The Biggest Lessons From 2020 - Daniel Sloss - #228

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
Oh, hello, my people, welcome back. My guest today is none other than Scottish person, comedian and friend of the show, Daniel Sloss. He was playing in Newcastle at the stand and stopped by for a quick tea and a socially distanced podcast on his way down. This is the first in-person podcast I've done in seven months, and it felt so much better. I'm happy, I'll record over Skype, I will keep the show ticking over, but fuck me, it's so much better to actually be in a room with someone talking like normal humans. Daniel had a bit of a tough year. He's had unbelievable success over the last 18 months, last two years or so, and that all came crashing down when the world stopped. Weirdly enough, I went for lunch with him in March just before all of this happened, and the six-month period in between then and now has been a roller coaster of emotions, including him starting therapy, beginning meditating, suffering quite a lot with some ego depletion and depression and a bunch of other things. This is a very different Daniel to the one that I sat down with 18 months ago when I first met him, but I actually think it's very much for the benefit of his well-being long-term, and hopefully a lot of the things that he talks about today will resonate with you. If someone who has millions of adoring fans all over the world, can struggle when a global pandemic hits, it's kind of reassuring for the normies amongst us, right? Like if Daniel struggles, then it kind of gives us more license to, and he has some really nice lessons that he's got out of it. Some relationship advice, as you would expect from the man behind Jigsaw. Yeah, today is just, it's so sick. I really, really enjoy spending time with him and his new book's out next year, so we'll get him on again when that is up. If you enjoy this episode, please send it to a friend. That is the best way that you can support the show. The only way that it grows is by people like you sending it to people like you. This might have been how you were introduced to the show in the first place. Someone said, oh, you listen to a podcast, you should check out this guy. Be that guy or girl for another guy or girl. Just put it in a group chat, send it to someone. And it might actually help them reframe what they should have learned from 2020 But for now, it's time for the wise and Scottish Daniel Sloss.
I'm joined by Daniel Sloss. There's no audience. Oh, that hasn't been, there's no audience anywhere.

**Daniel Sloss** (2:57)
No, there's no audience.

**Chris Williamson** (3:00)
How is it being a comedian during a pandemic? Tell me about it.

**Daniel Sloss** (3:05)
I mean, it wasn't, it's fine now, it's good now.
Like, some gigs are slowly starting to breed back over the past month and a half. I've had really about close to 20 gigs, and those have been really nice because even though it's much, much smaller crowds than we're used to, especially in the past two years, it feels like being four or five years into comedy again. Like, you know how there's some people out there who go like, I'd never go back to high school, and there's other people who go like, I'd love to go back to high school with the knowledge I have now. It's kind of like that, man. Like, I get to go to smaller audiences, ones that, you know, that I would used to play to seven or eight years ago, but now I just get to play to them with this, I don't know, this wealth of experience that I have. It's fun. I'm sort of relearning bits of stand-up as well and relearning skills that I haven't had to use for years. And that's been positive, but it's taken six fucking months to get there.

**Chris Williamson** (4:08)
Do you feel out of sorts? Do you feel like you had the sort of the off season yips when you got back into it?

**Daniel Sloss** (4:16)
A little bit. Like it was the first time I did it. It was the first time in a long time that I had been nervous.

**Chris Williamson** (4:22)
Why were you nervous?

**Daniel Sloss** (4:25)
Because I lost all of myself worth during the fucking lockdown, you know. Suddenly going, you know, I've had a very, very good career. But especially in the past two years has been immensely intense. My Netflix came out and you go from playing 400 theater rooms to 3,000 theater rooms. And it's an 18 month tour that takes, you know, 300 shows. And, you know, it's all very, very exciting. And for the past 10 years, all of my confidence, all of my self worth, all of who I am, I have gotten from the love and approval of strangers. And it's been brilliant for the past 10 years. It's been absolutely brilliant.