Jimmy Carr: "I Was Laughing & Crying When He Died". Jimmy Opens Up About Being Cancelled & How Anxiety Is The Flip Side Of Creativity!

Jimmy Carr (0:00)

I remember the day, I remember being at home and getting the news and laughing and crying. And then it hits you. I was very, uh, very upset by it. And he was just... just so funny. You're a fantastic crowd. Thank you very much.

Steven Bartlett (0:18)

Thank you.

Jimmy Carr (0:23)

Would you please welcome Jimmy Carr?

Steven Bartlett (0:26)

One of the most respected and best loved comedian in the world. The king of one-liners.

Jimmy Carr (0:32)

Okay, strap in everyone. You ready? I'm gonna start teaching comedy because it teaches you how to come up with original thoughts, to find your voice. You'll be chasing imposter syndrome and it's great. You should feel it every 18 months. You learn that failure is one of the great gifts of stand-up comedy and to learn how to lose gracefully. It's a good test of how much you want something.

Steven Bartlett (0:50)

How do we know what we actually want? I love what I do now, but I often question whether I should go be like a DJ.

Jimmy Carr (0:55)

Well, I can answer that question for you. No, you shouldn't. I know everything you do, you think, maybe we can make a few quid out of this. No.

Steven Bartlett (1:03)

As a guy that's touring the world 300 days a year, what advice would you give me on how to be a better communicator?

Jimmy Carr (1:08)

Speak at 92 beats a minute. When you look at the great public speakers, they all seem to be hitting that rhythm of 92 beats a minute.

Steven Bartlett (1:14)

Anxiety.

Jimmy Carr (1:14)

It's the flip side of creativity. So I think the cure for managing my anxiety is, hang on, the Netflix special drops today. So I imagine I'm being canceled right now.

Steven Bartlett (1:24)

How have you come to deal with that?

Jimmy Carr (1:35)

It's great to be back.

Steven Bartlett (1:36)

What have you been up to?

Jimmy Carr (1:37)

I've been, you know, I've been around. I've been working. I very much enjoyed this last time, and I'm kind of, I was a bit nervous coming back because it's a big show and I really enjoy it. I really enjoy listening. So I've given it quite a lot of thought. I've kind of made loads of notes. And, you know, here's what I'll kick off with. I've been thinking a lot about gratitude as the mother of all virtues. And I think I'm right in saying this. I think you would give me everything you own in 25 years' time to be the age you are now and as healthy as you are right now. And I think it's a really interesting meditation to think about, right? If you had a time machine, if you were 30 years in the future, if you could be this healthy and feel this good and be this age, you'd give everything materially that you own in 30 years' time to be back here. And just to take that in for a minute, just to take a moment to think about, wow, this is amazing.

Steven Bartlett (2:41)

What does that inspire in terms of behavioral change in the moment?

Jimmy Carr (2:44)

Well, I think it's that thing of like, I think gratitude is such an important virtue. And people talk about gratitude practice. And it does take some practice. And it often takes like, it's like a way of reframing the way that you see the world. So I think that we suffer in the West a little bit from life dysmorphia. You hear a lot about body dysmorphia or gender dysmorphia. We've got life dysmorphia. A lot of people think their life is terrible. Because there's kind of the hedonic treadmill. You get used to how great your life is. No one had a hot shower until 50 years ago. So I try and do this thing when you stand in a hot shower. George Mack, my friend, pointed this out to me, went, when you stand in a hot shower, just for a moment, just go, well, no one that you admire from 100 years ago had this simple pleasure in life. And when you look at the world that we live in, we're like, you're doing, there's been 100 billion people ever, right? We are in the top, top percentile in terms of the luck that we have had. But the lives, like the calorific intake that we just take for granted, the fact that our children don't die, you know, in the first year, the modern medicine and our lives and the entertainment that we get, we're living like kings. And yet, life has never been objectively better and subjectively worse, because the nature of humanity is our desires are memetic. So we've got this thing where we sort of, you know, how happy are you? Well, it's your quality of life minus envy. That's how happy you are.