What It Feels Like To Become Famous - David Birtwhistle - #207

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
Oh yes, hello, my friends, with functioning ankles in podcast land. Welcome back. By way of an update on my situation, I've got a surgery date booked in, which is Wednesday coming. So this Wednesday, I will be going under the knife and then out of action for a little while. Hopefully, me and video guy Dean are going to be able to compensate the publishing schedule so that normal service is not interrupted all that much. I know that it might seem a little bit like I've got my priorities the wrong way around to be talking about publishing a podcast whilst I'm getting my ankle knitted back together. But it's important for me to keep putting out something that I care about. It's going to help to hold me accountable and also it's going to give me a reason to get up in the morning. So we will see what sort of desk adjustments I can make if I'm going to be able to podcast whilst being horizontal is a logistical problem me and VideoGuidee are working on at the moment. But yes, hopefully this show will not be too affected. But obviously I will keep you updated. On to today's guest. David Birtwhistle is the star of Netflix's summer dating show Too Hot To Handle. It was the number one rated show across the planet for a little while. And I thought it would be a good opportunity to sit down with Kindred Spirit, who's also been through the mill, been through the wringer to deal with the reality TV dating world. And discuss how fame and notoriety have kind of been weaponized in the modern world. People look at someone who's gone on Love Island or a reality TV show and think, oh my God, look at that. They've got a blue tick. Life must be amazing. They have unlimited amounts of charcoal toothpaste. They must be so good. They're with Wayne Lineker again. Again, at Ocean Beach. This is amazing. But is fame something that anyone should be searching for? What is the difference between being someone and doing something? It's an oddly esoteric and quite sort of existential philosophical conversation that we have today. I was pleasantly surprised to speak to someone who I think is cut from the same cloth as me when it comes to viewing the way that fame and reality TV is kind of affecting modern culture. But for now, it's time for the wise and wonderful David Birtwhistle.
Blue Tic Wanker Club, in the building. What the fuck's happening? Reality TV Wanker Club, here we are.

**David Birtwhistle** (2:51)
Hey, we've joined an elusive club of people that are known for probably the wrong reasons.

**Chris Williamson** (2:58)
Known for all of the wrong reasons, I think. Yeah, you are very correct. So today, one of the things I want you to speak about, a lot of people will know you from a recent Netflix series, which was called?

**David Birtwhistle** (3:07)
Too Hot To Handle.

**Chris Williamson** (3:08)
Too Hot To Handle. Talk me through that, then. Talk me through the experience of being on that. because yours, unlike Love Island, which was my experience on reality TV, yours was a pre-record, right? You were on that a while ago and now it's just come out.

**David Birtwhistle** (3:20)
Yeah, we recorded it in 2019 in April. So it was a long time ago and then it came out a year later. So yeah, the experience of actually filming it was awesome. Like the show itself, the production team were great and the cast were great and actually had a really good time. So like coming out of it, I already thought to myself like, if this doesn't do very well in the ratings or anything, like I've already gained personal experience from this, that's going to help shape my life a little bit. So that was really cool. Then yeah, like a year later, the show launches worldwide on Netflix and explodes. And yeah, it was like number one in 10 top countries for like a week.

**Chris Williamson** (4:05)
jesus Christ.

**David Birtwhistle** (4:07)
Yeah. Like America, UK, South Africa, australia, Japan, Italy, like loads of places, Brazil, it just exploded. It was absolutely mental.

**Chris Williamson** (4:20)
It's funny that it's distributed geographically because usually like Love Island or Big Brother or whatever is broadcast on a network within a country. And that means that the people that know about the cast members and the storylines are geographically quite confined. Whereas this situation is so dispersed. You're talking about people in fucking Italy, like America, like everyone, everyone knows a little bit, but do you know what I mean?

**David Birtwhistle** (4:51)