Mischief Makers Episode 7: Charlie Russell
[Upbeat music plays]
Host: Welcome to Mischief Makers, your one stop shop for all things Mischief. Join your host Dave Hearn, as he finds out what makes Mischief... well, Mischief!Jonathan Sayer: And we're on! Welcome to Mischief Makers. You might be listening to this thinking that's not Dave, and you're right in thinking that, this is Jonathan standing in for Dave, interviewing the wonderful Charlie Russell today. So, I wrote a little introduction, which is, Charlie's an actor, a collaborator, recently a producer, a podcast creator, and also a general positive influence on the world in my opinion. She's one of my oldest friends and I'm really pleased to be chatting to her. So, hello, Charlie.Charlie Russell: Hello, Jonathan. That was really lovely.JS: That's ok! I've been working on that all day.CR: Oh, well, it was nice. Cheers, mate.JS: I'm glad. So, I've kind of got a few rules from Dave, so the first one is, I've been told there's no editing on this, so whatever we say, it's it.CR: Oh, right.JS: And also, there's no jingles, there's no computerized songs and all that kind of stuff, so for each segment, you have to come up with your own jingle. In fact, you hosted last weeks didn't you with Harry, so you know this.CR: I am aware. I am aware, yeah. I'm nervous about the challenge.JS: That's OK. We're both feeling our way into this, and the rhythms and all that kind of stuff. I've never done this before, so I'm just going to, you know, making sure we've got the levels right and all that. And the first bit we do is Getting To Know You, and you have to come up with a jingle for Getting To Know You. So, could I have a jingle Charlie for the Getting to Know You section?CR: Sure, yeah. Okay, you ready?JS: Yeah.CR: [singing in a blues tone] Getting to know you, getting to know you. tthat’s what we do.JS: Nice!CR: It got low.[JS & CR laugh]JS: It did, it probably got too low for you at the end there.CR: It got too low for me.[JS & CR laugh]JS: But I liked that, it was good, it was kind of sultry.CR: Cheers. Jazzy.JS: It suggests that getting to know you is going to be troubling, but I don't think it will.[CR laughs]CR: Well, you've already done it over many years, so you could probably answer that better.JS: I found it troubling at parts, but for the most part, you know, a joy. Where are you at the moment? What are you doing?CR: I am in my bedroom, I'm in my house as well, so the bedroom is in the house. And today has been a sort of day off, which sounds a bit ridiculous when I don't actually have anything to do normally. But I've decided to give myself a weekly day off to try and give the rest of the week a bit of shape. I think it might be useful even when we're just unemployed actors, it doesn't have to be for this sort of strange time that we're all in. And so, I've been I've been trying to bake bread.JS: Yes. How's it gone?CR: It's interesting. I'm going to let things prove overnight and bake them tomorrow, so I'll let you know how it goes.JS: We tried, it's tough baking bread.CR: Yeah. And there's a lot of stuff on the internet, everyone's saying how well it's gone and lots of wonderful pictures, and I don't feel like I'm going to be allowed in that club.JS: But people only post the things they're proud of, no one shares their first attempt, they're sharing their eighth attempt.CR: Do you reckon?JS: I think so, yeah. I think there's a lot bad bread that's made and then people just present the good bread. So if you're listening to this and you've made some bad bread, you can share it, you should share the bad bread more.CR: Share the bad bread!JS: So, Charlie, I thought the first question I would ask you is, just tell me about where you're from and where you grew up, bbecause I know that's a slightly longer question for you than me. So Charlie, tell us all about where you grew up and just a bit about how you've grown up and stuff.CR: Well, my dad was in the Navy for a really long time, and so when I was born he was still in the Navy, and so I was born in Scotland in Faslane, which is where all the nuclear submarines are, because my dad was a nuclear submariner. And then I lived in the Lake District, near Barrow in Furness, which is another submarine place, for about 10 years in total I think it was, so I think I was like 11 when I left. I'd also lived with my Grandma for a couple of years in Birmingham, when my mum was not very well, and my dad was away. I lived in Northwood in North London, which was the big combined forces base, and I lived there during such a strange time. I think 9/11 and the Kursk incident and everything, that's where we were. And then my dad left the Navy, we moved to Bedford, which is in the East of England, the bum of England, if you look at the map of England, it's the pig's bum, and I lived there from the age of...well, year nine, and my dad still lives there now. So, if I go home for Christmas, that's where I go, Bedford. So I would say now, I think I can say I'm from Bedford, but then also I did live a long time in the Lake District and then also a lot of my family is from Yorkshire, and my two sisters, my two blood sisters, live there now and have lived there for a really long time.JS: They're in Leeds, aren't they?CR: Yeah.JS: That was louder than before, when I said that.CR: Loud Leeds.JS: That was really loud.[CR laughs]JS So, they live in Leeds?CR: Yeah, and they've lived there for a really, really long time. And that's where my Grandma was, and Uncle Artie there. So, I also feel like Leeds is a bit like home, but then now I've been living in London for ten years, I feel like I'm from London.JS: So, if I say now, where's home? Where does your heart lie? Where do you long for?CR: I'm a Londoner then.JS: Really? That's so interesting.CR: I wouldn't live anywhere else. I love it.JS: And you've lived in New York as well, obviously.CR: Yeah, well, for six months with you guys. And that was incredible. I think that was maybe the only other place that I would want to live. I kept saying to people, everyone was like, what you think of New York? And I said, I think what it is, is that I'm married to London and I have a deep love for London and it's going to last forever, but I'm having a sordid affair with New York for a little while.JS: I love London, like it's really cool and I'll be here for a while. Me and Lucy, my wife, we talk about this a lot because it's not my home. I don't have that, ah, London home kind of feeling. I conjure a little cottage in the Lake District or something like that.CR: I wonder if that's because you grew up in the same place and stayed in the same place for a long time. Whereas because I moved around so much I've been waiting for my home place, and when I was really young and I came down to London to watch my dad run the marathon, I apparently said to him then, Oh, Dad, this is where I'm going to live one day. And I had it in my mind that one day I would move to London and be an actor, and so now I'm here, maybe there's a sort of coming together of all those elements that makes me feel like it's home.JS: That's cool. Well actually, you just did a little segway then into my next bit, which is obviously we're gonna talk about Mischief and we're going to talk about acting and work and things, but a really cool thing about you is you've got lots of...I think you're quite a well-rounded person, you've got lots of different interests. And we've got a shared one, which is we've started doing a lot of long-distance running, you did your first half marathon recently didn't you?CR: Yeah, I did the Royal Parks half marathon in October. I've always really enjoyed running, I'm not necessarily particularly good at it, but I do really like it. You're incredible John, you're so good at it.JS: I'm small.CR: Being small does help, I really do think it does, we're sort of wily people so we can keep going. And I quite like the long-distance thing, I find it quite meditative. Like if you ask me to swim for 10 lengths, I would get so bored, but if you ask me to run for two hours, I'm quite happy with that.JS: It's nice, isn't it? And as well, the kind of event nature of it, I just found it so cool. It's just one of those things where loads of people come together, you've got all the different runners and usually they've all got different charities on their back, so you learn about all these different charities that exist, and you've got all the people that were there. Where there people playing music as you ran around?CR: Oh yeah, there was people playing music! There were loads of stands and people cheering, and then what was really sweet... so I was running for a charity, but I didn't have a special shirt for them because I just wanted to wear my normal stuff, and so I put my name on my bib, as you're told you can do if you like, and total strangers would just have read my name and say, Go on, Charlie, keep going!JS: It's nice isn't it?CR: I found it really moving that these strangers made a connection to you just to say well done. I found it really, really moving. I loved it. Sadly, I am injured now.JS: Oh really? Oh no! What happened?CR: Through the running, I've got tendinopathy or tendonitis. So, I tried running today and I could do six minutes before I had to stop, so I'm on a rehab program right now.JS: Is it in your knees and your shins?CR: It's actually in my groin and my hip. It's my hip flexes in my groin and something, I don't really understand it but lots of people have told me I have to chill out on the running, basically. But tell your funny story because that's much more interesting.JS: Oh, no, it's just the first time I ever did a race, I saw a little group of people and they were going, come on, Jonathan, come on. And I was like, oh, wow, some friends have come to say, do the running, well done mate. So I was like, hey guys, and shouted thanks for coming, they look kind of puzzled because I just thought I must know them. And then as more and more people shouted, Come on Jonathan, run, I realised I didn't have that many friends, and they were, in fact, just reading off the massive badge.[CR laughs]JS: But it's amazing doing a run. I really, really love it. And a lot of your family are involved in charity as well aren’t, they?CR: Yes. So, my sister Katie is media spokesperson, coordinator extraordinaire for Rape Crisis England and Wales. She also founded SARSVL, which is a local charity in Leeds, which is a helpline for survivors of sexual violence in Leeds and domestic violence. And then my dad, after leaving the Navy, he was the CEO of the Harper Trust with the Bedford charity for 17 years, which is a grant giving charity, runs schools, arms houses, help for the homeless and the elderly in the Bedfordshire area, and also gives money out to other smaller charities. I ran for Woman's Trust and Dave is a trustee for Christmas For Kids, and you're really amazingly charitable, and it's sort of a big thing in our lives, isn't it, really? When you feel so lucky that you've been handed a lot of good fortune, it just feels quite right to try and share it a bit, doesn't it?JS: Yeah, definitely.CR: I don't mean to sound like a saint. I'm not a hero or anything.JS: Yeah, we've had some good breaks in the last three years for sure, so I think it's only right to try and pay it forward a little bit and do what you can, definitely. If you weren't an actor...CR: I just always remember...[CR and JS start to talk over each other]CR: Go on.JS: You go. Argh, see, it's hard if I can't see you. It's hard this, isn't it, you know?CR: It is.JS: It's like Ira Glass, he's good at what he does, it's good because he's never doing the [impersonates stopping and starting a sentence], they've never doing that on the ones I've listened to. But they have editing software don't they, so that's why.[CR laughs]CR: That's why. The one I do with George [Haynes], I edit, I edit these bits out, but we don't edit them to provide the real raw experience. Well gone on, I'll tell this teeny story and then you ask me the question. So the thing is, I also grew up with my mum, who was very charitable and generous. So it was absolutely standard that every Christmas you organised a hamper to give to the charities that then provided that food hamper for smaller charities. And she was always, that was just part of our lives, that's just what you did. So yeah, it feels natural to me. We actually managed to get those seats at The Duchess [Theatre] a couple of nights a week for the Play That Goes Wrong, you can buy these seats that are a really good spot and then the profit of that seat, so you pay the full price but the theatre only takes the amount that it needs to cover the cost of the seat, and the rest of it goes to Crisis, which is the leading homelessness charity for single people and individuals.JS: That's brilliant, that is.CR: I think over a few years we raised something like ten grand.JS: Yeah, definitely. I think it's such a good initiative and it really, really works and it's sustainable and it's long term, it means the charity can plan. It's great, it's very good. Would you like me to ask the question now?CR: Yes, you may ask the question now. I don't know what the question is, but I'm excited.JS: The question was, just given your family's background, if you weren't an actor, do you think you would have gone into the public sector or working in charity or fundraising or something like that? Do you think that's what you would have done?CR: Do you know what, I have never thought about that before. I actually, of course, that would make total sense. I think fundraising is particularly challenging and probably not something I'd enjoy; I'd be more interested maybe in campaigning. I've always thought, because I really enjoy politics as I know you do, but there is no salary big enough that could encourage me to go into politics as a politician.JS: No.CR: But I think campaigning on single issues or specific issues, I would be interested in. But also the other thing I'm quite interested in would have been maybe being a correspondents, so going to countries and reporting on conflicts and things that are happening. I would quite like that.JS: I'm Charlie Russell, standing outside the... and then you'd say the thing you were standing outside of.CR: Yeah!JS: Yeah, I could see you doing that, you'd be good at that. You shouldn't because you should stay and be funny.CR: Thanks. [she laughs] You wouldn't get much chance to be funny, would you, if you were in a war-torn country.JS: You wouldn't want a funny war correspondent, it's not the place for it. You'd be like, come on mate, what you doing there? [he laughs] You can't do a silly walk!CR: No, you couldn't.JS: I'm gonna go on to the next question, which is just the final one of getting to know you, which is, so the reason why I'm doing this today is because, I think out of everyone in Mischief I've known you the longest and you've known me the longest.CR: Yeah.JS: So, we met at a foundation drama school, and I just thought we'd talk briefly about that. Maybe you could share some memories that you have of me and I could share some of you. And then we'll move on.CR: Awh, it was such a wonderful time.JS: In fact, you're gonna end this section when you think its kind of run dry by ppopping in with the old tune.CR: Oh, I see, gotcha!JS: So, when you've had enough, you're going to call it, I'm not.CR: Wow, the pressure! Okay. So, we met in September of 2007?JS: I think so, yeah.CR: Because it was straight after school for me.JS: I shared the photo on Twitter, there were kinder comments about your appearance in that photo than mine, for sure.[CR laughs]CR: Yes, a little.JS: The weird one that I got though was people were like, geez, you've aged to me. There are negative things to say about my appearance for sure, but I didn't think that it was one of age. But Twitter has told me that it is.
CR: You and I have a baby faces a lot of the time, aren't we? I do get told I don't age, which isn't true, I just wear a lot of sellotape pulling back my skin and it's set under my hair.[JS & CR laughs]CR: Yeah. I remember meeting you on the first day so specifically because we sat in this big circle and we got chatting, and you and I got chatting before the whole thing even started and I already was laughing and I was like, this guy is excellent. And then in the break, I did not drink coffee or tea particularly, but now I'd left home I was like, I'm a grown up I'm going to drink coffee, and you were like, shall we go and get a coffee, shall we go across the road to the cafe, and I was like, yeah alright! So off we went over the road to the cafe and picked up a coffee and a Red Bull as well and a chocolate bar, and I was just like, yeah, this guy is going to be my friend. I just knew it on the first day, it was so great.JS: It was a very good time; it was a very good place to grow up. I remember you being just really, this is meant as a total positive, but I remember you being one of the most sincere people I'd ever met.[CR laughs]JS: And just being...that's a really good thing because, you know, it's just being very honest and very upfront. But I just remember you having such a passion for words and for acting, and I remember finding that very very cool. Because I'd never really met anyone else who was so in love with theatre and so in love with performing I don't think before in my life, I would say.CR: Yeah, I was obsessed with it from a really young age, and I was so excited to be allowed to just do what I wanted to do, because I'd got a bit frustrated at school doing my A-levels. I remember a teacher, really great teacher, my politics teacher just being like, look, I know, I know you just want to go and be an actor, but trust me just get these A-levels, you'll be pleased you have them and then you can go off and act to your heart's content as far as you're allowed. And when we started in Cambridge, I was just, like YES nine to five, nine to ten, I don't care, we'll just be doing it every day. But I've always been told I'm a bit sincere, at parties I can get a bit serious. I'm not very good at banter, I often quite quickly talk about a serious subject. I'm just interested in people's dark sides and I don't trust people when I can't see the dark side or the edge.JS: I think it's better for people to be like, you know, people to find you sincere surely then for people to be like, she's very insincere.CR: Yes. No, that's true. I suppose the opposite is poor, isn’t' it? You being insincere and disingenuous would be a negative thing. So, thank you, I do appreciate that. I remember you being hysterically funny and having boundless energy, boundless, energy for every subject, even something you didn't like, or you didn't think you were very good at, you would still do it with 100%. I remember you doing dance, and you were pretty, pretty exciting on the dance floor.[CR laughs]JS: I was, I'm an energetic dancer. What I lack in technique, like Harry, what I lack in technique, I certainly make up in enthusiasm. Although I'm a mean tap dancer, I'm a good tap dancer.CR: You are. That was a revelation when I saw you tap dancing, that was awesome. But it was when we did, do you remember that we did, was it All That Jazz from Chicago as a group?JS: Yeah, that's not my.... kind of Bob Fosse, sexual kind of...[CR laughs]JS: I don't really have the hips for that kind of work, you know?CR: Darling, I disagree.JS: I have no flexibility. In the lockdown me and Lucy have started doing this morning yoga thing and I just have no flexibility at all in any of my body, but my hips and my back are just particularly gridlocked.CR: It wasn't the ideal Jonathan dance, but you still made it incredible, don't you worry.JS: With energy.CR: And then I remember, this isn't something I promote, but I do remember being drunk a lot.JS: I think when you're 18 and you leave home for the first time, and you're finding out who you are, you definitely have a drink don't you?CR: I found you to be a quite a bad influence on me, I'm sure it was that way round, but I remember when your friends from Manchester came to visit and I was really desperate to impress your old friends from Manchester because you'd been talking about them and stuff. And so I tried to keep up with them, drinking wise.JS: Oh, you shouldn't do that.CR: But I didn't drink beer. And I wasn't drinking beer, they were drinking beer and I was drinking cocktails. [she laughs]. And I believe that's the night where I fell over and flew down the tarmac on my way home and had scrapes all up my arm. That might have also been the night where I accidentally knocked one of your teeth out.JS: I don't remember that, you knocked one of my teeth out?CR: Not your teeth, your filling! [she laughs]JS: My filling! Yes, but that always comes out.CR: Oh, take away my thunder, mate.JS: Sorry, yeah.CR: I thought I'd knocked out a filling by being a hot mess, but no, no, they always fall out!JS: But my front tooth got knocked out with a Yo-Yo when I was really young, and I was like 11.CR: Oh, that is distressing.JS: Yeah, I know, so sometimes it pops out. It doesn't now because now I've had it fixed proper. I think if ever there was a time for you to sing the song...it's your call.CR: Oh, yeah. I was about to do it, I forgot I had to sing a song. [she sings] Getting to know you is done!JS: [singing] And we learned a little bit about my tooth also! There you go, excellent.CR: Dada!JS: Dada!JS: So, we're now onto Questions from the Web. So immediately, straight back out of the frying pan into the fire with another jingle for Questions from the Web. Go!CR: [singing] Questions from the Web. Questions from the Web. Questions from the Web!JS: Very good. Have you thought about these jingles before we started?CR: Absolutely not, no. [she laughs]JS: Really! Oh, I see, I thought you'd be a planner.CR: Yeah, do you know what, when I was interviewing Harry [Kershaw], I thought to myself, oh, I better do a plan, I do like to plan ahead. And then I completely forgot, and I thought maybe it's better just to improvise them, because they'll have a bit more sincerity and a bit more spontaneity to them.JS: That's good. I'm now going to ask you the first question from the web. So, I've chosen mainly Mischief questions.CR: Good.JS: So, that's why a lot of the getting to know you stuff, I avoided Mischief and work. So the first question is, what was your favourite episode of The Goes Wrong Show and which was your favourite character to play?CR: So, I think that's good that there were two of those questions, because I think my favourite character for Sandra to play was Barbara Burgess from 90 Degrees.JS: Yes.CR: With the Southern accent and the swagger and the sass. But I think my favourite overall episode would be The Pilot (Not The Pilot), because, even though all of them I really, really enjoy, I did get to have a really good time personally in The Pilot. I had quite a lot to do and I had a really cool character, where actually if it was the goes right version, I would have quite liked to have played her as well, the same as Barbara Burgess. And then also I just thought it had a nice mixture of the big spectacle goes wrong things, but also little light, just subtle, nuanced, if you can call any of our work nuanced, and subtle goes wrong things as well. I love a period drama that's meant to be serious that you pull apart, so I think it's got to be The Pilot.JS: Yeah, that was one of my favourites as well. I found actually that 90 degrees, although it's one of my favourites to watch and I really enjoy the responses to it, it was probably my least favourite to do, just because it was mostly uncomfortable. The filming process was often just quite uncomfortable, and it was quite stressful because there were so many logistical things of is that even possible? Will people get hurt doing that? You know, there was so much red tape around it and stuff. So, no, I think I'm with you on that one. So, my next question, just jumping straightforward is, this is a good question because I've got an opinion on this question, a lot of people have said, how do you manage Charlie to keep a straight face and not burst into laughter? Now, I have my opinions on this, but I'm going to let you answer first.CR: Is your opinion that I don't?JS: That is definitely my opinion, that you're dreadful at it.[CR laughs]JS: And not just on TV, but on stage yyou’re often just flopping about, pissing yourself. You're definitely a corpser.CR: I am yeah, I'm a corpser. And do you know what? I think that's just a sign of how much fun I'm having, but also how in the moment I am. I'm receptive to all the different things that are happening on stage. So, I have to refute that I actually haven't corpsed as much in the TV series as people think I have.JS: But The Comedy About A Bank Robbery for example, you know, you were on the motorway to corpse city.CR: Yeah, that was a disaster.JS: The end of the first act often would you be titillated by your performance or Dave's or something.CR: It's very difficult. The mime sequence in The Comedy About A Bank Robbery with Dave, and then with Henry Lewis barreling in as Mr. Freeboys, and then you've got Greg, and then you've got you, it's too much for someone to cope with, it's just too funny. But it would also be, I think, because Dave and I quite enjoy the little differences every night and trying to catch each other out a bit and I would really push myself in that section to not be repeating myself, even though it was quite well choreographed. I was trying really hard to keep it fresh, and I think that sense of it being alive and in the moment, it meant that you're walking a tightrope basically to make it its absolute funniest I need to be almost about to lose it, but just have control. But the problem is, occasionally you tip over, but it's also just because I find you guys really funny. [she laughs].JS: No, I think it's fine you know. I mean, I don't corpse but equally, I rarely know my lines. So, we've all got our issues.CR: That's true.JS: So, I suppose a good question to ask then is, what do you think the funniest thing that has happened? What was the funniest thing that you can think of that's happened on stage during a performance that's not supposed to, that's made you break out?CR: Oh my gosh. Oh, I wish I'd had a moment to think about this one beforehand because there are just so many.JS: I thought about prepping you for this one. I thought, should I drop you a text and say I might ask this.CR: I lost it, this isn't that funny, but I just lost it myself when I forgot the most important line that I ever have in The Play That Goes Wrong, and I forgot it on Broadway and I just couldn't say it properly. So, the line that queues, Not so fast Inspector, I just completely fluffed it, and just went blah blah blah blah! I couldn't say words and then I turn around and Greg enters, and I just was so shocked that I hadn't been able to say this line, which I'd said a thousand times, that I kept losing it. And then every day when I got to that bit, like I kept having flashbacks to the moment where I forgot it, and then that would make me either laugh or freak out and forget it again, and then it became absolutely ridiculous.[JS laughs]CR: I'm trying to think. It's probably all the stuff in Mischief Movie Nights that really, really got me. Basically anything that Josh Elliott does, do you remember Cubgap or whatever it was?JS: Yeah! [he starts laughing]CR: It was a completely made up game that occurred because somebody onstage again fluffed their words and said two different words at the same time, a bit like Bingo and Jackpot, and saying Bingpot. And they'd said Cupsgap or something, which is not a real word, and then Henry Lewis was like, oh now they play this game. Was it you? No, it was Henry wasn't it?JS: I do remember this, it was quite a while ago, but I do remember because as soon as she said Cupsgap, I started laughing. I can't quite remember the details of it, but it's obviously getting an emotional effect on me.CR: It's like we play Cupsgap, and the idea is that we come on and we improvise a completely made up game, so it doesn't have any rules so we're all in that second trying to make up some rules. But every single time, Josh would just face the back of the stage, bend over, put his hands on his knees, then coyly turn round to the audience and go, cupsgap, and we'd all go, cupsgap!JS: I do remember now!CR: And Henry Lewis was like, no, that's not clear. We see it again, but it's much clearer, but we just refused to change it and so it just got worse and worse, and I lost it.JS: One of my favourite Mischief Movie Night memories, and potentially one of my favourite memories in general, is we were in Cardiff doing Mischief Movie Night and the final show we did there it ended with the entire audience, it was a really big crowd as well that night, it's a big theatre in Cardiff, we ended with the whole theatre doing a rave with crazy techno. You remember that?CR: [laughing] Yes! That was so good!JS: And then everyone went into the auditorium and was like dancing and people were crowd surfing and stuff, that was so good.CR: Was it something like, raving for the glaciers, raving for the penguins, raving for the glaciers! I was playing a penguin that was in a romantic relationship with a human being. who was played by Bryony [Corrigan], and I had a baby egg that I was looking after in this show and it was meant to be Dave, who was also a penguin and the idea was that it was his baby egg. And then Bryony turns around and goes, you know who the real father of that baby egg is, and then I realised that she meant it was her, which made me completely lose it. And then Henry Lewis, who was playing, I was a baddie, but he was my adversary and he just grabs this imaginary egg and I thought, what's he going to do with it? And he just ate it on stage.JS: Yes, I do remember that! It was such a joy to chair that show.CR: It just really shocked me; it was a great day.JS: Stepping away from Mischief Movie Night someone asks, if you could play any other character in any Mischief play or episode, male or female, who would you love to play and why?CR: Oh, gosh, that's difficult, isn't it? If you include The Goes Wrong Show that makes it even harder because there are so many different variations. But I actually did say, I was asked this recently and it's quite funny, I'd quite like to play Sam from The Comedy About A Bank Robbery, or Max from The Play That Goes Wrong, which happens to be both Dave Hearn's characters. Because my clown at drama school, we talk about the corpsing thing but for some reason, in clown normally it's really bad if your character clown laughs because it sort of takes everybody out of the moment, but our teacher, he was like, I don't know why, but when you laugh, it's funny and it's okay, so you're allowed to corpse basically because that's part of your clown. And so I think that would work quite well with Max, and then Sam, because I'd quite like to be cheeky.JS: That's nice. And as well you've been asked, what was it like going wrong on Broadway?CR: It was the best, wasn't it?JS: It was a good time; it was a good six months it really was.CR: Yeah, it was really, really cool. The audiences there were really supportive and really loud. And everyone on Broadway was so kind to us and we made such good friends. It was a great experience.JS: Would you want to go back?CR: Definitely, yeah.JS: It would be good. I'm still in touch with so many people from out there as well.CR: Me too!JS: It was such a good time.CR: Very, very special time.JS: Did you find the audience is different out there? Or did you find them similar?
CR: I'd say they were louder, a little bit more vocal in their appreciation, definitely. I don't mean to be rude about our British audiences, but I did enjoy doing comedy for a New York audience.JS: I found they were more immediate. You know, in the UK, you have to kind of ease, not ease the tension, but you have pre-heat the oven a little bit.CR: You have to win them over.JS: Yeah. Whereas in America, I find that people are quite comfortable just being in hysterics really early on. I found that was the only slight difference.CR: I found what was interesting was, if you think about the price of tickets it's so much more expensive on Broadway even considering the conversion rate. And even in Britain, if you pay a lot for a ticket then the audience sit there going, okay, I paid a lot, so you'd better impress me. Whereas the Americans are, I've paid a lot for this ticket, so I am going to enjoy it and I'm going to make the most of it from the beginning.JS: There's more of a sense of occasion I think on Broadway, I think just because it's all on one strip. But then equally, I think I've just got a different view because essentially I was on a massive holiday when I was there, I was living in this, you know, this bizarre, we were all living so close to the theatre. You're in the Centre Parcs of comedy and theatre when you're out there almost.CR: That's so true. Someone did say, what's it like living in New York? And I said, oh, you know, if you get paid to be on Broadway and life's really easy, then, yeah, New York is great. I'm sure it's a really difficult place to live if you're struggling for cash or for your work and stuff. We definitely had a dream ride over there.JS: Definitely. Moving away from Goes Wrong, someone says what was your favourite scene in Groan Ups to perform?CR: Oh, that's really difficult. I think, and this might be a bit controversial, but I think my favourite scene in Groan Ups was the final scene. Because it was this moment where we'd been doing comedy, comedy, comedy, comedy, comedy, and then I love sneaking up on an audience. You've made them laugh, you've made them feel really comfortable, and then you go and now I'm gonna get you with something serious and make you see that it's actually quite difficult for some of these characters with what's going on. So when Archie's character is revealed, I won't say everything in case someone hasn't watched it, and my character is shocked and devastated, and I thought it was a real gift to be able to play a serious scene that I thought you guys wrote brilliantly by the way.JS: Thank you.CR: And it was really, really well directed by Kirsty. It was a gift to get to do that in the middle of a comedy show, and I didn't mind it, I found it an honour to have that bit in the comedy show because it's quite a difficult bit to do.JS: Yeah, definitely. I felt that you, Henry [Lewis] and Henry Shields played that final 10 minutes really well. I remember I always have one show where I pop off and have a little watch, and I remember really enjoying the final 20 minutes of the show. a great deal.CR: Awh, thank you.JS: Not just because it's funny, just cause it was really, really moving.CR: I was very, very proud of that show.JS: Yeah, me too, me too. I think it was good to just challenge ourselves, I think it was so good to just be doing something where you didn't have a preconceived idea of what the right answer was. You know, to do this, we need to make sure it's this, like you really felt like we were performing and learning a new kind of genre or a new way of being funny, and I thought that was really enjoyable to be part of.CR: Yeah, it was. And I think then on a personal level, that translated because I felt it was a nice moment for growth in my skills, of my career. I was like, right I'm going to try, this is challenging, this is gonna be a challenge and I've not done this for a while. I used to be the tragedy queen a bit at LAMDA and I'm quite good at turning on the tears, so it was nice to get my acting chops around it, it was great.JS: Well, I found there were bits, where I've just got so used to just delivering certain things with the cadence of a joke, so it was really nice to just be reminded we don't always put the punchline before the character, or the punchline before the narrative because there's a richer payoff. And you know that when you're writing it, that's what I found. I found that I knew some of the lessons when I was writing it, and we were saying we want to make sure that actually we're not being funny here, this moment we're just gonna leave it alone and we can be funny later. And then when you're on stage, I found that because I was so used to needing to have that kind of every three seconds, boom, there's a laugh, boom, there's a laugh, I always had to fight to push back against that urge to just be like, well, that's where the laugh is, because it didn't need the laugh.CR: Yeah, that was a really good challenge.JS: And then the last Mischief Question from the Web is, throughout your time with Mischief, what's been a personal highlight for you that stayed with you, or impacted your life the most? Which I thought was a really great question.CR: Gosh.JS: A heavy one, or maybe a heavy one?CR: No, I think... impacting my life in a memorable moment in Mischief?JS: I think just what's the thing that you remember the most? Or you look back on with most pride?CR: Pride, I mean I'm proud of everything and particularly The Goes Wrong Show was a moment of, oh, my God, we're doing it, we're making a sitcom for the BBC, this is what our heroes did, and we now get to join them in a small way. That was incredible.JS: I loved being part of the Christmas line-up. When the Christmas Eve completion ad comes on the BBC and we're part of it, I think that's the thing that just I can't help but grin when I see that, I find that so cool.CR: And there's something about comedy TV and sitcom, which is it's a part of my family history. We'd sit down and watch all those comedy shows, those are the things you actually remember and those are the things you go back and watch again. And I'm so touched to hear that we are part of that for some other families. But I would say that something that will stick with me for the rest of my life is the beginning. You know when we went to Edinburgh and we had nothing? And we had no help, no PR, no press, no marketing, we had to flyer ourselves and do as many shows as we could. There was something so wonderful about working really, really hard but we all still had loads of fun, and no one was like, oh, can't be bothered or God I hate this, everyone loved doing all that extra work. We were exhausted getting up really early to do promotional gigs on the top of a double decker bus, but we still did it. We reveled in the difficulty sometimes, and I'm so proud of that.JS: I'd love to go back to the Fringe.CR: Yeah. And I think, you know, that there is something to be said for that work that we put in then, has paid off. It's like a pension, a pound at the beginning is worth more later. And I think those pounds we put in at the beginning have really, really paid off now, because it helped to develop a sort of work ethic and a sense of joy and it really built the company with a good, strong foundation. I'm just so proud of it.JS: And skipping now onto something totally unrelated, because you said you had a good answer to this. What is the dumbest thing you believed as a child?CR: [she laughs] So, my sisters are a bit older than me, they are eight and twelve years older than me, and when I was quite young and they were teenagers, we'd be sat watching TV and they would fart and they would blame it on me. And I'd be like, it's not me, it's you, it's definitely you, you just farted. And they'd be like, no, Charlie, I think you farted, and I'd be like, I didn't! I didn't fart! It wasn't me! It was you! And they'd be like no Charlie, you did fart. And I was like I didn't, I didn't!. Then they'd go, maybe you did it without realising, and I was like, what do you mean? You could have done a subconscious fart. And I didn't really understand what that meant, to be subconsciously farting.JS: How old were you then? Because how old you really, really impacts what I think of you in this story. Because if you're like fifteen, then a lot of my respect is gone for you than if you were younger.CR: It began when I was younger, but what they didn't do was at some point tell me that that wasn't true. And I was then about 14 when I was in a crowd of people and someone said, who farted? And I said, I might have done it subconsciously and everyone was like, what?JS: [laughing] That's lludicrous.CR: [laughing] And I was like, what do you mean? They were like, you can't subconsciously fart, that's not possible, that doesn't even make any sense. And then I called up my sisters and was like, you never told me it wasn't true.[JS & CR laugh]JS: That's ludicrous.CR: It's really stupid, isn't it? I was taking the rap for everybody else's farts for years. I just think back to the amount of times somebody farted in the line for lunch and I would go bright red because I thought, well, that could have been me without realising, and so I would just be blamed for everybody's farts for ages.JS: I'll tell you a ridiculous thing that I used to believe. And actually, you were the one that told me that this wasn't the case. The words supposedly, until I was about 19, I thought was supposeply [sic]. And I would use it quite a lot, and then one day you were like, that is wrong. And I was like what?[CR laughs]JS: It was quite sharp because obviously you'd been living with it for, you know, for a while and you were like, that is wrong, it's supposedly. I was like, I don't think it is, I think it's supposeply [sic], and you were like, no, for God's sake, look it up. [ he laughs]CR: Trust me to come in with it being irritated with people using words wrong, and then probably using another one wrong myself the minute after. Yes, I do really remember that, but then you used to just wind me up about it after a while, you knew it was supposedly, and then you would look in my face and say supposeply [sic] just to wind me up.JS: Well, you say that, supposeply [sic], but we don't know.[CR laughs][static noise of something falling over]CR: I dropped my microphone on the floor!JS: What happened there? What's going on there?CR: [laughing] I fell backwards in mirth on my bed and chucked the microphone halfway across the room.JS: I should have used that as a moment. I've got a piece of toast next to me and at the beginning I thought I'm going to eat the toast, and that'll be the mood of this podcast, it'll be informal and there'll be toast eating. Then I wussed out and I should have used the noise then to eat toast, in fact will you bang your mic?CR: No, I'm not going to do that again.JS: I'll bang it.CR: No. Don't eat your toast![sound of JS eating toast]CR: Eating noises... you are the worst.JS: That's good. That's what people listen to a podcast for, the sound of mastication.CR: [laughing] Oh god!JS: That's what it's all about.CR: You're the worst.JS: Can't edit that out. Right, two more Questions from the Web. There was loads for you, there was so many, so apologies to those who I'm not reading the questions. I've tried to cover them throughout this interview as it goes. But the next one is, if you could have lunch with any famous person, who would it be? Also, they say hello.CR: Hello! What the person I have lunch with is going to say hello? I hope so.JS: But what would the famous person be, if you were going to have lunch with them?CR: Oh my God! It's just so difficult, isn't it?JS: Tell you what, I'm going to come back to it then. I'll ask you an easier one, which is just what game show or reality TV show do you think you'd have the best shot at winning?CR: Yeah, I talked to Dave about this. So, I think this is where a lot of people go wrong, but I'm still gonna go wrong there, which is I feel like I could do Mastermind, right? Which I know is a big claim, but what I'm good at doing, and this is how I passed all my exams, is I'm good at cramming loads of information. I'm quite good at recall, but then I'll just forget it as soon as I don't need it, and I reckon I could really swot up.JS: Recall everything. As in Total Recall?CR: [laughs] It's not a total recall, shut up. I am good at remembering things when I need to, and quite good at revising so I reckon I do something like the Northern Lights trilogy, I could get quite good at knowing all the details, I've read them all a few times, that kind of thing, or the book of Jane Eyre. And then I would just need to swot up on my general knowledge, which is not bad, but it's not, you know, if we're talking like regular standards, I'm all right, if we're talking Russell standards, I'm pretty low down the table because my family are ridiculously good at Trivial Pursuit. And then I think for a reality show, I reckon I would do all right on Strictly Come Dancing because I am not a trained dancer, so I don't think the audience would feel treat cheated, it's not like I have trained in dance, but I am not a bad mover, I pick up moves quite quickly. Although I've got terrible points, so maybe that would get me in trouble, and really short legs.JS: Yeah. They're not that short, are they? They're proportionate.CR: No, no, they're not, they are disproportionate, they are very short.JS: Oh, that might lose you some points.CR: It's embarrassing.JS: I don't know. I don't really know. I don't have ballroom dancing as marked. Do you need to have long legs to dance?CR: It does help. It makes it look so much nicer, when you're like flicking it around, doing a sort of tango or something, then it does help to have long slender legs, not necessarily slender, just long.JS: And hip flexibility.CR: But I've got too much of that, that's the problem.JS: I dunno.CR: So, I reckon, Celebrity Mastermind and Strictly.JS: Okay. Are you ready now to come back to my previous question about famous person?CR: I've just been thinking about game shows, haven't I? Okay, so I think I would pick...JS: If you think about it too long, they're not going to come. They're going to see that invitation and they're gonna say no.CR: Olivia Colman. It's happened.JS: Ok, Olivia Colman?CR: Yeah.JS: That's cool.CR: She's a bit of a hero of mine because to everything serious, she brings a level of comedy and humanity to it, so it's a natural, believable person. And then to everything funny, she brings truth and heart and actually makes you want to cry and breaks your heart. So, I think she's incredible.JS: She's great in Peep Show.CR: She's so good.JS: Particularly the later series, I think it's such a good performance, actually.CR: Oh, yeah. She's great in everything to be honest.JS: Have you ever met her?CR: No, I've never met her. But to be honest, I'd be happy with loads of people. I really like lots of people, quite easy to get a lunch with.JS: Well, not at the moment. And final two questions now, which I'm gonna kind of combine together because they're about other bits of you in the industry. Which is, how did you find being a producer for the first time? And then also it was asked, that you're writing at the moment at home with Dave, and what's that process like? They were the two questions, and then that's it from Questions from the Web.
CR: Wow. OK, so producer, how did I find it? I did not find it very well. I did not like it. [she laughs]. I found it very difficult, I always respected producers, but I think I have a better understanding now and I have a lot more respect for them, it's a very difficult job. I think producing for the Fringe is slightly underestimated because people expect quite a high caliber of work and material, and yet you have none of the cash. Also, I found that I took on the responsibility of people's happiness too much, and it would keep me up at night, I would just worry what if Ed isn't happy? If he has a bad day, I found that too difficult, and I think it was good to learn how to do it and I think I could do producing and something else. Like as in, I could help with the production of something, but I couldn't be a lead producer. It made me realise how much I love being an actor and how I really want to be an actor and to do acting.JS: I think that acting as well, and writing and creating it's all about saying yes, it's all geared to being as open as you possibly can be. And then if you're producing, or you're on the other side of making sure the work is seen, it's such a delicate balance because obviously you want to facilitate the work as best you can, but equally, part of a producer's job is to say no sometimes. And that's the bit that I always find hard, because you know that people really want it, or it really matters to someone, but you can't. You have to cut your cloth accordingly, as Kenny [Wax] would say.CR: I think saying that, I had the most amazing time doing Piano Play, those guys are just incredible. I had so much fun and I'm really, really glad I did it because it was something where I thought, I'm gonna give this a go and it's okay if I'm not good at it, which I find generally quite a difficult thing to do. And I thought, oh, it'll be a failure if I'm not good at it and if I don't want to do it afterwards, and actually I think it's a success. I've done it, we actually were quite successful, I had a wonderful time and I've learnt at the end of it that it's not what I want to do, and I do still really want to be an actor. So, it was actually a very, very positive experience, but I what I learned was it isn't for me.JS: That's good. And how is your writing process with Dave? What is that process?CR: What is that process? So, we both write individually. I find with writing, it's one of the things that with acting it's not difficult for me to go up and get up and do it, I would love to be doing it all day, every day. Writing, I find a little bit more...I love the result, but I find the process a little bit more tricky. And actually writing with him has been really good because, I don't feel 100% of the pressure, so I can say, I've got this idea, this is probably rubbish, but just hear me out, and he can say, no, no, it's not actually, I think that's really good. And you get someone immediately saying, oh, yeah, you're right, not that, but that's made me think of this. And so, you bounce off each other and it takes the pressure off every single little idea. You can throw things away more quickly because you're like, actually no, you're right, we should do what you said. And we make dates, so even though we live together, we say, right, when are we writing this week? And that goes in the diary, and we do two hours at a time. It's been quite fun I think, we try really hard to keep being open and honest with each other about how we're feeling. So if I feel a bit rubbish, I feel like I've got stupid ideas, you just let yourself be vulnerable, that actually makes the whole process a lot more easy than trying to maintain some facade, because then everyone's acting in a sort of strange, passive aggressive way or you can end up not really saying what you mean, but someone can tell that you're not feeling good.JS: There's got to be balance, hasn't there? Because if you just say, that's great to everything, then you find yourself, you know, when it's being performed or it's in the rehearsal room, you find that you just regret having not...you've got to discuss stuff, but equally you want to make sure you're creating a positive environment where people are coming forward with good ideas and stuff. It's a balance for sure.CR: Well, I think if you feel quite comfortable in the environment, you are more able to go, oh, do you know what? That thing I said, I am wrong. If you're feeling comfortable, you can let things go more easily. I've never had anything that's actually been performed yet, so I'll see what that's like if ever we go.JS: It's the most nerve wracking, excruciating experience. It's great, but because it's all new, even though it's not, you feel such a crazy weight of responsibility. But then equally, you feel such a sense of joy when you see that something you've written has spoken to someone in some way. It's very, very cool. We're Zoom writing at the moment.CR: Yeah! How does that work? Is that any good?JS: [he laughs] It's different to the normal process. But we press share screen on Zoom, and we do two hour typing intervals. So, it's not too different I suppose, but it's certainly different because you can't demonstrate anything.CR: I was going to say, how is it doing physical gags and explaining them to each other?JS: It's harder.CR: Do you have to drop out of shot and drop out of the screen or something?JS: You try, yeah. There's a lot of putting the laptop down and then prancing around in your living room trying to show how something would work. But it's been fun, and it's been nice to have that structure back, like you were saying.CR: Yeah, yeah. I think it's been quite useful for us, definitely.JS: I think it's time for you to give the Questions from the Web theme tune.CR: Oh, yeah. What was it? [she sings] Questions from the Web, Questions from the Web!JS: Very good. And now the quick-fire round, which is going to have to be pretty bloody quick fire because we spoke quite a lot.CR: Have you and I gone on a bit?JS: Is there a time limit? Three hours? Is that what it's supposed to be?CR: [laughs] I think that works for you and me anyway.JS: Yeah. Well, we're on 58 minutes.[CR laughs]JS: We probably don't want to go on over an hour and three, I think.CR: Why use one word when you can use three, John?JS: Indeed. As well, at the beginning, I'd say that my style was more meandering and awkward. And as I've gone on, and as I've got through it, it's blossomed.CR: It has blossomed. But what's happening now, is that it's going back again. [she laughs].JS: I would say that Dave, you and Dave should take over as the interviewer after.[CR laughs]JS: I don't think this is the start of a career in interviewing and journalism for me.CR: I dunno, I've enjoyed myself.JS: That's good. It's been nice to have a chat for sure. Whether this is a form of entertainment, we don't know.[JS & CR laughs]JS: You say you go, it's your turn. You've got to do the quickfire tune.CR: Oh, yeah, yeah. Okay. Quick. Fire! Quick Fire! Quick Fire!JS: A bit like danger, danger, high voltage.CR: Yes! That is kind of what I was going for.JS: Let's hope we avoid the lawsuit. Right, we're moving on, so quick fire round. Who is the most likely to die in the group in a zombie apocalypse movie?CR: First?JS: The first person to die. I said most likely, who's the first to die?CR: Me.JS: You? Ok.CR: Me, because I don't want to be involved in a zombie apocalypse, so I'm the person who gets out of there by their own hand immediately. Because I know that otherwise I'm going to have a horrible, gruesome death.JS: Ok. Is a Jaffa cake a cake or a biscuit?CR: I want to say it's a biscuit.JS: But it says cake.CR: Yeah, but it's a biscuit though innit?JS: No, I disagree. Who's the most likely to corpse? We know...CR: Me or Harry Kershaw.JS: Yes. What is your first memory?CR: My first memory is having chicken pox. I had it really, really young and it was really bad, and I remember being very uncomfortable.JS: What's your favourite book?CR: Oh, that's so very difficult. It's between Jane Eyre and The Amber Spyglass, which is the third in the Northern Lights trilogy.JS: What piece of advice would you give to anyone if they wanted to have a career in acting and creating?CR: [she laughs] I was going to say, don't do it. Follow the people that make it fun. So, don't worry about the rules and whatever, or you need to go to this school or get in this film or have this agent, just follow the people that you enjoy doing it with. Because there's no point in doing this difficult, slightly frustrating career if you're not enjoying it when you get to do it.JS: Very good. Favourite film.CR: Oh, Hook.JS: Wow, interesting. Yeah, that's a good film and also that was very good advice. I got carried away with trying to beat the one hour three mark. And finally, in this time of lockdown, what would you say to people? How should they be best getting through this? What's the best way to look after yourself in your opinion? What are your lockdown tips?CR: Lock down tips is that it is different for everybody. So, listen to yourself, don't worry about how everyone else is doing it. Some people will really enjoy trying to be really positive all the time, and that's great. But if you find that's actually quite draining, then don't worry about it. You can't pour from an empty jug, so you might need to take some time to fill up your jug, however you do that. Whether that's reading more, sleeping more, having a bath, drinking more water, not taking on loads of projects, or the opposite. Whatever it is filling up your jug, take the time now to do it, because we've been given it as an option.JS: Very good, I think that's excellent advice and I think that's a wonderful place to stop.CR: Awh, thanks.JS: This has been lovely, Charlie. I hope other people enjoy it. But if they don't, we've had a nice chat.CR: I've really enjoyed it Jonathan. It's so nice talking to you, I love you mate.JS: You too, I love you too. I'll see you on Thursday on Zoom.CR: Will you? Oh yeah!JS: It's my mystery night!CR: A mystery event! I'm so excited!JS: I'll see you on Thursday. Love you mate, and you and Dave keep safe, and be well and all that stuff.CR: And you, and everyone look after yourselves.JS: Bye everyone! This has been Mischief Makers!CR: Bye Mischief Makers! And you can follow Mischief on Twitter @mischiefcomedy. And there are more interviews available, so check them out!JS: Indeed.CR: Bye!