Host: Welcome to Mischief Makers, your one-stop shop for all things Mischief. Join your host, Dave Hearn, as he finds out what makes Mischief, well, Mischief.

Dave Hearn: Hello and welcome to another episode of Mischief Makers with me, Dave Hearn. And with me, I have the wonderful and very cheery Mr Greg Tannahill. Hello, Greg.

Greg Tannahill: Hello.

[GT laughs]

DH: There he is. There's that cheer. Very cheery. So, for those of you that don't know, this is a podcast for people to get to know Mischief. And for those of you that do know, ignore that last bit. So, this is obviously Greg's first interview, and the first section is the "Getting to Know You" section. Greg, we had a quick chat before this started and you know it's all done in one take; we're just going to go straight through. But I don't have any jingles. So I need you, well, I don't need you. I'd like you to...and I do need you really because I don't have any jingles. But I'd like you to improvise a short "Getting to Know You" jingle.

GT: A little Jingle..umm. All right.

[Greg sings]

It's Greg, Greg

What's his life about?

It's Greg, Greg

Is it boring? ♪

[Both laugh]

DH: Ending on a question. Very good. And let's explore that question. So actually I’ve got this written down here. When I said to Greg, "Do you want to do this interview?" you said you were worried about being boring. I don't think you're boring at all, but why are you worried about being boring? Do you think of yourself as a boring person?

GT: Not necessarily. I don't know. I think my insecurities throughout life... If I end up talking for a while, my brain just starts going, "Oh God, what am I talking about? Is this actually interesting?" And self-doubt kind of creeps in. I've had it most of my life as far as I can remember. Usually it's absolutely fine, but yeah, I just can't help having that little bit of my head going, "Ooh, hang on, Greg. Why are you talking about that?"

DH: Sure. In the moment, are you ever talking to people being like, "I'm sorry, I'm being boring," or is it always afterwards?

GT: Usually afterwards. But definitely in the middle of talking to someone, I might kind of trail off or change the subject or ask questions of someone else because, yeah…I think of myself as quite…oh, well, here we go. We're struggling for words. What's the word?

[Both laugh]

GT: Not very eloquent.

[GT laughs]

DH: Okay, yeah.

GT: But that's just self-review. I might be very wrong.

DH: Well, it's hard, isn't it? Because when I think of Greg, I don't think of you as a boring person. I'm not like, "Oh, Greg. Boring." I'm like, "Oh, Greg. Happy and fun." You often strike me as someone who's very joyful and quite bright.

GT: Some people find that boring you know. "Oh, here he is. Happy Greg again. Can't he be a bit miserable for once?”

[Greg laughs]

DH: “Where's old angry Greg?"

GT: Yeah. Come on, give him some horrible life tragedy.

[GT laughs]

DH: Well, we can try and discover some.

[GT laughs]

DH: The first thing I've got here is that you grew up in the countryside, didn't you?

GT: Yeah. Well, kind of. I was in the town centre area of Hereford, so I wasn't in the rural local area of Herefordshire. But a short journey in one direction from where I lived and you're in farmland and lovely walks and river and all that. So yeah, not a huge city. Even though it is technically a city because it's got a cathedral and stuff.

DH: Oh wow.

GT; Not a massive life. I was kind of a country-city boy, if that makes sense.

DH: Because you quite like camping, don't you?

GT: Oh yes. Oh yes, yes.

DH: What is it about camping?

GT: One thing about it is kind of for years now, me and a load of Herefordshire friends have tried, as best we can, every year at least once to go on a camping trip together. Whether or not that’s on someone's land that we know or somewhere random. It’s usually on someone’s land that we know. It's just a great excuse to get together and just camp out. We build fires, do meals over the fire. There was one year where we did a full lamb on a spit, which was amazing Then we do loads of stupid stuff. We drink. I've got a longbow, so I bring that along sometimes.

[GT laughs]

DH: You've got a longbow?

GT: Yeah.

[GT laughs]

DH: Aren't they really tall? Like six feet?

GT: Oh yeah. Tall. I think it's a good foot higher than me. So at least seven foot-ish or something.

DH: Wow. you must be very strong to fire one of those.

GT: Yeah, you have to put your back into it. If you mess it up, you can scrape your forearm a bit, but that's why I've got an arm guard for that very reason.

DH: And you’ve got a leather kind of legless patch?

[GT laughs]

GT: Yeah, exactly. Safety first.

DH: So how far can a longbow fire?

GT: Ooh God, I don't know the exact distance. I'm no expert. I just own it.

DH: I’m gunna Google it right now.

GT: But out in the countryside I've lost a few of the arrows I got with it. And quite a few have disappeared over the horizon, never to be found again.

[GT laughs]

DH: So if you were to guess, how far do you think?

GT: Oh God. My sense of distance and stuff's terrible. I’m just gonna throw a number out there. I'm going to say 350 feet.

DH: Oh okay. So someone here says a flight arrow of a professional archer in Edward III's time would reach up to 400 yards.

GT: Oh!

DH: Which I think is like... a yard is like 90cm, so call it a meter, it’s like 350 metres maybe.

GT: Wow.

DH: There you go. And then the practice range was allowed to be no less than 220 yards during Henry VIII’s time. So, there you go guys, we’re learning something here! Would you say you're good with a longbow?

[GT laughs]

GT: Aw nah, I wouldn’t say that. I've only been able to use it a handful of times. Yeah so no I definitely wouldn’t say I’m good. But I got it to lodge in a tree or two and a hay bale and didn't hit my friends so that’s good.

DH: That's pretty good. That’s a good day out: fired a longbow, didn't kill anyone.

GT: Yeah.

[GT laughs]

DH: And did you learn how to throw a hatchet or something, is that you?

[GT laughs]

GT: No well again, not officially. Well in the countryside, I've thrown a hatchet or two. You know, countryside - you entertain yourselves with what's around.

DH: For listeners who aren’t so au fait with medieval weaponry, a hatchet is like a small axe, right?

GT: Yeah, yeah. Kind of a little one that you can use with one hand. But for a Birthday a good few years back I just went to one of those axe-throwing places that have sprung up over the years recently, in London. Just chucking hatchets at the wall. And you know, I didn't do too badly.

DH: How many did you throw?

GT: I can't remember in total. We got to do quite a lot and then there was a little tournament. My dad was there and my dad was just ridiculously good.

DH: Your dad's a soldier, right?

GT: He used to be, yeah. He was in Military Service.

DH: And so is that why he's good at throwing axes do you think?, that’s scary isn’t it?

[GT laughs]

GT: I think that's definitely part of it. My dad's had a very interesting life. Maybe that's why I fear I'm boring because my dad has definitely had a way more interesting life than me.

DH: You just get told stories?

GT: Yeah still to this day like every now and then I’ll find out something new which is great, it’s always good to still be finding out something new about your parents. But I remember years ago just suddenly finding out that he used to drive heavy goods vehicles around the country for a few years...

DH: Oh wow.

GT: And I had no idea, that’s a big chunk of your life, I just had no idea he did that. So yeah he’s been in the military, he's been a bodyguard and now he works in film and stuff. You know I won’t go into all of it and plus I don’t know how much of his military stuff I’m allowed to say, he might have to hunt me down and kill me!

DH: Sure, sure.

[GT laughs]

GT: But there was one particular story about my dad which sticks in my mind is me and my brother years and years ago when we were younger, we put up a punching bag - that we got cheap somewhere, in our house and we were just messing around with it. We hung it up with these chains and all three of us: me, my brother and my dad just kind of wailing on it, no skill or anything and then my dad just suddenly, who at the time must have been fifty-something I don’t know just suddenly jumps in the air and does a spinning back heel kick on it and me and my brother were just stunned. And he - my dad who downplays everything, was just like, "What? What's up?” We were like, “No no no, you can't just be casual about this!" So yeah. My dad, mental. Oh no.

DH: Sorry. What I'd done there was I needed to cough, so I muted myself in order to cough and then as you were talking, I did respond I said "Oh wow, your dad did like a roundhouse kick on the bag," and then there was no response. And I was like “this is strange, why isn’t Greg responding to me?”, and then I realised I was muted.

GT: Oh wow.

DH: So there you go.

GT: So I chose exactly the wrong point to stop talking and just give some dead air. We don't like dead air on radio. Dead air.

DH: Shall we do a bit of voluntary dead air now?

GT: Okay, yeah sure.

[Pause]

DH: That was like we'd gone, wasn't it? We're still here.

GT: Yeah, yeah. I hope that confuses some people.

DH: I hope people do that thing that sometimes I do on podcasts where I skip forward, just skip forward to that dead air bit and I’m like “Wow this must not be working”

GT: Oh no, this downloaded wrong. Yeah.

DH: We’ve fooled you. So, hold on, we’ve gone off track which I quite liked, I’m pleased with that. Your dad is some kind of strange and wonderful humble military man and is perhaps a reason why maybe you worry that you're not as “interesting” as him because he’s lived this kind of crazy life.

GT: Possibly. Yeah, possibly. I’ve never really thought about it like that before, but was just kinda spitballing. Possibly that’s part of it because he’s kind of like throughout his life done these interesting things, jumping from one to the other whereas from a young age, I’ve had the parts I wanted into the entertainment industry of course which has you know taken me down some very interesting roads whereas he’s kind of been around the world doing crazy stuff and then massive career changes and stuff like that. But hey, I'm still young. That could happen to me.

DH: Still a young man. I'm always amazed when you speak to people who are our parents age or older people, and they say things like "I drove HGVs around the country for eight years." And you're kind of like.. "what?" That's a long time. But I suppose if you're in your sixties or seventies, then eight years doesn’t necessarily feel like a huge amount.

DH: Yeah, it’s a small percentage of what you did.

DH: Yeah. And so it true that when you were younger as well, this is maybe a thing that got you into acting, did you do ballet?

[GT laughs]

GT: Not ballet. Well I’ve done a little bit of ballet. But um, sorry I'm just closing my mail because it made a very loud noise at me...Yeah I did dance when I was younger. So during college, I did a little bit throughout school during school plays you know when dance was necessary for a number. But yeah just in college I had a few friends who went to the Hereford Academy of Dance. And I think at the time I probably had more of a mindset of you know "girls are dancers, boys aren't dancers."

DH: Yeah.

GT: But yeah a few close friends of mine (male friends) went to the school too and I really wanted to because I'd always loved dance as well just watching it back then as well. And I think it was largely part of my decision to actually give it a go at the school, was the fact that I had three male friends there as well so it kind of gave me the courage to kind of join as well. And yeah loved it. I was doing it once or twice a week, kind of modern jazz. There was a little bit of ballet, touched a bit on tap as well, but mainly modern and jazz. I did for a year, maybe two years something like that.

DH: And how old were you?

GT: That was college so I must have started when I was sixteen, seventeen, something like that I think.

DH: Oh okay so we’re talking naughties sort of time?

GT: Yeah yeah yeah, yeah.

DH: Yeah. Cuz I definitely think now its not so controversial “boys don’t dance” but I remember one of my ex girlfriends was a dancer and she was in a school with a year maybe had 30 people in it, and probably less than five maybe were boys. And it was this real kind of idea that men don’t really go into dancing. And I think that really came from this sort of strange thing in the nineties particularly where there was the sort of evolution of the lad culture. Of the “new lad” and it was I don’t know this sort of pro masculine thing that became this idea that yeah men didn’t really do dancing in the same way. I can’t remember if it is true, I think it is true that the England rugby team did ballet. Cuz I imagine it’s incredibly like any kind of dance training must be very good for fitness and balance, strength and stuff like that.

GT: Oh totally, totally. Yeah I remember feeling the difference quite quickly when I did it back then, I was quite active back then as well and talking about the lad culture and stuff I also had a friendship group of rugby players as well, so I had that more laddy friendship and then a more theatre-based friendship group who were arguably more open-minded when it comes to guys dancing. My fitness definitely changed massively when I started dancing regularly in a different way, rather than just kind of endurance, stamina and stuff it was a different type of endurance and stamina and coordination for one thing as well. And yeah, loved it. It’s extremely satisfying when you nail the routine. Especially when you’re surround… cuz at the time I never became one of the best dancers there I was always like less flexible than most people around me and less coordinated cuz most people around me in that school had been doing it a lot longer than I had. But still the satisfaction to kind of keep up with everyone else and gradually start sweating a bit less when you get to the end… yeah..was great, really good.

DH: I think it’s one of those things cuz I find like I pickup physical stuff pretty quickly, but for some reason, I don’t think I’m a very good dancer. I find learning choreography really difficult. And I'm always amazed by when I see clips of these dance auditions that have forty or fifty people in them...

GT: Oh yeah.

DH: And they get shown a routine once, if they’re lucky twice, and then they’ve just got it. And then actually have to do it. And you’re just like “Wow, that’s amazing” I hear they’re quite...I'm glad you didn't go into dance because I think one of your weaknesses might be that you're such a kind of like kind and warm person, and not that dancers are not kind and warm...

[GT laughs]

DH: But I hear that the kind of audition process is a lot more..,.

GT: Oh yes, quite ruthless.

DH: Emotionally competitive.

GT: Yeah, yeah.

DH: Yeah.

GT: I mean we've both got dancer friends and I've heard, I’m sure you have as well, heard a whole bunch of ruthless stories about auditions just kind of going in and then after two hours of intense dance and workout after seeing a routine only once, it’s like "Okay, bye. Don't want you."

DH: Yeah, you’re done.

GT: Or it’s like: “Okay bye, we've already got a redhead." Or something like that.

DH: Yeah, so much more based in that kind of world. So you could have been a longbow-man or a hatchet thrower, or a ballet dancer or a street dancer but another thing you could of been was…we should talk about MC Frostbite.

GT: Oh God. Nooo.

DH: We should bring that in. We should bring that in.

[GT laughs]

DH: You know so unpack MC Frostbite for us, tell our listeners about that.

GT: Oh god. Of course this was going to come up.

[DH laughs]

GT: Right okay. Fine. When I was younger as well I was quite into Hip-Hop, Drum and Bass and Rap. There was a particular club/bar that was very good at Hip-Hop and Drum and Bass nights and stuff like that. And long story short, me and my friends just used to freestyle rap at each other just for fun. And it always just was fun, you know there were silly raps, never too serious. I just found myself enjoying it more and more. Never taking it too serious or anything. But long story short it just led to me doing a couple of rap battles on a little stage.

[GT laughs]

DH: I think that's so...you sort of tell the story with a brittle embarrassment but I think it's so brave to kind of step forward and do something...I mean I can't imagine anything more nerve wracking for a lot of people to do something like that.

GT: Yeah. Well no I think the reason why now I’m a bit like “urgh” about it is because I haven't done it for yeah I think like over ten years now since I gave it a proper go. So I think my rap muscles are definitely covered in cobwebs.

[GT laughs]

GT: So I think that’s mainly why. There was a time in LAMDA there was a particular night, I don’t know if it still goes on, called ‘The Sleazy'?

DH: Yes.

GT: Where students can kind of just get together, and its just a kind of fun night, a bit of drink and stuff but people can put on little skits or shows or dances or songs whatever they wanna do, it’s very much the students. And yeah there was another student in a couple years above who was known for rapping and the rumours about me, about MC Frostbite...

[Both laugh]

GT: Had got around my year, and at this point I hadn’t rapped for ages as well, but someone…Oh Tristan! I’ve forgotten his surname, he was like “Oh yeah will anyone come up and battle me?” And then a couple of my friends were like “Oh, Greg Tannahill, Greg Tannahill” and I just thought nothing of it like “Yeah of course, nothing gunna happen” but then annoyingly the guy on the mic heard that and went “Greg Tannahill, alright, bring him up here” in front of everyone, and so it was that horrible moment where you just realise everyone now knows that your name’s been put forward and I just had to get up there and give it a go.

DH: Oh wow. How did you feel in that moment?

GT: Oh man. Dread. Absolute dread. At that point I hadn't rapped for years. And I was like “Oh god, this is gunna be awful.” I was never one of those rappers who wrote them down and prepared some of their favourite lines and and go to kind of stuff, which some rappers do, I was always just like “Ahh, sod it, I’m gonna do whatever” And so I was going up there with nothing in my head going like “Oh, okay, I’ll just kind of hit some of my old favourites” So yeah, just went up there, absolute dread. But I'd had a drink or two, once I got started it was fine.

DH: What was the result of the battle?

GT: I'm pretty sure I dropped out before he did for sure. But I stayed standing for longer than I thought rapping about local LAMDA stuff, insulting some of the teachers and stuff probably.

[GT laughs]

DH: Very good, I mean that’s still very impressive. And did Tristan have an MC name?

GT: Ooh, not that I can remember. I dunno.

DH: I’m just thinking Tristian, MC Viper you know or whatever.

[GT laughs]

DT: And sort of Greg and MC Frostbite, yeah.

GT: Frostbite as well came from like nothing, I think me and my friend like someone called themselves “Quake”, Do you know I’m gonna give them a shoutout today, John Neugen called themself MC Quake.

DH: Quake, nice.

GT: Cuz rhymes were very non sensical about cereal and stuff..then we had Lawrence Fox who was Spitfire, MC Spitfire…

DH: Nice, that’s a good one.

GT: And then we had Ed Haw, who’s an amazing dancer and great rapper and beatboxer, still, who was called MC Edit.

[GT laughs]

DH: MC Edit.

GT: Yeah. Or Edit MC. And yeah so frostbite just kind of came out of nowhere I was like I dunno “Frostbite.”

[GT laughs]

DH: And yeah, how does that happen does one give oneself a name or are you sort of endowed by somebody else.

GT: I don't wanna make any assumptions, again I’m not expect in proper rap culture, or anything, how you earn your name but I’m sure people get given their names for better reasons than that. I just kind of picked a name.

DH: Wow so what do you think mine would be?

GT: Ahh man, could be anything. Uh…

DH: Could be MC Dave, I quite like that.

GT: Prism. I’m just thinking triangle.

DH: Prism? Yep very triangular features. Yeah so MC Prism. MC Trigonometry?

GT: Yeah, ah yeah Trigonometry. Trigonometry MC.

DH: Trigonometry MC. Or like DJ Scalene.

[GT laughs]

DH: Or MC Isosceles is pretty good.

DH: Coming at you at a right angle. Yeah.

GT: See you’re very good at this, this is good. So I think it’s like like yeah I find the idea of getting up and sort of freestyle rapping really scary cuz you know I've watched 8 mile once which obviously I’m an expert...

[GT laughs]

DH: But I think yeah I find the idea of that obviously that’s pre-recorded and everything presumably they write down the best lyrics and the best stuff that they can record for the movie but an environment in which you...I mean even if presumably you write some stuff down, there is still a large element of making it up on the spot, especially if you are responding to someone.

GT: Yeah, yeah, well you know it's like anything we do on stage really. It's still putting yourself out there kind of putting yourself in a potentially vulnerable position, with all the eyes and ears on you. But again I kind of its like anything as well, the more you do it, the more comfortable you become. Which is why back when I was I dunno eighteen, there was definitely a time in my life where I was like “yeah, if anyone calls me on stage, I’ll happily go for it” Doesn’t matter if I bussed out then I’m fine with that as long as long as I spend some time up there, get a few line out that I’m proud of, have some fun. That’s it. But now, no yeah, my knees would be like going crazy.

[GT laughs]

DH: Yeah it’s weird isn’t it. I think when you’re sort of eighteen to twenty five, you’re bullet proof.

GT: Yeah, yeah.

DH: As you get older, you sort of learn, I dunno I guess you learn more fear and more embarrassment.

GT: Yeah. Especially if you stop keeping it up, for sure. That’s how I find it anyway. If you stop doing it you stop stretching those muscles then yeah it’s gunna be scary again.

DH: That’s true and I think to be fair like now if I had to get up and tell a joke or read a comedy scene, or do a physical thing, I’m kind of unnafraid of it, not cuz I think I’m so brilliant I won’t fail, but more because I’m just like “Oh yeah but I’m probably gunna fail and that’s fine.”

[GT laughs]

GT: No yeah, exactly yeah. I feel the same way, Its just with that sort of stuff yeah I’ll get up I’ll give it a go, If I fail, it doesn’t matter. It’s okay. You gotta fail to get to the good stuff.

DH: So I think this is a good time to have just a quick recap, You know hatchet, longbow, dancing, military father, MC Frostbite, you know and this guys worried about being boring. This is great. This is all fine quality stuff. Now what I’m going to do is I’m going to redirect us to something that may be quite boring. So you and I, are sort of both self professed nerds.

GT: Yes.

DH: And although I suppose it shouldn’t be a confession really.

GT: No, no no.

DH: I feel like sort of since Stranger things it’s become a real badge to wear. And so we like video games and fantasy films. We are both a big fan of the famous role playing game Dungeons & Dragons.

GT: I am indeed. Yes.

DH: In which you have participated as a player as have I, and we're both currently participating as game masters or dungeon masters, running games for our friends, particularly during lockdown. And so what is it about D&D that you enjoy so much?

GT: I love that it's a combined story that you and some mates are kind of living and making up as you go along. And yeah the freedom of it as well. Just the theatre of the mind. How you can sit there and you’re literally just describing things that you wouldn’t be able to do in a computer game. The kind of like freedom of this adventure world you’re in is much more vast than any other game. Because the limits are only your mind. Obviously, there are rules in the world like if you try to jump to the moon, that would probably be impossible. But if you wanted to jump to the moon in that game, you could try, and you all will experience...

[GT laughs]

GT: And laugh at that attempt and the failure.

DH: Sure, yeah yeah. A thing I learnt from doing research into the world, and looking into it the thing that I gathered really quickly was that there’s lots of different types of people that play D&D. And there’s some people in there that kind of really are attached to the rules, and are really kind of like almost restricted by them, but what it does is it offers them a kind of outlet for that. I think they like the numbers and the restrictions, and the slower pace of it. Whereas I think for us potentially it’s, maybe as actors or creatives, I don’t know, but it’s finding as you say one of the first things you said was about the freedom of it. But either way, I find that the community that exists within the world is that is more about kind of doing rather than what’s right or wrong its about doing what is the most fun thing.

GT: Yeah.

DH: And like what’s the thing that will give you and the players the most enjoyment. And I think that’s a really cool idea for a game.

GT: Yeah. No, yeah totally. That’s what I love about it. And I’m Dungeon Mastering a particular game that I’ve been doing for some friends for quite a while now and yeah so there have been loads of crazy stories and stuff to happen and even though I’m the Dungeon Master, I know the world their in, and I’m kind setting it out for them and describing things where they go, I know the world, I have learnt to be prepared to be unprepared.

DH: Mhm.

GT: Like there might be a situation where I’ll be like “Oh okay they’re probably gonna come in this way and talk to this character here or maybe if they don’t do that, they might just come in and attack them from from this other point” But then suddenly they’ll take this completely other approach and you know like I said before a computer game might be limited to those two approaches because that's what the data says. But in Dungeons and Dragons, you can completely fool the Dungeon Master. And just come with this really imaginative fun thing as well. And also something I really like about it as well is the fun of it and also how everyone starts really caring if you play it in a certain way, obviously its Dungeons and Dragons you can play however the hell you want, you can come at it in kind of very much more numbers way, you can do a lot of role playing, you don’t have to do role playing at all. Like as long as everyone’s having fun, that’s great. That’s what it’s for. The people who made Dungeons and Dragons and stuff they with all their books they say even though they’ve got all the rules in there, “these are guidelines, use them if you want, throwaway what you don’t want, as long as everyones having fun.” But what was I saying? Oh yeah, going back to people caring, recently I had my first player death in the party I Dungeon Master for.

DH: Very exciting.

GT: Yeah and it was amazing how much it really affected everyone. Everyone really kind of even-though this was like an imaginary halfling...

[GT laughs]

GT: Which my friend was controlling for quite a while who just died during a battle. Even though this is imaginary, it’s all in our minds, everyone was stunned and quite sad. But afterwards, we were talking about it afterwards, they were still sad and stunned, but they were also talking about how upset they were but also how fun it is because narratively its such a great dramatic point in the story, that they’ve all experienced together. And so yeah, I just love that about it. You can just be living out an epic film together.

DH: Yeah it’s a kind of combination of well it’s that great thing isn’t it of storytelling, there’s actually something really nice as an actor that’s its not necessarily for an audience. It’s for just the people in the room.

GT: Yeah.

DH: I remember actually in one of my proudest moments ever, I’ve only ever Dungeon Mastered one game, and that’s the one that you’re currently playing…

GT: I am indeed, yes.

DH: Henry Shields and Henry Lewis and Charlie. And I think there was a character in there that you guys had got to know and I sort of knew about two sessions ahead that I was gunna kill that character in a kinda horrible explosion.

[GT laughs]

DH: And I think I remember describing that character, revealing the character had died in this explosion and I really remember everyone’s face because we were playing on Zoom, I really remember everyone’s face shifted and I was really like “oh everyone’s very upset” but I remember not being proud that I’d sort of killed someone in an imaginary world, but the idea that you’d built a story enough for people to care.

GT: Yeah.

DH: Cuz it’s quite an energising feeling.

GT: Yeah, exactly. Either the high points and the low points, it matters. The fact that it matters is the sign of a great experience and game.

DH: So yeah I think you and I would both encourage people, even if you’re not an actor or a creative in anyway, you don’t operate in the theatre industry or anything, it’s a very good creative outlet if you wish to experiment with your friends or play a fun game.

GT: Definitely. Give it a go. Give it a go. Be a nerd. Nerds are the source of a load of stuff that people love, all your favourite movies, written by nerds.

DH: Very true.

GT: Yeah, all of that stuff, Game of Thrones, all of the most popular TV series ever, written by nerds. It’s the nerds who entertain the masses. So yeah, give it a go.

DH: It’s very true. So I think that rings us the end of the "Getting to Know You section."

GT: Cool!

DH: And now we’re gonna move on to the Questions from the Web.

GT: Oh.

DH: So these are questions that people have sent in via Twitter. So can you give us a Questions from the Web jingle?

GT: Oh a jingle for this as well.

DH: Yeah!

GT: Ooh Eeeh.

[GT laughs]

DH: Good Start, finding the note.

[GT laughs]

GT: ♪ Surfing the web,

picking up those question marks,

What are the words before them?

Written by you - for Greg.

[DH laughs]

DH: I enjoyed that a lot. What are the words before them written? well we’re gunna find out what the words before those question marks are.

[GT laughs]

GT: As long as they’ve got question marks I’ll happily answer them.

DH: These, have I wrote question marks? I have, I have actually put question marks. I’ll send you a screenshot of it afterwards as proof. So what’s kind of happened with this recently is members of Mischief Theatre have taken to hijaking the questions from the web and people tweet in questions, which if we have time we’ll get to. But they’re often just nonsense things like “Why is Harry Kershaw the best person in the world?”

GT: Well I’m sure that’s been answered far too many times, I’m not gunna get involved in that debate.

DH: Too many times. Well namely the prime culprits are Bryony Corrigan, Charlie Russell, Harry Kershaw, Niall Ransom and Steve Rostence alright. You have been named and shamed alright. Now there’s some, we’ll get to them. We’ll do genuine.

GT: Are these all on Twitter? I don’t check my social media stuff very often.

DH: No these are all on Twitter but this is good because you know I think if you can...

GT: Ahh dammit I should have checked and come in prepared. Ahh no no. It’s better this way, fine.

[GT laughs]

DH: This is good. So the first question is from @LiterOfCola85.

GT: Great name.

DH: And she wan’t to know, it’s actually two questions, “What was your favourite part of coming to America, and secondly she says "you mentioned a while ago you were gunna take an ancestry test, did anything surprising come up? "

GT: Oh wow, did I Tweet that wow? Wow good memory. Let’s see the first bit. Favourite part of coming to America, let’s see, ooh there was so many things that were amazing about New York, I had a great time. Do do do do. Well the first thing that springs to mind is well, we were spoilt rotten when we got there. And I think having my own apartment in Brooklyn was great. I'd never lived alone before then and I loved it.

[Both laugh}

GT: Not that all my living situations before have been terrible, or with terrible people but that was my first experience of living alone and I was spoilt with a nice apartment in Brooklyn surrounded by great places to visit and stuff so yeah that was the first thing. And yeah I was a short walk from Brooklyn Promenade and the Brooklyn Bridge.

DH: Ah nice.

GT: Yeah so just suddenly being in that environment in a city which throughout my life I was just kind of seeing on the screen you know just kind of like fantasy place you know. Oh that’s where movies happen. That's where aliens go.

[GH laughs]

GT: That’s where what’s his name is Home Alone 2.

[Both laugh]

GT: So yeah I think that was probably my initial - this is great because I’m just living in this great city in a great situation. That was my initial response but there were so many other things, great food, great theatre.

DH: Yeah it’s an amazing city it’s the only one other than London that I sort of would seriously consider moving to. Then at the same time I think you know I’ll probably only if we could have the lifestyle that we had.

[GT laughs]

DH: And being looked after in that way was very luxurious.

GT: Yeah. Indeed.

DH: So, what about the ancestry test? Did anything crazy come back?

GT: Oh wow um god. Now it’s been so long since I’ve looked at it, So I won’t be able to remember the specifics, but I do remember my parents saying like when I was doing it, “oh what’s gunna come up?” And my parents being like there will probably be a little bit of Russian in there and what was the other thing? and I think Dutch they were like “Oh yeah that’s probably gonna be in there, That’s something we’re sure about” and long story short it came back, neither of those things at all.

DH: Oh wow.

GT: No so throughout my whole life I thought “Oh yeah so I’m part, there’s a bit of potentially Russian in me and a bit of Dutch..but no, none of that. There was mainly British Isles and kind of some I think was a region of Spain or something which surprised me.

DH: Oh very exciting. Old Spanish Greg.

GT: Yeah and nothing else crazy comes to mind. Yeah I didn’t get anything like The North Pole 99%. Didn’t get any of that which I was hoping for you know and a lost legitimate son of Santa.

DH: That’s kinda what you’re hoping isn’t it.

GT: Yeah that’s what I’m hoping.

DH: You’ll find that you’re sort of related to royalty in some way.

GT: Yeah I was really hoping for that. It’s a good excuse to like re-connect with him. Put on a load of weight and just you know blame it on a job cuz I assume I’m gunna be delivering presents to children and you need to be fat for that.

DH: That’s true.

GT: Yeah. Șo unfortunately I didn’t get the results I wanted but yeah.

DH: That’s okay. You are who you are and we love you for it.

GT: And my DNA.. I'm human, at least. That was confirmed.

DH: Yes yeah yeah yeah.

GT: Yeah.

DH: Perfect. So our next question is from Dr Christine Saxon.

GT: A Doctor ooh!

DH: A Doctor, exactly. I don’t know a Dr of what. Do let us know Christine. How difficult was it learning the flying sequences in Peter Pan? And did you ever get hurt?

GT: Ho ho. Yeah the flying sequences for Peter Pan...oh god back in the early days of it. What year was our first Peter Pan? was it 2013/14?

DH: It must have been I think it was 2014. Oh no maybe 2013 actually yeah because it was the year before we started the tour because we did it at Pleasants didn’t we.

GT: Yes yes. So the flying, with the harness I spent an important amount of time making sure I got it to a point of comfort. So it wasn’t just burning into my thighs. And I was taught how to do the somersaulting and stuff professionally and safely and all that and the hard thing about it yeah was making it look out of control.

[GT laughs]

DH: Yeah.

GT: And keeping it moving for those kind of crazy sections. Because in the other sections it wasn’t too bad, I was just kind of being lifted and lowered into the right spot. Well so an important thing about it was having a great fly team.

DH: Yeah so a lot of trust.

GT: Who was our first guy? Was it Luke? Luke wasn’t our first guy was he?

DH: No in the Pleasance, we had Mr Tom Platt.

GT: Was Tom Platt the first person who flew me?

DH: Yeah he basically ran the show. He did everything. He did all the revolves, he learnt all of that stuff.

GT: Oh wow so he was flying me.

DH: Yeah with these big old waffle hands.

GT: Oh man, good on him. Well yeah so in the pleasance days we had, as you know Dave we had a few less kind of strict safety measures in and stuff…

DH: 0 safety measures.

[GT laughs]

GT: Less crew, we still very much doing a lot of the backstage stuff too. Which is great, I still kind of miss those days of running around backstage as well, to a certain extent. And yeah so one of the hard things about flying and one of the great things is that me and, it must have been Tom Platt, would experiment quite a bit. And kind of so one of the hard things about it was guessing what kind of motion I was gonna be heading into next.

[GT laughs]

DH: Sure, yeah yeah.

GT: And kind of keeping myself prepared especially for when the stage was revolving at the same time. Making sure I’m kind of shifting myself and dodging and clambering over the walls as they move past me and also that first set had that kind of jaggedy design.

DH: Yes it was quite a sort of giant, lethal, serrated blade.

GT: And so this brings me onto answering the question of did I ever hurt myself? Ah yes...

[Both laugh]

GT: There was a particular time,I have many times, but there was a particular time I’ll describe where I got lowered or my legs swung down at one point and which they did quite often and they kind of clipped the top of the wall. You know performance mode, adrenaline, didn’t think anything of it blah blah blah. I’d like cut my legs a bit before in the past my green rights got used to having like little dry matted bits of blood.

[GT laughs]

GT: But then there was I thing I used to do where I had to run down and kneel down on a bit of foam and push on the narrator. And so I was kneeling down, I’d pushed on the narrator at that point, and Tom, Oh I’ve forgotten his surname..

DH: Tom Platt?

GT: No um, our first…

DH: Tom Eden?

GT: Tom Eden. Yes Tom Eden. The wonderful Tom Eden. Pushing him on and I remember just kind of looking down at my knee and wondering “Ooh what is that?” And just seeing this pool appear around my knee and kind of bleed into the foam that I was kneeling on and oh yeah it was a pool of blood and what had happened was a chunk of flesh had kind of come off my knee and was so I had this kind of meaty flap off my leg. And that was kind of horrid. And yeah so I dealt with that for the next few weeks just letting it heal. And sod it I’ll tell this bit as well. One of the stupidest I’ve ever done in my life, in the shower just kind of, it was still flapping around there, kinda loose bit of skin and I was like “I’m just gonna get rid of it now its healed probably enough”. I went and got some scissors…

DH: Oh no.

GT: And I thought “Oh yeah I’ll just snip it off it’s probably a bit of dead flesh”, there was very much still nerve endings and stuff in there. And it was one of the most stupid tings I’ve ever done in my life and it was just me in the shower naked just going “yeah yesss.”

[Both laugh]

DH: Slipping around, bleeding, holding a bit of skin.

GT: Ah yeah so that’s probably a long winded answer to the question but still to this day I have scars on my shins from those early Peter Pan days.

DH: We should have given you shin pads or something you know.

GT: Well they came along later plus we did less slamming into the set.

DH: Yeah we had healthy and safety and insurance and stuff.

GT: Yeah yeah, all that stuff.

DH: We’ve probably got time for one more question from the web and you might have actually already answered this with the previous story but Matt Thorpe, presumably the creator of Thorpe Park he’s messaged saying "What was the hardest stunt that Greg has had to do actually during the filming of The Goes Wrong Show? "

GT: Ooh hardest stunt. Let’s see. Probably...none of them were too physically straining I’d say like being dropped past the window was, I get asked about that one quite a lot but in reality it was was all I had to do was keep my body at the right kind of angle…

DH: Sort of Flat

GT: And know how to land properly in a pile of cardboard boxes and otherwise my life was in gravities hands quite a bit to police it. But I’d say the hardest was probably pneumonia a technical level from what the technical team told me, was jumping through the window.

DH: Oh wow.

GT: Yeah because that one I felt I had to keep a lot more things in mind. I had to be conscious of a lot more things because there was kind of a different element of danger than I had ever had to deal with before. Because I can’t remember the names of all these different types of glass that they told me but the particular one I was jumping through I was told I had to smash through kind of arm up by my face and lifting my leg and to make my arm and my leg hit the glass as close to the same time as possible. And part of the reason that was specified was if I went too top heavy, the glass even though it was designed to shatter, it’s still designed to be slightly sturdy. If I went the top half too much, the bottom half would still be able to cut me if my legs got dragged across.

DH: Wow.

GT: So there was still a chance of that. So that was something I had to particularly keep in mind and also just a little detail of that as well, I had to as soon as I brush myself down after jumping through I walk off camera and I had a team of people rush up to me with little brushes to brush my eyebrows.

DH: Yeah I remember that.

GT: Because the glass kind of becomes this dust thing and there’s still a chance of it getting in your eye ball and scratching your eyeballs and kind of doing damage. So that’s why I had to have a team run up to me and I had to keep my eyes closed and they had to clean it all off to takeaway that danger.

DH: I remember that because I think I then come through the door in literally like two seconds with you behind me so I remember sort of being stood waiting for you having tiny little fossil brushes put on your eyebrows.

[GT laughs]

GT: Yeah. So I’d probably say that was the hardest for a different kind of reason I’d ever experienced before. All the other ones were kind of, I’m trying to think of all the other stuff I’ve done…Bank Robberry was just making sure I could dangle right.

DH: Well the theatre stuff is kind of okay isn’t it because you end up doing it every day but TV it feels like there’s more pressure to get those big stunts right because it takes so long to reset.

GT: Oh yeah and with the glass especially. That was another factor of the glass, I was told we only had a limited supply of this special glass so I better not screw it up.

DH: I remember when I had to cut the glass ball balls in Christmas Episode.

GT: Oh yeah.

DH: We had like six of them. And there were like four in each take, or I had to cut up two. So we could do two takes with four but they were like one of the most expensive things in that entire episode.

GT: Oh really? I didn’t know that.

DH: Yeah. It was just crazy. And so Emma the stage manager was really just like we can’t rehearse with these and she was very sweet and then on the day she went “You can rehearse with one, okay one.” I said "Yeah I gotta see how it breaks before I do it in front of the live audience." But she was very sweet it’s weird those smaller things end up being the bigger things.

GT: Yeah. Dangerous.

DT: Ok we’re approaching the end now. Rapidly approaching the end. And I’m gonna kick us up another gear by getting us into the Quickfire Round.

GT: Oh god okay.

DH: I keep saying Quickfire Round, like it’s a quiz, Quickfire Section. And so could you give us a very quickfire jingle?

GT: ♪ Quickfire, quickfire

Quickfire gunna come at ya

Quickfire ♪

[DH laughs]

DH: Nice. Some of that sweet MC Frostbite.

GT: There you go I rhymed Quickfire with quickfire.

DH: Quickfire, coming at ya, Quickfire. So this just gunna be like a bunch of questions and you just gotta answer them as quickly as possible.

GT: Ooh god okay.

DH: Are you ready?

GT: Uh alright yep.

DH: Okay what is your favourite colour?

GT: Uh, green.

DH: If you were an animal what animal would you be?

GT: Ugh, Hedgehog.

DH: Nice. If you were to describe yourself as a desert, what would you be?

GT: Ooh uh ooh god, a trifle, oh not a trifle I'm a Ice cream.

DH: ice cream nice. What flavour?

GT: Urggh Caramel.

DH: Nice. Is a Jaffa Cake cake or a biscuit?

GT: Ooh its a cake.

DH: Nice. If you were one of the fifty two cards, which would you be?

GT: Ooh um, Jack of Clubs.

[GT laughs]

DH: I was thinking Jack of Diamonds. Great, Left or right?

GT: Left. Ooh that’s weird.

DH: Right or wrong?

GT: Urgh Wrong.

DH: What is your favourite film?

GT: Oh Terminator 2.

DH: Which is a great great shout. What is your favourite video game?

GT: Ooh urgh I dunno...Abe's Oddysee. Came to my mind but it’s not, don’t know why it did.

DH: W'ell take that niche one and finally who would be the best Mischief Person to be trapped on a desert Island with?

GT: Ohh ohh ohh Matt Cavendish.

DH: Very good. Yeah he would give you lot’s jazz hands and chocolate. You’d die a happy man.

GT: Yeah!

DH: Well that’s brought us to the end of the quick fire round. Before we wrap up, do you have any top TV recommendations or books or anything that you think people should read?

GT: Ooh umm TV reccomdations, what have I been watching lately? I’ve been watching Ozark. That’s very good TV, but very bleak. I don’t know if you’re up for that.

DH: Perfect.

GT: Oh and actually I haven’t watched them all but I’ve watched the first episode of something on Netflix called Home Game I think it’s called.

DH: Okay.

GT: And Each episode is about a crazy sport done in different countries and I’ve only watched the first one and it’s in Italy where they have once a year a crazy sport where they kind of do a combination of mixed martial arts and rugby. So it’s crazy and violent and entertaining. It’s interesting, watch that.

DH: Okay. And that’s s called Home Game?

GT: Home Game, I think so Home Game.

DH: Okay great.

GT: And Book-wise, ahh I'm on the last book of The Broken Earth series by.. I forget their name. But it’s a trilogy called The Broken Earth, if you like fantasy, then that’s a great one to get into.

DH: Very good. Well, thank you very much for giving us your time, Greg.

GT: Thank you.

DH: And thank you to all the listeners for listening.

I've been Dave Hearn talking to Greg Tannahill. Do keep an eye out for all our episodes on @MischiefComedy and follow us on all our other social stuff, you know Instagram and all the rest. Thank you very much for listening and keep on making Mischief. And Bye-bye, Greg.

GT: Bye.