YouSaid · the spoken record

Romesh Ranganathan

lines on the record: 113
first: 2023-02-09
most recent: 2023-02-09
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“I don't want feedback. If they don't ask you for another one, I don't need that feedback. I know what the feedback is. Practice.”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, but I don't DJL on the show. I just talk. I don't mix on it So they gave me a challenge. I'm just giving, I'm just telling you this. So I was learning to DJ. They said they knew I wasn't learning to DJ. So they gave me this piece of paper on the show saying romish by the end of this series, we want you to do a 20 minute mix for the show, right? And then as we were talking about they're going to be great, and then you can do like regular mixes, da-da-da-da. Anyway, I went off and did the 20 minute mix. I submitted the mix. They played it. I've not been asked to do another one. That perceived start of a series of Ramesh mixes. Has evaporated after they heard that first”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think if you can get people to allow themselves to kind of engage with things that are outside of this kind of, I'm doing this for this and I'm doing this. If you can get people to engage in things that are for their own kind of enrichment outside of a job and outside of all this, then I think that's a way of equipping people sort of more effectively to find that, I guess, would be a freestyle answer to this. I completely”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well I don't know, but what I would say is one of the things I noticed during the pandemic was like when people's jobs were taken away or they couldn't do their jobs and People weren't able to socialize People's identity has completely disappeared. They just didn't know what they were. Like, you know, you go, if I'm not going to my job and I'm not seeing people or I'm not doing things, what the hell is this? Do you know what I mean? And I think that if people that had other stuff that they could do, I mean creatives were able to like do stuff and find some purpose and do stuff, not necessarily for people's consumption, but just to sort of sort of scratch that itch.”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To my mind, I just think there's so many variables outside of your control to get in a bath. Like, why would you give yourself a target that's so outside of your things could happen that are nothing to do with your ability or anything to get you a baffle? It's like there's a jewelry. Somebody on that jury might not like, you know, like there's so many uncontrolled. Why would you do that to yourself? Do you know what I mean? It's like what I can go is I want this show to be really good. I want this show to make me laugh. I want to make something I'm proud of. I can do that. Do you know what I mean? Like that's inside the realms of possibility.”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I know. I did think to myself, do I need to do that? I have no plan, like, you know, I don't know. I just think it's like, you know, when people go and lots of people I know that are really successful do this, where they go, I want to get a BAFTA by whenever, right?”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Can't do anything about that. What I can do something about is being as good as I possibly can in this immediate circumstance. That's all I can do. And then everything else takes care of itself. Do you know what I mean? And it might happen, it might not. But why am I thinking about that? All that I'll do is tighten me up when I'm here. I need to be like, I need to be in the moment. I need to just be loose and having a good time and then not worry about that.”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, but also the other thing is even if you do enjoy something Like if I do a panel show And I'm thinking about what the potential career path of that if I do well on this panel show, then somebody will see me on this and then I'll get booked for that. And then if I start getting booked for that, maybe somebody off in my own show, if you sit in a studio with that in your head, God help you. Do you know what I mean? All you've got to do, I'm not in control of that. That's so outside of...”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And don't, for me personally, don't think about this goal down the line that you're trying to get to. Do this thing brilliantly. Do you know what I mean? Like every single thing you come to do, do that to the best of your ability. So when I do a gig, it doesn't help me to think about what this gig could lead to. I just need to be great at this. I just need to do the best I possibly can at this gig. I'm not in control of anything that happens after that. So every single step of the way, you try and do that. the best that you possibly can. If you do that, if you love what you do and you do that, you're on a good path.”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, you know, you asked me about me being lazy, and I still believe I am lazy. And the way that I have managed to life hack that is to do things that I really do enjoy. I think for them Choose something that you really feel passionate about that you really love.”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I know that I've talked a lot about my inner voice and all of that. How I've struggled with that. But I am happy, yeah. I do consider myself to be happy. I think like... Got a great Got a great situation at home. I've got a beautiful family. I'm happy with. Being able to To do nice things, I'm sort of my mum's in a good position, my brother's in a good position Love my job, you know, all of those things, I do feel happy. Do I have dark moments where I descend into troubled times? Yeah, 100%. But that's not happiness isn't buzzing off your tits the whole time. Do you know what I mean? I think it's like going, I'm in a state of, I mean, generally speaking, it's like, you know, it's like the stock exchange, you know, you're going to have ups and downs, but generally speaking, you're on a decent trajectory. And I feel like I am, you know.”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, a little bit. I do think so. I do think so. But now what I would say to you is sitting here now if I stop being on TV now or like the phone stopped ringing or whatever, I'd be cool. It's fine. I just don't. I'm just not worried about that anymore. You know, like I will always do stand up. And if TV stops and all that kind of stuff stops. I feel kind of comfortable. I'm all right. It'll be fine. You'll see me down the park and you go, that guy looks like that guy that used to host League of Rome.”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“100%. I mean, you think about it. My dad was going all right and then it all went wrong. And then I was a teacher. I took a gamble on comedy and then we were broke. So I've had two examples of like. It going like you know everything going So definitely, there is part of me. I don't consciously think that. There is definitely part of me, you know, when you think about how How much you're willing to hustle? I think part of that comes from.”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm kind of saying to my family, I'll see you in a week, like, you know, that bit I've had to, I've actually had to take action on, really. Sometimes when you're doing a lot of travel shows, it's not really fair, you know, to be away as much as I have been in the past. But I don't feel like I work hard. Like I really love what I do, like I love what I do so much. And I know that's a really privileged position to be in. And sometimes I'm going to be honest with you, if I'm working on a script at three in the morning because I've got to meet a deadline, I do think, oh, God, this is bullshit. I am working hard now. Do you know what I mean? But it's still fun. I'm still writing a script about some guy. I'm still writing a script being trying to be funny. You know, that's what all of my day is.”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I work a lot. I mean, there's no doubt about that. Whether I work hard or not is another question. I mean, I just like. Everything I do is like fun. I know that's such a wanky thing to say, but I love doing stand up. I love doing panel shows. I love doing travel shows. It doesn't ever feel like I'm working hard. The only struggle I would say is that I'm away a lot. Do you know what I mean?”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah. I just feel like... Feel really lucky. I just feel like so much of that is outside of your control. Do you know what I mean? That's why I feel like I feel a bit like I don't want to, there's part of me that doesn't want to accept that. Do you know what I mean? Like, accept that comment that you make. You sort of go. There's so much luck to this. You know, I think comedy is a meritocracy up to a point, but then you just get lucky. And, you know, so I do feel really lucky. And don't get me wrong, I'm very grateful.”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“A little bit, I mean, the whole thing, man, is like my dad never saw me really. I mean, I started doing the circuit. I mean, like, my dad died before I became a full-time comedian. He's not seen any of it. He saw, like, me doing these shitty gigs, and he used to come to all those gigs, and he started to see me do some circuit gigs, which were like, you know, they were like, you felt like you'd made it. You know, you're playing a 400-seater room on a Saturday night whatever feels great. Like you feel like I'm in show business or whatever. Never really saw any of that. You never saw me do any TV. Oh, no, he did see me do one terrible bit of TV That was like my one thing that he saw me do. It went terribly, so he's only ever seen me have a terrible time on TV. So, yeah, it is a bit bittersweet to be a son.”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And it's not great. I said, if it's that easy to get online with the Apollo, everyone would be doing it. Do you know what I mean? But he kind of veered between being quite harsh and being like, he always thought I was going to make it. He had no doubts. He was like, you are going to make it as a comedian. But then he would come and see me at Gigs and he'd go, the first guy was a lot better than you tonight. Like he'd go, you need to think about that. Because he goes, you did fine, don't get me wrong, but that first guy was great. Like that's who everybody's going to remember after this gig. And he goes, so think about it. So he was like, he would give me like honest and heartfelt criticism. But within the remit of, within the context of the fact that you are going to make it. But I'm just telling you tonight, you weren't good enough. Do you know what I mean?”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So when I started gigging. I was trying to get stage time, and it's quite difficult to get gigs. Like, there was a good open mic circuit. It was quite difficult to get gigs. My dad was running a pub at the time. And he said to me, just run a gig here. And you can host a gig and you can book people, book your mates or whatever. He goes, we'll do it. And I go, okay, so I started running a gig there. And we were like, when I did my first gig there, it'll go to me. I don't understand why you're not alive at the Apollo. I said, Dad, I've got like four minutes of gear.”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But I've just bought. I've got six months in this game still. It was like, it was incredible. And that is Sean got me that, man. Do you know what I mean? He was giving me work. You know, I'll never forget that.”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The money that you get for doing life at the Apollo basically would pay my bills for six months, right? And so I didn't have an agent at the time. So they had to phone me directly. We were dropping the kids off at nursery. And I got the phone call. It's like, Ramesh, this is a guy from Live at the Apollo. Just wondering if you wanted to be on the next series. And I just went, hold on a sec. I just went, I don't live at the Apollo, man. And I went, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think I can do that. And straight away I go, I can do comedy for another few months. You know what I mean? I can pay bills for the next few months. I don't know. It might come to the end of that few months. And I was still not got anywhere.”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I started becoming a writer on stand up for the week. And then he did a show, and called Chaumd and he got me in as a writer on that and then they did a press launch for the show and they were doing a comedy gig as part of the press launch and Sean got me on that comedy gig And I did the gig and the guys that produced live at the Apollo were there for that gig because it was like the same sort of production house that do the show. I had a great set and two days later they phoned me and asked me to be alive at the Apollo. And like at that time”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Anyway, when we were on tour, he started doing the show called Stand Up for the Week. And that was like they did topical material and you had writers working on it. And he said to me, can you write me some stuff for the show? Actually, what you started doing was you started going, what do you think about this story? And he goes, you know, what comedy angles have you got on this story? And I talked to him and he'd like, go, okay, okay. And little did I know, he was trying to help me out, right? So he was trying to test the waters. So he goes your angles on this. Then he goes, can you send me some stuff? Like, send me some stuff you've written. And I remember sending some stuff and he goes, this is all shit. This is unusable. And he goes, try again next week. I'll send you the stories. Have a go. And then I did it again. And he goes, some of this is good, most of it is shit. And then I did that another couple of times. He goes, right, do you want to come into the writer's room? He goes, I get into the writer's room and you can sit in and do some stuff. So I sat in and then I became a writer on stand up for the...”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm really sorry we don't have a car anymore. I don't know what to tell you. I can't afford, like, there's no way every day I spend trying to get that 450 quid, we've got to pay another 150. It's just like mad. And then I told Sean about it, and he straight away goes, I'll give you the money to get a car. He goes, I just lend it to you. He goes, I know you're good for it. He goes, I know you'll start making money from comedy and you'll be able to pay me back. And I never took him up on it. But saying that was huge. Like it was so huge.”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And that money from those gigs was basically keeping our bills paid. If I didn't have those gigs, I don't know what we would have done. And then during that time. One of the things that he offered to do that I never took him up on was I couldn't pay the road tax on my car and had some money due to coming from a gig. And I said to Lisa, when this money comes in, I'll pay the road tax. Watch to her when this money comes in, I pay for the red tax. Anyway, we came home from the shops and the car was gone. and they'd impounded it for not having road sacs. And I phoned up and I said, How do I get my car back? And they said, Well, it's a £450 fine, and it's £150 for every day that we have the car for. So I said, enjoy the car and then put the phone out.”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, well An interesting one with Sean because Basically, what happened was he saw me at a gig in Brighton and Like he liked the set or whatever. And then he was going on tour and I was like. So at that stage, if you're a tour support, basically he asked me to support him on tour. If you're tour support, you drive the act, you drive the main act. So I'd go and pick him up and... At that stage, I was so broke that, you know, sometimes I think I don't know, you get paid after the gig. Like, you know, after you've done a run of gig. Sometimes I thought, I don't know if I've got enough money for petrol to go and get him. Like it was proper, like, I was like really running on fumes financially. So I was picking up taking two gigs.”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I have said that to her what I would say is that sits in direct contradiction to how many times I phone her. Do you know what I mean? Like I tell her I love her. But I don't get in touch enough for as much as she'd like. I don't see her as much as she'd like. Yeah, I probably should sort that out. I mean, I should probably sort that out. But she knows. She knows what I think of it. Yeah, definitely. I've got no doubts in my mind that she knows what I think of her.”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“This is amazing. Do you know what I mean? This is amazing. I mean, don't get me wrong. I do sometimes have a go at her and go, you don't need that, mum. Do you know what I mean? You like chill out. She does things that annoy me. For example, she crashed her car. She wasn't happy with the courtesy car that we're offering. So she then said to me, Romi, you need to give a guy that works with the insurance company two tickets to your toe because he upgraded my car. So she does stuff like that And like, but mate, she's like, what, I mean, she's incredible. You know, I can't. I can't say no to her. It's debatable whether she takes a piss or not. But my mum's amazing. She's amazing. Yeah, I owe a lot to her, you know. So she is a hero of mine, definitely.”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“She's like a hero of mine for how she's been through all of that time and how she continues to be now. I mean, don't get me wrong. She loves spending money and she loves being recognized and she loves a celebrity, like being a celebrity. She loves being on TV, all of that. But I'm delighted. I'm delighted that my mum's period of life now after what she went through is being on TV, being comfortable, having her house paid off, drives a nice, like, great, wicked. Do you mean like...”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I mean She's amazing. You know, you think about. She came over from Sri Lanka. She was 1920 when she came over. She grew up in a tiny village. Gets thrown into this new country. She tries to make her way, make new friends. Her husband is immersed in the world, in the country much more than she is because she's a stay-at-home wife and mother. And she's like, you know, making her way. And then her life gets thrown upside down and she goes for a position where she has to single-handedly raise her two sons because her husband's kind of dipped out. And on top of that, she's got to deal with a heartbreak of what her husband has done. As well as go what I've got to like, I've got to brush my shoulders off and start and support these kids. It's amazing. You know, it's amazing. And so she...”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, 100%. And it's something that I'm really conscious of with my kids now because. You sort of go, I don't want them to get the message that I don't love them. But then you run the risk of like buying them everything. Do you know what I mean? It's like a difficult thing. I love you, have it. I love you. Have it. PlayStation, yes, I love you. Like hoodie, yes, I love you. Trainers, yes, I love you. And then you go, hold on a minute.”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly, exactly. And then he couldn't, in the circumstances, what I should have done was gone, okay, cool. I'd love to get it. That's what a good kid does Could you get it for me when we can, or I'll find another way to get it?”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Do you know what I mean? Like, why are you valuing that stuff? I remember I've got a really vivid memory of wanting the new public enemy album, right? It was like $8.99 on cassette or something. And my dad said, yeah, I'll get it for you. And then on the day he just didn't have a tenor. He didn't have a tenor. He didn't have any money. And I flipped out. Do you know what I mean? I flipped out. You promised me you get, but at that time, you look at the context of it. You'd be forgiving. If you've been forgiving to that ramesh, everything's going tits up. This album is like some sort of security wants to listen to that, some sort of normality, do you know what I mean?”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So yeah, when he passed through, I felt really close to him. But, you know, there's loads of things. There's things where like, if I'm being honest with you, when we started to go, when things started to go wrong, I was quite materialistic. Can I have this? Can I have that? Why can't I have that anymore? What are you doing? You prick.”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And my dad opened the card and he said to me, he read the card and he went really quiet. It was like in the middle of quite a raucous family get together. And he opened the card up really quiet. And he just said to me, do you honestly mean that? Like he just didn't believe that that was my view of him. And like he couldn't, and then I realized up to that point, my dad had just thought he just thought we weren't cool because of what had happened in the past. And he goes, he said to me, do you honestly mean that? I said, yeah, of course I do. And then I felt, you know, I felt like I feel like now my dad knew what I thought about him. Do you know what I mean? And what I think of my dad is that he was a deeply, deeply, deeply flawed human being that had a lot of great things about him.”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We never spoke about it again. And if my relationship with my father hadn't it improved after this point, I don't know how I would feel about that conversation. It would be something that, and even now, as I'm saying it to you, I made up with my dad, but it kills me that I said that to him. I don't disagree with anything I said, but it does kill me that I said that to him. But when it was his 60th birthday, My dad's got loads of brothers and a sister. A load of them came over from Canada and Australia to see him. And I wrote in his card. Thank you for being a great dad and somebody I look up to.”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Like, what are you doing? I just went into this rant and he sat there, mate, as I'm telling you now, he took it from me. And like, you know, you think about... Know Asian culture, you don't talk. You know, my dad was very laid back, but you don't talk to your parents like that. Do you know what I mean? But he sat there like he took it. He took every word from me. I stormed out the house, and the And my mum watched me have this conversation and ordinarily my mum would have Pick me up on it, but she didn't. and I never spoke to my dad about that conversation again. So I went out for a bit. I came back in the next day we never spoke about it. My dad never asked for an apology. I never apologized to my dad.”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I mean So, well, no, is the honest answer. I think that you can. In a position where you don't feel that. I mean, look, you're always going to feel like I should have said I love you more or whatever. But I remember when I was eighteen. I come back from uni and I'd been out with some mates getting drunk and I hadn't told my mum when I was going to come back and I came back later than I said I was going to. And I walked in pretty inconsiderate and drunk and my mum and dad are sat in front of the TV. And my dad said to me, how can you come back at this time? And I said to him, how can you even talk to me about what I should be doing in this house? And then I just launched into. Monologue about how he had no right to tell me anything that I did in my life, how he wanted to walk away, how can you come back?”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The thing that I feel really sad about for him is that sort of when he passed away, he hadn't really got himself into a comfortable position. You know, like everything had gone wrong and he was trying to work his way back up. But, you know, my recollection of my dad right up to the day he died was like absolutely working his ass off and kind of chasing his tail. So that was a bit of sadness in that, you know, I kind of think I wish he'd had it a bit easier in his legs. You know, sometimes I think, you know, I'll be honest with you, if my dad was still around, I would be broke because he would have burnt through all of my money that I'd made from comedy. Like my dad was such so irresponsible with money. So, but yeah, there's a bit of sadness there.”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was hard, you know. Like my dad was a person that I was most like in my family. My mum and my brother are very similar. And I'm very similar to how my dad was. So I found it really, really difficult. I found it really, really hard.”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was really difficult because I was really close to my dad. I mean, my relationship, as you can imagine, was very troubled with my dad because, you know, I'd seen this guy. I'd seen this guy kind of want to leave us and, you know, he'd been sleeping around a lot with a lot of different women. And I'd seen, you know, when we're in the bed and breakfast, I'd seen my mum cry herself to sleep every night. And it was really hard, you know, that's all because of my dad. So that was really difficult. And I remember I'd had loads of arguments with him. He tried to be a parent again. I resisted because I felt like he didn't want to be a parent. How can you come back in and start? So, you know, there's very difficult. But then as we got later on in his life, we got really close again. And, you know, I'm absolutely just delighted that when my dad passed away, I had a really good relationship with him.”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, and so then basically what happened was that the period after my dad passing away. We had to sort out my mum's final. It turned out my dad's finances were a house of card. He got this pub that he'd been sort of borrowing money from the house to finance and all this. It was like a nightmare. So it just meant that it was like the start of my comedy career was pretty tough. We would just start throwing our time into trying to figure that out.”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“She was like, What do you want to do? She goes, You can't work with that team anymore because they don't want to work with you anymore because they feel so pissed off with you for what you've done. She said, we can move you to another head of year team. And I sort of knew that I was going to leave to do comedy at that stage. I thought it was not fair to go and join another head of year team only to leave. So I just said I'll become a state. Like, you know, I'll take a step down and be a math teacher and not have any of that responsibility. And so I just did that for the remainder. When I left The thing that kind of turned things upside down again was like three days before I was due to leave teaching my dad passed away suddenly of a heart attack. And so”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They said to me The lady said to me, she's lovely. She said to me, so you couldn't come back because your wife was poorly. And I said, yeah. As soon as it actually said that, I thought this is over, right? And then she goes, right. And then she just opened this drawer. I just poured out this folder and it had like reviews me appearing on lineups. Like it was a comprehensive dossier of what I'd been up to at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival And it was just so tricky because I just thought that would be great to have. But as soon as she said that,”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“My wife's poorly, and so I can't, I feel embarrassed. I can't make it back. And they went, okay. And so I said, I'll be back as soon as I can. And then I just was like, okay, that's fine. I've got away with that. And then I came back to school the first day of September. And nobody in the office was talking to me. Like it was like a proper frosty atmosphere. And I thought, oh, God, what's happened here? And then I opened my computer and it said, could you come to HR? So I went to HR and they...”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So vad, man. But basically, I was head of sixth form. Actually, I was junior head of sixth form. And I don't know why I had to make that clarification. Literally nobody cares. Sorry, was Roman, I'm pretty sure Rosha's junior had a sixth in that period of his life. Anyway, why did I make that correction anyway? So basically I got asked to do this show at the Edinburgh Fringe. Every night it was just like compilation mixed bill show or whatever. And it's like a big opportunity. But I was supposed to be back for A level result. So I just got in touch with him and I said...”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And then my agent, then I got an agent. And the agent said to me, if you really want to give this a go, you're going to have to leave teaching. And so I talk to my wife about it and we were like, okay, so I decided to leave at Christmas. So you give it like a half terms notice or whatever.”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It hadn't occurred to me. Well, that's a lie. It had occurred to me. But I didn't think you don't, there's so many people trying to do stand up, man. Like so many people. What are the chances that you're going to be able to make a living out of it? It's like so slim. And also just hadn't seen it as a career thing. But yeah, somebody goes. It was actually a competition. I did in a competition called Say Think You Funny in Edinburgh. And I got to the semi-final and it's like one person gets through to the final and I made it through to the final. And then one of the judges came up and said, oh, the reason that we put you through is because as soon as you walked on, we go, this guy's going to be a comedian, like you just look like you're going to be a comedian. You can definitely do this for a living. So there's just something about you would just go, this guy's going to be a comic. And so that's when I was like, okay. And then my gigging them had a bit more purpose. And because before I was just like, I'm just going to try and get good at this. But then now I was thinking, oh, maybe I could do this for a job.”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I just started doing gigs. And then. Started to go really well. And then somebody said to me Know you could definitely do this for a job.”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, logically it was foolish. There's no getting around that. Well, what happened was I started teaching and I was really loving it. And then. I I just wanted to do stand up as a hobby, like all loads of teachers have got hobbies, right? How many teachers are in bands, right? So I just thought this is going to be my thing. I'm going to do stand up.”
2023-02-09 · The Diary of a CEO · Romesh Ranganathan: There's A Dark Voice In My Head That I've Learnt To Control · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT