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Ray Peacock:Its a petulant reaction to a lack of TV opportunities.
EG:Certainly its magnifications of our personalities.
Ray, in particular, gets to act very childish on stage.
Is that as liberating to perform as it looks, or just exhausting?
RP:I am fun!
EG:Its not that much of a stretch… RP:So its me thats tiring, isnt it?
I am just trying to be a good boy.
Thats all I am trying.
I know that some people literally go I cannot take any more of this!
Is this a conscious decision?
EG:I think thats what we work towards best.
RP:It makes it easier to write, doesnt it?
Because then you have your defined roles.
EG:Especially with the 4 Extra stuff.
I wont necessarily be childish or idiotic, but Ill have semi-breakdowns in the show.
RP:Theres also a bit, for example, where spoiler alert!
my shirts on back to front.
Rather than last year, where I think it wouldve been Ed going Whatre you doing?
But hes not angry with me were just trying to get our shirts on properly.
Youve just finished your first tour together.
RP:Weve not had our accounts yet, have we?
It was a really nice experience, touring it.
RP:And they werent dragged out; it wasnt that we were adding things and it felt stretched.
It was very organic, it was interesting.
How much of a gap is there between the two of you in terms of stand-up experience?
RP:I started as a stand-up in around 2001.
EG:I started stand-up in 2007.
Which is how we met.
RP:It was fate, wasnt it?
EG:Jonathan Fate, my friend, he booked it.
RP:I compered a gig at Eds college…
EG:University.
RP:Eds college of further education.
EG:Durham College of Further Education..!
Do you regret that decision..?
EG:Not at all!
Edd be good on that.
It came to the point where we were going Weve not kidnapped him!
Hes not there with a gun to his head.
It just makes it a bit more interesting when theres a bit of drama to it.
I dont think he ever really walked out, did he?
And we did hit him and stuff..
RP:But it was never as hard as it sounded!
You feel like youre kicking a corpse, if you like kicking a dead horse.
EG:Thats a phrase, isnt it?
Kicking a dead horse?
And I think we do it as well, dont we?
If anyone says anything divisive to us, then we close ranks.
EG:What people wont learn is that they shouldnt join in!
RP:Say you like it, but just dont join in!
But people were writing to Raji on his personal Facebook page, and things like that…
Thinking they were being funny.
It ultimately upset Raji.
We dont really see Raji at all now.
Certainly from our point of view theres no bad blood or anything like that.
RP:Find the next thing.
RP:I think its a creatively dead medium.
It is just so over-saturated now.
So we still maintain it was an independent podcast.
I would definitely say that iTunes need to have an independent podcast chart and a branded podcast chart.
Did you find that the podcasts were bringing new people to your gigs?
I dont know how many people it actually brings who wouldnt have come otherwise.
EG:Nowt is Northern for nothing.
Its hard not to be petulant about it.
We try not to be, but sometimes…
EG:It is going alright though!
RP:Were talking about a specific faction.
Its certainly not a universal thing.
And I know from before starting the podcast to now, I have got a fanbase.
Its not massive, but I have got one.
So are you done with podcasts now?
RP:No; were doing a full run of podcasts at Edinburgh.
Not live, but were doing 20-ish-minute Peacock and Gamble Edinburgh Podcasts every day.
EG:Theyre what I like to call pod-nuggets; Ive just made that up now.
RP:The Peacock and Gamble Edinburgh Pod-Nugget!
I think we miss it a little bit, sometimes.
RP:I think the plan is to have a guest a day.
Were not done with podcasts, but theres a reason for that one.
Were done with no-reason podcasts.
Ray, you appeared in theDoctor WhoepisodeBlink [he appeared under his real name,Ian Boldsworth]…
Were you a fan beforehand?
RP:No, not at all.
I dont dislike it at all, though you watchDoctor Who,dont you?
SoBlink, the one that Ray was in, absolutely loved thats like a perfect episode.
RP:And I was perfect in it.
EG:By extension; it was a perfect episode and you were perfect.
I read the whole thing, and I just thought it was absolutely incredible.
So put that in: I have played the Doctor inDoctor Whoone day for a minute!
Its probably a deleted scene on the DVD, I would imagine they never sent it me!
It is definitely in there, more than likely.
A very, very long warm-up.
RP:I rang Miranda and went I thought youd be in this!
With the next one I went back and I thought I think I might know how to do this.
Not to Robert youre talking to Kryten, hes there.
EG:Its Muppet Wall now!
Its sort of like that.
Its like he goes to sleep and theyve just started f**king!
RP:It was an obsession from my childhood, as is myStar Warsthing that I have going on.
And I just thought Palisades made such amazing toys.
EG:I worry about his finances.
RP:That was bad, wasnt it?
But I needed it, I needed it!
If I sold my collection now, Id make masses back on it.
And they went bust doing it.
But yeah, I think theyre beautiful things and I really like them.
So Muppet Corners now Muppet Wall, and this time next year it will probably be Muppet House.
Ed, do you have anything youre particularly geeky about?
With a wall of something!
EG:But I know plenty of other people your age who dont do that.
RP:Empty people.
Empty, skint people.
I was looking for an excuse!
EG:I read comics and stuff.
I buy a lot of comics, a lot of films and boxsets.
Ive got about six or seven boxsets waiting to be watched at the moment.
I dont have anything as specific as Rays Muppet thing.
And then three days later Ill just forget about it and Ill be onto something else.
RP:Do you lose interest, or do you just go Now Im saturated?
EG:I dont lose interest; theres just something else that comes along.
But while it does have my attention, I give it everything.
RP:We are weird in different ways, arent we?
Whats it like working with him?
EG:Its like working with Ray with a binbag on his hand!
But if theres a binbag around, itll go on his hand and hell talk.
So thats what I think about working with Naughty Keith.
RP:Hes got his own Twitter (@naughty_keith), and hes very naughty on that!
I dont update that I dont know who does all that, with them naughty words.
EG:What you dont know is that Ray puts the binbag on to update the Twitter.
RP:Thats why sometimes theres too many letters.
Do you know what?
You are following a binbag.
Whats the silliest thing youve done in the heat of the moment onstage?
RP:A Dinobot.
EG:Specifically a Dinobot.
RP:There was no reason.
Middle of the show.
RP:Its called Doing a Davro.
EG:So he had no way of moving his arms…
RP:Or breaking any potential fall!
EG:So it was just potential at this moment.
And then he started to walk towards me, going I cant see where Im going!
He tripped over a lead, and then went straight down.
This is my best friend!
RP:Our stage manager thought Id broke my neck!
EG:So in the heat of the moment, that was a pretty idiotic thing to do.
RP: That was stupid, wasnt it?
EG:Because that would be a YouTube hit!
And finally, whats next for Peacock and Gamble?
EG:Were pretty much concentrating solely on Edinburgh at the moment.
But theres more of a push this year for university gigs.
EG:Make a film and then build a rocket!
I guess the ultimate aim is just really death.
Because we all know its going to happen, so you may as well just aim for that.
RP:The one thing we cant control.
Every breath could be your last one, couldnt it?
EG:So I just hold mine a lot of the time.
EG:…This interview ended ages ago, didnt it?
Peacock and Gamble, thank you very much!
