The Public Nuisance Podcast #075 “It was like a pendulum” with Pearse Elliott

Welcome to a new episode of The Public Nuisance Podcast with me, Sean McComb.

This week we welcome Pearse Elliott to the podcast.

We cover growing up in Belfast when everyone knew everyone, bookies, horse racing, greyhounds, pigeon racing, hunting dogs and the characters that made local communities what they were, why gambling becomes part of social culture and the psychology behind addiction, stories of lucky bets, unlucky horses and betting disasters, life around pubs, bars and bookmakers, growing up with no phones, no social media and creating your own entertainment, wild childhood stories, chasing a tiger that supposedly escaped from Bellevue Zoo, building a pack of dogs to hunt it down, why imagination seems to be disappearing in modern life, the decline of community spirit and knowing your neighbours, Covid street parties and what they revealed about people’s need for connection, poverty, ageing and the challenges facing older generations, Belfast’s unique humour and storytelling culture, writing for television and theatre, the reality of getting projects commissioned, the legacy of Pulling Moves, Malcolm, Kneecap and Northern Irish storytelling, why Belfast produces incredible writers, artists and characters, the changing arts scene, funding struggles and the value of creativity, growing up working-class in Belfast, family stories, local legends, pigeon racing culture, unforgettable characters from North Belfast, The Sopranos, acting, Daniel Day-Lewis, method acting, comedy, performance, confidence under pressure, why the stories of ordinary people are often the most entertaining of all and much more.

New episodes every Tuesday.

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Sean McComb

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Killen Studios

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That Prize Guy

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The Wing Society

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Chapters

00:00 Introduction & Gambling Culture

05:12 Sponsors & Chicken Tenders

06:09 Greyhounds, Dogs & Betting Stories

08:38 Hunting, Community & Growing Up Outside

12:39 Covid, Street Parties & Losing Community

15:08 Belfast Characters & Storytelling

17:28 The Arts, Funding & Northern Ireland

19:31 Kneecap, Malcolm & Belfast on Screen

21:42 Growing Up in Belfast

28:43 Writing TV Shows & The Reality of Production

32:27 The Sopranos & Great Television

35:47 Daniel Day-Lewis & Method Acting

40:43 Confidence, Performance & Pressure

43:23 Bookies Stories & Gambling Characters

47:49 Pigeon Racing Culture

52:29 Final Thoughts & Wrap Up

Transcript

Welcome To The Studio

0:07

Welcome to the Puminutes Podcast. Right here in Killing Studios where you can get all your content. Photo shoots and podcasts, video editing, whatever you need, we've got it right here. You

Gambling Culture And Sunday Bookies

0:19

don't gamble, do you? Do you gamble? We we punk, do you? Fox Nick. I'm no bad here. That's me when you say gamble, I'm I'm a lucky 15s in our mind, mate. But I it's part of that whole sea whole see the boogies, you know. I think I think most of the things the boogies is boredom. No people have not no. And yeah, you know what I mean? You get the fucking you get the stories, you get the characters, it's all right. See when you go into a bar and every guy go into a rack on a Sunday rock, have a bookie on the book. Your bookie's open then on a Sunday. The boogie's open show, Graham opens down on Sunday. So every cousin and dozen running for the bats with a fucking hat. I know Shimmy well. I used to talk with Shimmy a couple on this podcast, Jimmy Elliot. Big Lame Elliot. I know him so Roxanne went to my school to be Lame's daughter. Roxanne was in my class, Roxanne's. But my dad's so funny hangs Shimmy does for a clean. My dad would pay drink. My dad's my see my dad takes home breeds again, so that's it. They're putting pluto and he went, he can't got 10 grand, I didn't buy his uncle party. I didn't pan drink for fucking years. I no doubt about it. Absolutely. Fucking he does a runner up, back down, a couple of pennies. You know what I mean? And he's a fucking brickwell, cracking brickware. I think it's just a drink. I've not worked for 50 years. Drink it's a holy and that's it, isn't it? Fucking that's just your recircle. That's all you do. But like I was saying, you go into a book, you see if you go into Iraq on a Sunday, everyone's talking about the raisin. Look at that door, look at that. If someone over a pen fucking two 20p fucking travel, you're someone over a pay and have a hundred quid one, and he's cracking up because his loss is only a hundred quid and they're shit at each other, and it's it's the talk of the whole day is about the next raising. So if you want to fit in that environment, you near enough had to gamble yourself, so you go that's how you get involved. So you can stay and involve in the conversations and involved in the environment, you know what I mean?

Dopamine And The Near-Win Rush

2:21

And I think the worry about it is they've done some sort of mad you know, studies in your brain. There's a thing in your brain called dopamine, and they found that dopamine hits it's more if you lose then you win. Oh, I seen that. I actually see read about that saying like it's not the addiction doesn't come from winning, it comes from nearly winning. It's not even losing, it's like nearly winning. It's like that rush of like say two horses going knack and knack, it's a fin full finish, and if you and you lost by nose. And if you go anywhere, Sean, it's a crack. See what you'll say, you'll never hear him saying a touch for a bet. I just missed it, though. Give me 30 grand or 206. We were in the all lads in our group, chat since James the Swift's a football team, right? We told me he used to be a bar gammer as well, he's fucking gambling around. And they put a screenshot in it was a race. His horse here fucking good, it was wrong. I mean, it must have been fucking five for a long time ahead, cruising to finish, and the fella jumped off a horse. He jumped off a fucking horse, and they have a screenshot at and sent in the group chat the already saying fuck me up was two year anniversary, look at that couple of grand on it, big money like fucking Jackie jumped off, he fucking he was going fuck that's why I don't gamble no more. He's like, fuck me, that's that's my luck. And then Ariam and Port of a horse and he called it Patty Alien.

Patty Alien And A Losing Streak

3:54

Talk about that for an hour. So Ariam we're talking about Ariam and Bottom Horse, and he named it after my dad, right? It was called Patty Alien. So end up here, is it? So it the first race it didn't run too, but I came fourth and out of a big field. And then next went, Mom, we've got a chance here, there's an opportunity, la la. Then the next fucking thing was started going the worst losing run in history, right? So it got to something like 21 fucking races, and it was in every every boogie, no, because my everybody knows my dash. So everyone was battling. Patty everyone, yeah, and West Belfast knows your dad. So the next thing was I get fucking beat every time, every time. So my dad goes, or comes up to my dad. I think we have a good chance of there, potty sucking at him. Right? Right, and he goes out and he wants Pierce. Why did he fucking name it after me? If you had to give it a different name, it probably would have won a big. And then the only fucking time it was it it won once in 23 races, and then and the time that it won, nobody fucking packed

Shout Outs And Local Favourites

5:12

it. Big shout out to that praise guy helping plenty of people when plenty of praises, head on over to their page, see what's in store for you. Imagine you won. Imagine you won. You watch this episode and you thought, fucking gonna do the praise guy, you know what? I'm gonna do it now. And you won a big prize. All you have to do is buy me a paint. That's it. So head on over to their Instagram, check out their link, see what praise are in store for you. Big shout out to the Wing Society on the Lisbon Road, the best chicken tenders this side of the Mississippi. I'm telling you, finger licking? I'm telling you, nah, you'll not be licking your fingers, you'll be sucking them. Because that's not good. Do you hear me? Get yourself down to Wing Society, try out their tenders, try out their burgers, try all their sauces. Unreal. That's always the way, isn't it?

Greyhound Racing And Selling Too Soon

6:11

We had a hor we had a dog, we bought a dog, meeting a couple of lads from St. James's Big Limbo and all we bought a dog, we called it Bang Bang Gravy Chip. Bang, bang, bang. Fuck shit. It was like a Jack Russell estate. And it was useless, right? So we had some fellow training for us now, and we're all on a group chat. Your mum was sat in and tips now and it fucking we're we're doing alright. It lost the first three or something at one, two, and we're going, fuck, we're going, it's flying then lost, fucking all lost like a lost one for a bit sad and rate fucking races in a row, we're going to say it's costing us a fortune. The runner be moff, it's 100 quid or something off. Plus you'd defeat the thing and me, fuck us, he's a scrapper, get rid of it. So your man who was training dogs says, Look, do you want me to sell it? He sold it or he fucking get rid of it or something. Straight over to Romford, first race, boom. When win. Up a grade, boom, win again. Fucking hang won't stop winning. I mean, as soon as we get rid of it, your man must have been waiting us up, going to scrapper and then he get rid of it, and that's winning like fuck over in Romford. But here's the thing, Sean, like everything like the Irish is better than the English, you know what I mean? You know what I mean? English dogs no good. Ah, exactly. So what English voice is no good. I was cleaning up over. Well, that's that's what happened anyway, and we were we were all good. And then your mum was the first couple of races for a pretty mum was still sending tips, said, Look, your man's gonna race that and run for the night here. It's whatever, three to one, four to one. We were getting on it. It's two, three races, and then the next couple he wasn't letting us know them or what's the thing. She would be stapping he would be stopping the dog, you know what I mean. So there you go, that was our luck, folksy. Well, that's uh that's like what that's we're saying about that whole gambling game, you know what I mean? But even

Dogs, Films And Celtic Myth Roots

7:53

the legs of uh I mean I've I've written two films about it, man about dog famously and and then the medi celt, yeah, which is about if it's Terrell McCann's taking his name and never giving me a panel for it. Never never go. But it's in it's interesting because uh it's very specific world. It's a big culture here, but well, going back back even to Celtic mythology, so you're talking about Koo Hullen and the becoming the hound of Ulster and that whole scenario that's always been rafe. And then I kind of was thinking about something about you know the relationship with dogs and whatever when I was young. I mean, I was crazy for hunting and dogs and all. Do you I was gonna say do you think we're losing that? I I like I went hunting with my daddy. Obviously, you use your big hunting finally my dad's big hunting, bear a went hunting. Don't see anyone doing it no more. Well, it's illegal. I know it's illegal, but but the other thing about it too is that you're you're you're living in a in a in a a very strange world now. You know, society. You know what I mean? That y you know, people are I mean, it's a well-known fact. People, I think personally, care more about animals' welfare than yeah, than people's welfare. And like I think about I mean, we grew up in Halison Days back in in in Lanaton, back in my kids. And everybody was that's what all the kids did, like everybody did. Big Jared the Vames going, only one person in the state has ferts. Your fur is on the shop by a big furret. I was walking through the street. It's only say ten lads and everyone was going, run the wave me. I was like, You're holding it by the knax, it doesn't bag you. I was like, it's my fur, relax. But everyone's away, run. Like as you say, so most of the kids now, I mean, their times taking up a gaming or whatever.

The Tiger Story And Wild Imagination

9:57

But I'll give you another story I was thinking about even growing up in Lennerton where something happened like in the early 80s where they said there was a tiger missing from Bellevue Zoo. This is true now. I remember going, it's just my imagination runs rad. So I ended up in Suffolk Day Labour, down, going through all the books reading about tigers. Now you'd have just been on the internet. I mean, what can kill a tiger? Right? And I go the only thing can kill a tiger in is a thing called a dole, which is which is a wolf, a red wolf in India. And the only way they can kill him is a super pack, right? Yeah, sound up. So I remember going. Like, this is my this is where my imagination is 12 or 13 England. I need to get a super pack. So I just run the boat at Lanaton. The Halens had an Irish wolfhound. That fucking safe. Somebody else had a subburned. We had two loaders and four whipbits and Jack Russell's. See about Timak been running about. And then, you know, remember on all the housing states, the dogs just run about. There's just no legs, no balls, and the you didn't have to pack it up, you know. That was the last thing you're doing was letters, you know what I mean? I remember gathering all these dogs up. I know what happens, dogs is very simple. They're packing hammer. So you want to go start gathering? See about Timak at the hammer's turn hell, there's fucking 30 of them. I'm gonna let them do them. So we're gonna get heading up and as we're heading up and going, these things is getting unruly. These things is attacking everything. I ain't gonna put hammer stone hell, they're trying to pull down fucking travel horses. What the fuck? I'm gonna run about the mountain. I'm telling you, I couldn't believe it. St. Berners, Wolf Hunts, fucking everything. I remember running about the mountain and going, what the fuck am I doing, man? They're taking over small villages. Everyone hopes. Farmer pulls up, what are you doing? I'm gonna go for that tiger fucking Pell View 2. Fucking chicken is the fucking thing fell, dropped dead, and fell into the moat beside it. There you go. Fuck me. But that was that's like that's where your imagination was, yeah. You're on it, you're going, I ain't gonna get it. So it was always it was always, you know, and it was that whole point of being where where it's it's different. Now I don't think people's imaginations are fully forming because all they've been getting does. And they're getting on the game, and they're all it's all YouTube shit and all that kind of my way that he's five, he's on YouTube before school ain't going to turn that off. Speaker's real crap. You're trying to get him out, and they'd fucking to do stuff, and uh it's he's trying to see the goat. Fucking come get out, come and get us in. Come and get me in.

Losing Community And Hard Times

12:28

I think I see I know it's it might sound stupid, but people are afraid of losing the community, they're losing their community, and that's why all the stuff about my great migraine and all people coming in, they're afraid of losing their community. I we see during COVID when people were having street parties again, it was bringing that we back. I think uh the guy was having street parties in my call this trick, bingo, street bingo, every at a beer keg on paint pong paints, everybody, the change were popping, and you were going, This was us when we were kids, we had street parties. Fuck she haven't seen a street party since the ceasefire, no what I mean. But then it's it's part of that, you know, it's part of this new you know, this new world, which is yeah, I mean I don't know. I I mean people in my peer group now in their fifties when we're kind of beat up and talking, we're going, fuck we were better off, and they're just seems to be no real empathy with people, yeah. And I as you say, we're gonna I'm going into boogies here and I'm saying I'm seeing the elderly men and they're not gambling, they're there for heat and fucking coffee or water, and it's the saddest thing in a society, you know. Especially as Danny's like when you fucking like they've contributed to society their whole lives. Like I he won't maybe say this, but he's doing the gas, obviously. He's getting sent up to change gas meters from Page Go and the um and the like monthly payments that are paid for by the government for migration the way it's staying. And our own you know, our own passengers are freezing. Can't afford to pay for heat, can't afford to pay for well I I wouldn't be as specific as I think it's applicable across the board people you know people are in poverty here. In in abject poverty here, and it needs to be addressed, you know. Yeah, 100%. Well in the same and then and then you're kind of just looking at and going like, you know, the the same sort of you know enthusiasm for life is kind of when you get it that way a bit older, you kind of can't, you know, you can't change the world. I feel I can't change the world anymore. And you kinda want people that are younger that that you feel can, you know. Yeah, 100%. It's listen, it's I still think about fast as well, but I see when the sun's out, I want to say sat down you're saying load everybody. And there's just characters of all there's people fucking land the street driving black love. Let them fuck them, they're causing that and do their thing. You bump into people, you're saying load everybody, and it's the best place in the world when the sun's out and everyone's in a good spirit. It's the best place in the world. But that's why that's why they always said Ireland produced the best writers and artists, you know, because the weather. We couldn't fucking do anything else. So and also it kind of it it kind of imbues that sort of you're always talking about it, you know. Uh

The Hag Of Belfast And Arts Funding

15:22

I've written a new play and it's called uh The Hag of Belfirsty, but it's based on one of the oldest oldest poems in in uh in in in in Celtic history, which is and Pierce referenced it in in his poem Me Shavura, but it was really about if you read this poem, it's really about her fucking her absolutely barren and her terrafan the word is this person who was formerly uh a beautiful woman who kinda now is kinda she the the great line in it was she turned and says I'm once drunk with uh the famous awains and meads with princes and kings, and I drink shriveled whey water with old hags, which you know I mean it's really about old age, you know. Yeah, but only somebody that kind of was that articulate could could have written this and it's anonymously written, you know. Well will the play be where is the play when you start back on it? We're kind of trying to point out. I mean ideally, Sean, you you'd want the play to be in Belfast because it's the hag of Belfast, yeah. Yeah, but you know what I mean? It's it's such a tricky time in the arts concern, and you've only got like one really effective uh theatre here, which is the lyric. So otherwise, I mean there is really brass knack to a bring in top snack, uh brass knack is just it's always on a you know, they're always just operating on a shoestring trying to get something through, you know. The funding wouldn't be great here for like the for the the talent we have. I think like we're Belfast is probably the one of the most dramatic cities in the in the world. We're like so like oh New York, New York have this Italian thing where it's it's all like you but Belfast, when you actually get to understand Belfast people how dramatic they are when they talk about people and they talk about stuff and they're just going about their daily life, everything's dramatic. We're naturally just dramatic people. Oh, yeah. How we pronounce our words, how we say our words, we're we're naturally funny. Well, here's the thing down south now they've brought in they've brought in a salary for artists. See now 1500 quid a month. Well, you know something like that. Do you know something? At least they're paying attention that the artist is relevant, that the artist has been so integral to this whole country from time back on since then. And up here, it's an absolute joke. Just way behind. Um, like I say, it's just like you want one one theatre, like for the for what we Well you've got the Mac, but I don't know what they're doing, you know. The Mac never really I've never never been in the Mac my life. And I like I go to theatres for all the time at Irving. You know what I mean? I've never been in the Mac my life, so where you go, I tell you. And she works on TV, like she works, she's a TV producer for Double Bond or something, or below the radar or something like that. She works she works in the Irish Saxony at like so. But I mean they're uh so what's interesting about the Republic is they they're they're emphatic about it. We we realise what used to is i is it's relevant, we realise what you're doing is important, as important as anything. Yeah, 100%. You know, I I think it was I mentioned you are a week, I was in court for this row over uh with these two caps who accused me of uh assault. Yeah. And I won the case and uh they were proven to be large in this case. Yeah. But the barrister was reading out my contribution to uh the north in terms of how much money, and it was in tens of millions for one individual. And so I was going to myself, well, but what thanks is it because I mean it's back it's back to absolutely base one trying to get something made. I brought in between ten fifteen million pounds to the economy. Yep, so nothing changes. The arts council, you know, have been absolutely useless in terms of of backing people that are that are relevant artists here, you know what I mean? I think we're just saying, like, downstairs, even like what what is it holding her up? You know, like you you've seen the evidence before and the good it's done. Like, we're talking about Paul moves, you wrote Paul moves, one of the greatest things. You know Paul moves probably the greatest show I've ever watched watching my dog and all shrooms, and you're sending me Nisha Lame the kneecap lads are watching Paul moves on repeat, they're watching Man About Dog on repeat when they're on tour, because it's got that Belfast wit, it's got your experience in life, it's got the you know, it's it's got a ring. Yeah, I put my life on it if you were to show out to anybody around the world, they'll go, That is unbelievable. Yeah, because it's it's it's well it's interesting that because Nick Hap have already went on record saying that Mad About Dog was it was one of their favourite films, yeah, and it's been an influence. And I watched their film and it highly commended, yeah. And you know, saying it Mad About Dog would have been a big cinematic reference to whoever was making it. I don't know the guy that directed it, but Richard Richard had him on the podcast. Very good. But pull a moose is another thing. Like so Nisha and Madden's a couple of weeks ago, as it's as was saying, Kane came up to me and said to me, Pierce, just want you to know like when we are on tour, all our crew and us, we watch Pula Moose 24-7 on the loop. And I was going, Nisha, that's a nice compliment. Thank you, buddy. You know what I mean? But it just shows you that the legacy continues. That it it don't you know, and it would be a simple enough uh genre to reinvent because of the state of the world now that we were talking about. Yeah, everybody's struggling, and pull a moose was all about one week. Getting ahead just have it, just getting ahead, just get it, just get ahead and with with fun, with with with the crack that we have shown, you know. 100%, absolutely, and like I say Karen No Lum's on, and that's what he wanted. He wanted that. He was like, It's a sin, it's an absolute sin that it wasn't continued. And like look, listen, who knows? Hopefully it will continue with obviously uh we better influence will go a long way, you know, with like a kneecap or something, maybe he's trying to push her or get involved with it somehow, or maybe the just something, you know. We just there was a guy from a shankle show, and I always considered a a great compliment. He went Pierce, see when that was on, we all cleared out of the bar to watch it. Yeah. And so you know what I mean. So it was across the board. Oh, I was simple because you always tapped in that uh in that ethos of like we're all the same people. Absolutely. And the odd thing about it is this is that everybody, especially in working class serious, are getting a tight. We're getting a tight. You know what I mean? I remember saying that my like it's small 'cause my my wife lives, she would live, she grew up in the Glen Road next door to Glen Road and she's probably 600 metres down on a bypass to her house from my house, right? She's oblivious to the way we grew up. So if it was just 93, 94, 85 growing up on the tower floor as we call this chaos, didn't have no floor. She says, What's a drop bar? I says, What's a drop bar? You ain't getting a clean road. So it's like tight words, but it's just like it's insane the way we grew up. When you look back, seeing I look back at Fiddle's just '94, I was going up, and we were talking about the other age going, uh, maybe I get in the bar for something at the bathroom now fucking she says something. And I fuck up, we would have we would have got baffed every fucking probably for every three days or every three nights, every four nights. It was like wow. Not only that, you had a fucking two of the same bath or him, D, George, Snade, maybe fucking loads. She's like fucking Madame every fucking sadness. You had to get in the same fucking bathroom. You know how how tight we got. I don't think people realise she was going like she she thought I was exaggerating. I mean, I'm telling you now, you haven't fucking Scooby Doo, we had no watcher. And it's like you're fucking But here and you and there was a great story too. See, it's in the tiny my mother who passed, I mean we've all loved her dearly, but the funniest story she ever told me, but this is the type of people. My ma's and Mullock Moore with Greta McDonald and her her people, and they were down and one summer. My man was really strange we woman, like in terms of she wasn't asking for anything, you know what I mean? So my man run out of figs, so and Mullock Moore Gospen. Right. Greta didn't smoke, the other ones didn't smoke, and she wasn't asking for money, and she went out to herself. I've got flags on the mantelpiece, and this is Mullock Moore. So my man goes, you know what? I'll go back, and my man is dead as you go on. I go, I'm gonna go back and get them fags. So her and like a wee trail of ducklings behind her, Sarah, Kira, Sean, all steps and stars. Go out on the road, Mullock Moore, start hitchhiking. No way. Fucking Laurie pulls up, Laurie goes, I'm gonna go on the Anna Skill and love. Come on, all in. Oh bounce in. Next minute gets the Anna Skillen. Gets out in the Anna Skillen, that's another hour and a half. Next minute, hithaking again. Next minute she gets on a bus. She had enough money to get say say she got on a clocker. She had enough money for her. So she gets kids kids go free. And next minute, I'm on at the moment anyway. She gets the Belfast then. So this is about four hours. This wasn't the day as a motorway, isn't that? It's an hour and a half now, it's probably two and a half hours back in and get an assignment on the Belfast. And then we went any road, no. And then when she got back to Belfast, it was like eleven o'clock at night, no money left. Three kids walking, falling asleep. Goes to the black taxi slot. One of them knew my day. She says, back to Mullockmore. She gets summer night, gets in the lantern, goes down, kids are staggering down against the street. He said, Pierce, I was the best fag ever smoked. I mean fucking mulletmore. Insane, isn't it? She called you asked a fucking Pelori driver for a cigarette instead of a left. And she was preparing and then can you I mean it's do you know how to work that occasion? But the thing about it is too like I mean you imagine the chances you would take a chicken now as a woman with fucking three kids. Women can't even leave women are scared of go around at night. People won't go around their own community now. You know what I mean? Because we say that sense of community, that sense of is like nearly gone, where women are like you don't know who's who now see in Lanadine growing up and I noticed you knew every person that lived in every single house. And in third floors, when I walked up a couple like during lockdown, we walked in my wife's house up to my dad's house, and we walked by every house, and she was like, Hardy, how'd you got bump bump bump? That's such a 'cause it was community. I knew every person that lived in every single house from the bottom of third floors to the very top that I got my mass house and Derby was like, see I see what you're saying there, Sean. See nine, you don't know who's who. But you want to see what you're saying there. I mean it just throws up an hour, sort of like it opens up a pintor's box. No way. Because me and my dad used to do wendies and anything. This is just true, and it's so funny. So you're thinking about how her uh her you know it's generation snowflakes and and all her sensitive people are. So me and my dad are doing the wendies, and he was taps and I was bottoms. I don't know, so next man, and I mean I come up to this house in Lanington, you're talking about knowing every house, and we get up to this house in Lanington, he went, Piers, tap I went, Why am I doing the fucking taps for? I haven't done the taps, you're bottom now. You're doing the taps in this one, and I went, Why? I mean, well, just do the taps. I could see him, but he was so sets a ladder up, he's doing below. I can hear him giggling to himself, right, Sean? And then go, what? And I mean, I go, I was about 15, 16, right? So we know you have the squidgy, the so you put the foam up, and I put the squidgy up, I mean again, and as I just went down that, or's the biggest song you ever seen in the front of my eye. Sean, it was like a pendulum again. And then realize what it was and fucking and he went swag up through the top stuff. Oh fucking friend. I can't do the main numbers that fuck absolutely fucking TV on the butt. I got given him on big thirty window and the back of the fuck, I don't know what I don't ask my mother So do it for years this cunt's been doing this. Oh class, you weren't gonna wear that live fucking There'd be a group of vigilantes just at your door trying to put you out, get him out, get him out. But you know the crack people and you know it's it's just a different world, all the garlic in it 100%, it's a different world, and that's even like do you find that's changing in your like

How TV Writing Got Harder

28:48

when you're writing? Do you like you changing with it? Yeah, yeah. So even for like so the process was very specific, it was very simple. You had an agent, the agent sent the script to the relevant places. So for likes of Pulling Moose It was uh it was sent to the BBC, so it was in-house, so they were coming up with something along the lines of we need something you you know youthful and vaby and funny, had to be in a 30-minute format, yeah. And it was just commissioned. I wrote one script, so they wrote one script and the script was green lit bum. I'd at free for ten episodes now you know the process is insane now. So it's uh it's like a flaming hoop after a flaming hoop, and it doesn't matter how much you've written or how or or how adroit you are at writing, it's to take all these other boxes, yeah, you know, like you're talking about demographs and and you know it's just incredible now. So it's really you know, I I mean being brutally honestly, it's it's a really tricky time for writing to make a living of writing and to get something through. It's hard, like it's it's it's it's it's a shame too, like, because I mean you know you can relate it. You know you'll you'll you'll you can relate to the society that you grew up in, and uh you know you know how well these like these will these will do if they if they are coming because I mean it's and also uh it's not not to say it would be easy resurrected, it would be easy done, Sean, because the simple fact of the matter is is that the genre exists, that the format exists, so all you have there is a group of uh empathetic, likeable people that pull a move, it's funny and fast. Because I think the I think people are crying out for it because we're just getting absolutely you know, we're getting like tsunamis of like you know heavy, heavy subjects, which isn't very viewer-friendly. What about um because I've seen a lot of comedians and stuff for doing skits or recently, they're getting loads of skits like skits on BBC? I know, but that's not that's not what I do. I know it's not what you do, like, but how are they getting committed, like just just cut that shit and just put the proper stuff on? You know, but yeah, well the thing about it is um all all my writings have almost been very heavily character-based because it's simple. If you've got no emotional attachment to the person that you're talking about, then you've got you don't care what happens to the character. You know what I mean? And it's a very it's it's so old as is a Greek times writing this, yeah, where you know you have to have an an emotional attachment to the character, or it it won't work in anything. What would it what what what do you think it would take to get Pilomus to continue on? It would take somebody like a brave commissioner that somebody has it, and also the other thing is now you would need an independent independent production company that kind of can see that can get things done. Yeah, because there's a million people out there that can't raise the needle. They may bluff it, but they can't get the needle, and you need somebody as a mover and shaker that can do that. Because I mean, to be honest with me, as a writer, as a as a writer or a director, I only I don't be concerned with the the the financial aspect of it or or the selling point because I'm going here's a product. You do this, you do your eye, you do it. I know that's understandable. So you would need two things to happen. You would need a kind of you kind of need something that's savvy enough in terms of producing and that you know and and can sell something, you know, get through. I know 100%. What what what's your favourite series, your favourite movie or

The Sopranos And Acting Extremes

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anything? Oh, the the favourite series, the best thing ever committed to TV is the Sopranos, handstock. I don't believe it. I was actually watching Kinsley yesterday, I was the one where Tony front your man, Pauly, and in the woods, and he's gonna be like 16 seconds of vacuums. He goes 16 seconds of vacuums, he painting a direct writer because his house looked like shit. I was like, that's fucking genius. That's just a big thing. Oh, it's not it's unreal. And the thing And I've watched it three times. The first time I watched it was like too far, like I wasn't watching every night, continuously. I was watching one episode, and then two, three days later I watched no episode, and a week later watching one it was too far apart, and then when I watched it a second time, I was like, fuck me, that was unbelievable. I watched that third time, I was like, it it keeps getting better for some reason. I keep understanding more and there's we hangs and missing, going, what? That's fucking genius. Yeah. The hundred percent thing about it is back in the day, shoes are how old how old I am now. We I used to couldn't wait for the box set, and the box set would have been a complete event. Yeah. I'd got the box set, got the wing in, got the Italian gear in, all the gabocul, as they say, sitting waxing, and just I can't. And then do you know something as I got older? Because you gotta remember that like and it's a real strange conversation because Gandalf died in the same hotel. I stared in the same room. No way, I stared in. That's insane. Isn't that crazy? It's in Rome, and it's uh the Pascolo thing. That's insane. That's insane, and so as I get older now and I'm more or less his age, I go, I know what the fuck he's on about. He's got a model for everything. No fucking no short face, no pulp, no pulp, not enough fucking some pulp, not enough pulp, and then everything about it, and then there's a whole other sort of realm with the Sopranos as you watch it older. I go on, there's a whole supernatural fucking scenario, which I never picked up on when and I've watched it must be 50, 60 times. Yeah, and what's happening now, you're going, you're seeing people like when at Livia's at Livia's uh wake, if you watch very closely, there's a guy who comes down the stairs, looks down the stairs, sees everybody, and runs back up the stairs. Now there's no explanation who that person is, or why he's down the stairs. And there's no exposition for that person being there. And then next minute and he opens them, he opens a a mirror, and there's a f there's a f there's a uh pussy who got murdered, is in the mirror, yeah, and then they close it, so all these new nuances, whole different inflections is going through this now, and I'm only discovering them now in my fifties, and the reason being is I'm the same age as he is, yeah, 100%. You know what I mean? Class of it and uh most people interview Watch something like that on my like on social media, it must be on your algorithm because then I watch another ones you're after, your mom and the pony killed. 100% Furio Furio. So Furious didn't interview in New York or something after, and they're asking about cult called what's the same call the Caldafini saying about him and he's like he just goes he just goes through the Senate and he goes He goes, what's wrong? He was he's the like just He's the best person I've ever ever in my life met. He was the most current most like in real life what you got with him is like he's like I've never ever ever came across anyone like him my whole life ever. Well, I I would be friendly enough with Robert Carlay, the actor Bobby Carlay. You can only get Bobby after when and he's in I remember Bobby Carly because he done a film that made he killed with me. Yeah, I remember saying he was to do a film with uh Gandalfini and saying exactly the same, saying one of the nicest people he ever met, you know, completely uh uh completely diverse from the character he played. Yeah, but that takes a toll. If you're going there and you go in dark places as an actor, it's a traditional afterward. What do you call the Falk was a joker? Ah, Pauly Qualtery, no, the Falves and the Joker Heath Legger? Same thing Heath Lazier and the Joker when he conquered a character and he's fucking hair, man. Well there's a famous story about the uh in the old film game they talk about when Daniel Day Lewis was playing Christie Brown. Left out and they said you got now you can imagine Sean were all fucking working class guys, they got two haircases, Sheridan's got two hair cases from the estate, right? You just keep an eye on him, anything he needs. And and Daniel Day Lewis famously wouldn't come out of the character, so they had to fucking spoon feed him. Fucking hell that's mental. Spoon feed him, take him to the toilet, carry him, right? And this is two balloons, this is like this is like my broad or your broad. Oh no. Pull him up your stuff. You can get the fucking cut glass. But so the whole fucking thing was they had him for the full dur no the full full duration and that fucking shooting spoon feeding him, taking him to the toilet. I mean that's that's beyond the realms of fucking terracus. Like that's out there. No, that's a sadly. But what happened was they were finishing, right? And the they were finishing upside that had about two or three hours to to finish. And they went, you know what? The bad that rolled him to the top of a hill. And they went, the two guns on it, they went, get up and fucking walk. And he fucking sat, a party he sat for nearly two and a half hours before he got up of that seat. Oh wow, that's serious material. I thought they wanna see the problem they're very top of the hell away, just want to push it down. Well, I think that's what they're saying. If you don't get up, we're gonna push it down. Fucking hell. And that's why I'm one of the famous indices through you like you know smart, isn't it? Fucking some dedication goes into it that you don't have a seat. But I mean you apply it to like a working class fucking sensibility. You could get plenty of characters who fucking who who could win an Oscar themselves when they go into a DLA Fucking over the head, fuck you look I know I went into a fucking uh when he got DLA he went in and shit himself now and shit and they got big bear and all shit himself in the out in the in the doctor's on. And then he went to fucking he was trying to get DLA and his doctor sent him off DLA, shit himself. Big Bear No wasn't cleaning himself, fucking sent his head his way. And he was out fucking walking one day. I seen his doctor walking up the fucking falls road. He went and got a knife and started out running with a fucking knife wrong by his doctor and his doctor was like, What the fuck is he right there? Screaming his name. So the doctor goes, I can't get in the DLA, he's fucking that right in the head. He can't work with my fucking knife. So people go to extremes to fucking people in the West Belfast go to extremes for different fucking different reasons. For different reasons, fucking DLR. There you go, know what I mean. So people know how to play the game, but it it's in a sense it is acting and I I too, but I mean I've often said like I've when kind of most of the stuff I've done, I've always pulled people in and went, you know what, you could do a bit. It's different for of course for theatre because theatre's highly skilled. It's a skill set, you know what I mean. See, when you're in front of people, sorry, being like my wheel out, therefore it goes. You see, many people may put my wheel to have them torture. I better have my scrum every fucking nick going nuts. He's to put a race down, he's wondering about a header. And the amount of people messy to every like her friends with going, like, get him in the theatre. We'd probably brass neck. So one was like, fuck it, he's useless. He won't do anything, he won't do it. He just won't nope, nope, nope, nope. We didn't want to just might just doesn't front the new people. He won't you know what I mean? But with us or anyone we know, or anyone who's comfortable around, fuck, he's funny. But that goes to show you like that the old same would go like fucky, yeah. Well no we're comedians, people go, Foxy, I was funny on him in school, but they're standing in front of people and doing it live in front of people hagglers, they're dealing with people, they're dealing with an audience. There's a lot, it's like Foxy guy was a bad street fight. Foxy had a battery him in school, but look at him, he's fighting for a world title. Because I'm fighting in front of 17,000 people in the Barclays Center, you're fighting fucking some hair on the street, there's no rules, so it's you know, it goes hand in hand with like what happens. There's we all know someone who's funnier than fucking me or you or whoever, but if you put them up in front of people in a big audience and they had to be proper and had to you know like tell stories, relative stories, or be witty like that in front of an audience, it's quite different, you know what I mean. Oh that is a hundred percent. But listen, and you know yourself too. Like uh, I mean I think you were saying there, like seen something

Boxing, MMA And Nothing To Lose

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you've talked about. You were talking about that Usick fight there, and the guy are coming in, but that guy's got an ambuluze. Nam the loss, nam to lose, that guy's just fire in there. No pressure, absolutely no pressure. And next one in the that it's something you know they're trying to diminish, you know, Usik's legacy. He's one of the best things. Anybody's ever seen that you know 100% Olympic champion. But that's like somebody just going in and you're not taking it seriously, and it's fair. That's it. You're just you're you're caught off car, you're just someone's in nothing to lose. I've sparred people like that, and spy oh fuck, but the worst thing you can do, see if someone's fit and they're just raw and just it's it's there's the skills out the window. The skill I actually said this to my coach was on the phone to the phone to Pete Taylor after it, and he says, I watched the videos like I says, Usick will run better, just walking inside, standing with candy apples up and just getting wired in them, and just having making it a a fucking 50-50 feet, just wired in them. Because down the lane, Usick was too clean, he would have caught him quicker with your man's raw thing about whale shots. He wouldn't have caught Usik is clean. He never gets caught in the next one. You know what I mean? So it was like one of them ones, he was just completely caught off guard and he didn't really know how to deal with it first, which which was more of a shock to me. Because he was going like the amount of people he's fought, but he's never ever ever fought anything. He's never fought kickbacks, has he? Nah, so that's a that's a big unit, you know what I mean? Fit physical model fucking physical and strong and raw, just pff, that's the way it goes, you know what I mean. And it's it's it's fucking it's good, it's good opens, it opens conversations in for more because that's what money is. See with the sports that two sports coming together, yeah, MMA coming in and that's what the money's at. That's what we're going to on M. Give me an MMA fitter seven days a week, pay me more money. Fucking easy, does it? Easy does it. It's all about the Benjamins. You know what I mean? People need to eat, fucky. Game's not red. Stevie and he living her up over in fucking Greeks when they're stuck in here. We get a laugh, don't we? We're talking about the funny, funny.

Bookies Drama With A Big Bet

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I told Stevie a funny story the other week about the goblin. I'm mad at a guy, kid comes into the boogies, this kid, I can't remember his name, but he's like Brad Pitt, you know, ocean 11. He's always eating shit. Who like maximum Cheeto fucking material and he's like that and he's in, and then you have another guy who who we we all mutually know on that man's name, but you call him Stevie, but he's as funny, he's as funny, but he's one of them guys. You know what I mean? You go in the bookies, you know, I'm cracking jokes or whatever. No, there's no laughing in here. Pierce. This is this is serious. You're gonna be serious. Well he made and he's one of them guys. I put it like this, he would take ten grand out to try and win one grand. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's just in practicality. So we're in the boogies, his kid's munching away in the T-Doose. Next minute there's a couple horse race and Nas occur somewhere where O'Pran is, you know what I mean? Where he where that's his realm. And next minute I see him say it was a horse. O'Pran has two horses and a five-horse race. Your horse is a horse called something like Fland Phoenix. And it was Con Cane. I like Con Cane. I mean I have a thing on a Fland Phoenix. Because Oprah's got the two favourites. Yeah. So he's got the he's got the first favourite and his son's got the second favourite. So Stevie's going to me, look, Pierce, look, look. They're at it. They're at it. And I'm looking like what? And he went. That's fucking two to one. It's in the eight to thirteen now. I have 500 quid in that one. But look, look at his son's horse. Son's horse is coming in. That was four to one. That's two to one. And I go, right, all right, right. Next minute he goes like that. I'm having fucking 200 quid in that too. Oh, I just go on himself. You're backing the ass yourself. So he's 500 in. He's 500 deep. But there's me and his kid. He's munching the Cheetos. Kid's locking him up. He doesn't know. I back the cancer. I back the other horse. Bring that horse. I mean, look, Pierce, he's he's the pacemaker. See, he's a pacemaker. I don't almost go to calm nothing. I mean, hey, I said that. And I go, alright, I see it, I see it, Steve. I see where you're going here. Next one, but I seen fucking King no making his movement between them. And he went, uh, look at this bastard, Pierce, look at this. I'm watching him, I'm watching him. And the kid goes, flat Phoenix. And I seen him going, look on the kid. What the fuck are you doing? What you mean on the 50 p? And the kid's going, I fucking car. I mean, Stevie, let him go now. Stevie, let the kid go now, he's fucking. And he's going like Steve. Next member going. Next one is going on here. And the next one he went. So I can see Stevie. Can't he watch it? He's fucking hurt. Oh fuck that. Next minute. You see the horse are me and me and the org kids horse coming through through. See? Oh fuck, oh fuckin'. And he goes, What the phoenix! I fucking I rass him up. Can't hit him with your bin and be fucking nice. You fucking weep. And next minute we pull him up. Next minute, fucking. Me and the kid's horse with me. Yeah fucking. He's trying to throw through the TV. He's calm down the fuck no. Think about this now. And the kid goes like that. And he goes to me. And he went, I mean, stop it now. Stop it with the kid. And he went. And he goes, no, I'm not gonna hit him. I'm not gonna hit him. Just tell me how much you had on that horse. And the kid goes, 250 each way. And get him out the door. You get him out the door. I swear and get him out the door. Oh fuck. I ain't going to get a kid fucking proudly. You'll have the crackers in the next book, he's dark. You're a fucking Stevie attack you as well. You know what I mean? Nah, fuck I'm friendly. Unbelievable. Nah, what's the plan today?

Pigeons, Obsession And Staying Sharp

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You've no dogs now, do you even? I can only have the dogs no more. Nah. Nah, I can't do nothing no more. You know what I mean? And it's just like do you deal with the prisons? I hate the fucking prisons. Just your dad with the pigeons, yeah. Dan or Cabin. All I do is fight over it. So he there I haven't been racing them well, but the funniest is this is my dad. Like my dad's just one of them, you know, one of them absolutely impervious people. Like no. So he can't as you know, he's deaf as a fucking stone. So he has no phone. So our Kevin doesn't and the middle man. We send him out there as we came. And I go, Dad, you just came 51st out of 50 fucking seconds. He won't fucking it up. Cavin blame's him. That's my dad and Rob. My dad blames Rob. My dad obviously was, you know, my dad's bad pigeon him. So he took away get rid of all the peasant shit out the back. He fucked Rob. So he turned it all into a bar at the back, barbecue bar at the back now. He fucking built a pinch in Rob's front garden. Then the fucking cats were getting him. So he built an electric fence around the peasant shed. Electric fence? Around the peasant shit. How the heck? Cats are getting jagged over electric fence in there. Don't come there now. Then ra Rob's in the bar, fucking garland. My dad's going, fucking pigeons are not getting fed. I can't rap. No, he's doing he's coming around, big handful, fucking them in, boop, pigeons are fat as fuck, they're not even moving my fucking through a screaming back and forth. Carl Raggles 100. He said, Your dad's not talking to me. Your dad's not talking to me. I'm fucking me. I don't care. I mean, you're up to head though. I fucking I told him I can't feed him, my fucking lungs are fucking. He's sitting in the party, he's just fucking corner, not even the wanna know. Don't wanna know. That's the way you know. So you said my so I said to him, Sean, you came 51st out of 52. And he went, could have been fucking worse. We could have given 52. What did the five purpose? Him and Rob won the uh big race. How did they win? Seven grand or something? They had a fucking uh They had a a peasant called Lanny after we Jim Lannon. I remember Jim. And I came first in the derby, France Derby. He's a big plaque of it. What did they win? They won big money, though. A couple of quid, alright. Then the peasants have shot the fucking things are worth a fortune sometimes when they but I want to win the derby, people looking young and fucking he's going, no, no, not selling. Nope, no, we'll give a couple away. So you gotta stay on. You never get more days for it. He's like, I don't want fucking money. There's people from Liverpool are looking to spend big dolls when he's just twenty thousand. Fucking Mike Tyson was a more make tyson's in North Belfast fucking prison. Make Tyson came to my that that that that guy's called Cab McKinney, a good friend of mine. Me and Kevin uh did a lap with the dogs for for a long time. But Kevin always told me it was so funny. Cav says Tyson's contact me. I was going, you time for crap. And that not that I didn't believe him, I just mean like fucking. No, I definitely didn't believe that it that uh I I definitely believed in terms that he was in contact with him. Yeah. And then he'd say to me, he's coming over, and I went, fuck me. And he comes over for for McKinney's puddings, he does it. But it just shows you that that that devotion to it, you know what I mean? That devotion that he's willing because and and in fairness, me and me and McKinney would have been like I'm a dog, we'd have gone anywhere to get them, you know what I mean. We'dn't went to the best. Oh, I know 100%, that's the way it goes. It's like everyone in that industry all know each other or know of each other, and I mean you see the names and but they're they're Burma ham rulers, sure. They're the ones that tumble. Whereas your dad and my dad are the fucking homers. I have the homers or tipplers, tipplers will fly high, and the homers will fuck them high. The homers are like but listen to me, it's a great thing too, no matter because my my old boy's your E4 and it keeps him it just keeps him acute. It keeps him you know, he's he's he's he's got uh great mental acuity with it. Yeah, it keeps him, he has the thing, he has the feed them, he has the has the has the wav them, has the young in a sense it keeps you. Give them inoculations and know the rings, you know, all of it's done. All of it shows coggling good cognum function, you know. 100% and uh he's he's he's done the airport and he saw my damn day, so we'll see all that last but uh it's every Ori Area Slambert. I mean you you give him pens up to you though, you're still standing with them. He's like, oh that's a fucking still curs with them, that's a problem, even though if it's a whole new batch of pins, he still cursed with them because he's involved. That's Richard Taylor and Liz and Liz who do you call it? I'm sorry, Liz Taylor and Richard Burton at the very end. But they'll get married seven times. John, you know what I mean? We'll see.

Final Wrap And Thanks

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But listen, we'll we'll wrap it up here, person. Appreciate the comment. Fernant, good man.