NICK DOODY

Comedian. Writer. Biped.

Filtering by Tag: comedy

Mansplaining the Election

Carey hasn't been keeping up with the news so Nick does his best to walk him through the latest on the upcoming General Election. Along the way we find Carey's MP shutting down an opponent by accusing him of mansplaining, and the Prime Minister of Great Britain in a drunken tirade where he appears not to understand his own trade deal. We talk about tactical voting, how uninspiring all the options are, and get sidetracked by trying to order a pizza mid-episode.

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Chaos!

A government with no majority, an Opposition refusing to succumb to the offer of an election, 21 Tory rebels voting against their government, which reacts by effectively ending their careers, a Prime Minster who is saying he will defy the law, a Labour Party that says if they're in power they'll campaign against whatever deal they strike, lies, bluffs, double-bluffs...

British politics is in a state of utter chaos. Nick and Carey finally manage to get together to try to make sense of it all.

We put this one out quickly, but it's going out of date as you read these words. Read faster!

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Nick in Edinburgh: Andrew Doyle

We’re 40 episodes old! To celebrate, it's another of the 'Nick in Edinburgh' interviews. This time, Nick chats with Andrew Doyle.

Andrew is a comedian and writer, probably best known for his fictional creations, Jonathan Pie and Titania McGrath. He also writes a column for Spiked and runs the comedy club, Comedy Unleashed.

This is a long chat (or two long chats with a break for tea) that takes in Edinburgh, comedy, free speech, democracy, Brexit (Andrew is pro-Brexit, unlike most comedic voices), being told you’re right-wing, alt-right or ‘alt-right adjacent’ when you’re left-of-centre, and what's happening/might end up happening, to the 'Woke' movement.

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Boris Johnson, with Kirsty Newton

Nick and Carey are joined by Kirsty Newton to talk about Boris Johnson, the frontrunner in the Tory leadership race and, therefore, the most likely next British Prime Minister.

Recently, police were called to the flat of Johnson's girlfriend, Carrie Symonds, following a domestic disturbance. They were alerted by a neighbour, who also recorded the audio of the incident and then sent the recording the the Guardian newspaper. Nick and Carey discuss the rights and wrongs of all this, and the subsequent fallout - predictably split along tribal lines - with their guest, the brilliant Kirsty Newton.

Kirsty is a musician, improviser, musical director and comedy performer (as in, a comedian but not a stand-up comic). She's performed with Rich Hall, Phil Nichol, Arthur Smith, Mitch Benn, the Comedy Store Players, and most recently toured the UK and Ireland with Paul Merton's Impro Chums. In her spare time, she's married to Nick.

Along the way, they slightly despair of how someone so unsuited to power is about to get as much as they could ever want, and discuss the effects of private schooling on privilege and inequality.

Oh, and there's a very silly bit where Kirsty tries to make a theme tune with a big roll of cardboard.

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Episode 29: Matt Kirshen and Holly Gabrielson

It's another guest episode! This time, Nick and Carey are joined by comedian, writer and ex-housemate, Matt Kirshen, and 'industry insider' Holly Gabrielson, who are on a trip over from L.A. We kick off by talking about the etiquette of '@-including' artists when you criticise their work on social media (don't), and the painful whining that met Greg Jenner when he gently pointed this out on Twitter last week. We also talk about learning history in different countries, and trying to write topical comedy in America in the Trump era.

This week's theme song is written and performed by Matt Kirshen. All rights reserved.

If you want to peruse, Greg Jenner’s original tweet and its replies can be found here: https://twitter.com/greg_jenner/status/1079353068993560577 But if you don’t like it, don’t bother telling him.

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Episode 28: Advertising Standards

The UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has announced new guidelines for advertising content. From next year, 'harmful gender stereotypes' will be banned. Nick and Carey talk about this, and about the 'research' behind it. 'Research' is in quote marks there because the ASA's 'public consultation' isn't, as the ASA claims, academic literature that evidentially demonstrates 'harm', but more like a marketing survey that asks people what they think. Nick gets pretty exasperated with this.

We’re not sure if you can swear in these descriptions, but both Nick and Carey drop the C-bomb during this episode. I hate the phrase ‘drop the C-bomb’, but if the actual word is so offensive that you need warning about it, I suppose I probably shouldn’t reproduce it here.

If you want to go down the rabbit-hole yourself, here's the starting point, with the other docs linked at the bottom: https://www.asa.org.uk/news/new-rule-to-ban-harmful-gender-stereotypes-next-year.html

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Episode 27: Christmas

It's Christmas! Well, nearly. Nick and Carey decide to find a quiet spot in Central London to record an episode. This turns out to be impossible, so they end up standing in the cold in the gardens of the Royal College of Physicians, where they talk about awful Christmas gigs and what it's like to lose your religion (if you're Nick).

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Episode 26: Dave Gorman

Apologies for the hiatus! Usually we'd put something like, 'Nick and Carey manage to get hold of Dave Gorman and grab an interview, etc.' but it would be more accurate to say, 'Carey manages to grab Nick and Dave' as Nick's been supporting Dave on tour for the past 3 months. It's not a long episode, recorded as it is in the dressing rooms, pre-show at the Royal Festival Hall, but Dave is, as ever, interesting, analytical and funny. Among other things, we discuss how Dave developed the genre that leads to other shows being described as 'Gormanesque', moving from the club circuit to doing your own thing, and Dave's favourite complaint from the previous tour.

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Episode 22: Daniel Sloss

For this Edinburgh Fringe guest episode, Nick and Carey are joined by the prodigiously talented stand-up, Daniel Sloss, for a fascinating and very funny chat that hits subjects such as writing comedy about the death of a loved one, tackling taboo subjects in stand-up, and when you don't respect the audience enough to give them your best material.

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Episode 18: Ayesha Hazarika

Ayesha Hazarika is a comedian, political commentator, and former adviser to Gordon Brown, Ed Miliband and Harriet Harman. She joins Nick and Carey to talk about her experiences in politics, the #metoo movement, the mainstream media's obsession with presenting everything as a two-sided confrontation, and Boris Johnson's recent theft of an old bit of Carey's material about burkhas. She is, as we’d hoped, a fantastic guest, but we hope she’s wrong about Boris being the next Prime Minister.

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Episode 11: The Crown (or, Should We Throw The Royal Baby Out A Window?)

To commemorate the birth and naming of a new Royal Baby, we discuss whether it would be better for the country if we threw it out a window. Yes, this episode is about the Royal Family. Are they worth it to the country? Does it really matter? What are the alternatives? We talk about the baffling public hysteria over the death of Princess Diana, the weird fact that the public would rather see William become King than Charles, the surprising degree to which the Royals interfere in the running of the country, and how brilliant 'The Crown' is. Also, it's revealed that Nick may have committed treason as a child.

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Episode 10: Antisemitism

What is antisemitism? What's a Jew? Why would anyone hate them? What are they up to? Do they control the media? Really? Not even the Jewish Chronicle? And is there a real problem with antisemitism on the left? Have either or both of Nick and Carey experienced antisemitism? And if both, why, given that only Carey is Jewish? Listen to find the answers to a couple, if not some, of these poorly-framed questions.

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Episode 8: Optimism, Guns and Trump

This episode may sound like the sequel to 'Guns, Germs and Steel', but in fact Nick and Carey talk about Steven Pinker's new book, 'Enlightenment Now', which continues from his previous book, 'The Better Angels of our Nature' in that it claims that things are, broadly, improving for humanity. Is this true? And if it is, why does claiming it make some people so angry? Carey explains the Mean World Syndrome, then they get sidetracked onto school shootings, gun control and, inevitably, Trump.

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Language!

In this first-ever outdoors episode, Nick and Carey make some corrections and Nick apologises for using the N-word about the wrong cinematic dog. They then go on to talk about offensive language, and, towards the end, triggers and trigger warnings. Which should probably have come at the beginning. It should go without saying that there's strong language (it should go without saying, but it doesn't).

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