Full video

0:00

How would you classify English or

0:02

British humor? Sort of accidentally sex

0:04

with my

0:05

father-in-law. I stayed in a hotel that

0:07

had nice titles. He likes that sort of

0:09

thing. So I sent him a photo, but I

0:10

didn't realize my sex was in the name of

0:13

it. If I say all the bad things about

0:15

me, then no one else can. You know, I

0:17

remember early on I said to my husband,

0:19

I will love you forever, even though

0:21

statistically you're the man most likely

0:23

to murder me.

0:26

Apparently not appropriate for a

0:27

wedding.

0:29

There's the You can swear. I can. Okay.

0:31

In that case, there's the joiner in and

0:33

there's the [ __ ] pain in the ass.

0:35

Unless you were the sort of 18year-old

0:36

who had an eye, you're [ __ ] right?

0:38

That's good. I didn't have an eye when I

0:41

was 18. I had friends.

0:43

So, I'm the one who should be offended

0:46

by what I say. Hi everybody. So, today

0:49

is a special day for Easy English. We've

0:52

reached 200 episodes. Woo. to make a big

0:56

event of this. We actually have a very

0:58

special episode. As you may or may not

1:00

know, I'm a huge comedy fan and we were

1:02

very lucky to come to the Salt Dean Lido

1:05

where we got to watch a stand-up comedy

1:07

act tonight and get to interview one of

1:09

Britain's best comedians. She's a radio,

1:13

TV, and stand-up comedian. And as we've

1:16

reached episode 200, we have a special

1:18

gift for all of you viewers. For one

1:20

month, we're offering a 50% discount for

1:22

all of our membership perks. But more on

1:25

that later in the middle of the episode.

1:27

Please bring your hands together all

1:28

over the world. The fabulous Angela

1:30

Mark.

1:36

Okay, so first thank you very much

1:38

Angela for doing this. Thank you for

1:40

having me. Really great to have you on

1:42

Easy English. And um just by complete

1:45

coincidence, it's our 200th episode. Oh,

1:48

is it really? Happy birthday. Is that a

1:50

birthday? We'll call it a birthday.

1:51

Happy anniversary. Thank you very much.

1:54

We're happy, right? You see 200? Yeah.

1:57

200 episodes. And we were like wondering

1:59

what we can do. So you came up right on

2:02

time. If that's comedy comedy is all

2:05

about timing, right? That's what they

2:06

say.

2:09

Oh yes. How do you do it? Am I right?

2:13

It's nice. I love sorting line because

2:15

I'm a 48-year-old woman who lives in

2:18

Brighton. It's the law.

2:20

You got to swim in the lido. If you're a

2:22

48-year-old woman who lives in Brighton,

2:25

that's what you got to I've got a theory

2:27

about this, right? There is a reason

2:29

that this is the age when the men start

2:31

cycling and the women start outdoor

2:33

swimming, right? Cuz the whole world

2:36

firm, we don't want to look at your

2:38

genitals anymore. And we've said, well,

2:40

we'll see about

2:42

that. I have an in case the midlike

2:45

croissant types that will turn a corner

2:47

3 4 seconds before I do.

2:51

One stereotype that is always given

2:54

about Brits and English people is that

2:57

we have this humor, right? This

2:59

stereotypical humor. And so I thought we

3:01

could first start by asking you um what

3:04

do you how would you classify English or

3:07

British humor? I think the British sense

3:09

of humor, one of the main things I've

3:10

noticed, I have gigged in some other

3:12

countries and one of the main things

3:14

I've noticed about British humor that's

3:16

different is we're very

3:17

self-deprecating.

3:19

So, we will joke about ourselves and we

3:21

will say mean awful things about

3:23

ourselves and we find that funny. I've

3:26

never had common sense, right? I'm not

3:28

one of those common sense people. It's

3:30

just never bad things happen. When I was

3:32

22, I lost a shoe on the way to

3:35

work. I'll second. Unless the shoe

3:38

on the way to work. I was I was

3:40

diddling. I got on the train. It was to

3:42

London to bring and I got on the train.

3:44

And as I got on the train, my shoe fell

3:46

off my foot, went under the train. I

3:47

turn around to get off the train. Doors

3:49

closed. I'm now going to London with one

3:51

shoe on. I just started a new job. I've

3:54

got decisions to make. Do I go back and

3:55

try and get my shoe? I have got time.

3:57

I'm going to be late for my new job. So,

3:58

I have to continue my journey. I get to

4:00

London Bridge. Got another decision to

4:02

make cuz then I have to get on the

4:03

London Underground. So I think what

4:05

looks more mental, one shoe or no

4:09

shoe? Rock socks off. But I decide shoes

4:12

look less mental. So I take the other

4:14

shoe off and I put it in my hand and I

4:16

go to work and I just have to style it

4:18

out all day. I might have got away with

4:20

it and my job not be. Hopeless outfit

4:26

supporter. So you couldn't do that in

4:28

America. You couldn't do that in in you

4:30

know I've did some shows in New Zealand

4:32

and I remember um you know I'd do jokes

4:34

that would be about myself. Yeah. And

4:37

they'd be kind of is she okay? Do we

4:40

need to stage an

4:41

intervention? So yeah definitely the

4:44

self-deprecating I think is the number

4:45

one thing that we do that not everyone

4:47

does. That's a good point. And you you

4:49

don't you don't want to get confused

4:50

like we're having doing like some sort

4:51

of cry for help. Exactly. Yeah. We're

4:54

okay. It's not therapy. It's fine. Very

4:56

easy, isn't it, to give a gift to

4:58

someone over 40. Very easy. All you got

5:00

to do is arrange to meet up with us, you

5:02

know, just get us out the house with a

5:04

gift. Whatever it is we like,

5:07

cinema, theater, pub, whatever it is.

5:10

But this is the crucial bit, right? This

5:12

is the gift that you can give us 24

5:14

hours before. Send a little text that

5:17

says, "Do you mind if we reschedu

5:23

[Applause]

5:26

That's the best text you can get over

5:28

you. Now, don't get me wrong, we are

5:31

having a lovely time here tonight, but

5:32

there is not one person over 40 in this

5:35

room who wouldn't have been absolutely

5:37

fine if

5:40

[Laughter]

5:42

I get all right, you

5:45

know, you this is a sold show. There's

5:49

empty chairs in here. They bought

5:51

tickets. They bought tickets. They got

5:53

up this morning. They were like, "How

5:54

much are those tickets?" Less than 20

5:56

quid. [ __ ] it. Can't be.

6:00

As I mentioned at the beginning of the

6:02

episode, we're happy to give you a

6:04

discount all of our memberships for 1

6:06

month. Maybe you'd like to become a

6:08

video member and get worksheets,

6:10

vocabulary lists, downloads of our

6:12

videos in multiple different subtitles.

6:15

Or maybe you want to become a

6:16

conversation member for a month and

6:18

practice your speaking English with

6:19

other English learners. You'll be

6:21

invited to our Easy English pub on Zoom

6:24

on Tuesday nights and Wednesday

6:26

afternoons to chitchat about regular

6:28

topics you speak about in a typical

6:30

British pub. Take a look at our website

6:32

by going to

6:34

easyenglish.vide/membership and become a

6:36

member today. Now, back to the episode.

6:39

Would you say you implement

6:40

self-deprecating humor into your act?

6:43

Definitely. Yeah, definitely. Um, I

6:46

think sometimes I don't know if it's to

6:48

do with um sort of growing up here and

6:51

that being a way to kind of if I say all

6:55

the bad things about me then no one else

6:57

can, you know. So Eminem in 8 mile kind

7:00

of. Yeah. I often compare myself to

7:02

Eminem in 8 mile. The resemblance. Yeah,

7:05

I know. I know. But it's that kind of

7:08

thing, you know. It's just if I say I've

7:10

got, you know, oh, I'm I've got a big

7:11

nose or I've got, you know, whatever. We

7:13

always look for our flaws, British

7:15

people, I think, and laugh at them

7:17

because that way we take the power. I

7:20

can't be in a posh hotel. I spend the

7:22

whole time thinking that I'm going to

7:23

get someone tap on me on my shoulder and

7:25

say, "Sorry, you can't be here." I feel

7:27

like if I went to reception and ask for

7:29

a wake up call, they'd say, "You're 48.

7:30

You don't have a

7:32

[Laughter]

7:37

pension." Just saying. I know where I

7:40

belong and it's very much a trauma

7:42

lodge. I belong in the sort of hotel

7:44

where the rooms are like Lady McBth's

7:47

hands in that they've been cleaned but

7:49

they'll never be

7:53

clean. Although having said that even I

7:55

draw the line anis [ __ ]

7:58

that stands for I feel [ __ ]

8:04

Another thing to add on top of that is

8:06

there's there's no like infamous maybe

8:09

dark humor. Yeah. Uh and is this

8:13

something you do or can you describe

8:14

what it is? Are you a fan of dark humor?

8:17

I think you can joke about anything.

8:20

Okay. But you have to be willing to

8:22

stand by what you say because what you

8:25

say has consequences. Okay. Right. So,

8:27

you know, this idea that, oh, you can't

8:29

say anything anymore or this idea of

8:32

cancel culture and all of these things,

8:34

I think, well, if you say something,

8:37

people have the right to disagree or to

8:39

be offended or to, you know, react to

8:42

it, however, and you have to deal with

8:44

that. Yeah. Um, and that's okay. That's

8:47

that's the sort of um deal that you've

8:50

made with an audience is if I offend

8:52

you, you have the right to be offended.

8:54

You have never seen a soft light center.

8:56

Let me describe it to you. It's like a

8:58

giant sex dungeon in primary

9:02

colors. Set that up if I've ever been to

9:04

a sex dungeon. I haven't. I haven't. The

9:07

thought of group sex absolutely

9:08

terrifies me. So, what if I don't get

9:13

picked? Um, I always think I want people

9:16

to come away from my shows having

9:18

laughed at me. I'm I'm the one who

9:21

should be offended by what I say and to

9:24

think, you know, their lives are better

9:26

because they go away thinking, well,

9:27

least I'm not her. I'll tell you the

9:29

sort of woman I thought I'd be. They'd

9:30

be so brilliant tonight. It's the sort

9:31

of woman who wakes up in the morning and

9:34

with nothing but

9:36

confidence puts on a white

9:41

top. My luck find she doesn't look like

9:43

Bruce Winners at the end of Die Hard.

9:46

What are and how do you feel about

9:48

hecklers? Hecklers are so they're people

9:51

who shout out during the show. Yeah,

9:53

there's there's sort of two main

9:55

categories of heckler. Okay. I would say

9:57

there's the you can swear I can. Okay.

10:00

In that case, there's the joiner in and

10:01

there's the [ __ ] pain in the ass. So,

10:04

I'm not a cookie in our house, right? My

10:06

husband does a cooking. If he left me,

10:08

I'd be dead in a Fortnite.

10:10

That's I got bought this Gordon Ramsay

10:13

cook. Right. Not for my husband. That

10:16

means something worse. No, I thought and

10:19

I thought I'll try and make something

10:20

out of it. And I thought it'd be like an

10:21

instruction manual, you know, and take

10:23

you through step by step. But they

10:24

don't, do you? They they assume that you

10:26

have a certain level of knowledge. They

10:28

assume there's things you already know.

10:29

It will say things like, "Use your

10:31

pairing knife."

10:34

Well, Gordon, you've made quite the

10:36

assumption there, haven't you? Cuz what

10:37

I've got, what I've got is a bread knife

10:39

and the one that isn't a bread knife. I

10:41

said,

10:44

"Okay, I add a doll of butter." Well,

10:46

I'm sorry, Paul, but I don't know how

10:48

big your love is.

10:54

And um in terms of your comedy, how

10:56

would you could you like define what

10:59

your I mean, we're going to see it in a

11:01

bit the camera, but just how would you

11:03

could you define it? Do you define it

11:05

ever? Like your style? I suppose it's

11:07

observational comedy. It's um sometimes

11:10

I do topical comedy. So, sometimes I do

11:13

topical TV or radio shows. So, it'll be

11:15

stuff about the news or whatever. You

11:16

won't see that so much tonight. It'll

11:18

just be talking about life really, you

11:21

know, the the kind of everyday things

11:23

that we all observational comedy is

11:25

basically just looking at things from

11:27

different angles, you know, and just

11:28

saying, you know, that thing you do

11:29

every day. Isn't it crazy? Luckily, I

11:32

didn't change about 40. I reckon that's

11:35

when your birthday presents turn to

11:36

[ __ ]

11:38

40. No one could be bothered anymore.

11:40

No, not make yet. At some point in my

11:42

life, I must have said that I like

11:44

scented

11:46

candles. I don't. But every birthday

11:48

they come, don't they? Everywhere. And

11:50

they're expensive as well. I've got

11:51

enough scented candles to put Joe

11:53

Malone's keys through

11:56

university. I mean, I keep them in case

11:58

you have a power cup. If you do have a

12:01

power cup, my ass is going to smell like

12:03

pouch. I got her fanny out in the

12:04

forest. But

12:13

Oh, is it time to come to open the show?

12:15

So, I guess we're going to cut to you

12:17

doing your thing in a bit, but thank you

12:19

very much for hosting us. Thank you for

12:22

having me. Nice. Great. So, there you

12:24

go. Thank you very much to Angela

12:26

Barnes. Don't forget to check out the

12:28

links to her website and maybe go see

12:30

her live if you're in UK in the near

12:32

future. She has a tour on at the moment

12:34

called Angst. Uh, and go see it if you

12:37

enjoyed this video. Let us know also in

12:39

the comments below what you thought of

12:40

the episode. What are your opinions of

12:42

British humor? This dark British humor.

12:44

Let us know what you also thought of the

12:46

standup set you saw today at Salt Dean

12:48

Lido. Easy. Did you enjoy the night

12:50

tonight? Laugh. Laugh my buttocks off.

12:54

Laughed your buttocks off. Amazing. Uh,

12:58

and what do you think comedy can do for

13:00

the world? And is it a necessity to

13:02

British and all life? Uh, and as always,

13:06

we'll see you in the next episode. TRA.

13:09

[Applause]

13:10

[Music]