Phil Nichol • Films To Be Buried With with Brett Goldstein #168

special guest over. I tell them they've died. Then I get them to discuss their life through the films that meant the most of them. Previous guests include Barry Jenkins, Kevin Smith, Jamila Jamil and even Zed Rambles. But this week it's the award winning comedian, writer and actor mister Phil Nichol. Head over to the patroon at patreon dot com forward slash Brett Goldstein, where you'll get an extra

twenty minutes with Phil. We talk about beginnings and endings, he tells a disgusting secret, and you get the whole episode uncut and as a video. Check it out over at patreon dot com forwards. Last, Brett Goldstein Ted Lasso season two is now available on Apple TV Plus so you can watch the whole show in one go. And also Soulmate season one is on Amazon Prime so you can watch them both. Yeah, why not live your lives? So Phil Nichol is a legend on the UK and

world comedy scene. When I was starting out, he had just won the biggest prize in comedy in the UK, the Edinburgh Fringe Comedy Award, and he continues to be as prolific, original and hilarious as ever. As an actor, He's been in so much stuff, too much stuff to name, and most recently he appeared in the show Everybody's Talking About Jamie. We recorded this on Zoom a couple of days ago. It was so fun to hang out with him for a bit. I was really grateful for his

time and I think you're going to love it. So that is it for now. I very much hope you enjoy episode one hundred and sixty eight of Films to Be Buried with Hello, and welcome to Films to be Very TWI it is me Brett Codstein, and I'm being interrupted today by a actor a musical star, a podcaster, a comedian and award winner, a legend of the UK and possibly the entire world's comedy circuit. A hero to us all. It's amazing to have him here. Please welcome

to the show, the brilliant mister Phil Nicko. Thank you, Brett. That's how lovely. A legend to all. How are you? I'm good. I think that's kind of in the title. A legend sort of means to everybody. I guess you could be a legend to your family. You're a legend. People are often legends in their own lifetime. Some people are legends beyond their lifetime. I think you'll be one for many many years. You are a legend, have I Okay? Yeah? I think when I started comedy is when you won

the greatest prize at Olive Comedy. Yes, they said it was the the Oscars of Comedy. I doubt that really, but it was the the it was the if Dot Comedy Award or with the Peria Award as Yeah. Yeah. And I was actually did an interview earlier today with the BBC and we were talking about you because I was telling him that I was doing a podcast with you and I was remembering a gig that we did

at I think it was called Crack Comedy. It's in in in Putney under the under under the book about Yeah, And I think you it was quite early on in your career because I was thinking we were talking about your your most more recent success. I'm thinking I had been going for a very long time at that point, and you were a relative newcomer, and it's amazing to see that you've gone from that, because you remember that gig used to smell bad because the tourists backed up.

I remember when what did that gig go well? I don't remember if that gig went well, but when I going, it went well for you, I don't know how. Okay, that's good, but it was. It was very much one of those you think you stand on there was no stage, you sort of stand on the floor in front of an audience. It was always a pretty good gig, though you're stood in piss. I remember it's sort of bry the toilets and you stood in piss. But I've never seen you have a bad gig film Nicol, and I

will say this, You're You're almost impossible to follow. Whenever, if ever I have a gig and you're on before me. I'm always like, oh fuck. And but that walk about gig, I did it once with them Rob Deering, where he three minutes before the end. The audience was so horrible.

There was such a dickhead in the audience that he was like, all right, we're not finishing the gig until you leave, and the person if I'm not leaving, And then there was like a whole standoff and the security came down and then security security took the audience inside because security were like, actually, you comics can be quite rude to people, and we were It's that's not right at all. That's what you want. Does you want the

bouncer to come in? Well, this is what they do at the comedy store in London is those guys are so big and so calm, they just walk over and look at them and then tap them. And then most people just at that point realize it's a no win battle and leave. But if the bouncer takes the side of the audience, you're kind of screwed. Yeah. Man, Now listen, Phil Nickel, you have been as far as I understand

you have been playing in the hit show. Everybody is talking about Jamie is that for quite some time you did you did? How long did you do it for? Please tell me? Well, I well, I started in like about four years ago, so I think it was two thousand and seventeen is when it started. And I was in the original West End production. So I'm I'm on like the the cast recording album buck a bucket list thing for Yeah, as someone that's never considered themselves a singer,

it was pretty special. And and then I went back in again. I ducked out and I did a tour of a solo stand up show called You're Wrong, which which went all over the world. I went to like fifteen countries and did like one hundred and thirty shows, and then I went back into the West End and

did Jamie again. And then they asked me to come back at the end of last year in the middle of the lockdown because Shane Ritchie was playing the character and he was going to be in on a celebrity get me out of here, and then he was stuck in the castle wherever it was in Wales. And I went and did all the rehearsals but only performed it twice. And then I went back in this year for the last ten weeks and it's just closed. It was just finished.

So four times tell me this. I'm curious because you are a stand up comedian and you're used to going out every night and doing whatever you want. And everybody is talking about Jamie's an amazing show, and I bet it was a wild time. But did you ever think after a few weeks were like, I want to do other things, We frustrated by being stuck to a script? Or was it always a joy? I really enjoyed it. The script is really good. Is written by a guy called Tom McCrae who writes and lives in La or

between la and London. Writes on a show called The Librarians. Yeah, he's very brilliant. Yeah, yeah, he used to. He reminded me that he was the comedy programmer at Goldsmith's College years ago. To remember, Goldsmith's used to have those comedy stand up shows and he was he was the guy that programmed it. So he's gone from that being like the young you know, he used to look up to me, It used to. But the script, the script for everybody's

talking about Jamie is really really funny. It's exceptionally funny. So you know it's not much different than doing your own script, and that you know where the laugh's going to come, and you know that they're guaranteed, and um, it was a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun doing something different. Not to mention it's about a forty minute to ride from my house so compared to Yeah, and no hotel rooms so I didn't have to go to Sheffield stay in the o Yo hotel. Great. Yeah, Phil, Yeah, Phil. Fuck,

I've forgotten to tell you something. I've forgotten to tell you something. And I should have told you what I should have told you at the beginning, or an email. I could have tweeted you, I suppose but what no, no, no, no, no, I should have no. Just spit it out, spit it out. I'm an idiot. Fill I should have said. I should have said it right, Just get just spit it out. Mate. You've died. You are dead. So what you're You're dead? I'm I'm dead. You're dead dead? Well dead dead dead?

How did you? How did you die? It was my own fault, Yeah, I don't well it was really yeah, well not on my behalf. I was playing I was playing Russian Roulette with a mate and I I have my my friends, just don't take me seriously. Ever, So we were holding guns at each other's heads, right right, and and an he went there's no bullets in here. I went, yeah, you're right. Then he pulled the trigger and blew the back of my head off. Yeah. So it's a resin roulette murder? Well is it? Is it murder?

If I told him you pull the trigger? I mean, it's a great question and one one we'll be dealing with in court. The irony is right, there's that I didn't think he was going to pull the trigger because I didn't. And people, it's just the way I am. I'm kind of hard to read sometimes, and I think he just took me the wrong way. God, this is like what happened to Hamilton? Oh man, Yes it is.

You did, like Hamilton real here right? Yeah. And there will be a musical about me in the near future, litten by Linn Miranda, and you could play me, you could play it would be it would be an on it. What what what do you worry about? Death? Nicol? You know what I when I was growing up well well I mean I was, I was raised in this quite a devout born again Christian family in the Brethren Assembly, so like like a like a mixture of between the

Amish and Quakers and so and so. The afterlife and the idea of heaven and post life was always something that was really forefront in my upbringing and in my mind the fact it terrified me going to hell, which is kind of what they do. And then and then when I left, I sort of escaped from that to going to acting school when I was at seventeen or so, and I started looking into other world religions, you know. I started reading up on like Hinduism, and I thought

I'll finish that in the next life. And then and then I and then I read some sort of reading about the Buddhists, and the Buddhists actually believe that you should contemplate your own death or death as a concept daily in order to alieve it yourself from the fear

of it. And I don't know if I really believe in many of the tenets of any of the major religions, but that's always stuck with me as something that allows you not to be afraid of death is to to just accept that, to try and imagine what it would be like not being here it allows you to live in a kind of a in a kind of a reversed law, of reversed effort. So when you imagine what it's like to not be, do you imagine something else? So? Do you imagine nothingness? What do you think is in?

Is there enough to life? Well? I don't believe in the afterlife and that it'll be the corporeal life it'll be. I once had I once had a hallucination at a festival that we were, that we were alive, that we return to our original consciousness, which is sort of an

amalgam of all our consciousness to kid together. And in that in that hallstination, I was hearing this lovely music, this beautiful orchestral music that was being played, and I realized that I was actually in control of it and it was being it was being composed as I was thinking it. And then I realized it was me that was the thing, it was expressing it. And that is but as close to what I think it could possibly be. If that makes sense, Yeah, it does my sense this

consciousness you so was it visual? Could you see a thing? Or was it a feeling? It was a feeling, It wasn't there was no physical sensation. It was just a feeling in the music. Was I was aware of other kind of other consciousnesses or creatures or the creatures is not the right word, because it was. It's more like like a large, large collection of thought and sounded music

and light. So yeah, if you remember in Space Odyssey since it's a film podcast, in Space Odyssey when he when he travels, there's that one bit at the end where there's like where there's like a big like trippy psychedelic light and color and sound. But it was a it was a bit like that, maybe a bit like that. I love. Yeah, And since then we're like, oh, everything's all right. Well I came back. When I came back to conscious, this is I was actually lying on the

grass kissing my girlfriend. Oh wow. So so maybe it was that that that's a fucking great kiss. It was all right, wasn't it. That's it? That is truly a transcendent kiss. It's one. It's one I'm not going to forget. It's a weird. It's a weird. It's I mean, it's not as I'm not as um cookie as as it makes up. Just just hallucinations happened, and that I kind

of had this w was so wild. Yeah, really just yeah, I was just I was just really relaxed, I think, And I mean, you know, m David Lynch obviously the filmmaker is is I love him, Yeah, And so you know, he has the David Lynch Foundation, which studies trends and

dental meditation, and he did it at festival. He was there doing a seminar talk and trying to sort of introduce people to his foundation, which on the surface you could think David Lynch so you have to you sort of trust him as a filmmaker and as an artist. But at the same time those sort of things sort of because of my background, kind of freaked me out a little because I think belonging to a large group

like that feels a little cultish. However, the meditation techniques and the things that he was teaching people sort of led to a kind of I know, how you put it, a higher thought or I guess that's what people do when they meditate, right, they try and take themselves to outside their bodies and try and have those kind of those kind of things. So that's that's where that came from.

And when I studied acting in many years ago in the eighties, and part of our training was to do meditation techniques, and we were studying Meisner and and Strasbourg and sort of the idea of doing sense memory and

instant recall for as an acting technique. And part of it was to lie on your back, slow your breathing down, slow your pulse down, and concentrate on colors and they attacked them to memory so that you could recall them quickly if you had to do on stage, so if you had to cry, you could cry or And I never really I never really found that helpful for me personally, but because I'd done some of that meditation stuff there, I think that's where that moment came from. I love

it absolutely. Do you do you? Do you? Do you actually like it? Or do I really know? I really really like it? And do you think I'm crazy? I don't think it was crazy too. You've talked about all my favorite things. I love the transcendental meditation, I love David Lynch, and I love kissing a girl and having discovering the universal consciousness. It was it felt like that I talked. I've got friends who kind of got into two. I'm smoking d MT and stuff. That's quite it's quite

popular with comedians at the moment. You've done that, well many years ago, many many years ago. I'm not I'm actually very sober, and I'm an old man. I'm an old man. I'm an old man, Brett. But but but part of that experience is that you you leave your system and you go into this other kind of strange world. Terence McKenna talks about it in about the Chrysanthemum and that you actually get taken away by McKenny calls them mechanical elves. Do you know much about that, Terence McKenna. Everyone.

That's the difference between having like a hallucination on something like LSD or or magic mushrooms something that is that it's everyone has their own experience and they see beatles on their arms or their rainbows or whatever. But with with DMT, everyone has the exact same hallucination or very similar people describe the same things even though they're not

prompted when they come out of it. And that's These are these little creatures that go in your eyeballs and give you knowledge and laugh at you, and they're very welcoming, and Terence McKenna calls them mechanical elves you can go. I'm not I'm not making it up, and it's something, and it's something, but that I guess it's kind of in that realm. It exists in your head, and it's in the in the pennel gland, the gland that opens up when you pass away, So there is something mystical

about it. I'm not really a spiritual person though, because I've come from this very religious family, I've kind of more of a realist. Really. Well, Phil Nickel, I got news for you, baby. There's a heaven. There's a heaven, and you're welcome in it. And in this heaven, Oh listen, everyone's a huge fan. They're delighted you're here. They're frankly delighted. You played breast and riulette very dangerously. In this heaven, it's filled with your favorite thing. What's your favorite thing?

Blueberry pancakes. It's blue it's wool to wool blueberry pancakes, by which I mean the wolves are made of blueberry pancakes. Well, I love it. And the chair is there is there a Canadian bacon. Canadian bacon, and you can wow the floors, the place fucking stinct and are you a vegan? Vegan? I'm happy in your have it. Everyone's there, You're very They're very happy to see you, and they want to

talk about your life. But weirdly, okay, they want to talk about your life through film because the film that's that's that's what I was thinking. What films are? Films are a reflection of life. So why would they do the bacon their blueberry pancakes. They want to talk about films, and the first thing they ask you is, what's the first film you remember seeing Phil Nicol? You know what? Just to caveat the discussion because one of the things that happened because of the way that I was raised

in a very loving, very kind and wonderful family. I love my family, so don't I don't want to ticket it's the wrong way. And my mom and my dad are absolutely wonderful people would do anything for you, But they were a bit They didn't like things that were blasphemous or sacrilegious, and they didn't We didn't really get to watch much secular television, or listen to secular music, or watch secular films because we were being taught to sort of worship Jesus and followed follow We didn't want

to be taken away from that. But there were some wholesome things that we were allowed to do, but go to the going to the pictures wasn't one of them. But I do remember that. My one of my first memories is my aunt Maizie in Glasgow when I was about four or five or six, before I moved to Canada, took us to see snow White in the Seven Dwarves in the cinema, So that would have been that would have been nineteen seventy seventy one. How old do you do you remember? I think I would have been about

six years old. Maybe I've moved to Canada when I was four and then there were there for ten months, and then I moved back to Scotland when I was about five, and then when I was there for about two years, and then moved back to Canada again and finished my education there. So when you do you remember being like, holy fucking shit, what's this? Well, it was.

It was a huge experience. I think that's why such a vivid memory because I'd never been in one of those things before, so it felt like I was doing something any large group of people I'd been around would have only been at the church. Yeah. Yeah, I went to church five times a week till I was fifteen years old. Wow, I know, and you know me, Yeah, explained, You've literally just given me the key to feel. Yeah. I was. Also I was also really small for my age.

I was tiny little boy, and I had when i'm When I was, I come up to everyone my age, to come up to the shoulders. And when I moved to Canada, I skipped a grade because the British school system meant that I was. It was just a better school system, so I feel I was able to do all the tests and I skipped a grade up, so I was actually elbow height to everyone that I went to school with. And I also had a clinical stutter and a really bad lisp, so and a Scottish accent.

And I had to wear I wore a school uniform, but in Canada do not wear school uniforms. And I wasn't allowed to wear denim because Denham was the devil's fabric. So it's fair to say that I got I got picked on a lot, like I had my head pushed in lockers and held up psyche garbage bins and all sorts yeah, but I'm cool now, Bret, you're sucking cold. You'd thank you, man, thank you. But you know, it's all as long as I'm in heaven. Yeah, you're listen,

and everyone's like, this guy's the coolest guy. We've added it. What what what's the film that made you cry the most? I imagine you're a crier. I could be wrong. I am a crested man. I'm a cry I'm a crier. In fact, about four or five years ago, I had to research it because I found myself crying so much, like like daily. And I've done this from when I was whenever I can remember. I used to be horribly

embarrassed about it. And then as I got involved in acting and stuff like that, I realized it's not a bad thing to be able to get pretty good cry. Yeah, it's not bad, right, it's good trick. It's good trick. And but I used to cry so much. I cry so much. I actually believe that it's good for you and I and I've researched it, looked into some papers that have been done, and they believe that as men could become older, they cry more, and as women become

older they cry less. They think it has something to do with childbirth and the pain of childbirth, which gives a woman a much deeper backstop than men, and that all and that men become more sentimental and more effeminate as their libido dies off, and that you actually may even be releasing toxins through your through your tear ducts. So I've always found the real real release in crying. So you crying is getting rid of toxic masculinity. We

were crying it out. Well, oh yeah, I never thought of it like that, but yeah, but you know when you see old guys like I lived in little Italy in Toronto, and you see the old guys used to sit in the morning with their little coffees, their expressos and that little cup of whatever it is. It's not uzo, but the Italian version where they and they and they,

you can see them sentimentally. You see an old men in pubs here in the Legion pubs where you just see men crying every so often because they just got reminiscing and I think maybe get topped up with emotion. I don't know, Brett, but when I was a teenager, there was a film that I remember this being the most moving film at the time, and I haven't seen it since, so it's probably it may be trashy, but it was a Steve Guttenberg film called Something for Joey

and Something What's that. I'm just so excited that you've said that it has never come up on here. Do you know Something for Joey? Steve believe it is, but go and tell you, yeah, well, it's based on I'm going I just because I made it. I made a note of it because I want to make sure that I get it. I get this absolutely right. Something for

Joey is a true story. It's a docu drama. It's like a documentary, not a documented a docu drama about a Heisman college play called John Cappelletti and his younger brother Joey, who had leukemia. And when this football player, stay played by Steve Guttenberg, goes to wins the Heisman Trophy, which is like the college trophy for quarterbacking, he said he was doing it for his little brother Joey, who was at that point having a downturn because it was leukemia.

And then you find out the end that that Joey as indeed passed away in that and that this footballer, John Cappelletti did something for Joey and I remember as a young boy, I might have been eleven or twelve or thirteen when it came out. I remember finding it really hard to get over and knowing that it was true. It made me maybe crying, crying cry. So my mom had to help me and explain to me why other kids die. So what did he say? Well, I mean,

remember it's through the optics of Christianity. So it was that that everything happens for a reason. It's a test for you, and that good you'd take good things away, and good things can come from bad things, and not all good things end up good. So and you know, So I went on to try and I got into high school football. I wanted to win that trophy Brett, but I'm four foot five at that point, I didn't hit puberties. I was nineteen. I was the smallest kid

at school. There's a small, crying, stuttering Scottish kid that wasn't what Yes, is the film that scared you the most? Do you like being scared? Yeah? I do. Actually, I think the scary movies that I like are more the ones that are kind of make you uncomfortable. I like, remember remember when I started so what got sneaking out to watch movies when I was fifteen and sixteen, and I'd set sneak around with my friend Barry Davis, who when he was sixteen bott a lot and then we

were free to go wherever we want. We would go and see He's He went to film school and he is now an executive producer at the CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He does documentary films and stuff like that. But he because of him, I didn't really go and see like Porky's and like nineteen eighties films like that, and you know, the original Ghostbusters didn't see it. We went to see really weird stuff like Bill for psyth movies,

and we went to see like Kiss. There's a movie called Kiss that I was going to talk about was Molly Parker, which is a Canadian indie film about a girl who gets a job in an embalming book Dead Bodies and becomes a necrophiliac and her boyfriend, who's a studying psychology, gets involved in her psychology and falls in love with her. Anyway, I won't spoil the movie for you, but but that But the movie that scared me the most, the one that the one affects me the most is

Old Boy. It's a Korean it's a Korean suspense and it's about a guy who goes out drinking with his daughter on her birthday and she gets kidnapped and he ends up in a police please sell drunk and they think it's him and then he wakes up and he's suddenly in a hotel room with no walls or windows, and he I think it takes them quite a while to punch his way out of it and try to figure out who has done this thing. Yeah, it's a great film. It's it's a there's a scene. Can I

talk about the movie spoilers now? And if you have not seen A Boy, then please skip ahead one minute now you know now you know what don't Let's just just trust me, trust me if you I've seen that movie many times because I just it just gets it's it's just unbearable and it's it's unbearable. And I don't know if that's scary, but it's just unbearable. Yeah. Did you find that? Yeah? Is like holy shit. Yeah, it's a really it's a really good film. Good yeah, so

I think I like those ones. But the thing that I remember being scared again as a kid. One of the wholesome movies I remember my mum letting us watch was The Wizard of Oz, which isn't really a scary movie. Isn't really a scary movie unless you're a little cry baby like me. But I was really young when I saw it, and I and I got nightmares. You know when the tornado hits and the teacher's riding her bike and then the teacher turns into the wicked Witch of

the West. Yeah, that's that when the cows are spinning round, which is an amazing, amazing film effect for that day. Yeah, that that terrified me as a kid and my mother, and I remember my mother was reminded me of me screaming and crying in the middle of the night, my mom coming in to console me because of that moment where the teacher on the bicycle turns into the witch on the broom. That's the scariest film moment I've ever I've ever had. I mean, I pray you never see

returned to us. The secret is when it scariest films you'll ever see, is it? It makes wayzard of always look like a kids film. Let's put it that way, right, What is the film that most people don't like? It is not critically acclaimed, but you love it and you don't care what anyone says. It's a really hard one. I like films because I think when you're told not that you're not allowed to watch them, then you you

then sort of love seeing. Yeah, and I love indie films, and I love I don't really like big blockbusters generally. I always go like, you know, I like I like the Dogma films, and I like Large one Treer, and I like all sorts of weird little stuff. But there's a film. There's a film actor called Dan Haggarty who was Grizzly Adams, right, great Canadian actor, and he did a film called Elves, which is a horror movie. Said at Christmas time, do you know Elves? I don't know Elves?

Their like they said, Dan Haggarty. It's a terrible, terrible film which I love and could watch again and again. Dan Haggarty plays a drunken, washed up cop detective who who's lost his job because he's a drunkard. And he is also this he's a superstore, Santa Claus, who's a drunk, and these kids, these kids get locked in the shop there they're they're a shoplifting get locked in the shop

after the shop closes. And the girls, one of the girls in the group, her father is a Nazi scientist who's escaped from Nazi Germany and he's created these Nazi elves that he are going to impregnate the girl to see if they can create a master race. And Dan Haggardy, Santa Claus, the washed up cop, saves the day. Well does he or does he? Spoiler alert good, it's pretty good. I love it. I love it. I don't think I don't think it rates on anyone's radar, but I love it.

Good shout, I'm putting on the list. Okay, what's a film that you used to love but you've watched recently and you've gone now, I don't like this anymore, for whatever reason that may be. It was Dangerous Liaison with John Malkovich. I loved Dangerous dasas why not now? Well I watched it again? Yeah, go ahead, I thought, I remember, I remember because that was one of the movies that Barry and I and as Lado would drive downtown. We went to watch Dangerous Lyas and we loved John Malkovich.

And it's got Uma Thurman in it, and she, I mean, at that time, we were just young guys would adorned Uma Thurman and Glenn Close is a phenomenal actress. And I remember it being really great. I remember it being really but then you go back and you realize it's just very eighties. It was because I remember that was that was around the time of Armadeus from Falco and Armadeus with them what's his name, tom Holz, tom Holtz, so that that even powdered Wiggs even came back in

slightly for a moment there. I think in the New Romantic period, did you ever have one a powdered wigging, I would sue you. I might get one now. I think I think it would see me. Actually, I think it would because you've got that kind of dark beard, and I think it s you've got a white powdered wig. So anyway, I watched it. I watched it again, Yeah, and I remembered watching it. I loved John Malkovich's performance. He's so lovely and slimy and snaky, but he's not

it's not his fault. It really it's kind of a game between Glenn Close plays a game and loses. But it's just very eighties and there's a bit of there's a few sex scenes in it and a bit of a bit of nudity. And I now, I think, oh, that's why I liked it. I think that's why I liked it so much, because because I was like, I was like, ah, I repressed, repressed Scottish teenager with a lisp. This is the best film ever made, exactly right, Okay, No, because no, no, but because it because it looked like

an art house it was. It's an art house film. It's got nudity and they're wearing wigs. It must be good, exactly. It's period nudity. So I was. I was into Shakespeare and all sort of like reading poetry and stuff. At one point I was reading like Korean poetry and thought that maybe I'd been reincarnated from a Korean prince anyway, as a whole other story, and I thought during Terestlys, I was so romantic. But I watched it recently and

it's actually it's a little bit offensive, interesting, interesting earth. Okay, what is the film that means the most to you. Not necessarily the film is any good, but because the experience you had around seeing the film that will always make it special to you. Well, this is this is an easy one. It's what women want. Go on. It was Mel Gibson Helen Hunt won an actress. So I went home to Canada. My parents live in Canada. It

was New Year's Eve. I'd gone out and done some gigs and then on Year's Day, I was living in a house with a bunch of comedians and we have a party called the Survivor's Party, and it's basically for comedians who have done a gig the night before. You can show up there at noon and the party continues and it's sort of like the end of the year, like we don't get a Christmas party because we're all working.

So I had come straight from that party to the airport and then got home and I had broken up with my partner and went home to my mom and dad, and my mom and dad are still lovely, lovely to see them, but I needed to get out of the flat and go and see a movie. So I went to see the only movie that was on at ten o'clock and I actually went to the mall. So if my mom watches this, she'll be angry at me. But I was. I used to smoke cigarettes and she didn't know that. She may now know anyway, she may now

my dad may. My dad will definitely listen to this podcasts and find out. And it was a disgusting habit. So I went over to the mall and I used to smoke behind the bins with the teenagers who are looking at me like, who's this weirdo? And then at ten o'clock, the only movie that was on was What Women Want. Now, if you've not seen What Women Want, it's about a guy who can read women's minds, and it's so hard on Mel, poor Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt.

What an actress. So I was actually sitting in there was there was There was only three other good people in the cinema, and it was three young kids who were from like who lived near me, sitting the road just behind me, and they're just taking the pits. They just come there for the same reason I just to get out. But I wasn't really caring. I didn't really

care about them. But they've scene where Helen Hunt, where Mel's gone and that flat is empty, and you can Helen Hunt has got all over, furniture has moved, and it's over. And I broke down, and I'll tell you all what a great actress she is. I knew that it was a set. I knew that it wasn't a real up flat. I knew that you could see on the floor there was no like the marks on the floor, that furniture, I mean, that wasn't there because it was a shit set. I knew all that. But Helen Hunt

is such a good actress. She was so believable. She puts her hand against the door frame and she's crying, and I'm crying. Helen Hunt is amazing, I believe. I knew this was on the Warner Brothers Law. I've been there. I knew workstil, I knew Sonia. It was rain in the background. It's raining, pouring with rain. I knew that

was fake rain. But even then, Helen Hunt is so good that I broke down and I started crying, and I'm bawling into my hands after like on a calm down, And all I hear is these two kids gone, look at him. Look him. He's crying. He's crying and I was like so upset with myself because I was crying because Helen Hunt is such a good actress. Yeah, Helen Hunt was in a movie called Quarterback Princess. Have you ever seen that Princess? Oh, come on, you're not a

Helen Hunt. Helen Hunt was in a movie called Quarterback Princess where she plays a girl and the opening scene is her throwing a can of coke across the school the school cafeteria, and she catchy. She throws it and then someone throws back. She catches it. She's got the best arm in the school. But the coach is a guy from Texas who won't not get a little group

play on our team. And Helen Hunt's dad, I don't forget who plays her dad, but it's someone really good like Jeff Dangels is on you gotta She's gotta play so Quarterback Princess. She ends up well. I don't want to spoil it for anyone that wants to watch Quarterback Princess, but she's such a good actress. I believe she threw

that football. Helen Hunt is a great football player. She's the quarterback and then act she's the greatest laback we have exactly and when she throws the winning pass anyway, I won't want to spoil it for you, but Helen Hunt Quarterback Princess check it out. I just want that side. That will be the advert for this episode and the advert for Quarterback Princess. Why not. What is the film that you must relate to its most relate to? Well,

you know what, that's a tough one really. One of the movies that meant a lot to me growing up was a movie called Comfort and Joy, which is a Bill Forsyth movie, and I know we saw it because it's set in Cumbernauld and that's where I was born. I was born in Cumbernauld, Scotland. And the school in Gregory's Girl, which is also Bill Forsyth movie, they go to abron Hill High School or abron Hill School, and that's where my brothers were at school when we left

for Canada. So there's something very comfortable about it. And it was I was a teenager and I was madly in love with Claire Grogan. So I remember. If you know the movie Comfort and Joy, it's m Bill Patterson plays Dicky Bird, who's a DJ who's broken up with broken hearted and the and these ice cream. It's an ice cream truck war. It's based on there was an ice truck ice cream war in Scotland the two Italian families,

and that's what the movie is about. And I just remember not being able to take my eyes off the screen because waiting for Claire Grogan to come back on screen. I've since met her. I met her in Edinburgh. She's awesome. She's as awesome as you think she is. She's just great. And that and that was it, really and that's I mean, does that work. Yeah, that's exactly right. That is the correct answer. That's the correct answer. Thank you, thank you,

you got it right. I mean I was you'd say, confidentially. Yeah.

The other one that I really liked, which doesn't have then do with me, is is the semi autobiographical movie Pecker by John Waters, which is an amazingly funny film that the grandmother who speaks through a nun puppet anyway, but it's all based on based on his real life as but instead of being a filmmaker, he's a little boy that takes photographs and ends up going to New York with an exhibition and it's about as about a little boy that had this drive to go and do stuff,

and I related to it, not because I'm anything like as nearly as talented brilliant as John Waters, but that when I was seven, I was one of those acting kids. I really was determined to become an actor, and I left home when I was seven to go and do it. And so that would be the one his family hit John John Waters family seems nuts, like the whole, Like he said, I've read an interviews that he's like, it's not as far off as people think. People think it's

some flight of fancies. It take you're a lot closer to reality. Yeah, which would explain him, Which would explain him. Probably great movie. I love that movie, right, movie? I love him? Yea? What is Oh, Phil, I'm messy? Mean You've got a good answer to this one. What's the sexiest film you've ever seen? Well? The sexiest film? I was? I mean, do you mean it depends what you mean by sexy? I mean there's sexy is in that's like sharp and sexy, or there's sexy you mean like physically sexy.

What did you mean like horniest film? Or did you mean like what's the sexiest film? Like, Oh, that's sexy. That's good. Which one? Which one? Do you mean? Absolutely interpretation? I mean, okay, well I mean that case. What's the film You're like, fucking yeah, Well it goes back obviously. This is me being an eighties kid growing up, and I remember Nine and a half Weeks being one that made you go like kind of awakening me going wow,

that's like, that's pretty. It's it's not really erotica, is it, but it gets pretty. It's pretty raunch. It's a sex fan. Yeah. Mickey Rourke did a few of those, didn't He did another one about the Angel what's it called? Um that Angel Hart That's that's got some sexy scenes in it. Yeah, but compared compared compared to movies now though those seems those scenes seem really tame. But nine and a half Weeks I remember Kim Bastor just being like whoa wow, Wow,

that was amazing. And Something Something What I was a huge I was a huge fan of Michelle Me Melly Griffith when she was young, when she was young. And Something Wild is an amazing movie at Jonathan Demi movie, and and it's got Rayleod it in it, and and Jeff's actually I'm just maybe that's where I've said that maybe maybe Jeff to End isn't in Quarterback Princess. If you go to a look at Quarterback Princess looking for Jeff Daniels, he's not in it, don't blame me. Just

realize you should be watching Something Wild? And yeah, was it Something Wild? A great movie? Though? Yeah, I have to say I was a fan of Jonathan Demi and I where is it? Jonathan dem What would you say, Demi? I just there's the amount of stuff you put out, all different, all interesting, all all very I don't know what the word is, esoteric, all very stylish and and and sexy and something Wild Something Wild was pretty sexy, and the other one that was sexy like that was

the one with oh never mind. Okay, I do think, yeah that I think those I think that would be it for me. Nine and a half weeks. Okay. There's a subcategory to this question. Phil Nicole traveling bone is worrying. Why don't what's the film you found a rousing that you weren't sure? You shit, there's not. This doesn't mean I found I found it hard to answer this. I meant she kissed before and I think that's why it was in my mind. I thought, I thought, Molly Parker.

There's a scene in that movie where her boyfriend is watching her make love to a corpse, and the camera pans up to her in ecstasy, and there's a flash of light and it's quite it's it's because there's something it's wrong, right, it's very wrong. I'd say it's. Yeah, woman having sex with the corps. Would would would very much fit the bill to this answer. Yeah. So, so there's a scene in the movie because you have you

have to understand what the film is is. It's this guy's in love with this in love with this woman's psychology, but as because he's trying to figure it out. He's trying to she doesn't love him. He's in love with her, and he's trying to figure out how to get her to fall in love with him. So he starts watching her. And then there's a scene in the mortuary where she's with an embombed body, and it's it's just shot in a really erotic fashion, and I remember thinking, holy shit,

this is wrong, like, this is wrong. I should not be feeling these feelings. You can't, but you know, it's a movie. So it wasn't real. You really got the answer right as well, there's two answers you've got exactly right. What is objectively, objectively it might not be your favorite, but what is objectively the greatest film of all time? I would say Blade Runner for a variety of reasons,

because it was ahead of its time. It came out, it was up against the Star Wars films, which are okay, I'm not a Star Wars fan, sorry everybody, but they're okay. They are obviously magnificent works of brilliance and whatever. But I thought Blade Runner was a much more. It was about something very real, and we're actually seeing it's coming things like that. We can we're coming closer to the fruition of having that actual things happening, where there's replicants

and cyborgs and those things. I think we can actually see that it might those things might actually occur, even though it was said in twenty nineteen, but the opening, but I saw the director's cut which doesn't have them have the voiceover, and it's an amazing film. Yeah, it's an amazing film. It's just gorgeous. It's gorgeous, the Van Gaalus music, it's just I had like Timeless, because it's really hard to write futuristic music that still remains futuristic.

Even now, it still sounds futuristic. The only other one that did that was Clockwork Orange, where they You've got an a great, incredible soundtrack because they try to imagine what pop music would be like in the future and it's just mental. Yeah, so yeah, very good. As what's the film you could or have? What's the most over and over again? Well, I would have to say Spinal Tap, just because scene after scene it's a classic. There's not

a bad there's not a bad scene in it. Kick my ass, you know, kick this guy's at Kick this guy's ass because there's no one at the record store. It's just so good. And I went to see you with Barry again. I went. I went with my friend Barry, Barry Dams, and we went into the cinema. There's no one. This is I live out in the suburbs where people have no clue. And we walked up and we said, the guy like it in back in the days when people that worked in cinemas had to wear suits and

bow ties, and we went, what's this movie likement? I don't know, it's not very good, and we were like, we supposed to be really funny. He went, no, it's really dry. One was there looking this is not dry. I think he thought it was an actual documentary. Paul Shaeffer. Paul Shaffer, Yeah, the other, the other, the other one, that the other one that I watched back to back because I couldn't believe it was real. I couldn't believe i'd watched it. Um Kerry Marks and I we around

Christmas time. He's Jewish and I don't worship the baby Jesus so much. And my family are in Canada. We used to have yule tidans and pretend we were Pagans for about seven days and we so we'd watch we'd only choose films that were that were anti Christ or not or not about Jesus at all. And the only one that ever cut us out was Ben Her which actually has Jesus in it, which we were disgusted with it.

But we watched the French film Cab called Man Bites Dog, Man Bites Dog, that is unbelievable, and we were we were wasted. We'd been up like quite like it was quite like the last film in the Night and we just got closer and closer to the television because we couldn't believe we were drinking and we were like stunned. And the and the way it ends, it's just like it's not satisfying in any way. It's totally disturbing, it's completely and it's funny, yah, and it's it's really really funny.

You think I shouldn't be laughing at us, but it's just so well done. It's and I could watch I could watch that again and again and again. We watched it. We put we finished it and put it on immediately and watched it again twice twice in a row. That's how good it was. It was amazing. Wow. What is now? We don't like to be negative, phil, so we'll do it fairly. Now, of course, what's the worst film you've ever seen? Well, as I said, I've never made a film.

I've tried to make a few short films, So I would hate to criticize anyone's effort to make a film. But if someone is lauded filmmaker and then makes something you think is a bit duff, then I think it's fair enough to criticize it, right, Is that fair enough? Right? So whatever you want Tenant, Christopher Nolan's Tenant. It just it's just rubbish. It's just rubbist. It's absolute rubbish. What

the fun? A waste of time and effort. Okay, so sorry, and I think I'm just really of Christopher Nolan will never have a film. I just I didn't. I don't know. I'm sorry. I love his films. I just wouldn't expect it so much. And I was sitting there going, oh, come on. Other people said it was Mother, they hated Mother. I thought Mother was brilliant. I thought Mother because I thought Mother was so again disturbing. It physically made you ill.

And a racer Head did that. David David Lynch actually used one of you probably know this because you're the film buff used sound. The sound that David Lynch used in Eraserhead was made purposely to make you feel uncomfortable, like so it gets under your skin. And Mother did that of that, whereas Tenant just made me want to leave, but I stayed because I'd paid money. I nearly left the cinema. Why would you leave a cinema watching just

go Come on, that's not a Russian accent anyway. What is the film you're you're a comedian, you're an award, You're you're technically the best comedian. What is the film that made you laugh themse Well, I love Christopher Guest and that group of guys. Yes, and I loved and I loved there are all those films are good, mighty

win Best in Show. But I Waiting for Goffman was the one that got me because I'm a theater kid, i am dram theater was something was just really I just know the world and I know the characters, and I just found I just found it's also very important, self important and that and they just love They just nail that so beautifully. But the other but I think that's a film that I enjoyed the most as a comedy. But the one that probably made me laugh out loud

is of Martin Scorsisi film called After Hours. Yeah, I know, Griffin done, Griffin done, roseannar Cat. It's just it's just brilliant and the way it resolves brilliant, just funny. It's just there's again, there's not a bad scene in it. It's just really really funny film. And I can watch that again and again. So it's very you After Hours, Is it that yeah, so yeah, I think your show

is it like after hours? Are they well? I guess like often like a wild ride, you know a word sort of experience of chasing a thing and oh they're mad people you meet and experiences you have, you know what. I've never put that together, and I wonder if it's not had a direct effect on my own storytelling that because I got to meet Griffin Done. I went to UM I was in New York doing a play with the dawnmar and I was in name dropping, but I

was but I got it was London. It was a New York, New York fashion Week, and I was with Simon Morley from the Popetary of the Penis, who lived out in Connecticut. We're friends and he's friends with Griffin Dunne, and we went to a party, like a big fashion party with like Madonna and all these people there, and

we were like Griffin Done. I was in a T shirt and jeans and jean shorts and everyone else is done up to the nines, and Griffin Dune was like in just like a like a shirt you'd wear a bank and some jeans and some loafers and people were coming up to something looking at him. Like looking at us like, why are you guys here and not realizing he's probably he's probably one of the most famous people in the room, right and and and then we were upstairs on a back. Maybe I shouldn't tell this story.

I'll tell you the story and then you can tell me whether or not you should keep it in. Okay, should I tell you the story? We basically there was one bath, one toilet, and when we both had the same experience. When we went to the toilet, you had to chew up. And in the queue, they'd all be talking all fashioniss talking each other funny hats and cookie glasses and big fact want funny mustaches and knee lent boots and weird. Well, this like fashion stuff and I'm

in like T shirt and sneakers. So I just didn't want to go to the bathroom anymore. I didn't want to up for the toilet neither, and we we I was telling him that, and he went, I just had the same experience. And then about an hour or two later, he's like, oh, I'm kind of go to the bathroom again. I went. Anyway, We're just like it was like it's like a swimming pool, like someone someone loved the Solon's house.

He was like, just come over here and there was like just a like that flower bed anyway, you don't need to know. I think. I think that's a pretty pretty big scoop. Weird. The thing is we'd been taking grief all people all night, just feeling like we're not. No one wants us. Who were We're ruining the this stuff for them by being two morons in in street clothes when they're when they're trying to have a fashion party. So we weed in their plant part American part. I

respect that. Yeah, yeah, thank I love your Griffin. I love your Griffin. I love you Griffin. Yeah, all right, great and also really really awesome guy. So I saw after ours when I was with Barry Davis in My Big all my film years, meeting him was like I just couldn't believe. I felt like I was meeting one of the most famous people I've ever met in my life. He's so great. I love, love, loved him in American

Wealth in London, I think, yes, he's everything. He's done everything he's done and and he gives me hope as well as as an actor that you don't have to be the big Starry most famous actor. You can do really good work and just be in lots of things and be and and have some respect. So yeah, and he's a great director as well. Absolutely, Phil Nicol. Yes, you have been beyond a delight. You've been more joy

than could ever have been expected of it. However, when you were playing Russian Roulette with your friend, and you, much like Hamilton, were being a gentleman, and you said, let's play Russian Roulette, but you didn't think we were really gonna play Russian Roulette, and your friend thought, well, there's no bullets in here, are there? And your friend said to you, there's no bullets in here, are there?

And you, being a bloody comedian, went no, of course, not even though you knew there were, because you thought we're both on the same bege here we both get jokes. And he pulled the trigger and shot you in a fucking head. Yea. And not only did it when he saw that happen, the worst thing is he then started dancing, and I was like, whoa man, what he actually got? He got the bit of my skull on his heel and spun on it. Yeah, I was walking past. I've

got a car with me. You know what I'm like, And I hear this bang, I'm like, what's going on in there? Where's Phil? And I walk in there's your mate dancing around with your skull, and I'm like, what has happened in here? And he goes. He told me I said there weren't bullets in there. He said it wasn't. No one's gonna convict me in the court of Laura. I said, well, if he said there were no bullets in,

you're absolutely innocent. But I do have to say, dancing around with bits of his skull isn't going to help your case. I get the bits of you that I can, I'll put you in the coffin. There's blood everywhere, there's there's bits of scut I'm having to grab stuff off your mate. He's still holding onto bits of you anyway. Stuff you're all in the coffin. But there's more of you than I was expecting. Right, there's so much stuff you in. And the thing is, it's full. This coffin

is rammed full to the brim. There's really only enough for it. There's no room in it's there's enough room for me to slip one DVD into the side take across to the other side. And on the other side, it's movie night every night, and one night it's your movie night. What film are you showing everyone in Heaven when it's your movie night, Phil Nichol, heaven can wait? Right movie? Great movie, great movie. Just I think they'd get David tickled by it, and you know, late to it.

Great movie, great movie, and no one is put to heaven. That is an excellent artswer. Thank you, Bret. Phil Nichol, you are a joy. Is there anything you would like to tell people to look out for or to listen to or to watch While I'm working on my very own podcast called Songs and the Key of Laugh. It's on the It's a celebration of comedy songs and musical comedians. It's it's out on the first one comes out October sixth. So this maybe after that is with Nick helm we're

interviewing we do. We talk about comedy songs and some of to the show with this podcast, what comedy songs mean to each other, mean to us, songs that have affected us, how they are a bit ubiquitous. And then we interview some of the best purveyors in the world. So we've got Tim Mention coming up and Jess Robinson and I've gotten to hopefully the mighty Boosh and slightly concords, but I haven't. I haven't really asked them yet, but

now they know. Yeah, exactly. That's very cool man, that's cool. Well, I look forward to it. Thank you for a wonderful time, and I hope thank you very much. Fret a good day. Love to you. Enjoy your films. Enjoy your films. Quarterback Princess, go watch it, Yes, do it today? Quarterback Princess. What what? What a laugh? So that was episode one hundred and sixty eight. Head over to patreon dot com forwards the last Brett Gold scene for the extra twenty minutes of chat,

secrets and videos with Phil. Go to Apple Podcast. Give us a five star rating. I'm right about the film that means the most to you and why it means such. Thank you very much. It's a lovely thing to read. Helps numbers always makes us all cry. Thank you so much to Feel for doing the show, Thank you all for listening. Means a lot. Thanks to Scrubius Pitt and the Distraction Pieces Network. Thanks to Buddy Piece for producing it.

Thanks to a Cars for hosting it, thanks to Adam Richardson for the graphics and least a Lading for the photography. Come and join me next week where I've got a very special guest that she'll not be told here. You'll have to tune in. So that is it for now. In the meantime, have a lovely week and please be excellent to each other across