The Person Behind The Celebrity

[Utter Shit]

Anyone seen this? It's a weird pseudo-gameshow that has been put on Channel 4's Youtube (and presumably All4, although I don't think it has been televised). Each episode only lasts a few minutes, and the two I've watched really make me laugh.

The very loose premise of the show is that they get a comedian on, have the interviewer sit opposite, and then behind the comedian there is a member of the public loosely connected to the comedian (in the first episode, it's a waiter at a restaurant James Acaster goes to). The interviewer then asks the member of the public questions relating to the comedian, designed to make the comedian look bad. And the hook is that the comedian isn't allowed to respond, or they will face a forfeit - in the second episode, every time Lou Sanders speaks the interviewer reads out another digit of her mobile number.

I've no idea how much of this is scripted - the members of the public seem to be part of the act for sure - but it's very funny and silly, with a few other bits thrown into the mix like Mark Silcox playing the part of 'Lux-Uri Geller', a magician who can bend luxurious items.

It packs a huge amount into each five minute episode. Fair warning, I imagine those who don't like it will absolutely hate it, but I think it's great fun. The Twitter section towards the end of each episode is particularly good.

The first episode is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3WWCN0g3BE

[Thosworth]

Really strong Eric Andre Show vibes, so much so that it's distracting.

[Hat FM]

can't figure out if i like this Luke McQueen guy or not. he's famously Lou Sanders' flatmate so i'm sure she's given him a leg up but not sure to what extent. i imagine he'll read this. Hi Luke!

[Famous Mortimer]

Really strong Eric Andre Show vibes, so much so that it's distracting.

Especially at the end. I thought it was funny, and agreed about the member of the public being part of the act, but it was also close to being an Eric Andre tribute act.

[Wayman C. McCreery]

can't figure out if i like this Luke McQueen guy or not. he's famously Lou Sanders' flatmate so i'm sure she's given him a leg up but not sure to what extent. i imagine he'll read this. Hi Luke!

Tbf Luke's been pulling daft and reasonably high profile stunts since before Lou Sanders became a panel show regular: https://amp.theguardian.com/stage/2015/oct/15/luke-mcqueen-standup-whose-life-is-a-comedy-routine-double-act-interview

I've never seen Eric Andre, but I've just watched the first two of these and enjoyed them a lot. Especially the Acaster one. It's good to see Channel 4 putting their name to weird, divisive comedy like this.

[Thosworth]

Looks like they're all on All 4. Improves over time so you might want to jump in to a random episode in Season 3+, when it hits it's stride.

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-eric-andre-show

[lazyhour]

Insane how much of an Eric Andre rip-off this is. Right down to the smatterings of canned laughter and applause. Shameless.

[rilk]

Yeah that's embarrassing

[chip]

It is rather. A tame, Last-Leg photocopy of Andre's show. Still, it's fun and novel enough (for the UK) that I'm glad this exists.