193: Can Sam and Pete beat Paul Sinha The Chaser?!

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1:44Welcome to Staying Relevant, the podcast hosted by two bestest of best pals, me, Sam Thompson, and the man who has sat next to me, which always means something exciting, Peter James, Jonathan Joseph Wicks. This episode will contain swearing. If you don't like it, go f*** yourself. This is a main episode, which means it's Monday. You'll be able to watch this on Josh and Kira's YouTube channel from 5pm on Wednesday. And then we'll be doing a bonus episode, which comes out audibly on Thursday, which you can watch on Josh and Kira's YouTube channel from 5pm on Sunday, which means you can catch us on a...

2:20Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday. Brilliant. Yes, Sam and I are both sat on a sofa together, which, as you all know, I hate because it means he's in touching distance of me. But there is a very good reason for that, and that is because we have a fabulous, fabulous guest. We have a guy who has had one of the most interesting careers and career changes, I think, of anyone we've ever had on. Someone that used to be a GP and is now very well known for being a mastermind, and comedian. Everyone knows him, I think. I don't think there's anyone in the country. You're basically a national treasure at this point, mate.

2:56I'm going to be honest with you. So a big welcome to Paul Sinner. Yes! Hello, Paul. Actually, funny enough, starting off, your name isn't actually Paul. No, it's a weird thing. It's quite a common thing with sons of Asian immigrants in this country. We often, in Bengal, it's called a dhagnam and a bhalanam. Your dhagnam is what they call you. your Bhala number is what you're really called. So what are you really called? My real name is Supriya. But it's spelt with an A, which means it gets pronounced Supriya, which is a girl's name. And so there was quite a good motivation to have a more common name.

3:33My mum and dad called me Paul all my life. So as I was growing up, everyone called me Paul other than school, because in school you're called by your real name. So all my school friends know me as Supriya. but I'm called Paul by literally everybody else. So you didn't just pick Paul. Your mum and dad always called you Paul. I didn't pick it, no. No, Sam had a similar thing at school because everyone called him Dick at school. So, but, you know, for different reasons. Well, I imagine there are very different reasons too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a Gordie tradition. Yeah, yeah. Paul's a very, like, run of the mill, I feel like.

4:11You'd call yourself, like, why did your parents come up with Paul? first thing that came into their heads, to be honest with you, there wasn't a lot of thought that went into it. And for a similar reason, we have a lot of Bobbies. A lot of Asian guys born in my generation were called Bobby as their duck. Why is that? Is that not like a reason? Popular, popular, malefluent sounding, nice name. I think we need a Steve. I think you suit Paul better than Bobby. Yeah, I'm not a Bobby. I'm here for Bobby. Do you think Sam suits Sam? Sam is very much a Sam. He's not a Samuel either. He's actually just a Sam.

4:46I hadn't made any assumptions. It's fine. Sorry to tell you, you're not blowing your mind with that revelation. I'm a Peter, but no one calls me Peter other than my mum if I've done something wrong. So quite a lot. The only Pete I know that was never Peter was Pete Sampras, the tennis player. He was born Pete. He was born Pete. Yeah, everyone. No one's really good. I don't know anyone. I don't know a Sam that's not Samuel. Yeah. And even though I'm the only one I know, everyone else is Samuel. So when my parents get annoyed at me, it's just, now it's you little shit. But like, yeah, it was never normally they'd call you by your full name, wouldn't they?

5:24But it's just like, Sam doesn't really have, you can't really get angry at Sam. Yeah. Well, Pete just calls me ****, actually. Yeah. Oh God, you're not wrong when you say there's going to be swearing. No, no, no, no, absolutely. We really, we really, really go for it. So, I mean, your career is um storied yeah like but also i i you were a qualified doctor then comedian yeah although not a lot in it i qualified as a doctor in 94 and i did my first comedy gig in 95 so you were side hustling as a comedy uh side hustling is very generous it wasn't even that i literally wanted to be more interesting at dinner parties That was the sole ambition in 1995 when I decided to do my first comedy gig.

6:15How was that? How was your first one? Genuinely terrifying. And I did my medical finals six months before that, and that's equally terrifying. So it was quite a 12 months to have two of the most terrifying experiences of your life in the same 12 months. I mean, to get into comedy just to kind of be more interested at dinner, Because I would say, if I, not that I go to an awful lot of dinner parties, as you can imagine, a doctor is a very interesting person to have at a dinner party. Unless most of your friends are doctors. Yeah, actually, very good point. Yeah, because ran by doctors. The funny doctor is different.

6:50Is comedy saint you'd always loved? Oh, yeah. I grew up in the 80s. I started as a sitcom lover. So when I was young, I loved Dad's Army and Forty Towers. Love Forty Towers. Yeah, yeah. Only Fools and Horses, Just Good Friends, the whole John Sullivan oover, Blackadder. Massive, massive, massive fan. But all the mainstream sitcoms as well as the more esoteric sitcoms, I love them all. I literally grew up on Only Fools and Horses and it is, I think, the best programme that's ever been made. A lot of people think that Grandad was the golden era. I think the first two or three series of Uncle Albert was when the writing was just, the writing on the show was just unbelievable.

7:35I agree, Uncle Albert, for me, like a bit of a film. It's when John Sullivan's writing was at his absolute peak. I just never thought on this podcast that we'd be, not just Only Fools and talking about the writing of Only Fools and All. I'm here for it though. I'm not going to lie. Honestly, it's just brilliant. Well, to be fair though, the writers get a bad deal. Yeah. Everyone remembers the stars of the sitcom, but the people that made them into the stars were writing their brilliant lines. John Sullivan, at his peak, could walk through down any street unrecognised. That's not fair. Well, it's a bit like...

8:05They make a lot of money though, I'd imagine as well. To be fair. It's a bit like when we did our first tour, I did a lot of the writing on that and everyone just remembers Sam being brilliant. So, it's great. I'm just sort of the added extra, the donkey in the background. You knew what you were getting into with the double-edged dynamic. Well, it is what it is, isn't it? You could be Andrew Ridgely. Well, yeah, fucking hell. Fuck is Andrew Ridgely? Wham. So everyone remembers George Michael, but not Andrew Ridgely. Oh, right, okay, yeah, fair. Yeah. I suddenly felt very old. And Shirley and Pepsi.

8:33Mate, the drummer from Coldplay, no one has a clue who he is. And obviously you've got Chris Martin, who's like the front man, and everyone knows him. But no one knows who the drummer is from Coldplay. It's absolutely wild. I wish I knew so I could show off here. I have nothing in this case. It's not Will Champion, is it? There's a guy called Will Champion in the band, but I can't remember what he plays. Someone Google if that's the drummer. You've already chased us, mate, and we've only just started. You didn't even mean to. If you come at us now with the fucking... That is absolutely mental.

9:06We're going to get on to the quizzing bit in a minute. I can't believe that. But there's a prime example. That might be the highlight of my life. I'm glad you had it in that seat there, sir. Can I ask you just a quick question about the sort of being a GP? Is that something you always wanted to do? Or is that something you felt like you just like should do? It's the classic tale of coming from an Asian medical family. I was a clever kid and I was from a family of medics. Therefore, I was expected to be a doctor. Unfortunately for the narrative, I wasn't that scientific. And it's a bit complicated because I was very good at maths, but I don't see things in three dimensions.

9:47I've not got a spatial awareness brain. When you watch me on Taskmaster, you'll see me fall apart on stuff where you have to interpret stuff in three dimensions. I'm no good at that. I've got no three-dimensional IQ. And so there was always going to be a limit. You'd be a terrible surgeon then. Yeah, I would have been another. Absolutely. There's always going to be a limit to what I could achieve in medicine. And therefore, that limit sort of limited my ambitions. I never wanted to do it for the whole of my life. I did it because I couldn't think of anything else to do. A lot of pressure, by the way, to be like, right, got to be a doctor.

10:22It is a lot of pressure. And, you know, it took me six and a half years of a five year course to get through it all and eventually stutter out at the end as a doctor. The surprise really was that I was actually an OK doctor. I wasn't a great doctor, but I was fine. I was competent. You didn't kill anyone. No, I didn't. As far as I'm aware. Yeah, there's no Shipman sagas.

10:46That's actually the deliberate murder of quite a lot of people. Well, that's why, you know, the suggestion of really bad. the serial killing Harold Shipman. The way that also Paul just described that as the deliberate murder. It's what we talk about in this podcast, mate. We're all about murder. So, Beck, what year was it you qualified? 94, but I started in 95. So when you go through the training, it's all ST1, ST2, all that sort of stuff, yeah? Yeah, it wasn't structured like that. Was it structured differently previously? It was structured differently. Senior house officer. Basically, I decided about three or four years in that I wanted to be a GP.

11:21Okay. That seemed to be the, if you like, ironically, the one where I'd kill the least people. Ironically, given... It was the safest option. Given Harold Shipman was a GP. Yeah, yeah, nice. But ironically, that seemed to be the safest option. But also, when I qualified as a GP, I then became a locum GP. I didn't buy into any practices. I was a GP for hire. There's more money in it. Well, it's not the money. It was the flexibility. because I was a stand-up comic by this stage. So by becoming a locum GP, I was able to do my own timetable and go, oh, I'm in Bristol on Thursday night, so I better not do a surgery on Friday morning.

12:03And that aspect, I was able to control my own lifestyle. Paul, I would have loved you, mate. I'm going to be honest with you. Just like you sat here, I already want to open my throat up to you and Nicky be like, Jesus Christ. No, no, as in like, my God, man. I'll show you my tonsils. Right. Well, no, you haven't changed the nature of that conversation. No, no. That hasn't made it any better. That's what it is. You said, I'd really like to open up my throat to you. And then you realised what you said and you said, no, no, not that. I want to show you my tonsils. Have you been to innuendo school yet?

12:35No, I haven't. Pete tries to teach me about this a lot on a daily basis. Well, Sam's actually a hypochondriac. Yeah, that's what I was getting on to. Sam goes to the doctors for anything and everything. So I'm the opposite. I don't go to the doctor. I think I'm just well we're all slowly dying but I'm dying quicker than other people for lots of reasons I'm sure but I'd rather not know whereas Sam so if I have something wrong with me or if there's anything I'll tell Sam and then next day he's got the same thing he's decided he's also very good at diagnosing himself using the internet loves that he's constantly got some sort of deadly disease something is wrong with him and at any point he could drop dead that's There's no way to live your life.

13:16It's not. Do you know what? It's not. A whole lot of therapy, actually, you need to take for that kind of stuff, which I'm halfway through. But I do genuinely have that. You must come across people like that all the time, though, when you're a GP, surely. And real life. It's not just being a GP. It's being in the world of comedy, being in the world of quizzing. I meet a lot of dysfunctional people. Yeah, Paul, I feel like... Welcome to the family, mate, because they're too set in front of you. Mate, you're fitting right in, sir. So being a GP for kind of the amount of time that you were a GP, you must have seen some unusual shit.

13:52Interesting choice. Proper actual shit. A few stool samples. Are there any kind of standout memories of things that you've had to encounter? Because I always think being a GP, this is the thing I struggle with most, is obviously it's amazing that you get to help people and you do that. But now and then there must be them really embarrassing encounters. This is the thing. I had a very dull life. I wish I could be Adam Kay and collect them all up into a series of incredibly successful books. But I actually had quite a dull life as a doctor. The most interesting stuff that happened to me was tragic rather than humorous.

14:23I mean, I can specifically remember being at a cardiac arrest once where a guy at ITU had vomited up the curry that he was having. And I said, this man appears to be in a coma. And I remember that because it was like the only thing. And then he died. No, he didn't. He didn't die. Yeah, you had to think that. No, he didn't. The reason I remember that is because these things are actually quite rare. Yeah. Did anyone laugh when you said... TV slash Adam K is a collection of the best of or worst of. It's things that have happened over a long period of years to any number of people. But individually, I never saw anything unusual on an X-ray.

15:07We're all meant to have a story about someone seeing Buzz Lightyear. Yes, I was arsed or something, yeah. I've never seen that. Well, weirdly enough, before I did TV, I had a real job. So I was actually... This is a real job? No, this is a bum. I'm a bum, basically. I mean, I get paid to kind of be myself and sort of piss Sam off. Glad someone else does your accounts. Yeah, exactly. It's basically what I am. but previously I had a proper job so I was an international sales director for a medical recruitment company so we used to supply consultant doctors yes they all laugh at me they all laugh at me because I had a real job once that's the way he says it but so we used to supply consultant doctors all over the world out in the Middle East Greece and Spain when the recession hit and we used to bring a lot of doctors over here and I used to work with a lot of the royal hospitals across the Middle East and then in the UK so I used to speak to and spend a lot of time with doctors back then I didn't look like this I wasn't tattooed everywhere.

16:06I had a different voice that I would put on so that doctors would trust me. I had a fake wedding ring. Fake wedding ring, that's amazing. Because it was a way to relate. Because as you can imagine, a geezer who got expelled from school from the East End couldn't easily relate to a consultant cardiologist or histopathologist. And they assumed that you could only do that if you had emotional happiness. It's the safety. How's the wife? It's the safety and also the kind of NLP of the fact that we've all got wives and kids and things at home. it was that kind of relatability. But I heard some - Such an East End way of handling that as well.

16:39Scamming them basically. Yeah, basically. Into trusting - It's what we call manipulation. Instead of just being trustworthy, let's put a wedding ring on and then we're actually going to fucking nail it. But I've heard some wild, wild kind of stories. And one thing I will always remember is having nights out with doctors. Pretty wild is all I'm going to say. Are you talking about junior doctors? No, I'm talking the higher consultant-level doctors, histopathologists, haematologists, radiologists. They were always, we used to do a lot of conferences. I remember a big conference in Greece. And pretty wild, I would say.

17:16And I always used to think to myself, and this is terrible, but used to go out and they would be next day potentially in surgery or whatever else, and they'd been out with me until four or five in the morning. And then they'd turn up next day and I used to think. I've got to ask you a question here. Has any doctor ever taken you one side on a big drinking night? out and said pete i've got something to confess to you this wedding was not even real um but yeah it was incredible it was one of the best kind of times of my life um other than this and no and um but what i will say like genuinely i think people have a misconception that doctors uh it's similar to like accountants maybe a man who's in entertainment and is having the most spectacular success in his life what he really yearns for is lying to sociopaths professionally in the medical industry?

18:05I'll be honest with you, Paul, when you put it like that, it doesn't sound great. But yes. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. It was just a great time. Sam, like, Paul and I have had real careers. I'm putting myself in the same position as a doctor here. Just because I used to lie to him. You job-wise? Not quite the same for me, Paul. I was a bartender. That's all I was, mate. But different. I've always wanted to do something like this. So I always knew this is where I wanted to be. But yeah, no, I never had a wedding ring. I don't think anyone would have believed me. When I was 20 years old, I looked about 14.

18:41I mean, you're 34 now. I don't think anyone would believe that you're married. Exactly. I would never have gone into anything like that. I think, well, maybe I would have, I always say I would have either liked to work in the city or selling something, I feel like. What was the bar in the city? No, the bar was actually in Fulham. It was me basically serving Chelsea fans. That was kind of it, really. Paul, after being a GP comedian now in the entertainment industry, which is very social, you meet a lot of people, I think, certainly I think since kind of being in this industry, you start to become quite a good judge of character.

19:14You start to be able to read people a little bit better. Yeah. If Sam, based on what you know of him now and who he is and how you've met him today, had a past life and a past occupation, what do you think Sam could potentially be good at? A professional Lothario. You don't know him as well, is he? Professional virgin, maybe. That Tinder guy. Oh, the Tinder Swindler. Yes. Oh, great. Yes. Do you know what the worst thing is? Pete just told you how he barefaced lies to people. And you, but yeah, I'm the guy. The quiet guy in the corner. I just think you could charm the ladies very easily. Sam's taken Tinder Swindler as a huge compliment.

19:57Which is wild. Anything Tinder, I'll have to be fair. But I feel like when I watch you sometimes, I feel like we're quite similar. I think we have quite similar ways how we hold ourselves. I totally see that as a compliment. So thank you very much. Yeah, for sure. Is that it though? We have a similar way of holding ourselves. Well, it's just interesting the way you sit and the way you tap the chair and stuff like that. I just do very similar things. I'm not a posturally comfortable person. I'm the exact same. I was never sort of relaxed into a chair and looked at ease. He looks at, did I, do you know what's funny, Paul?

20:36Whenever I, because you're sitting in the seat, I normally sit in, Pete obviously sits there. I look at Pete sometimes when he's like, look at the way he's sat now, right? I sometimes look at him and I'm like, why can't I fucking, like, I go like this, or I'm like, go like that, like tapping things. I'm never at ease when I'm sat. Yeah, I'm more Sam than Pete on that note. Sam's weird thing, though, is that, and I don't know if it's something you do, Paul, but he constantly pulls his penis. It's honestly, it doesn't matter what we're talking about. It's constantly doing that. I honestly say hand on heart that I have never pulled Sam's penis.

21:09I added that deliberately. Yeah, thank you. Got to keep your options open. I mean, it's fairly obvious. We've spoken about you being a GP, but you're an incredibly funny guy. And we've spoken about you becoming a comedian and the journey from comedian then to then getting on the chase. How long? When did you give up medicine and then go fully into comedy? And was that nerve-wracking for you? It was nerve-wracking and it took way too long. I didn't realise until I had my first success as a comedian that not many people out there were doing two jobs fully immersed. I was unusual that I was doing stand-up full-time and medicine full-time.

21:51But I turned up to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2006 with a show that got nominated for the best show. And for the first time, I had media attention. And the media attention was all, it's the Gay Bengali Doctor.

22:07And it was then that I realised that the Doctor thing was really unusual. Somebody could be at the Edinburgh Fringe doing a show while still committed to a career. And eventually, the realisation sets in that if you want to achieve what you want to achieve as a comedian, your best bet is to focus on it and to be to be more uh single-minded about the whole thing notoriously like comedy especially when you're kind of starting out is a fucking tough gig like it's endless like client circuits bad gigs good gigs like thinking you're getting somewhere but i think it's harder now than it is was when i started and the reason is there's not as many gigs as they're what they as they used to be so when i started in the golden era of time out magazine where you'd open it up in the comedy section you'd have gigs as far as the eye could see all over london and you'd ring them up and go can i do five minutes and there'd be so many gigs you could do and as a result if you died you could have another gig the next day or you didn't die and you're back on your feet again uh it's harder now if you have a really bad gig it might be two or three weeks before you can go to go again go get back on the bike also mentally that's tough though if you if you die a death and then you've got two weeks to wait to try and put it right and also if you're watching people smash it as well because obviously a lot of comedians come up together right so yeah sure you see the same people on the circuit as you're going around and um i used to speak to joel dom about this and he used to be like god it used to be fucking awful where like something you've fucked it and then someone's come on just after you and nailed on it and you're literally like in my first year i i was working as a junior doctor in king's lynn and it took me four hours to travel to a gig in south london where for five minutes i got absolutely nothing other than hate other than absolute hatred from the audience nothing silence what was your worst gig that was one of them and at the end harry hill was on no wasn't he a doctor yeah yeah medical school oh god so he literally came on went right you're We're about to be the actual funny doctor now.

24:10Here we go. Did none of you know that? Yeah, Harry Hill used to be a doctor as well. I don't know why I know that. I'm a fucking weird guy as well. Do you know still, out of like any of the ones that may have bombed, do you know what the joke was that you're like, I just hasn't fucking landed at all? No, it's never about one joke. No audience is that bad that they turn on you for one joke. If you die, you die because they hated every single one of your jokes. They hate everything. Even if you have it, I always think when it comes to comedy, when you see people, if they don't capture, it's like that kind of 333 rule, isn't it?

24:45If they don't capture an audience as soon as they come, it's very hard then to bring it back. Yeah, it is. Do you know what I mean? They decide they hate you immediately. I'm not going to laugh at you. It doesn't matter how funny it is. The whole is just done. And it can be sort of quite intuitively political why someone doesn't like you. Yeah. It could be your voice. You could be too posh for them. You could be too common for them. You might be the wrong race. You might be the wrong sexuality. You might be the wrong gender. I mean, a lot of people would have just decided they don't find women funny.

25:17And I do think that female comedians get it harder in terms of the expectation of a lot of bigots in the audience. But it could be any number of things. You could be a bit too young. The number of comedy gigs I do, because I'm on the chase, So I get a slightly older crowd that come and see me. And the number of times they look at the comedian on stage who's very young, and you can see them going, what have you got to say to me? Oh, no. I've had my own business for 35 years now. You're here to make me fucking laugh. Yeah, that must be the hardest thing. It's like when you're standing on stage, you've got people just sitting there going, make me laugh then.

25:54And instantly with that attitude and that mentality, they ain't going to fucking laugh. It's like they try not to laugh. I mean, when you used to, and even now, Do you do like crowd work? Do you do a lot of crowd work? I'm not a crowd work king. I haven't come to listen to them. Ah, I love that. Love that. Yeah, fair play to all crowd work kings. Very good. And, you know, it's a great way to compare a room. And I've got nothing against the crowd work kings. It's just not what I bring to the table. Yeah. And what they do a lot, I've noticed, there's a lot of comedians who do a lot of crowd work.

26:28They then clip it up and put it online. You've noticed. And they, well, well, because there's a lot of people who have made it big in your world who are primarily online comedians. So what they'll do is they'll do a gig and they'll do some crowd work and they'll clip up a tiny section of that. You'll get millions of views and they'll sell out stadiums. I mean, it happens a lot more in the States. But have you seen that sort of on the circuit a little bit? A bit. And I have no bitterness towards that. Because as far as I'm concerned, I never get jealous of anyone that's doing something I can't do.

26:59they're fulfilling a role in comedy that is not me and therefore there's no point in in making comparisons good luck to them they're they're they're plugging a hole a gap that i was never going to plug yeah i think with comedy as well like you know everyone just kind of shows you're funny you're not but so many people like what we find funny is very different you're very slap sticky like i really like observational comedy i like kind of quite dry comedy there's so many different elements to comedy. There's so many different types of comedian. Back kind of, you know, years ago, 20 years ago, I don't think there was as many kind of genres as comedy necessarily.

27:37You kind of had to be a bit more of an all-rounder, no? I think that's just too complicated and nuanced a comment for me to have an instant answer to. What a great reply. That's what we call a shutdown. You just died. You bombed. Tough crowd. You've got to give me time on that one. Paul, can I just ask you just quickly then, mate, in terms of making the jump from a comedian to the chase, like that's a huge jump as well. It's a sideways, it's not a jump, it's a sideways move. So these two things are totally separate from each other. All my life I've been into quizzes. It's a totally separate part of me.

28:19At medical school I was known as the quiz guy because I used to clean out the quiz machine in the games room every single day. I'd take£10 out, which doesn't sound like much now, but when you're a student in 1990, that's a good night out. Jackpot every day, yeah. For sure. And I was known as the quiz guy, and I'd win pub quizzes, and then real life takes over, and you have to work for a living, and you haven't got time to be interested in quizzes. and then out of nowhere in 2007 I was rung up to be asked to be in a team of comedians for a spin-off of University Challenge called University Challenge the Professionals and we got battered by the Ministry of Justice and I was so hurt by getting battered by the Ministry of Justice I kind of vowed that one day I'd get good at it and one thing led to another and I found out that all along there was a whole world out there, what I call Fight Club for Nerds, of sort of competitions and tournaments and stuff that people didn't know about unless you'd done the research to actually try and find out.

29:27Every month on the first Saturday, people used to meet in a social club somewhere in the United Kingdom and sit a written exam and then mark the written exam and then the points would go into a ranking system. Wow. Oh, so it's like a full big... Oh, yeah. Oh, wow. And these tournaments still go on now. But the difference is it's now enormous. Because ever since lockdown, lockdown changed the quiz world completely and invited people with imagination and skills to create different quiz worlds that didn't necessarily involve people being in the same place. And now there's so many quiz tournaments.

30:06You don't have to leave your room. now to take part and take part in contests against some of the best quizzes in the world and it's amazing it's a fascinating vocation mate like to the fact that you just knew the drummer of Coldplay just like like that like this is such a stupid question I'm sure but like how do you know that like do you spend so long on that particular one I've no idea I've I've obviously been on Coldplay's website. I mean, everyone knows who Chris Martin is. Yeah. But somewhere along the line, I've... So it's a memory. Look to the name. Rather than a revision thing, it's a memory.

30:47I haven't tried to learn as well. Yeah, the question is to be a good quizzer, because you can't prepare for a quiz, especially kind of general knowledge or whether it's what comes up. It's the retaining of information that somewhere along the line you've come across. and for whatever reason, subconsciously or consciously, you've remembered parts of that. I suppose it's hard. I suppose there has to be an element in my head of having that type of brain and having a bit of a gift to be able to retain information like that and pull it when needed and then to enhance and train your brain to be able to do that.

31:25I mean, the best quizzes in the world at the moment are real pros. They don't miss a thing. I happen to know that the Tour de France is going on. and I'm a sports fan. I haven't looked at a single headline on New Story about the Tour de France, but for me, I'm going to wait until it's all finished, then go onto the Wikipedia page and try and learn a few facts about what happened in the Tour de France. You've got to, you can choose to live your life constantly taking in facts, or you can choose to enjoy your life a little bit. And I've done that bit of my life where I was constantly taking in facts, and it got me to where I am now.

31:58And now I'd quite like to relax a bit. Do you ever take in a fact and then hope that it's going to come and be like, that one day, that will come up? Oh, yeah, all the time. Is there one that still hasn't? And you're like, I've learned this for this exact thing. Yeah, but I can't remember what it was. Unless we ask him the question and then go, that's it. A drummer from Coldplay. It was actually a couple of weeks ago and I can't remember what it was. But I'd been preparing for the arrival of this question for quite a while. Yeah, you're going to be so excited. You're going to be pumped when it happens.

32:26I find it so interesting, like the kind of quiz, because we have very different brains. Because the way people learn is very different. Visual learners. Of course. And logical. Memory's terrible. We learn things very different. I like to read things. I'm quite logical. I have to have everything written down. It's like a, even for example, you know, strictly, like I did strictly, I couldn't visually, if someone would show me something, compute what was happening. I couldn't count. I don't have the ability to clap to music or anything like that. So I had to, so, so for a lot of the time, yeah, no, no rhythm.

33:04So the way that I learned, which was mad for, for, um, uh, who was, who was my kind of pro was that I would have to time the seconds based on where my foot would go and write a whole long kind of pages and pages of three seconds, right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot, forward forward back and memorize that for me to then just go through the motion on the night of listing in my head it was like but then what that meant is because i couldn't feel the music if i missed one everything would fall apart because then i'm out of the secrets and out of the pattern that's my memory and how i kind of retain things which is why which was your the complete opposite if we ever do things he feels like and visually you can see something and repeat it i have to work out exactly how that works how, why we're doing it I'm not an intuitive person much more with you so that's why the quizzing thing I just find fascinating because I think there has to be an element of the way your brain learns that makes a good quizzer as opposed to someone like I can't imagine you, but then again Sam sorry, is Pete's touching me by the way, I just want to let everyone know that now knowledge, when Sam fixates on something Greek mythology this guy just knows everything about it because it's something you've read and read and read and revised and not for any other reason other than the fact that you love it so it's not your Achilles heel nice it isn't no honestly it baffles me something and at the minute like World War 2 is your kind of thing so he fixates on things and then you just people like yeah yeah yeah just double down but I would say your general knowledge is terrible I can't remember pretty shit I can't I can't remember anything other than things they care about.

34:50So like, so like he said, if I, if I hyper-focus on Greek mythology, apparently you like Greek mythology. I'm a fan. I'm not a massive fan, but I'm a fan. But here's the thing. I think this is very important to say. You need to have enough general knowledge to get by in whatever it is you're good at. And everything else is a bonus. Yeah. There's, there's no reason why people should have great, there's no, there's no evolutionary reason why people should have great general knowledge. Yeah. If you want to win a quiz show, by all means, help to have great general knowledge. I suppose it's kind of essential.

35:21But if you're just trying to get by in life, you don't need to know about Greek mythology. Know about Greek mythology because it brings you pleasure. Yeah. And you feel like a more rounded person for knowing about Greek mythology. Yeah. There's no other reason to know about Greek mythology. Got to know about your World War II, you know, in some capacity. Nice. So the chase, everyone knows the chase. Thank you. Got to know about your Stalingrad, man. Sam and I have done a number of kind of TV quizzes. We've both done The Wheel a couple of times. I've done The Weakest Link, Catchphrase, Pointless, all of them sort of things.

35:57Is The Chase, as it kind of happens, is there any kind of behind the scenes? Does it really happen how we watch it? Oh, very much so. Yeah. Very much so. And I have to say that, otherwise I'd be admitting to criminal fraud. Nice. Okay, excellent. Do you ever get annoyed when someone, you're like, fuck you, man, like I'm just not firing on all cylinders today? Yeah, all the time. We're human beings. I think that's the thing that people miss when they watch the show, is that we haven't given a guarantee that we're going to be at our best when we film an episode. We might be going through relationship trauma, work trauma, bad, poor health.

36:34We might have lost the previous day, and I'm in a really foul mood about losing the previous day. Are you really competitive? Yeah, very. We all are, actually. We hate losing. Even if the team absolutely deserved to win, we hate losing. it always hurts do you all go back and the lights go fucking bastard yeah do you have like a team talk at the end go I'll tell you what you fucked that one up didn't you they're all waiting outside the studio for him the thing about waiting outside the studio as well is hard because if you beat them you feel guilty and if you lose you want to congratulate them but only if there's four winners because if there's less than four it was somebody sat there or stood there looking so miserable with their life and you feel desperately sorry for them You can barely look in their eyes.

37:19Who's the best chaser? I'm too modest to say. Nice. Good answer. Yeah, great answer. Like it. Like it. Like it.

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39:18briefly just say you touched on sort of relationship stuff mate you've obviously been married for a few years now seven years seven years this december and um i believe the way i mean obviously we've already spoken about wedding rings so i feel like um it's only right to talk about yours a 20 pound wedding ring from top shot that's what it was we didn't want to spend money on things that we didn't consider worth spending money on in rome is it still do you still have it seven years later I think so somewhere incredible what a place what a place to get married or to propose though as well Rome yeah and really nailed it and it was a fluke because I had a bigger plan we were going to go to Rome and we were going to go to a chapel that had a painting by Caravaggio to get him in the mood and then I was going to to get him in the mood it's great little bit of advice for you for when you propose not happening any time like that soon.

40:12And then I wanted to take it. Just make it clear. And then I wanted to take it to the Piazza Navona, Rome's most famous square, where I was going to propose to him. But when he got there, there were armed police everywhere because it was Christmas holidays and they were on high terror alert. Right, yeah. The barriers are up. The painting kind of ruins the mood then after that, doesn't it? So in the end, I had to change my plans and go on this emergency improvised walk. And as it turned out, the walk took me to a bridge over the River Tiber where I got on one knee and proposed. And he said yes instantly, which was a massive surprise.

40:48Massive surprise. And, yeah, it was just nice to really nail something. Yeah. Get it right. That kind of moment of proposing to someone, how sure were you that he was going to say yes? I wasn't sure. Or is there still that element of doubt where you think, I wasn't. You were together for a while, though, weren't you? Three years at that point. but you just don't know we'd never really discussed it what happened was at the previous Christmas this was January the previous Christmas day I got battered and I had a drunken epiphany where I looked at my family and I saw Oliver chatting away to my autistic nephew and my neurotypical niece and he was so good at it I just thought why don't we make this official that's what I thought considering the things you might think when you're absolutely battered on Christmas Eve that's a lovely thought that is That's not bad.

41:39That's really lovely. And also, I always think that's the kind of nicest thing. The kind of thought out, you know, proposing, oh, I should do this or I should do that or should do that. Having like an epiphany like that and thinking, that's the guy or girl that I want to spend the rest of my life with and then going, fuck it, I'm going to do something. Let's pop to Topshop. I just think it's such a nice way of doing it. Having like that kind of epiphany rather than the kind of worry of proposing. It's the feeling in it. I now remember as well that I asked permission the most modern way. I sent his dad a message on Twitter.

42:13That's absurd. That you DMed his dad. I DMed his dad and I said, just to let you know, we're going to Rome shortly and I'm planning to propose to your son. And he replied, oh, that'll be nice. Let me know how it goes. Nice. I like that. Do you know, I dream to be that dad. Just so relaxed. It's all good. So your partner, Oliver, is a big quizzer as well? He's better than me at everything except sport. It's really annoying. Really? Is he actually? So your partner's a better quizzer than you? At the moment, it seems that way. It's very frustrating. He beats me about the same number of times as I beat him.

42:51Okay, all right. So I imagine that. It could be the first couple on the chase. Do you quiz together? Quite a lot, yeah. Imagine being in a pub quiz, and then he walks in. You just go, oh, fuck this. I'll be drunk. Fuck it. What's the point? What happens is people look at me walking in and they go, oh, he's going to win. And they underestimate who I've walked in with. Right. Because unless you've seen Ollie on Gogglebox, you don't necessarily know his background. And they start taking it seriously when Ollie brings out 20 pens. Like laying them out. Laying them out on the table. What would you say your specialist subject is?

43:30And what would you say his specialist subject is? is entertainment. And by entertainment, I mean everything. From art house cinema in the 1930s to 1960s jazz to Marvel Cinematic Universe and soap operas. Reality television? Even reality TV. Who is Pete Wicks' second girlfriend? We should definitely ask that'd be hilarious. We should video call him and be like, right, here we go, big guy. This is for you to earn it. And what about you? So if he's kind of the entertainment side, if you had to, obviously your general knowledge is impeccable but if you had to kind of pick a specialist kind of area for you what would you say this this is my thing um sport yeah but even then i struggle with keeping up with all sport now and that's one of the things that's changed in quizzes the syllabus has grown a lot in the last 10 to 15 years can i ask you a question not to put you on the spot at all but i'm going to Prepare yourself, Paul.

44:28If I were to ask you, who is the current number one ranked fencer in the world? Would you know the answer to that? No, because there isn't one answer to that. Fuck, he's done the only way. There's three swords. There's four Leap and Sabre. So it depends on which sword. Okay, fine. The Sabre. No idea. Do you know Ed? Do you know Ed even that? No, no. Do you? Not fucking clue. I just thought what's the most random... Barry Smith. This is the problem. See, we would have a real problem. If we had Christmas together, mate I would literally be in your ear the entire video what's this what's that I'd be asking you everything because I find it fascinating that you Paul's just making a mental note don't ever go to Christmas to Sam but mate there's a TikTok going around that you basically managed to remember a whole deck of cards like that's wild in itself well that was on Taskmaster and interestingly that's one of the very few things I managed to get right on Taskmaster so I really like Taskmaster and it's it's comedians doing that sort of stuff they would never have kind of people like you and I on it.

45:25But I would love to do that show. That's one of them shows that I always think I'd fucking love to do that. But it's quite a heavy, intense schedule, what we see. Because don't you film for like a whole week? Oh, God, I can't even remember. It's quite a long one. You do about 10 tasks a day. Yeah, it's wild. And it's stretched over about two to three months. Oh, yeah. You don't know what episode they're going to end up being put into. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's really tough. But some people are brilliant at it. I'm not one of those people. I'm very much in the list of shame of people that you thought were going to be clever and end up being not remotely clever.

46:01But I think that's the thing is, you know, we talk about intelligence and stuff, don't we? Like people that are kind of really well educated and kind of paper clever are actually, well, thick as shit. And vice versa, you get a lot of people that kind of, you know, the school of life and all that sort of stuff. Intelligence is very hard. I mean, I don't think I've ever met anyone that's not clever at something. so this Greek mythology so this idea of putting people on a pedestal because they're considered to be clever I can't, I don't know what's happening when my car breaks down I ring up the AA and this absolute genius who isn't well known on telly or lucky enough to get a TV show called Quick Fit Fitter of the Year looks at the engine and goes oh you've got this wrong, this wrong sorts it out, that is a genius as far as I'm concerned that guy is a genius do you think we place too much stock then in IQ oh god yeah what is IQ it's nothing you're good words numbers and shapes big deal yeah I mean maths doesn't like geometry and stuff I don't think I've ever used in my life put it to some practical use and then you'll have my admiration I love that we recently did a GCSE maths paper in here Sam and I it's been what 22 years since I had to do that and it was one of the only GCSE as I was allowed to say.

47:22Because I said, look, I think, I don't think it was that difficult. I did quite well in the kind of maths, but it's because you're kind of zoned in on revising and just doing that kind of maths thing. But really, what have we kind of taken from there 22 years later? And I'll be honest with you, we were both fucking terrible. Paul, the only question I got right, I guessed. It was a fucking good guess, but I guessed it. Well, guessing is a skill. But this is kind of the difference, again, between Sam and I, I sat there and really tried to work out all the fucking work and everything else. And, you know, I didn't do that bad.

47:55Sam guessed the answers and fucking did better than me. I know what I'm good at and I know what I'm not good at. He just went, blah. Seven. That's what I did in my actual GCSE. I walked out of my A-levels. Well, listen, talking of kind of quizzing, we thought we'd have a little go kind of now. And you're going to be the quiz master. Okay. All right, Paul, what have you got for us, mate? So here we go. Round one. Pete and Sam, could you survive as a girl? Question one. You return an item back to the store you bought it from. What does this mean? A, you now have free money to spend at the store.

48:27B, you got your money back. C, you lost money. A. A. Clearly could survive as a girl. Yes! Yeah. Instant fast answers. That's what we like to see. No passes there. Yeah. Question two. What happens if you sneeze after putting on mascara? A, it makes your eyelashes fall off. B, it smears on your face. C, your top and bottom lashes stick together. Your top and bottom lashes stick together. It's actually B. No, I thought it was going to be a really rogue one. I don't even think I understand this next question. You bought a five pound coffee and paid with cash. How much money did you spend? Zero. Is it A, three pounds because you round down?

49:11B, zero. C, five pounds. I'm going to say A. Too late. You got it right. It's free. That's true. Did I just get that? Sam's a better girl. No way. That's mad. All right. One last one, Paul. You feel sad because you randomly realise you are ugly and want to run into your bed and cry. Why? A, you have a stomachache. B, you're just finding out that you're ugly. C, you're in your luteal phase. You're in your luteal phase, which is pre-period phase, I believe. Yeah. I would have said, hey, you've got a stomach ache. But the fact that you know what a luteal phase is. Luteal phase is a pre-period. Suggests to me that at this point, if that's correct.

50:01That's very good. Thank you, sir. Is it correct? You are in your luteal phase, which is the sort of second half of the menstrual cycle. The bleeding of the... I'm quite well versed in a bleeding ovary. Well, you're a dark horse, aren't you? Well, at that point, I think after that, I think we can safely say that round one goes to Sam and he would survive better as a girl. There is a round two, which is an actual quiz round. Oh, mate. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Paul, no. Do you want to have a quick go? Okay, can I just say something to you, Paul, quickly? Go on. Pete takes these things really seriously.

50:36So, like, that was obviously a bit of a joke. If this is legit, then let's do it, but no punching. A couple of ground rules for Pete. No punching Sam. Okay. And no anger. Okay. No punching. No anger. All right. All right. We'll do three questions. Three questions. And are we going like first? Like beep or? I think no. Are they all multiple choice? Yeah. They're all multiple choice. So I think we'll alternately go first. Okay. Nice. To truly stay relevant, and you'll know this, influencers launch brands. Which bizarre celebrity brand extension actually existed? Hulk Hogan's microwavable cheeseburgers, Sylvester Stallone's high-protein pudding, or Heidi Klum's flavoured fruit foam?

51:27I'm going to say B, Sylvester Stallone's protein pudding. It makes the most sense. I'm not entirely sure what Heidi Klum's got to do with fruit flavoured foam, but that could be why that is actually an option. And I feel like Hulk Hogan perhaps wouldn't. He thought of himself as a bit of a role model to the younger generation when he was a wrestler. A cheeseburger in a microwave doesn't scream athlete. See, I'm going to go A. We've got a difference of answers. But I hear Pete's common sense answer. I'm going to go A because obviously you've got the George Foreman grill. Nice. And I'm like, okay, maybe Hulk Hogan, he's true American.

52:09Americans love cheeseburgers. He's all about the USA. and I think maybe he's trying to do one of those things. I'm going to go A, Hulk Hogan, lock it in, sir. The answer is Sylvester Stallone's high-protein pudding. Thank you. Right. Okay. That's good. But that's good common sense, that is. See, logically just trying to get through that ridiculous question. I like your logic on Hulk Hogan wouldn't do anything to upset kids. It's fair to say Hulk Hogan has led an exemplary career and never embarrassed himself in any way whatsoever. All right. Okay. So 1-0. 1-0. Question two. King Henry VIII is infamous for his six wives.

52:46But historically, which of his queens managed to survive him the longest after their marriage ended? Is it A, Anne of Cleves, B, Catherine of Aragon, C, Catherine Parr? Catherine Parr. Sorry, can you give me the first two again? Who was A? Anne of Cleves and Catherine of Aragon. I'm trying to beheaded dead. Yeah, I can't remember. I can't remember what it is. I can't remember the rhyme I'm going to go Catherine Parr because I know Anne Boleyn got taken out pretty quick Catherine Aragon wasn't she the Spanish princess French no? Was she French? I can't remember Why are you giving me an eerie away Fucking hell Paul Jesus Christ you've got a face of thunder Do you know what I'm going to go with a road choice then you're going to go Catherine Parr I'm because I have no idea so I'm just going to have to guess this because I can't remember but I'm going to go Anne of Cleves.

53:39I mean, I am guessing as well, I think. Well, let me tell you. Catherine of Aragon was Spanish. Nice. She was divorced. First wife, divorced, led into the foundation of the Church of England. Catherine Parr was his sixth wife, and she survived him. Henry VIII died, and Catherine Parr survived him. Yes. Unfortunately. Oh, don't do this. Anne of Cleves, his fourth wife, also survived him because he divorced her and survived him for longer. No way! That is mad! Well, I went down the route of Sam of guess it. And it seems to work a treat. Do you know what's crazy? I bet the team didn't even know that.

54:24I bet they would just say, just bang some names in. What a touch. Well, listen. What I like about that is you basically won because Anne of Cleves is a shorter name than Catherine of Aragon and easier to remember and say. That's effectively what it was. I couldn't remember them first of all. I couldn't trust. And all I heard was Anne. And I thought, yep, we'll go with that one. And everyone knew that Anne Boleyn was fucked. That is great quiz technique. Well, look, I think it's safe to say if we were going to do three questions, that's two nil. So I've won round two. You won round one, all right?

54:54So that means we're even. Now, the card trick, I don't think it's a trick, it's memory, you can't call it a card trick, where you remembered 52 cards. after kind of looking at them, you remember the order of them. Now, I appreciate that that, how long did you have with those cards? I think it was about half an hour, but I can't really remember. About half an hour. Regardless, I mean, I could have a year with them and still not be able to do it. As a kind of decider, you and I have 10 seconds. 10 seconds? To remember as many cards as possible. That is mad. Okay, fine. All right, where's the deck of cards?

55:36Sam, next to you. Right. So with this, Paul, is there an art when, you know, to be able to remember a deck of cards? If you have half an hour, what is the thought process to be able to kind of do that? Is there like a technique? Yes, and I'm not sure I've ever even come close to mastering it. The deck of cards in Taskmaster was a weird, it had novelty cards and all sorts of pictures of Alex Horne or 17 of clubs or there's all sorts of things. and that makes it easy for me because they're unusual. Visual. They're unusual. So that gives you a sort of slight hook to try and remember it. I work on unusual words and numbers and that's kind of how my brain works rather than pictorial.

56:19So I've seen people kind of do it before where they create a story like in their head. The Picture Palace or whatever it's called. Yeah, is that what they call it? Memory Palace. Seven pigeons went and ate dinner, you know, on the nine of, do you know what I mean? which I just think is, that would blow my mind even more. Like, I think I would struggle. We're going to make this slightly easier, so we're not completely crap. You just have to get the numbers. It doesn't matter about the suit. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah? We'll just do that. Fine. Okay, so you've shuffled them. I mean, I've already lost this, but yes.

56:49You've shuffled them, yeah? So what you're going to do is I'm going to pass them to you. Yeah. You're going to go from the back, and you have 10 seconds to try and remember, and then you have to give it back. All right. All right? Galena, are you on timing? I'll be honest with you. I feel like I'm going to spend 10 seconds looking at the first card. This is my worst nightmare. But also, this is a very fucking... You live a very sheltered life. All right, so you're going to go from that side. Yeah. Ready? Galena, say when. Three, two, one, ten.

57:29Done. So, Sam. Yeah. First card. Eight. Correct. Second card. Four. Correct. Third card. Nine. Correct. Five. Correct. Ten. Correct. King. Correct. Ace. Correct. Five. Oh, six. To be fair, Sam. Okay. Slightly nervous now. Mate. Paul's clapping me. Paul's goddamn clapping me. Only seven cards. Seven. That's not bad. Do you want to shuffle for me? Yeah. Right, so I'm going to go from the bottom and you tell me when. Three, two, one. Now Paul, while he's doing that, I just want to say... Oh, probably not at that speed. Sorry, I apologize. Right, here we go. Three, two, one. Peter, first card if you wouldn't mind, Squire.

58:31Four. Four. Second card, please, sir. And there we go. Five. Five. Third card for Peter would be? Six. Yes, sir. Fourth card. Five. Yes, sir. Fifth card, please, Peter. Six. Yes, sir. Sixth card, please, Peter. Jack. Yes, sir. Oh, it's close. Seventh card, please, Peter. Seven. Queen. Seven was after Queen Seven was after Queen Mr Queen What was after seven? Six Yes What was after six? King No Ace That is unlucky That's unlucky that is So I think I think you win there Sam Do I actually win? No way Yeah you do Do you know what What I did there Is I just knew I went right Fuck all the rest I was like I'm going to pick like seven And just try and memorise those seven because there's no point like trying to skim through all of them.

59:31I went in too hard there. I should have, really, technically, I could have just tried to remember eight cards and fucking thrown them west to west. Best not to overanalyse a very sort of... Yeah. Whimsical and randomly introduced game. Whimsical, but as a very competitive person, I'm very angry about that. Do you know what I love as well? Paul, as the guest, has sat there and said nothing for that entire thing. We just had a lovely time. You just watched me and Pete do it. That is how I operate. If I'm watching a competition, I've got to go, well, the rules are strict. You can't disturb them while learning it.

1:00:06We can't let you go, by the way, without talking about your book, mate. We were talking about it a little bit off mic. Firstly, one of the best book titles in the world. It's all right, isn't it? Once in a lifetime. Did you come up with that? I wish I'd come up with it. Did you not? I'd be boasting every single day of my life. It's fucking brilliant. It's a friend of mine. Oh, that's such a good... That's the joy of Facebook. The front cover we've got here, this is you as a child? Yes. Otherwise it would be weird if it wasn't, wouldn't it? This is a random kid! Can you imagine if I put a random kid on the phone?

1:00:40It would be slightly weird. It's actually quite... I don't think I was that cool as a kid. Yeah, that is pretty cool. I'm pretty sure I was a fat little mess. Those are years four to five for me. So talk to us about the book. Is it like a full-on autobiography? It's very full on. Yeah. I mean, that's one thing that surprised quite a few people when they read it, is there's a lot of horror. It's not a misery memoir, but it's an honest memoir in the sense that it's really the story of how quite a nerdy, quiet, shy, secretly gay, not especially popular, bright kid from a conservative Asian background I managed to end up in entertainment.

1:01:26And after spending his first 23 years of his adult life single, because I just didn't meet anybody who wanted to go out with me, I sort of managed to climb and find somebody that I'm spending the rest of my life with touch wood. So it's a story of, and it's quite intense at times, because I used to be a gambling addict. there's very frank stories about going on the gay scene in the 80s and 90s failing exams at medical school and being kicked out of medical school and having to work my way back in my life as a junior doctor my life as a stand-up comedian my life as a professional quizzer how I stumbled into the world of professional quizzing and it all sort of comes together at the end with a series of bittersweet events that happened in 2019 including getting married, winning the British quiz championships and being diagnosed with Parkinson's and doing Taskmaster all in the same 12-month period.

1:02:26Wow. It's a busy year, that, isn't it? It is a busy year. So what kind of made you want to write a book that gives so much of yourself? I mean, because, you know, despite being in the public eye and, you know, being a household name, people kind of know you for that. Your kind of background and some of these deeply personal things that you're sharing what kind of made you think this is the time to do it and and why did you want to do that partly because that's what i do in my stand-up anyway okay it's very autobiographical but this was a lockdown thing i got married in december 2019 in march i suddenly found myself with nothing to do uh much like most of the country and i thought to myself shall i try and start to write a memoir and I got I started it and I wrote about two or three chapters and then lockdown finished and I lost the momentum but luckily for me a couple of years later a publishing company said we're really interested in your life story and they came in for me and I said well funny you should say that I've got a couple of chapters written already.

1:03:32He's one I made earlier. Yeah he's yeah. I'm looking at the back of this one of the passages from the book I believe is is that night i'd survived my life flashing before me with my dignity intact do you remember that story oh yeah that's my wedding shut the fuck up that could have been anything that was your wedding oh it was so close to being a disaster and what was the dignity what was what would have taken the dignity away uh drunk i've spent my whole life as a bad drunk i not a fun person to be around if I've had the wrong number of drinks welcome to the club and I think you instinctively understand I'm telling the truth here what changes is if you're happy when you're a bad drunk you're reflecting an unhappiness in your life and the things that make you unhappy all of a sudden they come to the forefront and you start lashing out in a fairly random emotions lashing out in a fairly random fashion whereas my wedding day came perilously close to being absolutely disastrous and the last chapter is the story of how I stopped it from being a disaster how I held it together and didn't have the drunken traumatic experience that I thought was my destiny given how I'd lived my life thus far.

1:04:52Mate do you know what I think a lovely way to close this pod out actually is by reading the second bit uh which i think shows your life in full yes it's chaotic life there's always been a gamble but what again i think that's beautiful i think that rounds off very nicely for you sir what's very kind of you to say was those are very much my words yeah there's one thing i've got to say about a memoir it is a self-edited version yeah you can really decide what you edit anything you want in there so we do the same with the pod thank you so much brother it's been a real real pleasure having you on the pod Paul thank you so much for being here absolutely love you what a pleasure Paul Sinner everybody legend this has been a Staying Relevant production

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1:06:47Hello, Relevanters. we wanted to let you know that you can hear exclusive bonus episodes of Staying Relevant every month on Amazon Music. We are going to be playing Snog Marry Avoid one of our favourite games all with fictional characters. So prepare yourself for Sam to snog Woody from Toy Story and for me to marry Pocahontas. And possibly the genie from Aladdin. We don't know yet. We're sort of like undecided on that one. That's an avoid for me that one genie. I don't know. I quite like it. Listen to monthly bonus episodes exclusively on Amazon Music and enjoy ad-free listening on Amazon Music for all episodes of Staying Relevant with your Prime membership.