Jack Dee

Presenter0:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young. Thank you for downloading this podcast of Desert Island Discs from BBC Radio 4. For rights reasons the music choices are shorter than in the radio broadcast.

Presenter0:10

For more information about the programme, please visit bbc.co.uk/slash radio four.

Presenter0:33

My castaway this week is Jack Dee, comedian, actor, and writer. His persona is that of the laconic miserablist. His hit sitcom was called Lead Balloon, and his autobiography is entitled Thanks for Nothing. You get the picture, well, at least part of it. Even though Shobiz was in the family, his great-grandparents were in music hall, his early working life was all over the place, from grafting in the kitchens of the Writs to working in an artificial leg factory. At one point, he even seriously considered the priesthood. He says that his caustic, ironic, sarcastic comedy comes from a sort of realism. You can't escape the dark stuff in life, and my way of dealing with that is to absorb it into my life, so that it's no longer worrying for me. You've been married, Jack D., for a quarter of a century. You've been on our television screens for the last twenty-three years. You've got four healthy children. None of that sounds like there's much to be miserable about.

Jack Dee1:29

There isn't, and I'm very blessed, but uh I still think that comedy is a lens through which I see everything and uh I think almost to to some extent the better things go in your life, the more fearful you can become that they will cease to be that way.

Presenter1:47

You still bother to do uh stand up to sell out crowds, and you've been performing stand up now for around about twenty five years. I'm when I watch you do stand up, there's none of that manic energy that we often see with comedians in stand ups, which I guess comes from a degree of nervousness. Now you must also have the nervousness. I'm wondering where you put it.

Jack Dee2:05

It's a good question because side of stage, I just wait for that moment where the nerves subside. Sometimes it doesn't happen until seconds before I go on and I think it's not going to happen, it's not going to happen. I've got better and better at learning how to get into that zone. There's a huge amount of concentration to the extent that the day after I often don't understand why I feel so ghastly. It's like a hangover from that amount of concentration. But at the time, hopefully, I'm enjoying it. And if the audience are thrilled with what you're doing, it's as if you've stood on stage and were able to hover ten inches above the stage and they're that thrilled with it. It feels like being able to fly. And when it goes badly, it feels like you've said you can fly and you can't.

Presenter2:15

Hey.

Presenter2:50

For a lot of Radio Four listeners, it's very difficult for us to imagine I'm sorry, I haven't a clue having any sort of life after Humphrey Lyttleton died. And what do you know it certainly has? It's sort of gained a new vigour, and people are delighted to see you make such a great job of it. Was it nerve-wracking to take it over?

Jack Dee3:08

It was, but I think the trick with anything like that is not to overthink it. You can't you can't go on thinking, I've got to be as good as Humph, the mamma's a a legend and and brilliant. All I can do is bring what what I have to the show and um it's been one of the greatest things in my career. And uh sometimes I actually have to pinch myself and I think I'm doing a show with the goodies.

Presenter3:29

Um from the sublime to the ridiculous, celebrity Big Brother, I noticed throughout it and and you won it quite a few years ago now you always seem to have a guitar in your hand at your lowest moments. Um music, it seems to me, is very, very important to you. I'm wondering this list of eight today, w what's been your criteria?

Jack Dee3:38

Music

Jack Dee3:44

Often, when I've heard this show, of course, I think most people have a mental list in the back of their mind of what they would take on Desert Island discs. But I was surprised when I actually had to come up with a list. The stuff that I listen to all the time isn't necessarily what I wanted to take away with me. What it ended up being was a list of things that I actually genuinely can't imagine never hearing again. So they're all very important pieces to me.

Presenter4:04

Nice.

Presenter4:07

Tell me about the first one, then.

Jack Dee4:09

Well this is My Back Pages. It's a Bob Dylan song. I'm cheating a bit because it's got a lot of my favourite musicians in. It's got George Harrison, Tom Petty and Neil Young and Eric Clapton and Roger McGuinn. This is a song that I often listen to after a gig, especially in the car. It uplifts me and it just makes me feel brilliant every time. I love this song.

Speaker 44:30

Half-bred prejudice, leap forth, rip down all hate, I scream Last and lies in black and white, Scorpi from my skull, I dream

Speaker 44:44

World matching facts and Musketeers Foundation deep somehow But I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now

Presenter5:00

That was Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Tom Petty, Eric Clapton and Neil Young singing My Back Pages. Jack D Led Balloon, which so many people have enjoyed, critically very highly acclaimed. It ran for four series on the BBC and it was about the domestic life of this perpetually grumpy, career obsessed, egomaniacal I mean just sort of moderately successful performer.

Jack Dee5:22

Rick Spleen, yeah, he was.

Presenter5:23

Where on earth did you get the idea?

Jack Dee5:24

Yeah.

Jack Dee5:26

Well, everyone says it's based on you, isn't it? And I always said, Well, he's a terrible comedian. He's a failure. So, no, he's not based on me. But, of course, that character really was a composite of characters I've observed, especially on the circuit. It's all about your place in the world and about the sense of disappointment as you get older. And what's interesting is that although a lot of comedians have enjoyed it and said so, it's often their spouses that have said, I really love that show. You've got it so right, what it's like at home with a comedian.

Presenter5:58

What is it like living with a comedian? How how could you sum it up?

Jack Dee6:02

Well, if you were to ask my wife, I think she would say that, you know, when I'm working, it is very difficult to contact me, you know, emotionally, I'm afraid to say. I think that that's she's always saying, Oh, you're on a different planet, so I'm not going to talk to you today. You know, we would we'll just leave this and we'll discuss it when you're back back on earth. It's one of those jobs where you can't ever stop thinking about what you're doing and it takes quite a lot of change in your emotions and what you're thinking about to get into that to get to that point where you can perform on stage. So it's almost easier to stay like that for a bit rather than switch it off.

Presenter6:38

Your style of delivery, this sort of, of course, deadpan, bone dry, appearing not to give anything for the audiences concerned, it strikes me it's quite an American sensibility. Wh where did you begin to find it as a voice? Were you watching American comedy much? Were they?

Jack Dee6:45

The audio

Jack Dee6:52

I grew up listening to a fair amount of American comedy as I have to say, but also people like Dave Allen, who brought, I think, a sophistication and an elegance to stand-up comedy that I always particularly admired. And I loved the idea, almost a romantic idea, that the comedian is the guy on a stage in a supper club where there are lamps on the tables and people are having martinis brought to them.

Presenter7:17

Is that where the beautifully cut sharp suits come from, then?

Jack Dee7:20

A little bit, yes. And and also when I started out, no one was doing that. And I felt for me it was a more honest way of presenting myself because I started out in the audience. I went to the comedy store and had a go, but I started out in the audience and I was very aware that the people around me in the audience had come in from their day job. And I realized that I also had a day job. And so it was dishonest to try and present myself as some bohemian character who'd come out of nowhere. I was actually just a a kind of ordinary ordinary guy.

Presenter7:53

Tell me about your next choice.

Jack Dee7:55

Well, this is introducing tobacco to civilizations, Bob Newhart. And my parents had several wonderful albums of comedy. There was a Peter Sellers one and there were Goons. But I loved Bob Newhart. And it was one of those things where you think, oh, hearing the audience, it really struck a chord with me. And I was always so amazed that someone could stand on stage and be able to say so little and get such a huge effect from his audience.

Speaker 48:21

Put it on a piece of paper.

Speaker 48:27

Roll?

Speaker 48:28

Whoa, that's a

Speaker 48:31

Don't tell me, Walt, you stick it in your ear, right, Walt?

Speaker 38:35

Uh

Speaker 38:37

Between your eleventh ball.

Speaker 38:41

Then what do you do to wall? You say fire to the wall.

Presenter8:52

That was Bob Newhart and Introducing Tobacco to Civilization. And Jack, do you wanted to say something else for that?

Jack Dee8:57

Well, what I'm always reminded of when I hear that, and it's interesting to me, that when I was about eight years old, my grandfather showed me, he was an artist, and he showed me a picture of a zebra, which was really just a series of black lines on white paper. And he said to me, look how this artist has created so much with just black lines on, and much of what you see of the zebra isn't there at all. And even at that age, when I heard Bob Newhart, I made the connection and I could see that that's exactly what he was doing. It's the space, it's what you leave. It's the stuff you don't say as much as what you do say. It's allowing the audience to join the dots and do some thinking for themselves, which is brilliant.

Presenter9:20

Yeah.

Presenter9:27

It's the space, it's what you leave out.

Presenter9:37

I mentioned in the introduction that it on your mother's side it was your great-grandparents that were in music hall, but your grandparents too were performers then.

Jack Dee9:42

Yeah, they were in rep, had unsuccessful careers as actors, and so my all of my mother's side were really quite theatrical. My grandfather did everything, he was a bank teller and an undertaker at times, he was a policeman at one point, he had all kinds of different jobs. So my mum was when I first came up with the idea that I might want to be an actor, aged sixteen, seventeen, her first reaction was, You won't make a living as an actor, because her whole life had been about this feast or famine existence. And so she said, Well, if you want to be a an actor, you have to get a trade first.

Presenter10:17

And as a youngster then, you were the youngest of um of three children. W was there quite a gap between you and and your your

Jack Dee10:23

Yeah.

Jack Dee10:24

My sister's eight years older older than me, Joanna, and David is five years older than me, so I was very much the younger one. And they're all quite loud people, I think it's fair to say. So meal times around the table were usually full of uh banter and laughter, as I remember.

Presenter10:40

And you rose to the occasion, did you?

Jack Dee10:42

No, I didn't. I think I I sat back and and observed it all. But being younger I felt unable to compete in that. But what I would do is take away a lot of it and then use it at school to make people laugh.

Presenter10:54

And when d when was the first time that you performed were you in school shows? Did you perform as a child?

Jack Dee10:58

There wasn't very much drama at the school I went to. I think the very first thing that I remember doing in terms of comedy was my brother and I put on a show one New Year's Eve. There was a big party for the village where we lived. I think I was 11 or 12. It was an Edwardian evening, and we came up with the idea that I would be a ventriloquist dummy and he would be the ventriloquist. And so I was dressed up with big rosy red cheeks in a sort of silly suit and sat on his knee like a dummy would. And we went through this routine that we'd rehearsed. And it got a lot of laughs, but there was a man in particular in the front row who became quite helpless with laughter. I mean, it was a fantastic. And you could just do it.

Presenter11:19

Bye.

Presenter11:39

And you could just do it, could you? Yeah, we could just do it.

Jack Dee11:40

Yeah, we could just do it. And yet, it just clicked. It just it felt right and it was instinctive. I remember feeling I know where this is going, I know how to do this. And it was a there are not very many things I think that about in my life.

Presenter11:54

Let's have your next piece of music, Jack D. Tell me what we're gonna hear now. This is your third of the morning.

Jack Dee11:58

Well, I've chosen this because it's it is genuinely it's the first piece of music that I'm uh I was ever aware of. My sister, Jo, played it constantly in her bedroom. This is Petula Clark downtown.

Speaker 412:11

Downtown, maybe you know some little places to go to where they never close.

Speaker 412:19

Downtown, just listen to the rhythm of a general boss and over. You'll be dancing with them too before the night is over. Happy again.

Speaker 412:32

The lights are much brighter there You can forget all your troubles Forget all your cares So go down Where all the lights are bright

Presenter12:45

That was Petula Clark and Downtown. And you said, Jack D, that that really is almost your earliest musical memory here. Almost.

Jack Dee12:50

Almost, and uh but it still resonates with me very strongly because I love cities and and the excitement of them and it's a wonderful song, I never tire of listening to it.

Presenter13:00

Your father was a self made man. He did well in I think it was the printing business he made his money in. And you went to prep school. I've read you say in an interview you hated school so much. I'm wondering specifically what was the problem.

Jack Dee13:10

Yeah.

Jack Dee13:12

From a very early stage, from about age eight or nine, I just didn't understand what it was for, any of it. I just didn't understand. I was interested in things, but I didn't want to sit down and actually have to write essays about butterflies and open up frogs and look at them. And part of it was that a lot of the teachers thought I was thick and went to great lengths to tell me I was thick in front of the school on one occasion, the entire school. I got into some trouble, and the headmaster addressed me in school assembly in front of the entire school and said that it's very unlikely that he's going to get into a public school because he's too thick.

Presenter13:59

Are you paraphrasing that or just

Jack Dee14:00

It's pretty precise what he said. Absolutely. It's what he said in front of the school. I remember him saying that. And.

Jack Dee14:08

You you do, of course, you absorb that. As a child, you tend to believe what adults say to you. You tend to believe that. And I I think that that was something that I I took a long time to shake off and I still I still fear that label. I still I still uh I I find that one of the most hurtful things that could be said of anyone. So it's not a word I use. No, not lightly anyway.

Presenter14:31

Uh

Presenter14:33

Your brilliant, as we see you so often thinking on your feet and coming back with very caustic, smart arched replies, did you in school to your teachers?

Jack Dee14:40

Too much so, I'm sure. I'm I I imagine I would have been in absolute pain in in fair in fairness to the teachers and and they weren't all unkind by the way, of course there were some that were great, um but I I think my ability to learn in the school environment had been well and truly uh uh crushed out of me by by a pretty early age.

Presenter15:01

What attitude do you have towards your children and their learning if you can have sympathy with the fact that kids, smart kids, can be in school and feel very disconnected from it?

Jack Dee15:07

I think that everyone has a specific kind of intelligence, whether and a specific talent in their life. And it du i some people have the talent of being able to absorb textbooks and then reproduce them in an exam, and that's a wonderful gift to have. But there are other people who can create amazing pieces of furniture. Now, who's the more intelligent? I wouldn't want to put that to the test.

Presenter15:33

Did you have the gift of of making your schoolmates laugh in school?

Jack Dee15:36

I always sought out the people at school that would laugh. Whether I was selecting my audience at an early stage, I don't know, but I had little time for people who didn't have a a sense of humour.

Presenter15:46

What was that driving you? Was it your raison d'être? I mean, some people just the best thing they can do is make people laugh.

Jack Dee15:52

Completely. It was uh I can remember going to school thinking, what have I got that's funny today? And if I had some new gags or jokes or ideas that were funny, um it felt like I had currency.

Presenter16:03

You got pretty miserable results in your A-levels. What did your parents say about that?

Jack Dee16:06

I said, I haven't done very well, Dad. I've you know, I've failed them all and I'm not I'm not going to go any further with it and um meaning university and I said and I and I there's a long pause and I said what what do you think I should do now? And he said um I should have some breakfast if I were you

Jack Dee16:21

Which is a great thing to have said, and it it just took the curse off it for me, and I think I moved on from there.

Presenter16:24

Bet it.

Presenter16:28

And another lesson in comedy timing.

Jack Dee16:30

Another great lesson in comedy timing.

Presenter16:31

Okay. Let's have your next disc then. We we're on your fourth of the morning.

Jack Dee16:34

So this is another kind of comedy memory really for me, which is just sitting at home with the family and watching sitcoms, Dad's Army and Step Turnsome are big favourites. But another one that sometimes I think gets overlooked and the theme tune for it brings back huge memories for me and I particularly loved this sitcom was Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads.

Speaker 416:54

Oh, what happened to you? Whatever happened to me?

Speaker 417:02

What became of the Devil?

Speaker 417:06

We used to be

Speaker 417:09

Tomorrow's almost over.

Speaker 417:13

The day went by so fast

Speaker 417:16

It's the only thing to look forward to, the best

Presenter17:24

The theme tune there, Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads, written by Mike Hugg and Ian La Frenes, sung by Tony Rivers with Mike Hugg's session band. Jack Deal, you came out of school and you weren't going to university'cause you d didn't get the results, and you went through a series of, I mean, interesting, unpredictable jobs. Take me through a few of them.

Jack Dee17:40

I had a very long period I suppose it was nearly eight years of just drifting around really, going from job to job. I was delivering incontinence pants all around parts of London one at one point for the NHS. Quite a bizarre thing to find yourself that you end up doing.

Presenter17:56

Be the

Presenter17:57

And the artificial legs?

Jack Dee17:58

Artificial legs. That was a summer job when I was a kid. There was a a small factory near Winchester and I used to put these awful artificial legs together and they were always being sent out to war zones. And so there was a the the chap who owned the factory would be reading the paper and if a civil war had started somewhere he'd he'd step up production. It was it made his day.

Presenter18:19

Um, I mentioned that you worked for a time at the Ritz, and I've seen a photograph of that point in your life, and you are wearing whites and a big puffy hat. You look like a proper chef. Were you a proper chef?

Jack Dee18:28

I wasn't, no. I actually lied my way into that job because by then I'd been working in restaurants for a while, so I thought, okay, maybe I'll make a go of this. And so I decided to train myself to be a chef. And I went to college up in North London for one day, and all the memories of being at school came back, and I couldn't cope with being in a classroom. So then I went to the back door, I nearly said stage door of the Ritz, and said, I've got an interview with the head chef. So they rang down, and the head chef said, I haven't got an interview today. And I said, oh, it's a shame because I've come so far. And I have got the interview. I'm sorry, he's forgotten. Anyway, they let me go down and see him, and he agreed. And he knew that I was lying, but he said, if you've got the guts to do that, I'll give you a job. And so I had this horrendous six months at the Ritz in the kitchen as this kind of imposter.

Presenter19:18

What section were you on?

Jack Dee19:19

Well, to begin with, I was just up to my arms in lettuce most of the time, but I was just starting in the larder section where you're preparing food for all the other sections and you're boning joints and how did you know?

Presenter19:29

How did you know what to do?

Jack Dee19:30

I didn't. I didn't know what to do. So I would tell I'd ask people, well, how do you like it done here? I mean, obviously I know, but how would you like it done at the Ritz? And so they'd show me. And they quickly realized I was so bad that I got put on the night shift where I had to do room service because they thought I could make sandwiches. But that got more complicated because someone in the middle of the night wanted cauliflower cheese. And I didn't know how to make that. So I just got cheese. I got cauliflower. It was actually, I found out later it was raw cauliflower and put some pancake mix on it and put it under the grill and it actually looked quite good and sent it off. It went up and it never came back. That was the old thing. It didn't get sent back.

Presenter20:04

Alright, I wonder how much they paid for that at the Ritz?

Jack Dee20:06

Uh

Presenter20:06

But

Jack Dee20:06

He probably collapsed with indigestion, the poor bloke.

Presenter20:09

Um, being a priest, you you properly, really seriously thought about being a priest. How how did that come about?

Jack Dee20:14

I was becoming increasingly turned in on myself, I suppose as a way, and depressed, and had turned to religion as a place to kind of hide away from what I was feeling. I felt massively conflicted in what I was doing in my life. I knew I was going hopelessly wrong. It was never going to get anywhere. What age were you then? 21 or two. Still quite young. Still quite young. But I always I had a very strong sense of destiny that was always kind of speaking to me, always saying, what are you doing here? You're in the wrong place. What are you playing at?

Presenter20:53

And so f how far did you pursue the thought that you would go to a seminary and that you would give your life to a majority of the people?

Jack Dee20:58

I got quite serious about it at one point because I think I needed it as an alibi or a refuge, yeah, an alibi to say, well, I'm a man of God now, I don't need to do anything else.

Presenter21:11

Did you talk to your parents about it?

Jack Dee21:11

Uh

Jack Dee21:12

Yeah, I talked to I'm embarrassed to admit I did. I talked to the priest at St James's and he put me forward to be interviewed by the head of the ordinance for the diocese and I had this interview with this guy. It was a complete it was just a joke. I didn't even go to church other than to sit there in the afternoon, but I was an amateur theologian, I guess.

Presenter21:34

And why do you say you were embarrassed?

Jack Dee21:37

I'm embarrassed to look back on it, I suppose, because it was folly and I was desperately confused at that time. And and it's not even as if I'm a a religious person. I would say I'm a person of faith, but I I really have less and less time for religion as I grow older.

Presenter21:53

Let's have some more music, then.

Jack Dee21:54

This actually reminds me of the very early days on the comedy circuit in the eighties. And it's true to say there was a lot more variety in those days. But John Hegley was a a firm favourite for me, and I loved this song that he he does called Eddie Don't Like Furniture.

Speaker 422:10

Eddie don't like furniture. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Eddie don't like.

Speaker 422:23

Any non-life furniture?

Speaker 422:32

If you give him some push mas He'll return to you

Presenter22:40

John Hegley and Eddie don't like furniture. Over the years, Jack D., it seems to me in things that I've read, I've been given the impression that there have been times in your life when you've had, let's say, a tricky relationship with the booze. Is that fair to say?

Jack Dee22:52

Is that

Jack Dee22:54

Yes, it is, yeah. When did that start? I I think it became a problem in my late teens and early twenties. And I think that that's all tied in with this frustration at not knowing where I was kind of aiming myself in my life.

Presenter22:55

When did that start?

Jack Dee23:10

and feeling that I was going in the wrong direction.

Presenter23:14

And so when did the moment of clarity come? When did you realize that actually it shouldn't be the sort of the stage of the writs or the stage of the pulpit, but actually it should be the stage that you're heading towards?

Jack Dee23:24

It was, you know, I'd by then I was working in a restaurant in Covent Garden, and I was surrounded by people who were students at drama school or they were already actors or musicians. And one of them said to me one day, what do you do, Jack? Meaning, in terms of performing-wise, are you acting or going to auditions? I said, No, I just work here. And that was really amazing because they just said, I can't believe, what are you talking about? Of course you're on stage. You're always on stage. You're always, you know. And almost in that light bulb moment, the fact that they had assumed that I was one of them made me realize that I always had been one of them. And then shortly after that, I found myself at the comedy store because it was something I'd always intended to do. And I went to see the show and.

Presenter23:43

Yeah.

Jack Dee24:13

This new variety of stand-up comedy and performed comedy was emerging. This was 85, so I was quite late to the scene in that respect, and I just couldn't believe it because I thought they'd started without me. This was the kind of comedy I'd always taken to my friends at school, but I hadn't seen it as anything remotely useful or tangible. And yet, here were comedians like Paul Merton and Jeremy Hardy and John Hegley, and they were speaking the language that I felt I'd always spoken. And I just knew I had to be part of it. It really felt like the missing link in my life.

Presenter24:50

How did you make the step up onto stage? How did you get your material together? How did you get your first gigs?

Jack Dee24:54

To begin with, I didn't. I went, I just they had an open mic spot on that night, and you can put your name down and go on at the end of the show, which was a terrifying thing to do. But I knew there was no way I couldn't not do that. And the strange thing was, I actually got laughs. I went on, and I was my normal, kind of a quite morose self, didn't put anything into it. And people were laughing. And there weren't really jokes. What I did was purely instinctive, and that's what worked. And it got the laughs. And I can remember going home on my motorbike actually and screaming all the way home inside my helmet, thinking, that's it, that's what's wrong with me. I'm a comedian. I didn't, you know, it was ridiculous that I hadn't put two and two together before then. But it was my epiphany.

Presenter25:40

I love that phrase, that's what's wrong with me. I'm a comedian. Let's have your next piece of music, Jack D.

Jack Dee25:45

My late manager, Addison Craswell, was uh when he rang me and said I'll be doing Desert Island discs.

Jack Dee25:51

He said, You know, it can't all be Bob Dylan, though. They won't have that. I said, I think you'll find they will actually, if I wanted it to be. So I've had one already, and this is another Bob Dylan. And this is a song that I listen to a lot when I'm preparing for shows because it's got this brilliant sense of defiance about it and wit. And this is Bob Dylan, Maggie's Farm.

Speaker 426:20

I ain't gonna work on that

Speaker 426:26

I wake up in the morning, fold my hands and pray for me. Gonna make full ideas, dial and be insane. For the same relationships, we swept before.

Presenter26:42

Recorded in 1976 at the Hughes Stadium, Fort Collins, Colorado. That was Maggie's farm, Bob Dylan, there. So you got more and more successful and the venues got bigger, Jack D. And then you won the British Comedy Award for Best Stage Newcomer in 1991. In 1992, you were then offered your first T V show. It was Channel 4. Do you remember the moment?

Jack Dee27:03

I I do, but um the commissioning editor got really, really upset. I didn't realize until afterwards, he got really upset that I didn't express any pleasure or excitement at having been given my own T V show. It hadn't occurred to me that I should say, Oh, yeah, I'm I'm really excited.

Jack Dee27:19

But, you know,

Presenter27:19

Did you feel any pleasure or excitement?

Jack Dee27:21

No, not really. I felt a huge burden of responsibility. There was it was more frightening than exciting.

Presenter27:27

Um, you mentioned um at points y you've realized that depression's been part of your life. Is it part of your life now, or is it pretty much away in a box?

Jack Dee27:35

In honesty, it's something that I manage. And I had a point about fourteen or fifteen years ago where I realized I had to sort of address it more permanently and properly. And since then, I have, and it's made a huge difference.

Presenter27:50

And is performing and going out and doing live gigs part of that? Does that really help you connect with the world?

Jack Dee27:54

Yes, it's it's absolutely is. And in fact, not performing is is the problem. If I'm not doing that, I feel completely deprived of something that I need. You just can't do you do that at your peril, because I think that way lies complete madness if you if you stop yourself having an outlet, regardless of what it is. If you're creative, you can't ignore that, and it's a pain.

Presenter28:19

Good, I'm glad you got that out, your system. Right, okay, time for some more music. We're on your seventh. Do tell me about this, Jack.

Jack Dee28:21

Yeah.

Jack Dee28:25

Well, you know, this is I've done a lot of things. I've been, you know, very privileged to be asked to do things for comic relief over the years and been to Africa on a couple of occasions. And although I have, you know, some issues with the whole thing with aid to the developing world, the experience I had out there kind of changed me. On the last trip I went to Zambia and saw these kids that had to do a two-hour march to school every day over incredibly rough terrain, very dangerous trip, but they wanted to get to school and have an education. And through the money raised by the British public, a school has now been built in their village, so they don't have that journey in the morning. So their lives are improved immeasurably. And it's only a matter of time before we start meeting those people who've grown up and said, I went to a school that was built by Comic Relief or another organisation, and it changed my life, and now I'm doing this.

Speaker 429:23

Welcome, dear Pisces. We are happy to see you now.

Speaker 329:25

We are peace as we are happy

Jack Dee29:30

Uh

Jack Dee29:31

Yeah.

Speaker 429:32

Well

Speaker 429:34

Dear Tisas, we are happy to see you now.

Jack Dee29:34

We are being sweet.

Speaker 429:40

Will come.

Jack Dee29:41

Well

Speaker 429:42

I will go.

Speaker 429:45

We are happy to see you now.

Speaker 429:49

We'll come, we'll come.

Speaker 429:54

We are happy to see you now.

Speaker 429:59

Dear Peace Cars, we are happy to see you now.

Jack Dee30:01

Yeah.

Jack Dee30:03

Yeah.

Speaker 430:08

Yeah.

Speaker 430:09

Dear deaths, we are happy to see you now.

Jack Dee30:09

The idea is we

Presenter30:12

Uh

Jack Dee30:12

Yeah, I've been

Speaker 430:16

We'll come, we'll come.

Jack Dee30:16

Will God

Presenter30:21

That was the welcome song sung by the choir of the Mandia Basic School in southern Zambia. So, Jack D, standing in front of those so many thousands of people and doing stand-up and being on the very edge of knowing whether people have found you not just acceptable and reasonable but funny and worth the ticket price, i i i it's quite an extreme place to put yourself all the time. When that teacher said to you, Well, you know, you're you're thick, Jack D, in front of assembly, I wonder if there's a little bit of just replying to that all the time, because you're so verbally dexterous on stage. Yeah. Is that maybe what you're doing?

Jack Dee30:36

Boomba.

Jack Dee30:44

Exactly in front of

Jack Dee30:46

Under

Jack Dee30:50

Yeah.

Jack Dee30:52

Uh yes, I think so. Because I I achieve nothing at school, really. I'm always trying to subsidize what I what I failed to achieve through school. And so I'm always reading, I'm always trying to improve my mind. You never give up trying to recapture that ground. And certainly when I'm on stage and if that little voice comes into my head now, it's taking a long time, but if that voice comes into my head saying you're thick, I just say, No, you're not.

Presenter31:23

No, you're not.

Jack Dee31:24

No, I'm not anymore. I know I'm not. You know, I've been able to write and I've been able to perform. I can look after myself.

Presenter31:30

Cast away and alone on the island, you'll be desperately miserable, won't you?

Jack Dee31:34

I like to come up with solutions for problems and um and I think that's one of the r things that you do a lot of if you've failed in education, you find other ways through. And um whenever I've done camping or anything like that, I've always been quite good at it.

Presenter31:46

So you would be a man with a plan. I mean, on arrival, you would think, Right, I need to find a source of

Jack Dee31:49

You would think right I

Jack Dee31:50

I think I would, absolutely, I think I'd be building a boat quite quickly.

Presenter31:53

How impressive. Tell me about your last disc then.

Jack Dee31:55

Oh, well this is a Neil Young song. I love Neil Young. This is a song that is always playing in my mind because when I've been away on tour and I come back in the middle of the night and the house is all dark and I come indoors, this song is going on in my mind. It's called Good to See You.

Speaker 432:11

I'm the suitcase in your hallway

Speaker 432:16

I'm the footsteps on your foot

Speaker 432:20

When I'm looking down on you

Speaker 432:25

I feel like I know what my life is for.

Speaker 432:30

To see you.

Speaker 432:35

Good to see you.

Presenter32:40

Memories of always coming home from all those nights on the road, Jack D. That was Neil Young and good to see you. I'm going to give you some books, of course. You get to take the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare and another book of your own. What would you like to take?

Jack Dee32:43

Uh That was Yeah.

Jack Dee32:52

I'd enjoy those books a lot anyway, but I would love a really big comprehensive encyclopedia.

Presenter32:58

Oh, yeah.

Jack Dee32:58

You know, just to keep learning stuff.

Presenter33:00

Okay, it's yours, and a luxury.

Jack Dee33:03

I play the guitar, you know, whenever I can and I feel very deprived if I haven't got a guitar, so it would have to be an acoustic guitar.

Presenter33:10

Right. And finally, of these eight carefully chosen disks, which one would you save from the waves?

Jack Dee33:15

I knew this question was coming and I don't I still don't know what it is, but I uh there's part of me thinks I might have to rescue downtown. Maybe'cause I would enjoy the female company.

Presenter33:25

It's yours, Jack D. Thank you very much for letting us hear your Desert Island disc.

Jack Dee33:28

Thank you, Castie.

Presenter34:09

You've been listening to a download from the BBC. You'll find more information on the Radio 4 website: bbc.co. uk slash radio four.