In short
Max Fosh discusses how he built his YouTube/comedy career through “loophole” stunts and viral hooks, while avoiding “punching down” or making people the victim. He explains how he manages the “posh” label, how titles create intrigue, and how his team develops set-piece ideas. He also talks about legal/ethical boundaries (lawyer check-ins), including a “richest man in the world” stunt that lasted seven minutes before being shut down, and a department-store impersonation that led to keeping expensive items. He contrasts creative goals with metrics, and describes a long-running “private investigator follows me” concept.
Guest
Romesh Ranganathan, a British comedian and host of the Romesh Ranganathan Show.
Guest background
Known for stand-up and TV/radio work; hosts interviews with comedians and public figures.
Key claims by Max Fosh
YouTube success is driven by emotional reaction and strong titles; “posh on posh” interviews helped him move beyond being only described as “posh.” Viral moments include “I don’t know my fruits” (queer TikTok sound), “Welcome to Luton” at Gatwick (100m tarpaulin sign), and “Maximus Bucharest” at London Fashion Week. He has a four-person full-time team and weekly idea meetings.
Notable examples
Royal Agricultural University “posh on posh violence” street interviews; selling one share to become “richest man” (Unlimited Money Limited); “Earl of Luton” royal impersonation in a New York department store; “Popemobile” concept development; “private investigator” dossier video.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOThe Posh Debate Begins
0:00 to 1:13
Exploring the changing perception of being posh in society.
“I'm not saying you've got it hard, by the way, before anybody comes at me.”
Navigating Posh Identity
2:24 to 3:44
Max discusses his journey and challenges with his posh identity.
“I was slightly doing takedowns and stuff like that.”
Creating Unique Content
3:44 to 4:37
Max shares how he transitioned from street interviews to diverse content.
“It's a weird thing because when you, say for example, when you're starting as a stand-up, you kind of want to address the thing that everybody's thinking about you.”
Creating Unique Content
5:54 to 6:24
Max shares how he transitioned from street interviews to diverse content.
The Rise of 'I Don't Know My Fruits'
6:24 to 7:30
Max explains the viral moment that defined him and his subsequent identity.
“Well, you know, that's very kind of you to say, Max, but you know, we're in very different positions.”
Welcome to Luton
7:30 to 8:04
Max shares the story behind his famous 'Welcome to Luton' sign stunt.
“Sure, but people still say to me, you went travelling with your mother and that happened in 2015.”
Challenges in Broadcasting
8:04 to 9:21
Max discusses his attempts to break into traditional broadcasting.
“He's incredibly militant about things like that.”
Max Fosh's Journey into Broadcasting
14:00 to 18:08
Learn about Max Fosh's unconventional path to becoming a content creator.
“And he was trying to say, oh, this could be really dangerous.”
Going Viral: The Absurdity of Fashion Week
18:08 to 21:04
Discover how Max Fosh went viral by sneaking into London Fashion Week.
“Then a couple of years of nothing happening.”
The Art of Titling Videos
21:04 to 22:36
Understand the importance of titling and intrigue in video content.
“And that's not necessarily true, but it was on the news.”
Show all 35 chapters
Creative Video Ideas and Risks
22:36 to 25:10
Explore the evolution of Max's video ideas and the risks involved.
“I'm a big fan of the child catcher though, so it wouldn't bother me.”
Creative Video Ideas and Risks
26:12 to 26:36
Explore the evolution of Max's video ideas and the risks involved.
“is I think a lot of people that do the sort of thing you do, they get something that goes really big and then they spend the rest of their careers, if you like, trying to emulate the success of that thing.”
Investigating Personal Privacy
26:36 to 28:00
Hear about Max's experience with a private investigator and its implications.
“So I was interested to know what it would feel like.”
The Challenge of Public Exposure
28:00 to 29:09
Learn about the pressures of public visibility and privacy for creators.
“first of all the thing I would say is you must be pretty confident.”
Emotional Responses in Viral Content
29:10 to 29:59
Discover what makes content go viral and the psychology behind it.
Influences from Comedy and Creative Freedom
30:00 to 30:59
Explore the impact of comedy on content creation and personal influences.
“But I'm a big, I've got to talk about the people who, the world's crossing.”
The Creative Process Behind Video Ideas
31:00 to 32:29
Understand how video concepts are developed and the creative team's role.
“I think it's just, I see, I think people are very binary and they're talking about like, oh, the internet is, you know, social media is taking over TV.”
The Role of Legal Advice in Content Creation
32:30 to 34:31
Learn about the importance of legal guidance when producing content.
“Well, a couple of comments from Max Foch fans going, why don't you come up with your own ideas?”
Experiences with High-End Shopping and Pranks
34:32 to 35:35
Hear a story about a comedic prank involving luxury shopping.
“When I arrived, there was a line of personal shoppers.”
Creative Ventures and Risk Management
35:36 to 38:02
Discover the balance between ambitious content ideas and their feasibility.
“and then go back in a couple of days and return the items.”
Behind the Scenes of Video Production
38:03 to 38:36
Gain insights into the structured process of producing engaging videos.
Pope Mobile Project Proposal Discussion
38:37 to 40:09
Explore a humorous idea for a project involving the Popemobile.
“There are, so I have four full-time members of staff, two producers, like head of content and editors.”
Introductory Chat
42:00 to 42:25
Discussing ideas for a cooking show and creative advice.
“People say I should start my own cooking show.”
Creative Ideas for Cooking Content
42:25 to 45:02
Exploring unique and humorous concepts for a cooking show.
“There's a lot of wine content and he reviewed Buzzballs.”
The Drive for Success in Comedy
45:02 to 47:40
Romesh and Max discuss the pressures and expectations of success in comedy.
“So what is your, how many subs are you on now?”
YouTube vs. Stand-Up Comedy
47:40 to 50:00
Max shares his experiences and thoughts on content creation's legitimacy compared to traditional stand-up.
“I mean, it's probably, it's very similar with me, right?”
YouTube vs. Stand-Up Comedy
50:48 to 52:06
Max shares his experiences and thoughts on content creation's legitimacy compared to traditional stand-up.
“But choosing a snack you and your kids can both get behind doesn't have to be.”
Television Opportunities and Collaborations
52:13 to 56:00
Discussing Max's aspirations in television and experiences on shows.
“I mean, listen, you'd be great on Strictly.”
Romesh and Max's Filming Experience
56:00 to 58:23
Romesh and Max discuss the differences in filming styles and experiences.
“Well, that's one of the things that I find the most interesting.”
The Jacket Incident
58:23 to 1:00:24
Max shares a humorous story about wearing Romesh's jacket during filming.
“Romesh will immediately realise, but I need to make sure I do this without any of the production team seeing this.”
The Nature of Fame
1:00:24 to 1:02:54
The duo explores how public perception shapes their identities and careers.
“That when you're doing these things, actually, I'm not watching that go.”
Misquoted Game Segment
1:02:54 to 1:08:05
Max plays a game where he identifies whether quotes are his or not.
“And what happens is that you get in a group chat with the people that you see every single day and you are on top of each other, sometimes snogging them.”
Comedy Career Insights
1:08:05 to 1:10:01
Max discusses his comedy career and the challenges of touring.
“They did a very performance of the show.”
Max Fosh's Comedy Tour Experience
1:10:01 to 1:13:20
Max shares insights about the grueling nature of his comedy tour and the challenges faced.
“Are you happy with the content you've got?”
Exclusive Revelation: Men's True Nation
1:13:20 to 1:17:05
Max reveals his unique protein powder company aimed at subverting the Manosphere.
“For the integrity of the bit, this might be very present to me, could you not post about what I'm about to say?”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Posh isn't fashionable at the moment. No, it's not. We're not having a good time. Like posh white guys. I'm not saying you've got it hard, by the way, before anybody comes at me. But being posh and white is not as good as it used to be, is it? That's a fair comment, isn't it? Yeah, I think it's fair to say it's not as good as it used to be. It used to be fucking great. It used to be the best. It used to be absolutely... You must think about your ancestors that you lucky fucks. Well, there was a period of time, wasn't there? because like if if it was you know the world war era the young posh guys were always the officers they were the first one out of the trenches so that's a really bad time and they were like 19 then it got really good for a really long time and I like you know as you say please I don't want to be it's still really good it's still it's objectively still great yeah but it was better yeah I mean if you say that then I support it well no because I'll get I can't say it anymore because if I say that I get called like a sellout Uncle Tom Coconut do you know what I mean so it's not it's not actually easy for me to say it either hello I'm Max Fosh and I'm going to be on the Romesh Ranganathan show
1:26oh shut up Romesh Um, okay. Max Fosh. Hi. Thank you for coming on to the podcast. I'm going to do your intro now. Please do. Um, any issues, let me know. Yeah. My guest today is a YouTuber and comedian. Yeah, I mean, the branding's... Yeah, okay, that's fine. Yeah, that's fine. After presenting a community radio show and creating his own content as a university student, he first launched his YouTube channel in 2017. Yeah. Okay. Since then, he has amassed over 5 million followers and over 1.5 billion views. Yeah. He was a man behind the Welcome to Luton sign at Gatwick Airport, ran to be London mayor in 2021, and for seven minutes became the richest man in the world.
2:06All good. Now he's doing its job. Great. Now he's in the new show. Would you rather not just chat GBT? We read the Tatler article. Would you rather decide to survive on Amazon Prime? It's a wonderful, fearless and truly debonair gent. Max Fosch, everybody. how conscious were you of like you're how old are you 31 31 31 so when you were coming up yeah were you was that something you were aware of did you think about that at all yeah i mean i i when i started making content i was doing like street interviews lights out this is like in like 2017 2018 and i did a video where i went to the royal agricultural university sire ancestor yeah which is arguably one of the poshest places in the UK and interviewed their students and they were all quite pissed and like it was kind of like posh on posh violence.
2:55I was slightly doing takedowns and stuff like that. And I posted that video and it just flew. And I then, because a lot of the comments were calling me posh, I was like, I understand that. So how do you kind of get ahead of it? But then after a period of time, I wanted to make sure that it wasn't just the only adjective that was being used to describe me. Yeah. But by being the person who was kind of like holding up the mirror to the absurdity of poshness and posh people it kind of got me as like oh oh he's all right and weirdly the posh people that i interviewed they loved it it was like this weird kind of like stockholm syndrome be like oh i will say the most i will say the most outrageous and out-of-pocket thing for you right now because i want to be involved in the video and i was like why are you why are you doing that guys yeah um so at the beginning i was i was very very conscious of it but then after about two or three years i I need to have something else to say.
3:47It's a weird thing because when you, say for example, when you're starting as a stand-up, you kind of want to address the thing that everybody's thinking about you. So that's why so many comedians are like, I know what you're thinking, blah, blah, blah, let themselves go or whatever. So for you, it's that thing, and it's the same thing for me being an Asian comic actually, and not so much now, once you get a bit of profile, that sort of becomes less of an issue. but it's a thing of addressing your point of difference I guess do you know what I mean and then what happens is you walk in that line of it being all you talk about versus not acknowledging it at all and that's quite a difficult thing to trade isn't it yeah I think I think what the beauty of YouTube is that you you have the opportunity to completely ultimately the story is what people are coming for and so I worked very very hard to make sure that that wasn't the only thing I talked about and as you said I didn't really do stand up for like two or three years until I started making videos so i'd already built up the audience um but yeah you're right ultimately it was something that i had at the beginning because everyone was just saying which is all the only thing that i could that were being commented and then from then it was just kind of like let's let's just move away from that yeah we've had yet we know for adults with crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms every choice matters trimphaya offers self-injection or intravenous infusion from the start.
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5:38Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or need a vaccine. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Trimphia today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit trimphiaradio.com. Hey Chicago, class it up with Crocs. You know back to school is coming in fast, so why wait to find your new fave footwear step into a local croc store and step into your new look try it style it make it yours because the right pair doesn't just show up it shows off first day fits handled walk out ready for whatever's next visit your nearest croc store today now i'm a massive fan i think you are gonna be you're already massive but i think you've got an amazing future ahead of you.
6:30It's great to talk to you. Well, you know, that's very kind of you to say, Max, but you know, we're in very different positions. Your best years are ahead of you. Whereas what I'm on a decline now. And it's just, do you think you've reached up the rollercoaster? I think it's creatively. Yeah, I think definitely in terms of in terms of my integrity and the quality of what I'm producing. I think it's just halting the decline. I'm increasingly out of touch. Monetarily, I think you're still because monetarily, I'm smashing it. Listen, it's fucking going great I genuinely I saw the size of a Winnebago when we did a TV show together and I was like wow I genuinely don't think I could make it more if I had a printer but but creatively you know I'm bereft whereas you I feel like you've got your most exciting stuff ahead of you which is really it's really cool I genuinely think your future's gonna be amazing I mean you say that but the two things that you read out for references to like you know what was in the intro which is therefore like what people seem to know me from are two things I did four and five years ago now.
7:32Sure, but people still say to me, you went travelling with your mother and that happened in 2015. Did you start the travelling with parent format? Very contentious topic, actually. Because Jack Whitehall will say it's him. One of the good guys. I think there's a couple of other comics that have done it. So I don't... And Adam, actually, I think Adam Buxton might have been the original to film with his dad. So I think we have to give the flowers to Adam Buxton. Always. And if you don't, he'll come for you in his podcast. He's incredibly militant about things like that. Now, is it true you like pasta?
8:08Love pasta. Is that your favourite carb? Yes, my favourite carb. Oh, actually, no. Yes, it's my favourite carb. What were you about to say? I was going to say chips. Right. But that's just wrong. That's an inaccurate statement. Well, no, it wouldn't be wrong. If that was your favourite, nobody can tell you that's wrong. They can disagree with you. yeah well that's really great to hear because we've got you a gift have you got me pasta? no but it's pasta related yeah okay thank you your initial reactions made me slightly well because on this show you do the gift bit and like when I've been listening 50 % of them I'm sat there and being like wow that's genuinely amazing and then 50 % of them are like oh that's a last minute jobby none of it's last minute I would say none of it's last minute bad ideas yeah I'll accept that yeah This is, these are pasta shaped pasta cooking tools.
9:01One of the good ideas. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that's a spaghetti pasta thingamidoo. That is. Right. That. Okay. Okay. That's, I think they've attempted to make, I think this is orchietti or this is. Orchietti is it? Something. And this is meant to be ravioli. Is this in a ravioli ashtray? So no, that is, no, that is a spoon rest. Good Yeah And this Pac-Man Lemon squeezer Did you call me Pac-Man? No I said this Oh right okay I was going to say I know we know each other But that is Right on the edges of acceptable
9:50Right
10:02I'm only going to get saved if people are watching this on video. Please go back and change to video. If anybody's just listening,
10:16the Oricchietti thing looks like a Pac-Man. and so do I according to Max Swash you make me feel comfortable putting in a nice chair but this is great thank you so much it also works as a backscatcher no really good thank you so much I do love pasta you can keep that or leave it or whatever no no I love this good I'm glad how much cooking do you actually do? I do quite a lot I'm a box meal kind of guy I know I'm trying to say it without saying one of the brands you can say a brand on that A Gusto guy. Yeah. Okay. Right. Oh, you know, but now they're going to, I hope, don't. What was wrong? Free marketing, innit?
10:54Oh, I see. Yeah. But listen, if it makes you feel any better, my mum talked about Lidl for 50 minutes on this podcast. Yeah. And they've sent us fuck all. So yeah, I like, I do like my cooking and I get like ready boxes that you make at home. So it's like you're doing home cooking. Yeah. This is boring. Yeah. And you can rest, it's not boring. You can rest a spoon on that. Rest a spoon on my, on my. That's exciting. Ravioli. Yeah. Can we just talk a little bit about how you first made your name? Because one of the things that I think is exciting about you is you've moved the needle a little bit, I think, in terms of the way you've come up and the way that you've made your name is by doing stuff that's genuinely different.
11:32And that quite rarely happens. So can you just tell us a little bit about how that all happened? Yeah, so I kind of started doing student interviews on nights out and that wasn't particularly new. And then I moved to London and wasn't really sure what I was going to do. When did the pomegranate fruit thing happen? That happened in 2022. That was an old video that had been out for years and years. So this is you going up to a... I was on a night out and a woman had a glass and she had a grapefruit in her glass. And I was like, oh, is that a pomegranate? She was like, no, no, darling, try again, give it another go.
12:07I was like, oh, it's a grapefruit. And I just had a throwaway line of, I don't know my fruits. and we had this video that was already up on the YouTube channel and TikTok was thriving. We cut down all of my old stuff and we're just throwing things on there with no creative integrity whatsoever. And I remember my editor showed me that clip and I was like, there's no joke in that at all, but let's just do it, let's put it up. And very slowly, initially after a day, it was doing fine and then the queer community found it and they're like I don't know my fruits they were making it as a sound underneath kind of queer TikTok which then caused it to really kind of explode and then it just became a sound that you have on TikTok there's no there's no rationale or meaning behind why it did well so weird but it it was just it was everywhere and so sometimes I'll be at the pub and someone's like do it do it basically do the roar and I would go I don't know my fruits yay
13:17I mean that's I mean you'll probably get this as well you very much become you're that guy that did X yeah and so it was the you're the I don't know my fruits guy then I did stuff that I was slightly more proud of which became known as that guy for where I wrote welcome to Luton next to Gatwick airport yeah so I rented a field from a farmer that was right next to the the runway got massive 100 meter tarpaulin sign just wrote welcome to Luton so as people landed they thought they were landing at the wrong airport very briefly and that just went bananas it made the news it was the most viewed news story on the BBC for two days just like above all everything else I guess the nation was gripped by whimsy which was nice to see Jeremy Vine sometimes I was always going to say Jeremy Carr didn't want to get those two mixed up Jeremy Vine He's obviously got that Channel 5 show where he kind of debates things, and his whole job is to debate and just to be kind of different opinions.
14:16And he was trying to say, oh, this could be really dangerous. People could get really unwell if they suddenly think that the plane is landing at the wrong place, and they could get very unwell. And the entire panel, whose job it is to argue, just went, oh, shut up. No, it's fine. It's a bit of fun. It's a bit of fun. So, yeah, and so since from then, it's just been a case of putting, the way I describe it to people is like finding loopholes in life and exploiting them in silly ways. Because you tried the traditional routes, didn't you, into broadcast? I tried to get a radio job, yeah. Yeah, and what happened?
14:53Well, I did four years of hospital community radio up in Newcastle. Yeah, and you won an award. I won Best Newcomer at the HBA Awards, a ceremony in Bolton, big time. And I'd had a couple of demos for BBC North East and Metro North East. And looking back now, obviously I didn't get the job because welcome back to BBC Radio Newcastle. We got Max here. Hello. Good to see you. Of course, I didn't get a regional. John, what did you think of the accent? It was pretty good. Yeah, pretty good. I once had a Geordie taxi driver who gave me a free cab because he couldn't believe my name was Maximilian. He was like, Max, what's that?
15:31It's like Maximilian. He's like, no way. like Max and then a million. I was like, yeah. It's like, this one's on me, bro. I was like, great. Thank you so much. Probably my uncle. Yeah, yeah. Probably yours. I think he thought my name was Max hyphen a million. Anyway, so try the traditional route, didn't get a job in radio, and then that's when I started making stuff online. I filmed a video where I printed my CV on the roof of my car and parked it outside Radio 1 to try and get a job. Didn't work. No. So how deliberate was it? Because I think you've described having several moments where you just went viral, right?
16:12You've had different steps where suddenly the followers blew up. Yeah. So what was the first one of those? The first one of those was when I snuck into London Fashion Week pretending to be a model called Maximus Bucharest from Bucharest. And I did this with my two mates, Zach and Jay, and we dressed me up in really stupid clothing, went to Primark, and I got my mother's carpet and wrapped it around and safety pinned it. We went to where all the fashion shows were happening in London and we had two friends of ours that had cameras with the flash bulbs on them. And as I got out of the taxi, my friends would trigger the flash and just shout my name, Maximus, Maximus, over here, over here, over here, over here, which caused the 30 paparazzi that were waiting for genuine models just to go, who's that?
16:57Which then we then leveraged that to get into shows after parties and we just made and when anyone asked me any questions I pretended I didn't really speak any English and you got loads of access doing that and I got loads of access doing that and when that was happening did you think we're onto something this is going to be massive no right no I mean the absurdity I think it was the absurdity I was holding as my clutch handbag Jamie Vardy's autobiography my story so like I had I had like plastic packaging tape from Amazon around my neck, Jamie Varty's book in my hand, and fashion people coming to me like, I love your style.
17:37It's amazing. Who's your stylist? And I'm just going, I'm sorry, I don't understand. I just walk off. So I thought that might do well. This was in 2019. We posted the video and it got... And when you did that, were you trying to... Because obviously, when you see that, it looks like you're making a statement about... a valid statement about the ridiculousness of fashion, right? Was that what you were thinking? No. We just thought it would be a fun thing to do. There was no thought process like that at all. So I had, that was my first one. Then a couple of years of nothing happening. But meanwhile, I'm making 30 videos a year.
18:14So I'm just constantly just buying a lottery ticket. Then probably had the Welcome to Luton stuff. Then the London Mayor stuff. and subsequently through there there's always been a few of these big then the richest man video that happened where I set up a genuine company on Companies House called Unlimited Money Limited I issued the maximum number of shares you can which is 10 billion shares all genuinely legally and I owned all those shares I went out onto the street and I found a woman called Hope and I sold one share to her for 50 quid and I sent off all of that information to a valuations advisor saying could you argue that I am technically worth 500 billion quid?
18:54And this guy went, yeah, but that is fraud. And I was like, yeah. And I thought it was a bit of fun. HMRC did not. And I actually was, I then, I hosted the FinTech Finance Awards. And HMRC had a table. And I remember just the beginning of it. I just wanted to chat to them and be like, how much trouble did I get into? like were you was there meetings about this and they were like no no we just we thought it was fun but you were the richest man in the world for is it seven minutes seven minutes because that was the period of time that I I completed I submitted all the information about but the shares and the ones I owed called up my lawyer and then he said shut that down right now so that was the seven minute period of time in which I was the richest man in the world were you not scared when your lawyer said that no my people have got great history of doing dodgy bits with money.
19:48So, you know, I knew some people. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I knew the right people. You're not going to prison. Of course not. If I am, it's basically like one of those all-inclusive ones. Yeah, they'd be carrying you through like C-3PO. Yeah. Just singing your name, banging the drums. You'd be like one of those Scandinavian prisons. Yeah, yeah. You'd have servants, I imagine. What's the caviar today? So there's been these big set-piece moments that have happened over the course of, I've been doing it now for seven or eight years. and so that has been like a learning process every single time because you i know you hate the word prank yeah you call it loopholes don't i just try they are ostensibly pranks but prank you know immediately has connotation of them someone being a victim well or punching down yeah i do think it's interesting that because you sort of you look at and i don't know how across other people that do the sort of thing that you do you are but you you should be annoyed you know you should be annoying because essentially what you're doing is you're doing stunts right and and often we see like influencers and people like that they will do stuff where they're just kind of being a bit of a prick to people and then that goes viral because somebody's like the the butt of the joke or whatever yeah and that's something you don't want to do and is that just a is that just a personal rule is that what why is that how has that come about because i think it's worked to your advantage but it means that you're it's less easy to have a shock tactic or to shock in your video yeah like I used to say when people say oh what kind of videos make I used to say I do stunts which then people thought I was just throwing myself off buildings which would then I'd have to pull that back no no no I don't do my I do do all my own stunts but not those kinds of stunts so it's a real conscious conversation about like the shock factor is difficult but that's why I've learnt a lot over YouTube about like titling I know that we talk about like clickbait is so important so the richest man in the world video was I became the richest man in the world for seven minutes if the title was I became the richest man in the world it's immediately unbelievable for anybody reading it obviously I know you're not so there's no inherent question there's no information gap there whereas I became the richest man in the world for seven minutes there's intrigue there suddenly becomes intrigue so when I'm coming up with the stunts and the ideas it's it is all about what is that title so you're thinking when you're doing it you're thinking how hooky can I make this how hooky can you make it and then once they're in you kind of have a bit of time to tell the story how you want to but ultimately it does need to be I like the welcome to luteum was I tricked an entire country How do you do that?
22:25And that's not necessarily true, but it was on the news. And so that technically is right. We have a, there's a, I work with an amazing team talking about stories, some brilliant writers, and we're constantly talking about what the payoff is. And there is a conversation that we have, which one of my great friends, Ed, who's a fantastic writer and director, he came up with what he talked to me, which was the flying car, which is if you go to an episode, if you go to a showing of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the theatre show, and at the end the car doesn't fly, you're just kind of leaving. What was the point of that?
23:02I'm a big fan of the child catcher though, so it wouldn't bother me. Right, okay, so as long as he catches a child at the end. And some guy going, oh, hello children. That's what draws me in, I don't care about the car. No, you don't care about the car, that car can stay right on the floor, I don't care. Yeah, I don't give a shit. As long as that little weirdo's there. How many kids he got this time? Oh, good. More. What we should do, Max, is get you to title this episode. Oh, that's a great shout. So when it goes out, basically I'm putting the responsibility on you instead of me. Yeah, Johnny, I'm doing a job now.
23:33Fosh and the Pac-Man. Fosh is racist. That would... Bang. Yeah. That would, wouldn't it? I'd do it. I secretly... Are you against it? Of course you are. We're not really going to call it that. But it's pretty hooky. It's pretty hooky. Racism is hooky. There's no getting around it. Listen, it attracts a certain crowd, but it attracts a crowd. My YouTube brain was going, you're absolutely right. Of course we shouldn't name the episode that. But my YouTube brain was like, no, that could work. But then I realised, not everyone's going to, if you just type in Max Fosh. Not everyone's going to click on it.
24:12Yeah, exactly. Oh, right. So Max Fosh is a racist. That's the problem. that's a real problem what happened? well actually what happened was he held a lemon squeeze it looks a bit like Pac-Man I mean what do you normally you normally title it like we try and be hooky don't we? yeah we sort of try but not in a way that cancels the guests normally no we're quite kind we don't normally we don't go in for like big clickbait we tend to go for like these are the three sort of like the pillars of the conversation to be fair I think you do a really great job with like your short form stuff you know exactly you will have that the opening conversation is hooky.
24:46But the long form. The long form stuff. But also that's a different viewing experience if someone's watching a podcast and someone's watching my videos. Sure. So if they click on it wanting something hooky and like a big stunt and then it's 45 minutes of us chatting, they're like, oh no, that's not what I was expecting. Yeah. I mean, I don't want them to go away from this. I was hoping it'd be more racist. Yeah. You don't want to disappoint people in that way. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey friends, Olivia from Oli. Between new routines and the ultimate group project known as parenting, you need science-backed solutions that work with your life.
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25:53Plus, when you pack and ship with us, you get our exclusive pack and ship guarantee. Your items arrive safe or your money back. Restrictions and limitations apply. To get a 20 % off packing coupon and for full details, visit the upsstore.com slash packing. The other thing that you've avoided doing really well is I think a lot of people that do the sort of thing you do, they get something that goes really big and then they spend the rest of their careers, if you like, trying to emulate the success of that thing. Don't get me wrong, I'm doing some of that. Right, okay. So we've got a video that's going on at the moment where three years ago I hired a private investigator to follow me for a month.
26:36Right. So I was interested to know what it would feel like. And so that video did super well. We then got two private investigators to follow each other. That didn't go so well. They found out quite quickly and got quite cross. And so the increase... There is a victim there. There is a victim there. But, you know, I'm paying them. Yeah, sure. So we've done the final third iteration. We've got a video that's happening right now. We're on the 1st of January this year. I met with a private investigator who runs a company. And I signed a piece of paper that said I give them permission over the course of the next 365 days to follow me, to gain as much information as he possibly can.
27:10And then on the 31st of December this year, we're meeting back in the same place and he will basically have a dossier of everything about me that he's found out. So he's following me on random days. He's got colleagues following me. I don't know when he's following me, who they are. So there could be someone in this room. I don't know whether producer Johnny. I mean, how long has he been working with you? Well, a few months. and we don't he is sus I mean it would be incredible long play for 90 minutes of sitting in the same room but also it would be devastating for the podcast if it turns out it was just doing that for this because it's fucking over I would actually go I would actually pay to keep investigating keep going so there's a little bit of redoing format that sounds terrifying but are you yeah I mean yeah I would first of all the thing I would say is you must be pretty confident.
28:04You must be cleaner than clean then. I mean, ultimately, I'm the one who decides what goes out on the channel. Sure. But even, but I would say, even if you don't put it out on the channel, you're still having to hear somebody go, you know that thing that you thought was a massive secret? I found out all the details. I mean, the stuff that the guy found out in a month, he found out my home Wi-Fi password. And I've no idea how he did it. Well, I think not have it as password would probably be the first tip. password one so yeah it could be a real eye opener be like oh my god yeah you still have to have him say that stuff to you yes and then you live the rest of your life knowing that that could be accessible to somebody who was so inclined who was so inclined yeah who had enough time and when you decided to do that by the way that sounds it sounds incredible right and a lot of your ideas I'm jealous when I hear you know that to me sounds amazing like such a great idea is your impetus for doing that because you enjoyed it last time or because you're thinking that one did really well so let's try and replicate that it's definitely a bit of both it's definitely both I know that there's intrigue there there is like people do want to know what happens so I would be allowed to say no I do have the integrity of the game but I am also like I do think that that is a genuinely interesting concept as well so I think that they're not mutually exclusive they can feed into each other ultimately things that go viral um i heard a great uh there's a great youtube called mark rober said this like how people say how do you make something go viral just elicit an emotional response make them laugh make them angry and because the algorithm although it's some very spooky abstract thing is just people these platforms want you to stay on their platform for as long as possible so they see how long you watch something for they know kind of how satisfied you are by the clip so if they know that you're satisfied they'll they'll serve it to more people so ultimately something goes viral because people either have an emotional reaction to it.
30:02But I'm a big, I've got to talk about the people who, the world's crossing. One of my biggest inspirations is Danny Wallace. Right. Because he was kind of, well, he was doing exactly what I'm doing just before the internet, well, before YouTube, making his own country. Exactly. We've had that idea. Well, Danny Wallace did it so incredibly well. Yeah. And also that takes a long, long time to bed in. I did think about trying to become someone to represent a country at the Olympics, but then they've closed that loophole. Okay, well, that's a shame. I'm sorry to hear that. Down the IOC. Yeah, fucking IOC.
30:41Do you know where you want to go? Are you thinking you want to do this forever? Because a lot of comics do TV in the hope that they'll boost their profile enough that people can't see them on tour. Yeah. Was that why you're doing what you're doing, or were you doing it just for the love of the game and the money? Definitely the last part. I think it's just, I see, I think people are very binary and they're talking about like, oh, the internet is, you know, social media is taking over TV. It implies that, you know, TV is going to disappear. When like TV itself started, they were like, oh, it's the death of radio.
31:16It's not. They will learn to coexist. And so it's just about like, if I can, and what I do know is that a lot of content creators, they are very, very, like, one note on just social media. And so I have tried with, like, doing comedy for the last four or five years and learning the trade and doing the graft, like, trying to make myself as employable to as many different people as possible. Because I'm 31. I don't want to be, you know, entering the Mr. Universe bodybuilding competition when I'm 45. No. Rob Ramesh versus. Anyway, carry on. Oh, actually, I've got a bone to pick with you. Big bone to pick with you.
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31:54you did a video with oh I think I know what you're about to say what do you think I'm about to say you think we ripped you off don't you I don't think you ripped me off that's the gist of it that is the gist yeah go on I don't think there was any skullduggery in terms of like stealing creative ideas yeah but we we were going to do a video with one of the POs one of the philharmonic orchestras yeah it was London or the Royal where I became a professional triangle player right and we were going to do it and then the orchestra said, oh, sorry, we're just about to do this with Rob and Romesh. Did you do a video about this?
32:31I did eventually do it. Because I got a little bit of hate. Did you? Well, a couple of comments from Max Foch fans going, why don't you come up with your own ideas? So what I want to know is what the fuck have you been saying? Did you slag... Did you... Did I slag you off? I don't think you slagged us off. Definitely not publicly. Right, okay. There might have been a WhatsApp. I think you said it privately to enough people. Yeah. That it became a thing. Enough people. But that's also interesting is that the timeline of the internet, it doesn't matter because it's basically whichever one someone has seen first.
33:06I know, I know, I know. And also, the other thing is, if people want to see Max Foch do this thing, they can watch Max Foch do this thing. If they want to see Rob and Romish do this thing, because they like more one-dimensional stuff, they can come to me and Rob. Do you know what I mean? But anyway, thanks for that. Yeah, but the Rob and Romish stuff, we do look a lot and be like, Could we make that a little bit better? Yeah. Just to tell. I think your mistake is saying a little bit better. I think you can be more ambitious if you put a bit of thought into it. Because you've done the bodybuilding stuff, right?
33:35We did Strongman. Right. Ultimately, the humour from that comes from you in tighty-whities. Yeah, we did a ballet episode once, and they got us into the training gear. and then we came out of the dressing room and then the producer's like, this is gold. And I go, we haven't done anything. What you're saying is gold is how we look in these outfits. And then that's the joke. Yeah. Then you've got what you've got right there. You might as well just cut the episode right there and then. Because you're like, we've got it. Guys, we've got the shot. They look like twats. Yeah, they look hideous. I vombed.
34:12Yeah. I don't care about your plie. I just want to see you in a tutu. The impression I got is that you have a lawyer that travels with you everywhere and you get like a just like a I'm glad that that's the a travelling lawyer I was surprised that you didn't arrive he's called my dad but that's no I do have a lawyer but he is ultimately when we're thinking of an idea if I think that it's on the edge of like you know naughtiness I'll give him a call and he will then say this is how much trouble we think you could get into but we and then he'll always preface it we don't think you should do this yeah okay I know but he has to say he has to say that right shush and so there's we did a video where I pretended to be a member of the British Royal family in America so I called myself the Earl of Luton I hired two massive 6ft 7 bodyguards we went into a 5th Avenue major department store and we had my producer go in before or a friend of mine saying just to let you know we've got a member of the British Royal family he's about to turn up the Earl of Luton is there anything you can do to accommodate his stay this department store shat themselves shut down an entire floor of the department store.
35:22When I arrived, there was a line of personal shoppers. Good to see you, sir. Nice to see you. All victims. All victims. Blurred their faces. So we do that. I go around and the idea was that I would buy lots of very expensive items and then go back in a couple of days and return the items. And the victim here is, oh, I'm so sorry, Robbersh, a very bougie, high-end, successful department store. I'm not rolling my eyes at that. I'm rolling my eyes at the idea that you've got to go and return all this shit. So the idea was to return like... That sounds really unappealing as a thing to have to do. So the idea was to buy the stuff, keep the receipt, and then go back.
35:58How much did you spend? $3 ,000. Right. On four items of clothing. Okay. One of them was from a very top designer called Greg Lauren. And I find out that he is just basically the cousin of Ralph Lauren that just went, oh, I'm going to make clothes. Greg Lauren. Greg, I don't know your exact connection with Ralph Lauren, but please don't see me. Yeah, Greg, Greg. I mean, I love your stuff. Yeah. I did look like a kind of Elizabethan monk, but loved it anyway. So I bought all the stuff, and as I left, one of the people in the department store, she recognized me and she messaged me. She said, I know it was you.
36:39I'm telling my boss. And then I got a very, very angry email. So I called my lawyer. I was like, what do I do? He said, look, at the moment, all you've done is gone into a department store. Yes, you pretend to be someone else, but you have essentially bought$3 ,000 worth of clothes. And he said, if you go return it, then they could sue you for fraud. Okay. And I was like, yeah, that's fair enough. So I just had to swallow them. So you kept it? I kept it. You still got the stuff? Yeah. It's horrible. Sorry, Greg. so yeah it was pretty bad so that's where my lawyer comes in and he goes I would recommend that you do this now and is there anything that you wanted to do that you haven't been able to because your lawyer said don't do that that you'd really want to do this is less the lawyer stuff but I've always wanted a water ski behind a cruise ship yeah it's been done before has it?
37:36yeah myth busting the Norwegian DJ Kygo did it Do you know what? That is classic Kygo. If you and I know Kygo. That is textbook Kygo. And I thought that would be quite fun. And I've been told. I pitched it to Virgin. And their marketing team loved the idea. Their risk team hated it. Right, I get that. So then they said no. Fair enough. So that's a video that I don't think I'll ever do. But that's okay. I'm happy with that. And for people of my generation, because we are of different generations, people might be surprised to hear who sort of think that influencers and people on socials and YouTube and stuff like that are just sort of shitting out this content.
38:18You actually have a team and I know I think you've worked with a couple of people I know and you every week meet up and you actually in the way that you put together a TV show work out what is he going to do and it's like it's actually an industry right? So There are, so I have four full-time members of staff, two producers, like head of content and editors. And we meet once a week to discuss like ideas. And the formulation of the idea process comes from like, first it comes from visuals. It's like, what is something that everybody knows that they know the visual of? And then from there, it's like, okay, everyone knows what, for example, we had an idea about the Popemobile.
39:02Everyone knows what the Popemobile is. It's usually the Popemobile, you know what you've got in your mind. okay what is the opposite thing what's the complete juxtaposition of that so we had an idea where i want satan bike pretty good i was thinking registering the pokemobile as an uber that's much better quite good so then then i so right that's the title i turned the pokemobile into a registered taxi i hand that over to my producer she goes away after a week she comes back the meeting next week she says look I have found six Popemobiles this is the history of the Popemobile just if anyone is interested whenever the Pope goes to a new country they basically commission one for that country so there's a fleet of Popemobiles in individual countries the one in Ireland in Dublin ironically considering that Ireland is a very Catholic country it ended up in the hands of a man that ran stag dues and you could sit on the Popemobile go around Dublin and get shit faced so that was what happened to the Popemobile in Ireland.
40:04That sounds excellent. Yeah, yeah. Unfortunately, it's now been taken over by a museum. I know, snooze. So, we then went away. I then contacted 15 owners of these Pope Reveals to be like, hey, are you up for some japes? And they all said no. Yeah. I think your mistake was using the word japes. Yeah, that was my problem. Some holy japes. And from that point, they were like, nah. So then we know, okay, we can't do that. Right, right, right. But yeah, there's a huge... We come up with hundreds and hundreds of ideas. Some are great, but just production-wise, just not possible. Some of them... We've got an I title, which is I Technically Became the King.
40:44That's a great title. Yeah, yeah. But I don't know how to do it. Yeah. In a way that people feel satiated. Yeah, because what you don't want to do is, I guess, give them a tantalizing thing, and then you don't live up to that. Then the car doesn't fly. Yeah, absolutely. The child catcher doesn't catch no kids. He gets nobody. The cage is empty. Yeah, he's catching adults at this point. You're like, no, younger. Yeah, what a waste of lollipops. Yeah, exactly. Right, we've got a question from my mum now. Yes, I love this bit of the show. I don't know what this is. I'm just really excited because you've had to tell your mum, we've got a YouTuber, what is that?
41:18No, he's all right. He's one of the good guys. So I'm so excited to hear how she tries to be very enthusiastic about what I do. Okay, I don't, yeah, I've not heard it, so let's see. Well, here we go. Hello, Max. I am Romesh's mum here. How are you keeping? I know you are big on YouTube. Pause. Brilliant. Production has said, that's exactly what the production has said to your mum. No, my mum knew that, actually. He's big on YouTube. No, she's a massive fan of the Luton Stump. She's reading the... So, how dare you? That's close to your home. Close to Kroli. That was right five minutes from my house.
41:53Yeah, so she's gone. She's looking at the email right now. I heard you're big on YouTube. Please keep going. Okay. Romesh only got a silver award. I started doing podcasts with Romesh. People say I should start my own cooking show. Is there any chance you could give me some advice? It'll be helpful. Enjoy the podcast and the weather. See you soon. Lots of love. Bye-bye. Okay. I've got some ideas, actually. so you've actually got indistently yeah barely finished listening to the question so it's a case of right so a little bit like stand up people immediately have preconceptions of your mum and what she likes to cook so the first juxtaposition you can have is her cooking like the most like bland British thing yeah or getting your mum cooking in extreme places I'd love to see her cooking up the side of a volcano that's a good idea me too so So either your mum, like there was a, I love, there's a content creator called Tom Gilby.
43:01There's a lot of wine content and he reviewed Buzzballs. Great. Yeah. It's a complete opposite thing of what he's doing. So Shanti, thank you so much for your question. Really excited for a new cooking show. I would recommend you cooking things that nobody thinks that you would either eat or know how to cook. Doing a collab with Rate My Takeaway would bang. Big John get Big John and Shanti doing a Chinese takeaway this is great that's what you want these are great ideas I've got an idea how about this right it's like you know people talk about sort of you know ethnic minorities assimilating to British culture yeah my mum does tell me what you think of this idea my mum does a traditional English roast dinner right somebody high up in reform eats that roast dinner perfect if they don't like it she's deported I know you're joking here that genuinely is a perfect video because it has it has steaks for Shanti number one she could be off yeah number two it's got a mark we don't mind to punch up there and number three genuine I want to know what happens I tricked Reformer into eating a South Asian woman's roast dinner that's your title guys that's gonna go viral yeah That's going to be the new I don't know my fruits.
44:27I can feel it. You know how sometimes they get dogs on this morning and someone says, oh, my dog's vegetarian. Yeah. And then they just put two bowls of food in front of the dog and the dog obviously just goes for the meat. You basically kind of do the same with someone from Reform. You put two roast dinners down and you say, one of these has been cooked by a proper English man and one has been cooked by a woman called Shanti. Yeah. You decide. And the twist, both of them have been cooked by Shanti. I love it. There you go. That is a great idea. Holy shit, Max. Do it. No wonder you're so good.
45:02So what is your, how many subs are you on now? Five million? Five million. And is that enough? No. No, no more. So do you have an objective? Do you have a goal? The hedonic adaptation is crazy. Like the goalposts get moved. So it is remarkable. And I guess, do you feel this within comedy as well when it comes to either like, because the objection of, the objective version of comedy is like size of room, right? Yeah. But now you're doing the O2. Yeah. Does it feel like, do you feel like bigger, more? Because Shane Gillis did 75 ,000 last week. Yeah, the most ever by any comedian ever, right? In one room or something.
45:44I, Terrible vibe at that gig, I'm sure, just because it's an open air thing. Yeah, and listen, you know, Shane's attracted the fans he's attracted. Great comic though. Very good comic. Really good comic. Like really good. I think I have a slightly weird, not weird, my relationship with numbers, I guess, with that sort of thing is I don't think that the number of tickets you sell is really a mark of how good you are as a stand-up, right? So when I started doing stand-up, I wanted to be the best stand-up I could possibly be. And I'm not as good as I want to be, right? I think I've definitely got better as the years have gone on, but I haven't done my, I've said this before on this podcast, I haven't done my definitive show that when I come to retire and somebody goes, what's your proud stand-up show?
46:30I haven't done that show yet. I've done shows that I think are good, but not great. And so I think that like, say for example, I sell out the O2, but that's not because I'm better at stand-up than somebody that isn't selling out the O2. It means I've done more TV and there's so many, there's so many, you know, I host a show I'm ready to, there's so many bits of circumstance dance and luck that have led to me doing that and so more people have heard of me and come to watch me but that is not a a marker of how good i am at the thing and i think for me personally don't get me wrong it's not i i'm very grateful that i get to sell rooms that size and it's amazing and it's an incredible experience and i'll never take it for granted but for me writing an amazing stand-up show is the thing yeah and that's what i'm aiming for right is creating that incredible stand-up show, which I haven't done yet.
47:20So for me, the goal is a personal one. Like I'll just know, and I might not, I might not, I might come to the end of my career and I've never done it, but I feel like I'll go, do you know what? I'm proud of that show. And that is not, it's great that I've sold it, that I'm doing the O2. That is amazing. But that's not the thing, that's not career defining for me. Does that make sense? Yeah. I mean, it's probably, it's very similar with me, right? Like I have every metric and data under the sun, I can see by the minute how many people are watching an individual video, which is not good for anybody.
47:53Well, didn't you say, because I remember reading in an interview with you, you were saying it sort of has mental health implications. Oh, big time. And has that been a problem for you? Yes, at times. And still now, you'll get into funks and be like, oh, it's not as big as it was. And so then it comes back to how good the video is. And I always think that before we post a video, if I'm sat there watching it back and still really enjoying it, that's kind of my measure of success. But what I find interesting with YouTube and content creators is that we still don't have, in a lot of ways, the legitimacy that stand-ups kind of do.
48:29And I will never say that I'm a stand-up because I do comedy shows. But therefore, there is a definite... I felt and I know the conversations have happened within the comedy world about me doing the Hammersmith Apollo because I've come from it from a different angle and a different approach. Because in theory you should have done the clubs and all of that. I've not done the Working Man's Club. I've not done the store. You know, I'm using a screen. I'm doing and then this happened. So, you know, yes, there's very parts of it that are very hack. So I guess. That's not hack. I don't think using a screen is hack.
49:02I think I think what you're doing is is your comedy's like such a broad church I think what you're doing is you're presenting what you believe to be the funniest version of yourself and this is what makes you laugh there's authenticity to that the idea that you have to be trapped just because I just talk into a mic that doesn't mean that that is what stand up comedy, you know what I mean? it can be whatever you want it to be you're absolutely right and you're saying the things that are very kind and very like you know we know that to be true but there's still like a a a clawing desire to be kind of legitimized be like yes that art form i'm putting in inverted commas for the audio listeners because it is not really art but whatever i'm making i want it to be like seen as like oh that's a really cool thing to do and i the problem is i don't know who buy because universally it's not always going to happen with everybody.
49:57So I'm doing some more telly stuff because I just want to see what that's like and then test the waters there. How much do you care about telly? If the creator, the concept is amazing, I love it because that's just purely just another bit of, that's a format just in a different world. But you're not doing YouTube thinking, I hope this leads me to telly. No. Some telly. Yeah, the YouTube in and of itself is the goal, right? You're not going, this is my stepping stone to get onto mainstream television. No. But there are still huge mainstream shows that I would love to do. Yeah. Because you grew up watching them.
50:36Because I grew up watching them, or I'm a big fan of them. Which ones, Max? Strictly, The Traitors. You want to do Strictly? Yeah, why not? This episode is brought to you by Welch's Fruit Snacks. Back to school season can be tough on parents. But choosing a snack you and your kids can both get behind doesn't have to be. Stock up on Welch's Fruit Snacks, made with whole fruit, and now made with no artificial dyes. It's a snack kids already love, and one you can feel good about giving them. Go back to school with Welch's Fruit Snacks, now made with no artificial dyes. Chronic migraine is 15 or more headache days a month, each lasting four hours or more.
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51:49Allergic reactions can include rash, welts, asthma symptoms, and dizziness. Don't receive Botox if there's a skin infection. Tell your doctor your medical history, muscle or nerve conditions, including ALS Lou Gehrig's disease, myasthenia gravis or Lambert-Eaton syndrome, and medications, including botulinum toxins, as these may increase the risk of serious side effects. Why wait? Ask your doctor, visit BotoxChronicMigraine.com, or call 1-800-44-BOTOX to learn more. I don't think that. I mean, listen, you'd be great on Strictly. You'd be a liability, wouldn't you? I'm just trying to think of the sort of stuff you'd wear.
52:22You'd be great on Strictly. In fact, let's put it out there now. Max Fosch wants to do Strictly. I know the producers work. In fact, I should text Josh right now, going, Max wants to do Strictly. Just make it happen. We could make this happen, Max. We could, potentially. Okay, so Strictly, sorry. Strictly, what were the others? The traitors. Traitors, yeah. you'd be so untrustworthy on traitors. That's the problem. I think I'd have the, well, you won't be able to tell me what happened this year, but obviously Nico last year as the fellow YouTuber, they was like, I don't know who you are. I've heard you do pranks.
52:53Off you fuck. And you're not white. So I don't know how well I do on that show. Yeah. But there's definitely some shows that I'd love. I mean, I did The Weakest Link with you recently. Yes, and you were great. That was so much fun. But you're not doing that going, this means I'm established you're doing that because you think it'd be a cool experience cool experience a show that I like and what I do appreciate is the fact that I can go on that and know that if nothing happens afterwards I've still got basically a a career elsewhere that I think just makes stuff that is totally up to me yeah yeah and I think I think being the master of your own destiny is sort of a thing that actually we do YouTubes and stand-ups I know you're both but have in common in a way because like you can create your own opportunities you can always go on tour or whatever do you know what I mean?
53:45Now speaking of incredible TV as we were would you rather decide to survive on Prime Video? Oh yeah, on Prime Video Now I how long ago did we film this? We filmed this in October 25 We were in Greece Was it Greece? Yeah I got to stay well let's not talk about where I was staying but anyway I hosted it because it wasn't where we were staying and I was like wow this is the second best hotel on the island
54:16but I I was very excited to host the show one because Would You Rather is like as a conversation piece would you rather do this or this is like a great thing and also when they told me that they were it's so difficult because there was a lot of discussions about what to call what the collective noun for you is what's the collective noun for creators or YouTubers. Yeah, yeah. So content creators, I guess, but we're all content creators. Anyway, I thought that was exciting because I felt like one of the things that's great about people of your ilk is that you're sort of unfilled. You just say what you think and you're not media trained.
54:55You're not trying to think about a potential TV career because you don't need it, right? And that makes you more interesting as people. When you saw the line-up, when you were doing it alongside all of those people, do you see them are you a group or are you do you see them as rivals like what's your kind of attitude no I think that we are still within an industry with content creators well we're still kind of as the content creators themselves we really do stick together and there's kind of a rising tide lifts all ships and so seeing some creators on there like that I've always liked and watched seeing us all together on a show of that magnitude with you hosting it was a real like before we started filming it was like oh this is cool It feels like we're kind of being taken a little bit more seriously.
55:40And then you covered me in lube. Should we keep talking about on-camera stuff? Yeah, that's fair. That's fair enough. But it was a really, I saw actually, you did a clip with James Acaster on this show. Yeah. Where you were talking about, have you ever worked with, I think the conversation, there was a clip that did quite well, which was, oh, have you ever done TV work with creators? And I saw the beginning of this clip and I thought, oh I know he's just gonna be talking about us and you were actually really positive you're basically saying that we were fed up of having to do the drone shot six times I think that's legitimate though and that is a genuine legitimate thing and so it was a different experience of normally we react to exactly what's in front of us but with telly the thing happens there'll be some repositioning of cameras and some lights, action, reaction and so it took a bit of time to get used to hold it in, hold in your reaction, hold in your reaction Yeah.
56:33Well, that's one of the things that I find the most interesting. Not the most interesting. It's one of the interesting things about working with you guys. It's like we had chunks on Weakest Link. I think it was like the first series I did. And in a nice way, he just went, why is this so long, man? He was like, we would have done a whole episode by this time. And we've not even done the first round. What's going on? And it is true. It's because you guys just go, right, let's just shoot this. And, you know, let's just do it. So it's a lot more immediate. But the other thing that I thought was great is, I just thought everybody was so funny on it.
57:08Do you know what I mean? And I feel like everybody reacting to everything that's going, I just thought the cast are brilliant. I thought the production team put together a load of really good games. And it was actually fun to watch you guys interact and do all that stuff. You also stole from me. I did steal from you. They didn't put it in the edit. They didn't? No, they didn't. So this was a moment. Let's tell, this is, well, this is great. This is great. so for super fans for the eagle eyed amongst you so Romesh was there in a big you know wardrobe department costume department it's one person one person and Romesh on the first day wore this very nice blue jacket and I think he might have even commented on it in a way that almost felt like this is premeditated yeah but it wasn't it wasn't but he wore a lovely jacket on the first episode the first day and then you know we filmed for a week and then about six days in I suddenly went into my room on a little clothes hanger was Romesh's blue jacket.
58:05And I immediately realised that obviously it had gone into the laundry and was meant to go back to you when some runner had thought, oh no, this is actually Max Foch's jacket, so I'd put it in my area. Because you and I are interchangeable. Exactly. Looks-wise, dress-strengths-wise. And so I knew, right, this will be a great bit. I'm going to come out for the elimination wearing Romesh's jacket. Romesh will immediately realise, but I need to make sure I do this without any of the production team seeing this. Because I know they'll see it and be like, oh no, Max, just wear something else. We don't think Romesh is going to react well to this.
58:39Things like that. Stuff like that, yeah. So I then, we had to do loads of drone shots and I did it in just my t-shirt. So I thought, right, I'm going to stuff the jacket. You were delaying it as long as possible. I was delaying it as long as possible. So I stuffed it under my bed, did the drone shots. I'm wearing a completely different outfit. And then we come out and that first reaction is like, hello guys, welcome. And you immediately went, is that my jacket? And Phil, the executive producer he had clocked it I was like Phil please I think this would be a great moment and then they cut it from the show!
59:08I didn't know they'd cut it from the show They did cut it from the show Oh I'm sorry It was great And then it was great because you were genuinely confused as to how I'd stolen your jacket I could not believe it To be hosting a show obviously I think you lot but you know I'm the host How have you had access to anything I own? Yeah horrible you know how have you done this and it was just it was just completely serendipitous but i thought that was i thought that was a good example of what is great about you because i i think that you're we can talk about like you know obviously you've got a team and you think about these youtube things and but you have got i think you've got it you know and somebody once said to me like um when i was coming up as a comedian they said there's going to be some element of you that people want to buy into and it's out of your control and you might have it and you might not.
59:58And it's just the way it is. Do you know what I mean? You can be as funny as you like, but if people don't buy into you, whatever. I think you've got that because you do stuff like that and in somebody else's hands, that would have been like a twatty thing to, do you know what I mean? Like it would have come across as like, it would have come across as a bit like, oh, this guy's being a prankster wanker or whatever. But it was charming and I think that is part of what makes you so good. I think you've just got this way about you. That's very kind. That when you're doing these things, actually, I'm not watching that go.
1:00:29I've seen other people do not the same stuff as you, but similar to somebody who's going, oh, what a tosser. Why have they done that? I don't think people feel like that with you. And I don't know whether that's by design or just by who you are, but it's an amazing thing, man. One of the good posh ones, I think. Yeah, you're one of the good posh ones. That's very kind. Thank you, Romesh. Right, we're going to play the game, which I'm sure you know misquoted yeah
1:00:57it's misquoted this is where we've got five quotes some of them you said some of them you didn't yeah you've just got to tell me if you didn't or you did and hopefully it'll create some content okay so here's your first one good luck how well do you think you'll do at this I don't think I'll do very well okay because I think I've said a lot I've broadcast my life for the last nine years so here's your first one I'm often labelled as a posho but I don't think that's the best description of who I am I probably did say that you didn't did I not you've actually adapted something you said which you've talked about a little bit I'm often labelled as a prankster but I don't think that's the best description of what I do a prank implies that there is a victim that's to living north in 2022 I was doing the big boys yeah how do you describe what you do I know you talk about loop bars but if somebody goes what do you if somebody didn't know who you are and they said what do you do at a party I don't know if you go to those I've not been to one for over a decade now probably but I'd say I'd go I'm an artist no then they'd walk away immediately no I would say it depends on who I'm talking to if they're over the age of 40 I'll say I'm a comedian right and then if they're under I'll say I'm a I'm a YouTuber and then they say oh what kind of YouTube videos do you make and then I would say I find loopholes in things.
1:02:21Okay, I think that's good. All right, here's your next one. So you didn't score. Didn't say that. No. I always think it's a bit like Freshers' Week because everybody's snogging each other who shouldn't be snogging each other. I think I'm talking about the Edinburgh Fringe and I think I did say that. Tatler, 2026. Oh, God. So what's going on with your Edinburgh Fringe, Max? Because you've got a girlfriend, haven't you? I do. I'm just I'm purely I'm purely I'm purely survey I am I am just You're a voyeur I'm a voyeur I've got my peak pole set up in underbelly Sure It's great In the filthy underbelly you'll find Max Wash Underbelly Looking through Underbelly's a name of a series of venues It's not The Dark Underbelly of Edinburgh That's slightly different But it does have a dark underbelly It does I did say that Freshers Week is a bit like that Sorry Not Freshers Week My Freshers Week wasn't like that and at least sat on my own trying to find a friend.
1:03:15What A-levels did you do? But the fringe is wild, isn't it? It's wild. And what happens is that you get in a group chat with the people that you see every single day and you are on top of each other, sometimes snogging them. And then on the 1st of September, you leave Edinburgh and you never talk on that group chat ever again. Yeah, it is. Like how into the Edinburgh, that side of the fringe do you get? I did. I'm not talking about snogging people. I'm talking about like, it just gets a bit debaucherous. It gets very debaucherous, but it then becomes very, it gets quite toxic because then what you're, especially around the time of like finding out the awards and nominees and things like that, because what happens is people then try to win the fringe, which I don't think is ever good for anybody.
1:03:59And I think that's when it starts to slightly descend into chaos. But I did, I've done two runs and I've loved both of them equally. It's a wonderful place. it is a bit like freshers week how i got chlamydia that's a joke yeah well done for clearing that up the chlamydia i mean uh here's your next one whenever i'm with my mum and someone approaches us she tries to shield me i never have said that
1:04:29if i've said that that is a nice lies here's the real quote whenever i'm with my mum every single time someone says hello even if i take a picture with them she'll then go are they friends from school yeah and I'm like no mum they watch the videos yeah that was in your Tatler interview so does she just not believe that you're famous she just I think she just slightly forgets um like my dad turned up to the biggest show of my life at the Apollo and he used to see games of my dress and Max said people outside I know what do you think I did just rented the room yeah um so it's but they they it's very cliche to say they don't understand they do understand but I think it reminds them whenever they see the real life connotations of what's happened.
1:05:12What do they think about what you do? Because I can't, there's no way in a minute. They're baffled. They are absolutely baffled and the hardest thing I ever do is whenever I'm at lunch with mum and they're with a friend of theirs and they then start explaining what I do, that is torture. No, it's loopholes. He finds loopholes. You did something with, you did that thing where you became very poor for seven minutes. For an experiment, he went to Luton. Yeah.
1:05:39was there a point where they thought it was like a phase and they were like oh this will this will pass but then i stopped asking them for money and they were like that's when it gets good they were like ah yeah this is good so it was at university and they're like oh you know i wasn't like oh can you help me with with this and i'm like oh fine crack on it's not porn is it no great it could be it's hooky it is hooky yeah lean slightly to the left people are into you are Are they super into you? No. And that's what I'm so grateful for. People do not give a shit about my life. They just care about what big stunt I'm doing.
1:06:14So I can live my life. No one is interested in my personal life or who I'm seeing. And do you deliberately try and hide that side? No, no. Don't try and hide it. But it's just not part of what you do? It's not part of the offering that I'm giving. I get you. Okay. Well done. Here's your next one. My unpopular opinion is that I think Pizza Express is the best restaurant in the world. I did say that. You did say it. Oxford Student 2024. Yeah. I think I was just trying to be just... Relatable? After the Prince Andrew stuff. To Oxford Student. Yeah. After the Prince Andrew stuff, I just thought, yeah, I'd really get in that Pizza Express PR.
1:06:56Yeah. No, I just think I was just trying to be controversial. But that shows the lengths of what I'll say to be controversial. and I've done lots of food podcasts now and they've been like so you said that pizza I think it's a great pizza I think it's fantastic I'm a bit worried about Pizza Express why? well because I think I mean they're struggling aren't they Pizza Express like Pizza Express is sort of the one in Crawley's closed down now right that's not the litmus test for how well a company's doing but Pizza Express used to be like it used to go in there and it felt a little bit fancy. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:07:35And now, it's not the same experience. No, and I don't think it helps that they have the same uniform as Foot Locker. No, no, you're right. Tricky, although horizontal vertical, there is a slight difference. I also think if you're going to make the kitchen open view, have the staff look a little bit more enthusiastic. Or add some drama in there. If you know your local Pizza Express once a night, the chef will shout at someone. Yeah. You're going. Yeah. I don't want to see somebody individually positioning dough balls. They did a very performance of the show. I don't need to see that. Raise the screen.
1:08:12It's not adding anything to my experience. To the basement. Down. I don't want to see this. No. Smile or fuck off. Dough baller. What do you call me? No, you go one all. I'm not even holding a dough ball to me. Okay. here's your final one. You've done very well on this. Oh, thank you. We've all shat ourselves at some point. Is this your quote or my quote? I think, I mean, it's a, I can't remember saying it, but it's a, it's a, something I stand behind, so I think I did say it. You said it on the Saving Grace podcast with J.K. Barrow. Nice. Talking about Mount Kilimanjaro. I shat myself up Mount Kilimanjaro.
1:08:54So what happened? I mean, we've got the key headline. I was a 17-year-old boy at Harrow School. What else do you do? You climb out to Kilimanjaro. Obviously. Obviously. And it was a five-day expedition. And I thought, I think five days, I could sort that with Imodium for five days. Just block up? Just block up. And the dam burst up the summit night. Where did you go? In my trousers. Oh, yeah. But what happened then, this is, you know, wonderful. I'm trying to make myself, legitimise myself as a genuine person who makes comedic stuff. It was so cold that the poo froze in my pants. So then I had a poosicle.
1:09:35Scratchy. Scratchy. It was quite scratchy. And it was quite easy. Just chisel it off. Well, then just kind of at one point, I just had a very like bare few seconds and I just kind of flipped it inside out. You know how you can basically, if you pull down the bottom of your pants and let go, it kind of turns into a slingshot. Yeah. So I kind of crouched down, trousers down. Catapulted it out.
1:10:01Are you happy with the content you've got? Yeah. I think viral. I pooed myself on Mount Kilimanjaro. That's a possible title. There you go. I think Grace has already done that one. Well done for Miss Quoted. You did really, really well. Thank you. Before we finish, I just want to ask you a little bit about your comedy career. Yeah. So you are doing, you do tour shows basically, yeah so i did a big show called loophole um that was a 72 date tour across the u.s europe and australia um it killed me just in terms of like you'll know to make tours as profitable as possible they'll they'll schedule the shows back to back in consecutive nights and make sure you're not spending extra money on hotels so i did i think it was 35 shows across the u.s and europe 35 shows in 32 days there's a couple of matinees in there and every single morning i got the 5 a.m flight to the next city.
1:10:59I landed, went to the venue, did tech, had dinner, did show, go to bed, 5M flight. I did that for 32 days in a row. Did that not drive you insane? It was horrific. Yeah. And I remember kind of looking around being like, oh, it's not that glam though, is it? It's cool. I mean, that is a grim schedule. It was pretty grim. And I would meet up with tour managers who were local to that area. so I would often like in the Europe one luckily I mean I had some incredible tour managers some of whom there was some of them they had tour managers Queen, Prince, Alicia like the biggest names I remember one of them spoke to me just before they're like we just have a briefing call with you when we're in the States clothes protection is it needed and also do we need to organise any long long gun security basically a case I was like you are going to be so disappointed when we do meet and I was like generally no security is needed she's like really?
1:11:58I got there and she's like oh no now I get it because you know the demographic was kind of you know the family were coming and we didn't quite sell as well in America as we would have potentially liked you know shout out to the 92 people that came in Fort Lauderdale to the 1200 seater theatre that we booked out that's the best ratio of seats to audience I think to really rock the room to really rock the room so and to to speak candidly, the amount of money I made was the same as making two YouTube videos. So I think that I love doing live shows. There is, I mean, I had some, I did Dublin, I did the Olympia Theatre, which is just one of the best venues I've ever done.
1:12:40It was unbelievably fun. So you get, getting that feeling is just so powerful. But I've now, I'm kind of looking and working on a new show at the moment, which is actually part of my exclusive, not that I'm announcing the show, but it's actually a bit in it, which I probably shouldn't be saying but I don't care I'd love to do another show but just kind of like let's strip back the amount of shows you still get that experience yeah I think I think you need to have fun on tour as well like you know I think if part of it is the problem is if you and I've done that in the past as well where you've packed a schedule thing is you go I've really it's been my dream to do this and now I'm shitting on it by making it too brutal yeah right Max we as you know we like to end the podcast on a big moment yeah and you've said to me that you've got an exclusive for us I do now this exclusive comes with caveats number one do you have a big audience in the Manosphere I don't believe so no okay right then you know they're not the red pillars aren't no I mean I called Andrew Tate a c**t recently fine number two I would request that you don't use this bit as a clip you can use it in the podcast absolutely fine but not as a clip and I'll tell you for why and number three This goes out to any newspapers watching, The Sun, The Daily Mail.
1:13:59Oh, your favourites. My favourites and my friends. For the integrity of the bit, this might be very present to me, could you not post about what I'm about to say? I'm very happy at being in the ether, but when I explain what it is, I don't want too many people to know about it. And listen, what I know from my dealings with The Sun and The Daily Mail, they always follow those instructions. They always listen. So I think it'd be fine. So guys, you know, you could do the right thing. You could do. Okay. Which, you know. So, this is my excuse. I've brought something with me. Okay. Hold on. I'll just go get it.
1:14:36I'm quite excited about this. This is very exciting.
1:14:43So. For the last six months, I have been making a company and this is for a bit that I might do in a stand-up show I'm not sure about it so for the last six months you've been working on something you might use in a stand-up show I have invented a protein powder company called Men's True Nation right now what we're trying to do is the bit would be I tricked the Manosphere into promoting women's rights so we have invented this company called menstruation which is just menstruation yeah the tagline is for every day not just once a month and we have been sending this to individuals within the kind of the red pill world yeah getting them to promote it on their instagram and has it worked it is currently in the process of working now i want you there's there's lots of little easter eggs in here that like if you read this um you you then um you know realize that what it is but just open up the lid and have a look inside obviously protein powder comes with some sort of um scoop so for our scoop
1:16:09hang on oh wow
1:16:16the scoop for the men's true nation protein powder is a moon cup
1:16:24so we're currently in the process of sending this out some of them have already received it we're waiting on the videos is this a real protein powder so that is a real protein powder that is just a um one you can get in holland barrett that will take off all the stickers off so I'm just I'm banking on that the divide of social media is so strong that I don't think those that have been sent this will have this come up on their social media so I don't know whether it's going to work it might be a video the whole process we've done this it might be a like a nice like 20 minute like a set up for a stand up a segment sorry for a stand up bit but we shall see so mate that's up there one of the best exclusives I've ever had on the podcast thank you Thank you so much.
1:17:08Please, can you give it up for Max Fosch?
1:17:37questions and family dilemmas. I'll see you Thursday with Mum who, let's face it, is who you're actually here for. If you've got a problem you want to solve or a story you want to share, send it to podcast at rhangabee.com, voice not or text us on 07731 623 355. We can't promise good advice, but you might end up on the show. See you soon. Oh, shut up, Romesh. I see you. Avatar Fire and Ash is now streaming on Disney+. It's the film critics are calling the best Avatar yet. A true epic and completely jaw-dropping. This is the only purest thing in this world. Return to Pandora on Disney+. It will be an adventure for the whole family.
1:18:20And watch the Oscar-winning phenomenon at home. This is sick! Avatar Fire and Ash, now streaming on Disney +, rated PG-13. At Sock Doc, we know being a healthy adult is like living in a video game. Every day has side quests, taxes, laundry, birthdays, and just when you're leveling up, you have to book a doctor. The insurance portal crashes, they put you on hold, your doctor doesn't take your plan. Game over. We see you, so we made booking a doctor easy. Download Sock Doc. Search by specialty, insurance, and availability. Book instantly, no cheat codes required. Find a doctor you love with Sock Doc.
1:19:00Thank you.
From the publisher
How Did Max Fosh Become The World's Richest Man?
In this episode of The Romesh Ranganathan Show, Romesh is joined by YouTuber, comedian and viral mastermind, Max Fosh, to discuss the outrageous stunts and videos that have made him one of the internet's biggest creators.
From sneaking into London Fashion Week, to legally becoming the world's richest man (very briefly), Max reveals the creative process behind his biggest videos, and how he keeps coming up with ideas that millions of people can't help but click on.
The pair discuss the realities of life as a creator, YouTube vs TV, and Max tells us about his comedy tour. Plus, Max let's us in on some of his upcoming projects, including hiring a private investigator to secretly follow him.
From loopholes and viral videos to comedy and content creation, it's one not to miss.
A Ranga Bee Production in partnership with Platform Media.
Chapters
00:00 Intro
02:25 Addressing your point of difference
04:54 Max’s future & Romesh’s decline
06:36 A gift for Max
09:48 How Max began
14:34 Going viral
21:53 Max chooses the title
23:40 Staying fresh and a PI
28:11 Max’s future plans
29:20 Max has a bone to pick with Rom
31:47 Max’s lawyer
35:37 The content industry
38:40 A question from Shanthi
42:30 Success and obsession
48:00 Would Max do Strictly?
49:47 Would You Rather: Decide to Survive?
56:50 Misquoted
01:06:21 Comedy career
01:09:18 An exclusive
01:09:18 Outro
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