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00:05all right hello you you have a surprisingly firm handshake was that surprising I don't know what
00:13just you give the vibe of a man who would be quite loose yours was loose judging me
00:23how are you I'm good how are you were you ill recently was I ill yeah did you have a
00:32bad
00:33something or other I was pretty ill at one point yeah yeah what was it
00:45well I mean I mean well I got diagnosed with a malignant melanoma is that what you were
00:53thinking of well I wasn't thinking of anything specifically but what what is that well it's
01:04like a skin cancer so well what originally happened was a I was doing a gig yeah
01:13and in the gig I am I started the show wearing my suit but then in my show I changed
01:22my clothes and I
01:24end up in little little denim shorts and a Hawaiian shirt and I ended up stood on the stairway in
01:32the
01:32auditorium and then next to me was a GP and then the next day the GP sent an email to
01:39my agent saying
01:42loved the show but he should go and see his GP as soon as possible so I went to the
01:48GP and then she
01:52referred me straight away to hospital and then the consultant said he wanted to operate that day
02:00so remove it is that what you're thinking of like I said I didn't have any Jesus yeah
02:12is it are you okay now yeah I thought that was a decent opener
02:23great that's the greatest opening we've had over the 10 years that's just like so then when I when I
02:33was kind of
02:34recovered I then dug out the email from the from the doctor who'd emailed my agent to thank her so
02:43and the only detail I got wrong is she hadn't said she'd enjoyed the show that that would be harder
02:50to take
02:52what did I do wrong it's not easy is it our job no wow yeah was that the you the
03:03movie that came out in the
03:05past couple of months yeah was that in around the same time or was this well before it or so
03:13um well that
03:15one was um no that happened around about 2000 and um 18 17 something like that and then yeah we
03:24made
03:24the film um in 2020 okay wow wow Jesus but I mean I mean I'm okay thank god like yeah
03:34yeah uh what is it
03:36what what is a like what did the doctor see do you think well she saw what I'd always thought
03:42was like
03:43a birthmark but then what happened was I think it started to change and then luckily the um the GP
03:49had my back but yeah so it was it was like a raised birthmark and then that had to be
03:55removed and then
03:57they also removed some lymph nodes and then um put me on a course of treatment so I got rid
04:04of
04:04everything and then scanned me so there was no cancer and then put me on a course of treatment for
04:09a year
04:12uh I'm thinking about your skills as an actor from seeing you in the um the thing with Steve Coogan
04:21the
04:21Alan Partridge chat show thing yeah the host of that yeah and I'm interested in decisions that you make
04:33when you're doing stuff like that uh because it's quite underplayed or something or it's soft or it's
04:41not you're not trying to you know claim the space that's a very sense that's a very sensitive antenna or
04:50something that you have uh do you think about the way you play things yeah I do I mean I
04:59think with
05:00that one it's it's a very specific job because I'm working with Steve Coogan and and as and him
05:08playing Alan Partridge that's kind of like it's quite a horrific combination and quite it's a lot for
05:15me to but to be offered the job was kind of mad um because that I think is I would
05:21say is my my
05:22favorite yeah and then and it would be bad enough that he just asked me to to work with him
05:26not bad
05:27enough I mean it's it's quite good it's a good opportunity but then two words you've used to
05:31describe it so far are horrific and bad yes it's moving in the right direction in a minute it's gonna
05:39be okay it's the same principle as my treatment so then um yeah so doing it the technicality of it
05:49is
05:50quite interesting because the first time we did it we were in like a tiny studio and it is it's
05:55very
05:56very intense because the director then closes the door in because it was in a radio studio that's
06:02where it's set and we did it in an actual radio studio some and like with two fixed cameras so
06:06now I'm just sat there much closer than you and I sat now with Alan Partridge which is like I
06:15don't know
06:15it's like a sort of direct hit of your absolute hero and you're that far away and actually a lot
06:21of the
06:21shots kind of rely on the fact that you're in each other's grills and there's no there's no space some
06:27people have been very nice about my performance and it's that nervousness and stuff but there's a lot
06:34of it that I'm just like you know handing over from my life onto the screen where I'm genuinely in
06:41awe of
06:41this person and I'm genuinely scared that I'm gonna ruin it and that's what I'm thinking and that's what
06:48sidekick Simon is thinking yeah yeah um tell us about the uh the guts and the kind of willpower it
07:01took to
07:01make a movie that you'd written um yeah so we made have you seen it no so we made it
07:09we made a short
07:10film in 2007 and I don't think that took too much guts or willpower because it's just a short film
07:18so
07:19to make the feature I think we're very lucky it was an adaptation of that short film I didn't have
07:24much
07:25fear at all about about any of it I think from the from the start of what once we once
07:31we wrote it and
07:32I wrote I wrote it with Tom Basden once we wrote it I was reading the script and I thought
07:38I could
07:39totally imagine this being a feature film you never know completely but I think I think I'm I mean I've
07:47got lots of self-doubt in in in lots of it but I did I did think I always thought
07:53if I wrote a script
07:55the question was whether I was able to write a script but I felt if I wrote a script in
08:00this case
08:00with Tom where I really loved it and really believed in it I I thought then there'd be no reason
08:09why it
08:09shouldn't be made and maybe be good how long did it take to write about six weeks but it took
08:18an
08:18incubation period of course yeah 17 years yeah yeah yeah I think I think we with those characters it
08:26that we had in the short film I think we had complete faith that they were like they're quite
08:31interesting and we and me and Tom we were in a sketch group years ago and we so we've learned
08:37each
08:37other's rhythms over the years do you do you still enjoy stand-up I don't know I mean I did
08:44it last
08:45night and I just loved it I do I do love doing it but I feel like maybe sometimes it
08:51takes out you put
08:53quite a lot of yourself into it and how much of the show will be poem based this one there's
09:01there's 18
09:03poems it's usually 18 poems yeah I start when I when I did my first warm-up or first you
09:11know preview
09:13on scratch night I start with about 50 actually a full deck of playing cards I read more playing cards
09:19hmm and I do that and talking between them and then gradually it just gets whittled down and whittled
09:25down until I've got 18 but I've complete faith in what and what's your not so what's your comic
09:32character but what's what is the thing that you're looking for that makes you laugh in a poem
09:43um is it about vulnerability is it about being strange is this I don't know I mean sometimes there's
09:53sometimes something unexpected will happen in a poem but then sometimes I certainly when I first started
09:59writing them there'd be stuff where nothing unexpected is happening and it's sort of almost
10:06uh the the joke in itself is that I'm reading this thing out I do remember that was like a
10:12big part of
10:13it when I started where it would just be about like two people like coming across each other on a
10:18hill and
10:19curtsying and you're like I mean that's a disgrace that I'm reading that out and because I'd start I'd
10:25tried stand up before and it had been like I found it really hard just like literally jokes and I'd
10:32done
10:33it and I just hadn't worked out what my voice was and this stuff really unlocked it it's it's character
10:38comedy like um no I don't think it is not really no not now that then it was yeah yeah
10:44because I also
10:45played it drunk so I I was like my suit was ill-fitting and that would have been about 2005
10:52or
10:52four or five and then around about 2009 I switched into like a smarter suit my friend came and watched
11:00the gig and said she thinks it would be better if my character's more dignified and then I stopped
11:08I'd already stopped pretending to be drunk by that point but now it was more
11:12no it wasn't character it's like a persona I mean you don't know it at the start or or because
11:18of
11:18coming it from that direction of it being a bit more of a character it is strange to think where
11:23you're trying to get to but but I do think you need to try and get to something where there's
11:28a lot of
11:28yourself in it and so now I think I can sort of there are probably bits where I'm kind of
11:34having my cake
11:35and eating it but largely yeah I think there's there's there's quite a lot of me of me in there
11:41I think and does it feel like there is a lot to write about like do you do you
11:48is is the well always full when you when you go to write oh no no but with this there
11:56was a lot
11:56it was just kind of unpicking how to do it what was strange is I had um written a show
12:03when I was
12:05ill and it was called the wars because I was in the wars um I was kind of merrily going
12:12along doing
12:12it as a work in progress and doing it a lot in London just going hammering away at it and
12:18it was
12:18getting better and better I really did like it by the end but then I just thought I don't know
12:22whether I can do this at this precise moment and then lockdown yeah so it's kind of a lost one
12:29but there's in in the new show there's there's some of that is still there's elements of that that
12:34still stay yeah so as you were saying that I I it seemed to me that when you came out
12:45first of all
12:45and I asked you about the illness you were genuinely it looked like you were what like uncomfortable and
12:57is is do you have a sense of there's that there's stuff that you don't
13:03want to happen in public or in conversation or on stage or like are you yeah guarded or
13:11a sensitive in that way or something I mean you know what happened was you asked me that and um
13:20so um
13:24so I did all of that stuff and then got the all clear from from that situation yeah then there's
13:31um four years of like MRI scans and cc scans every three months just to check I was okay
13:38then I got the all clear hugged it out with my doctor and then um a year later which is
13:45um last
13:49uh December uh I found another lump in in my hip and I got I had all the tests and
14:01all of that stuff
14:02and then got diagnosed again with cancer yeah so and I haven't told anyone like I've never talked
14:10about it I in you know in public yeah and so um it felt it did feel like a um
14:18it felt like a big place
14:20to start and so it said so with that one I so I had an operation last it's a year
14:28ago so last last um
14:31February and they removed they removed that tumor and then um I started a course of immunotherapy
14:41in March of last year and so every three weeks I do this immunotherapy exactly the same as last time
14:51they removed everything and they scan everything so I don't have cancer now yeah but I'm doing the
14:56treatment for that and I've been very fortunate and when it happened it was all completely and utterly
15:04entangled with the release of our film so I got diagnosed I think in the January and then
15:15that night I did my show which was talking about at one point in my show I'm talking about when
15:23I
15:23got diagnosed with cancer five years ago and then I did that show for a week then went to Sundance
15:30for
15:30the film festival and then we opened the film and then I just remember being on stage with um
15:39Griff and who directed it and Carey Mulligan who's in it and Tom Basden I mean there's a sort of
15:46numbness
15:46about it because there's just it sort of feels impossible that these two things are happening at
15:51the same time where I don't know how emotional I would have been in Sundance it's at altitude
15:57you know it's really it's in the mountains and there was a lot going on and I was so overwhelmed
16:03that
16:03we made our film and that it was going well so it probably would have done done it on its
16:07own
16:09and yeah there was like one interview where I just slightly lost it I'm not surprised because
16:16it sounds like being a double agent or something it sounds well it is slightly I mean it's weird when
16:21you ask the question at the start where I didn't I didn't quite know what to do with the question
16:28because you can say no I'm fine I mean that's another way of doing it I could say yeah no
16:33I'm fine
16:33how are you but there was I thought maybe you might have read something or something I don't
16:39know idea how it got into my head it's the handshake yeah how weak was it it was very strong
16:44because that's what alarmed me what's he what's he pretending this guy's covering an illness up it the
16:56the treatment and the illness story alongside the kind of the the jet taking off in the film
17:06world sounds like a movie does it yeah I think so I kind of felt like when I was in
17:11hospital
17:11I thought it felt like a I write books as well like little books of kind of poetry and dialogue
17:18and I was thinking when I was inside there that there's definitely a book I just can't
17:25it was so interesting like experiencing both those things they were on consecutive weekends the um
17:31Sundance and then the operation and so it felt it's quite I mean you don't really have to be
17:38someone working in our job to notice the similarities they're like quite stark where you're like
17:45getting a chauffeur driven car in one chapter and over here I'm on a line bike
17:52and then over here you're like being given this amazing food and drinks but here there's this sort
17:58of gray plate of mints and then you've got these amazing PR girls who are like taking places off of
18:05that and the nurses and then you've got the premiere and you've got the operation you know it is completely
18:10wild you've got this you know five-star hotel they're putting you up in you've got this you know
18:16hospital ward where there's one guy who's like quite rude
18:23but maybe I mean now even talking to you about it it's it's obviously because it's my life
18:28and you don't know anything about it you know it with friends you sort of chip away at things and
18:36you talk about small elements of it but to give the whole like I've never really talked about the
18:41whole year so maybe it maybe it is more maybe there's a chance it could be yeah yeah what kind
18:48of stuff makes you laugh um I know it's bad but like if I think probably the thing I watch
18:57most is
18:57The Office and just keep going back to it again and again and again I must have watched those like
19:04there's only 12 14 episodes I just kind of there's something comforting about it but I'm not like
19:13probably to be fair sitting roaring at a sitcom no no it's been quite the chat
19:22there's a lot going on hasn't it well I think you should open with ill again get to your places
19:32I'd only become predictable I don't think you were so you're surprising
19:38um thanks for coming on and uh thanks very much for talking to me real pleasure
19:54and now ladies and gentlemen would you please welcome back Dermot Kennedy before
19:58um
19:58um
19:58um
19:58um
19:58um
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