Garage Monologues with Jay Swanson

[01:00:00.01] - Speaker 1
This is exactly what you've been, I think, circling, is that question of what is enough, right? And I think you're— I guess the tension I see is like, you do— I think in so many ways you do have enough, right? But does that just mean life's over at 40? One of the statistics that consistently blows my mind is the ratio of people who watch or listen to the show versus how many of them are actually subscribed to it. There are so many people listening right now that may even think that they are subscribed and are unaware that the algorithm is just kind of randomly feeding it to them because they've showed interest in it before. If you'd like to support the show, it's one of the simplest and easiest ways that you can do so by hitting that little subscribe button, and it lets the algorithm know that you are interested, you're along for the ride. And if you'll do that, I promise I'm going to do the best I can to continue to bring the most interesting stories I can from Paris both from my friends and beyond to keep that link alive for those of you that love the city, may want to live here one day, or may already live here.
[01:01:02.14] - Speaker 1
Thanks for watching. Welcome back to Garage Monologues. We are so far from a garage right now. We are actually in the Back Market Studios playing around a little bit with my good friend Paul Taylor. This season, if you, uh, have never been around before, or if you're coming back, basically Garage Monologues has always been a conversation with friends that alternates with monologues. But this year we're doing something a little bit different. We're following a handful of friends going through different transitions, some a little bit more dramatic than others. You've already seen Paul on this show once before, but you're going to see him around a whole bunch more. Yeah, you did. Remember you came to my apartment and sat in my room once?
[01:01:35.02] - Speaker 2
No, I mean, I've done that a couple of times. Yeah, but I don't remember ever recording a podcast.
[01:01:39.18] - Speaker 1
We will link to that below. Uh, yeah, it's actually one of the—
[01:01:42.10] - Speaker 2 back to it.
[01:01:42.20] - Speaker 1
It's definitely one of the most— I think it's, it's got like 2,500 or 3,000 views on YouTube or something, which is not bad for a podcast back in the day. Yeah.
[01:01:50.12] - Speaker 2
It's more than my podcasts get.
[01:01:52.13] - Speaker 1
Well, we're going to try and triple up on Paul this season by following him with his, uh, and his delightful runner's legs, which you're going to see on camera if you're watching regularly. Paul is in a, is in a really interesting time in his life, I think, and is expressing that midlife crisis in the purest of ways, which is by running marathons. So we're going to dive in that today. Of course, if you want to follow along with Paul's adventure, our buddy Tamer, who's learning French specifically just to do a French standup show. Our friend Jane, who is running a femtech AI startup out of the most famous incubator in France. I think there are just a lot of really fun stories to follow along with this season. But let's dive in a little bit to Paul's. Hi, Paul. Welcome back to the show.
[01:02:33.05] - Speaker 2 Bonjour. Bonjour.
[01:02:33.16] - Speaker 1
Even though you don't remember being on the show before.
[01:02:35.23] - Speaker 2

Thanks for my very first invite to the show.
[01:02:38.05] - Speaker 1
You're so welcome. The thing is, you don't remember because of this.
[01:02:40.06] - Speaker 2
No, because I thought it was like, I thought it was like, um, it used to be a Patreon-only thing, right? Wasn't it?
[01:02:44.12] - Speaker 1
So it used to be that we would release it 6 months early for patrons. Okay. Uh, and then that is we've decided to drop that right now. We will have some fun special Patreon perks.
[01:02:54.02] - Speaker 2
Is this only— is this on your YouTube channel or a different YouTube?
[01:02:56.12] - Speaker 1
Different YouTube channel. Different YouTube channel, different socials that we just started, different everything. So, uh, that was a very organic plug to go follow all of those. Yeah, do it if you haven't already followed Paul. Do that too. I guess the first thing I want to ask is like, what are you trying to accomplish this year, this your 40th year on the planet? You've set up— you've set a pretty big goal for yourself.
[01:03:14.06] - Speaker 2
I, I joke around saying like this, oh, I'm 40, midlife crisis, blah blah blah. There's no midlife crisis going on. Like, there's nothing. I've got no issues.
[01:03:21.10] - Speaker 1
You were having that 3 years ago.
[01:03:22.13] - Speaker 2
It's more than 3 years ago. How old— when do we meet? In 2020. So it's like 6 years ago. Yeah.
[01:03:27.22] - Speaker 1
Um, you were going through your midlife crisis for the first 5 years of our friendship, I think, basically.
[01:03:31.21] - Speaker 2
My midlife crisis actually happened when I was 25.
[01:03:34.08] - Speaker 1 Yeah.
[01:03:34.15] - Speaker 2
Um, and when I quit my actual job when I worked at Apple and, uh, started doing stand-up. That was the midlife.
[01:03:42.01] - Speaker 1
You would call that a mid— that's, that sounds more like a quarter-life crisis.
[01:03:44.15] - Speaker 2
Well, yeah, but I mean, numbers-wise, I hope, I hope it's a quarter-life crisis. Yeah. I mean, I'd like you to be around because I'm 25, which is a quarter of a century, but it was what— it was the traditional signs of what a midlife crisis is.
[01:03:55.02] - Speaker 1 Okay, which is what?

[01:03:56.04] - Speaker 2
Uh, which feels like it's like you don't know what you're doing with your life, you don't know why you're here, you don't know why you're working in this job that, you know, you might or might not like. Like, you don't know what— you don't know what's going on. Like, you're like— when you're 40, the way it manifests is you have those feelings, but it manifests usually because you're married, you've got a kid, and you're in a job, and you've got a mortgage, and you're like, what the fuck am I doing with my life? Because I'm going to be here for another 20 years doing the same shit because my kid isn't until they leave the house, basically. So I think you have this midlife crisis, but it's the same feelings, I think, of like, what am I doing? Why am I here?
[01:04:28.11] - Speaker 1
What gets somebody to walk away from their dream job at Apple at the ripe old age of 25?
[01:04:33.14] - Speaker 2
My wife's dad dying and Steve Jobs dying in the same month.
[01:04:37.10] - Speaker 1 Wow.
[01:04:37.17] - Speaker 2
Uh, in 2011, that was really the thing of like, oh, life is not, um, infinite. And we always know that life— we know it isn't. You know, in our case, it was when 2 people that we knew, so to speak, died of unnatural causes. Yeah, earlier than they probably should have. Yeah, uh, in Steve Jobs's case, of course, I think he was like 56 or something.
[01:04:58.08] - Speaker 1
Um, was he really that young?
[01:05:00.04] - Speaker 2
He was fairly young. Yeah, I don't think he was 60. I don't— wow, I might be mistaken. Your father-in- law died, uh, he was 82, so he was fairly old. Like, it was— he just— he had cancer and couldn't be asked getting treatment. And just let it, let it take him, which at that age I would do the same thing, to be honest.
[01:05:18.07] - Speaker 1 Yeah.
[01:05:18.18] - Speaker 2
Um, so anyway, that was the thing where you go, all right, like, how old am I now? I'm 25. Okay, when I— and because obviously when Steve passed away, it was a massive thing within the company.
[01:05:28.17] - Speaker 1
Huge. It was like, I mean, it was a cultural event.
[01:05:30.23] - Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah. It was more than just like a random company CEO.
[01:05:34.07] - Speaker 1 Like, people would—
[01:05:35.13] - Speaker 2
it, it was— I likened it to when the Queen died in the UK, where a lot of people didn't know who she was. Yeah, but felt the urge to somehow say thanks, uh, to the Queen and Diana. It was like flowers in front of Buckingham Palace and whatever, and every Apple Store around the world became like a shrine where people put up thank you Post-its, wrote letters about how the technology changed their lives, flowers. So it was a, it was a massive like world event, um, and uh, when I was reading his biography, because it got, it got released earlier than it was supposed to. It got released maybe like a

couple of weeks after he died, I think. Yeah, Walter Isaacson's biography.
[01:06:15.10] - Speaker 1 Yeah, I read that. Yeah.
[01:06:16.08] - Speaker 2
Um, I was like, oh, when he was my age, he created the company that I'm now working for at the same age. I don't know, it was one of those midlife crises where you're like, I think there's maybe more to life.
[01:06:27.14] - Speaker 1
Absolutely. Yeah. But has this lead you to comedy then?
[01:06:29.22] - Speaker 2
Well, I'd always sort of enjoyed it. I would always enjoy watching it, and I had always thought, I don't know, maybe one day or whatever. And I'd actually done a couple of open mic nights in London before I moved to Paris in 2009. So I did about maybe like 7 or 8 open mic nights back then. This is when I was at university, uh, I'd already met my wife at the time, and I was working at Apple already as a— like in the stores finishing my degree. And I remember the thing that happened there was it was a comedy night at university, which was like at the pub. Yeah. And the, like, 2 or 3 of the comedians were not very funny. They weren't funny in a sense like their comedy didn't appeal to us. So no one was— it kind of felt like they were funny somewhere else, but yeah, yeah, they kind of died on their ass in front of us. And then the last guy was really good. I don't know, I guess it was like, well, that, that's weird. How are they getting paid to do this and they're not that funny?
[01:07:26.05] - Speaker 2
Like, I feel like and amongst our— me and our friends, like, we all have a laugh. Like, how difficult can it be?
[01:07:30.21] - Speaker 1 Yeah.
[01:07:31.04] - Speaker 2
So that's when I started, like, Googling, how do you become a comedian? Okay, open mic night. So I did it. I tried a couple before I moved to Paris.
[01:07:38.10] - Speaker 1 Yeah.
[01:07:38.21] - Speaker 2
And then work took over, life took over, and I didn't do anything for, like, 3 years. Um, so I think the, the, the, the, the, the grain had been planted, or the seed had been planted, um, when I did those open mic nights of being like, oh, this is fun, this could be— I, I could maybe make this a thing if I worked on it for a decade. So I think that thought came back probably when I was 25 and thought, oh, maybe there's a thing I can do here. But then, like, it took another year because, uh, my wife's dad passing. And it was at the end of 2012 when I messaged my friend who's now my friend, Sebastian Marx, who's an American comedian who you know, because he was the only one who had an English comedy night back then. And I was like, hey, you know, I'm an— like, I work for Apple, but I did a couple of open mic nights. He was trying to sell yourself when you're trying to get booked by a comedy gig being like, oh look, here, like I did The Comedy Store in London, which I did, but it was like an open mic night there.
[01:08:34.14] - Speaker 2
You're picking it up, you're like, I did The Comedy Store, to them to be like, oh okay, well we'll get you on the show. So then he gave me my first 5 minutes. I think it was on January 6th, uh, 2013.
[01:08:46.03] - Speaker 1

Oh my gosh, you remember the date?
[01:08:47.13] - Speaker 2
Yeah, because I did a 10-year thing in 2023. Yeah, where I had him and a bunch of people roast me. I think you were at that one.
[01:08:55.07] - Speaker 1
No, I missed that. That's the one I missed. Yeah, yeah.
[01:08:57.02] - Speaker 2
Um, and so that was fun. Uh, and so yeah, that was 10— well, now 13 years ago.
[01:09:02.01] - Speaker 1
What did you used to do at Apple, and how did that— how did that set you up for a career in comedy?
[01:09:07.08] - Speaker 2
Um, I started in the stores, so I was what they call a specialist, which is a fancy way of saying salesperson. Yeah, so somebody who's in the store who helps you buy the products. We're not paid commission. We would often downsell because we'd often get like old people coming to the store being like, oh, can I get like the Mac Pro, you know, because someone in their life had told them they needed the Mac Pro. It's like, what are you doing? It's like, internet's like, cool, why don't you get the Mac Mini because that's all you need?
[01:09:32.14] - Speaker 1 Yeah.
[01:09:32.23] - Speaker 2
Um, and so yeah, it was helping people buy stuff. Then that was it for a couple of years, and then I became what was called a creative. There used to be, um, a membership that you could buy to the Apple Store where you would come in for a weekly lesson on how to use your stuff. So we would be the teachers.
[01:09:46.23] - Speaker 1 Yeah.
[01:09:47.05] - Speaker 2
So we would teach the customers.
[01:09:48.19] - Speaker 1 I've seen those guys in the—
[01:09:50.02] - Speaker 2
even today, like, yeah, they have them in the big—
[01:09:52.15] - Speaker 1
when now they've got— they've always got a guy there teaching something.
[01:09:54.19] - Speaker 2 Yeah.
[01:09:54.20] - Speaker 1
And now that it's a big on screen.
[01:09:56.21] - Speaker 2
This was like one-to-one. It would— so you would, you would— oh wow, you would buy a membership to have a one-on-one, 1-hour lesson every week, basically. Um, now that that doesn't exist anymore. And then that was— so that all of that in working in the store was about 3 years. And then for 7 years,

a little bit less, I became a trainer of new employees. Yeah. So I was in charge of initially delivering the training to hundreds of new employees when they were joining the company. And then I became the trainer of the trainer. So then would train the people who would train the people. It was like Inception.
[01:10:32.00] - Speaker 1
And that's how you were traveling so much, was to train those people specifically?
[01:10:35.18] - Speaker 2
Yeah, so the people, uh, that would be trainers, they would get trained up in Cupertino. Yeah, for a couple of weeks, then either do London or Shanghai. Yeah, uh, as like another experience. And, uh, because there was a lot of Chinese, uh, new employees happening at that point. So yeah, for most of the year, I'd say for like, if you, if you combine the year, 6 months of it I was in Paris, 6 months of it I wasn't in Paris. But it was like 3 weeks there, 2 days back at home, 1 week there, 3 weeks at home, 1 month away. Like, it was, it was all sporadic, all over the place.
[01:11:07.19] - Speaker 1
You also saw a lot more of the world than that too, right? Like Chicago. Like, I remember you have a lot of stories from everywhere.
[01:11:12.13] - Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah. Like, I think one of my funnest memories of it was on a Thursday, um, I was in a training session in London and my boss's boss was on the phone with his boss.
[01:11:24.20] - Speaker 1 Yeah.
[01:11:25.18] - Speaker 2
Uh, and he was like, oh God, I don't think we've got anyone to do the training. I, I— and so, you know, whatever. This is before we were doing our training session in the morning. I said, oh, what's up? He goes, I, I've messed up the schedule. We've got a training session in Honolulu and there's no one to do it. And I was like, oh, when is this? He's like, it starts on Monday. This is on Thursday.
[01:11:45.07] - Speaker 1 Yeah.
[01:11:45.19] - Speaker 2
I'm like, look at my calendar. I'm like, oh, I'm working from home. Next week. I mean, I'm up for it. He's like, really? I'm like, yeah. I'm like, well, let me— he goes, let me clear it with my boss. So it was like, yeah, he had to clear it through the, the— I mean, it wasn't very hierarchical at Apple. Like, he— like, we're still good friends. He actually drove 6 hours to come and see my show in, um, Washington.
[01:12:07.11] - Speaker 1 So I met him.
[01:12:08.16] - Speaker 2 No, you didn't meet him.
[01:12:09.18] - Speaker 1 Oh, which Washington?
[01:12:10.21] - Speaker 2 DC.
[01:12:11.04] - Speaker 1 Yeah.
[01:12:11.16] - Speaker 2

Um, so he drove like 6 hours from Raleigh, North Carolina. So we still keep in touch. Anyway, he was like, let me clear it with your boss first. So, um, that took like a day. So this is on the Friday where he's like, right, you're booked in to go to Honolulu.
[01:12:24.16] - Speaker 1 Yeah.
[01:12:25.02] - Speaker 2
So on the Saturday— on the Friday, Saturday, I was like calling Apple Travel, who were like the internal travel company, being like, yeah, I need to fly to arrive in Hawaii on Sunday. So like, it like hung up, went to the airport, flew 24 hours to Honolulu.
[01:12:38.17] - Speaker 1 Gosh.
[01:12:39.05] - Speaker 2
Did 3 days of training, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and then left the Thursday to come back home. It was, it was mental. So much fun. And also when you're 23, 24, yeah, like you got nothing else to do. Yeah. And it's such a fun— you're like, this is it, like I've made it, you know, like I'm working for like one of the best companies in the world and they're sending me to Honolulu.
[01:12:57.23] - Speaker 1
So this is the transition that I'm curious about too, right? Like you've made it, you're 23, you have all these great stories. And I did meet a lot of your former colleagues, right, when we were on the road in the States last year. Everybody's so nice, everybody traveled so far to come see you. So like, and they're all doing really interesting things, whether they're still with Apple or they moved on.
[01:13:14.18] - Speaker 2 Yeah.
[01:13:15.04] - Speaker 1
It's all doing these fascinating things. Yeah. And you hit 25, you're living the dream, and you're like, nah.
[01:13:21.16] - Speaker 2 Yeah.
[01:13:22.04] - Speaker 1
Like, and you still love Apple to this day. Yeah, you're such a fanboy.
[01:13:25.12] - Speaker 2
So like, I'm still— I still say we when I talk about the company. Yeah. I'm talking to other Apple employees who are my friends still. I'll be like, I can't believe we— and you know, I'm like, I catch myself. It's one of the things that my wife regrets of my previous life is like Your current colleagues are a bunch of pricks. Your old Apple colleagues, uh, were amazing, all of them. Like, one who did the same job as me but based in Hong Kong, um, he just came to Paris for like, uh, a couple of weeks ago. We went down to Monaco together to the Grand Prix. Yeah, because I got invited to go watch the Grand Prix, uh, from the hotel that's on like the famous hairpin. And, you know, we've kept in— I've kept in touch with quite a lot of people that I worked with. Just because they're really nice humans. And I think it was just— Apple were good at, uh, very good at, um, recruiting people who weren't necessarily tech savvy, but they were people savvy. And it's like, we can teach you how to repair a MacBook Pro if that's the job that you end up doing, but we can't teach you to be a nice human.
[01:14:26.13] - Speaker 1 Yeah.
[01:14:27.00] - Speaker 2

Um, so I guess— and so they would pick nice humans.
[01:14:29.02] - Speaker 1
Depends on where you're going to end up.
[01:14:30.11] - Speaker 2 Yeah.
[01:14:30.19] - Speaker 1
But then how does this lead you to want to leave all that part of it?
[01:14:34.07] - Speaker 2
Yeah, if you're an engineer, if you're, if you're in engineering, they probably don't give a fuck about what your customer, you know, whether you're a nice person or not.
[01:14:41.19] - Speaker 1
Today's coffee is brought to you by, uh, Two Doors Coffee. This is a cold brew from a local spot here in the 18th, which we are in the 18th today at Back Market Studios. And, uh, Two Doors is a coffee shop that I've loved for a very long time. Their team has changed pretty dramatically, but they still make good coffee and good cookies, which we will get to in a minute.
[01:14:59.08] - Speaker 2
Yeah, but I wouldn't I haven't even tried it yet. I don't know what the difference between just cold brew and coffee is, and so normal coffee that's just gone cold.
[01:15:07.18] - Speaker 1
It's how it's made. So cold brew is in the name, they brew it cold, it's never hot water, so it takes a lot longer. So the extraction is something you, you put a lot of coffee in, you sit it in a fridge for 24 hours, there are a whole bunch of different systems of doing it, and then you filter it out. It leaves you with a concentrate. So you have a—
[01:15:24.02] - Speaker 2
that concentrate is then coffee being extracted, is it like a drip thing?
[01:15:27.15] - Speaker 1
No, not— it just sits. It's like a French press kind of a situation. It can be a drip thing, but you just let it sit. You let it stew in the coffee, like coffee in the water for 24 hours, and then you cut that with water. So you'll pour in— basically making a little cocktail. You pour in like half cold brew, half cold water with ice, depending on how strong, how thick you want it. And that's what makes cold brew. So it is a very, it is a very different drink. It often is much stronger because of that concentrate.
[01:15:50.22] - Speaker 2
Stronger in caffeine? Caffeine. Flavor as well, because I feel like that's pretty mild.
[01:15:55.09] - Speaker 1
Yeah, but they probably did a really good job of balancing it out so it's not too strong. And a lot of people are trying now to keep it from being too—
[01:16:00.21] - Speaker 2
it sounds way more fancy than the Paul Taylor method of cold brew. I kind of at home tasted for the first time iced coffee yesterday.
[01:16:07.17] - Speaker 1 For the first time?
[01:16:08.23] - Speaker 2
Yeah, because we got— we had some friends come over for brunch and, um, it was like 35 degrees,

and stupidly I was like, oh, we'll get the barbecue out. So it was about 70 degrees Celsius. Um, and so after, uh, many jugs of Pimm's Um, do you know Pimm's?
[01:16:26.11] - Speaker 1
I do know Pimm's, mate. Uh, isn't it one of those homemade drinks that changes every time you make it a little bit?
[01:16:32.12] - Speaker 2
It's like a sangria but the English version of that. It's, it's done with like fruit. It's the same proportions as gin and tonics. You do 1 Pimm's for 3, uh, not tonics, uh, lemonade, as in like 7-Up lemonade. So yeah, I use my coffee machine to make like coffee on ice, like Spanish style. Brew a hot espresso and pour it over an ice cube. Pour it over an ice cube and just let it dilute.
[01:16:57.18] - Speaker 1
It works so well. It works so well. You were so happy. I mean, if that was your first experience with iced coffee and you liked it, that's all that matters. Would you like a cookie in the interim?
[01:17:05.23] - Speaker 2 Uh, what have we got?
[01:17:07.01] - Speaker 1
We've got 3 different choices. I actually don't know what they are.
[01:17:09.06] - Speaker 2 They look like 2—
[01:17:10.04] - Speaker 1
matcha white chocolate. Uh, what do we have here, Molly, behind the—
[01:17:15.23] - Speaker 2
it looks like delicious, delicious, delicious.
[01:17:22.06] - Speaker 1
So triple chocolate or peanut butter or matcha, which one are you gonna take?
[01:17:26.04] - Speaker 2 Matcha.
[01:17:26.12] - Speaker 1
Oh, he's going for the matcha. I'm gonna go for the whatever this one is, and then Molly, you can have this one. A lot of people probably don't know your history with comedy. At what point do you decide like, this is good enough? Like, how do you quit your job?
[01:17:39.21] - Speaker 2
I was doing it for 2 and a half years and I realized that in English anyway, when I was doing it in France or anywhere. Like, because anywhere I'd get sent for Apple, I'd be like, yeah, yeah. So like, I did an open mic night in— outside in the suburbs of Manchester, New Hampshire. Uh, sorry, not New Hampshire, New England. Manchester— is it New England?
[01:17:58.12] - Speaker 1
Where? No, New England's not a state, it's a region.
[01:18:00.19] - Speaker 2 It's a region.
[01:18:01.08] - Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah.

[01:18:01.20] - Speaker 2
But I think, I think my joke was like, I'm from Old Manchester in Old England, and fucking, you know, yeah, obviously the Americans love that, you know. Yeah, they'd never seen an English person in the flesh in like this small town outside of Manchester, which is already a small town. I did an open mic night in Hong Kong, a place called Shanghai, the Kung Fu Comedy Club.
[01:18:20.22] - Speaker 1 Yep, it was cool.
[01:18:22.01] - Speaker 2
And so it was going well kind of everywhere, um, and I thought, oh, okay, there's something potentially here, but I'm not in Paris enough on a full-time enough basis to be able to do like, oh, I'm gonna do a show and put on a 1-hour show, because back then that was the only way you could earn money.
[01:18:37.15] - Speaker 1
It kind of still is through the 1-hour shows. Yeah, it's not enough.
[01:18:42.20] - Speaker 2
Yeah, it's like, oh, pay what you want on the way out, and we would maybe make like €20 a, uh, if we were lucky, like a, a gig.
[01:18:50.11] - Speaker 1
Yeah, let's get a few pence out of it.
[01:18:51.21] - Speaker 2
So I was like, I need to be in Paris.
[01:18:53.12] - Speaker 1
Yeah, more often to build that base up and to like really establish yourself. Yeah, because you felt like if you're gonna do it full-time, you have to be able to do it full-time in Paris.
[01:19:01.06] - Speaker 2
Well, in where I live. Yeah. Well, my initial thought was the reason I wasn't doing more comedy was because I was in a relationship. Yeah, because when I got back from 3 weeks in Cupertino, I, I wanted to get on stage, but I couldn't because I was in a relationship. With my then-girlfriend. And so we broke up. I was like, I need to be on my own.
[01:19:20.07] - Speaker 1 Really?
[01:19:20.17] - Speaker 2
Yeah, we broke up for like 2 weeks.
[01:19:22.15] - Speaker 1
So I've heard— yeah, I remember that. Okay.
[01:19:25.05] - Speaker 2
I was like, I need to be single to do this job. I have to go out on my own to do the job that I want to do.
[01:19:30.15] - Speaker 1
I have to make it out on the frontier, and I don't want you worrying about me if I die to the wolves. Yeah.
[01:19:36.08] - Speaker 2
And then I was due to go like out to Cupertino for another 3 weeks.

[01:19:40.18] - Speaker 1 Yeah.
[01:19:41.09] - Speaker 2
And it was— I had to figure out, like, I had to make my mind up because it was like, if, if it— if we're— if we're done, then I need to get my shit out of the place before I go to Cupertino. But I was in my mum's in the UK. It was a whole situation. And then eventually I kind of came to the, the, the mature realization that it wasn't her that was the problem, it was my job. So I apologized profusely Yeah, went home with my tail between my legs, packed my shit, flew to California for 3 weeks, and came back and gave my notice when I got back from Cupertino. That time, this is in May, the 15th of May, 2015, is when I gave my notice.
[01:20:25.09] - Speaker 1 The rest was history.
[01:20:26.10] - Speaker 2
Uh, yeah. And so that was the thing where I was like, all right, I, I, I need to go balls to the wall.
[01:20:33.10] - Speaker 1
Yeah, well, that's the thing. Now you're all of a sudden on the hook. You're in Paris. You hitched your chariot to quite the rising star, right? Like, things worked out for you. I wouldn't say like super quickly, but they worked out for you super well.
[01:20:45.19] - Speaker 2
It was quick in the grand scheme of like, yeah, real comedy countries. Yeah, if that makes sense. The English scene wasn't great. Yeah, I was also doing French stuff all like side by side, but I was doing— the French stuff wasn't working.
[01:20:58.03] - Speaker 1 Well, do you know why?
[01:20:58.23] - Speaker 2 Because my French is too good.
[01:21:01.05] - Speaker 1
Um, that is You— that is the opposite of what I think most people would have expected to hear, right? Like, I'm actually—
[01:21:07.09] - Speaker 2
it's a stupid reason, but I, I— when you do comedy, you're often talking about the things that you're observing, and a lot of the things I was observing was weird French stuff because I'm English, like the fact that their fucking books and DVD covers are the wrong way around.
[01:21:21.22] - Speaker 1 Yeah, right. Yeah.
[01:21:23.06] - Speaker 2
If you're in a normal country, you have like a—
[01:21:25.14] - Speaker 1
it's gonna be a bad example, you need to grab a different one.
[01:21:27.18] - Speaker 2
No, it's all right. Oh yeah, it is a bad example. Right, here we go. So you pick up a book or a DVD or in this case a VHS, and you go, alright, that's cool. Now when you look at the side of it, you're like, okay, they've just decided to twist their heads in a different way when it's on its side. Then normally if you want to like pile it up, you normally would pile something up with the, with the with the front of the

book or DVD case or CD face up. Yeah, but then if you do it face up, it's the wrong way around.
[01:22:02.13] - Speaker 1
So now if you want to be able to read the spine, you have to flip it upside down. So when you pull it out, then you have to rotate it a different way than you expect. It's just the French being the French.
[01:22:11.13] - Speaker 2 French.
[01:22:11.20] - Speaker 1
So that was, uh, uh, these are the jokes you made, and I can see why they didn't really work out so well. Yeah, exactly, because I didn't have anybody on stage with me.
[01:22:19.22] - Speaker 2 Um, sorry.
[01:22:20.11] - Speaker 1
And they're like, what are you talking about? It's done the right way. Yeah, yeah, yeah, weird English person.
[01:22:24.23] - Speaker 2
Like square pillows. What's the deal?
[01:22:26.09] - Speaker 1
Driving on the left side of the road, you weirdo. Yeah, exactly.
[01:22:29.06] - Speaker 2
Yeah, go back to not winning any World Cups for ages.
[01:22:31.17] - Speaker 1
You did a good job making that sport up, now get back to losing it.
[01:22:34.11] - Speaker 2
Yeah. So in English it's fine because I was getting on stage being like, yeah, I'm English and here's some weird stuff that I found about France. And when I'd go on stage in French with my perfect French accent, which I acquired when I was a kid, and I'm like, Yeah, people, after the— it took me a while for people to come up to me and be like, you're not actually English though, you're like, you're like— I'm like, no, no, I genuinely— like, I'd have to show people my ID to be like, I'm not— like, I don't have any French parents, I just did a language degree and studied French my entire life and lived here for 4 years when I was a kid, so I have the accent. So I couldn't do fish-out-of-water comedy when people didn't believe that I was a fish out of water. So I would start off being like, bonjour, je m'appelle Paul, je suis anglais, um, ça fait 5 ans que j'habite en France. And I would do that for like 3 minutes, and at some point at the end of one of my jokes, I'd leave like a long pause, and then I'd be like, bon bah, je vais arrêter de vous parler avec cet accent de merde, like, I'm gonna stop talking to you with a stupid accent.
[01:23:41.08] - Speaker 2
And people would lose their shit. They'd be like, what?
[01:23:44.11] - Speaker 1 Yeah.
[01:23:44.18] - Speaker 2
And The next 3 minutes was me explaining why I don't have an accent when I speak French. Yeah, I—
[01:23:49.11] - Speaker 1
it's a great party trick, by the way. Yeah. Yeah. What's the timeline? Like, you do 2 and a half years of

comedy while you're still at Apple, you decide to quit. How long is it before you end up like working with Canal+ on your own show?
[01:24:02.12] - Speaker 2 About a year.
[01:24:03.04] - Speaker 1 Yeah, that's so fast.
[01:24:04.08] - Speaker 2
Yeah, that's the thing. So I was doing like 15 shows a week.
[01:24:07.01] - Speaker 1
That's, that's like, that's a lot for Paris too, right?
[01:24:09.13] - Speaker 2
Like 2 to 3 a night of just getting up on different things. And then, uh, the Edinburgh Festival in, in Edinburgh, obviously in Scotland.
[01:24:17.05] - Speaker 1
I mean, you never know, they could go on the road.
[01:24:18.18] - Speaker 2
Yeah, they— you, you can do shows every day for like 30 days. And so a friend of mine was running the, the second English comedy night by that stage. It was called French Fried Comedy. Uh, he decided, oh, why don't we do like a run of Parisian comedy in English in Edinburgh? So he'd organized that, um, a group of us go to Edinburgh for, for a month and just do like a showcase show where there's like 4 of us on stage and we were talking about living in Paris, all in English. Now I say a month, I was the only one there for a month because I didn't have a job anymore. Yeah, everyone else was sort of in for 3 days. Yeah, uh, then leaving, and then somebody else would come and replace them for 4 days. And then so this is a real rotation of like a lot. Yeah, but I was like the anchor for the show because I was the one there the whole time. Even he wasn't there the whole time.
[01:25:02.13] - Speaker 1 Paul Taylor and Friends.
[01:25:03.20] - Speaker 2
Yeah, and it was, it was, it was one of the worst experiences on stage.
[01:25:08.03] - Speaker 1 But why?
[01:25:09.01] - Speaker 2
Because there was like 4 people in the audience in sports bar that held 300, and the seats were all metallic, you know, like those metal—
[01:25:17.01] - Speaker 1
like, and it's clinking and clinging with people.
[01:25:18.11] - Speaker 2
It was awful. And we were shit as well. We just weren't good. We weren't.
[01:25:22.02] - Speaker 1
And they're like, well, comedy in Paris kind of sucks.
[01:25:24.20] - Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah, exactly.

[01:25:25.13] - Speaker 1
And then people canceled their tickets, tourism took a dip.
[01:25:28.07] - Speaker 2
Yeah, you could cross-reference the amount of Scottish people that came to Paris, uh, that's against that, against summer, and it's, it's never, never recovered. But that, it just gave me a lot of stage time. And then I was also doing the French stuff. And then what happened was, at that time, my friend Rob and Sebastian Marx and like 3 or 4 other English-speaking comedians were working on the— so back in the day, YouTube had more money, people had more money to produce stuff for YouTube. So like Funny or Die in the US, yeah, they had an equivalent in France. They had 2 equivalents, one of which was called Studio Bagel. Which was owned by Canal Plus, and they were all working for Studio Bagel to try and make an English version of this like web series stuff. But the, you know, they were spending like 20 grand per episode. Yeah, uh, on, on, on the things, and they, they didn't do amazingly well. But then my friend Rob was like, Paul, I, I— can we pitch your, your sketch, your lab? Because one of the things, the, the sort of first bit of mine that really took off was the, the French kissing thing, like the labis.
[01:26:31.19] - Speaker 2
So he's like, can I pitch that to Canal+? And I, and I refused because I knew what was going to happen to it. I knew it wasn't going to be my thing anymore. I knew potentially I wasn't even going to play or be the person. It was going to turn into like a sketch about the French kissing, and it wasn't— it was going to de— denature it. That's not—
[01:26:47.17] - Speaker 1 it's going to detail it.
[01:26:48.18] - Speaker 2
Yeah, exactly. So I was just like, no, because I kind of saw the writing process of that thing and I wasn't a huge fan. So then a few months go by and he just goes, fuck it, can we just film it? Ourselves. We need people to come to the show. His— the show that he was hosting, no one was coming to it. And he was like, I think it might, you know, it might— it might do well. So I said yeah. And I had an idea of what I wanted to do was film it in like a one-shot thing, entering into a bar. Yeah, well, initially we wanted to do it in an apartment because it made more sense, like walking into an apartment and you have to kiss everyone on the cheek before you get a beer, and then you have to say happy birthday, whatever. But the logistics of filming it in one take was too complicated walking upstairs in the Paris apartment.
[01:27:26.19] - Speaker 1 Yeah.
[01:27:27.05] - Speaker 2
So we filmed it in the bar that we were doing our comedy show because I was always inspired by one- take stuff, like the film Children of Men. I loved like all their one-take stuff. So I really want— and because it's stand-up, basically it was my entire stand-up bit but in camera, so it made sense for it to be in one take.
[01:27:42.09] - Speaker 1
Yeah, because you're already going to recite it in one take. Yeah.
[01:27:44.11] - Speaker 2
And so it's funny because like if you watch the video now, like the people who are at the beginning in the bar, as soon as the camera pans, they will leave and come back for the end bit. We do that end of— beginning of December we film it, 2015. Two weeks before, we had the Paris attacks, the terrorist attacks. Wow. Um, which were on the same street as the comedy club that we were filming on. Um, so the atmosphere in France wasn't great.

[01:28:09.12] - Speaker 1 Yeah.
[01:28:09.22] - Speaker 2
Christmas happens, and the thing's edited and ready to put out. We put it out on the 1st of January, 2016. It gets like 1,000 views.
[01:28:17.20] - Speaker 1 Yeah.
[01:28:18.09] - Speaker 2
And then I got a friend who's called— he reminds me of a comedian who worked at the time for like an aggregator of fun content It was called Topito. It was kind of like BuzzFeed.
[01:28:27.13] - Speaker 1 Okay.
[01:28:27.22] - Speaker 2
He was like, can I share this video on our platform? I'm like, yeah, sure, go for it. So he shared it. The next day it had like a million views.
[01:28:35.11] - Speaker 1
That's insane, just from that. That's what did it.
[01:28:37.13] - Speaker 2
Yeah. Wow. And it was all over news, like BBC News. I've got a screenshot of like the most watched video is that the terrorist attacks were 6 weeks fresh, right? And who's this guy who's coming and making fun of France now, but in like an endearing sort of angry, but like, oh, this is a French And I think it was just the timing of that worked where it just popped. And then like 4 days after that, Canal+ get in touch with me and they're like, hey, we really like your style of being like an English person in France. What do you want to do? Like, I'm like, I, I don't know. Yeah, what do you mean, what do I want? I don't know, what is that?
[01:29:13.01] - Speaker 1
What is that? What does that mean?
[01:29:14.06] - Speaker 2
Yeah, they're like, do you have any other things to talk about? I'm like, no, I hadn't planned— this wasn't a pilot for— it ended up being a pilot for what became a show called What the Fuck France. So they basically rebranded the English Studio Bagel page to What the Fuck France. We filmed another pilot which was all in one take and it didn't really work. And my friend Felix, who directed all of them, was just like, it needs to be filmed outside in Paris and we can do the one take by doing transitions where like I throw something to myself and I catch it in the next shot and all this kind of stuff. So yeah, that whole beginning of that year of 2016 was pretty crazy. And then in September was when the first episode of What the Fuck France came out on TV, and then it would get put on YouTube a week later. And it took like 2 or 3 episodes in— they were doing okay.
[01:30:01.07] - Speaker 1 Yeah.
[01:30:01.12] - Speaker 2
And then there was another news article that's like, who's this French English person making fun of our terraces? Because what this— I think video 2 was like about how everyone loves to sit and watch a French Parisian terrace, but you're sat like, you know, yeah, it's really uncomfortable.
[01:30:17.02] - Speaker 1
And this is short too, right? This is like 3 minutes.

[01:30:19.06] - Speaker 2
Yeah, 3-minute sketches. Similar to— I mean, not similar to, but, um, Key Peele, sort of at the same time, right?
[01:30:26.12] - Speaker 1
There's a much more fantastical— yours, like, specifically cultural.
[01:30:29.09] - Speaker 2
Yeah, mine was very like, I'm talking to the camera, I'm introducing myself as me. Hi, my name is Paul Taylor, I'm English but I live here in France, and one of the things I don't—
[01:30:36.04] - Speaker 1
you know, one of the things that drives me crazy about living here.
[01:30:38.03] - Speaker 2
Yeah, it was like fast-paced, bang, bang, bang, and hitting on all the French stuff— cheese, wine, bread, all of it. The French fried stuff was— yeah, that was going really well. And then, because I was doing my full show like weekly Yeah, that was going great as well.
[01:30:51.23] - Speaker 1 It's amazing.
[01:30:52.23] - Speaker 2
So yeah, it was just great timing, um, and then that's kind of been it basically. I've been riding that wave since that was 10 years ago, which is mental.
[01:31:04.23] - Speaker 1
It is mental. But you— and that is that— this is the thing too, like, you have sold out like the O2 Shepherd's Bush in London, you've done the Zenith here You've done the Olympia here. You've done everything.
[01:31:18.17] - Speaker 2 The Neptune in Seattle.
[01:31:20.06] - Speaker 1
You did the Neptune. That's on my— it's not on this notebook, but I have my backstage pass for that too. Yeah. I mean, like, and I'm lucky enough that I've gotten to come along for some of this. I think that the question that I have though, both as your friend and also maybe I think from the outside looking in, you're in this period now where your, your focus is very much on running, right? What is the goal that you set for yourself as you're turning 40 right now?
[01:31:40.03] - Speaker 2
Running the The marathon majors, which there are now 8. When I, when I had, when I had the idea of the challenge, there were 6 of them. Since, there have been 2 more that have been added, and it's probably going to be a, a third addition to the original.
[01:31:55.04] - Speaker 1
So what's the— what is the list of those?
[01:31:57.16] - Speaker 2
It starts on my 40th birthday with Chicago on the 11th of October. 3 weeks later is, um, New York. Yeah. Uh, then there's like a 4-month break because marathons are only really autumn or spring. So the winter, there's no— and in the heat of summer there's not—
[01:32:13.05] - Speaker 1 you don't want to do it.

[01:32:13.17] - Speaker 2
Yeah, so the next one after that is, uh, March next year, which is Tokyo.
[01:32:18.05] - Speaker 1 Okay.
[01:32:18.14] - Speaker 2
Then April is Boston, London. May is South Africa, that got added. No, August, which got added, was Sydney.
[01:32:26.05] - Speaker 1 Yeah.
[01:32:26.20] - Speaker 2
September is Berlin. And then what's probably going to get added is Shanghai in November, December of next year.
[01:32:34.15] - Speaker 1 It's crazy.
[01:32:35.07] - Speaker 2
There's two sides to me with it, because one side of me is like, as I'm doing the training I'm like, I can't do this.
[01:32:40.19] - Speaker 1 Yeah.
[01:32:40.23] - Speaker 2
But then the other side of me is like, when I see the type of people that run marathons, 90% of them, I'm like, I'm younger and fitter than most of them, so why not? Yeah. Do you know what I mean?
[01:32:52.13] - Speaker 1
And I guess the question is why as well. Like, what— why are you setting out to do this? When we first met, you, you weren't— you weren't running yet. No, you weren't active at all. No, we—
[01:33:02.10] - Speaker 2
when we hung out in, in drinking, we drank a lot.
[01:33:05.02] - Speaker 1
Yeah. So whenever we hung out, it was a minimum 9-pint evening. We have—
[01:33:08.23] - Speaker 2 and it was live—
[01:33:09.20] - Speaker 1
intense stories. We would do it live in this format, but like for 4 hours in your studio. Um, so you were— so you were really good for my, uh, alcohol intake and not a big encouragement for my physical activity. Now you've swung the other way. Yeah, that was— there's— maybe we start there, like, why did you stop drinking and then why did you start running?
[01:33:29.18] - Speaker 2
Well, I, I stopped drinking for a year, but I'm back on it.
[01:33:32.06] - Speaker 1
Yeah, I know. In a— you drink a lot less.

[01:33:34.10] - Speaker 2
Probably, yeah. Well, I, I think I drink less often but more quantities less often, so I think it comes out at the same. Like, if it's a day that I'm drinking, like, oh, you're gonna drink, I'm gonna drink, fair enough. But then I might do 2 weeks with no drinks. Yeah. So I stopped. The main reason was I was—
[01:33:51.10] - Speaker 1
I was right, the, the Queen died.
[01:33:53.03] - Speaker 2 The Queen died.
[01:33:53.20] - Speaker 1
I remember when— I feel like the Queen died, it was a really big emotional thing, but you also had one of the worst hangers of your life after staying up all night drinking.
[01:34:00.20] - Speaker 2
Yeah. I had booked myself a hotel in Versailles for like a week because I needed to edit the show that we'd filmed in London, Shepherd's Bush. Yeah, I needed to edit that and I needed to write my new show. So I took a week in a hotel, like away from wife and child, because we lived at the time in a 57 square meter apartment.
[01:34:22.18] - Speaker 1 Yeah.
[01:34:23.00] - Speaker 2
And I couldn't, I couldn't, I couldn't work and because there's nowhere to hide. Now it's better because we have a house and I have a shed at the end of the garden that I can hide in. But then if I need to come for a pee, I come into the house and then Louise is like, Papa! And she wants to show you something. Like, ah. So in the middle of that week at the hotel, the Queen dies. I go join my friend Adam, who's Scottish. So we were sharing in the grief of being British people who have grown up with this person our entire lives. Get completely fucked at his house. And then I go back to the hotel maybe at 5 in the morning. The whole next day I'm vomiting, throwing up. I can't do any of the work that I planned to do. The next day, same situation. And I saw I'd wasted like €500. Yep. In hotels, to be hungover in Versailles.
[01:35:09.07] - Speaker 1
What better place to be hungover? I mean, really, that's how I feel every time I go out there with alcohol.
[01:35:13.07] - Speaker 2
I mean, I, I think in the history of Versailles, I was probably the least hungover person.
[01:35:17.04] - Speaker 1 Yeah, 100%.
[01:35:17.22] - Speaker 2 Ever been in there.
[01:35:18.17] - Speaker 1 And the cleanest.
[01:35:19.12] - Speaker 2
And the cleanest. Yeah. So that was like, fuck it, I'm done drinking. This is on the 8th of September, I think. The week after that's my wife's birthday. I go, I'm not drinking for my wife's birthday, I'm not doing it. So I don't. Then 2 weeks after that's my birthday. I'm like, I can't drink for mine if I didn't drink for hers. So I just— and I, I wasn't like, I'm stopping forever. It was like, I need to stop for a month.

[01:35:41.20] - Speaker 1 Yeah.
[01:35:42.02] - Speaker 2
To see if I'm not alcoholic because I feel like I'm relying on this too much. Yeah. Because I was getting— it was got— it got to a point where I was drinking literally every day.
[01:35:49.01] - Speaker 1 Yeah, it was a little bit worried.
[01:35:49.18] - Speaker 2
And this is just post-COVID as well, right? So this is 2 years COVID hits, me and my wife are drinking every day, a bottle of wine.
[01:35:55.03] - Speaker 1
We all got into some, some habits.
[01:35:56.19] - Speaker 2 Yeah, for sure.
[01:35:57.07] - Speaker 1
We put on some COVID weight and I just never—
[01:36:00.04] - Speaker 2
I carried that on. And then when my show started up, I'd use it as a release. I'd go to my show, I'd do my show in Bordeaux, and then after that I'd say, hey audience, where's the Irish pub? I'll go and find you there for like the after party. Yeah. And I'd stay up to like 4 in the morning getting shit-faced with my audience. I'd started working on the next show, like my third bilingual show. And that became a part of the show of me. It was like, oh, I stopped drinking, here's why the Queen died. And I'd make some— yeah, and I'd tell stories about some of the hungover shit that I've done. Well, not hungover, but like being drunk and waking up.
[01:36:29.23] - Speaker 1
Some really good stories in that set too, actually. Yeah.
[01:36:33.00] - Speaker 2
And so because it became a part of the show, I was like, well, I'm not gonna start drinking now. Yeah. And then weirdly enough, that on the anniversary one year, or one day before, after we were in London at Shepherd's Bush again Yeah. So I was like, I'll have a glass of champagne. Then the next week I'm in Ireland, I had a pint of Guinness. And then the next week I was in Scotland, I'll have a glass of whiskey. And it was really, um, gradual. And then it obviously led to a blowout at some point. And I was like, I guess I'm, I'm, I'm— by that stage I'd finished the tour of that show.
[01:37:02.05] - Speaker 1
I'm back, baby! And the running came because in January 2024, you basically started running right as I quit.
[01:37:10.10] - Speaker 2
Yeah. Oh, right as you quit running? Yeah, it was the Olympic Committee The, uh, the, the people who organized—
[01:37:16.06] - Speaker 1
kind of talked you into doing way more than you wanted to do.
[01:37:19.00] - Speaker 2
Yeah, they were like, oh, for the first time ever, we're opening the marathon, the Olympic marathon, to non-athletes. Yeah, just like a mass participation.

[01:37:26.19] - Speaker 1
I think anybody that can run a marathon can call themselves an athlete.
[01:37:30.08] - Speaker 2
Adam would love that because he didn't run it, he walked it, but he did a marathon. Uh, semantics. Anyway, they were like, oh, we're opening a marathon for the first time, but we're also doing a 10K. I was like, cool, sign me up for the 10K. I'd never run 10K in my life before. And then a couple of weeks later they're like, oh, here's the press release for this event, the marathon thing. And they had like this 52-slide presentation about the marathon. In there there was one slide about the 10K.
[01:37:55.04] - Speaker 1 Yeah.
[01:37:55.09] - Speaker 2
And I kind of felt like a fucking loser for signing up for the 10K.
[01:37:58.15] - Speaker 1 Yeah.
[01:37:58.23] - Speaker 2
I'm like, I guess I feel like a fraud. Let me— so I asked, can I switch it to the marathon? They're like, are you sure? I'm like, well, if I'm gonna run one marathon in my life, it might as well.
[01:38:06.11] - Speaker 1 Yeah.
[01:38:06.22] - Speaker 2
Yeah. So that was it. I signed up for it.
[01:38:09.12] - Speaker 1
But you didn't have to compete for this because you were, you were signed on as a promotional guest.
[01:38:13.06] - Speaker 2
Yeah, they were You get a free bib, you don't have to do any of the challenges.
[01:38:16.18] - Speaker 1
You don't even have to prove you can run a marathon. No, exactly. You're gonna do it. Exactly. Also sort of a disadvantage if you're willing to let yourself get peer pressured into a grueling feat of athleticism that killed the first guy that did it.
[01:38:26.18] - Speaker 2
You know, he was doing that in Greece and it was a long way.
[01:38:29.00] - Speaker 1 Um, sandals.
[01:38:30.08] - Speaker 2 Yeah, we've got—
[01:38:31.02] - Speaker 1 died of sore feet.
[01:38:31.13] - Speaker 2 We have super shoes now.

[01:38:32.16] - Speaker 1
Yeah, it's true. Gels, they spray them onto your feet before you run.
[01:38:35.16] - Speaker 2 We've got nipple covers now.
[01:38:37.04] - Speaker 1
Oh God, yeah, but he was probably running—
[01:38:39.10] - Speaker 2
he died of the nipple and thigh chafing between the two. Raw. Um, so that was it. That's how I started running. And then I thought of this challenge.
[01:38:50.12] - Speaker 1
Yeah, it was— you thought it was gonna be one and done, right? Like, you were like, we're gonna do this and that's gonna be it.
[01:38:53.15] - Speaker 2
Yeah. Well, and then the thing is, is when I get into something, I get into it really. So I was like, oh, how, you know, how do you fucking do well in a marathon? And I'm starting— you type into YouTube and you find a creator who's making running videos who's cool and charismatic, and you start following that person. They're like, oh, how do you eat during a marathon. I'm like, what do you mean eat? I didn't know you had to eat during a marathon. Yeah, you have to eat during the marathon. It's like every 6 kilometers you've got to take on carbohydrates because that's what you're using. And it's like the stuff— don't ever use the stuff that's on the course because your stomach might not agree with it and you might have to shit yourself. So practice before with these gels. And there's like 10 different types and you can— and I was like, this is intense. Like, here are the types of shoes for long runs, short runs, quick runs, recovery runs. I'm like, what the fuck is going on? So I got really heavily into it.
[01:39:39.20] - Speaker 1 Yeah.
[01:39:40.04] - Speaker 2
And that's when I discovered the marathon majors, and I was like, oh, there's 6 of them, you get this cool medal at the end of it. And it's just some kid boyish shit.
[01:39:48.10] - Speaker 1
I'm like, I want the medal to prove to everyone that I did all of the marathons. Yeah.
[01:39:52.20] - Speaker 2
You know. And so I was like, oh, one day I'll do those 6. And I calculated that the Chicago Marathon is always like the second Sunday of October. Okay, and so I was looking through my calendar because I was like looking at my calendar like 4 years ahead at dates, and I was like, oh, that is the— my 40th birthday. Why not? I like the round number. Yeah, let me just let— if that's the Chicago Marathon, that will be the first one, and then I'll just have to do the other 5.
[01:40:22.09] - Speaker 1
Literally on your birthday? Yeah, that's nuts.
[01:40:24.22] - Speaker 2
So I was like, I guess I'll just have to do the other 5 in the universe in that— in that— in the order from Chicago and finish it in September of the next year. Yeah, because most people, if they want to do it in one year, they start calendar. So they do it, they start with Tokyo and end with, um, New York. You see, New York's in November.
[01:40:40.21] - Speaker 1
You're going to be freaking everybody out. What do you mean you just started?

[01:40:43.13] - Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah, exactly. And so, um, so yeah, that was the— it wasn't, it wasn't like I'm going through this, like the, the running was a very gradual thing and it just, it was a fun thing. I was like, oh, my tour's finishing, blah blah blah, it's a good excuse to It wasn't— I was fed up doing stand-up. It was more I was fed up with the system and how the business of show works. Like, yes, show business is a toxic place to work, uh, when you realize how much money is disappearing into the woodwork and you never see it. And it— the problem is your fans pay a certain amount of money thinking that you'll, as a one-man band, you will get some of that. Yeah, more than like 10% of it, you know.
[01:41:23.19] - Speaker 1 Yeah.
[01:41:24.03] - Speaker 2
And then you start looking through the figures and you're like, why, why is this chart— what's that money? Where's that gone? What— how is this? And you start realizing you, you get, you get fucked by promoters, producers, agents, managers, all this kind of stuff. So I was like, I'm— I want to take a break from that stuff.
[01:41:39.11] - Speaker 1
Yep. I never doubted that you were like losing your love of comedy, but you were definitely losing your love of the road, of the shows. Like, I think there's an— the, the evolution of your relationship with your daughter, the time that you spend on the road, that all the struggles you're having— and I know that the root of the struggles the modern struggles, the root of it has been, like you're saying, like the infrastructure around comedy. Yeah. And the people you have to deal with and all the bullshit that comes with it. And especially when you leave some bullshit behind hoping you found something new, only to discover that that's also bullshit.
[01:42:11.15] - Speaker 2 Yeah.
[01:42:11.21] - Speaker 1
There's a lot of like disillusionment in there.
[01:42:14.07] - Speaker 2
Well, I think we have a similar— the tour that I've just finished was my third world tour. Like, not like one country out.
[01:42:20.16] - Speaker 1
No, you like went to New Zealand. Yeah.
[01:42:22.13] - Speaker 2
Well, this time I went to New Zealand. It was my first time. But the, the— in 2023, it was like I still did 20 different countries. Yeah, before COVID whatever it was, 2017, 2018, I still toured Australia, China, Canada. After the third one, I'm just like— it, and it sounds really, uh, like ego boosting, but I'm like, why is no one talking about this? Like, why am I still stuck in the same place as I have for 7 years, even though more and more people are coming to more and more of the shows, you know, like there was like 700 people in Seattle. Yeah, well, how does that happen?
[01:42:57.06] - Speaker 1
It was wild, do you know what I mean?
[01:42:58.10] - Speaker 2
I'm just like, all right, but I'm like doing way cooler shit now. Yeah, than I was back then.
[01:43:02.11] - Speaker 1 Yeah.

[01:43:02.23] - Speaker 2
And I bump into people in the street and they're like, oh, you're still doing comedy?
[01:43:07.16] - Speaker 1 What have you been doing?
[01:43:09.01] - Speaker 2
I loved What the Fuck, France. What you been doing since? I'm like, mate, I did 3 world tours since. It's like doing cool shit and then it not, um, getting rewarded, so to speak. And the same thing a little bit, I think we've talked about it, where, you know, you doing vlogs for, for older than my daughter is, and you're like, there's that like this thing of like, fuck, what, what does it take to get the thing seen?
[01:43:31.02] - Speaker 1 Yeah.
[01:43:31.12] - Speaker 2 Uh, or her, or talked about.
[01:43:33.00] - Speaker 1
I think that comes back to—
[01:43:33.19] - Speaker 2
and then when Paris in My Pocket, yeah, happened, that's when you're like, ah, finally I'm getting some recognition.
[01:43:38.19] - Speaker 1
That's why I'm really a big fan of you taking this year to focus on running, because I think it's going to hit you while you're like, you're gonna be running like in Tokyo hating your life, sweating it, like chafing.
[01:43:50.07] - Speaker 2 Yeah.
[01:43:50.17] - Speaker 1
And at like mile marker 13, you're gonna be like, oh, you know what, I'd actually have a really fun time doing this.
[01:43:57.22] - Speaker 2
Well, I think it has already hit me in the sense of like I have given up trying.
[01:44:05.12] - Speaker 1
The answer is fucking give up. Yeah. Okay.
[01:44:08.06] - Speaker 2
In the sense that like, I know it sounds defeatist, but I'm just like, you know what, I'm doing all right.
[01:44:12.15] - Speaker 1 Like, you are doing fine.
[01:44:14.07] - Speaker 2
My wife and daughter are amazing. We're all healthy. We live in a cool house. I get to do what I want and make decent money from it. Like, I don't need actually anything more. Yes. And I think the, the, the going for more— and you've had this realization probably before I have with that same sort of thing where, you know, in a lot of your videos you're talking, you're thanking your patrons, being like, thanks to you guys, I get to have this cool life.
[01:44:37.14] - Speaker 1

Yeah.
[01:44:38.00] - Speaker 2
And that's essentially ultimate. And it might be an age thing, you know. When we— I think when you're 22, you're like, you reach for the stars or whatever that is, you know. Like, my thing is like, cool, I can walk down the street and 1 in 100 people will stop me and say, hey, like, came to your show, love it, can we take a selfie? And it's cool, it's manageable, I can still have a normal life.
[01:44:55.02] - Speaker 1 Yeah, that's—
[01:44:55.23] - Speaker 2
whereas if you get to Jerry Seinfeld, Ricky Gervais territory, you go— you can't walk down the street anymore, you can't do normal people shit. And so that means you have to have security guards with you. And then what does that mean for my daughter who's at school? Like, I don't want to go pick her up because I don't want the hassle of parents. And so I'm like, I actually— there's still deep down there's this thing of like, I haven't made it yet.
[01:45:19.09] - Speaker 1
Yeah, this is exactly what you've been, I think, circling, is that question of what is enough, right? And I think you're— I guess the tension I see is like, you do— I think in so many ways you do have enough. Right? But does that just mean life's over at 40? Because I do think we still want to be challenged. We want to do the new thing. You want to write the new show. You want to keep doing comedy.
[01:45:43.04] - Speaker 2
I think that's the— ultimately, that's— that is the next. It's like to keep doing— to keep doing what I'm doing.
[01:45:48.02] - Speaker 1
You're not— the thing is, like, when you talk about— this is the also that, that challenge that we do both face in different ways, but is that thing of like, how do you even measure success anymore? My sister called, said, told me that I have success dysmorphia. Yeah, this week. Yeah, yeah, because she was like, you know, great phrase. She's like, you don't see what other people see, you know, because I don't feel like any kind of success. And I think like, which isn't entirely true, but it's still, it's that thing of like, okay, there is an unhealthy version of this where it's like always bigger, always better.
[01:46:15.13] - Speaker 2
Well, because we've got in both of our fields, we've got people who, you know, if like, if you run the world, yeah, well, if you're talking about vlogging, Casey Neistat is like the benchmark. It's not the benchmark, but that is, he's over there. He's And in my case, it's a Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, Ricky Gervais, Ali Wong, insert any comedian on Netflix. For me, it's like, that's in theory what we should be aiming for, right? So that's why we feel like we haven't succeeded.
[01:46:44.03] - Speaker 1 Yeah.
[01:46:44.15] - Speaker 2
But for— in my field, everyone who's quote unquote below me, who hasn't done a world tour, yeah, or who are still struggling in comedy clubs, they'll see my Instagram posts being like, fuck, that's amazing.
[01:46:57.08] - Speaker 1 Exactly, 100%.
[01:46:57.23] - Speaker 2
And I'm there like, yeah, but I'm not on Netflix yet, you know? But then do I want to be? When you're doing stuff in public, the level of— I think the measure of success is what the public opinion is.

[01:47:09.17] - Speaker 1
Yeah, that's also part of it, right?
[01:47:11.02] - Speaker 2
You know, when you see an actor in a film and you're like, oh, I haven't seen him in a film for like 10 years, it's like, maybe that was out of choice. Yeah, you know, maybe it wasn't because no one was hiring him or her. Maybe it's because they had a kid and they were just like, fuck it, for the next 10 years I want to be present with my kid. Like Jennifer Lawrence. Yeah, is a bit like that. She's like, I want to be there for my kids, and we don't see her around in films anymore. Yeah, you know, but she's publicly said that's what she wants to do. Whereas I think in general, you know, we're like, oh, that band, they still a thing? Like, yeah, man, and still they still sell out.
[01:47:40.08] - Speaker 1
I feel like they— that, that is a difference too though, right? Because if you're a traditional, like, film— you, uh, films for theater actor, is you also want to minimize how available you are in other formats because you want to maintain the exclusivity and like be like, if you want to see me, you have to go to the theater, right? And so that's part of the value you bring to things is people miss you, want to see you.
[01:48:02.02] - Speaker 2 Yeah.
[01:48:02.12] - Speaker 1
Whereas if you're a comedian, if you could get on 5 panel shows, like, that'd be great, it'd be fun, right? It's not like you have to—
[01:48:08.16] - Speaker 2
like, if you're not in the zeitgeist, in the cultural zeitgeist, then you have to be ever-present. Yeah.
[01:48:12.22] - Speaker 1
And I think that's, that's what's changed with also with like my stuff in Paris in My Pocket. One of the things that changed it was is that I think what I do professionally, traditionally, is very— is hyper niche because I'm the niche, right? It's only people that are interested in me, my life, and following along that are going to be regular fans. So even if those numbers are in the low thousands, like, that's very powerful because people are really there for everything. But it means that it doesn't go very far, and nobody— the average person's definitely not interested in why is this guy sad in Paris, I don't get it, and I don't like it, and then they move on. And so what changed is like— is a combination of of something that's a little bit more broadly appealing and also the volume, because the goal has been like, we need to be putting videos out every day and we need to be getting in front of as many people as we can in that way with information that is hopefully of a quality level that Parisians will use it because they're gonna be like, oh, I never heard about that restaurant, let me go there.
[01:49:04.19] - Speaker 1
But geared towards visitors, um, because that's a very obviously available audience that's more likely to buy a guide in the end. Now we're on every platform, we're, we're everywhere, and The people that stop me on the street now, I have no idea where they're going to come from. Like, they might even point at me and yell, "Paris in my pocket!" You know, they may not even know my name. Whereas like 5 years ago, anybody that stopped me on the street, like, knew my whole life story. Yeah.
[01:49:26.21] - Speaker 2 Yeah.
[01:49:26.23] - Speaker 1
How do you define what is enough? Because I also realized Molly challenged me on this recently. I have my own cycle. We all have our cycles. We all come back to saying certain things. And I was like, okay, but next year we're going to have this built. This is going to be running smoothly. And like, then

I'll have time. And she's like, that's what you said when we started building this thing. And I was like, the reality is the building will never stop because like I have things I want to build that will take me the rest of my life. And that's just the curse and the blessing that I have. I know exactly how I want to spend my time, my life, my money. And so, okay, how do I take a step back and enjoy it and not push myself consistently to burnout until the end? Like, okay, this is the path I'm on. How do I actually apportion this out in a way where I recognize even as I'm always searching for more, it's not because I don't have enough. And that's something that I got to figure out personally.
[01:50:18.17] - Speaker 2
Yeah, well, I mean, that was a part of the reason why I did— decided to do an English show rather than a bilingual show, because I was— again, it was like the same equivalent of what you were saying about the niche. Guys, it's going to be people who speak both languages who are going to enjoy it. And the glass ceiling for that, I feel like, was reached, even though the glass ceiling was very high. It was like an arena in Paris, you know, and big rooms outside of Paris. Uh, but I was like, oh, maybe if I can make it more appealing by sticking to one language— and most of the comedy in the world is happening in English, even though obviously every country's got their own situation, but all of Netflix, all of that stuff is all happening in English— why don't I do a show only in English and see what happens with that sort of thing? And then that's, I guess, with this, the dissolution of like, oh, I was— the people I was working— I was working with were like, oh, this could be amazing, this is what we could do.
[01:51:09.01] - Speaker 2
And then nothing came to fruition apart from me just doing the same tour that I did a couple of years back. And so it's like, all right, well, that didn't work for now because I didn't have the right—
[01:51:20.03] - Speaker 1
the strategy was a little bit off, right?
[01:51:21.10] - Speaker 2 Yeah.
[01:51:22.05] - Speaker 1
Uh, but you also didn't know that going in. And I think the thing is that you, you, you, that education you got out of that tour was, in my mind, worth the tour because nobody— unfortunately didn't have anybody around who could give it to you.
[01:51:34.04] - Speaker 2 Yeah.
[01:51:34.19] - Speaker 1
Right, so you came out of it way wiser for it. And like, you have— this is why I think like, this is the year. It's kind of like when you go, you like, you go mow the lawn, wash the dishes, occupy your hands with something. Go run 9 marathons this year. And while you're occupying yourself with that, I really think it'll be interesting to see the evolution of your thought process. And, and like you said, maybe it is, you have enough, you kind of narrow it in and you focus on doing something here. But I don't know, I think that there's something else that's going to pop out of that.
[01:52:02.18] - Speaker 2
Well, there was a thing starting to happen, another show with a friend of mine who's a musician, right? Um, and but the system fucked that too. So well, the system looks like it's gonna— it's not definitely off the cards, but my gut is saying no, just because it means falling back into another, uh, a couple of years rotation of the same shit that I've been dealing with for the past 8 years where I've been unhappy. I'm just like, I just, I can't do it. I need, I need I need to— if I obviously I need money, I still need to live, so I still need to do shows. Yeah, but there's a way where I can do way less shows and earn more money by not having anyone involved.
[01:52:38.07] - Speaker 1

Yeah.
[01:52:39.06] - Speaker 2
And yeah, of course it's a risk. That's what they want you to think as well. They go, oh well, you know, it's, it's a risk if you do it on your— you know, we take all the risk, which is why we take away all the risk. You know, we take all the financial risk by forwarding all the money, fronting all the money to all the venues, blah blah blah. And you're like, yeah. And so they make you think that it's risky then you go, hold on, it's been 8 years that I've been selling out— well, 10 years I've been selling out the venues that I'm in, and none of them are ridiculous.
[01:53:03.19] - Speaker 1 It was—
[01:53:04.02] - Speaker 2
the arena was a bit ridiculous. That was 4,500 people, it was too much. Um, but it was cool. But then if it's like, all right, if I'm doing 300 seaters, it's like, there's no reason with just my social media presence I can't just fill that out on my own, be a bit stress-free, and yeah, uh, keep the— keep the engine running while I do the marathon stuff.
[01:53:22.10] - Speaker 1 Yeah, exactly.
[01:53:22.19] - Speaker 2
And then at the end of next year, end of '27, where it's like, all right, here's what's happening in 2028, '29, whatever, you know.
[01:53:30.07] - Speaker 1 And it's going to be good.
[01:53:31.17] - Speaker 2 We'll see.
[01:53:32.08] - Speaker 1
I do want to travel at least to one marathon with you.
[01:53:35.05] - Speaker 2
Well, it's funny you say that because tonight I'm having a drink with my friend Felix.
[01:53:38.23] - Speaker 1
Oh yeah, it's good. He's filming you.
[01:53:40.23] - Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah. Well, because the thing— well, he— I don't know if he is anymore.
[01:53:43.07] - Speaker 1 Oh no, what happened?
[01:53:44.15] - Speaker 2
He is directing his first feature film.
[01:53:47.17] - Speaker 1 Congratulations this summer.
[01:53:49.10] - Speaker 2
Yeah. And he told me about that.
[01:53:51.05] - Speaker 1

It's a comedy.
[01:53:51.23] - Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[01:53:52.16] - Speaker 1
And also, you want me to film it? Is that right?
[01:53:54.22] - Speaker 2
Well, I don't know, because also the first video we put out just died on its ass. So I'm like, what's the point?
[01:54:00.22] - Speaker 1
No, but the point is keep it going and it'll, it'll pick up. And then we would like— you never know who's going to catch this because we'll do—
[01:54:06.05] - Speaker 2
yeah, I know, but I'm just like, I— it's so much effort.
[01:54:09.21] - Speaker 1 It is a lot of effort.
[01:54:10.18] - Speaker 2 Like, I feel—
[01:54:11.15] - Speaker 1 did you edit it or did he?
[01:54:12.17] - Speaker 2 He edit? No, he did.
[01:54:13.20] - Speaker 1
He did. He did the whole thing.
[01:54:15.01] - Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah, he did the whole thing. So I'm paying him to do that, and I'm also for New York and Chicago, like, in theory paying multiple thousand euros for him to fly.
[01:54:23.16] - Speaker 1 Yeah, exactly.
[01:54:24.18] - Speaker 2
To stay, you know, stay in the hotel the same nights as me to film and then go back and edit them. And I feel like it's— and also because with the Paris one, the way he'd edited it, he'd said to me, you know, he's like, oh, it would be really cool if at kilometer 10 you could say something like this because it'll help me transition from this bit to the next bit.
[01:54:43.14] - Speaker 1 Yeah.
[01:54:43.23] - Speaker 2
And so I had a list of stuff on my phone, like, as I'm running and like dying physically, I'm like, oh fuck, I remember. And then I've got to say this Oh, and then, you know, and it's just like, I shouldn't be doing this while I'm running a marathon, you know what I mean? So I was just like, all right, if it had gotten 100,000 views, I'd be like, yeah, for sure, whatever. But it's the, the whole algorithm problem. It's like my YouTube channel is stand-up.

[01:55:03.19] - Speaker 1 Yeah.
[01:55:04.03] - Speaker 2
And then all of a sudden there's this running thing. It's like, what the fuck is this?
[01:55:06.20] - Speaker 1
I've been there, you know what that's like.
[01:55:08.08] - Speaker 2
Yeah. So I was just like, why am I doing it? I keep doing stuff thinking it's not going to be stressful, and then it always becomes stressful, you know? Like with the first first proper world tour, like the 20- country one that Manu and Adam came on. Yeah, at the end of that I was like, fuck, why didn't we get someone to film all this and make like a short documentary? Like, what? Because the only evidence I have of it is me on stage being like, hey, Singapore is great, and that's cool, but there's no like in- between fun shit. So then when we did the Live Nation tour, it was like, oh, you're gonna lose €40,000 on this tour. I'm like, great, well, I guess touring on my own then. Yeah, I'm not even bringing a light and sound guy.
[01:55:47.04] - Speaker 1 Yeah.
[01:55:47.05] - Speaker 2
Um, and which ended up being complete bollocks because we ended up making some money from it. Yeah. So I was like, ah, so I've done two of these like world tours and there's nothing to show for it apart from a couple of stories which aren't even available anymore.
[01:55:59.17] - Speaker 1 Yeah.
[01:56:00.02] - Speaker 2
So I was just like, so with the running thing, I was like, I don't want to, but then if no one gives a shit anyway, but this thing, you'll, you'll care in the end.
[01:56:07.21] - Speaker 1
Anyways, thanks Paul for coming. Uh I'm really excited to see where this takes you, and I'm glad that you're not injuring yourself.
[01:56:13.20] - Speaker 2 When are we doing this again?
[01:56:15.16] - Speaker 1 Next month, I guess.
[01:56:16.19] - Speaker 2
Oh well, nothing will have changed between now.
[01:56:18.09] - Speaker 1
That's true, but think that they're going to be some big jumps back and forth. It's true.
[01:56:22.08] - Speaker 2
The next milestone for me is the Chicago Marathon, which is in October. Yeah, so I have 3 weeks between both marathons. Yeah, when I did the Paris Marathon, I checked in with myself 3 weeks after. I'm like, there's no way I can run another.
[01:56:35.06] - Speaker 1 Yeah, right.

[01:56:36.07] - Speaker 2
So I've added some more stuff into my training to like to strengthen my legs.
[01:56:39.18] - Speaker 1 Yep, it's good.
[01:56:40.07] - Speaker 2
Um, and the thing is, is like if I can't do New York after like 3 weeks after Chicago, yeah, then the whole thing is off. Basically not the whole thing is off, I'll probably still end up doing about 9 of them, but I'll do them over the period of 6. There's no time limit, so I could do them over the period of like 10 years or whatever. Yeah, but I might just like cut the whole thing short of being like, oh, in 1 year I'm gonna do this.
[01:57:00.01] - Speaker 1
What we'll do is we'll, we'll check in on from the progress you're making up to that point. This has been fun also because, uh, it's the first time you and I have sat down with microphones in probably a year like this.
[01:57:10.20] - Speaker 2
No, because we did your book launch.
[01:57:12.05] - Speaker 1
Oh, that's true, you came and did my book launch. Digress again, but we've had a really good time catching up, and, uh, we're just trying to end this episode. Thank you so much for watching. Make sure you follow Paul PT Comedy on Instagram. You can obviously follow Garage Monologues. Uh, wherever you want to. We're going to be checking in with him as he trains as we go, and it's going to be a story that's going to last us well over a year at this point, which is great because the more excuses I have to hang out with Paul, the better.
[01:57:37.12] - Speaker 2
December 2027 is when this will be ending.
[01:57:39.20] - Speaker 1 Here we go.
[01:57:40.18] - Speaker 2
I'll see you in December 2037 when I go, I can't run more than one marathon a year.
[01:57:46.11] - Speaker 1
I'm going to enjoy finding out how this goes just as much as anybody. So yeah, make sure to follow along and we'll, we'll see you for more rambles next time.
[01:57:54.04] - Speaker 2
Thanks for the coffee and the cookies.
[01:57:55.06] - Speaker 1
Absolutely. And thanks to Two Doors for making them and not knowing we were going to use them this way.