Jamie Lang (2:17)

Hello everyone. I'm Jamie Lang and this is Great Moments. Hey everyone. Welcome back to Great Moments. Really excited for this little episode today because it's with Rob Bryden.

Rob Bryden (2:31)

Now.

Jamie Lang (2:31)

I'm a huge, huge fan of Rob Bryden. Always have been. From Gavin and Stacy to the trip, which was Steve Coogan. It's one of my favorite shows ever. He's so Good. And when he came into the studio, I was kind of like overexcited because being a fan of him, it's kind of strange to interview him. And he talks a lot about how he's always been an entertainer, always wanted to entertain, which kind of I relate to a lot. He does his very famous small man in a box with which I try and replicate it. Doesn't go as well as he can do it. I'm not even gonna try and do it again because you gotta wait for the show for that to happen. But it's an amazing episode and if you like this little great moments, you'll love the full episode. So all you gotta do is click on the show notes and it'll take you to the full episode. Plus there are so many more episodes like this that you will enjoy. So check them all out. Okay, here we go. Enjoy this. Great moments with Rob Bryd. Rod, do you think you were, truthfully, do you think you were put on this earth to entertain?

Rob Bryden (3:29)

I would never make so self aggrandizing a statement, but it's certainly what I like to do.

Jamie Lang (3:36)

What do you love about it so much? What does it do to your body, to your mind to make you feel.

Rob Bryden (3:42)

That's a great question. No one's ever asked me that.

Jamie Lang (3:44)

Because, just, just a caveat, just for a second, I want you to.

Rob Bryden (3:47)

Because Rob, I don't find you entertaining, but I know there are people who do and I just want to understand

Jamie Lang (3:53)

it because every single situation, whenever I've met you, whether it's on a TV show, or when we go for our dinners that we go for,

Rob Bryden (4:02)

or in rehab, all those times we've had to get sorry if you have been to rehab. I, I'm sorry, I'm saying it because I'm not a rehab, where we met

Jamie Lang (4:09)

in rehab, all those places. But you, you love to make people laugh.

Rob Bryden (4:15)

Yeah.

Jamie Lang (4:16)

In such a beautiful way. And, and when you do, would I lie to you? And for lots of people know there are breaks and certain things like that that you have to reshoot something or do whatever, you even make the audience laugh. No, you really do. And so you have this innate ability firstly to entertain. But. So back to my question. Do you think you were put on earth to do this?

Rob Bryden (4:38)

No, I'm not gonna say that.

Jamie Lang (4:39)

You can say it though.

Rob Bryden (4:41)

Then. That's a quote. I was put on this earth. No, but I do. You're absolutely right, I do. On that very basic level. Yeah. Like, and sometimes it's almost a dirty word, you know, to say or entertainer. I think it's very noble and I like that. And yeah, yeah, I do, I do.

Jamie Lang (5:05)

What do you love so much about it?

Rob Bryden (5:08)

I suppose how it makes me feel, you know, ultimately I suppose it's a selfish thing because that's how I like to be. I like to have that interaction. Although I suppose then when sometimes I think that, you know, we have a, we have a group of friends, my wife and I, and they're the parents with three other couples who are the parents of fundamentally our 13 year old son, our youngest, and we really hit it off with them and we have holidays, we hang out together with barbecues and stuff. And it occurs to me that, yeah, with them I probably don't. Other now and again I will try and be funny, but generally I sort of don't with them. I like just being, you know. Does that make sense?

Jamie Lang (5:56)

That makes total sense. That's interesting because then I tell you what, I had for a bit because I did a reality show for so long which I don't know if you've seen it. We actor, we won a bafta. You haven't, but that's fine.

Rob Bryden (6:13)

And you know what, that's true. Well done. Or like, what can I say? Well done. I'm still trying

Jamie Lang (6:25)

but I, because it was so much, it was 160 days a year we were filming.

Rob Bryden (6:30)

Right, 160 days a year.

Jamie Lang (6:33)

Yeah, 160 days a year we'd film. So what would happen was, is that I was in this constant like entertainment mode all the time. So then when I was off camera I would still feel like I needed to entertain. And so that became quite psychologically, I suppose, quite like exhausting in a certain way. And what I realized is that I just didn't feel comfortable that much being in my own skin. So if I could entertain, that made me feel more confident. Here we go now we're getting deep. Here it comes. So do you think that within yourself that when you are your true comfortable self you can sit back and relax and maybe that you find entertaining easier in a sort of social situation? This is where he doesn't like to go deep.

Rob Bryden (7:17)

No, no, no, no, no, no. It's interesting. Maybe I, I, Well, you know, that's a, that's a big old question. It's a bigger, you can't just, you can't just rattle off. And I'm giving it some thought. I mean, I don't, I don't honestly don't know how to answer your question. I mean.

Jamie Lang (7:41)

Well, I suppose the question is this, ask it again.

Rob Bryden (7:43)

In a different way.

Jamie Lang (7:44)

Okay, I'll ask it a different way.

Rob Bryden (7:46)

You're asking am I comfortable in my own skin?

Jamie Lang (7:49)

I don't know. Maybe I'm asking something different as a. Okay. When you were a child.

Rob Bryden (7:54)

Yes.

Jamie Lang (7:55)

Were you also. Did you realize that if you could make people laugh and entertain people, you could gain popularity and become friends with people?

Rob Bryden (8:05)

I suppose I was aware of that, but it was the other way around. I think it was just who I was. And the things that you talked about were a benefit of being that person.

Jamie Lang (8:20)

Got you.

Rob Bryden (8:21)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I was never particularly judgmental or opinionated about things. I've always been kind of centrist, you know, but equally swayed by, you know, I mean, typically, I will hear a politician from the left talking and I'll say, well, that makes sense. And then I'll hear a politician from the right talking. And I honestly, I mean. And I'm very embarrassed by this. I'll go, well, I mean, that makes sense. Right.

Jamie Lang (9:00)

I'm exactly the same. Yeah. I get swayed very easily.

Rob Bryden (9:03)

I mean, I watch Questing Time and I go, well, yeah, yes, but. Yes, but that's always been in me. And in fact, the first thing I did that was any good was a show called Marion and Jeff, which was a series of monologues, A taxi driver, like an alter ego for me. And he has a line in it which I think is quite revealing about me because he says, he says, I will always see the other side. He said, if Michael Owens scores a goal, he was a footballer years ago. I'm delighted. But I will spare a thought for the goalkeeper. Now, that's a comic line, but at its root I can see a lot of me in that. So I find it quite hard to be especially opinionated about anything, really, because I go, well, there's always.

Jamie Lang (9:54)

But that's a nice way to be, I think.

Rob Bryden (9:57)

Yes and no.

Jamie Lang (9:58)

I think. But even you saying that, Rob is so nice, we. I sat with Alain de Botton. Do you know who that is?

Rob Bryden (10:02)

Yes, I do.

Jamie Lang (10:03)

He's amazing, right? And he said, I. I wish I can ask you at the end, I said, what's your, you know, when you

Rob Bryden (10:08)

ask, do you know who that is?

Jamie Lang (10:09)

Yeah.

Rob Bryden (10:10)

Is that because you think old lightweight Rob wouldn't be aware of modern day philosopher Alain de Botton?

Jamie Lang (10:17)

Yeah, I thought that.

Rob Bryden (10:19)

I bet you did, didn't you? I did, yeah, I bet. No, I bet you did. I bet you. Otherwise you wouldn't have asked me.

Jamie Lang (10:27)

I was being polite. I was being polite.

Rob Bryden (10:29)

I know you were being Patronizing.

Jamie Lang (10:31)

It's not patronizing.

Rob Bryden (10:32)

Have you ever heard Jamie of Sigmund Freud?

Jamie Lang (10:40)

Have you ever heard of Siegfried Sassoon?

Rob Bryden (10:43)

Oh, yes. Wonderful haircuts.

Jamie Lang (10:46)

For me, the reason why I did a reality show, I always loved entertainment

Rob Bryden (10:50)

more than anything, right?

Jamie Lang (10:51)

I loved it. I loved being on stage. I loved making people laugh. I loved. Always wanted to be in tv, all these different things. And I think there's a part of me that wanted to do it because I think probably I thought I'd get the validation from the crowd or the people watching, and that maybe came from a small insecurity within me. And there's that kind of idea that most entertainers have, something that they're sort of harboring, I suppose. Talk about it.

Rob Bryden (11:20)

Okay. Yeah, yeah, I understand how it works. Am I allowed to pause briefly?

Jamie Lang (11:26)

Yeah, you can pause. Sorry.

Rob Bryden (11:27)

All right. Okay. I think there's a lot to be said for introducing the pause into podcasts. There's another one. If yes, subconsciously, not consciously. I, you know, I just liked. Always liked making people smile or laugh. I had an ability to do voices, and of course, not everybody can. And when you can, you forget, like, not everybody can sing. Not everybody can make their voice do silly things and sound like somebody else. But I was always able to do that. So. Wow, how lucky. You know, we can do a thing. You know, I do that stupid thing where I go, I go, hi there. How you doing out there? Great to see you. Oh, I word. How are you today, Jamie? What an amazing place. And that's got such reactions from people, but it's just a stupid, dumbass trick that I'm able to do, you know? I mean, it's not a talent. You're not really a skill. You can slowly finesse it a bit, but I do that and I quite just. Just enjoy it, you know?

Jamie Lang (12:33)

Do that one more time.

Rob Bryden (12:35)

Hey, Jamie, how are you doing today? Great to see you. Oh, my word. Look at this voice. This voice is now even smaller than it was before. That's really tiny.

Jamie Lang (12:46)

It's absolutely mad. You ready for me? Hold on.

Rob Bryden (12:51)

Can you do it as well?

Jamie Lang (12:56)

You ready?

Rob Bryden (12:57)

Yeah.

Jamie Lang (12:57)

Okay, here we go. Hold on. I've got this. Come on, Jamie. I'm. When it's Robin, I'm just sitting in a box. How on earth. Sounds like I need a poo.

Rob Bryden (13:17)

Well, it does.

Jamie Lang (13:17)

That's what it feels like.

Rob Bryden (13:18)

It sounds like you were having a poo.

Jamie Lang (13:20)

How so? That's your very sort of famous man in a box.

Rob Bryden (13:25)

I call it Small man in a box. Yeah, just a Stupid thing.

Jamie Lang (13:28)

How did you discover you could do it?

Rob Bryden (13:30)

I was sitting around at home thinking about ventriloquists. I don't know why. I was thinking about how they. How they throw their voices and make them sound like they're coming from somewhere else. And I started going. And then all of a sudden I was doing that, and I went, oh. And, you know, the canny part of me. Not as canny as you, the Sweet Factory, but the canny part of me went, oh, that's a thing.

Jamie Lang (13:54)

What was the first play you did or show you did as a kid?

Rob Bryden (13:57)

Well, we actually put on a play. We did a stage production of Star wars because Star wars was the hit film. Honest, Honestly.

Jamie Lang (14:09)

Who's we? Who's we?

Rob Bryden (14:10)

I was the ringleader.

Ad Voice (14:12)

Okay.

Jamie Lang (14:13)

How old are you at this point?

Rob Bryden (14:14)

I think I'm. When did Star wars come out? 77. 78. Yeah, yeah. I'm 12, maybe 13.

Jamie Lang (14:20)

Okay.

Rob Bryden (14:21)

We write a script. I'm Luke Skywalker. Of course, we couldn't make an R2D2. It's a very challenging shape with the thing. So at the time, Doctor who was on, and they had a little dog robot called K9, which was a much more achievable shape. So we made that. We had toy lightsabers. We made a door on the starship out of silver foil. And the stormtroopers were dressed in white skateboard helmets, the plastic stormtrooper mask with the elastic and cricket whites to look like stormtroopers. And they. At the beginning, to make their entrance, they burst through the silver foil. It was quite dramatic.

Jamie Lang (15:05)

That is dramatic.

Rob Bryden (15:06)

I played Luke, and before we started, I went out the front, in front of the curtain and did jokes from the Two Ronnies joke book. So that was probably my first stand up, stand up on stage telling jokes. So we did that. And then. Then we. I moved schools and I went to Porthcall Comprehensive, and I met Ruth Jones there, and they had a superb drama department with a young, dynamic drama teacher who put on brilliant musicals every year. And that was me. That was. That was my life mapped out.

Jamie Lang (15:44)

I heard a rumor that you stole money from Catherine Ceta Jones.

Rob Bryden (15:49)

Yeah, well, there's some truth in that. Catherine Teeter Jones. I mean, every school I went to had a future star. Honestly, the first little school I went to, Eddie Izzard was at. Not when I was there. He was there two years before. Yeah, yeah. And then.

Jamie Lang (16:05)

Love, Eddie Izzard.

Rob Bryden (16:06)

Well, of course, everybody.

Jamie Lang (16:07)

Unbelievable.

Rob Bryden (16:08)

Eddie and I have shared photos of the school sports day. Eddie was probably Eddie's Good at everything, and he's probably very good, but I've got me coming last in the. In the sack race. Then. Catherine Zeta Jones was at this school in Swansea, you know, very young, doing tap dancing and performing. And one day as I was arriving at school, her mama just dropped her off and said, oh, I've forgotten to give Catherine her dinner money. It was about a quid in change, I think, from memory. Would you give it to her? I said, yes. I took it, put it in my pocket, forgot all about it, and then we would go down to town at lunchtime and have fish and chips or whatever. And I remember coming back and we were at a sweet shop. Then I go, wow, I'm cash rich. What's going on here? Forgot. And I spent the money. So it wasn't really theft, that is theft. No, it's me forgetting. It's me forgetting even at that age. And then Ruth was then at this other school, and that began that sort of lifelong friendship with her. Everybody around me behaved to me as though I was talented and as though I was good. That's all I've ever known, really, in my life, from when I was a little kid, is people going, oh, he's very good. Oh, he's good. Oh, Robert's very good, isn't he, with the voice? Oh, he's good. That's all I've had.

Jamie Lang (17:24)

So you had that inner confidence.

Rob Bryden (17:26)

Yeah, I never had that. See, where I come from is this portal. But you all hear, don't you hear, actors say, oh, say, where I come from, there weren't any actors. So, you know. But I come from where Richard Burton and Anthony Hopkins are from. So you could go, well, yeah, you can, you can become an actor from here. I mean, Tom Jones wasn't that far away and Shirley Bassey wasn't that far away. Catherine is younger than me, but Catherine Zeta Jones is down the road, Michael Sheen is. I mean, my God, you can't move.

Jamie Lang (17:54)

So you almost feel like you were failing.

Rob Bryden (17:57)

Exactly. Well, you know, it's just expected of you, isn't it? The people in Wales that don't become famous artists of one type or another are there. They stand out more than the ones that do.

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Jamie Lang (19:03)

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Rob Bryden (19:11)

Howdy, howdy ho, and welcome to Fantasy Fan Fellas. I'm Hayden, producer of the Fantasy Fan Girls podcast and your resident lover of all things Sanderson.

Jamie Lang (19:19)

And I'm Stephen, your bookish Internet goofball.

Rob Bryden (19:21)

But you can call me the Smash Daddy. And we are currently deep diving Brandon Sanderson's fantasy epic Mistborn. But here's the catch. Steven here has not read Mistborn before.

Jamie Lang (19:31)

That's right.

Rob Bryden (19:32)

Hei. Hei. So each week, you'll get my unfiltered raw reactions to every single chapter. And along the way, we'll do character deep dives, magic explainers, and Steven will even try to guess what's next.

Jamie Lang (19:42)

Spoiler alert.

Rob Bryden (19:43)

He'll be wrong.

Jamie Lang (19:44)

Newsflash. I'm never wrong.

Rob Bryden (19:45)

Episodes come out every Wednesday, and you can find fantasy fanfellas wherever you get your podcasts.

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