Stephen Merchant
/In this post, there is a list of the advanced words and phrases from the BBC Radio 4 Desert Island Discs interview with Stephen Merchant, a writer, comedian and actor. He co-wrote the famous British sitcom ,‘The Office’, with Ricky Gervais. Aggie and I have created a podcast explaining the Desert Island Discs interviews called Radio English.
You can listen to the original BBC interview here
Here is the link to my podcast on itunes or just listen to it below:
We discuss these words in the podcast:
1.23: sitcom
2.34: jack of all trades, master of none
4.52: butter wouldn’t melt
6.09: to map out
13.06: to go through the roof (laughter)
15.31: hone
17.19: to goof around
20.40: a mockumentary
21:24: dour
27.11: awkwardness
31.29: to get into a rut
37.41: dizzy
Notes for the Interview
(advanced words are highlighted in bold)
INTRO
Almost 20 years ago found fame as co-creator with Ricky Gervais of the Office
Met at work
1:05 Their fruitful comedy partnership would take them from radio to television
1:09 And from cult to international acclaim
2 golden globes, 3 BAFTAS, an emmy, 4 british comedy awards
1:23 Starred in own sitcom
Drew own comics, stage at school, hid speaker in hedge
Interested in the every day
CONTEMPLATING LIFE ON ISLAND
Remember Desert Island theme music featuring in a sketch
Many strings to your bow
WHY BROAD RANGE
Love every aspect of business
2:34 I worry that I’m jack of all trades, master of none
Impatient for whatever I’m not doing
2:52 If I had to choose a lane ultimately, I’d choose writing
TIME AS DJ – CHOOSING TRACKS
3:08 I’ve been mulling this list over for many years
Tunes that were stepping stones in my life story
FIRST TRACK (WHOLE OF THE MOON)
A song I remember hearing on holiday with parents in same place in Devon
3:40 They would let us in the pool room
Hang around putting money in the jukebox
Song about finding the grander things
YOUNG STEVE
Adorable photographs
4:52 butter wouldn’t melt
Happy kid, unlike comedy heroes growing up in a difficult time
Supportive family
PARENTS
Father starred in The Office!!!
Creative as a kid
6:05 The idea of pursuing a life of creativity was not on the cards
6:09 That’s life mapped out for you really
COMEDY ON TV
Dad introduced a love of cinema and TV – Laurel and Hardy, Fawlty Towers
6:45 Sometimes I would even transcribe them
6:58 I thought there was some formula, a way of unlocking the mystery of comedy people I admired
Find your own voice
Mechanics of story telling
HOPES FOR YOURSELF
Don’t remember where I got the grand idea that I could be John Cleese
Such an admirer I thought maybe I could do that
“If they want tall people from the West Country, I can do that!”
Parents weren’t negative
8:31 Get a sensible job as well with a pension plan
SECOND TRACK (PRINCE)
8:40 In my days as a mobile DJ
Only in teens so couldn’t buy new records
Had to tape pop songs off the radio
9:00 And try and fade out whoever was hosting
A song that was a crowd-pleasing favourite
TAKE ANY GIG?
Assuming our parents could drive us there
A big one at a Scout Jamboree
Played Smells like Teen Spirit
10:31 It was kicking off
Scout climbing up one of the posts
Closest I’ve ever got to feeling like a punk rock star
SCHOOL
Studious kid
Education is valuable and important
I never understood why people didn’t study at school
11:30 In my sixth form I got cocky
Not a troublemaker
VERY TALL
6 foot 7 now!
12:02 If only I realised being tall was an asset
At the time I tried being smaller, self-conscious
Doing comedy was a way of taking ownership of standing out
Wasn’t bullied just teenage insecurity
SCHOOL PLAYS
Played comedy vicar
Had to open the results of a dance competition and I opened and said “Two pints of milk” oh wait no that’s my wife’s shopping list and…
13:06 … it went through the roof
I thought this was unbelievable
A buzz of getting a laugh and writing my own dialogue
THIRD TRACK (BABIES BY PULP)
At uni, around same time of Brit Pop explosion
Music of my generation
Went to see Oasis at Coventry Poly
UNIVERSITY
Uni of Warwick
15:06 Indulged your desire to dabble in radio
Tell me about the Steve Show
You had to be in one of the cafes on campus to hear it
15:21 only a notch above putting a speaker in my mum’s garden and playing to passers by
Proper equipment
15:31 Starting to hone your comedy chops
Almost did stand up at Warwick
FIRST STAND UP IN BRISTOL
Mum drove me, didn’t let her come in, did my 5 minutes
Went very well
15:33 I thought, I’m brilliant at this I’ve cracked it
Did another a month later – very bad - ! Not as easy as I thought
MEETING RICKY GERVAIS
Wanted to get into radio
Read about X FM, sent in my CV – Ricky said CV
16:30 Head of Speech – that was absurd
16:43 You’re slurring
“If you do the work for me, I’ll make sure you have a fun life”
17:03 A simpatico sense of humour
17:19 Went on the air occasionally goofing around
17:22 We had a nice easy rapport
Naturally fell together
Did what we wanted so long as you didn’t say too many rude words
I was driving with a friend and I said there was a friend on there “I hope it’s not this guy he’s not very funny”
17:55 sold him out immediately
BBC TRAINING COURSE
Left fun for a proper training course
18:16 This is a bit of a golden ticket here
Learned a lot of skills
18:43 A self-appointed vigilante in the slums of Nairobi
During interview, arrested a guy and continued interview
Did a lot of things
Messaged Ricky and said why don’t we use this crew and do our own comedy thing
19:16 That became the genesis of The Office
FOURTH TRACK (WARREN G)
Got into hip hop
Always great
THE OFFICE
Paper company in Slough
20:40 A mockumentary
20:49 Very unconventional, very new
At the time, it didn’t seem like a revolution
21:24 A show that’s very dour
An arrogance of youth
We said we were going to direct the show as well
Had this foot in the BBC
Ricky was willing to walk out of room if he didn’t get his way
In his 30s, they trusted him
Cheap, shot in one location
Trophy cabinet full of awards pre being 30!!
SO YOUNG
23:00 I wasn’t complacent
Only now when I look back and think, how did that happen?!
At the time it seemed like yep, we did the work, and they’ve given us a BAFTA, thanks!
Ricky and I were still having fun and coming up with ideas
So much energy into this pursuit
Not unhappy, but it wasn’t that life was figured out – that was the surprise
24:15 Still waiting for enlightenment then?
Fame does not resolve everything
FIFTH DISC (BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN)
Dismissed Bruce as being an American singer
Went to see him live, electrifying on stage
Became enamoured
EXTRAS (POST THE OFFICE)
26:17 Each episode featured a guest star who exaggerated their public persona
Do you think you were ever cruel to your guest stars?
They always knew the script
Famous people were fans of the office, e.g. Samuel L Jackson
Let’s have real life stars as extras with no lines
AWKWARD COMEDY
27:11 Comedy of awkwardness
We didn’t set out to do it
Wanted things to feel real
27:33 We like anecdotes of discomfort
Seemed like part of life and being British!
More painful for people to watch than we anticipated
Make the pauses longer!
SHOWS THAT HAVE FOLLOWED IN THIS TYPE OF COMEDY
E.g. People just do nothing
Makes me feel old!
When we started, we were the new kids on the block
29:03 It’s baffling to me that I could be someone’s John Cleese
SIXTH DISC (JONI MITCHELL)
Delicate beautiful song
Romantic but sad
If I could trade it all I’d be a musician
ENDING PARTNERSHIP WITH RICKY
No great decision to move apart
Sense of freedom?
Working with Ricky was brilliant
It was harder without him but pleasure of making own decisions
I like collaborations
31:29 I was worried that Ricky and I would get into a rut
It feels like exercising a different muscle
ABOUT PROVING YOURSELF?
Wanting to be the best at something but never feeling like that
Not trying to prove it to anybody but myself
Want to be more attractive or cool as a teen
32:50 It’s not like I haven’t had enough pats on the back in my time
HELLO LADIES
33:01 About the length that your character Stuart would go to to find love
Story is so LA, so Hollywood
SEVENTH DISC (CHANGE OF THE GUARD)
Spent time in LA, in lovely house in Hollywood hills
Need to start listening to jazz!
34:10 Making this film Logan with Hugh Jackman, yeah, I namedrop no big deal!
INTERVIEWS IN 30s
35:38 Talk about an amount of arrested development
Tried to embrace adulthood a bit more, bit less restless
For a long time I sacrificed things, family events, friends getting married
Missing weddings because of job, shouldn’t be like that
36:27 Still have the urge to work hard
PARENTS MEETING JOHN CLEESE
Never met all time hero, John Cleese
They got it wrong, turned up in the ballroom on the wrong night
Wanted him to sign a book
Showed me camcorder video, recording of John Cleese on the answerphone “Is that the same Steve Merchant who collaborated with Ricky Gervais on The Office? I’m an enormous fan”
37:41 You can imagine how dizzy I was
Don’t need to meet him now
EIGHTH DISC (NICK CAVE)
Always had a romantic spirit
38:20 Loved songs that are lovelorn
TO THE DESERT ISLAND
Quite like being on my own
39:27 Just kind of hole up in my house
Get lonely
Practical enough
I could cook assuming that there was food
40:01 I could probably forage around
40:31 So juvenile, so adolescent
Book: Vizz Magazine
Luxury: Piano and self-teaching books
I’ll emerge like Elton John
Disc: Bruce Springsteen