Ep 252: Jason Mantzoukas

Hello, it's Ed Gamble here from the Off Menu Podcast.

Hello, it's James Acaster here from the Off Menu Podcast.

And before the episode starts, we'd like to talk to you about All Our Relations, a non-profit co-founded by your friend of mine, comedian Jen Brister, and Georgia Takax.

Yes, All Our Relations was originally started to support 15 families in Gaza when the genocide started, but now supports 21 families and funds several mutual aid projects, including two seven-day food kitchens and two mobile food parcel delivery schemes, as well, feeding hundreds of families in Gaza every single day.

They've created an absolutely amazing thing.

And we feel like, you know, it's the off-menu podcast.

We talk about food and we are very lucky to eat wonderful food and have access to absolutely brilliant food all of the time.

And I think we need to talk about people who have access to no food, James.

Absolutely.

So if people would like to donate, please go to allourrelations.co.uk or look at the links in Jen Brister's bio on Instagram.

Every penny raised goes to supporting people in Gaza.

Thank you so much and enjoy the episode.

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Hello, and welcome to the Off Menu Podcast, taking the raw steak of friendship, adding in the mustard of humor, the chopped gherkin of two buddies, the raw onion, red onion of having a nice chat with your friends, and

capers and capers as well.

Steak tartar, podcast tartare, James.

Oh, that is lovely, Ed.

I didn't know what that was to begin with.

Did you not?

Was raw steak not a clue?

I thought it was going to get cooked.

I thought it was about to get cooked.

I thought you were going to scissor it on the pan of friendship or something.

Oh, yeah.

But it was the steak of friendship, so you can't use the pan of friendship for that.

This is the off-menu podcast.

That is Ed Gamble.

My name is James A.

Castle.

Together we own a dream restaurant, and every single week we invite in a guest and we ask for their favourite ever, starter, main course, dessert, side dish, and drink, not in that order.

And this week, our guest is

Jason Manzoukas.

He's been in everything that you like.

Yes.

I'd say.

Brooklyn 9-9.

Yes.

That's the only thing you like isn't it yeah that's all i like that's all i want to watch ever he is what i would describe the league he's in the league he's he's in parks and recreation he's um in um percy jackson and the lightning thief he's also has a fantastic podcast um called how did this get made uh him and paul shear and june diane raphiel and it's absolutely amazing they talk about films that you might not consider to be good necessarily but they talk about them in a very very funny way yes and we've already had Paul Scheer on the podcast.

So I think we should go for the hat-trick now that we've had Jason on.

Yes, absolutely.

We should go for the hat-trick.

But today is the second goal.

It's Jason Manzoukas.

Very excited to have Jason on.

Just to let you know, we are recording this intro over the internet, but the episode itself is in the studio.

Yeah, it might be confusing for you, for the listeners.

But what we do is we record the intro in our homes and then we race to the studio to record the episode.

Yeah.

And then it is going to be just for a bit of fun, a race back to our homes for the outro.

Yes, and that's exactly, and that's exactly what's happening.

But we do have a secret ingredient, James, that if Jason says it, he will be kicked out of the dream restaurant.

Yes, today.

The secret ingredient is

pimento because his character in Brooklyn 9-9 is called Adrian Pimento.

We're very clever boys for coming up with that.

Well done, us.

And also,

I should say, James, this is the last episode of the series.

Ah, man.

Series 4.

No.

Done and dusted.

Yeah, well, Series 4 is done and dusted.

It was done and dusted seven series ago.

This has been Series 11.

What?

And what a series it's been.

What a series it has been.

We've talked about so much food.

We've met so many people, made some new friends along the way.

Benito grew a goatee at one point and then shaved it off and the listeners didn't know that.

Yeah, they didn't know that at all.

But let me tell you, it got a lot more hot and heavy and sexual in the studio.

It

did.

Also, we had all the fruit salads, anything in the fruit salad.

I don't know where we got to with the fruit salad because, look, I'll be honest with you, I really lost my way with the fruit salad.

I think I said there'd be five ingredients.

I think we did more, and I never truly finished the fruit salad.

We did it to make Benito's life difficult.

It's my favorite thing we've ever done, the fruit salad.

It is the one thing guaranteed to make James laugh every time.

is the fruit salad.

It's because you say, and put that in the fruit salad at the end.

It's maybe funny.

Yes.

Oh, I forgot to say about the steak tartare: put that in the fruit salad.

Yeah, that's good stuff.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Should we get on with the episode, James?

Because it's the final episode of the series, and we've got a wonderful guest coming up.

So we shouldn't dilly-dally.

Let's not dilly-dally.

Let's.

What's the opposite of dilly-dally?

That means speed up.

Willy-wally?

Let's willy-wally.

This is the off-menu menu of Jason Manson because

Welcome, Jason, to the Dream Restaurant.

Thrilled to be here, gentlemen.

Whoa, welcome, Jason Benzucas, to the Dream Restaurant.

Nobody's been here for some time.

I could not be more excited to be here.

Look at this.

What a beautiful place.

Well, what do you see?

What do you imagine?

It's the Dream Restaurant.

It's whatever you have in your...

Oh, I was referring to Plosive Studios.

I think it's gorgeous.

Your Dream Restaurant is in Plosive Studios.

We're not going to stop you.

A lot of people say, why don't we film the whole thing and release it?

Because we we just release clips uh and then someone else i don't know if you saw this bonito someone commented on our clip saying that our footage looks like interview footage from a police interrogation it does feel when we walked into the studio it was small yeah and i was like am i in trouble am i have i been have i been like am i being sick we went from a beautiful room outside yeah into a very cramped room yeah we like to make you feel uncomfortable you know what smart i will confess to anything yeah by the end of this we'll have you saying you ate food you've never eaten yeah oh absolutely.

Oh, for, yeah, foie gras, absolutely.

Are you much of a foodie, Jason?

I'm not much of a foodie.

I'm much more of a repetitive eater.

I eat the same things over and over again.

I'm not, I'm, I'm adventurous in the sense of I'll eat plenty of stuff, but I am not like pursuing, I have a very antagonistic relationship to food.

I have a catastrophic food allergy, which makes me mistrust food inherently.

And so as a result, I'm very cagey with like new stuff.

So even like this trip here, I've been in London for a week and I've eaten in almost all the same restaurants that I ate in in 2019 when I was here last.

Right.

Because you trust them.

Just because I trust them.

And I thought they were great.

You know, and I was like, oh, I'll go back there.

And I have.

And there's new restaurants, I'm certain here.

Have not explored them yet.

What's your food allergy?

Eggs.

I can't eat anything that uses egg in the preparation at all.

So as, you know, pastas, breads, sauces, all sorts of stuff.

That's a tricky one, isn't it?

Yeah, it's in a lot.

Egg does pop up more than you expect.

Oh, yeah.

No, it's quite pervasive.

Um, and it's not always obvious.

You know, it's it can be quite subtle, it can be just a part of a component of, you know, here's this dish, and you don't think of it, but like in order to candy the walnuts that are on top of it, they have to use egg whites or something.

It can be minuscule like that, and it'll, it'll get me.

How, how will it get you?

Um, anaphylaxis.

I go like anaphylactic shock.

So I carry an EpiPen with me, you know, the whole, you know, it's, it's catastrophic, you know, but

D, it's manageable, but it's, it's a whole production.

And I have to give like a very

strongly worded speech to every person, every server that begins with, you know, because they're always so, hey, you know,

welcome.

Thank you so much for coming to this restaurant, just like you guys just were.

And then I'm like, hi,

this is going to be a nightmare.

Just get ready.

You know, and then I just start going through listing all the ways in which please don't poison me.

And then if I feel like they're not quite taking it seriously, like there was a guy at a restaurant the other night who went like, oh,

I think you'll be fine.

There's not many eggs in our food.

And I get a cursory glance at the menu that was full of like, mayo, aioli, all these words that I was like, these are definitely full of eggs.

And he was just so dismissive that the next time he came around, I gave him like the backup speech, which is, boy, wouldn't it be just awful if I died in this restaurant

oh no wouldn't that be terrible for your restaurant if you became synonymous with my death

also i don't know when this episode is going to go out but uh as of you know time of recording easter's around the corner oh no thank you

i'm a hard pass on easter it is it's too dangerous yeah you know easter and i'm wondering here on on halloween in america kids throw eggs at people.

That's a big thing.

I got hit with an egg once and had to like immediately go home.

Halloween over.

Skin contact.

Yeah, not as much.

I won't get like have anaphylaxis from skin contact, but I'll get like swelling and hives and like a whole thing.

It was all over my arm, you know?

But yeah.

With the assailant, when they threw the egg, did you say to them, Joe what?

I wish I could have.

They drove by in a truck.

Drove by, they were just driving around throwing eggs at kids on the street.

Teenagers.

Also, they would have been probably delighted.

Oh, they would have been thrilled.

They would have found someone in the world.

But

they found the weakest link

in the kid group.

That's why they're driving around.

They're going, we're going to get one.

We're going to find it.

The worst was that with the kids I was walking around with, I was the only one that got hit.

You know, everybody else, they'd missed everybody else, and I was the only one that got hit and had to go home.

Ah, you see, yeah, I've just now realized that you were a kid in this story.

Yes, sorry.

Because I was imagining you were a man.

You were picturing a full-grown man.

You were a grown man.

You're walking through the house.

You're walking around on the wing and some kids egged you and you had to go home.

By the way, I love that.

And they would have been in the right.

For an adult man to be walking around on Halloween like that with all those kids around, a childless man, I agree.

You know, that is who you should get hit with the egg.

Get him out of here.

Egg away adult.

But no, I was a kid.

I don't remember what I was dressed as, but I was a little kid.

My next question was, what were you dressed as?

Yeah.

Yeah, I don't remember.

I was just trying to remember.

I have no recollection.

But in all likelihood, simply because there were so many years in which I was someone from Star Wars, I was most likely either a stormtrooper or Darth Vader.

Yeah.

Both of which were costumes my mom made for me that were incredible and and that I wore multiple years.

But quite a lot of coverage on those costumes, right?

Quite a lot of sort of armor.

Yes, you would have thought the egg's not getting through.

Nope.

Nope.

That arm, that arm exposed enough to get hit.

Yeah.

If you're dressed as like a big target or something, then you can't really blame those guys.

Yes.

It was just blinking lights with arrows pointed at me.

One of my favorite Halloween outfits you're a part of, you and Nish Kumar

dressed as each other once.

We did.

We did at a Halloween party here in London.

We dressed dressed as each other and had a lot of confused people.

A lot of people.

It was very funny to be at the party together and then separate and then come back together and be like, who have you talked to?

And how confused were they by what was going on?

Because if you're separate, that costume does not work.

Not at all.

It only works when you see the two of us and you're like, oh, this is funny.

This is very funny and very clever because they do look alike.

But just on our own, dressed as just what would appear to be normal people.

Because he was just wearing my uniform a white shirt and jeans yeah and I was wearing his uniform which was a black blazer black shirt and black pants

the only thing that made us unique was we had name tags on with each other's names

we always start with still sparkling water do you have a preference Jason still please James yes I'd like still water I don't like bubbles no makes me gassy Do you not like bubbles across the board?

We're talking soda.

Not so much.

I'm not a big soda guy either.

I'm not a big soda guy, except for the movies.

I'll get a root beer.

That's the treat.

that's like hardcore soda i'd say like you don't do soda but then you rank sodas in

in terms of how hardcore what are other hardcore sodas for you james cream soda cream soda seems not hardcore to me that's hardcore really i feel like that's hardcore well i just wouldn't have it that often strong flavor oh is that it yeah strong flavor okay root beer is like dr pepper on steroids that's like that's see i think dr pepper is like root beer on steroids because dr pepper is like some sort of a medicine or something.

It feels like it's got like its origins, I think, are as like an elixir of some sort.

I don't know.

I don't trust it.

Dr.

Pepper, I don't like it.

But you trust root beer.

But I'll trust root beer all day, every day.

Because it comes from a root.

What root does it come from?

Do we know?

Root 66, I believe.

Old root 66.

So you don't, but you don't trust the bubbles.

I don't trust the bubbles.

They give me gas.

So I'm still in water all the way.

It helps me hydrate more.

Also, I'll drink more water, which I always always need to do because I'm always not hydrated enough.

So if I'm the thing that I've started doing lately, after I saw a friend of mine, Katie Dippled, shout out to Katie Dippled, a great screenwriter, very funny comedian, orders a lemonade the minute she gets to the table to start this process of being like, oh, I'm excited to hydrate.

I'm excited to drink something sweet and it gets you drinking something.

You then are, then, then you roll right into water and you start hydrating.

So I started doing that now, which is very refreshing.

a lemonade to start oh so you do so that that that's that's but that's still softcore pop but that's still in

still lemonade I'm sorry I forgot that yes what I'm talking about is just like lemon water you know like not a fizzy not a bubbles not a not a canned lemonade yeah that seems crazy what would that be called what would lemonade be called here I mean we would still call it lemonade but when you say lemonade here the first thought everyone has is like sprite yes no no no that makes sense yes no that that isn't what I'm talking about thank you so what does aid mean

So I thought aid meant figures.

Yeah.

Ooh, I don't think so.

That's what I've always thought.

Like infusion or flavor, flavored liquid.

Aid.

Yeah, it's true because

it's a suffix that's attached to quite a few things.

None of them in America bubbly, though.

Yeah, I feel that here it's quite a lot of bubbly things.

Lime aid.

Ginger aid.

Ginger aid.

Yeah.

I don't know.

I don't know if we can continue this.

I think we are.

We just have

fundamental different understandings of things?

Bonita, what does aid mean?

Product made of, yeah.

Okay.

It means product made of.

Yeah.

Well, then why is it only for drinks then?

Yeah.

Why can't we have chocolate aid?

Yeah, yeah.

Sausage aid.

Yeah, why wouldn't that be great?

Live aid, I guess.

Oh, yeah.

That was made of live.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it was.

Can't get him on that.

So do you want American lemonade as soon as you sit down at the table?

I do, actually.

Yeah, you can have that for your water course.

I think that's perfect.

Great.

I'd love that.

Well, that was my question, too, is I'd like to have primary and then, if possible, alternate choices.

Yes.

Like, I feel like in a lot of ways, my dinner will look like a dinner that I would be thrilled to have with both of you tonight.

But there's a shadow dinner in my mind that I would also have that is a lot more like

this thing my mom made or you know what I mean?

That is in the background.

The shadow dinner makes it sound quite sort of dark.

Yeah, it is.

And is it like evil gothic?

It's terrifying.

Yeah, it's a terrifying dinner.

It's Halloween again.

It's a Halloween dinner.

It's just eggs.

It's all eggs.

It's an omelette.

Pop-doms or bread.

Pump-domes or bread, Jason Mazugas.

Pump-domes or bread.

I'll be honest, James, it's got to be bread because what is the first thing you're saying?

Papa dumbs.

Papa doms is a thing, because again, as I've and I've listened to enough episodes and realized in this moment when you say these things, I am never certain what you're saying first.

Because pop-a-doms, not a thing we have.

Or if we do, we call it something different.

And I've never bothered to look up.

But I'm certain it has eggs in it.

It's got, is it like a

bready kind of?

No, it's like crispy.

It's an Indian thing.

You get it at the beginning of an Indian meal in the UK.

I think that's less likely to have eggs in it than the bread.

Oh, interesting.

That was a safer bet.

Well, I'm going to go with bread.

Although, you know what?

I'll try something new.

If it's egg-free, I'll have a pop-up dump.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, you can put that, that could be the shadow choice.

Oh, I love this.

Papa Dums in the shadow dinner.

Yeah.

And bread, eggless bread, like a sourdough or something safe in the regular dinner.

So

because, I mean, excuse me, I don't know what eggs are in what bread, you know?

No, I never thought about it.

I know what eggs are.

Sourdough traditionally safe, you know?

Like a pretty, you know, I wouldn't just start.

you know, freestyling sourdough if they put it down.

I'd still ask, but almost always it's going to be safe.

Yeah.

You know, there's a couple of breads that are pretty, pretty safe.

But I kind of steer clear of bread just because you never know when someone's going to be fancy and brush some egg on top so it looks good or something like that.

So, what are the danger breads?

What are the breads where you see them and are like, I'm going, no, India?

Hala.

Hala, big, huge, you know, brioche.

These are like egg-laden breads.

These are like mostly eggs, you know, and they're, yeah, they have that glaze on them.

They're very super dangerous.

And restaurants are obsessed with brioche as well.

They love it.

And heartbreakingly, a bunch of years ago, everybody was like, oh, for hamburgers now, brioche buns.

Yeah, yeah.

No more like regular old buns that anybody can eat like you Jason Manzukas no brioche fancy buns everything's egg everything

every at a certain point it became everything had eggs in it even like um that was the big that was the absolutely devastating thing about like the mixology craze was that suddenly there was egg foam in cocktails yeah and like that was like some that was really wild to wrap my head around because Why would you ever think that that would be a source of danger?

Like a cocktail?

Like I went on a date once with a woman to like a just a bar, no food.

We had drinks, it was lovely.

We kissed goodnight, and I was like, I have to go to the hospital,

but I was so confused.

I was like, I'm having an allergic reaction, but I haven't eaten anything.

And she was like, Well, what are you allergic to?

And I was like, Eggs?

She was like, Oh, no, my drink had eggs in it.

And I was like, Why?

I was like, Why would you do that?

No, that's disgusting.

First of all, why would you order a drink that has egg foam in it?

That sounds rancid in in every way.

Hang on, so she had an eggy drink.

Yeah.

You kissed her goodnight.

Correct.

And then you had to go to the hospital.

Correct.

So you kissed the lady and then you said, I have to go.

I have to go.

I have to go.

I had to stop kissing.

I had to stop the egg.

This was a successful day.

Yeah, yeah.

Do you know how hard it is to get to the point where I'm like, this has gone well?

This is well enough that we are now the classic Los Angeles.

Let me walk you to your car.

We are kissing at the car.

This is going great.

And then suddenly I'm like, I guess I have to leave and go to the emergency room.

This is awful.

Or take an EpiPen.

Goodbye.

And then she was like, oh my God, I'm so sorry.

I was like, why?

You didn't know.

Why would you?

You did nothing wrong except choose

what sounds to me like a disgusting drink.

And were you dressed as Darfader or?

Yes, I was dressed as Emperor Palpatine.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

He looks like he's had an allergy.

Oh, yeah, to be fair to him.

He does.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, that guy hates it.

He should have said, I've got to go to the emergency room because you're too good at kissing.

Yes.

Oh,

by the way, well done.

Yeah, thanks.

That's a tough punch.

She could tell everyone that forever now.

She can be like, I once kissed a guy so good he went to the emergency room.

Well, let's get into your meal proper now, your dream starter.

Oh, boy.

Oh, boy.

You know what?

I think for me,

I was thinking about it.

I always want like a Greek salad,

but also a shrimp cocktail is just a, for me, classic starter.

You know, when I was thinking about this, I realized that a lot of the, to me, default classic dinner items that are baked into what I think of as a nice dinner that I want is the menu at like a steakhouse.

Yeah.

And I'm sorry, James, I know that you shit your pants in a steakhouse.

And I don't want to be giving you PTSD right now.

But that, so, and a shrimp cocktail to me is the, you know, when I was a kid, that seemed like what you would get.

That was a fancy thing that you would get at a steakhouse, you know?

And so there's still a way in which I think of it as the quintessential starter.

But, and I also love it.

It's a great, it's a great starter.

So a shrimp cocktail.

Well, we're going to have to do the UK-American division again, aren't we?

Yes.

Because

prawn cocktail here

is like.

Mayo and ketchup sort of mix.

It's like Marie Rose sauce.

Okay.

And that's in with the, yeah, it's just all mixed in.

But shrimp cocktail in the States is like the horseradish and the tomatoes it's exactly it's a cocktail sauce with horse horseradish in it and the and just plain shrimp yeah yeah oh wow i didn't know that either okay wow i'm learning so much

i think i prefer the american one like whenever i've been to an american steakhouse when there's loads of horseradish in it as well and it proper gets in your it's like yes it's got a little bit of a yeah kick to it it's very spicy my favorite of that kind of steakhouse is keen's in new york next time you're in new york it is like a turn of the last century smoking house that has like pipes affixed to the ceiling.

They've got like pipes from like, it's Albert Einstein's pipe.

It's like all, it's, it's a wild

pipes.

It's crazy.

Is it really Albert Einstein's pipe?

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

All these famous, all these ex-presidents, all these famous people, all the, this is the pipe they were, they used when they came to, it's a whole thing.

It's a nuts place, you know?

So were they using the steakhouse's pipes or did they did everyone accidentally leave their pipes?

No, that would be very funny.

We got a pipe left.

Sorry, you can't leave, Mr.

Einstein, until you put your pipe down.

And we get to keep it.

No, they're like these long, it looks like Gandalf's pipes.

Right, okay.

They're kind of,

you know, fragile, you know, long white pipes.

And, you know, people sign them and they're all like lining the ceilings.

It's an incredibly beautiful place.

If you want to look it up, I can show you a thing.

Maybe that's what Oppenheimer said to him.

Yeah.

You left your pipe at King's.

Yeah, exactly.

Oh, wow, that's great.

And it's a great, like proper, like old school new york steakhouse yeah i do like yeah yeah like fancy american steakhouses are great we went to a mad one though in um have you heard of the madonna inn uh yeah in california yes they have a steakhouse there that's all pink and gold yes with a mad carpet and me and my wife uh we're on honeymoon and arrived too early got quite drunk at happy hour and then went to the boutique and my wife bought a dress which was the same pattern as the carpet in the steakhouse Incredible.

That's amazing.

Yeah, that was a good night.

And we had shrimp cocktail that night as well.

Home run.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

A lot of my dinner will be an homage to your honeymoon.

Yeah.

Dress the same colour as the carpet.

I think that's, so does she ever put that dress on every once in a while to be like, remember this?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It doesn't quite work, I'd say, just like in England when it's like, you know, bad weather and stuff to put on a fancy dress the same color as a carpet in California.

It's really funny.

And your shadow choice is the Greek salad.

Yeah, I think so.

I like a Greek salad.

I like a, there's like part of my shadow meal is like a a Greek salad.

Hummus and Pita is a much more like Mediterranean.

You know, not a heavy steak, you know, laden meal, but like a lighter meal.

It doesn't feel like it should be in the shadows, you know.

I agree.

If anything, it's bright.

It's, you know, it's not shadows.

Bring it out of the shadows.

Let its light shine.

You know, let us bask in its vitamin D glow.

Get that sun.

How do you, we've talked, I think we've talked about this on the podcast before.

No, I talked to Richard Herring about it on his podcast with a Greek salad.

Hold on a second.

He asked me We talked about food on ever books.

He was interviewing me about my book.

He was interviewing me about my book.

We were talking about feta.

Yeah.

And on a Greek salad,

do you prefer when they bring it and there's the whole block on top, or do you prefer it cubed and dispersed throughout the salad?

Jesus Christ.

I like,

by the way,

great question.

Thank you.

Great question.

And my choice would be a block.

Yes.

My choice would be a block.

And my preference in Greek salad is a ghorgatiki salad, which is a Greek for like a village salad kind of, sort of.

And it would just be tomato, cucumber, some, you know, oil, and just the cheese.

Yeah.

Like, that's it.

None of the rest of stuff that gets put into Greek salads a lot, I feel like, messes it up.

No, like, I like a super simple one.

No, no lettuce then?

Nope.

No olives or anything like that.

Olives, totally fine.

I happen to not love olives, but would be appropriate.

Yeah.

I agree.

I mean, it's all about the cheese for me anyway.

Yeah.

You know, the cheese, the good tomatoes, cucumbers, that's about it.

You know, that's a solid salad for me.

But you're having the cheese as one block.

But I break it up.

But you break it up yourself.

Yeah, I don't eat it as a block of cheese.

I receive it as a block.

Yeah.

But I'm just wondering about the cheese.

You're received, but not taken.

You're having the cucumbers.

So you think I'm just, what, grabbing it with my hand and just like nine on a block of cheese?

And you say, and you say yoink when you grab it as well.

Yeah, you have to say yoink.

Yeah.

We should have taken that back.

I think you you should.

Yeah.

I said zoinks on something the other day, and they were like, I think that's the first time anybody's ever said zoinks on this.

Did you say it?

Did you think I'm going to say zoinks now?

Did you naturally say zoinks?

No, I have somehow inserted zoinks back into the rotation for me.

I think it started on my podcast as a way to talk about truly absurd movies that would be just like, this is a real zoinks moment for me.

And now I've just started using it like without noticing.

Yeah.

Hold on.

You've been doing other podcasts as well.

Here's the thing.

Hear me out, James.

I can't believe this.

I've been doing my podcast for 14 years simply to get to be a guest on this podcast.

That was launching me towards Plosive Studios in this moment, right now.

Yeah, okay.

I'll accept that.

You also say bananas a lot on your podcast.

I do as well.

And I think bonkers.

From listening to your podcast, bonkers and bananas has become part of my rotation.

Thank God.

Yeah.

That makes me very happy.

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Your dream main course.

Now, I'm looking forward to hearing out of the shadow.

But we're out of the shadows with that now.

Wait, so my question is: this, gentlemen, and here's my question.

Yeah.

I think there needs to be an option for a middle course, like a pasta course, a secundi.

You can do that.

Okay.

Yeah.

I would like the pasta that Steve Coogan's daughter makes

because listening to the episode where he described the pasta that she makes that he wanted, I was like, oh, I want that too.

Yeah.

That sounds fantastic and like light and clean, perfect for like a mid-meal plate.

Yeah.

I want Steve Coogan's daughter's pasta.

And I don't mean that in any gross way.

So don't come at me for this.

It's the pasta from the episode.

I want that pasta.

Is this the first time a guest has

directly taken something from another guest stream menu that they haven't heard of?

I'm very happy that we have to go to the bathroom.

I'm glad.

I haven't even considered this as a menu hack, but.

It's quite exciting.

I'm delighted.

I can't even remember what the pasta was.

It was like a, it was like a very, like, like I said, it was like a very light, simple pasta that had like, I think he said broccoli or it was like with greens in it.

It had like a, it was like a, almost like an agliolio, but with greens.

It was not a heavy sauced pasta or anything like that.

So I was like, oh, that sounds great and perfect for because i would like my main to be a steak yeah you know my main is going to be a steak i want something light i don't want like a heavy meat sauce or a you know some sort of like real beefy pasta i want something light so that's i i thought that was a great pasta when he said it so i'll take that do you have the shadow sekundi Such a good question.

Of course I do, Ed.

I feel like my shadow sekundi would be like, because the other thing that I'm missing, which I would love that is a little bit more of an appetizer is a charcuterie plate.

The shadow meal is little bites, is more like pita, hummus, Greek salad, like to me, charcuterie with some pickles and some, you know, all that kind of stuff.

That kind of a plate I love, but not so much cheese.

I'm not a big cheese person.

Makes me quite gassy.

So is it too close to egg in your mind, maybe?

No, because I used to be able to eat cheese, but now it just upsets my stomach.

So I just have to steer clear of it.

But it's, I love cheese.

It's great, but it really is my the older i get the more my stomach is like we'd really rather not you know this is not for us anymore we don't do can't do dairy anymore can't really do anything that really challenges my stomach very much yeah so the charcuterie shadows secundi i think so can you say that really quick the charcuterie shadows secundi yeah

you can tell this guy oh he's

having a great time he's acted with the best of them yeah you give you give him a line.

Oh, I can do it.

I can do it.

Sekundi Shadow.

Wait, what is this?

Sharkuteri, Shadows, Sukundi.

Yeah.

Sharcuteri, Shadows, Sukundi.

Oh, yeah.

You got the full range.

Oh, yeah.

I'm really excited that you've taken something from another guest's menu,

especially because, like, I know that Steve Dor will hear this podcast.

Yes.

Oh, great.

And it'll be a nice surprise.

Oh, I hope so.

And it sounds like you're making a wonderful pasta.

So congrats.

Yeah, congrats.

So your steak, is that from a particular place?

Is it a particular colour?

You know, how do you want it done?

You know, and this is going to be, I suspect, very controversial,

but it's not that it's necessarily from a place, although Keene's would be a great one.

And I'm controversial in the sense that anytime I order this steak with people, they're always like, why are you getting the fillet?

It's the blandest, most boringest, least flavorful, least fatty, least marbled, all the things you're supposed to say about meat.

It's not, it's the, but for whatever reason, it's the one that in my mind, I'm like, well, that's a steak.

That's what I get.

I'm getting this fillet.

So I would get a fillet.

I would get a fillet, medium rare, nothing really fancy about it.

You know, I'm not a big sauce guy or any of that kind of stuff.

So I'm pretty much good to go.

Salt and pepper.

I'm, I'm, I'm ready.

Let's do this.

Sort of caveman style, really.

Caveman.

Yes.

Yeah.

A lot of people think I'm like the liver king of comedy.

Do you know who that is?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm aware of the liver king.

Can you look up Liver King?

Yeah, show me.

That was really, I think this really, for James, is really going to come home.

So background to the Liver King.

He's like a sort of fitness guy, right?

Like

an influencer personality type fitness.

What the hell?

So that's him with a bigger thing.

He's like a proper caveman guy who said, and all he eats is raw meat.

And it's just him eating raw meat, eating raw meat, and his whole thing.

He's always in his shorts.

And then everybody kept saying, like, well, you're clearly on steroids.

And he'd be like, no, no, no, this is achievable through just eating raw meat and exercise.

And of course, at a certain point, he had to come out and be like, Of course, I'm taking steroids

as well.

I'm not just eating bone marrow because his videos were just him slurping down bone marrow and all this other just absolutely nuts, disgusting stuff.

And then people were like, Of course, not.

That's not how this works.

And he had to be like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course.

I'm shooting up like insane amounts of steroids in order to look like this.

Really sad apology as well.

Oh, he had to do, I think, multiple sad apologies.

I'll let you all down.

It's a very good lyric.

And he's just an influencer.

So this is a guy who started posting videos.

Yeah.

And then he ends up doing an apology.

But like hugely takes off in that kind of space on

YouTube or maybe TikTok or something that is people looking to like hack their bodies, basically.

How to unlock, you know, all these guys are trying to figure out immortality or some such nonsense.

And it's all about, you know, oh, just eating raw meat or all this kind of nonsense, all these boondoggles that are meant to be like, no, you want the answer to long life and happiness, this is it, plus like 10 grand a week of performance-enhancing drugs.

Well, that's insane.

So, and that's who you are.

That's who I am.

I'm like, I'm like, yes, I'm very caveman in the sense of like, yes, I'm, I'm like,

yes, I'm like the liver king of comedy.

Yeah, you know, that's how I think of myself.

Do you get tired of having to like justify your state choice to your dining companions?

No, i i'm not tired of it i just tell i'm just like i we're just i'm just doing this i'm not you know they because they will i'm not i'm not um i don't care enough you know that's the thing like i feel like i grew up mistrusting food so much that i have no love i don't i'm not like pursuant of like oh the best version of it now i'm scratching nostalgic itches almost or something like that.

Like these things are just like, they occupy, they are, you know, Proust's Madelines.

They are provoking a memory or, you know, eliciting some sort of nostalgia from me more so than I'm like, oh, I can't wait for that first bite of that ba, ba-ba, you know, whatever.

I don't fetishize the food as much as, to me, the experience.

Can I just say how highbrow you've come across by saying Proust Madelines rather than Ratatouille, Ratatouille?

Yeah, yeah.

I did talk about Liver King.

So I've gotta, I've gotta recover.

I didn't hear anything you said after Proust Madeline.

I was thinking numbers.

Because you were lost in a reverie.

Oh, yeah, it's like, like and then i literally arrived at oh yeah it's like the ratatouille matatou yeah it is literally what happened in my head i love it when i rejoined the conversation ed was saying ratatouille vatatoui and i was like okay yep

yeah i picked i think i'm we're all and by the way we're now all on the same page

yeah so i know that now i liked watching you drift off into a reverie yeah yeah unfortunately and james knows this i'd be the guy at the steakhouse going why aren't why aren't you having a ribeye yeah oh and and and i believe you well i don't like that about myself but i really really.

I don't like it about you either.

No, thank you.

And it's why, frankly, you weren't invited to do that.

I think in the past, I probably would have been that person as well.

But since I have four cats.

Such a cool flex.

Yeah.

And

also, what?

I don't know where this is going.

Well, every time I tell people I've got four cats, I get the same response from people.

Like, most people just be like, what?

That's too many cats.

That's not.

And it's not.

And I'm sick of it now.

Oh, my God.

I'm sick of having the same basic opinion thrown in my face about my own life and how I choose to live it.

And I'm just bored of it.

Like complete strangers.

Pets will come up with a conversation.

They'll go, but do you have any pets?

I'll be like, yeah, I've got cats.

They'll be, how many?

I'll be, here we fucking go.

Yeah.

I'll say four.

And then they'll be like,

whoa, what?

No, you can't have four cats.

That's crazy.

That's like you've gone over the crazy line now.

That's a crazy amount of cats.

I've got to have that fucking conversation again.

Oh, I like it.

So now I would never say to anyone, are you only audio Phillip?

What are you doing?

Well, it's the opposite, though, isn't it?

Because people are having a go at Jason because they think you're doing like the most boring thing, right?

Correct, sure.

Yes.

And for you, you're doing the craziest thing.

Sure.

Four cats is not Phil at steak.

I still think it's...

Four cats is Liver King.

Well, if it is.

Ever or whatever.

It's hard math for me.

I'm not going to end up having to do an apology on social media, but

fuck my cats.

Four cats is Liverking.

Did you get four cats at once, or have you over time accumulated?

Oh, this year I got another cat?

Oh, within a year and a half we got four cats yeah yeah so we got we got one given to us sure for free got him a buddy makes sense a month after james is a cat influencer so he gets cats gifted yeah yeah they're not on steroids great so smart so smart people love the podcast they give you a cat yes

and then like eight months later i was like let's get another cat so we looked for cats we found two we really liked we're like right it's one of these two and i'm like yeah yeah both of them both of them yeah so that makes total sense yeah yeah when you put it like that it makes total sense when you said four I will say my initial reaction was, that's entirely too many cats.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure.

Especially for someone who I'm assuming is on the road quite a bit.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

They just man the house by themselves.

Smart?

Yeah, my girlfriend moved out ages ago.

It's just the four of them.

She hates cats.

She hates cats.

It was very aggressive of you to make four.

Yeah, yeah.

They really hate different.

That's a conversation you are clearly not wanting to have.

If you are with someone who doesn't like cats and you just keep getting more cats,

they come back and there's two more cats yeah what are you trying to tell me i'm gonna leave they all look so different though that it makes sense when you see them right yeah because if three of them were there i'd be like this gang is incomplete you know you need a you need a big guy in a gang you need a little guy you need like the the yeah the weapon the weapons expert the tank guy the explosives guy the sniper

yeah yeah ed did say when we got when we completed the set Ed was like, it's like cats in a cartoon.

Yeah.

Where they're all a different breed and they've all got different roles.

oh my god and uh that's that's what we've done and now you're ready to pull off a heist i think we are ready to pull off a heist

ocean's 11 over there

which sounds like a cat food brand it does absolutely perfect watched that again the other day ocean's 11 what a film yeah

i don't know why i wasn't expecting that

what a wow what a film just full endorsement i think i'll watch it once a year really

what are your other what are your other movies that you'll watch once a year zodiac great homerun dark night Okay.

I'd watch once a year.

I love it.

There you have it.

Great.

By the way,

unimpeachably great list.

Yeah.

Home run.

Yeah, yeah.

Those three I find very re-watchable.

Yes, I agree completely.

I'll throw the big Lebowski in there.

Oh, yeah.

Very, very

Frozen Empire.

Yeah, well, I've watched that three times in the last two weeks.

Congratulations, anyway.

Thank you.

That's going to be my new one.

Major Christmas when I want to feel cozy.

I'm going to watch Ghostbusters Frozen Empire.

Your dream side dish, Jason.

Okay.

So I think of sides as a vegetable and a starch.

Which one is me and which one's Ed?

Yeah.

Oh, wow.

That's interesting.

Yeah.

Hmm.

I think of,

boy, that's a tough one.

Which one of you is the vegetable and which one of you is the starch?

I see myself as a starch.

do you yeah that's interesting

james do you think of yourself as a vegetable i think maybe yeah ed maybe you're the starch and james maybe you're the vegetable

that's fun i was expecting it the other way around were you yeah you're a very healthy boy well so are you

not as healthy as it this guy i feel like and and this is maybe

really opening a can of worms but while i'm just like eating all of this food and you guys are here like are you not eating at all you never talk about what you guys are ordering yeah which i find to be rude well i think we we let you order for the table we let the guest order for the table right

i like that conceptually i think that's smart do you think that you're excited about what i've ordered are you interested in this meal because i want to keep you guys happy i like your meal i mean i wouldn't want to eat every guest's meal either well we're not always invited to the dream sometimes people say they want other people there oh i'm not interested in other people i want only you guys okay perfect yeah that's my my goal is i'd like to sit with you both have a meal chat talk about comedy yeah i enjoyed both of your seasons of taskmaster quite a bit i'd love to talk about that

um yeah what

i want i want my jason's seen it so

you won oh you have seen it i have seen it yeah did you i'm sorry did did you need me to say congratulations james well i won you did you didn't win now did you win i did yes yeah nice yeah yeah he did he won he won taskbaster yes and came bottom in champions of champions thank you oh i haven't seen that yeah i came bottom so i've spoiled that for you i had a meltdown that's okay oh did you really yeah

proper meltdown on camera or off camera meltdown on camera during one of the tasks we it was only one episode we just filmed for one day doing the tasks and um we had to get a duck from the top of the garden into a pond that they put in at the bottom of the garden.

Okay.

Without coming out from behind the line.

We couldn't move the line, so they shut down everything basically and i ended up trying to get all pipes together and set a tap and run it down there and other people did it in like 12 minutes and i i took 97 minutes and i didn't get the duck in and i chopped the duck's head off and smart by the way it sounds like you did it right yeah i think

i took the pipes but you had like a meltdown yeah wow yeah as bad as james is on bake off oh no i would like can somebody put both together yeah yeah that would be good mine was

i was always sort of present in my head going, I think this will probably be funny.

I was genuinely frustrated, but I was always thinking, oh, it's Taskmaster.

Of course, this is going to happen.

I was never having a genuine physical and emotional breakdown.

But you were annoyed.

Oh, yeah, big time.

Yeah.

Big time.

So I'd imagine if I did it again, which I shouldn't have because I was champion.

But like,

if you go back and do it again, but surely I would think that you would be...

You'd have all the things that you were like the first time around.

You're like, oh, I should have done that in your head.

So then if you do it again, again aren't you thinking like because i i had to do a similar task when i did it with a golf ball yeah and realized afterwards i should have used pipes

so if i was in your position i would have done that because i've been like aha learning from my mistakes but then that would have been wrong yes is that what was in your head ed no what was in my head was it's going to be so cool to see that duck going down the little pipe oh yeah and that's that's the mistake you made yeah the mistake you made was visualizing success yeah yeah i was doing the edit in my head yeah yeah

you were like oh and then we're gonna cut back into the studio and people are going to put me on their shoulders.

They're going to be blown away at how effortlessly the duck just swam down that.

Ducks belong on water.

My whole thing incorporates their natural environment.

I was genuinely thinking that.

They're like, I want the duck to be happy.

Yeah.

Of course.

And then for me, personal glory.

So yeah, we'll eat the same thing as you.

Yeah, great.

We'll have the starch and the veggies.

We didn't.

We'll just quickly look back.

I don't think we got a shadow main.

Oh, yeah, good question.

Because we just had the

fillet.

Yeah.

You don't have to have one, you know.

Stay Mediterranean for it?

Ed, I'm going to have one.

Okay, well, I'm glad to hear it.

There is a Greek restaurant in New York called Pilos that makes a pork shoulder, pork shank

main that is fantastic.

Wow.

And would go so beautifully with the shadow meal

that I've already set up that I'm going to plug that in.

Yes.

Okay.

Wow.

Now, because we're dining with you.

Go for it.

Do we get options to just hop scotch from the shadow and the...

Yeah.

You can cherry-pick whichever you'd like.

Can I just say that so far, and don't take this the wrong way, I'm 100% shadow.

You know what?

On many nights, I am as well.

Yeah, yeah.

I don't want the heavy steak meal.

Yeah.

Most nights I want the lighter meal.

I want the lighter, more Mediterranean, more, you know, you know, hummus salad, something like that.

I love it.

I feel I've only hopped over to the shadow for the pork, for the pork shoulder.

Okay.

But up until now, I've been

pork cocktail, the shadow, the secundi.

I'm going for the pasta, the Steve Cook and his daughter's pasta.

And then I'm going for the- You know what?

I'd like to remove the charcuterie.

I would like Steve Coogan's daughter's pasta to be both present in, to be the secundi on both mainline and shadow.

Okay, I'm happy with that.

Okay.

And then, so for me, sides-wise, back to sides, my grandmother's lemon potatoes,

which are just like a

truly a

thing that I have a memory of that I have never been able to find again, even though it is a common, you know, in a Greek restaurant or like even like my sisters tried to make them or stuff, but I can't get the act what I think of it as the taste back.

Yeah, I have been chasing the lemon, those lemon potatoes forever.

And then there is Greek stuffing that my mother makes for American Thanksgiving, which is also very much for me a nostalgia pick that really hits a kind of that to me is a flavor.

It's about like the food of its comfort.

It's like the food of my childhood, but it's only, you know, it's, it's for the holiday, but it is, you know, there's something very sweet about it.

That's, you know, and it is, you know, a little sweet tasting.

It's like ground beef and rice and chestnuts and a bunch of other stuff.

It's delicious.

Anyway, that stuffing I would have as well.

This is good.

I mean, I can see why you eat for nostalgia because growing up, you had really nice Greek food.

Not all the time, but yes.

Yeah.

That makes total sense.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

And very repetitive stuff.

Very, you know, like the same kind of ingredients recontextualized into this dish or into this dish, you know, so it was a lot of similar stuff.

And what are the, I've ever had lemon potatoes before.

So what kind of potatoes are they?

You know what?

That's a great question.

I don't know what kind of potatoes they are, but they're just sliced into wedges.

So, and they're, you know, roasted with lemon and oil.

And it's super simple.

But it's a good question.

I don't know what exact potato they are.

I watched a TV show last night here

in your country.

Yes.

Called, get ready for it, Celebrity Mastermind.

Yes.

And I genuinely sat in the room confounded because I was like, this must be a comedy show.

There's absolutely no way, shape, or form that this is a real television show because the people seem to be able to choose the category that they would be asked questions about.

Yes, they have a specialist subject.

Yes.

And then they have there's a general knowledge around

one of the contestants was Ivo

Graham.

His topic was Phillip Seymour Hoffman movies.

The other contestants categories was potatoes.

And she was just asked, she was like a celebrity chef.

It was

my understanding.

All of her questions were just potato-based.

And I was like, none of these are questions that I would even, and she had a knowledge that I was genuinely shocked.

So much so, James, when you just said what kind of potatoes, I was like, oh no.

Just like that woman last night, I have to remember the names and types of different potatoes.

And so I don't know what kind of potatoes they are.

But this celebrity mastermind, I was flummoxed by because it appeared to be taking place on like the most ramshackle of stages.

It was bizarre.

So I mean, Mastermind has been a show in the UK for decades.

Yeah.

And I believe the guy who came up with the format used to work in the army or the police or something.

And it is based on interrogation techniques.

He was captured.

Really?

He was captured by the enemy forces and they interrogated him.

Only about things he knew quite a bit about.

He got to choose a specialist subject.

Yeah, his specialist subject was

secrets of the British government.

We have you captured.

We're going to ask you only questions about Star Wars, the original trilogy, which was one of the categories last night.

I was like, what?

But he says that's what gave me the idea for the show: is that

how because it's very intense when you go, we've both done it.

Really?

Yeah.

How did you do?

What were your topics?

I need to.

Please have just like some quick guesses about what I thought your subjects might have been.

Clue.

Ed's is a TV show.

Mine is food-based.

Oh, boy.

And it's not potatoes.

No,

it's not okay.

Yours is a TV show.

Is it Taskmaster?

No.

Okay.

Is it a show I would know?

Yes.

Oh.

Is it an American show?

It's an American show.

Is it like The Sopranos?

No.

It's a comedy show.

Comedy show.

I picked something that revising it would be...

Jason Bennett?

I don't know.

It feels like the sort of thing.

I should know.

No,

it's a more recent show.

Yeah.

No, it feels like the sort of show you could have been on, but I don't think you could have been on it.

The Office?

No.

No, that's, I guess, British in origin.

30 Rock?

Yeah.

Got it.

Yeah.

Was not on it.

I auditioned to play Jonathan, Alec Baldwin's assistant.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, I'd have liked to see that.

Yeah.

Love that show.

Fantastic.

Yeah, amazing and fun to revise as well.

And so many fun questions.

Great.

I will say, have you been watching Girls 5 Ever?

I've not watched the most recent season yet, but I'm really excited.

I think it's amazing.

Very funny.

Yeah, yeah.

Joke dense.

One of the last remaining

true comedy machine, joke machine shows where they are just piling jokes on top of jokes in a very satisfying way.

I think that show is dynamite.

Yeah, I failed to meet the lead character the other day.

I was at the

in New York, and we were doing the same show together, and I really wanted to say hello to her.

Oh, nice.

She left as soon as she had done her interview.

Oh, and I was very sad.

What show did you do?

Seth Meyers' show.

Lovely.

And I was like, oh.

And I really wanted to go out and see her.

And then Blender, like, no, you've got to go on the show next.

It's probably the wrong energy to meet someone as well.

Yeah.

I've got to go meet that person.

Panic.

That's funny.

Oh, yeah.

You're all, you're way up in your head.

Before you go on, after you come off, you're like, I'll meet anybody.

Does anybody want to meet me?

I want to talk to them now.

Paula Pell on that show, I think is pound for pound the funniest person

in the world.

It is absolutely insane how funny she is.

Anyway,

no, that wouldn't.

Paula Pell.

Boy, I would love.

Mine was ice cream.

The history of ice cream the history of ice cream yeah did you know previous quite a bit of the history of ice cream no i didn't know anything about it i didn't revise it either okay he was really panicking because he went into it being like yeah i'm just gonna around and then i got loads of text go i'm in i'm in the dressing room i don't know what i do really panic well that was the thing is like when people would eat you really are just it's a single on them while they are just struggling to closer and closer while they are struggling to recall a thing you know they don't have yeah so now you're just watching them tick down because it's not even like when you're failing, you know, one of the things that's very fun about watching Taskmaster is you are watching a show about failure.

You are watching people fail and it is how well are they able to cover their frustration and

maintain their comedic point of view, their persona, whatever, however they are engaging comedically with Alex or whatever.

But Mastermind, they've got nobody.

You know, there was a couple moments last night.

The craziest thing was it was like one guy was, I'm sorry, this is Britain's number one celebrity mastermind recap show.

One of the guys' topics was, like I said, the original Star Wars trilogy.

And every question I knew the answer to.

Every single, I was like, boom, boom, in my hotel room.

Boom.

I'm answering all of them.

Which bit of Darth Vader's outfit has a gap in it?

For real.

Yes, it has.

It has a loose armhold.

And then one of the Ivo was the films of Philip Seymour Hoffman.

He crushed, by the way.

There was the woman who did did potatoes,

whose name I now have remembered is Papio Tool.

I want to give her her credit.

She hosts Junior MasterChef.

And then, oh, nice.

And then the other

man was, whose name I'm not going to remember.

And

this is how much, because I was like, I knew all the Philip Seymour Hoffmans.

The potatoes, I was like, this is impressive.

I have no idea.

The guy who went last must be a sports caster.

And I believe, now this is how crazy it was.

I believe his topic maybe was cricket.

Every question and answer had so many, to me, hilarious specifics, words, names that sounded so, and he was so sure of himself, you know, Kevin Summers.

And I'd be like, who is that?

What is that?

23 and 9.

And like all of the answers were just as absurd.

It was like jokes.

It felt to me like these are joke.

This is a joke character.

And he was deadly serious and was doing very well.

He knew he was like eyes on the prize.

He didn't have that, I'm terrified, James A.

Caster.

I don't know enough about ice cream.

Yeah, but he's scared.

They had rejected my initial suggestion for my special subject, which was the comedy of Nish Kumar.

Yes.

And they won't let me do that.

And then they won't let me do the comedy of Ed Gamble.

Oh, that would be very funny.

Is there just not enough trivia?

But I have hardcore viewers who want it to be serious.

Yes.

And they don't want it to be a joke.

Oh,

that's too bad.

They wouldn't let me do Slipknot.

Really?

Yeah.

Oh, that's funny.

Because that, to me, would be the goal.

Yeah, yeah.

Although, I guess that would make it a very different show.

They want it to be like Jeopardy or something more akin to like a proper trivia show or something.

It's very high.

It's very high brush.

It's officially serious.

This is officially how smart this person is.

Yeah, okay, that's ridiculous.

That's ridiculous.

Oh, that's very funny, though.

Oh, I love it.

I wish you'd been able to do the comedy of Nishkumar.

Yeah,

I was very much looking forward to it.

Oh, those side dishes, Benita wants to know which is show, which is.

Imagine being a producer and having to say that.

I mean, on this.

Imagine having to corral this and be like, we actually care.

We're going to have to put it on the website.

So we actually need to know.

Our listeners are very similar to the mastermind viewers.

They want it to be proper.

And now we're making you choose between your grandmother and your mother.

I know.

Isn't that terrible?

I think that the stuffing is going to be.

with the shadow meal and the lemon potatoes with the stick.

I think it will go well that way.

Oh, that will work.

Yeah, that's fine.

I think that will be the best way.

And then there's beef in the stuffing as well.

Period.

That's nice.

So that's why I'm thinking of it.

It's not much, but I'm going to put it over there.

Yeah, yeah.

And then I'm going to sneak in just because I really am looking at a very loose and weakly vegetable meal, weak vegetable meal here.

I'm going to just throw some broccoli in there.

Yeah.

I need a green.

I need something,

some broccoli, some Brussels sprouts, some spinach, something that's like a cruciferous green, please.

How are you having that prepared?

Oh, like just dead simple.

Just like, you know, broccoli, grill it up for a couple of minutes, you know, like something very simple, roasted, you know, nothing, nothing fancy, nothing, just a grilled vegetable.

Well, I always order broccoli in a restaurant, no matter what restaurant.

Because if they have broccoli on the menu, I'm ordering it.

Sometimes it's very simple, just grilled or steamed or whatever.

And then I'm like, great, I'm so healthy.

Yeah.

But sometimes it comes

out.

I say it, I shout it.

It comes and it's like covered in oil and garlic and stuff.

And then I'm like, ha, I tricked the idiot I was 10 minutes ago when I ordered.

That asshole didn't know he was about to get a treat.

Ooh, vegetable candy.

It's great.

Now he wins.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Happy Eva Wife.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

All of those are winners.

Yeah.

Pretty good to be at Gamble.

Everything's coming up at Gamble.

Gamble on Ed.

Went to a restaurant in Glasgow.

Okay.

I know you're off to Glasgow.

Yeah.

Tell me.

Is it good?

Should I go?

Called Kapow, which was excellent.

It's like sort of Asian fusion cuisine.

And they had a hispy cabbage.

Okay.

So now I'm just going to order hispie cabbage everywhere.

So that's I don't even know what that is.

It's a type of cabbage and they just get a wedge of it and they grill it.

Yeah.

So it's like proper charred, but then with cashew nut butter and

I just had, I just went to Rovi last night, one of the Odolengu restaurants and had a grilled cabbage that had tahini with it.

And it was fantastic.

Yeah.

So cabbage is my new sort of go-to.

I love that for you.

Thank you so much.

Congrats.

Thank you.

I steer clear of cabbage.

I told a story about.

You're a cabbage skeptic.

Well, I do love it food-wise, but I told a story about being sent loads of cabbages on a TV show here.

And now often when I go on stage, someone has put a cabbage on stage as a joke.

But I've found that it doesn't work if I go on and then tell the story again.

Sure.

No, it's boring.

Yeah.

So the only funny thing I can do, because if I ignore it, everyone's going, there's a cabbage there once.

so I have to do something right so the only funny thing I can do is walk out on stage and immediately kick the cabbage into the into the wings okay because I was gonna say you can't kick it into the audience no no the person in the front row is definitely oh yeah

well yeah a friend of mine threw like a little orange into a crowd once and it like detached a guy's retina yeah like truly like just like a like a tangerine no what's a little orange a mandarin you know it just kind of was like boop and like literally afterwards they were like that guy you hit a guy and he had to go to the hospital Like, it's crazy.

But I will say you're getting at something,

your absolute disdain for the audience, which we touched on earlier, maybe before we started recording, which I appreciate and share.

And no doubt, I will be dressing down the London audiences in mere days.

I have developed a very antagonistic relationship to the audience.

Partially because they think they're part of the show in a way that is like, oh, we've brought you a cabbage, James.

We know you'll like this.

And they don't know that it hurts the show.

They think it helps.

Yes.

That's a heckler's ethos.

I was helping.

They always hang around afterwards to be like, that was me.

I'm the one that shouted that thing.

I was helping.

I was part of the show.

You're welcome.

And it's always like, are you fucking insane?

Get the fuck out of here.

And people now, it's only more and more that people are like from the audience.

I need to be heard from.

The The people on stage need to hear from me immediately.

Now is the time.

I'm not even going to wait for the time when Paul comes into the audience and it's appropriate.

I'm just going to start talking now.

Yeah, you guys have you do questions at the end of the podcast.

Oh, there's a whole part of the podcast where you're encouraged to talk back to us and ask questions.

But nope, people aren't going to wait for that at all.

They are just like, I'm here.

I have something to say and I'm saying it.

And you're going to have to stop talking to those microphones if you want to hear me.

You open the fridge, there's nothing there.

So, what's it going to be?

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Let's get on to these dream drinks.

Let's do it.

Excited with the main one.

You know, I think a main drink, I'll have a glass of wine.

Even though it is,

well, I'll say for the shadow, it's going to be a white wine, a lighter wine.

I'm not a big wine person, but seems like, you know, have a glass of wine with dinner.

I know you're supposed to have red wine with red meat for the main, the mainline dinner.

Red wine now upsets my stomach.

Too acidic.

So I guess a rose.

I'll take a rose.

Something leaning towards red, but still light and easy.

And then I'll keep drinking my still water.

And yeah, that's it.

Does that sound good for you guys?

Yeah, I'll have that for sure.

Yes, I'll have that.

Greek wines?

Sure.

Doesn't have to be, though.

Doesn't have to be.

Again, I'm not.

very wine savvy, you know, so something not too sweet, not too fruit-forward, I guess.

Something, I don't know, if there's something, I'm sure there's something Greek that fits in there.

Yeah.

A dry erosé, one of the dry eroses.

Great.

Yeah.

Phil Wang.

Yes.

Did the wines of New Zealand for his specialist subject in mastermind.

Smart.

I like that.

Yeah.

So I will.

I'll say Greek wine.

We can go.

Even though I don't know.

You know what?

Actually, I'd like Phil's

better because it sounds like he knows about it.

I would like Phil Wang's full flight of New Zealand wines.

Yeah, yeah.

I would like, you know what?

I wish I'd thought of it because I thought of the Coogan's Daughters pasta, pasta, which is the t-shirt.

The CDP.

Yeah.

The CDP.

I wish I'd cobbled together a meal based entirely off of other guests' meals.

Yeah.

That's an idea that if it has not been done, somebody, that's the challenge.

Well, Greg Davis had fill at steak.

We know that.

Okay, great.

But he had it well done because he was trying to.

What a fucking idiot.

See, it's amazing how quickly you jump over somebody.

I become one of those guys.

I'm going to gamble now, chastising Greg, who's not even here.

But for real, that's absolutely absurd.

So although someone said, because we always have a go at Greg for having it well done, and apparently he didn't on the main episode, I think he might have said medium and then said, or I'll just have it well done.

Oh, he got bullied into it?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, he didn't.

He said it.

He was doing it to wind you up.

Yeah, he was doing it up.

He was doing it to upset for sure.

Oh, he was saying well done to wind you up.

He skipped his starter.

He had a well done

statement.

He's just trying to get a rise out of it.

Yes.

Very easy to do.

Trolling you.

What dish on your menu are you hoping another guest will steal for their menu in the future?

Ooh, that's great.

And those side dishes are pretty strong contenders.

Yeah, I mean, listen, if someone wants to include my grandmother's potatoes, that would be a true honor.

So, yeah, my hope would be that someone would choose, or my mother's stuffing.

Either way, boy, would I be delighted if they found those interesting or compelling, although I don't think I described them as such.

Those are the two I want to try the the most.

Yeah, I think those would be interesting.

Who would be the guest that you'd have?

Oh, great guest.

A future guest that we might have who you hope will choose,

who will say, Jason Manzukas's grandmother's potatoes, please.

Yeah, who's absolutely, what would blow your mind?

Oh, it would blow my mind if Chris Morris said that.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, I'm trying to think of someone in British comedy circles, you know, that I have no relationship to but feel away about.

You know what I mean?

Like, like, you know, you've already had him on.

I would have said Garth Marengi Yeah

Just of course, you know as a fan and as a loyal reader

But he's since he's already been on has Chris Morris been on not yet.

No, oh, so there it is.

I don't think he does too many doesn't seem like no, no, no, no,

no, yeah,

we've met him.

I've not no, I've met him and nice guy.

Did you ask him to do the pod?

No, no, no, no.

I

know you gotta

you gotta build up to something.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

We could get Morris in the future.

Yeah, I reckon.

I'd be happy to.

Oh, what a conversation.

Yeah.

And we'll try and try and get him to order my...

Yeah, try to push him, nudge him towards my grandmother's potatoes.

He seems like a guy who's easily convinced.

I would love it if you guys could give that as an option just in general.

Like, would you like to opt in?

You know, like when they give you a thing, like a suggestion, like other people have ordered with this.

Yeah.

And then you can just click on, oh, yeah, Jasmine Rice.

Let me add that.

Like, if you could be like, would you like to include Jason Manzuka's Yaya's potatoes?

Yeah, yeah.

I would definitely be saying that.

Next episode yeah yeah next episode we'll put that as an option because chronologically we they don't we don't release them as we record them so the next episode might come out before your one and then it's going to be very confusing that's going to be i love that i love that please let's confuse the audience as much as possible i hope people take from this the desire to have a shadow meal yeah to build a second meal yes and i and i want you guys to know i made notes and the shadow meal was born of me being like well i don't want to choose between these things so why don't i just do both i took this very seriously i feel like if you're going to have the shadow meal we do need to add some element of danger every time you go into the shadow realm though yeah i do like that i do feel like maybe hear me out the shadow meal is in darkness shrouded in darkness yeah there was a restaurant in new york for a while that was pitch black we had one we've got one did you have one here as well yeah it was like a thing i never went but um yeah i was always like that seems absolutely like a terrible idea actually before we move on from the stream course when when we had Paul on from your podcast he had Paul Shearman as well right did he yeah with the healthy old man oh he had the healthy old man yeah oh yeah but um I like that something's always stuck in my head from that because it's the first time we met Paul sure and it was a lovely time really fun but we made a joke that I didn't know if he would he if he liked it so I thought I'd check with you now okay

he said that he would want this I think sake from this this place that he went to yes a nice sushi place that's shut down and they made him his own cup okay and they wrote on it in in in like kanji and japanese yeah

symbols and he said write paul in he said they wrote paul or something i mean we said i love i love that you are unpacking

this joke how many years later five years later

yeah 2020 february 2013 oh okay four years later

we said how do you know they didn't write paul she drinks piss yeah

yeah and i think i would have said the same joke

he said

the first time he answered us with a straight face, he went, they didn't like that.

Wow.

I got the impression the sake cuts meant a lot to him.

Oh, that's very funny.

That's exactly the joke I would have been.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think it was quite funny.

Because it absolutely says that.

If it meant a lot to him, that he was.

So I think he was in, like, he was telling a story that made him feel slightly vulnerable, and he was sort of opening up to us a little bit about how much he loved this Japanese restaurant.

And then we said, James came in really hard.

What it was

drinking.

He's talked about it a lot.

You saw James, he's talked about it quite a bit, actually.

and how much it hurt.

Yeah, and how much it hurt.

I said I was coming in to do this.

He was like, Are you sure?

James A.

Caster's a savage beast.

He's he's so mean.

I'm glad you brought this up.

Was that any kind of?

I'm questioning now, though, whether that was any kind of, was that a leading story?

Is the secret ingredient for this episode somehow piss?

No.

Like, if I, is that, is that so?

Are you trying to nudge me towards choosing piss as a thing?

Because we are in the drink section.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Ooh, this is awkward.

It's secret is.

Today's secret ingredient is horse piss.

Take it away to today's restaurant.

I actually call my piss shadow wine as well.

So you're smart.

Very close.

Shadow wine.

Your dream dessert.

Well, okay, so here's the thing.

Dessert for me, very difficult because quite a lot of desserts are just egg-based in any, in every way, shape, or form.

All the desserts that people like.

I will say, though, in recent years, there has been a real boom in what I consider delicious, but like vegan ice creams, which to me, ice cream is always

like the thing that as a kid, I couldn't really have that I very much wanted to have.

You know, every once in a while, there was a like a cheap kind of

like a

pre-made ice cream type of bar you would get off of a truck or something like that would be safe.

But I could never have like a pint of like real nice ice cream.

And now I feel like there's very good vegan ice creams.

So I would probably have some sort of vegan ice cream or maybe a sorbet or a something like that is usually safe for me.

So one of those kind of things, a couple of scoops of a, you know,

an ice cream or a sorbet would be my preferred dessert.

Do you have a flavor that you gravitate towards or a place that you love to have the vegan ice cream?

In LA, there's a couple of places.

They're all chains now.

So you very well may have some of them here.

Jenny's is one.

Van Lewin is another.

They're kind of like these American chains that are, they have non-vegan ice cream.

They primarily are, you know, non-vegan, but they have now a list of vegan ice creams that are quite good.

The one I get is like, it's just like a vanilla and chocolatey kind of swirl thing.

There's one that's got like some peanut buttery kind of stuff in it.

But I like just like a plain vanilla scoop and a chocolate scoop.

I'm good with that.

Or like a sorbet, like

a raspberry or something, a lemon sorbet or something like that.

My focus is always the meal.

Dessert, I never could count on.

So I'm always like, oh, I just want a couple bites of something sweet.

Yeah.

So it's a treat if you do actually get.

Always.

Yeah.

Cause it's almost never that I can.

And I'm always then guilty of, and which I like quite a bit here, is I will just get from a corner shop like candy.

I'll get a candy bar.

I'll get like something that is, you know, that I want to have as a sweet because I do want that sweet after dinner taste, which I associate with like chocolatey kind of stuff.

So I'll get like a candy bar or something like that.

Do you have any favorite UK?

I'm trying to think.

There's a bunch of them.

There's a bunch of them that are great that I wish I'd thought to like take pictures of because I don't remember the names.

You guys have quite a bit of a...

Describe them as you can tell.

So a lot of the ones that I like have the appearance of of a Kit Kat type of bar.

It's wafers, it's hazelnut, it's chocolate stacked in some, and sometimes it's covered in, sometimes it's open.

You know, there's one that's like a square like this, and they break into individual little pieces.

There's one that looks like a big Kit Kat, wafers, milk chocolate, covered in chocolate, but also caramel inside.

I mean, it's all sounds like that.

Kit Kat junkie.

They are, but they're not Kit Kats.

So they're not branded Kit Kats, but they are similar.

You're talking about a Tunnock's Camel wafer, maybe.

Maybe, maybe.

That's

from Scotland, and we can get them here.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

I think the king of UK chocolate bars.

Absolute beast of a chocolate bar.

I wouldn't describe it as a chocolate bar.

Come off it.

I'm putting that more in a biscuit realm.

Interesting.

Because I would see it being brought through on like a tea tray.

Oh.

You know, with biscuits.

Oh, so it's fancier than like a Kit Kat or a Twix or something like that.

I'd say I'd have a Tunnix and be like, I've had a biscuit rather than I've had a whole chocolate bar.

Interesting.

It's a lighter option for me.

Oh, what I'm talking about is pretty heavy.

Okay.

It's long.

Yeah.

You know, and it's thick, too.

Like, it's, like, I don't even know that I would eat a whole one.

A lion bar?

It's not a lion bar.

I have had a lion bar.

So that's in that realm.

Like a bueno bar.

Kinder bueno, yeah.

Kinder bueno.

I've had one of those.

Because that's, those are good too.

But this thing I'm talking about, I'm going to take a picture of it and send it to both of you Because I've eaten a lot of them in the last week.

Timeout bar?

Timeout bar?

No, I don't know what that is.

Do they sell those at that?

No, wafers.

Yeah, maybe they don't even have them anymore.

I'll try.

Wafers covered in chocolate.

I love that.

I like a little bit of like a crispy, crunchy.

In America, there's a bar called a Take Five Bar, which is a pretzel, chocolate.

caramel.

It's five ingredients and I'm forgetting what the rest of them are, but it's like so much texture, but also very salty and sweet, which is great.

Yeah, ideal.

Picnic bar.

You'd like a picnic bar.

Okay.

You'd maybe even like a star bar.

All star bars are good shout out.

All right.

Yeah, yeah.

I love these recommendations.

Yeah.

I'm going to go straight to the candy shop after this.

Well, I'm going to meet your menu back to you now.

See how you feel.

I'm not done.

I'm so sorry.

Jason's not done.

Because I don't know why, but I feel like you are neglecting a huge component here, which is I'm going to have a cup of coffee after dinner.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know, or a tea, depending on the hour.

Yeah.

But a cup of coffee coffee almost certainly after dinner, you know,

with my dessert.

Perfect.

That's it.

That's what I want because my sincere hope is that I want a little bit of energy after a heavy meal because we're going to go and we're going to walk home or we're going to walk, you know, one of the things that I love about being in London is walking every walking to dinner, walking home from dinner.

Los Angeles, we don't get the, it's very much reminiscent of when I lived in New York, you know, that

ability to engage with the city on foot, you know, and Los Angeles, you just don't have it.

And I miss it.

Yeah, no, you're just, you're, I'm so much more focused on, where did I park the car and I got to drive home now and all that.

It's just not the same thing.

So I want a cup of coffee to walk home.

I think it's amazing.

Like you're talking about hydrating.

A lot of people I know live in LA that talk about making sure they hydrate.

But that combined with a city

when you say it like that,

it sounds like I'm an insufferable angelino.

And Ed, the point is taken.

You've really, right here at the end, you've really rocked me to my corner.

That's what I didn't say at the beginning, man.

Just Manzokus treats piss.

The secret ingredient.

But do you not just need the toilet all the time in your car?

I do.

Yeah.

All the time.

And have had some very close calls.

Yeah, yeah.

Very close calls.

So much so that I've now had to a number of times pull up into side streets to surreptitiously try and piss without somebody being like, hey,

Adrian Pimento from Brooklyn IM, big fan man, while I'm just like, don't look at me, you know, while they're walking their dog in their neighborhood while a semi-known person is just pissing.

Or one of those like celebrity tour buses.

Oh my gosh.

And there he is, once again, unable to make it all the way home from lunch.

Jason Manzouk is pissing on the side of the road.

And if we turn down here, we might see, oh, there he is.

Jason Manzouk is once again pissing mere moments from his house because it's always like four minutes from home.

My body's like, and now

go.

Because something about like turning up my street makes me feel like I'm there.

Yeah, yeah.

And then it's just game over.

So that's the other thing is I'm pissing in my own neighborhood.

Like, so my neighbor, it's only a matter of time.

It's not like I'm, it's not like I'm on the other side of town being like, whatever, no, it's whatever.

I'm going to, I'm just like crouching in some bushes like an absolute maniac.

No, I'm in the neighborhood that I live in where my neighbors might walk by and be like, hey, Jason, how are you?

And I'm going to have to be like, hey, what's going on?

Couldn't make it home.

I'm in my 50s.

Who knew?

They're going to think you don't have a toilet.

Like, you've not paid to put a toilet in your house as well.

Well, I also have a bunch of smashed toilets out front of my house.

I am very vocally anti-toilet.

I think big toilet's trying to take us over.

I will say, I just got one of those Japanese toilet seats.

Oh, wow.

Just the thing you put on, and it does all the same stuff.

You know, holy cow.

You look like Nish, but you know, you're living

good timeline, Nish, where you're living his dreams.

Oh, yes.

Oh, please.

Me and Nish, I'd say, you know, we talk most days.

I'd say 50% of our conversations are about imagine if we had a Japanese toilet.

Oh, I thought you were going to say 50% of your conversations are Nish saying, what if I could lead Jason Manzukis's life?

Does the Japanese toilet have writing on the side that says Jason Manzukis?

Yep, yep.

Shit's here.

Pisses down the road.

Pisses down the road.

Shit's here.

This is Jason Redix's sake cup.

Dwayne DeRott Johnson's bushes or whatever.

I will say

the thing is a game changer.

The toilet itself, I think, is insanely expensive.

But the bidet seat,

very affordable and incredible.

I mean, like, really good.

Like, being here for a couple of weeks, I'm like, oh, man, I really miss it.

Yeah, yeah, that's the main thing.

You can look at photos of it on your phone.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, I'm texting it.

It's not texting me back.

Do you feel really dirty?

I feel filthy right now.

I feel like I'm sitting in my own filth.

You know, it's disgusting.

It's disgusting.

You don't, you, you feel clean afterwards in a way that you just cannot from mashing paper around.

Think about it.

It's crazy.

Why would we do this like this?

This should be, we should all just shoot water at our assholes and be done with it.

It's absolutely absurd that we mush paper around and just smear the shit around.

You wouldn't do it to your plates.

You wouldn't.

wouldn't exactly you wouldn't do it to your plates imagine if someone you went to someone's house for dinner and they popped a plate down there's clearly like yeah like like no we just wiped last night's dinner we wiped it we dry wiped it we dry wiped last night's dinner off of the plates it's fine that's what you're doing you're dry wiping your own shit yeah all over

Is that what you people came to this podcast for?

They know that happened.

They were too disappointed it's taking us this long to get there.

Your dream meal,

your main one.

You want to arrive and immediately be given a lemonade and then have still water.

Thank you.

Pop nums of bread.

You would like pop-doms as your shadow, sourdough for your main.

Shadow starter, Greek salad.

Main starter, shrimp cocktail.

Shadow secundi and main secundi is the

Coogan starters pasta.

The CDP.

Yep.

Shadow main course, pork shoulder.

Main main course, fillet steak, medium rare.

Shadow side dish, mother's Greek stuffing.

Shadow.

No, main main side dish, grandpa's lemon dish.

I'm so upset at all.

Lemon's lemon potatoes.

You would like some greens either way with those, most likely broccoli, most likely grilled.

Your shadow drink, a white wine.

Your main drink, a rose.

And dessert on both counts, you would like some vegan ice cream or a sorbet, most likely chocolate and vanilla, and a coffee.

And then you're going to piss in the bushes on your way home.

Yeah, yeah.

That's it right there.

That's good.

That's too good.

That's the whole deal.

Yeah.

I mean, that's a home run.

I'd be thrilled to share that with both of you.

Yeah.

Thank you so much for coming to the Dream Restaurant, Jason.

It's Thank you, Jason.

Thank you for having me.

Well, there we are, James.

What a wonderful way to wrap up series 11.

Wonderful menu, wonderful stories, wonderful man.

There we go.

The hat-trick, the hat-trick of things that we like.

Look, it's the final episode of the series, sure, but we're going to be back with some more episodes, I'd imagine.

I'd imagine if you keep an eye out, there's going to be all sorts of new episodes and then Christmas episodes and then best of episodes.

Who knows, James?

Yes, so chill out, mum.

Yeah, chill out, mum.

You don't need to text me every week when there's not an off-menu saying how annoyed you are that it's not on.

Well, that's very supportive of your mum, I think.

No, she's so angry every time.

She said, What do you think you're playing at, you lazy bastards?

Where's off-menu?

Well, maybe if she doesn't have off-menu in her life, she'll have a little bit more time to work on her cooking.

She doesn't need to, she's an excellent cook.

Yes.

So thank you very much for listening to this series.

You've all been wonderful, as always.

Thank you, Jason, for not saying pimento.

Yes, thank you very much, Jason, for not saying pimento.

And thank you for being a wonderful guest.

Yes.

Thank you to Benito and thank you to James.

Two finer guys a man couldn't hope to meet.

And I would like to take this opportunity to thank Benito and thank Ed.

Two,

a real couple of swells who I'm honored to share share a mic with.

We all use one mic.

We all use one mic.

That's why it sounds weird.

And the one thing I'd like to say, this might just seem a little bit too emotional, but you guys listening out there, I'm on tour still.

So come along to my tour.

I'm doing the Hackney Empire June 25th to June 29th.

And then I'm also extending the tour into the autumn from late September right through to November.

So check out the details at edgamble.co.uk.

And also, why not buy the paperback of my book Glutton if you've not bought the book so far?

But I hope that's not too emotional.

Ed, I hope this isn't too emotional.

But can I come and see your show at Hackney Empire?

You are welcome to.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for listening.

We'll see you again sometime soon.

Goodbye.

Goodbye.

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Hello, I'm Carrie Add.

I'm Sarah.

And we are the Weirdos Book Club podcast.

We are doing a very special live show as part of the London Podcast Festival.

The date is Thursday, 11th of September, the time is 7pm, and our special guest is the brilliant Alan Davies.

Tickets from kingsplace.co.uk.

Single ladies is coming to London.

True on Saturday, the 13th of September.

At the London Podcast Festival.

The rumours are true Saturday, the 13th of September at King's Place.

Oh, that sounds like a date to me, Harriet.