Why did you get into comedy? My mum was a professional dancer and always encouraged me to perform. Given that I have zero rhythm, comedy was my other option. She wrote me a poem called Mrs Brown’s Moggy, about a cat that was often very soggy, for my school’s talent show. Because you can’t tell the difference between real and polite laughter at the age of six, I assumed I’d killed my first gig and convinced myself I was born to do nothing else.
Where do you find your material? In a world where Robert Jenrick claims Nigel Farage has “ probably done more than almost anybody to stand against racism ”, the answer is that my material is presented to me on a silver platter each morning.
When did it click that you might be on to something with your “ thicky thicky dumb dumb ” videos? When Donald Trump captured the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro. Up until that point I was covering four or five stories in each video. But obviously Trumpty Dumpty’s top-class diplomacy meant that people only really wanted one story breaking down for them. That was the video that really exploded online. If you look closely at the picture of the blindfolded Maduro in that US military helicopter, you can see my career taking off with him.
What can readers expect from your new book? An attempt to help them understand why everything is so crap, written in a way that won’t make them feel like a thicky thicky dumb dumb in front of all their mates. Partly because the book answers questions that my followers sent in to me. While researching it, I was pretty shocked by how inaccessible books about British politics were. Everything seemed to be Margaret Thatcher 1973-74: The Pre Policy Years and Governed! – A Battle for the Soul of Britain’s Fiscal Policy Within the Bank of England. No disrespect to the fiscal policy nerds but I’m pretty sure even they don’t want to read that. I know from doing political videos online how interested and engaged people are about politics – it’s just that nobody is talking about it using language they actually understand.
What’s a topic you’ve found particularly difficult to explain? I genuinely believe that things are made to sound more complicated than they are to exclude people from engaging with politics. And often to get politicians off the hook for not knowing what the hell they’re doing. So basically, my big-headed answer is once I’d waded through the academic guff that’s used to make people feel cleverer than you, most things were actually very simple to explain.
You’ve got more than two million followers online. What’s one of the strangest fan encounters you’ve had? At the live recording of my podcast, The Truth (In My Opinion), at the Bedford pub in Balham, an audience member called Bethany came up to me to say she’d travelled from Chicago that day specifically to see the show. Given that many of my north London friends thought south London was too far for them, I thought that was pretty amazing.
Any bugbears from the world of comedy? Oh God, absolutely – but I’d like to keep my career for now, thank you very much!
Best advice you’ve ever been given? Make your own stuff.
Worst advice you’ve ever been given? Say yes to everything.
What’s next for you? Frostbite. I’ve made the mistake of basing my entire brand around wearing shorts in all weathers. Now winter and El Niño are on the way …
