Comedian James Acaster

Episode notes

(Photo: Vimeo)

James Acaster is a standup comic from London. He’s appeared on a bunch of TV shows over there – Mock the Week, Taskmaster, Hypothetical and more. This past month he released his third book: James Acaster’s Guide to Quitting Social Media.

On stage, his comedy is observational, a little absurd and animated, but also really cutting. His most recent special is called Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999. He had a somewhat viral clip earlier this year from the special where he calls out transphobia and so-called edgy comedians.

This week, we’re revisiting our conversation with James from 2018. When we spoke to James he’d just released his first ever Netflix Special. It’s called James Acaster: Repertoire. The special is made up of four segments – each part is an hour long live special.

We’ll talk about the different ways comics in the US and UK develop their material and how James has struggled to bring his comedy stateside. Plus, he’ll discuss the time he genuinely believed he was in a band that could change the word, and how a near death experience led him to a career in stand-up.

In this episode...

Jesse Thorn

Host

Kevin Ferguson

Senior Producer

Jesus Ambrosio

Producer

Richard Robey

Maximum Fun Producer

Daniel Huecias

Maximum Fun Production Fellow

Guests

James Acaster

About the show

Bullseye is a celebration of the best of arts and culture in public radio form. Host Jesse Thorn sifts the wheat from the chaff to bring you in-depth interviews with the most revered and revolutionary minds in our culture.

Bullseye has been featured in Time, The New York Times, GQ and McSweeney’s, which called it “the kind of show people listen to in a more perfect world.” Since April 2013, the show has been distributed by NPR.

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