#619 Let me bore you to sleep

Hello and welcome to jasonnewland.com. My name is Jason Newland. If you can hear that, that's my chair. This is let me bore you to sleep.

Please only listen when you can safely close your eyes. Andre was fidgeting about literally about 30 seconds ago and now he's stopped. I thought he was going to come out and say hello but he never and I don't know why.

So yeah, hope you're well. It is the 23rd of March 2021. It's a Tuesday.

So yeah, here I am again. Here I am again. So I have a plan.

I have a plan. Included in that plan is to get a chair that doesn't squeak. What is it with me and squeaky chairs? It might just be me and all the chairs are fine.

What reality is when I sit in them, they're yelling. They're not squeaking, they're actually yelling help. Get him off me.

Help. Earthquake help. So that might be what's going on.

It might be my big fat bum. That's the problem. It might be.

Again, I don't know. I don't know if I've got a big fat bum. I don't know.

For those in America, I should change the wording. I don't know if I've got a big fat fanny. I might have a big fat hairy fanny.

I don't know. I can't see it. Walking around the streets with fanny flapping all over the place.

I don't know. I can't see it. It feels all right.

I say it feels all right. I mean, it does take about an hour to wash each cheek. So yeah, maybe that's a sign that it's perhaps a little bit big.

I don't know. So in my plan, my master plan, to improve this free service, this free hypnosis service, which the next step is to produce better quality sound. I've got the microphone for that and I'll soon be, and by soon, I mean in the next couple of days, I'm planning to start editing with a bit more panache, a bit more, you know, really sort of going for it using the software.

And maybe I might start actually recording directly to Adobe Audition instead of using the iPad app I've got. Just a thought. It's a thought.

It's just a thought. It might end up working better. It might.

In fact, it might really work out okay. I didn't know, but, you know, it's worth giving it a try. It really is.

Also, I'm going to have a little play at maybe making some videos as well. So I spent a lot of time this week working on audios and I've increased my output somewhat. In fact, I've had over 10,000 downloads today.

So pretty pleased with that. And my aim in the short term, although it's been a long-term aim because this has been my aim for two years, to get to the 10,000 a day regularly. You know, sort of regularly.

I want to get to the point where it just doesn't go below 10. So I feel like I've kind of broken the ceiling a little bit and the ceiling is higher now. So I'm kind of hoping, you know, I'm planning to aim for that, for the 10,000 average.

And then, you know, now that I've got to the 10,000, maybe the 15,000 isn't that far away. And then maybe the 20,000. And before you know it, I'll be 21,000 a day.

21,000. Also, I kind of like to do this at the same time as making a video. I've been thinking, you know, should I make videos with, which I've done a few and there's still more to do, where there's, you know, like film footage of forests or beaches with waving, waving waves.

I'm trying to think of a word, waving, what are they called? Oh yeah, waves. And then I thought, and I'm thinking, if I'm making these recordings anyway, why not film myself doing it? That's what I've been thinking. And I know that, you know, I'm going to be getting a decent camera in the future.

Not right now, but you know, in the future at some point, hopefully before the summer starts. I should, with a little bit of technical experimentation and study, you know, I need to go online and try and find out how to do it, but hopefully connect it all together. So connect, I know that is a way of connecting the microphone to the camera.

So if I can connect the microphone to the camera, but at the same time record the audio, kind of separate. Although if it's good enough quality, I could just record, make the video, go into Premiere, Adobe Premiere video editing, and I can remove the audio or rip the audio off and save that separately. But I'm not sure if it would be as good a quality as it would be if I recorded it on audio recording software.

I'm not sure. I'm not sure. But, but my guess is if I record the video using the microphone, then if it's been recorded, if the video, I'm not sure if Premiere allows you to record directly.

If it does, then the quality of the sound would probably be exactly the same as it would be if it was on Adobe Audition audio recording. It's all the same, same software, I guess. I'm not sure.

I'm not sure. There's so much to do, so much, but I'm doing it. I am.

I really am. I'm sticking to it and I'm doing it. And I will continue to stick to it and continue to do it.

That is my plan. It's all, it's an almost very detailed and at the same time, very vague plan. Because I know what I want.

I know how I want things to be. And it really is as simple as the best quality that I can do. Not just sound wise, not just picture wise with videos, but also content wise.

And I always, whenever I say this, I always say the same thing. But I'm not talking about these recordings. The content on these are just, it's not even content, is it? It's just me.

Just talking. But as far as the hypnosis things go, I'd really, really want to up, up the quality from every possible angle and make the best that I can do. Oh, yes.

That's kind of my plan. So I do find it much easier to talk into a microphone when there's no lens pointing at me, filming my funny face. I really do.

I honestly, I just prefer it, I suppose. But there's also, hmm, there's the, I can have a tendency to show off a little bit in front of the camera. Not, not show off, but make funny faces.

I don't know what it is. It's just the child in me just, you know, if I could see myself in the camera or in the, you know, the screen, I can see, see my face. I just, it's something about, I almost can't stop myself from pulling a face.

Oh, Andre's moving. Hello, Andre. Are you there? My little pumpkin poopy head.

So I am thinking, here's a question. I know no one ever answers my questions. I do.

Honestly, I do think I'm just talking to myself, but I know I'm not. Well, I am, but I know that thousands of people are listening to me. But no one ever gets in touch.

I do have a question. I don't know that on YouTube, I get more response. So if I was doing a video and I said, oh, I asked a question, then I will get people will actually comment on YouTube.

And I think part of that is because it's easier on podcasts. It's almost, I don't know if anyone ever really posts anything on podcasts in the comments. I'm not sure.

Occasionally, I get some, but or if I do get any, I don't get notified. But the question I do have, do you find these, let me bore you to sleep, podcasts, the recordings, do you find them relaxing? And the reason I ask is because, oh, look, little Andre is about. The reason I ask is because I find myself feeling more relaxed when I actually record them.

Usually. So I guess I'm wondering if, if you have a similar response. Andre loves his tunnels.

He's got his plastic tunnels on the side of the wall. And he climbs all the way through them until he gets to his bag at the end, which is hidden behind the door. And he sleeps sometimes in the tunnel.

Or sometimes he climbs into the bag and sleeps in it. And the reason, I know why he likes it, because he thinks I can't get to him. Even though I can, because the door is, it's on a hook to keep the door open.

And the reason I had that is so that Andre didn't get his tail caught in the gap between the door, which happened once. Well, once, so that I know of, it might have happened when I wasn't here. But he screamed and he was, it was really painful for him.

That was a one trial learning for me. I thought never again. So this door and the bedroom door, there's a hook on both doors attached to the wall.

So I can open and close the door if I just unhook it. So the door is permanently open. So he can't get caught in his tail with the door being open and then closing and stuff.

Because he's got a habit of pushing the door open. And or playing with it really. So he can't do that anymore.

But this door in the living room being open, there's a gap between, you know, behind the door. And that's where his bag is. So if he loves, I say loves, I don't know what emotions he's going through, but he likes his own little space.

He does. He likes it there. Mind you earlier, he's been spending more time on my bed lately.

Earlier, I got into the bed. And he was inside the quilt. So he wasn't on the bed, he was actually inside the quilt.

So I just moved the quilt along a little bit. And I was literally, I was practically laying on the edge of the bed. It's a double bed.

I didn't want to disturb him. It's just like, he rules my life. It's a tiny little thing.

How can he take up? How can a little ferret hog a double bed? How is that even possible? But it happens. It occurs. Now and then.

It really do. So yeah, I'm going to be yawning. I'm going to be upping the ante.

I'm going to be. Yeah, so I'm going to be doing from well, in the next, you know, was it now Tuesday? So come Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, I should start to be producing some videos, as well as the idea for me is, can you hear that in the background? See that for me, that's like normal background sound. In a sense of it's a real sound.

But there's a there's a, even when it's what seems silent, there's a almost like a background staticky, hissy kind of sound, which is not noticeable so much on the first recording when I first record it. But when I increase the volume, that then becomes prevalent. And I just don't like it.

So yeah, that's what I'm going to be doing. Very shortly. So today, I took Andre out for a walk.

And here's an interesting. Last night, I went out to get something and there's a neighbor in the park with these, I don't really know him very well, but he was with some lady. And she was friendly enough, you know, he was just chatting and stuff.

And I stopped and had a little chat. She said at the end, What's your name? So Jason. He said, I just, I like to connect things together.

So I remember his name. So we like Jason and the Argonauts. I said, No, it's not.

It's not what I'm named. He said, Oh, Jason with a beer belly. What? That's what she said.

That's how she was going to remember me. Jason with a beer belly. Is that rude? Or I'm not sure.

I think it's probably not something you say to someone when you only sort of been speaking to him for 10 minutes. I'll remember you by your beer belly. What beer belly? Your big fat beer belly? I'm not fat.

That's muscle. And everybody laughs. People actually walk out of their house to laugh.

Here's the thing. Where was I? I just remembered there was the newspapers or the press were trying to get people to go outside their front door at eight o'clock or something and clap and make noise and stuff. Where was I? I forgot all about that.

Where was I? At eight o'clock. I genuinely don't know where I was. Maybe I maybe I was in bed.

Maybe I fell asleep. I don't know. I do have the odd little nap.

But then, you know, I'm up most of the night, most of the night working, working, watching Netflix. That's a job, isn't it? Isn't it? I've not watched that much in the way of Netflix, although I have been watching a bit of what's his name? Alan Partridge. I just really I just love that show.

I love anything that he's in. Steve Coogan's character, if you don't know who Alan Partridge is, he's a character played by an actor and comedian. What's his name? Steve Coogan.

And I've been watching him for 20 or 20 blimey 30 years, probably nearly. He's been on telly since the early 90s. And it's just really funny to see.

I just, yeah, just love it. I love. Yeah, he's done quite a few different TV shows and and yeah, he had a podcast lately as well.

Recently, I think I downloaded it. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I did. I'm not sure if I listened to it or not.

But yeah, he's good. The, I'll always remember first time I ever saw Steve Coogan was probably was 1991. And it was before he won the Perrier Award with his partner at the time was his name Tomkinson, John Thompson.

They did a double act. Well, it wasn't, it wasn't so much a double act, they kind of just played different characters. But I never saw the one man show.

So well, the two man show that won them the Perrier Comedy Awards. And I think they won it in 92. I might be wrong.

I'm pretty sure Lee Evans won it in 91. I'll have to check this. I'm going to check it.

Okay, Perrier. Is it a P E my eyesight awards winners list of okay, here we go. List of Perrier Award winners.

If I wanted my glasses, I'd probably be able to see better. There we go. Yes, much better.

Okay. So I got involved in Yeah, I started comedy in 91. So 91, the Perrier Award went to Frank Skinner.

And that was by the summer 91. I think it's August time, I think. 92 Steve Coogan, in character with John Thompson.

That was the name of the show. They won it in 1992. Lee Evans won it in 1993.

Leno and Woodley. I don't know who they are. They won it in 94.

Jenny Eclair, 95. Dylan Moran is Irish comedian, brilliant comedian. He won it in 96.

97, the League of Gentlemen. 98, Tommy Tierman, another Irish comedian, brilliant comedian. 1999, Al Murray.

2000, Rich Hall. 2001, Garth Marenghi's Netherhead with Matthew. All right, wow.

Garth Marenghi's Netherhead with Matthew Holness, Richard Ayode, and Alice Lowe. But Richard Ayode was already famous, wasn't he, by then? Daniel Kitson won it in 2002. Dimitri Martin, 2003.

I'll stop talking now, there's lots. Wow, I didn't know that. So I'm just looking.

Oh, really? So there wasn't one last year. It's quite interesting because there's some people here that, if you don't even need to, best newcomer, you don't even need to win it to move on in your career as a comedian. So I know people that were shortlisted and then went on to be big stars or went on, you know, television and stuff.

For example, here we go. Let me show you some people that didn't win it. So I'm going, I'm just going to go from 91 because the rest, OK, here's some people that didn't win it.

Jack Dee, who went on to be a huge star. Eddie Izzard, again. Lily Savage.

So they were the shortlist for 91 when Frank Skinner won it. So basically, they get it down to a list of a certain amount and then they choose one from that list. And then you've got 92 when Steve Coogan won it.

Joe Brand. Mark Thomas. I mean, those, you know, they're two big stars on TV as well.

In the 90s, Joe Brand still, she's probably the most famous female comedian in the country. And it's been around for a long, long time. Long time, long time.

1993, when Lee Evans won it. He had Corky and the Juice Pigs, who went on to win it in. When are they going to win it? They did win it.

Phil Nickle. Phil Nickle was in Corky and the Juice Pigs. And then he went on and won it on his own.

Okay, fair enough. Okay. And Corky and the Juice Pigs, what a great name.

Phil Kay, he was on television. Donna MacPhail, she was on television. She's also a writer.

And then you got 1994, Alan Davies. I don't know why he didn't win it. Then you got Harry Hill.

Alan Davies, Harry Hill. I mean, arguably Harry Hill went on to be among the most famous comedians, really, as far as his TV career has gone. He's still on TV now.

He's been on TV for what, 20 odd years? Jeff Green. See, Jeff Green was a big name on the comedy circuit. I'm not quite sure where he is or what he's doing these days.

So I'm not really that in touch with what's going on in the stand-up world. 1995, Jenny Eclair won. But then you had a few.

Boothby Graffo. Brilliant comedian. He was one of the regulars at a comedy club I used to go to.

Brilliant. Really, really funny. Like, just really funny.

Almost, I don't know what it was about him. It was effortless for him. Absolutely effortless.

I'm not saying he didn't put any effort into it, but he was, it was something about him that was really, really special. And then you've got 96, Dylan O'Rean wins it. He was in a TV show called Black Books, as well as being in movies and stuff.

See, Alexandra Armstrong and Ben Miller. They went on to be famous, having their own TV shows and stuff. Bill Bailey.

These are the shortlisted. Bill Bailey went on to do lots of TV stuff, still does. Rich Hall went on to do lots of TV stuff.

Dominic Holland. And Al Murray. See, Al Murray, you see this sometimes, especially with Al Murray.

Al Murray was shortlisted. One, two, three years in a row. And the fourth year, he won it.

Now, I don't see anybody else on the list that's done that. That's accomplished. Rich Hall.

Yeah, Rich Hall. Yeah, Rich Hall's won actually. Rich Hall won.

Yeah, he was shortlisted one year. 96 and he won it in 2000. And I think the reason for that is a lot of the ones that are shortlisted go on to have a TV career.

So they don't, they don't need to be shortlisted. They perhaps don't have the time to go back. Although some people, some, some do.

They go back every year, because they love it. They love it. Now, Dominic Holland is Spider-Man's dad.

You might think, what are you talking about? What are you talking about, Willis? Spider-Man's dad is Dominic Holland. Tom Holland, the actor, very famous actor now. Lots of films.

His dad is comedian and writer Dominic Holland. I used to know him years ago. And he does look like his dad.

And his dad still looks young. He's got that young face as well. So Tom Holland will, he'll be able to play young characters probably way into his 30s.

He's got a very young face. Again, 1997, right? Shortlisted. Milton Jones, really popular comedian.

Al Murray again, been on TV loads. But then he didn't win, didn't win the Perrier till 99. Graham Norton and Johnny Vegas.

Two different shows. But Graham Norton and Johnny Vegas. Both, they were shortlisted.

They didn't even, they didn't win in 97. But both went on to have big television careers. The League of Gentlemen went on to have a big TV show of their own.

So if you win the Perrier, you get, you get on TV. It's almost a guarantee. You'll get on TV doing something.

Whether, you know, you might choose to go down the acting route, or you might want to be, you might want to do comedy, you might be, you want to your own comedy show, or you want to do stand up and whatever. It's kind of, I think, the ball's kind of in your, in your, your foot, you know, it's whatever you want to do. Because to win is so such a prestigious award.

It's now called the Edinburgh Comedy Festival title or whatever winner. It used to be the Perrier Award, but they got that was just a sponsorship. And it is really the equivalent of winning an Oscar.

You might think, oh, shut up, you, you don't have a night winning an Oscar. It kind of is. It's, you know, when a new actor comes along, I think one in a good example would be Leonardo DiCaprio.

When he won the Oscar, didn't he win the Oscar for Titanic? Or he was nominated. I'm not sure if he won or he was definitely nominated for it. I think you might want it.

But just being named just being associated with the Oscars. It raises your profile up. And I don't think it makes much difference to people like Brad Pitt, because he's a superstar.

He's a, he's bigger than, he's bigger than any film he's been in. Now, you know, he is a movie star. But he's bigger than the movies he's in just as is Tom Hanks or Tom Cruise.

You know, they're, they're almost, I guess, they are classed as Hollywood royalty, aren't they? So they're, they can do no wrong, pretty much. Mind you, I was going to include Johnny Depp in that, but his things have turned a bit weird for him lately. So it really does, you know, for for the Edinburgh, the Edinburgh Festival, it's not just about comedy.

Anyway, they've got lots of different things there. But for comedians, because the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, it's all about comedy for comedians. But for poets, it's about poetry.

For artists, it's about art for singers, or I don't know, I've never been there. I really need to go there one day. And I don't know, maybe I could do a little show, put a little show on.

It's expensive, though. It's a, it's an investment. Now some, some people have management.

I'm pretty certain that when, if I owe a bit of money on it, in 1993, when Lee Evans went to Edinburgh, and won the, you know, the Perrier Award, he didn't pay out of his own pocket to go there. Pretty sure, because even when I started on the circuit in 91 January, he was a big name. He was a headliner.

He was, it was, and if there was the betting, if there was, you know, if there was kind of odds, you want to put odds on him being a big star, you would have got odds so bad. They wouldn't have been worth putting any money on. Because it was so obvious that he was going to be big, that he was going to be famous and loved, you know, by the nation, because of how good he was.

You know, he's a brilliant comedian, physically, and just great. And really lovable, you know, as a person, he's just really, really, I don't know, something about him, I'm saying that a lot about him, there's something about him, can't put, can't quite put my knee on it, there's something about him. But yeah, he was special.

And obviously, because he then went on to be one of the most successful touring, live stand up comedians this country's ever seen. He filled Wembley on more than one occasion, I do believe. I think the only person that perhaps gave him a run for his money, maybe overtook him, is a couple is Michael McIntyre.

And what's his name? car share, car share man. His name's gone out of my head. Now he never won the Edinburgh Festival.

And from the looks of it, he'd never even placed anywhere that made no difference. I mean, Michael McIntyre. Did he ever go there? Michael McIntyre.

No, doesn't look like it. Which is weird, because I thought that he'd just win it easily. Like really easily because of how good he is.

See, what's weird, well not weird, but if you look at the people that have won it, so many have gone on to be TV, on TV. And the amount that are shortlisted, have gone on to be on TV. It's just, it's amazing.

It's almost, it's like, it's like almost certainty. That if you get shortlisted, I'll give you an example of someone, a friend of mine, who was shortlisted, Terry Alderton. He, the headliner, comedian, I'd known him since the 90s.

And he, I don't know if he'd been to the festival before or not, but he was shortlisted in 99. A lot of, a lot of people thought he might win it. Although the fact that Al Murray had been shortlisted three years previously, again, it was kind of almost the worst year to go against Al Murray, because you think the same, possibly the same people reviewing, like Al Murray again.

It's almost, well, we've got to give it to him. How many years can someone be shortlisted before you give them the win? And he deserved it. Everybody deserves it really, because they're all great.

To get shortlisted, you have to be really, really, really good. And Terry Alderton went on to be, he, what did he do? He did, he hosted the lottery, the national lottery show on BBC One on Saturday night. And he got on TV and all kinds of stuff.

And he had a lot going for him, actually, because really good looking fella. He did impressions, was a really good impressionist. He always looked a lot younger than he was.

So he's very, got good genetics. He's a nice person. You know, I always got on really well with him.

And he was talented. He had, he almost had that mix between mainstream and alternative. So he'd, in a sense of he could, what I mean by that is he could perform to any audience and do well.

He had that ability to pretty much perform anywhere. And people would like him because he was funny. And us, you know, I saw him perform at the club, at my club so many times.

And it was weird, well not weird, but the comedy club I used to go to on Tuesday nights, they had a black comedy club where this, a black comedy promoter wanted to use the venue. And it was like, some of the comedians were on the circuit, some of them, it's almost like they had their own circuit. They had, you know, sounds bad doesn't it? But you know, and I guess there is, but it was a different atmosphere.

The thing is, I went along not realising that I would be out of place. But I didn't care because for me comedy's comedy. I don't care who they are, where they're from, what, you know, what accent they've got, man, woman, whether it's, even if it's like a kid, I don't care.

If they're funny, they're funny. And because we did have, I think we had a 15 year old boy or 16 year old, no 15 year old, what was he, 14, came along. Yeah, early 90s.

And he's like, he just wanted to go on stage. And they let him, but he wasn't allowed to drink. And I think he came with his parents.

It was like an open night, Wednesday night. So he wasn't allowed to drink obviously. But he went, yeah, I think they put him on first, because he had to go to bed to be in bed by 10.

Oh, yes, it is Tuesday night. So busy. Like really, really busy.

Absolutely packed full. But no one was drinking. Well, some people were drinking, but it was like, the whole point is, the idea was I have the comedy.

And, you know, the club will take the bar. So if you've got 200 people in there, which is about capacity, really, sitting down. And then the bar, you know, you could take a few take a few grand on the bar.

And it's a it's a nice night, especially a Tuesday when nothing much happens. But no money was being taken hardly on the bar. So it didn't last long.

Because of that, one of the main reasons because if there's no money coming in, there's no point doing it for the, you know, the club. But it was weird, because almost I don't know, like they took the people in the club took over the whole road. They had literally had lookouts.

They had people like there was soldiers standing at the end of each road, watching out. I don't know what they were watching out for. I generally don't know.

But it was very not scary, because things like that don't scare me. But hence, I went there and I was our place. But But anyway, Terry, Terry was there as well.

And I just said, Wow, I said, this is really different. Because it was almost the opposite to what most other clubs were. Which was predominantly white people, which I never understood.

Bearing in mind, we're in London, where there was such an array of different nationalities. And I didn't understand why wasn't it more mixed? Why wasn't it more? Because I was dating a black girl myself at the time. And I take her to the comedy club.

I was a bit boring as everything was comedy for me. So when I went out, I used to take girls to comedy clubs. Because most of the clubs I'd get in for free.

So it was a cheap night. But you know, I brought my girlfriend to this club. On just like a normal, normal night, like a Friday or Saturday night.

As long as you'd be the only black person there's like, what is going on? We're in East London, which is predominantly the most multicultural place in the entire world. London, East London, the most multicultural area of any part of the world that there is. Now you might argue beyond that one, it's true.

I don't know how it's true. But I heard someone say it once. So I'm going to stick to it.

So there you go. Okay, what do you think? But I remember going to this, this, I said this Tuesday night, and I went every every Tuesday, because the comedians were really good. But it was different kind of comedy.

It was really, every everything was about it's basically just talking about their colour the whole time. And the differences between white and black people. And it was, I don't know, I just I didn't, I couldn't quite understand why it was.

But then I see, you know, I look at like Chris Rock, my one of my comedy heroes is Richard Pryor, but every comedian would probably say that anyway. Of course, he did that, but he didn't. It wasn't all he did.

You know, he did other stuff, but I guess he did do a lot of that. Differences and what it's like to be, you know, in America was, you know, all that stuff, because think about it, he was in the 60s, late 60s when he started being on telly, Richard Pryor. That wasn't a good time for a lot of people in America.

And that's one of the things he walked off stage, he did a Richard Pryor, he did this, and this is out of his own mouth. So I don't know what historical records there are of this. He was invited to do a gig, a charity gig.

And the gig was something to do to support women. Something like that. So support women's rights or something.

Yeah, I think that's what it was to support women's rights. To do was to do with getting the vote because I think women have had the vote for quite a while by then. But it's definitely I think it was to do with women's rights.

Okay. And he was already a star at this point. He was already known he'd been on the Ed Sullivan TV show.

He was like the new Bill Cosby. Back then when he said the new Bill Cosby, it was, it was a good thing. Okay, it was a compliment.

And he, by the way, a lot of people in countries outside of America, don't realize how big Bill Cosby actually was. I don't mean girth, or you know, weight or height or anything like that. He was a superstar.

I know some people say, Yeah, of course we know he was on telly. No, I'm talking long before being on the Cosby show. That was something that made him worldwide famous.

Long before that. He was a superstar in America. Yeah, yeah, no, he did the Cosby show.

No, I'm not talking about the Cosby show. He was the biggest comedian. Probably in reality, there probably has been no one bigger in the history of America, as far as how popular he was, when he was a stand up comedian.

He released loads of albums that went to number one in the charts and the album charts. He sold millions of albums. He toured and he filled out stadiums all over America.

You know, like rock bands would do, he filled stadiums, just him sitting there in a chair, or on a stool, or maybe walking around. But he was that popular. And that might say, Oh, yeah, so what? But it's a little bit different from a band to just one person standing on stage on their own.

Performing to, I can't even imagine how many people. It's, it's not really, for me, it's not even, I can't even really imagine it. Blimey, gas and yawning at the same time.

It's almost unimaginable, apart from if you can imagine it. Performing to that many people. Anyway, Richard Pryor, he was doing this benefit gig, according to my memory.

And it was it was something to do with charity or raising money or awareness for women's rights. Women's equality, something like that, female equality. And he's not the only act there.

There's other acts, there's singers, there's all kinds of stuff. He, I don't know if he was the top act, he might not have been, but he was definitely, you know, one of the big acts. He finds out that the females are being segregated.

So the white, the white dancers were being treated better than the black dancers. And the white, the black dancers were being all kind of held together, not held together, but what with plastic, they weren't held together. They were, the room that they were in was just a bit shabby.

And they were all kind of stuck in one place. But the, the white dancers, and the white singers and all that stuff, they were treated differently. So he was at a benefit gig, giving his time to support equality.

Yet, what he was seeing was hypocrisy. Oh, my big words. So apparently, he went on stage.

He told them what he thought about that. He bent over, I think he pulled his trousers down. And he said, kiss my big black ass.

And then he walked off stage. And he pretty much killed his career by doing that. Because he was a squeaky clean comedian.

And he was really doing well. He was going places. And then that got, I think that got quite a lot of publicity.

And he wasn't seen for about two years. And when he returned, he was the Richard Pryor that we know that, you know, or any, if you've ever listened, that's the thing. If you haven't listened to a Richard Pryor album, you won't know what he's actually like.

Because if you've only seen him on telly, it's completely different to what he's like, in concert, on record, you know, albums and stuff, or on, you know, video of him on, on stage. Because he always played the scaredy cat, well, kind of the scaredy cat in the films, these brilliant comedic actor, very physical and, you know, facial expressions and stuff like that, which he did bring on stage with him. Well, probably he took off stage to the films with him.

But on stage, very adult, as adult as you're going to get. So if you've never just, if you've never seen Richard Pryor on stage, or never heard any of his albums or heard anything from his stand up, and all you know from is maybe Superman 3, and Brewster's Millions, Stir Crazy, you know, the big huge movies he was in. Go on YouTube, and see, I can't even read you the name of a few of his albums, because they have a word in it that we're not allowed to say.

That's kind of where he went with that. He really, really went full out with his comedy shows, his comedy albums. He really did.

Wow. And you know what? In, I don't know what year it was, it might be 1980, might be in 81. He was the biggest paid Hollywood actor in the world, biggest, biggest paid actor in the world.

I think he had a contract for something like $10 million, which was just, we're talking, you know, early 80s, 1980 or 1981. Before Superman 3 came out, because he was in quite a few huge, huge, hugely successful films. Stir Crazy being one of them.

Of course, you've got Brewster's Millions, The Toy. I even like Harlem Nights, but I'm easily pleased. You know what, if there's, Eddie Murphy is a very watchable actor.

And he made that film pretty much, almost in his mind, I think for Richard Pryor, because he's huge, huge fan of Richard Pryor. So he made that film, and they both starred in it together. And I liked, I liked it.

It was, it wasn't a big hit, but I liked it. So hey, I don't care. You know, if a film's got enough people in that I like, then I almost kind of don't, I'm kind of happy, you know, Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, quite a few other comedians and Red Fox was in it.

Yeah, Red Fox was in it. Basically, Eddie Murphy got all of his comedy heroes together. It was brilliant, brilliant.

I loved it. But then I'm probably one of the few people in the UK anyway, that watched Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure and got excited because George Carlin was in it. He was the man that turned up with the telephone box.

He wasn't really known here. In this country. Again, George Carlin, huge star.

Massive star, big star in America. And it wasn't just that he carried on for years. He had huge, he had albums.

That's what was so great about the 60s and the 70s. Maybe even the 50s that comedy albums. I've listened to quite a few very old comedy albums from the 60s and 70s.

And on I think Spotify, but Amazon did some. There's lots out there to listen to. I'm not sure if they still have the Bill Cosby ones anymore.

But they're really funny as well. It's almost like we're not allowed to listen to them anymore, isn't it? It's just like they can't listen to that anymore. All the trains going past.

Right, I don't want to end on that. So yeah, Richard Pryor. Check that out.

It's really, really good. And he came back after that two year hiatus. Almost a different man with a different act.

And his comedy was brutal, but very, very funny. Very, very, very, very funny. So I'm talking about the Edinburgh Festival and then I end up talking about Richard Pryor.

I don't know how I got where I got. But it don't matter. The main thing is I'm here now.

That's the main thing. So yeah, I'm gonna go. So thank you for listening.

And remember to be kind to yourself because you deserve to be happy. Lots of love. Bye.

Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye.