Q&A with Jesse Burgess & Will Warr from TopJaw

Evening Standard

The Standard spoke to Jesse Burgess & Will Warr from Topjaw about their most memorable videos and how their food and travel videos came to blow up on socials.

Transcript

00:00Hey London Standard, how you doing?

00:01We are TopJour and we're going to ask some of your questions.

00:04Yeah, we were trying to come up with a name ten years ago

00:06and we were mashing words together to see what sort of sounded cool,

00:11what had available social handles.

00:13That was the important thing.

00:14Could we get the domain and like the at?

00:17Yeah.

00:18And someone did say to us once,

00:21oh, Jour, I get it, Jessie and Will, J-A-W.

00:24And we can't remember whether we thought of that at the time

00:28whether that was just a lucky coincidence.

00:31Someone asked me, just randomly asked me

00:35where to get a good burger in town, which was absolutely fine.

00:38Don't have to say hi or anything, you can just ask a question, I guess.

00:41But I was stood at the urinal with my knob out.

00:45And he also had his knob out.

00:48But it just seemed like a very odd time to ask me about burgers.

00:51Got my trousers out now.

00:52Where's the best sausage in London, mate?

00:54Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:56Also, I do love it.

00:57When someone taps me on the back and says,

00:58oh, mate, love your films, Jessie.

01:01Oh, no, it's Will.

01:03My perfect train for 24 hours is...

01:05Film it with me.

01:06I mean, it is.

01:07It's when we do our postcard days.

01:10Yes.

01:10We love them.

01:11We're going to eat in like eight to ten restaurants in a day.

01:13We're only in each one for like 45 minutes

01:15and we just fly through.

01:18And they're so much fun.

01:19Have you seen like the neighbourhood guides

01:20that we do on Instagram with carousels?

01:22Because we do normally go shoot those over like a day and a half.

01:25But we'll feature like 12th place or something.

01:28So it's quite a lot to do.

01:30But you can actually sort of enjoy it a little bit

01:31because it's quite a subtle, atmospheric filming.

01:35It's low-key filming.

01:36It's not like all, you know, it's not presenting.

01:38It's not all involved.

01:39It's like us actually having a really nice,

01:42literally good time.

01:43We've had little moments of exciting moments

01:47like when we did our original 40 hours in Paris video

01:49on YouTube in 2019.

01:51And that was the first video that was like,

01:54just had a life of its own.

01:55And was, you know, every time you refreshed it,

01:57it was another 20,000 views.

01:59And that was like so exciting

02:01because all our videos only ever got like 10,000 views total before that.

02:04So that was an exciting moment.

02:07And then the first ever Best of London we did in early 2023.

02:12And that, again, you just had this moment of like

02:14all these new people seeing it and commenting,

02:17being like, oh, who are you?

02:18What's this?

02:20That's been really fun.

02:21It's particularly special when you meet someone

02:23when we're abroad or in London.

02:26When you're in London,

02:27it's someone that's flown over to London

02:28and they're following our guides to like,

02:30you know, to curate the line of places

02:32that they're going to on their journey.

02:33We'll hear it all over the place.

02:34You know, someone had gone to Lisbon on a weekend away

02:37where they, you know, with mates or they got engaged

02:40and they, you know, they followed our guide.

02:42And that's pretty cool.

02:43Yeah, yeah.

02:43Love that feeling.

02:44And also when a restaurant says,

02:47that's probably it.

02:49Yeah.

02:49Is when we do a video and the restaurant writes to us

02:53and says like, wow, like we've had so many new bookings

02:56or whatever overnight from the video.

02:58That's, that is the most rewarding thing.

03:00And that probably tells us that we're like doing a good job

03:04the most.

03:05Got me in the feels of the day after our party

03:07when Cynthia posted from who runs Rambutan.

03:10And she said, top jaw, you change Rambutan forever.

03:14And that was like, just.

03:15Nice.

03:16That's so nice.

03:17We did a special one this year.

03:21Jesse got married earlier this year.

03:23And a couple of months before that,

03:25we were going out to film San Sebastian,

03:27do our guide to San Sebastian.

03:29And I'd coordinated for a load of the lads,

03:32restaurant folk,

03:33industry folk,

03:35to meet us out there

03:37and surprise Jesse and have like a mini stag do out there.

03:39So we'd filmed for like a day

03:41and then we went

03:42to a restaurant where they were all there

03:45ready to sort of surprise him.

03:46And that was, yeah,

03:47rather wild and fun.

03:48It really,

03:49it turned the trip into a,

03:51well, way more debauched

03:52than I think it was

03:53sort of intended to be.

03:56But that was good.

03:56But other memorable ones,

03:57I mean,

03:58when you see Idris Elba walking up to you

03:59to start filming with you,

04:01that is,

04:02doesn't get much more exciting than that.

04:05We particularly enjoy

04:06filming with comedians

04:08because you get your own sort of

04:1020 minutes skit.

04:13And both big fans of Ricky Gervais

04:14and he's into his booze and his food.

04:17So I think you've got to.

04:18I think we'll get on.

04:20But we have filmed with her,

04:21Claire Smith,

04:22but she's never done

04:23a Best of London.

04:24And we've tried to get her

04:25to do a Best of London.

04:26She's always sort of skirted around.

04:28But we did go to her home

04:29and film with her,

04:30which was really fun.

04:33And host this event with her

04:34the other day.

04:34So I feel like we're building

04:35a relationship

04:35and maybe she'll come

04:36and do a Best of London.

04:37Why do you think she said no?

04:39I don't know.

04:39I think she's just,

04:42she says what a lot of chefs say

04:43where, you know,

04:44they are so committed to their work

04:46that they aren't actually

04:47spending that much time

04:48going to new places.

04:51But I don't know.

04:53I think she does go to a lot of places.

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