Pierre Novellie

Ed Gamble (0:13)

Welcome to the Off Menu Podcast, Taking the Beef of Conversation, drying it in the hot air of humor, creating the Borovos of Podcasting. It's thematic for our guest.

James Acaster (0:29)

That is Ed Gamble. My name is James A. Kessler.

Pierre Novellie (0:30)

That was thematic for our guest.

James Acaster (0:32)

And every single week, we invite in a guest and we ask them their favorite ever start and make us a side dish and drink. Not in that order. And this week, our guest is.

Ed Gamble (0:38)

Borovos might be sausage.

Sorry to any South Africans out there. I get your dried meats mixed up.

James Acaster (0:44)

Pierre Novellie.

Ed Gamble (0:46)

South African.

James Acaster (0:47)

Pierre Novellie is from South Africa, of course. He's a fantastic comedian, author, podcaster, multi-hyphenate, I guess.

Ed Gamble (0:55)

Yeah, he's brilliant, Pierre. Delighted to finally get him on the pod.

James Acaster (0:59)

Yes, it's been too long.

Ed Gamble (1:00)

And he's a foodie as well.

James Acaster (1:02)

He's a foodie. He's part of Ed's little wine crew. We'll get into that later, I hope. I'll be bringing that up.

Ed Gamble (1:07)

Yes.

James Acaster (1:08)

And even though he is all of these things, we will kick him out if he says the secret ingredient, we need to be unacceptable.

Ed Gamble (1:15)

And this week, the secret ingredient is...

James Acaster (1:18)

Black Currant Lemsip. I like Black Currant Lemsip. Ed doesn't like it.

Ed Gamble (1:23)

Don't call it Lemsip if it doesn't have any lemon in it.

James Acaster (1:26)

So I like it, Black Currant Lemsip. I prefer it to normal Lemsip. Ed doesn't like it, doesn't think it should even be called Lemsip because it's not got lemon in it. We're going to see if Pierre picks it and then we can have that debate.

Ed Gamble (1:35)

I don't think he will, but it's worth a shot.

James Acaster (1:38)

It's unlikely, but I would like the public and our listeners and our viewers who might be watching this on YouTube right now to discuss it and talk about whether they think it's Tweet Benito, Tweet him.

Ed Gamble (1:52)

The Great Betweeto.

James Acaster (1:54)

The Great Betweeto.

Ed Gamble (1:56)

We've already had Lemsip as a secret ingredient.

James Acaster (1:58)

This is a sequel of sorts.

Ed Gamble (1:59)

Yeah, Phil Ellis had Lemsip as a secret ingredient.

James Acaster (2:02)

And now we've got Blackcurrant Lemsip, but I guess if they ever do any other flavors.

Ed Gamble (2:05)

Yeah, which they will probably.

James Acaster (2:07)

Yeah, yeah, then we can include that.

Ed Gamble (2:09)

They'll probably do Biscoff or something.

James Acaster (2:10)

Birthday cake flavor.

Ed Gamble (2:12)

Or salted caramel.

James Acaster (2:13)

Yeah, something like that. So we'll see. We'll see what the boys at Lemsip come up with.

Ed Gamble (2:18)

Yeah, and girls.

James Acaster (2:19)

I'm assuming it's mainly boys.

Ed Gamble (2:21)

At Lemsip?

James Acaster (2:22)

Yeah.

Ed Gamble (2:22)

Really?

James Acaster (2:23)

Yeah, yeah.

Ed Gamble (2:24)

This is the Off Menu menu of Pierre Novellie.

James Acaster (2:26)

Pierre Novellie.

Ed Gamble (2:36)

Welcome, Pierre, to the Dream Restaurant.

James Acaster (2:39)

Welcome, Pierre Novellie, to the Dream Restaurant. We've been expecting you for some time.

Pierre Novellie (2:43)

Thank you very much. When you imagine yourself as the genie, are you blue like Aladdin? Like are you a different-

James Acaster (2:48)

I'm as the guest, because it's your dream restaurant. I'm as the guest imagines me each episode.

Pierre Novellie (2:54)

OK, 100% Robin Williams, Aladdin kind of thing.

Ed Gamble (2:57)

Sort of. There's no other genie really in my mind.

Pierre Novellie (2:59)

Who else am I going to- Did I see a Panto that was better than that film?

Ed Gamble (3:03)

Yeah, yeah, I guess Panto Genie, but then, you know, it's not as good as Robin Williams.

Pierre Novellie (3:07)

Someone who was in EastEnders?

Ed Gamble (3:09)

No.

Pierre Novellie (3:11)

Not compared to Robin Williams at his height.

James Acaster (3:13)

Yeah. Also, like, genies have been, like, you know, just like a thing for centuries? You've got to say centuries. People talking about genies?

Pierre Novellie (3:23)

In the West, 800 years.

James Acaster (3:24)

A long time.

Ed Gamble (3:25)

There you go. Look, this is what's going to be good this episode, is when you try and do a bit of history, you're clearly just making it up, pulling it out of your arse, right? We've got Pierre here, who knows his shit.

James Acaster (3:34)

Yeah, he knows his shit.

Ed Gamble (3:35)