect for those comedians that got incredible when and well including you know you guys you had your kids young i mean i'm 45 and i've kind of done everything comedically that yeah i ever dreamt i would get to do and and i now have a kid and it's like oh cool i'll do the job i love alongside it yeah but the fact that when i was doing the edinburgh festival i didn't have a kid mcadier had a kid that's what i find can you imagine it's so incredible that he was able to write all these genius routines so what i would why it feels to me like you have this kind of parental responsibility to provide and that this is the way that i provide so it feels like almost like gigs are like you're going out searching for firewood that you can then bring back to the family this is the only way i know to kind of provide so that's i i feel that that's changed me slightly and listen i'm fine financially but i still feel that need to kind of i totally found my relationship with the work in terms of i saw it not like it became a but i saw it much more financially once i had kids yeah it's weird because it felt like i was doing this for the family now it wasn't it is essentially quite a selfish kind of job in a way do you know what i mean if you where you are going out for yourself you're doing blah blah blah and when i had a kid it did totally change my relationship with like the thoughts i had around work and why i was working if you know what i mean but what never goes away is when you have that thought or that idea and to bring it back to bob dylan bob dylan said that he wrote songs to perform for people so i can't put i can't entertain myself i i don't have this skills to sit with myself and write a book and enjoy my own company if i think of a thing i need to say it to strangers so that it becomes something because before that it isn't anything it's just an idea yeah but that feeling and i bet you you have that i don't know when you mention all of those comics that the great thing we get to do we get to write songs with people that essentially that's what a routine is you have this idea and the audience let you be funny and they let you get to a place when they laugh it opens up other roots because you you get egged on and it's all this now and and it's so immediate that's what i love about it is you have an idea you can go out that night and say it you don't have to run it past a producer or anyone else or another band member it's just yourself or it can just come to you and it's it can be anything and you're only ever sort of two months away from being brilliant again.

28:18If you're a bit bored with your stuff, you can just sort of sit down with yourself, have a few thoughts and just go to a club and try and kick it around. And that's what I love about it. It's the ability to kick it about, you know? So you had an insane work ethic. You're so ambitious and you did so well and everything you touched sort of turned to gold. Like Russell Howard's TV show was massive. It was basically on every Edinburgh poster. They must have been like, everyone was like the Russell Howard. They wanted to get on another comic show, like to showcase themselves but like obviously you had long writing days for that and you was really committed but i found when i had kids not so much financial thing there was all i've always had that and i think i speak for all of us none of us come from any money so that you always have that thing in the back of your head i've only to keep the money and you're worried about money it's an inbuilt thing but i used to find that like i when i did mock the week i'd work i'd work so hard and and i'd be killing myself to do like as much as possible to get as best as best but now i'm at a point where i go right the kids have finished school i've got five good jokes i'm just gonna have to accept that that's all i've got today so i can see my children and make that sort of just do you do you ever struggle with that where you feel like oh i'm not giving my career 100 but what you've just said is like the perfect working class distillation there's a book called deep work by a guy called cal newport and there's about i i guess 300 pages in this book and you've summed that up exactly but it is but it's it's like if you want to work deep let's say you do two hours and then you stop and whatever you got you got and then you put the you put the laptop away or you put your notepad away and that's that and then you go back to your life but it's this kind of gradual um because tomorrow you'll come up with another five and then the day after that another five yeah and then you can get rid of four of those and then it's that kind of process i think otherwise like imagine being you know i'm 45 imagine giving up spending time with your son just to kind of you know come up with a routine so i just have you have to you but you have to then put it into some sort of system so you go right monday to wednesday i'll work my bollocks off like i used to i'll do a proper nine to five you know if i if i'm writing or whatever or Thursday to Sunday, I'll properly go for it on tour.

30:41And then when I'm in dad mode, you know, you just kind of hang out and see what happens. And it's incredible. And what's amazing about having kids is every cliche is true. They'll sometimes, and they are so oblivious that they've given you a memory forever. That's what I find fascinating. And they won't remember any. but he i remember my son just put his he put his head on my sort of inner arm and he just like just rested it there for a bit because there was no other place in the world he wanted his head to be and i just felt like like so happy and like oh god it just warmed my entire soul and then he just like just wandered off and he has no idea and i'll now look like it just feels like that's his place moments like that why would you give that up just to go right i gotta write this bit about farage did you struggle did you struggle with that though like you say you've read a book about it so it must have been something that was playing on your mind and with a working class background i think we are built to go right you've got to move all that sand over to that you know it's like you work your bollocks off for 12 hours and that's how you feel like you've been successful and done well that you're completely exhausted at the end of it like did you struggle with that balance no i think honestly i think if you're trying to create something and you get something out of it like i do it's just about setting a time limit isn't it it's i think seinfeld speaks about that it's whether it's two hours four hours whatever it is just do it right and then just put put it put it away and you have to change your life because when i used to do the tv show i would work that sounded all consuming it was crazy but thursday friday saturday sunday you know monday and then And Tuesday we did the show.