The Good Listening To Show: Stories of Distinction & Genius

Skewering the Political Landscape through the Raser-Sharp Wit of Twitter Sensation, Comedian & Satirist, the Adorable Rosie Holt!

• Chris Grimes - Facilitator. Coach. Motivational Comedian

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Rosie was 'Passed the Golden Baton' to be in the Show by previous Guest, the Canadian viral sensation "Brittlestar: The internet's favourite dad!"

Brittlestar's episode is here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1206005/13384586

Have you ever been so engrossed in a satire that you found yourself double-checking whether you're in on the joke? That's the genius of Rosie Holt – the comedian who could pass for an MP with her scintillating political parodies, leaving audiences unsure whether to laugh or call for her resignation!

Delighted to welcome Rosie Holt to the Good Listening To Show 'Clearing' to talk about her comedic journey, the viral whirlwind of her parodies on Party Gate, the Post Office Scandal and many more, plus news of her upcoming UK National Tour, that promises to tickle your funny-bone whilst also engaging in a bit of sunshine-inspired inspiration.

Peeking behind the curtain of Rosie’s life, we stumbled into a world ripe with the makings of a comedian – from the dynamic chaos of a large family to the elaborate imaginary quests with her siblings. Those early influences have undoubtedly left an indelible mark on her work, weaving a story of resilience and humor that can only come from the heart of someone who has experienced the terror of 'dying on stage.' Rosie's candid recount of the highs-and-lows of her formative years provides a touching and often hilarious testament to the power of humour in navigating life's unpredictable path.

As we wandered further down memory lane, Rosie shared her experiences of the classic horror genre's influence on her, the eye-opening indulgence of the Edinburgh Festival, and how the isolating times of the Pandemic sparked a new vein of creativity in her satire.

From artwork that speaks of hope and sanctuary to advice she'd impart to her younger self, Rosie's reflections offer a poignant glimpse into the life of an artist.

Whether you're a creative soul or simply someone who appreciates a good laugh with a side of introspective wisdom, this episode is a reminder of the transformative power of embracing our unique stories and turning adversity into art.

You can also Watch/Listen to Rosie's wonderful episode here:
https://vimeo.com/chrisgrimes/rosieholt

Tune in next week for more stories of 'Distinction & Genius' from The Good Listening To Show 'Clearing'. If you would like to be my Guest too then you can find out HOW via the different 'series strands' at 'The Good Listening To Show' website.

Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW wherever you get your Podcasts :)

Thanks for listening!

Chris Grimes:

Welcome to another episode of the Good Listening To Show your life and times with me, chris Grimes, the storytelling show that features the clearing, where all good questions come to get asked and all good stories come to be told, and where all my guests have two things in common they're all creative individuals and all with an interesting story to tell. There are some lovely storytelling metaphors a clearing, a tree, a juicy storytelling exercise called 5-4-3-2-1, some alchemy, some gold, a cheeky bit of Shakespeare and a cake. So it's all to play for. So, yes, welcome to the Good Listening To Show your life and times with me, chris Grimes, are you sitting comfortably here? Then we shall begin. Oh, yes, indeed. Welcome to a Facebook Live and another very auspicious day here in the Good Listening To Show clearing. I have a delightful viral sensation comedian actor satirist Rosie Holt is in the Good Listening To Show. I'm really excited to speak to you, rosie. Hello and welcome to the clearing.

Rosie Holt:

Oh, hello, thank you very much. Well, I had a nice introduction.

Chris Grimes:

And I haven't finished. I'm going to blow some more happy smoke out here. Oh great, you were passed the Golden Baton by the internet's favourite dad Brittle star, aka Stuart Reynolds. That's when I first well, I knew about you anyway, but when he recommended you I was very excited about that and obviously passing the Golden Baton is a construct within it and of itself. That's been quite an interesting path, because Brittle's style was passed by someone called Goodeep Panda of the Yukon, who does banger dancing on the Canadian ice scapes.

Rosie Holt:

Wow.

Chris Grimes:

And he too was passed the Golden Baton by somebody called Patrick Dexter, who also went viral, which I know you did during the pandemic. For reasons I'm not about to tell the audience, but Patrick Dexter I don't know if you know started. Well, he got sent home from school during lockdown and started playing his cello on the on the cliffs of the south of Ireland and went viral. So I don't know if you've even heard that episode yet, but that was another one.

Rosie Holt:

No, that sounds great.

Chris Grimes:

Yes, but so do you, and to blow some very happy smoke at you. So you have an extraordinarily, I think, an ingenious comedy conceit, which I've really enjoyed, where you've embedded yourself, hiding in plain sight, as I like to think about it, by becoming a bit of a conservative spokesperson, stroke woman, and you've done some wonderful sort of skewering the political landscape satire, including Party Gate. Just recently you did the most beautiful Mickey take of the post office scandal. By the way, I do have a connection to Toby Jones. It's a small old world, but I wouldn't want to do it.

Rosie Holt:

He's met him and he's very lovely.

Chris Grimes:

He's a lovely man, he is, my wife is best friends with his wife, karen, and so there's a bit of a connection where I even went to his wedding and all that thing. One of your funny lines, by the way, in that parody was the detectorists. How is that helping anyone? And you blame ITV and Toby Jones for not having made a post office drama sooner, which I thought was very clever. And what's really clever is people don't know whether to take you seriously or not and you start to piss some people off in the audience, which I think is really clever.

Rosie Holt:

Yeah, no, I do. I get a lot of people calling for me to resign because they think I'm a real MP, which I keep thinking will stop happening, but it doesn't. So I'm still getting calls to resign and please don't resign.

Chris Grimes:

Keep on keeping on because you're awesome and your comedy conceit now is on your website. I love the fact you say about yourself and it says this on your X stroke Twitter feed as well I'm just a girl standing in front of the internet asking it to love her. What a clever conceit that is. Thank you, so it's my great joy to welcome you here. So how's morale? What's your story of the day, Rosie Holt?

Rosie Holt:

My story of the day. Oh well, I went. I don't know if I have a story of the day, but it's interesting. You said morale because I'm trying at the moment. I'm trying to write for my. I'm going on tour in two months at the time of this recording. So sometimes you wake up and you feel really inspired and you think, oh great, I can write down this or that. But I've sort of been slightly searching for inspiration today and I went online to have a look and it was lots of really sad stuff about Israel, gaza.

Rosie Holt:

It just made me sad and not inspired, and obviously the more important thing is what's going on in Israel, gaza, than my inspiration. So I, instead, I took myself off for a walk, which is what I try to do when I'm feeling uninspired. And do you know what, chris, it's a really nice day, it's really sunny, it's really lovely, and it does, it feels, it feels quite hopeful. I think sometimes you forget, don't you? It's such a stupid thing and it feels such an English, quintessentially English thing.

Chris Grimes:

Talk about the weather, but actually, when it's a really nice day, everything does, everything does feel like it will be all right in the end, and you'll no doubt be familiar with that lovely Nietzsche quote, which is if in doubt, walk it out, and the best ideas happen outdoors.

Rosie Holt:

Yeah yeah, my mom's a my mom's a writer and she always, she always used to say that she'd always go go for a walk. Yes, Think about it.

Chris Grimes:

Channeling her own in a Nietzsche. If in doubt, walk it out. And there was also in researching you, which I really enjoyed, by the way, you, you, they had a comedy thing happening for you with through a dating app called Hinge, way Back when, oh yeah, which perhaps you can tell the story of, because the comedy conceit was it matched you with somebody. Quite surprising.

Rosie Holt:

Yeah. So for those who aren't familiar with Hinge, what it does is it? It's a journey. It suggests to you your perfect match and it picks out, based on your kind of algorithm, I guess, of who you tend to click on, who you like, someone who it reckons is perfect for you. So I got a message from Hinge saying we found your perfect match and you always think, oh great, and I clicked on it and it was my brother, Charlie. That's awkward.

Chris Grimes:

So it's not that sort of app one can assume. But that happens. No, it's not.

Rosie Holt:

But I mean it's not really supposed to happen anywhere, but I yeah. So I tweeted about this and it got a load of. I think it was a very slow news day because a lot of tabloids picked it up and thought this was really funny and it was funny. It was funny, weirdly, my brother. Then he got a few dates from that story because on his dating app a few people went you had that, you have that story of the boy you match with his sister. He was like yeah, that's right. No, he didn't say it.

Chris Grimes:

It's a bit sort of. It should be called the Deliverance app, really, shouldn't it? It's quite brilliantly surreal. Yeah, also, I know that you were a recent guest on my time capsule as well, and I've had my friends and Stevens in this show as well.

Rosie Holt:

Oh, yes, he's lovely. I really enjoyed doing that. Yeah, and I think people check it out, not just my episode but the whole podcast.

Chris Grimes:

Yes, and apparently it's his birthday today. So, as we recall, you're going on tour and it's his birthday as well. Anyway, it's my great joy to welcome you here Now. As you may or may not know, and anyone listening, just to remind you, this is the show in which I invite movers, makers, shakers, mavericks, influencers and also personal heroes into a clearing or serious happy place of their choosing, to all share with us their stories of distinction and genius. So, if you don't mind, I'll get you on the open road of this then, rosie. So it's all to play for clearing tree couple of random squirrels, cheeky bit of Shakespeare, a golden baton and a cake. So let's get you on the open road and don't forget, we'll ask you to say exactly where we can come and see you on tour at the very end as well. So it's all to play for, rosie. Help then. Have I said enough about positioning you? I think I probably have. You're just a very funny, very wonderful viral sensation.

Rosie Holt:

I mean, I'm really happy with that description. I'm going to take it with me and pull it out in dinner parties and people ask what I do.

Chris Grimes:

Yeah, what do you do? Is that awful, clunky question? What's your favorite way of avoiding or answering that question?

Rosie Holt:

I hate that question so much. Do you know what? It's much better now, now that I'm, because for all for ages I was sort of acting. I was doing stand-up comedy in the evening, but I was also doing some really, really boring jobs that I hated. That I didn't want to be defined by.

Rosie Holt:

So, either way, you didn't want to say what your day job was because you didn't want people to think that that was what you wanted to do. And then you didn't want to say that you were an actor or a comedian because you weren't doing particularly well as it and you'd have to explain that you were also subsidizing it by doing other things. My friend, who is actually quite a successful actor, even when he was doing really still do it when he was doing really well he hated that question and he said he always used to people would say what do you do? And he'd go I'm building a chest of drawers in my room and he'd pick like a hobby instead. But also to be fair on people, I ask that because it's you know, when you're trying to connect with someone you don't know yet, there's a certain amount of things you can ask.

Rosie Holt:

So you know so also, I have sympathy for the askers and I have asked that, but it is also difficult and maybe we need to sort of come up with new questions to begin with, I'm building a chest of drawers.

Chris Grimes:

Oh, you're a cabinet maker? Well, not necessarily, but yes, I like that. We've all got to find our own way through that horrendous scape of questions that are clunky. Anyway so where is what is a clearing for Rosie Holt? Where do you go to get cut? A free, inspirational and able to think is your first question.

Rosie Holt:

Well, it depends. I mean, in London it is harder. I mean, I love London, but in terms of finding a quiet clearing to clear your head, it's harder. Though recently I have been going into the graveyard in Stoke Newington, which is beautiful. It's kind of it's really really big and it has some really interesting graves of interesting people, but it's in this big sort of like it's in this sort of it's like in a big wood, so it's kind of a wonderful place to sit on a bench and think and clear your head. So in London it would be that If I'm in Somerset it would be something else entirely, I think. But yeah, I think, as I'm mainly in London, I'll have to go with that one.

Chris Grimes:

You're the first person in close to 200 episodes who said a graveyard, and I congratulate you for that because that's incredibly relatable as to you know the existential nuance and why we find a graveyard, so I love that. Thank you so much for being the first person to say that.

Rosie Holt:

Thank you. It's great though, isn't it? And just weirdly, you do sit there and of course you think about. You can't help but start getting a bit existential when you're sitting there and thinking about life and death and being a comedian.

Chris Grimes:

You're about to go out and you know you've heard that comedians anthem thing where you walk off stage to the sound of your own footsteps. You know we're all worried about dying on stage, and I do probably improve, and so I know you do too. You start guessing with the comedy still players, I gather, as well.

Rosie Holt:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you'll write. Death on stage is not fun at all. I think it's actually one of the worst things I've ever experienced, when complete death on stage and talking.

Chris Grimes:

And I did mention there that the comedians anthem. Have you heard of that? No, it's gone down so badly. The audience they just moved to oh.

Rosie Holt:

God.

Chris Grimes:

And you walk off stage to the sound of your own footsteps, apparently.

Rosie Holt:

I mean even you saying that I find triggering. Yes, yeah.

Chris Grimes:

So, if I may, then we're going to be in Stoke Newington graveyard. Yeah, as you're clearing and I love that, I'll just quickly ask if it was in Somerset, where you hail from, where would have been differently? But I'm still going to go with the graveyard.

Rosie Holt:

So I would go. So from my parents house, you can walk to prior park gardens, which is really beautiful. It's a national trust yeah, the national trust National trust gardens with a bridge and a river, and it's really gorgeous and I think I would go there.

Chris Grimes:

And both are lovely, by the way. But just because no one's met, I mean actually two ways. No one's mentioned a national trust. Hey, Rosie, I think the national trust is brilliant. Well, you're on fire. So, yes, the listeners might be going, don't I? Rather, he went to the national trust with her with his tree, but I'm going to go to them, but we're going to a graveyard. Lovely.

Rosie Holt:

So he's like he shots at five pm sometimes and you think, no, I need to sit in a graveyard after them. But what can you do?

Chris Grimes:

Well, that's when it gets after dark and all a bit twilighty.

Rosie Holt:

Yeah, zombies are coming out.

Chris Grimes:

Michael Jackson appears and all those things doing his thriller, yes, anyway. So, stoke Newton graveyard, I'm going to arrive with a tree now, a bit waiting for Godo esque. Deliberately, existentially, I'm going to shake your tree to see which storytelling apples fall out. And this is where you've been kind enough to have thought about your responses to four things that have shaped you. Comedian Rosie Holt, do you prefer to be a comedian or an actress? By the way, what's your I don't really mind.

Rosie Holt:

I don't really mind. I mean, I trained as an actor. I guess I do more comedy. Whatever you prefer.

Chris Grimes:

Well, the fact you're a viral sensation comedian, let's go with that. Okay, that's what your tour is going to be about. So it's four things that have shaped you, three things that inspire you, two things that never fail to grab your attention and borrow from the film up that's a bit more squirrels what never felt your attention. And then the one is a quirky, unusual fact about you. At Rosie Holt, we couldn't know about you until you tell us so. Over to you. It's not a memory test. I'll cue Rachel through it, but interpret the shaking of the canopy of your tree as you see fit.

Chris Grimes:

So things that have shaped me Four things that have shaped you, first of all.

Rosie Holt:

Things. What has shaped me? Well, I think inevitably so. I come from quite a large family. I've got three brothers and one sister and they are so I think you can't be part of a big, noisy family like that and not have it shape you as a person, and it definitely, definitely has. They're all really my brothers and sister are all very distinctive people and you know I did, I did great sort of family life growing up, but it's yeah, it's definitely something that you know. I'm second youngest, so I'm sort of in the middle and I feel a lot of it shaped me in, and I think probably being a performer as well has something to do with it, because certainly when we all lived in the house together, you're, you have to kind of work for attention and to get yourself heard a bit and you've got to make sure you get the food because quickly they're all flipping locusts.

Chris Grimes:

The rest of the yes my brother Ben.

Rosie Holt:

He's the. He's the well I've got the oldest of twins. He's one of the twins I was Charlie, the other twin. No, Charlie is my younger brother.

Chris Grimes:

He's the only one you've dated, as we've discussed.

Rosie Holt:

The only one I've dated, yeah.

Chris Grimes:

So sorry I interrupt you. It's being a sort of competing with the other locusts to get fed.

Rosie Holt:

To get fed. Yeah, but also they were. You know, there was, there were so many things about my family. So when I was small, so that there's a bit of a gaps, as there's my twin brothers, my sister, and then there's sort of a seven year gap, then there's me and then there's my younger brother, charlie, and my. My brothers used to come up with all of these worlds, when for me and my younger brother, and they play all these different characters and they take us through quests through the country, because we grew up in the countryside, and they take us through quests through the house and through the country, and sometimes they were quite harsh because we come attached to certain characters they created and they would kill them off, sometimes Cruel, quite cruelly, I think yes.

Chris Grimes:

So it's quite cider with it's quite cider with Rosie Esk. If that means anything to you, yeah, it does.

Rosie Holt:

It's an awfully long time since I've read that book, but but yes, that way I think I mean it was. You know. For example, I remember once my brother saying Rosie, can I? I think he just wanted me to put. He didn't want me to put sugar on my wheat bits. I don't know why. And I said, no, I want to put sugar on my wheat bits. He went if you do that, then Seamus will die.

Rosie Holt:

And then he started going like he started sort of pretending like Seamus was on a noose and he was going why? I thought we were friends, rosie, and then I was at that age where I kind of knew that it was. It wasn't real and of course you couldn't really be Seamus, but I was still young enough that I was completely invested in what he was doing.

Chris Grimes:

And Seamus is going to be dispatched because Rosie put sugar on her wheat bits. That's quite interesting.

Rosie Holt:

So I tried to be strong. I thought I'm not going to fall for this mind trick. I know it's not real. So I started putting sugar on my my wheat bits and then he was going why. I thought we were friends. So he said okay, I take it back, I won't, I won't and my brother would go. I'm afraid you were too late and I was already dead. They do. They do quite brutal things like that, but some of them were amazing.

Chris Grimes:

Seamus ever resurrected or that was the end of Seamus. That was the end of Seamus. He died yeah.

Rosie Holt:

He got hanged because I put I put sugar on my wheat bits.

Chris Grimes:

Yeah, well, that's a world exclusive, right there.

Rosie Holt:

Yeah, there you go there you go. So yeah, so my, my brothers used to create all these amazing worlds for me and my younger brother, my poor sister, I think. Sometimes she, she, joined in, she'd create a character and then my brothers would kill off her characters without, without her permission. They, they could be, quite they, they. There was some, like I felt like dictators of these imaginary worlds really, where what they say went and you you would find those Maybe someday.

Chris Grimes:

if you're by the rules, if your brother someday gets a friend called Seamus, you could get revenge by killing him.

Rosie Holt:

Yeah, yeah, that would show him.

Chris Grimes:

Yeah, so that's a great shape.

Rosie Holt:

It's just the the wonderful mayhem of growing up in a big in a big, big, large family, yeah, and they've all gone to, to, to really sort of interesting different things. So it's something I feel really proud of, my family. I feel proud that I've got these.

Chris Grimes:

They're all in the creative world, are they? I mean it does sound like a hive of of of imagination.

Rosie Holt:

No, so my, my brother's one as a neurologist, ben is. He he's very good at business, so he's always sort of like that. He he sort of set up this thing in schools that helps disadvantaged, disadvantaged kids who kind of get behind before they start secondary school, and it was this kind of summer camp where they could learn skills, so it was one thing he did. He's now working on a different project Now. My sister is an occupational therapist and my younger brother is is a human rights lawyer and well works for his campaign's lawyer for Greenpeace, and he does various, various other bits and bobs as well.

Chris Grimes:

And what does which? Have you covered Charlie there? What did Charlie do? That's Charlie. So Charlie is the lawyer. You should have kept dating Charlie. That's quite a success story right there.

Rosie Holt:

That's great and we had so much in common.

Chris Grimes:

Same surname and everything. Yeah, Next shape page please.

Rosie Holt:

Okay, next shape page is the. The problem with when I was thinking about these is sometimes you go is it a shape it or is it an inspiration? Sometimes it kind of feels the same way. Actually, do you know what I'm going to say for my second shape it? And it is really wanky, but it's drama school, but it did. It was great for me. It was the first time I felt that I was around people who kind of understood me and oh, I hate myself saying this, it's just so awful.

Chris Grimes:

Which one was it? Which institution were we doing? Which famous school did?

Rosie Holt:

you, I went to Lambda and it was really wonderful for me. I had a really tricky time at school and my dad always said you just need to find your people. And it took a while for me, but I did find that when I was at drama school and I think it was also what was wonderful about Lambda. I mean it had many problems, as I think a lot of drama schools do that are now kind of being exposed. But I think one thing Lambda really did is it really encouraged us to do our own work and to come up with our own stories so often, and everybody there was so obsessed with what they were doing, everybody was so creative and passionate Not just about acting but about creating ideas that often you'd get set some homework which would be to sort of I don't know, write a clown show about a tree, and we'd sort of go off and we'd stay until the building closed trying to come up with the perfect clown show about a tree.

Rosie Holt:

So I've never been somewhere since where you are constantly creating and constantly thinking about creating and being with people who all want to collaborate and everybody wants to create a good final product, and so for me it was really wonderful. I mean, it kind of got less wonderful towards the end, when the real world starts to raise its head and you think, oh, I thought To begin with, you go to Lambda and you're like I'm going to Lambda and they give you a speech. Where they go, you know this, 99% of actors are out of work. And you're thinking not me, I'm going to Lambda, I think you'll find, I think you're fine, I'm going to be fine.

Chris Grimes:

But I'm feeling brilliantly self-conscious at the moment because this is a clown show with a tree. I've just realised.

Rosie Holt:

Yay, be fair, that's probably why I thought of it, because there's a tree in your background. I love clown, I think clown's great, but yeah, so for me, for all its good and its bad, it was a really formative period of my life.

Chris Grimes:

So I didn't think it was wonky, it made complete sense. So you can have that. Thank you very much, so third shapeage now.

Rosie Holt:

Third shapeage. Well, actually I'm going to go skip back. I mentioned that I had a miserable time at school. I did have a miserable time at school and I think it did. It definitely did shape me quite a bit. I was fine by sixth form but when I was about 12, I suddenly I'd always been quite popular at school and I had a group of friends and people liked me. And then I'm not quite sure why, but when I was 12, I really I suddenly became very, very unpopular For reasons I think it was a lot of different things.

Rosie Holt:

I think one thing as I was a real late developer, so suddenly girls were starting their periods and I remember I was the only one who wasn't. Also, I had a friend and I think I decided I didn't want to be friends with her anymore. So I tried to be friends with this other group who weren't very nice or really right for me. And then we also had this boy who started our school, who was very disruptive and had been expelled from three schools before and it all got very difficult and I lost a lot of confidence and came very unpopular very fast and my parents panicked and moved me to a different school and I started this new school and I had from someone who'd always been quite a confident child.

Rosie Holt:

I was very, really shy and awkward and also I'd got my hair cut really short because I was trying to look like Winona Ryder at the time and it didn't work because I was this 12, 13 year old who hadn't developed properly yet. So I look like a. I remember my mum's really posh friend coming around and she came around and she went. Goodness, you look like a fella.

Chris Grimes:

And it didn't all end up roses, if you'll put that public expression for Winona Ryder either, because she ended up at one point, didn't she? Yeah, you might have wanted to be Winona, but I love that and but also I love your parental, your dad's counsellor, who've just ultimately got to find your people.

Rosie Holt:

Yeah, you've got to find your people.

Chris Grimes:

And your vibe attracts. Your tribe is a really nice expression.

Rosie Holt:

Oh, that's very nice. Your vibe attracts your tribe. Yes, but I but you know what? I think it's funny. I think I mean I really I've got six nieces and nephews and I really worry about them at school because I think it's such a difficult time. I think kids can be so mean. Also if I think about things, you know how. Sorry if I'm waffling.

Chris Grimes:

No, you know, if we start really well, if I as well catch it.

Rosie Holt:

Number three the way of getting out of the waffle bell. But no, I'm really enjoying it. You know how sometimes you, when you wake up at night and you think of something you're really ashamed of that you've, you did and you go, such a horrible feeling Does. That never happened. That never happened to you.

Chris Grimes:

Yes, it has really. Yes, absolutely. I was just trying to make you feel like it was just you for a minute, but it wasn't.

Rosie Holt:

Oh God. But usually most of those things are things I did at school, because I think you're still finding your way and sometimes you are a bit callous and and and things like that. So there are. But I mean, my parents always said that I was such a happy child until I went to school and I just, but I think that kind of insecurity of not really understanding why I suddenly become unpopular and and having being for about two or three years completely friendless, I think it has sort of it has sort of had a lasting impact in a way. I mean, I've got great friends. It's not in that way. I'm not insecure in my friendships, but I I still. It still hurts when I think about it. Does that make sense? It does.

Chris Grimes:

It's actually very adorable as well. It's the fact you've been to the dark side, somebody who you know. At this point, with your smile, I can't imagine you not being sort of happily popular, even if you're dying on stage actually. So it's all, it's all good, but the fact that there is a, there is a, you know you've had your choppiness as well. It's not just a bed of bed of roses for Rosie.

Rosie Holt:

Yeah, yeah, I think I think it was also because, you know, I don't. At school I was considered the teachers thought I was quite clever. But when I lost my confidence my academic ability started going down. And I started this new school and it was I'd been a comprehensive and I went to a private school and I didn't have to do the exams because they they've messed up. But the, the head teacher, had met me and got no, no, she's clearly clever. So they put me in all these sets and I just couldn't do the work. So I got kind of dropped several sets. So suddenly I had this thing where I thought, oh God, I'm not, I'm not clever at all.

Chris Grimes:

And you got really on the rock. Also, I really enjoyed the fact you said my parents panicked and changed schools, so obviously they have your best interest at all times at heart.

Rosie Holt:

Yeah, they were great.

Chris Grimes:

Yeah, oh God, we got to get out of here.

Rosie Holt:

Let's put her in a private school. To be fair, they only put me in a private school because they were going to put me in another state school and then it got my mom got blacklisted from them. So they exhausted all the state schools in the areas.

Chris Grimes:

So your mom got blacklisted at what was just because she had so many kids trying to sort of get around the kids.

Rosie Holt:

No, she. She wrote an article because she's a writer. She wrote an article for the independent. I think it was talking about how awful my school was and the school that I would be going on to and the school I was due to go to the other comprehensive in the area. I thought it was about them, I don't know why, so they were really horrible to her.

Chris Grimes:

So you were caught in a bit of a vortex for a while, weren't you Not? All of your own making. So that's a great shape. So, so we don't go too, too deep into the school system. Now the third shape. So I've done three shape. It is yes. So number four, please.

Rosie Holt:

Fourth shape page is the. So I, before I went to strong school, I went to, I went to Manchester University, which I didn't enjoy very much, but what I did love doing is I was studying English literature and I loved it. And what's so funny is I think sometimes people think I'm more well read than I am because I talk about books, but actually they're all books that I read when I was 18 doing this course. But it was, it was so. It was so wonderful. I really. It really kind of awakened my love for literature and also just how I think what was fascinating about it is with books.

Rosie Holt:

Of course, you know, there's that wonderful quote about books. Books make you feel less alone. Actually, it's not just that. I think also often, if you read a book from the 17th century or whatever, it also tells you so much about the time and people's attitudes and also about the author, and I love all that. It's sort of there's a kind of real detective work about that brings you into thinking about the time and society and and how I. Yeah, so that for me, although university was sort of I did, I love studying literature and there are books that I read then that I still talk about now like yes, I am a lot, or or weathering, heights, or you know, or the mysteries of you dole for things like that.

Chris Grimes:

Lovely. These are great shapers, by the way, thank you. So now we're moving on to three things that inspire you. Rosie Halter.

Rosie Holt:

Okay, three things that inspire me. So when I was small my dad had this book of horror store horror, no horror movies. So this mass of me still got it. It's this massive old book, it's kind of a red, red big hardback and it's got all these pictures of horror movies in the sorts of fifties and 40s, 50s, 50s, 60s. We're talking Vincent Price era and the fall of well, some Vincent Price also some earlier ones like Christopher.

Rosie Holt:

Lee and Dracula, and yes, exactly, and the what's the where, the what's the werewolf one, and I think it is just called the werewolf and with, and that has Claude Reigns in it. That one seen, that one.

Chris Grimes:

We're not talking American werewolf in London here, no no, which I love, by the way.

Rosie Holt:

I mean I'm a really I love a lot of horror, but this book was very much it was kind of 40s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s kind of old, old horror to.

Chris Grimes:

Peter Cushing, 60s, all of that era, yes, yes, and before.

Rosie Holt:

So my dad used to read this to me before I go to bed.

Chris Grimes:

I loved it.

Rosie Holt:

I loved it so much and it really really awakened my love of horror. I don't, but what I love about horror is, you know I'm since then I've got really into sort of 80s horror movies and I love you. Like American Well, for I love American Well for London well, that's not 80s. But I don't like some of the modern ones that are a bit more torture, poor need, just people being in great pain. Yeah, I'm not so interested in that.

Rosie Holt:

But I find horror so in that when it's done well, it's so inventive and exciting, and I also like how it's talking about it's able to sort of sneak in other issues and other people's fears and things like that, which, again, which is sort of what I try and do with my work. I mean, obviously my work is not at all horror, but I like the idea of being on one level just about something and then you're actually feeding through. So on the front of it I've got my MP character saying very sort of is talking quite sort of mundane way and just of explaining things, but actually what she's saying and she's suggesting we do is really really awful. Yes, and I quite like playing with that thing and I like how horror takes sort of normal situations and exploits our fears about them.

Chris Grimes:

Yeah, absolutely yes and I'm not sure if I mentioned this, but I just really adored the line in researching you where you're talking about party gate. You said I was standing there with my rose in my sausage roll, looking at 50 people and wondering if this was wrong. Yeah, yeah. So a lovely bit of subversion in there that I like that a lot.

Rosie Holt:

Sorry, I just asked to write my alarm there.

Chris Grimes:

So excellent that. So second thing that inspires you.

Rosie Holt:

So was the Edinburgh Festival. So I first went to the Edinburgh Festival when I was 18. I was at university and we did a show of Hamlet. It was very ambitious. We did Hamlet and Twelfth Night you were a failure, I think, weren't you?

Rosie Holt:

I was a failure, yeah, and we were really lucky because the student who was producing it she'd quite rich family and so we all got put up. We went there and I just thought this is the most amazing place on earth. I had such a huge connection to it. Straight away I thought how wonderful this is and everywhere, and there's theatre and comedy and people trying all sorts of things that you feel that you don't see anywhere else. And also, as a young person as well, you're going. Oh my god, all the bars are open until late. How exciting. But mainly it was just seeing all this art and and and realizing how wide the brief was. I mean, you know my idea of doing comedy. I realized to begin with when I was younger I thought I thought I don't like stand-up. I'd seen, seen what was on the TV and thought no, that's not for me. But I think what's so wonderful is there was so many different sorts of comedy and there really is.

Chris Grimes:

There really is something for everyone and satire, of course is what really drew you.

Rosie Holt:

I think so, yeah, yeah but weirdly not until not until later, really, yes, but yeah, certainly, the, the Edinburgh Festival has always been a sort of source of kind of inspiration and excitement.

Chris Grimes:

Um, yeah, I think it's just, I think it's wonderful, yes, and, and it was the pandemic particularly, that made you suddenly be in the internet seeing if, what you could make, what we, what you could vocalize, making it work.

Rosie Holt:

So you did a very clever thing where it was a sort of, I suppose, a complete deafening silence of the isolation of the pandemic which then got you to out of adversity to find a new voice and a new stride with your satire yeah, yeah, no, definitely, uh, I I mean, I think, like everybody, during the pandemic, I was very fired up and frustrated about what was going on in this country and um, and also my reaction to everything, even in life, is to joke about it yeah so, uh, it was.

Rosie Holt:

It was quite a natural thing in my head to sort of get frustrated about things that were going on socially and politically and then making them into comedy sketches and putting them online and very relatively.

Chris Grimes:

By the way, I got going with this show in the pandemic as in, yeah, the pandemic, I wouldn't have even had the idea, and I know that you've got something relatable going on with how your, your new cut and thrust is is born out of the adversity of the pandemic and, yeah, which is terrible really.

Chris Grimes:

I always say to people the pandemic wasn't all bad at my career considerably nervous, it's true actually because out of adversity come great creativity in life generally if only people have the courage to try and work out what to do when things aren't going so well yeah, yeah, which is hard because I think also.

Rosie Holt:

I remember at the beginning of the pandemic thinking great. I've always said I don't think great about the pandemic, but I thought, right, this is my chance. I've always sort of told myself, oh, if only I had more time, for only I wasn't having to work a job nine to five and then do stand up for a play in the evening. Only I wasn't doing that. I would. I had to have time to write a book or make a play or do something incredible. And then the first two months of the pandemic, I was just doing chixels or reading the count of montecristo and I, you know, I thought, oh, oh, this is awful. I, I actually don't have anything in my brain that's the human condition.

Chris Grimes:

Do you remember the loads of people sort of go? I've learned Chinese, whereas most people think God. I'm just grateful that I've managed to get my trousers on the wrong right way around and not fallen over in three days yeah, completely.

Rosie Holt:

It was a really weird pressing time. I did do a lot of chixels and I read the count of montecristo.

Chris Grimes:

So you know great achievements both, and I'm going to do. It's my fault, I've got us down a rabbit hole. So now the third thing that's inspiring for you the third thing that is inspiring for me.

Rosie Holt:

Well, it's hate to say it, but it's the government.

Chris Grimes:

Without this government, I wouldn't yes, wouldn't be doing this um sort of thank the Lord for their errand department's expression for quittery, because therein lies the genius that has become the rosy hilt's main thrust yeah, they make me so cross.

Rosie Holt:

I mean I um, so my, you know, my younger brother's always been really, really political, and so is my mum, and then it varies kind of throughout my family. But, um, I think Brexit was the first time I really I I remember being so. I remember when Brexit happened because sort of an electy bubble of thinking no, but of course people will vote, remain, and when they didn't, it was so awful I'm so she thought, wow, why have we done this massive act of self-harm to the country? It seemed so depressing. Um, so that was when I started being more political and then putting more sort of social political stuff in my, my comedy, actually, even even before anything picked up with the pandemic, and but during the the pandemic, I mean, I constantly was sort of a government to everything the government were doing.

Rosie Holt:

And also there seemed to be something typically with Boris Johnson's cabinet where he he'd surrounded himself by complete goons because he'd got rid of a lot of Tories that were quite you know good, competent and knew what they were doing. So these people being pushed on his TV he clearly didn't know anything and were defending things they didn't understand and then they were then having to defend the opposite a week later because Boris Johnson had you turned um. So it did inspire me really. Yes, I hadn't before that, I hadn't done any satire, really I'd. You know, I mean before Brexit, nothing at all. After Brexit I'd been doing bits of this social, political, political stuff, but yeah, during the pandemic was when I became really fired up about it.

Chris Grimes:

There's a very clever breakthrough to be able to get on mainstream news channels to be doing your character, because they they were obviously colluding with you, knowing that this was going to be a really good way to prick the bubble of reality no, they, they didn't, I just put myself in the footage oh sorry, I thought, because I'm pretty sure I've had mainstream anchor people asking you the right questions, but that's, that's even extra clever, it's just, you know, I mean.

Rosie Holt:

I once came early, had me on sky to talk about um my, but yeah, no, otherwise I just put myself in existing, existing news footage.

Chris Grimes:

I'm even more impressed because that's because it's so truthful and honest. It's really good, because I mean, I just thought they'd, all you know, colluded with you, knowing that this would be a really good way to prick the bubble no, no, that make um yes, that's an epiphany and a realization.

Rosie Holt:

How thick I am no, you're not the only one um, so now we're on to.

Chris Grimes:

Uh, two squirrels. What are your monsters of distraction? What never failed to grab your attention?

Rosie Holt:

oh, squirrels, you know whatever else is going on for you food, canapes, canapes, food and canapes if well, I'm really really love food, I'm really excited by food, but if I'm at, say, some swanky party and someone goes past with a canopy, I can't. I have real trouble concentrating on what anyone's saying until I can get hold of that canopy. That's such a good squirrel.

Chris Grimes:

No one's ever said canopy for their squirrel. That's a great squirrel.

Rosie Holt:

I really I can't concentrate when they're on.

Chris Grimes:

Great, I mean, that's so they're on when they're on when they're passing. When they're plated past your face, that you have to grab Love, that Second squirrel.

Rosie Holt:

Second squirrel is probably the TV. Horrible TV, I can't. I can't. If I'm singing a pub and there's a TV on, even if the sounds turn down, I end up just kind of becoming completely zombified and staring at the TV. I can't, it's terrible for me and I know how some people always have a TV on in their house. I can't, I can't deal with that. I will just end up getting completely sucked in and it's sometimes called a haunted fish tank, is the television.

Chris Grimes:

Have you heard it called that before?

Rosie Holt:

No, but that's so perfect. I feel like I'm learning a lot in this podcast. But what's a fish tank? Yes, exactly, but I can it sucks you in, it sucks me in.

Chris Grimes:

I think if you ever have a party where there's a TV on and canapes going past, you're just going to become completely bewildered. It's just gonna yeah, oh, awful.

Rosie Holt:

And I and some people like my flatmate can. He can. He watches TV and then he's also sort of texting at the same time. I can't do that. I have to do everything else goes.

Chris Grimes:

The great squirrels. Congratulations. And now a quirky or unusual fact about you, rosie Holt. We couldn't possibly know about you until you tell us A quirky or unusual fact about me, I.

Rosie Holt:

So when I was 13, I used to win a lot of art competitions and I won. I won a blue Peter badge, I won a mountain bike. I won all sorts of things. But I also won this competition where I got to meet then Prime Minister, tony Blair, and stand with him on number 10 with the other finalists, and later it's part of the same prize I got to go up in a hot air balloon with Martin McCutcheon. So there you go.

Chris Grimes:

That's awesome fact. That's great. And what was the piece of art that you produced in order to stand on number 10 with Tony Blair?

Rosie Holt:

It was for, I think it was for Amnesty International, and it was like a big bird and it was picking up lots of oh God, you know what. It was picking up lots of migrants in the sea.

Chris Grimes:

Wow, rescuing migrants.

Rosie Holt:

I completely forgotten what it was, but that's exactly what it was. And putting them in a nest to keep them safe.

Chris Grimes:

So I'm gobsmacked. That was a brilliant piece of art. It just says it all Fantastic. I did that, but that's what it was so we didn't talk about you going up in a balloon with Martin McCutcheon, but that was probably quite exciting.

Rosie Holt:

It was very nice. She was very nice.

Chris Grimes:

Just you and her, or a squad.

Rosie Holt:

No, with my family and I remember.

Chris Grimes:

Oh, so you want something for the whole family. They must have been proud.

Rosie Holt:

Yeah, they got to go up in the air. Well, I don't know if they were that excited about going up in hot air balloon with Martin McCutcheon. It was as lovely as she was.

Chris Grimes:

But Someday if I interviewed her. Do you remember going up in a hot air balloon with Rosie Holt and her family.

Rosie Holt:

I should go no.

Chris Grimes:

OK, we've shaken your tree. Now we're staying in the clearing, moving away from the tree, and now we're talking about alchemy and gold. So, when you're at purpose and in flow, what are you absolutely happiest doing in what you're here to reveal to the world, rosie?

Rosie Holt:

So I don't know if I can reveal this yet. I've been working on a project recently where I was writing and I feel like I veer in my creative world with either going I hate myself, I can't do anything, I procrastinate like mad. How was I ever funny? I can't be funny again. I hate myself. Or if I'm in a project and I'm writing something and I'm really enjoying it and it's working, it's I'm so happy. I tend to work better in the evenings, rather. So if I've got, it's terrible. If I've got like a kind of a glass of red wine and I'm sitting at my table well, all my bed, actually my boyfriend's table, because it's a lot nicer than mine and I've got like a cat on my lap, that's great.

Chris Grimes:

That's great, knowing your rhythms of winter break and what props you need. You need the red wine, you need the pussycat and you need the right desk, and then you're off.

Rosie Holt:

Yeah, brilliant.

Chris Grimes:

So in flow for you is when all that's all happening as a magic equation and we'll be tired of the TV's. Or some canapes come past your face.

Rosie Holt:

That's the Canapes keep them away from me.

Chris Grimes:

I'm going to award you with a cake now, hurrah, and you get to put a cherry on the cake and this is stuff like now. So do you like cake? First of all, I adore cake.

Rosie Holt:

I've got terrible sweet sweet tooth. What do?

Chris Grimes:

we want, then what's the cake?

Rosie Holt:

Carrot cake with lots of icing, lots of the cream that they have on the carrot cake.

Chris Grimes:

Yes, please Flop it on Lovely. And now you get to put a cherry on the cake. And this is stuff like by the way, this is a dog's toy, but it looks quite good, doesn't it? Yeah, it does. That's a carrot cake, actually, with a cherry on it. Google that shit, and this is what I found. But anyway. So now a favourite inspirational quote at Rosie that's always given you sucker and pulled you towards your future.

Rosie Holt:

Oh no, do you know what? I had one earlier and it's gone from my head. I thought, oh yeah, write this down, rosie, write it down.

Chris Grimes:

and then I went away and forgot. We failed in our way to get a quote.

Rosie Holt:

No, no quote. I've got no quotes.

Chris Grimes:

Excellent.

Rosie Holt:

Got no quotes for you. Don't have any.

Chris Grimes:

No one's ever done that before. I thank you for that. I like that.

Rosie Holt:

I promise you I didn't have one. It's gone from my head. If it suddenly comes back to you, you'll bring you back in the clearing.

Chris Grimes:

Oh, and my quote was it was probably genius, but anyway, what's the best piece of advice you've ever been given?

Rosie Holt:

So when I was a teenager, I really wanted to perform and my dad took me to see my mum's second cousin, petl, who was in her, quite a lot older than my mum, she was in her 70s and he said and she used to be an actor, she used to be an actor on the stage. And he said. He said, patl, we're trying to tell Rosie that acting is a terrible profession and she mustn't do it. She went do it, do it.

Chris Grimes:

Good old Petl, that's awesome. Do it. I love that.

Rosie Holt:

Do it, do it. Sometimes you just got to do it.

Chris Grimes:

And you're doing it. Get in With the beautiful gift of hindsight. Now what notes help or advice? Might you profit a younger version of Rosie Holt? So if you went back to your sort of now I'm unhappy at 12 self, when you said you had that sort of vortex of suddenly finding yourself, what would you say?

Rosie Holt:

Well, I think you'd want to tell you, just want to tell your younger self that it'll be all right in the end, really, don't you? I mean, I'd love to, because I think it's such a for me often what's acting as a very luck based profession, and my career got much better as soon as I started doing my own work. I mean, even before the pandemic. I was about to go the pandemic I was about to go on a six month tour in America doing a two person show which was A Parody of the Crown, which was so much fun and really brilliant. That had come about, really, because I started doing more and more comedy work and people to see me doing that. And then I got an agent and blah, blah, blah, blah, and I think I'd sort of.

Rosie Holt:

It's hard, though, isn't it? Because you think any kind of advice sorry, it's such an existential thing to say, but you think any kind of advice you give yourself, you go. Well, that would change. That would change where I'd end up, because part of me goes. Well, you should have started doing your own stuff sooner and stop waiting by the phone, and also to have confidence in yourself. I think so often it's such a stupid thing because you go. I know I need to have confidence in myself to make this happen but, I, can't make it happen with, I can't force.

Rosie Holt:

I can't force some confidence in myself and belief in myself.

Chris Grimes:

And you've made me think about the quote control your own destiny or others will control it for you. So if you like we can give that back to you as a quote.

Rosie Holt:

Thank you. Yes, that's the one I was thought of earlier and was going to use Anyway.

Chris Grimes:

So we're ramping up to a bit of Shakespeare in a moment, but just before we get there, if you don't mind, this is the pass the golden baton moment, please Away. So who would you most like to pass the golden baton along to, to keep the golden thread of the storytelling going?

Rosie Holt:

Well, I'd like to pass it to Sue's Kempner. I don't know if you're aware of, but she's also somebody who did quite well over the pandemic, but me and her knew each other Beforehand. We did a lot of comedy. We'd end up in a lot of sort of comedy bills together. She's really funny. She's also an amazing singer and she I have a very silly podcast called Nonsense and I do, which I really love. She's a sort of a parody podcast which takes the Mickey out of GB News and things like that and we often have Susan playing various characters and she's so funny and so talented and that's who I want to pass on the baton to.

Chris Grimes:

Wonderful. So your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to furnish me with a warm introduction to Sue's Kempner, and I thank you for that. And now ramped up to Shakespeare, inspired by Shakespeare's All the World to Stage and All the Better Women Barely Players, which, as you know, wasn't in Hamlet as you played Ophelia. This is from, as you Like it, and this is Jake Queez, so you don't have to do any Shakespeare. This is just for me to ask you the question. When all is said and done, rosie legacy, how would you most like to be remembered?

Rosie Holt:

I'd like to be remembered really as someone who did something of note. So I'd been. I'd like people to remember that I was nice, but I would like to to I'd like my work to kind of Mean something. I think that would. I'd be really happy if, if that was the case, people went oh yeah, I like that, that got me through this or made me think about this in a different way, or something like that. That would be very nice.

Chris Grimes:

Lovely. Where can we find out all about you in your forthcoming tour at Rosie Holt on the old Hinterweb?

Rosie Holt:

And so Rosie Holt dot code UK has all my tour dates listed, but you can also follow me on on the Twitter it's probably my biggest platform, but also Instagram at Rosie is a halt and I will post about my tour and things there and how come Rosie is a halt?

Chris Grimes:

It's just because that's what you decided.

Rosie Holt:

I do know I couldn't have Rosie Holt. I ended up putting Rosie is a halt and then got stuck with it and I like it.

Chris Grimes:

What Rosie is? A halt. That's very good and it's sticky and it's memorable. We like that Lovely. And are you going all over the UK with a tour or are we going global? What are we doing?

Rosie Holt:

Yes, all over the UK, not not to Scotland. I'm afraid I don't know why I'm not going to Scotland, but I'm going to to Wales and to Ireland and around the UK and you coming near.

Chris Grimes:

Bristol as well coming to Bristol. Yes, and which? What's the venue we're at? I?

Rosie Holt:

think the Red Grave Theatre.

Chris Grimes:

Ah, which is where the live shows that I'll talk to you about, yeah, are going to happen too lovely, yeah, do you remember when I'm not testing you, but when are you at the Red Grave?

Rosie Holt:

It's sometime in April or May.

Chris Grimes:

Okey-dokey, I think it's April, that's if I remember the exact date if I may, I'll pop along and shake you by the hand. I'd say hello, it's like that, oh please, please do yes, yeah, so you in, bless you, and as this has been your moment in the sunshine, in the Good, listening to show stories of distinctions of delias, is there anything else you'd like to say, rosie Holt?

Rosie Holt:

No, thank you. Thank you for having me and Cake is great.

Chris Grimes:

That's another quote right there at the end. I knew it was worth waiting for cake is great, so they've been you've been listening to Rosie Holt. Don't forget, if you'd like to be in the show, to look at the website thegoodlisteningtouchowcom. Thanks for watching on Facebook if you have been to, and yes, I'm gonna say Tata now. So thank you very much indeed. Do you want to say anything else? And Tata everybody and yeah, tata, and we'll come and see you on tour.

Rosie Holt:

Please do yes, come see me on tour. That's what I'll say. It's funny, it's good.

Chris Grimes:

It will be when I finish writing it and, by the way, sorry, I was so thick that I didn't realize that you're actually on the news, because I saw it and it looked like you're on the news, that's very impressive.

Rosie Holt:

I love that I love that Do I?

Chris Grimes:

thank you very much indeed. Good night. You've been listening to the Good Listening to show here on UK Health Radio with me, chris Graves oh, it's my son. If you've enjoyed the show, then please do tune in next week to listen to more stories from the clearing. If you'd like to connect with me on LinkedIn, then please do so. There's also a dedicated Facebook group for the show too. You can contact me about the program or, if you'd be interested in experiencing some personal impact coaching with me, carry my level up. Your impact program. That's Chris at secondcurveuk on Twitter and Instagram. It's at that, chris Graves. So until next time for me, chris Graves, from UK Health Radio, and from Stan to your good health. So, rosie, we've just been giving you a damn good listening to. Can I just get your immediate feedback on what you thought of the curation of the journey of the Shape of the show?

Rosie Holt:

Oh, I loved it. It was great. I liked and I, I also. And it's funny because obviously I thought about it before I came on the podcast and I couldn't. Then you suddenly can't remember anything but I thought, yeah, I really I really felt like you were a firm guiding hand. It was very nice.

Chris Grimes:

You're very welcome and that's lovely feedback. I.