Podcast Transcript – Kevin Day Part 2

Kevin Day (00:00):
I went at Don’s invitation at some stage with Jonathan Ross, to Sunset Strip, just on a research mission, of course. And Jonathan Ross and I had both had to leave cuz we were laughing so much. Cause one of the girls – as she was removing her bra – said to one of the punters at the front, are you a member of Equity? And he said, no. And she said, well, get your fucking feet off the stage then. Which is an old joke. But when somebody’s doing it, as they’re removing their bra, it just made us laugh, so much.
Paul Boross (00:33):
Welcome to the Humourology podcast with me, Paul Boross and my glittering lineup of guests from the world’s of business, sport and entertainment who are here to share their wisdom and their use of humour with you. Humourology is the study of how humour can dramatically improve your business success and your life. Humourology puts the fun into business fundamentals increases the value of your laughing stock and puts a punchline back into your bottom line. Please remember to like subscribe and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts. This is part two of an interview with an award winning comedian writer and podcast host Kevin Day. Welcome back to the Humourology podcast.
Kevin Day (01:18):
Thank you Paul, to, to paraphrase the old joke. They say you do the Humourology podcast twice in your career once in the way up once in the way down. So it is good to be back.
Paul Boross (01:33):
Brilliant. Well, what we established last time was we actually first met in, I think in 85 or 86. I can’t remember <laugh> at the Comedy Store
Kevin Day (01:45):
I think of a joke that I would’ve done. I would’ve done happily 30 years ago. That was about sex or relationships. And you now think, no, It’s not right. It’s not appropriate. Mm-hmm <affirmative>, it’s just, it just becomes sad. And when you see older comics, when you see older comics doing the same stuff, they were still doing 30 years ago. It’s just like, there comes a time when you, you have to stop doing that. And you, there comes a time when you slightly lose, not the energy, but you lose the anger and you haven’t got the energy to, to display the energy in a strange sort of way. I mean, so you, I find that my comedy, I want to reflect on stage how my life is going and how I view things differently. But also it’s easier to do that now. Cause my audience has grown up with me.
Paul Boross (02:29):
The audience, and this can be for business or anything need to know. I know who that is.
Kevin Day (02:35):
It’s about finding that essence, which I think takes comedians even the best of comedians two or three years to work out what that is. But it’s also, and again, as you say, this is a good lesson for business and industry. It’s about finding your voice, your authenticity, if you like, but also it’s about saying, okay, this is it. Now I’ve set my parameters. I don’t think I’m capable of doing something else. You know? And it’s like when you are, I was involved in recruitment and industrial relations and I was really happy being involved in those areas of work. But I wasn’t happy when I had to be involved in disciplinary proceedings and stacking people. I hated that area of the way I hated it. So there comes a time when you go, you say to people, look I’m not natural at that.
Kevin Day (03:22):
I don’t want to do that. I can… I will, if you want me to, of course I will, but I’m much better suited to this. And it’s the same as a performer, there comes a stage when, as those four people said to me that night, it’s like you go right, okay. This is what I am and I’m good at this. I’m very good at this. And I can continue to be better at this. But if I go, if I start to learn a guitar, that won’t be me. If I start trying to do one liners, that won’t be me and audiences, audiences see through that audiences are so clever. Somebody somewhere needs to write a book about the psychology of an audience, because it’s so interesting how one person reacts to a joke compared to 10, compared to a hundred Nick Revell and I… Nick Revell is brilliant. We used to have this thing that comics every now and again, a comic would go out into the room, into the Comedy Store as the audience were taking their seats.
Kevin Day (04:12):
And they’d say, I’m just gonna read the room and we go fine, fine. But Nick and I were experienced enough to know that yeah, you go out and you read the room and you think this, this is gonna be tough. They look really volatile audience and you go and stays and nothing of the sort. Yeah. Or you think, oh, they’re gonna be really quiet and you go and stage because that moment of the lights going up and the, offstage mic announcing the comper,e the compare announcing it changes the dynamic of a room full of people. And again, when I found this, when I was training people at the ambulance service, so officers would turn up and there’d be tea beforehand. And these were officer some of whom I’d taken part I’d recruited some of them. I knew most of them to speak to at social things.
Kevin Day (04:56):
And you’d be having a cup of tea with them. So there’s 10 officers here for a training module. You’d be having a cup of tea, a biscuit, you’d be chatting about football. You’d be chatting about then as soon as you went into the room and you sat them down, you’re by overhead projector or whatever antiquated equipment we had back in those days, the dynamic changed completely because suddenly they’re all looking at you, your status is now completely different. And it’s the same as when you go on stage an audience, a room full of a hundred, 200, a thousand people go from being a thousand individuals to an audience. Yeah. And as you know, comedians are the worst audience possible. The last thing you want to see is comedians sit and watch. Cause they never laugh. <laugh>
Paul Boross (05:38):
No,
Kevin Day (05:38):
They don’t laugh. It’s because they’re always second guessing what’s going on. Yeah. They’re always thinking, would I have finished that the same way or that even if you, even if they say something brilliant
Paul Boross (05:47):
It’s a collective thing where by an audience full of comedians will all nod at the same time, but a brilliant gag and go funny.
Kevin Day (05:56):
Yeah. Like, like the people in the Shakespeare audience, you get the joke. We know from history that in Shakespearean times, audiences were very volatile, you had to keep them entertained. Shakespearean plays. Most people don’t realise this were full of business. They were full of business. They were full of slapstick. They were full of joke. Even in Victorian times, you see the history of the music hall again, music hall. The phrase, bringing the house down, comes from the Hackney empire, where there was the bar, right at the back of the Hackley empire where most people gathered, they didn’t sit to watch that they gathered at the bar, the house as they called it, the, the audience. And if you were good, they would come down from the bar to sit. And what, so you’ve brought the house down. So you were good, but so, so how is it that from even back in sort of 1910 audiences were eating booing, gearing.
Kevin Day (06:45):
My Nan used to talk about going to silent movies and how it was just, she said the films were silent, but the cinema bloody wasn’t. Cause it was just people talking shouting at the screen, reading the things out. So we’ve gone from that to an audience. Now, when the curtain opens for the most part, absolute hush audience reaction. So even that, so the audiences have changed in now a hundred, 300 years. And I find that, I find that fascinating. And I think what’s gonna happen is that the more people access comedy, music, even theatre dance through YouTube, through the internet, the less they’re gonna know how to behave when they go to a live cause my, my big worry is that people’s attention spans are getting shorter. There’s no doubt about that I’ve always had the attention span of a toddler.
Kevin Day (07:33):
So I’m being hypocritical here, but you do find people, you, you talk to TV, producers, you, the famous Andre Previn sketch with Morecambe and Wise. Yes. It’s 14 minutes long. It’s 14 minutes long. And it was full of references to classical music. I spoke to a TV producer recently, who said, if you had a sketch, now it’s two and a half minutes long. You trim it. And you certainly wouldn’t fill it full of references to classical music. I worry about comedy workshops. There’s so many comedy workshops now comedy courses. Yeah. Cause I think comedy’s one of the things that you can’t. And I say this as an ex training officer, I think one of the things you can’t teach, you can teach practical things. You can teach people how to take a microphone out of a stand. But what worries me about the comedy courses is that you see people who for 12 weeks, while they’re on the course are surrounded by love and friendship and people saying to them each other, no, you are great.
Kevin Day (08:24):
You’ve got this. I did a couple of zoom classes for, for Swansea University during lockdown. And they’re all great. They’re all really interesting. And you try and say to them, this is where you go. But when they come out of these courses and they’re left to their own devices, suddenly they’re confronted with the real, with the real world. It is very much like a policeman or an ambulance man or a nurse or a teacher who’s, who’s done the training. Who’s done the, the modules they’ve done the walkthroughs, one of a better word. They’ve done the mock they’ve been shadowing people. And then suddenly it’s the first day on the ward or the first day on the beat or the first day on an ambulance and everything they’ve learned, been taught, goes out of the window. Any boxer will tell you every plan you have for every fight goes out the window and you’re punched in the face for the first time.
Paul Boross (09:14):
Yeah. Well it’s the old football analogy – good on paper. Shit on grass.
Kevin Day (09:20):
Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. My boss was at the ambulance service was a very big mentor. He was the one and this was back in the eighties remember when, you know, personnel wasn’t as forward thinking as it is now, it’s like we would lose staff. And he would, he was the one who was spotting patterns and going well, hang on a second. We’re losing a lot of staff from one particular station or one particular district, or we’re losing a lot of staff from one particular training intake. So is there a problem with recruitment? Is there a so rather than us blaming, rather than us going, this person’s not working. We need to get rid of this person. Why do we not find out, first of all, why we took them on in the first place? Because somebody must have thought they were good at their job.
Kevin Day (10:02):
Why do we not find out why their boss isn’t encouraging them to be better? Why is our first port of call sacking them rather than we’re potentially losing a really good member of staff here. And perhaps if we just take a couple of hours to work out, if you know, is there a common theme going on? Is there one particular training officer whose standards are not as high as others? Is there one particular divisional officer whose disciplinary standards are not as high as others? Is it recruitment? iI it somebody from personnel that’s not paying enough attention? Are we not looking at references well enough? And that was a lesson that I learned again, because you find out it’s not a holistic approach, but you find out what the problem is. Cuz half the time it turned out, the problem was with the organisation and not with the individual. And once you highlight what that is, you either admit that you’ve made a mistake and you get rid of somebody or you change the system to make sure you don’t make that mistake in future. And hopefully you retain a good member of staff just by tweaking your training a little bit or your disciplinary procedure. But until then the thing was always been he’s no good at a job. She’s no good at a job out. They go,
Paul Boross (11:11):
You can’t go. They’re an idiot because they done that. Hold on. How did we communicate with them? What was, what did we do? You know, oh God, the people in accounts are so stupid. I’ve told them six times actually take responsibility.
Kevin Day (11:28):
That’s really interesting, Paul, because that reflects again, it’s become a cliche, but it reflects the binary in nature of communication in modern society. In that you very rarely hear the words, oh, you might have a point there because we’ve all become so entrenched. It’s like, no, I’m right. You’re wrong. Yeah. And there’s, and that’s it, there’s no point having this discussion. Of course we saw this with Brexit. We saw this with all sorts of things. I was disappointed. You know, I voted Remain. Of course I did. But I say, why, why do I say, of course, even by saying, of course I did, I’m making a value judgement , but I voted Remain. But I, I know people who didn’t and instead of going to you fucking idiot, you’ve ruined my life. You you’d say, well, well you can we talk about why you did that?
Kevin Day (12:09):
What are the reasons you did that? Jeff Norcott for example is a comedian’s very good comedian talked about. In fact he was openly Brexit, but he had, he knew more about the EU than I did. And he had this thing about the underrepresentation of women on committees. So you talk to people and you find these things out. So we had an issue at, Crystal Palace recently, a French footballer Idrissa Gueye refused to wear. France had a day of gay pride. And the captains of each French team were asked to wear a rainbow arm band and he refused to do so, cuz he said, he’s a devout Muslim. And he’s from Senegal where homosexuality is illegal. It always has been so and a Crystal Palace player, Cheikou Kouyate tweeted a message. It looked like a message of support. it’s a matter of interpretation, but it looked like a message of support for his friend.
Kevin Day (13:01):
And there was so many palace fans of a liberal left persuasion who went well, you can never play for the club again. And he go, well, hang on a second. So I think it’s really regrettable if he is tweeting a message of support for homophobia, then I’m really upset by that. But again, he’s another one from Senegal. Another devout Muslim, surely the first port of call would be let’s let’s organise a meeting with him and some people from Palace and Proud the LGBTQ Palace fans let’s let’s talk to him about his beliefs. Let’s explain to him that expressing those beliefs is gonna upset. Some other people let’s not go right. I disagree with him. Therefore he’s wrong. Therefore get rid of him cuz that’s what’s happening too often across all levels of society,
Paul Boross (13:48):
Everything it’s well, I mean there is even a word for it now, which is cancelling, isn’t it really?
Kevin Day (13:53):
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I mean I can kind, it’s interesting talking to Ed about this cause his generation, this is second nature and especially around issues of sexual identity, which for, you know, for our generation, you tend not to get involved because you there’s no, right. You can’t say do right for doing wrong. Cause I just wake up in the morning. I just want everyone to be happy. I just want everyone to get through the day fed taught, housed, happy. I don’t there. As long as they don’t want to kill people, then I’m not fussed about their sexuality, their sexual identity, their religion, I will try and get on with everybody. I don’t believe that men transition to women. I don’t believe they take 10 years, this physical and psychological shocking process, just so they can see Sandi Toksvig in the shower.
Kevin Day (14:44):
I don’t believe that at the same time. I don’t see why JK Rowling as a woman, isn’t allowed to express disquiet about it. And Ed says, I’m sorry Dad you’ve gotta pick a side. You know you’ve gotta be or the other. It’s like ike why? Why can’t I try and see both sides?, But trying see both sides of the argument seems to be hopelessly old fashioned. But what’s interesting, I think that might be part of my industrial relations training at the ambulance service, because in a sense you have to try and see both sides of the army. Although you are representing management, to an extent you have, I’ve always said every strike every strike. And of course, a few of and further between now cuz of government legislation. But every strike is a failure of management. Every, every strike is not to do with greedy workers or disgruntled workers.
Kevin Day (15:29):
If your staff go on strike it’s managements fault because you’ve got so many stations, you’ve got so many key moments when you could have avoided that strike and it takes two sides to make a strike. So you can either be the intransigent management that goes, there’s no point in us having this meeting. These are the rules. These are regulations. You have to abide by them. Or you can be the sort of industrial relations manager who goes, why are these people upset? Is there something we can do that doesn’t cost us money to change the situation. You can at the very least be polite to the people that you are dealing with or a representative of your workforce. And of course, as a, when I was an industrial relations manager we were dealing then with like five different unions because it was a throwback to the sort of forties and fifties when they’re all very specific craft unions.
Kevin Day (16:18):
We had people like Jeremy Corbyn who was the NUPE I think, I think NUPE Southeast. So he was, we would see him occasion. He was a big union convener and we would occasionally. We gone quite well with him. But occasionally we would say, oh, by the way, we’re gonna offer you a hundred percent pay rise. Cuz we knew that instinctively he’d go, no <laugh>, but if it, at least you can make the meetings, what you can do. Cause quite often what we found was that trade union representatives knew the law, the employment law every bit as well as we did, if not better. And, and sometimes it becomes again, but it’s really important for anybody in management to, to communicate, not just to instinctively dig the heels in and go, oh God, of course they’re unhappy. It might be, it might be that your workforce is unhappy because there’s 20 of them in a small room making 200 phone calls a day. And if they don’t, they’re gonna be sacked. That might be a reason why they’re unhappy. So, I always think that the duty of a responsible employer is to find a way to make them more productive, not to find a way to get more out of them.
Paul Boross (17:21):
Well, and that involves, which is a big part of Humourology, listening.
Kevin Day (17:26):
If you stop learning, you might as well give up. And, I always find, I’m not, I’m not just talking about facts here. I’m not just talking about watching the documentary and you go, oh, that’s interesting. I didn’t know that about George III. I’ll store that up and use that in a conversation and pretend that I researched it myself, but it’s about, it’s about having a conversation with somebody and going, oh, hang on a second. What was that? And they repeat without any and they say, uh, blah, blah, blah. And you go, oh right. That’s that’s interesting. I hadn’t thought of that before. And it might not change your opinion, but you might go, do you know what you go home and say to Ali, actually, I I’ve been thinking about that issue. And Bob had a really, really good point.
Paul Boross (18:05):
But you also have to factor in the fact that if you can do it with good humour, this doesn’t mean being humorous – what you are going to do is you are going to be able to have a communication.
Kevin Day (18:21):
It’s hard enough to put your own life in context, but we all know our own backstory, but it’s about sometimes talking to somebody. And while you are talking to them while you are having a discussion, trying to put them into context, trying to think… I will sometimes get comedy cross because Molly’s my sort of daughter who lives with us. She won’t know what year Charles Dickens was born. So then I do that whole thing. What, what, but as it happens, she’s a mental health triage nurse. She’s a trained counsellor. She’s got a world of skills, but, and she just goes so you’re thinking about, and you think, well, okay, she’s not interested in Charles Dickens sort of education she had was quite progressive. They weren’t particularly interested in Charles Dickens. You can’t just be cross because she doesn’t know the date that Charles Dickens lived.
Kevin Day (19:07):
She’s probably thinking what sort of dinosaur knows the date that Charles Dickens was born. I don’t wanna read Great Expectations cuz the only time I ever saw a film of it, it was terrible. So you kind of have to make those mental judgements while you are talking to someone. And it’s like, so if you’re talking to a union steward, for example, if you’re talking to a comic instead of just going, no you’re wrong. I don’t agree. You’re going well actually, why are they doing this? Well they started doing their job. For a start, they might genuinely be concerned with the welfare of their workers, which they are. So you have to keep, while you are having the outer dialogue. And again this is where as a comedian, as a performer, I might find this easier because you are constantly as a performer. As you know, while you are, while you are speaking to the audience, you are multitasking. You are thinking about what’s happening next. Have I left anything out? Why is that person yawning? So that’s
Paul Boross (19:59):
Right. You’re gauging.
Kevin Day (20:00):
Constantly, constantly. You’re constantly changing the parameters of the gig if you’d like. And so that’s, it becomes easier for me when I’m talking to somebody to have that conversation in my head while I’m having the actual conversation out there. And I think that’s, I dunno if that’s a skill you can teach, but it’s certainly something that if you become, I think again, if you are, if you are opening. Yeah. We talked about, I used as an example, last time we spoke somebody who opens up the bakers or a nail parlour or a barber shop and comes up with a title that’s a pun or is funny right now, which I like so already instinctively you think, well, I’m gonna choose that one. I’m gonna choose that fish and chip shop. Cuz the name made me laugh. But again, it’s about if you start that business, it’s very much having to read new customers.
Kevin Day (20:43):
If you start a new shop, reading, the sort of people who come in. Is this person, do they look, they seriously want to be here? Is it raining outside? How far can I push this person? It’s like, when somebody says to you in a shop, can I help you? And you say, no, I’m fine. Thank you. You want them to go away. Then you don’t want ’em to say, are you sure I can’t help you? And there, I just told you, you can’t help it’s or if you go into a fast food, if you’ve got a hangover and you go into a KFC, for example, and you order something, they say, do you want the meal? And because I’m polite, I say, no thank you. But in, in my head, I’m going, did I say I want the meal <laugh> and I know you are told to do that cause you have to meet targets.
Kevin Day (21:18):
But again, they’re making decisions all the time about the sort of customers in front of them. Is this person gonna get belligerent? If I say to them for a second time, if you have the meal, you get the Fanta free or is this person gonna go, oh, actually go then. So you’re always reading, but always having it. But it seems to me that in just in normal dialogue, even between friends, you just get impatient all the time. And, and if you don’t, if you don’t have that dialogue, you just run the, you become atrophied. You become stale, you stop, you fossilise. And so we, we know enough. We all know comedians who are just so bitter and fossilised because it’s, it’s that classic. I’m never sure if I get this the right way around you, you don’t, you don’t stop playing because you grow old, you grow old because you stop playing.
Kevin Day (22:03):
Yeah. And the first time I heard that, I thought that’s an amazing thing. Cause I thought with the age of 20, you think 30 is unthinkable, but you wake up, you wake up when you’re 30, you think, well actually I still quite fancy dancing. I still quite fancy listening to music. And then you think 40, no one told me that the age of I’m 60 now, no one told me that the age of 60 you’d still have insecurities and doubts and worries. And, and you, you freelance. So sometimes you’ve got more money than, than other times. But you also, you still want to listen to music cuz, and Ali’s brilliant. Cause Ali loves music – new music. So you and you still go, well I’m, I’m gonna listen to this. Right? I could just listen to Joy Division again, but why not listen to something new? And I find that remarkable, but I wish somebody had told me that. I wish somebody had told me that when I was younger that you’ll still feel this way. It’s just that you’ll be closer to death than you are now.
Paul Boross (22:56):
No, I think, I think that’s a choice and that’s what I think Humourology is about. It’s make good choices about… Bring new stuff in lightness of touch people. I think people close down, you just told about music. I’ve, I’ve got all the music I need. Now. I I’ve got The Sex Pistols and The Clash and that’s my lot. And I’m never going. And now everything sounds like a derivation o The Sex Pistols or The Clash or you know, The Sweet if we wanna really go old school. But actually I think people do that with people as well. I’ve got my mates. I’ve got the be no, no. And it’s kind of like some people get that thing like somebody introduces themselves and they go, no. Um, thank you very much for your inquiry. We’ll keep your details on file. Yeah. And whereas I’m like constantly going. They’re really interesting. What can I learn from them? I’m excited about life and people.
Kevin Day (24:03):
This is where I get cross, there’s one comic in particular. It wouldn’t be fair to name him, but I always say he just hates new comics. He hates them, he just hates them all. And I always say to him, look, they’re not, it’s not one or the other. It’s not you in. And them in and you out. You are still a brilliant comedian. You’re still a really brilliant comedian. Yes, you’re twice their age. But they’re not, they’re not here to deliberately take your job, they don’t want your job. They’ve got their own ideas and ambitions and careers. They’ve probably never seen you perform comedy. You carry on doing what you do. Like I do. If you have to adapt to it, if you have to find another way of making people laugh, find it. But again, that, that thing interesting.
Kevin Day (24:40):
You, you meet somebody and I know people go, I’ve got enough on my plate without having to listen to them. Or it’s like, you talk about, you might talk about the wider problems, you know, in the world of starvation and you know, there’s millions of tonnes of grain stored in Ukraine. It can’t get to people and people will say nothing I can do about it. And it’s, that’s true in a way, but it’s like, well, we can talk about, and we can talk about wider things. It’s like when you meet somebody who… , I love meeting new people. And it, it’s also that idea about making choices as well. It’s also, I think as well, and this, this works in a business situation sometimes having to think to yourself or constantly thinking to yourself actually. And I think this relates to business.
Kevin Day (25:22):
I mean, if you’ve, if you’ve open to fish and chip shop in the middle of Mayfair, for example, you’re probably constantly thinking to yourself, have I done the right thing here, opening a greasy spoon, fish and chip shop in the middle of Mayfair in the same way that if you were to open a freestyle French restaurant in Thornton Heath, you’d be constantly saying, have I done the right thing here? And I think, I think the most interesting people in life are those people who are constantly saying to themselves, am I doing the right thing here? Is this the right business model? Is this the right place? But also those people who have the courage to go, no, I’ve made the wrong decision. I’ve started this business at the wrong time or in the wrong place. Is there a way I can get out of this? No, there isn’t, let’s let’s move on. Because again, we have this terrible thing. Samuel Beckett. I believe he said, fail, try again, fail better. But we have this terrible fear now of failure and rightly so because you could financially ruin yourself over people, but sometimes you just have to go, I’ve got this wrong. As you do as a comedian. In your head, you start a routine and you go, I’ve got this wrong. I’m gonna change it. Sometimes that’s the bravest thing to do in any way walk’s life.
Paul Boross (26:33):
But I think you’ve used a really interesting word, bravery and being brave. I think that’s what it is the bravery to actually come out of your comfort zone and go, it’s a new person. And I had an interaction on Saturday with a homeless person, which absolutely shook me. it, but it shook me in an extraordinary way because of what they, how brilliant their communication was. And this was a…and I don’t wanna say it horribly, but a scabby looking young bloke, outside, a tube who, and his humanity and his humour changed everything about the way. And he led that and he taught me something. And when I went to shake his hand, he said, I won’t shake your hand cuz I’ve got too much respect for you. Wow. And I sleep in a bin and there’s binge juice all over my hand. Wow. And I’m like, Jesus. I mean, I couldn’t give him money quick enough. And I dunno what he spent it and I don’t care. It’s not important.
Kevin Day (27:49):
Do you know, what’s interesting about a couple of weeks ago, we did a live show, live podcast show in Accrington and we all went back to the hotel in Blackburn. It was quite late. There’s like a small group,
Paul Boross (27:59):
Brilliant podcast, by the way.
Kevin Day (28:01):
Thank you very much.
Paul Boross (28:01):
Everybody should listen.
Kevin Day (28:02):
But one of the people that had come with us who was involved with Accrington Stanley club, their son was with them. And this chap said to me, he’s no point talk to him, you won’t get much out of him. He’s not a communicator, but he just so happened to laugh. And he looked again, he looked, he’s quite shabbily dressed. And we just got talking and it turned out he worked for a homeless charity because he’d been street homeless himself for quite some time. And we got talking about all the old cliches. People say, you know, well, they might not be real beggars. And it’s like he said, yeah, they might not be real beggars. There are people like that about, but if they’re not, you’ve lost a pound. And this whole thing he said, he said, you can ask, you can say to somebody, do you want money?
Kevin Day (28:47):
Or do you want a sandwich or a coffee? Let them make the decision, let them make the choice. And he said, also, if you are giving somebody money and they do spend it on really strong alcohol, if you’ve given them the where with all to have 20 minutes off life or 20 minutes away. And it’s because no one, no one chooses to be home. But it’s like, again, I’m a good Guardian reading liberal about these things. It’s this is, this is terrible. But it’s the first time I’ve had a conversation with somebody who’s street homeless. I mentioned last time when pod ed knows every homeless person by, by name, on Dean Street from cause he’s always stopped to talk to them. This is the first time I’ve had a conversation with somebody and you go, oh my God. And what you come away thinking is please, for the love of God, don’t let my life go that way.
Kevin Day (29:31):
And now stop judging people. Stop saying cuz sometimes your first reaction is right. I’m a good white liberal here. Good Western liberal. I’ll give them two pound. But at the same time you go, mate, how have you come to this? Surely there’s something you can do. But so that that’s gone. Now that attitude completely like it’s not happened, but, but to come back to what you saying before about the, that decision to, to stop doing something it’s like I did last time. I did Edinburgh, Deborah Francis-White, it’s coming out the comfort zone. Deborah Francis-White is a brilliant improviser. She had this show where standups improvised on their own on stage. And she, she persuaded me to do it with the help of Phil Jupitas. And so the idea is you as a standup, you are on stage for half an hour.
Kevin Day (30:15):
She sort of interviewed. But the first thing she says was by the way you are not Kevin Day now, you’re a Bee, and you’ve just fallen into a cup. So how are you getting outta the cup? So, and it was, I found it. So what I learned was despite all my, my previous attitude to improvisation, I learned that I really thoroughly enjoyed it. I also learned that I’m never gonna do it again. Never gonna do it again. Cause I’ve, I’ve done it now. And I’d realise that I’m never gonna be as good at that as I am at standup comedy. So it was a brilliant experience, but also at the same time, that experience was made richer by knowing I didn’t have to do it again.
Paul Boross (30:51):
Well, it’s very interesting cuz I actually, when the comedy store players first started, I did it with them for about a year and a half. And you remember when Mike Myers and Neil Mullarkey and used to, andMike Myers trained us all with Paul Merton and everybody trained us all how to do it. And then we did it and I, you know, I did it for about a year, year and four months. I discovered that I was decent at it.
Kevin Day (31:16):
Yeah.
Paul Boross (31:17):
And I, and you know, and I wasn’t, well obviously I was with Mike Myers, lucky Paul Merton, Josie Lawrence, you know, Sandi Toksvig and, and you suddenly go, yeah, I’ve done it. I’m reasonable at it. I don’t love it. Like you have to love it. But also I don’t think I’m going to ever be brilliant at it. So I’ve done. That’ll do.
Kevin Day (31:45):
Standup comedians are very good improvises. So we improvise as we’re doing standup. Basically. Of course you do. You, you adapt to different circumstances. The reason we don’t tend to make good improvisers in a group is because we want to get the laugh, facilitating somebody else to get the laugh. Isn’t really on the agenda. And also what you want to do is break the rules. And I used to get cross sometimes with, with, with the, the Comedy Store Players, cuz they would ask for suggestions, they would say, right, we want you to tell us this. We want you to tell us where we’re going. We want you to give us a job or whatever, which is great. But then if an audience member tried to join in, when they weren’t asked, they would get really cross and not know how to deal with it.
Kevin Day (32:24):
It’s like you should, you at least should be able to improvise your way out this situation. But what is fascinating is that, is that you talk, you spoke then about, being taught, how to improvise about training, about taking 18 months to teach you what’s that I know, but what my point is in America, in America, every town, the city that’s got a comedy club will have an improv club cause they take it. They take it far more seriously as an art form than we do here. Like some actors will do improv classes, most people who do improv in this country. And it’s not, we haven’t got a big improv tradition in this country, despite the, Whose line is it Anyway? Whatever. It’s not a huge thing. Most people will go to see stand up or music rather than improv. But the idea that you can actually teach improv is a fascinating one for me cuz it’s counterintuitive.
Kevin Day (33:13):
Oh yeah. But again, it does come back to the, the most efficient communicators. The most efficient training officers or training staff are the ones who can think on their feet are the ones who, you know, cuz it’s, it’s, it’s simple enough to devise a training module. It’s not simple. I, I bet that’s disrespectful to training officer. It’s not, but they’re easy to, to access and locate. You can find it in a book now or, a website that will give you a training. Like you can find a best man speech for example. But it’s how you communicate that information to people and the best training people, the ones that do it with enthusiasm, energy, the ones that are, they may have done it five times that week, but they still give you the impression. This is the first time that they’ve done it.
Kevin Day (33:56):
They give you the impression that you are the best group of students they’ve had that week. And that they’re really impressed with your level of feedback and knowledge. They give you encouragement and cuz again, it’s like an audience. If you are, if you are being taught, trained, it’s very quick for you to see through the people who aren’t particularly keen on doing it, who are going through the motions, who are, who are giving you the information, but you are not taking that information in because you are distracted by the, the lack of enthusiasm or the lack of energy.
Paul Boross (34:25):
Well, but the best trainers in the world, having done a lot of training all over the world, really it’s about keeping them in the room and entertained and then putting in the education around that.
Kevin Day (34:40):
It took me too long to learn this. It took me until I was nearly leaving to learn this. That it’s about realising as well. That apart from the novelty of being away from their station or away from their classroom or away from their workplace, most people that you are talking to on a training course don’t want to be there. No, they really would rather not be there. They’d rather be back at work. If that’s alright with you, they’d rather be with their own rather than with with strangers. Normally they, they don’t. I find people here don’t respond well to being back in a classroom situation again. And it’s almost impossible to not replicate a classroom situation. So it took me too long to realise that because it would’ve changed my attitude towards… I always tried to be lighthearted and jokey and jovial when I was doing training modules and presenting information.
Kevin Day (35:26):
But if I’d realised an earlier date that these people really don’t want to be here. And again, it’s like when you do, I don’t do corporates. I hate doing corporates. There, there isn’t enough money in the world to induce me to do corporates anymore because you know the last thing they want, even if it’s Jimmy Car r or Lee Mack coming up, the last thing they want, they’re at their Christmas party with their mates. They’re half drunk already. The last thing they want is the CEO getting up and say, well, here’s my favourite comments coming along now for half an hour. You Don it’s like why? And then you go alright up. You get, and they’re not it’s, it’s not an instance. So it’s the same with people in, in training environments. They don’t really want to be there. And so you have to acknowledge that. And but sometimes of course that involves you going well, actually, if I acknowledge that, that undermines my whole, my whole role, just cuz training’s important. They should know that training’s important. And if they don’t know that it’s
Paul Boross (36:16):
About preframing though, isn’t it? It’s about preframing
Kevin Day (36:19):
And that’s, that’s a good phrase. That’s a good
Paul Boross (36:20):
Word. And, and going, look, I get it. You don’t have to explicitly say… The point of today is to have some fun and stick some learning in between the fun.
Kevin Day (36:34):
And you know what? I also found out Paul, and again, this relates to audiences. I, I found out again too late that most people cuz we would always do feedback out again early in the eighties, you didn’t get a lot of feedback sessions. You didn’t tend to ask, you might say to somebody who was out of any use and they’d go. Yeah, of course it was, but you didn’t have formal feedback or reporting back sessions. But when we started to do that towards the end of my time there, what I found was that so many of them, part of the reluctance to be there was that they were terrified that they would be tested at the end. Yeah. Or that in a week’s time somebody would turn up and say what was, what was it? They told you about the pregnancy regulations, uh, for somebody, a woman who’s and they were terrified of that. They were terrified that they would have to use this new knowledge. So again…
Paul Boross (37:22):
But the bizarre thing is that actually there’s been a lot of social science around this. The more relaxed they are, the more they remember,
Kevin Day (37:31):
Of course, of course it’s and again, they would. a lot of time you’re talking about older men and women officers who are used to being the ones who do the explaining and were again, reluctant to take notes from somebody who’s much younger than them. They know it’s important for them to find out what you do. If a woman is maternity pay, blah, they know it’s important to find out what you do. If a man is getting off his face on Entenox but at the same time, they don’t really, they don’t wanna be taking notes cuz they, they already think they, they their notes, which is why it’s always, I found easier to, to train and instruct younger officers, younger members of staff who always, who were closer to the school experience or the university experience. Yeah. So they hadn’t been out of it for as long as some of them have, but it’s like it’s about cuz in the end I realised that those problems that they had were, were mine to resolve or ours as a person, as a human resources department, they, those problems were ours to resolve, not theirs. It wasn’t up to us to tell them an their attitude has to be different. It is up to us to make sure their attitude is different,
Paul Boross (38:43):
Which goes back to where we came in on that point, which is the meaning of your communication is the response you get.
Kevin Day (38:50):
Yeah, absolutely.
Paul Boross (38:51):
Yeah. Kevin, you and I can talk all day. We’ve already talked for two days and this time I’m determined to get quickfire questions in.
Kevin Day (39:01):
Okay. I can’t guarantee quickfire answers – as you can tell!
Paul Boross (39:06):
You don’t have to. So who is the funniest business person? Somebody away from the comedy scene. They can be in the business of television or film. Who’s the funniest business person that you’ve met.
Kevin Day (39:26):
That’s a good question because you don’t always associate business with funny. My first boss, Kevin Ailwood at the ambulance service was very, very funny which is one of the reasons I liked working with him so much. Although you had to work out when you could, you had to stop being funny back cuz he was after all your, your boss and what I find is, of course, I hear the word business every day, but it’s always tacked on to the word show. It’s like and a friend of mine, Jim Piddock, I did a book launch for him. He’s launched his new book. He’s a Hollywood actor. He was in Best In Show. You’d recognise him, but he talked and it’s interesting. And the British audience was slightly diffident about him doing so. Cause he talked about show business has two words in show and business and the business is very important.
Kevin Day (40:12):
You have to make sure you get paid as much as you deserve. You have to make sure you walk and for English audiences, that’s kind of like, hmmmmm. do we have to talk about money? Come on now, you you’ve got a good career. So that’s interesting, but I think there’s a writer called his name’s full name’s Bob Frazor-Steel, . He’s from Berwick who is naturally the funniest person I’ve ever met or worked with he’s just his mind. I, I make connections very quickly. He mind is like a super computer. He just makes connections. He links things up really quickly. He’s very, very funny. He can be quite dry and quite sharp. And he refers to himself as a pantomime villain, but if you don’t know him, you could be wounded by some of the things he says, but he’s hilarious.
Kevin Day (40:58):
But you put him in front of four people to try and be funny and he can’t do it. And he, by his own admission, I always say to him, he should be a standup. No, couldn’t terrified. Really terrified, but he’s probably the answer. But it’s strange because my business is full of people who are funny or meant to be funny for a living. Well, as I talked about in the first pod we did it’s always intriguing to me that when you get a lot of comedians together, you in a room, you’ll have the first five minutes of Jocelyn for position and doing a couple of jokes. And then you will just talk like normal people. Yeah. Until another, until the civilian comes in. When you all revert to being funny again, it’s comedians like the, the chance not to be funny on occasions, but I, I think, I think Frazer Steel still would be the answer, but it’s like I never, although I was sort of seen the middle management if you like by the end, but I was never high enough to share in the banter with the managers that were in a different building.
Kevin Day (41:56):
You see what I mean? So humour, it’s an interesting one associating business with humour, which is odd because your podcast is all about finding ways to do that.
Paul Boross (42:05):
Well, brilliant answer. What book makes you laugh Kevin?,
Kevin Day (42:10):
I love Terry Pratchett well the first three and the last three. Not so much. I remember hearing somebody say about Desert Island Discs, one of the might have been Sue, one of the presenters saying you always knew when an answer had been given to someone by somebody else to make them seem intellectual. It’s like, you always knew if somebody went, oh, of course, Shostakovich, but not the sixth, the fifth, like somebody’s told you that
Paul Boross (42:34):
Too much detail.
Kevin Day (42:35):
So, this, so this one might sound like this sort of thing, but I find Charles Dickens, very funny. David Copperfield, which I’m rereading at the moment just makes me laugh out loud. But it’s partly cuz I love the way Charles Dickens writes obviously, but he just it’s full of asides. And I like that. I love the fact he would just break off to tell even the start of the Christmas Carol, when he says, why we say dead as a door nail now and not dead as a coffin nail I like that sort of diversion. But the book that makes me laugh the most is The Master and Margarita, by Bukgakov. He wrote it while he was in an asylum in Russia about 1926. It’s partly said there, there are, there are little chapters, mini chapters that are pilot talking to Christ before and it’s just basically Christ going.
Kevin Day (43:23):
There’s been a terrible misunderstanding. I really dunno how this has happened. People have followed me, writing his words, writing him down and pilot, trying to get him outta the situation. That’s funny. But the main part of the book is that the devil and three of his demons decide to come down to, to Russia in 1926 to cause some, some trouble to stir things up a bit. And one of the demons is a very sarcastic cat, which is something I would in, in the next life. I want to come back as a sarcastic cat. I love cats and I love sarcasm, but the, and it’s a really funny book because it turns out they get very disappointed because there’s nothing they can do that humanity hasn’t already done. They try and fuck things over, but we’ve already done it. And their attempts to find something to, to cause trouble with is just hilarious, but also bull Markoff’s description of authority, even down to like tram conductors. And as far up as the Politburo it’s hilarious. It’s really, it’s really generally funny. And it’s one of those books that you find yourself going back to
Paul Boross (44:25):
Tell us the name again. Cause
Kevin Day (44:27):
It’s called the
Paul Boross (44:27):
I don’t want people scrolling back.
Kevin Day (44:29):
It’s called The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov
Paul Boross (44:32):
The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov Yeah, I will give it a go. Okay. Definitely. What film makes you laugh?
Kevin Day (44:39):
Well at the other end of the intellectual scale? I love Best in Show. I love, I think best in show is, is funny, but always always Laurel and Hardy. It’s always Laurel and Hardy always come back to Laurel and Hardy for me, partly cuz one of my earliest memories is sitting on my dad’s knee, watching Laurel and Hardy and it was snowing on the Laurel and Hardy thing and snowing outside. And I remember thinking this’s brilliant. How’s my dad worked that out. It’s really clever. Aw. But also they just make me laugh so much. And, and what’s interesting for this pod as well is I was thinking about this last night. It’s amazing how many, uh, Laurel and Hardy films are about them starting a new business, you know, where they become fishmongers or chimney sweeps. Yeah in one of the Molly has this brilliant idea that they will become Christmas card salesman, but they’ll do it in July because no one else is selling Christmas cards in July <laugh> but there’s this whole, they always have this arc, but they always have this optimism, whatever, whatever plan they come up with.
Kevin Day (45:36):
And it’s always a good plan, but they manage to muck it up. But there’s one piece of dialogue in a film called Thicker Than Water when it is the classic one where, uh, James Finlayson, he comes to collect the HP payments on the furniture. And the small wife, says, I, you got paid that yesterday an his response is, steady woman. And she says, but I gave, I gave my husband $37. And so she says, what did you do with the money you big gallute? I gave it to Stan. And so she says to Stan, what did you do with the $37? He says, I gave it back to Ollie to pay my rent. So then they have this whole thing was that the money that she gave to you to give to him, to give to her. And it goes on, but it just, and it’s a joyful, I laugh at that in a way I don’t laugh at comedy because I’m not second guessing and I could watch it over and over again, it just their relationship, their love, their comes back to your point about you and Ainsley, even though they were so different.
Kevin Day (46:40):
I mean, Stan, most people don’t realise that Ollie, as soon as filming was over, Ollie would disappear to the golf course or the racetrack. Stan was the businessman. Stan was a very good businessman and
Paul Boross (46:51):
Who wrote it
Kevin Day (46:51):
As well. And he wrote directed, produced, worked out the stunts. He had very bright red hair and very piercing blue eyes, which was a problem for him in the early years of black and white film. His problem was the ladies. So most of the money he made, he lost, but he was a very shrewd business man, but they still talked about, their love for each other. And when they’re on set together, they just loved each other’s company. And it’s that shines through. And there’s a certain, not childishness, but child likeness about them, which, which makes me, it’s just joyful. It’s just what it is. It’s just, again, it’s like watching your double act. It’s one of the, you just, you just think don’t analyse it. Don’t really, don’t just give yourself up to it for 20 minutes and just think, you know what, that’s fine. The world is a better place for that 20 minutes. And that’s how I feel about Laurel and Hardy films. You just feel that’s slightly better about the world. And it’s like, not every comic has to be Mark Thomas or me trying to do topical stuff or bringing down a government. Although we brought Thatcher down in the end, I have to say it took us 11 years, but we got her down in the end. <laugh> we wore… we winkled her out in the end with our, our one liners and our comedy.
Paul Boross (48:03):
Well, this is my favourite interview ever that even you mentioning the Calypso Twins in the same breath as Laurel and Hardy <laugh> <laugh>
Kevin Day (48:13):
I wouldn’t. Well, if you ever do a reunion tour, put that on the poster as good as Laurel and Hardy.
Paul Boross (48:18):
Exactly. Do you know, talking about posters, Ainsley and I and Jeremy Hicks, were in Soho House and Jeremy Hicks said to Kim, Kinnie, bringing it full circle. What would the Calypso Twins bill matter be? <Laugh> and Kim straightaway went, ‘subtle as fuck’.
Kevin Day (48:44):
I did one of the first things I did on TV, I was appear on TV and it was… I was really pleased cuz a couple of the camera crew were proper old fashioned seventies, union men. Uh, and it’s like, you know, somebody went to pull a plug out. It’s like, oh yeah, whoa, whoa, whoa, wrong union. You can’t do that. Which just made me laugh for lot. But one of them introduced himself. To me said, I’m on camera one. He went, uh, said I won’t be laughing. I went, oh, that’s reassuring to know. He said, wow, I didn’t laugh at Morecambe and Wise, I ain’t gonna laugh at you. So I just spent the whole day saying Camera One says I’m as good as Morecambe and Wise. I’m as funny as Morecambe and Wise, he got really upset about saying, no, didn’t, I’ll say they were shit as well. <laugh>,
Paul Boross (49:26):
Everyone’s a fucking critic. Let’s take a shift to the other side because we talked earlier on and we have, young men, our children in our lives. And everything’s changing now to you. What’s not funny?
Kevin Day (49:46):
There are subjects I wouldn’t talk about. And this is a question that I knew might come up cuz you did, you were kind enough to gimme an indication of one or two questions that might come up. I think there’s just the most difficult question of all the questions that you asked me and, and you can tell, cause your experienced that I’m now, even though I knew it might come up, I’m still biting time. I’m giving myself thinking room. It’s it’s a really difficult question. I don’t think there’s anything intrinsically that can’t be made funny. There are things that I wouldn’t be comfortable talking about, but as we spoke about before I made my wife’s cancer treatment into a show and, and that was funny. There’s a comment. I forget his name. He won the Perrier Awards for a show about male rape, which he made into a brilliantly funny show.
Kevin Day (50:38):
I think everything there’s, there’s potential humour in everything. It just depends. What the reason is that you are finding humour in it. I hate, I hate cruel jokes. I hate the comedy of cruelty. I hate people. There was a time in the nineties when you would set people up, you’d set celebrities up and ask them, you know, Chris Morris would, would humiliate them by saying, well, is this new drug. Cake – cake. You know? And then they would say, they would say, uh, well, look at this idiot. He was so desperate to get on tele. He’s talking. Whereas basically you’ve got a kindly old lady who’s, he’s trying to help people. I hate, I hate comedy of humiliation. I hate people who tell I occasionally I like bad taste jokes. Of course I do. But not if they’re about somebody specific.
Paul Boross (51:32):
But I think at the essence of what you are saying is nothing should be crossed off the list and nobody should be in charge of policing that
Kevin Day (51:41):
I don’t think there should be any taboos. But I think that doesn’t mean I understand people who think there should be taboos and it doesn’t mean that I think you should be chasing taboos just for effect, just to be known as the taboo busting comedian, Mark Thomas. And I did Loose Talk together. We did this particular routine about what had happened. It’s about whether God was male or female essentially. But this routine, the Bishop of Oxford took exception to this routine and complained to the BBC. And we would said, we’d we had to read out the complaint because BBC governors upheld the complaint. So we had to read out two weeks later, very sorry, we understand we’ve been told by Ofcom or whatever it was then that, that routine offended three of the major four faith groups. So to those Hindus who feel left out, please accept our apologies.
Kevin Day (52:30):
And we did this routine about throwing a bun to Ganesh right, which was childish. But it led to the best letter of complaint that I’ve ever, ever got. So those were the days before the internet. Thank the Lord. Thank God. There’s no Twitter there, but this young man wrote in to say, uh, I’m a Hindu. I love the show. I love standup comedy. Uh, and I’m a Hindu. So I was really pleased to hear. We very rarely get mentioned. We very, really get included. It made me and my mates laugh a lot. My mum and dad are furious, but it was a great, thank you so much for doing jokes about Hindus PS. You two are fucked in the next life. <Laugh> it was just, it just made me laugh so much cuz it dealt with the situation. So, so well, so properly it’s so mature.
Kevin Day (53:16):
But again and again, we would, we deliberately did that, but we weren’t doing, we weren’t saying right. Well let’s upset Hindus. The first, the first routine wasn’t deliberate, our aim wasn’t to say, right? How can we upset people? Our aim was, well, let’s explore this, this issue. Cause it was around the time that women priests were coming in and people saying you can’t have a women priest. So it was in context. So it’s like I think you can explore everything, but not if you are just doing it deliberately to cause effect. And also there are some comics who get two years out of, you know, shock, horror to boo busting, but it wears thin in the end. It wears thin. It really does.
Paul Boross (53:51):
Yeah. I agree. That was, I’m still laughing at bun to Ganesh. Would you rather be considered clever or funny?
Kevin Day (54:04):
In terms of what I do for a living? I think I better plump for funny <laugh> yeah, essentially. Cause I’m probably in the wrong job.
Paul Boross (54:11):
Do you think that in order to be funny, you have to be clever. Is’ that not, a proviso?
Kevin Day (54:17):
I don’t think I’ve ever met a comedian who isn’t clever. And I think that’s partly because they’ve got a lot of time on their hands for start off. Comedians tend to be very well read and, and you know you generally have got a lot of time on their hands. They tend to be interested in the world. Most of them. And also if your job is to put things together, you know, our job is not to put two and two together and make four. It’s to put two and two together and make round of applause. So when your job is to make connections that the audience can’t make, because if you’re not making audience connections, the audience can’t make, there’s no point you being there. So I think there is a certain element of you have to be clever to be a comedian or you need sly cunning
Kevin Day (55:02):
at least. I would, I would like… I can’t say this in all honesty that I would like to be considered a clever comedian when I’ve just told a joke about throwing a bun Hindu God, whatever. I can’t, that would be slightly hypocritical of me to do that. But I’m actually very proud that I’ve been funny for a living cause it wasn’t something I ever expected to do when I was younger. My interests were history and archaeology and basically I was never gonna be a historian or an archaeology. So I might have ended up teaching history, but that would’ve been it, but I’ve become a comedian and a writer and it’s taken me to places and to people that I never thought I would ever go. I am proud of being of being funny. So yeah, funny’s funny is the answer to that question.
Paul Boross (55:45):
That’s a great answer. And finally, Kevin Desert Island Gags <laugh> you can only take one gag with you to a desert island. What is it?
Kevin Day (55:55):
I’m I’m gonna have to discount two of them. Cause I can only have one, but two of them have got the C word in one of them only once, but one of them 27 times, but you know, discount. But my, my favourite joke and Ali is again, it’s one of those things you get after 28 years of marriage that Ali knows I have to do it. I have to say it. If we, if we ever walk into a pub or any building, if we ever go to a castle or a house and there’s a stuffed animal’s head on the wall, I have to say, he must have been going at some speed when he hit that wall. I have to do it. And it just makes me laugh. I just love doing it because I love cuz people, I remember Ed was about four.
Kevin Day (56:42):
I remember doing it and Ed just, it took him a second to work out what I meant. And he rolled about laughing and Ali it’s like watching Ali smiles cause she knows I’m gonna do it. And she knows that I’m gonna enjoy doing it. And when you do it, even if there’s four animal heads on the wall, I will do it four times. I have to do it. But it just, it, I, I think it was originally a Tony Hancock joke. I think others I’ve always loved Galton and Simpson because they were from down the road for me. One was from Wallington. One was from Streatham Vale. So within a mile of where I grew up and then that’s one of the things you find out later on in life you go, I wouldn’t mind knowing that when I was a kid that would’ve given you a little bit of a boost, knowing that somebody like that was from there.
Kevin Day (57:28):
But I think, I think it’s a, a Hancock joke, but it just, it fills me… If we go somewhere, to the extent I literally, if we go, we very rarely get time for a day out now. Cause Ali’s working so much. But if we, if we say let’s go somewhere, let’s have lunch, go to a pub. We haven’t been to, I’m literally in a car for 15 minutes going, please let it be a moose head. Please let it be some kind of stuffed animal, please, please. And if there’s not, she knows that I’m gonna be disappointed if there isn’t, but it just makes me laugh all the time. It’s the most basic, simple, stupid joke but it just makes me laugh all the time.
Paul Boross (58:03):
Oh, that’s a brilliant way. And a brilliant way to end. You’ve been not only fabulous fun, but you definitely says comedy on the door and you are very much very funny. Thank you so much, Kevin, for being our guest on the Humourology podcast.
Kevin Day (58:20):
Thank you for having me again.
Paul Boross (58:23):
The Humourology podcast was hosted by Paul Boross and produced by Simon Banks, music by Steve Haworth, creative direction by Les Hughes and additional research by Helen Sykes. Please remember to subscribe like and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts. This has been a Big Sky production.