The Good Listening To Show: Stories of Distinction & Genius

Inside The Clearing: Chris Grimes on Story, Loss & Laughter and a reminder (inspired by the Helsinki Bus Garage allegory) to "Stay on the Fucking Bus!"

• Chris Grimes - Facilitator. Coach. Motivational Comedian

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A host hands over his own mic, steps into the straw-lit ring, and lets his story breathe. Chris Grimes invites us into “the clearing,” a warm, curated space where presence comes first and stories find their shape. From a Uganda childhood and the hum of a TV showing Laurel & Hardy to the ache of losing a sister and the discipline of actor-teacher training, Chris traces the real forces that shaped his craft, his humour, and his ethos of yes-and.

We dig into the 5-4-3-2-1 framework he uses to spark honest conversation, and why comedy can be the first evidence of freedom. Expect Stan Laurel’s kindness, Michael Palin’s curiosity, and a dash of John Cleese; a tender nod to Federer’s focus on the next point; and a confession about a £2,000 wheelie bin in the name of creative risk. Chris shares the quotes he keeps in his pocket—be where your feet are; nothing is either good or bad, but thinking makes it so—and the one story he returns to when doubt creeps in: the Helsinki Bus Garage. Translation for creatives and leaders alike—stay on the bus long enough to reach the route only you can travel.

The heart of the conversation is Legacy Life Reflections, a human-led way to record personal histories before voices fade. Chris talks about capturing his father’s story in the halcyon years and why every family has a documentary inside it, not a footnote. It’s story craft with care: listening deeply, framing gently, and creating a keepsake that outlives the moment. Along the way, we talk tennis, ping-pong, presence, and the north star of a dream guest—Sir Michael Palin.

If you’re building a career in the arts, leading teams, or simply trying to honour the voices you love, there’s gold here: practical storytelling tools, resilience reframes, and a reminder to laugh when you can. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs the nudge, and leave a review to help more people find the clearing. Then tell us—what’s your story?

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 54321, 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? Then we shall begin. Boom! Welcome, welcome, welcome. This is a very, very exciting day. Uh a little bit of wheeze coming out, I'm so excited, because I'm also quite nervous, because I'm this is a day in which I'm going to be on the receiving end of my own show format. I'm going to officially pass the golden button, see what I'm doing there, to the lovely Mr. Neil Bett, who is our curator and host of the Good Listening to show Stories of Distinction and Genius today, where I'm going to be on the receiving end of my own show format. So without further ado, uh welcome anyone watching across the worldwide interweb. Uh, ladies and gentlemen, min mean, may I please pass you over to our host, Mr. Neil Bett.

Linda Jacomb:

Well, uh thank you very much, Chris. Wonderful to be here. Great to be. I think the only host of the Good Listening to podcast, which is not you.

Chris Grimes:

In yes, absolutely. Is that right? So far. Indeed. And I can't think of a safe pair of warm hands. Good.

Linda Jacomb:

How does it feel being a guest on your own show?

Chris Grimes:

Um slightly nerve-wracking because I've realized, as we know, there's always that dynamic of of which side of the table you're on. So I've been I've been not overthinking, but also I realise thinking and uh probably losing a bit of sleep over it, if I'm honest. Oh. But there's a lot going on at the moment, particularly because I'm exhibiting about the Good Listening to show and a series strand next week called Legacy Life Reflections. So this is a very timely uh intervention. Yeah. And I know that I interviewed you um a couple of months ago, and as as soon as we did it, I thought, ooh, you're exactly the right person.

Linda Jacomb:

Well, that I'm incredibly uh flattered and pleased to be here. And uh we could talk about your t-shirt as well, which says what's your story rather enigmatically. But let's park that for a little bit later if we can. Because as you know, Chris, and I it's it's like I'm teaching my grandmother to suck eggs, this is the show where uh you talk, and today I'm talking to movers, makers, shakers, mavericks, influencers, and personal heroes into a clearing or serious, happy place of today. My guest choosing, which of course is you. And we have a lovely slide of you there. And actually, when I was looking you up on the internet, which I was from my research, there's a Oh, there's a lot there. Um there was a kind of montage of photos, some of whom were different, Chris Grimes, but some of you really young, like really young, I don't know, in your twenties, and then up to now. And anyway, here you are, wonderful. And as you know, we will be we will be uh introducing you to your clearing, where there will be a she, a tree, not a she, a tree, which you will shake, uh, and we'll do that wonderful storytelling exercise 54321. There'll be a bit of alchemy in gold, a couple of random squirrels which you have here. Yes, props, props amazing, a cheeky bit of Shakespeare, a golden baton, and a cake. And if I forget anything, then please do put me right. So, as you always do, and what I'm going to do, Chris, is blow a little bit of happy smoke in your direction. You are a personal impact coach, facilitator, actor, motivational comedian, windmill Himbledon tennis champion, circa 2023. Thank you. And you are also, and this is not necessarily on your on your uh on on your publicity, but I know you also to have been a teacher in the past, a filmmaker, definitely now an improviser, a comedy improviser, certainly an entrepreneur and joke meister extraordinaire. So, Chris, when are you going to settle down and get yourself a proper job?

Chris Grimes:

Well, what a great question, and what a lovely bit of happy smoke to bathe in. How lovely. Yes, I've realized it's quite polymathic what I'm up to, but that's that's a a word I discovered that explains stuff. My family might say that's the other word for ADHD. So um, settling down, uh, with my new thrust to this, because I love storytelling, um, I'm trying to now find a way of being a bit of a digital nomad where I tell, you know, humanity story one story at a time, and that will allow me to sort of calm down and be in my clearing, which is so important. But as I'll talk about, my clearing is something that's been very energetically uh fueling of me in terms of what I feel it represents. But I'm I am trying to slow down because, as you pointed out, uh I've been global head of myself for 63 years now, um, and my career started with you at the Bristol Olvic Theatre School. So since 1988, uh I keep getting uh annual updates from LinkedIn saying, Oh, congratulations for being Chris Grimes still. And it's actually probably 40 years as global head of myself.

Linda Jacomb:

Yeah. But it's a it's a very it is a really interesting and um a very varied career, and I'm I'm I I'm kind of wondering how it's how it has been for you because there's there's been lots of kind of renewal and change during that time. Yes. And maybe a bit of trial and a bit of error and a bit of sort of success and and well a lot of success. And um how how did because you started out I I know you trained as a teacher originally at the central school.

Chris Grimes:

At the central school of screech and trauma, as it's now called. But yes, I drama teacher trained following my dad's wonderful advice. I'll talk about my dad a bit later on as well. Um, and uh the advice was if you're gonna be an actor, be a teacher first, so that would give you something to fall back on. So I ended up, you know, going island hopping round Greece, thinking I'll just disappear. And you know, island hopping saves tread on your sandals, ha ha. But uh the idea was to come back to something, and then I was lucky enough to get into the central school, knowing that I had a wonderful sort of summer of freedom that my son Stan is currently enjoying, is gap y'all. So it's very sort of what goes around comes around, and I knew that I was coming back to something uh firm that my dad had, you know, something organised. And so it was a four-year teaching degree at the central school before I still had the twitch and the itch, and then came and actually then did the two-year postgrad at the Bristol Olvic Theatre School.

Linda Jacomb:

Where we met, and we have quite a few things in common. The Bristol Olvic, the Piglet Files we both did, although not at the same time, which was a sitcom back in in the sort of dark ages.

Chris Grimes:

Yeah, with Nicholas Lindhurst.

Linda Jacomb:

With Nicholas Lindhurst, it wasn't it was gonna be the next uh Only Fools and Horses, but it wasn't good enough, I don't think. But not because of us. No, we were marvellous. We were marvellous, um, and lots of comedy improvisation, of course, starting out with more fool us and uh then instant wit and Barking Productions, which was a company that we ran together. And that has also borne a beautiful friendship, if I may say, over many years, many of which have been in a car.

Chris Grimes:

They have, yes. You were uh a just such a good listener, actually, uh ironically, now it's called the Good Listening to show because as you know, life's trials and tribulations, particularly in the fact, you know, that the more sort of profound thing, my wonderful, majestic, gorgeous creature of a daughter, Lily, now 25, was taking eight years to come along naturally. And so there was an awful lot of uh us travelling with you, asking, checking in, and and us going, it's still not happening, but you know. And and meanwhile, like you'd had Harvey and Angus, and I think we were just sort of everyone around us was sort of getting there first. Um but not that it's a race, but uh, you know, it was it was a a very powerful time.

Linda Jacomb:

Well it was, but it's born to beautiful and lovely children. And because uh amongst uh as well as the checkered career, you are obviously also a family man. And I think it's you are a real family man, aren't you? You you you love family and sort of them being around.

Chris Grimes:

Uh they are also what's absolutely at the epicentre of the energetic hub of everything I do. My i you know, my whole reason for being is the family. So absolutely. Uh it it it's funny how th they too belong in this area I've discovered, this energetic hub of everything I'm up to now, which is called the clearing. You know, which is where all good questions come to get asked, all good stories come to get told, you know, families reside in it, my favourite work and jobs reside in it, my friends reside in it.

Linda Jacomb:

Wonderful. Well, that's an excellent segue into the point of the show. So um, as you well know, you are going to we're we're gonna be in your clearing, which is uh uh a serious kind of place where you where you feel at one with yourself. So um and you can choose what it is. So, Chris, where is your clearing?

Chris Grimes:

It's uh everywhere from the point of view of I've now, as I just mentioned a few moments ago, it's sort of everything I now do emanates from this central idea. Back to my drama teaching days, that's about a clearing because of the joke. Drama teachers like to do it in circles. So you get people to listen to each other by putting them in a circle. And then when you become a facilitator and a coach, there's still this sort of idea of a circle that you step into. You know, winding forward, um my daughter Lily is a singer and a shy singer, and she gave a had a wonderful note from a brilliant singing teacher once, which is going to feed into the clearing. The teacher happened to ask Lily, What's your favourite colour? Lily went, Uh, orange. And then the teacher said, Imagine the biggest orb of golden sunlight you can possibly imagine. Put it on the floor. Lily, when you walk on stage to sing your song, stand right at the epicentre of that clearing, or that sunspot, as you warn both yourself and the audience, as you know, you amaze them with the beauty of your voice. So that's another it's stepping across the line. When I facilitate in coach, it's about stepping across the line to connect. So in the centre is this area. Also, one of my favourite theatre shows is Gifford Circus, and there's a circus ring, and then there's my favourite type of lighting, which is called straw lighting, which gives it gives everything a warm hue. Uh, and so energetically, my clearing is of itself the clearing because it allows me to think if I'm if I'm feeling that I'm I've stepped across and I'm stepping in somewhere to help someone to storytell, to be kind, you know, to to help, and it involves storytelling, I'm really happy. And then, of course, comedy improvisation is an empty space brimming and charged with potential where anything is possible with this wonderful mindset of yes and which going back reminds me of my first ever theatre book, which is Peter Brooks' The Empty Space. And I just love this idea of a curated energetic space where anything is possible. And so it it's of itself a clearing, and then I I I I I have physical places that I go to, um, you know, I'm sorry this is multi-led and multifaceted, but I think often it is. Um there's a place in Ashton Court in Bristol where I love to go on my bike, you know, my bike is my freedom. And there's a particular sorry, a particular a particular promontory, I call it my promontory, where I cycle up Ashton Court, and then to the left, there's a tree, you know, in a clearing is a tree, and you and me, which is part of what I inform what I'm doing now, and there's a bench. And I during the pandemic, particularly, when this whole idea was percolating and the trials and tribulations of the pandemic were happening, I I I I have a sort of factory default setting of this place in Ashton Court that I go to to sit on a bench. And nowadays I record stories for LinkedIn where I say my bike is my freedom and my bike is always in the background. So even being on my bike is a clearing too. It's that sort of movement towards. Great. Um and then there are other places, la la la, geographically that I think of, but I think that will probably do as an idea of it it's it's physical and metaphorical.

Linda Jacomb:

It's really interesting because I've seen that LinkedIn, you your post on LinkedIn a a lot of times, and you you do it in exactly the same place, don't you? And it it it's lovely because it kind of changes with the seasons as well, you know, it's summer or it's winter or whatever. Um and I'd always imagined it to be on the Downs. I don't know why I didn't think it was Ashton Court. Never thought to ask you. Um lovely. So it's there, and it's also your your lit space or not lit space where you can inspire people. Wonderful. I love it.

Chris Grimes:

And the other thing about the circus arena and the warm straw lighting, I don't need an audience there. It can be completely pitch black. Yeah. And I love an audience, I would act a darling, we love them. And it's wonderful walking on stage and and entertaining and particularly making people laugh, which is the joys of comedy improvisation. But in my mindscape, um the Gifford Circus is um is is just lit, and then it's just somewhere to step on and it's quiet.

Linda Jacomb:

Yeah. Interesting. Lovely, thank you. Okay, so you're there. Uh and there is a tree which we're going to shake because we're going to play a wonderful storytelling exercise called 54321, where you have five minutes to think about four things that have shaped you, three that have inspired you, two things which you n which never fail to gr to grab your attention, uh, and one quirky or unusual fact about you. Um the five minutes obviously you've done before. Today's we're not gonna have five minutes of silence because that'd be boring on a recording. Um but I think the point of that is not to overthink it. Exactly, yes. Before we get into that, how what sort of process did you use to come up with your ideas?

Chris Grimes:

That's a lovely question. This is a curation of uh of magpieing and squirrelling away all my favourite storytelling structures and archetypes and metaphors. I I like a metaphor and an analogy. Um and yes, so actually the 54321 exercise came from a lovely friend called Dave Stewart, who you know as well, who runs fresh air leadership company. Hello, Dave Stewart. And um I experienced the 54321 as a as a really powerful way to accelerate rapport when people are walking, talking, breathing, reflecting outdoors. Linked to the Nietzsche quote, the best ideas happened outdoors. So the 54321 was actually borrowed, stroke nicked, with his full permission. Of course. Because it was it it was it's out there as a storytelling structure, but I thought, gosh, this is really wonderful when I was percolating this during the pandemic. If it wasn't for the pandemic, I wouldn't have even had this idea. So that's what's very what I'm very grateful to to the pandemic for, even though it was quite a tough time as a freelancer.

Linda Jacomb:

Indeed, yeah. Uh I I kind of agree with that, that I I uh grew a lot, I think, in the pandemic and had a bit of space to think about things that I normally wouldn't. So that's absolutely brilliant. Right, okay, so let's get on with four things that have shaped you, Mr. Grimes. So, what is the first of your four things?

Chris Grimes:

Gosh, it is very interesting being on the the sharp, blunt, soggy end of my same questions. So the first thing that shaped me is growing up in Uganda between my being two and a half and ten. Rather randomly, I was best friends with Adrian Edmondson's two younger brothers because his family were out there too. But actually, in truth, he was more he was older than I was, and he was more of a friend of my sister who is five years older than me. So, growing up in Uganda between two and a half and ten, obviously I was there because my family took me, not because I was fiercely independent and got up at two and a half and thought, right now, I'm off to Uganda, thanks for coming. Um, so yes, uh, in squaddling, squaddling nappers and diapers, off we went to Uganda. And it was my mum and dad very impressively in the mid-60s achieving a bit of social mobility. Dad's dad being a steel worker, mum's dad being a train driver. But mum and dad answered an advert in uh uh whatever newspaper, I think probably the telegraph, I can't remember, but they answered an advert initially to come and teach in Botswana, and then things changed, and then off we went to Uganda. Uh, and you know, that's where I have my first memories.

Linda Jacomb:

So were they both teachers?

Chris Grimes:

No. Mum ended up being um an administrator, so she worked for a company called Nianza Textiles, which made fabric, and it was across the Owen Falls Dam in a place called Ginger, J-I-N-J, which is about 50 miles away from Kampala.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Chris Grimes:

As it encroaches towards becoming 10, because of you know the history of Uganda, that was when Idi Amin overthrew Milton Abote, and there was a military coup, and then the whole halcyon days for my mum and dad of being in Uganda started to change. Yeah. And there were, shall we say, disappearances beginning to happen. So it was all getting a bit squeaky for this sort of golden period of all of our lives, particularly golden because the f whole family unit were there together, my brother, my sister, and I, and my mum and dad. So there's a family unit of five. Things had started to change because when it's time for secondary school education, the stereotype was that the Europeans would send their kids either to Kenya, Kenya, or back to England to come to boarding school. So I didn't do that, but my brother and sister did. They came to somewhere called the Royal Russell School in Croydon. So meanwhile, I was left behind, but still having these extraordinary experiences of of you know being in Uganda and it was a phenomenal time.

Linda Jacomb:

And was the intention of your parents to stay for longer and then they decided to leave because of the coup?

Chris Grimes:

Well, they went for three terms of work, which were two and a half year chunks. So that we were there for seven and a half years because they would renew your work permit every two and a half years, and then there were these wonderful opportunities to come back for the whole summer holidays. There's three months of a chunk of time when you come back, and we'd go to Middlesbrough and I'd see my nana and granddad. Uh, and but I would we had extraordinary experiences because when we went back, one particular time we chose differently and we we sailed from Venice to Mombasa on a cruise. Uh my brother and sister were always really jealous because I I did that, but they didn't because they were at boarding school. Boy! And off we sailed.

Linda Jacomb:

Yes. Always nice to get one over your brother and sister. Excellent. Okay. Wonderful. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. So growing up in Uganda, great. And what was your second or is your second?

Chris Grimes:

The second shapage is then taking a slightly darker turn. Why Uganda was such a halcyon period of life for my mum, dad, and the rest of the family. Um, whining forward ten years, and and the idea of this construct, while it's particularly profound I've experienced, is that roundabout once every ten years or so, something pretty seismic is going to happen. My sister Hazel, who was five years older than me, was killed in a car accident in 1979. I was just 17, I was in my lower six, not quite finishing, you know, just wibbling about really. She just graduated, just got married, had absolutely everything to live for, and then bang, suddenly she was uh killed in a car accident. It's so long ago now, I can talk about it very, very matter-of-factly, but it definitely shaped me and the family because the the sort of house in bubble was burst and um I think to this day, you know, m my dad died a year ago, but to this day it sort of desiccated the family slightly because it took a lot of the the joy out of it. And then you recover or not, you never get over it. But what what shapes me to this day is the profound awareness that I lost a sibling, which is beyond tragic, but now that I'm a parent, the idea of losing m my children would be very profound.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Chris Grimes:

Uh and in fact I got very, very twitch Lily's twenty-five now, and I got very, very um nervous that she got to live longer than Hazel did. Yes. Um because twenty-two is so young.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Chris Grimes:

And why it so profoundly shapes our path in death is that my life just would have been different. And I'm happy and I feel I'm in the right place at the right time, doing the right thing, with the right people around me and the right friends, but my life would have just been different. I know that if it wasn't for Hazel's death, I I couldn't possibly be sitting here because different windows of opportunity or different was windows of possibility or randomness would have opened because my life would have continued with hers.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Chris Grimes:

And then she'd have been 68 this year.

Speaker:

Wow.

Chris Grimes:

And she's been long, long, long dead, far longer than she was alive. But it's something that you can you know, when at my father's funeral a year ago, there was just that recognition of, gosh, I I don't actually know how you coped, but I admired him tremendously for actually, even though the pain was seismic, and he didn't necessarily I I mentioned the word desiccated, sorry, desiccation, that definitely happened. It it took a it sort of wiped the smile off a face that otherwise I think would have smiled a lot more.

Linda Jacomb:

Yes. Oh, that's gosh, that's such a heart-wrenching thing to say. Thank you for sharing that. Um and I I'm I have known about your your sister, but I don't think I've ever heard you talk at such length about it, actually. I remember you mentioning it and then very quickly moving on. And that's uh that that's very well it's very it's very personal and hopefully helpful to anyone who's listening that might have gone through something similar. Um thank you, um Chris.

Chris Grimes:

Okay, shape it's number three. Okay, shape it number three is then when you get on the open road of making choices in your life, and then my my drama teacher training, my actor training. So I now am happy to say to the world that I'm an actor, teacher, facilitator coach, partly because I had that training, and it brings me to where I'm I I feel I'm now a motivational comedian because I'm combining all of those skills. So it was it was the beginning of discovering what interest me uh what interested me, what excited me. And to this day I'm still excited by comedy, by the mindset of yes and uh I love theatre, I love film, I love the escapism of storytelling, I love jokes. So I th I think it was just the um the sort of mental scape of getting on the open road of adulthood, knowing what interested me and and how it was pulling me towards being where I am today. The the Steve Jobs quote about, you know, back in the day when if you look over your shoulder, we can all join the dots up backwards.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Chris Grimes:

And I I definitely attribute the the dots that were joined up to to getting on the path of my dad nudging me to make sure I came back from Ireland hopping in Greece to go to something that was defined. And then I I I had a an extraordinary privileged time in in the context we were in. You know, we had beautiful well, uh amazing teachers who are one of a kind, you know, Nat Brenner, who was Petro Tool's mentor, terrified me at the age of twenty-two, but there you go. And also Rudy Shelley, Echting is so we met some pretty extraordinary people and met some extraordinary people because it uh it it reminded me of the power of ensemble. And I I love collaborating to this day because I love being part of uh uh some sort of ensemble that's trying to achieve something.

Linda Jacomb:

It's really interesting that you uh you mentioned the the jokes. You are uh you well, you are Mr. Metaphor. You are also a brilliant joke teller because I'm cra I never remember them. Because you you you they just kind of roll off your tongue, but I I always kind of forget a little bit of detail, which then doesn't make sense to the to the to the sort of punchline at the end. I it was uh were you has that always been part of you, or was there some kind of catalyst to make it happen?

Chris Grimes:

That's a really interesting question. There was a really quite dark catalyst that happened that made my sense of humour, I suppose, awaken. W this is a bit dark, and what I'm about to explain isn't very funny, but it was funny at the time because of the catharsis of comedy. One of my favourite quotes that maybe I'll say now, but it it's it's um we have to laugh because laughter, as we know, is the first evidence of freedom. And there was after I'd been off school for a bit, after my sister was killed, we went back to the sixth form bridge, which was just a place where the sixth formers would hang out, and everyone was a little bit on eggshells because I'd returned and everyone knew that my sister had been killed. And then uh somebody new joined who had no idea, and they started telling this joke, the punchline of which everyone went and looked at me, and I uh I ended up just hysterically laughing because it was just this extraordinary catharsis. I'm not sure whether I should tell you the joke, I don't know, but maybe I d I don't know the joke. No, uh well, maybe people are thinking, yes, tell us the joke, or or maybe not.

Linda Jacomb:

Um maybe your editor and you can make the why don't you tell it and then So know that this isn't funny, but it's the catharsis.

Chris Grimes:

Okay. There's somebody here sitting in their hotel bathtub going, and suddenly the in the adjacent bathroom next door, there's somebody else in the bath, and the person in the bath hears a knock at the door. So literally a bathroom aside, and goes, Oh, oh lucky it's not me, I haven't got any clothes on. And then uh there's someone at the door going, uh telegram, uh telegram for you, sir. Uh and he goes, Oh, a bit inconvenient, and she's listening by the wall. A bit inconvenient, um, I'm in the bath at the moment. And he goes, Oh. So well, can you shove it on the door? He goes, Well, no, I can't do that, it's a private telegram. Uh well, can can you read it to me? Well, no, it's private. Look, can you sing it to me then? And then he goes, Well, hang on a minute, and he flicks through a rule book and goes, Do you know what? I think I can. Bit of the small print, I can yeah, I'll sing it to you. You ready? He goes, Yeah, far away. I'm in the bath, you twat. Hurry up. And anyway, the man sings and says, Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to oh, this is interesting. Happy birthday, dear Derek, happy birthday. And then the woman in the adjacent bathtub nicks, oh, that's just glorious. It's my birthday in a couple of weeks' time, and I'm still gonna be staying at the hotel. How exciting. So she makes a special, special day of it and goes, right, here we go. And she gets in the bath, gets it piping hot, lovely jobly, hangs around for a bit, suddenly, telegram for you, madam. She goes, Oh, how exciting! Don't tell me, you can't read it to me, can you? And he goes, uh no, you can't shove it under the door. He goes, No, no, I can't leave, but you can sing it to me, can't you? He goes, Oh, yes. I remember doing this about a week ago, madam. How extraordinary. Are you ready? And she goes, Yeah, far away. And he goes, Freddie and the kids were killed in a car crash. Bloody hell. And you it's not funny, but the O Lord, the O Lord, and the sort of caused me to completely well, it was cathartic, shall we say. Yeah. Because it pricked some sort of bubble of of just getting me on the path of I've got to keep going and I've got to keep laughing, because actually, you know, laughing really fuels me. Um and then you know, why forward, and I'm I apologize for that joke. I did say at the beginning it's not funny, but jokes are, you know, comedy pushing the boundaries is something we still talk about. You know, we've riffed many times, oh, awkward, you know, comedy pushing the boundaries. Yeah, yeah. That really pushed the boundaries. And then subsequently, um, one of my most pride the one of the projects I'm most proud of is a film, a dark comic short called Knock Knock. And bit of a spoiler, I sort of deconstruct a joke. And I w I I I wrote a film based on loving a joke and then working backwards as to how I could make it work. That's not related to what was cathartic then, this is 1979, 1980. But um, you know, we have to laugh because laughter, as we know, coming full circle, is the first evidence of freedom. And you know how big catastrophic global events happen, and then you get some comedian saying something, and then people go, What, too soon? That was really too soon with what had happened with Hazel. But for me, I still remember it almost as being a the birth of a sense of humour because it's okay to laugh. So I quite like dark humour now.

Linda Jacomb:

And there is a huge relationship between sort of darkness and humour, but uh humour being a way to cope with with darkness, but also it's uh it's it's almost like the I mean a lot a lot of comedians are quite depressive, for instance, or they have, you know, they have quite kind of odd private lives and and and and and yet they're incredible on stage, and there's there's always that sort of very weird juxtaposition. Just on on the kind of offensive bit, I've I was reminded of um Joan Rivers, who uh the late wonderful Joan Rivers who always said, if I don't offend five percent of my audience, I know I'm doing something wrong. So um but she she would always she would always kind of have that feeling that she was doing a show, and if if the odd seat sort of popped up and people left and discussed, she was doing all right. So um I I think you should keep that in. But you're the editor, as is your editor.

Chris Grimes:

Well, I my instinct is because this is about authenticity, I I I don't uh well, I'd be interested to hear what people think. I mean, I did say it's not funny, yeah, but there could be someone out there absolutely still trying to get over the fact they liked it. Who knows?

Linda Jacomb:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you told it brilliantly, as you always do. So thank you. For that. That's amazing. I think we're on number four, although I've got a bit lost now. But yeah, go on. I think it's number four. Number four shapage.

Chris Grimes:

Um I suppose another uh well uh Stan Laurel and Laurel and Hardy are just gorgeous and they're a factory default happy place. They're sort of an inspiration, so there's a bit of an overlap there. Maybe I'll come on to them during inspiration, actually. Uh I think basically my my family are are the main shapages because um there's a constancy. You know, I've been married to the lovely Janie for 30 the long-suffering Janie, because I mentioned there's an irony in what the good listening. Well, you're going deaf, aren't you? So there's I'm not really going deaf, but my quality of listening, shall we say, when I'm on, is not as good as it should be. But my my my two lovely uh she uh Janie is such a constant uh and it allows me and she's she's also the great enabler. She enables me to just w, you know, go feral and hunter-gather, do what I do. Meanwhile, she's really a phenomenal homemaker and monumentally present for the two most extraordinary creatures on the planet, which are my son Stan. I called Stan Stan because I love Stan Laurel. I always wanted a child called Stan. I tried to call Lily Stan, but that wasn't going to go down well. Um and so Lily, majestic, gorgeous creature, primary school teacher, Stan just finished his A levels, very witty, incredibly tall now, six foot four, and I'm getting patted on the head quite a lot. No, so they are. I mean, literally yesterday I was looking at them both and thought, you just astound me. How did you become well, just so beautiful and and yeah, you know, yeah, worth the wait, huh? Definitely worth the wait. Because interestingly, Lily was eight years coming along, and then Stan was a one-off IVF success miracle seven years later. Wow. So part of the other parts of the car journey was uh that was alright, but then we need number two now.

Linda Jacomb:

I'm in number two. That's the bell. Cash here number two, please. And he did. He did. There we are. How fantastic. Thank you. Okay, well, there we are. We've got a very good idea of your of your shapages and and the the sort of things that have brought you to the place you are today. Let us move on to three things that have inspired you. Number one.

Chris Grimes:

Let's do that. So I think Monty Python, first of all, really inspired me. I mean, absolutely couldn't believe that because that was round about me being 14, 15, and and the first experience of of gathering round the the humming TV set. And and just going back a step, there was the first humming TV set I ever saw was in Uganda, and when I was seven, I saw Stan Laurel. And then subsequently, as generations you know, wash, rinse, repeat, but not but but have the genesis in earlier stuff. I think Michael Palin has replaced the Stan Laurel-nuss that I admire and like and always enjoy watching.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Chris Grimes:

So inspirations are comedy, probably, uh, which would be Stan Laurel first of all, you know, white TV set Humming Into Action in Uganda, and I think it was County Hospital was the first one. You know, Hard Boiled Eggs and Nuts was that was the one I remember. And then subsequently there was a lovely film called Laurel and Hardy's Bratz, where they play their own children. And uh you probably remember me wibbling on about that when we first got going with Instant Wit, the comedy improvisation company I'm still running to this day with the lovely Stephanie Weston. And you formed the company too. And if you remember when we first transposed ourselves because of the hilarious pun on instant whip and instant wit into a bowl of blamange.

Linda Jacomb:

I do remember.

Chris Grimes:

Back in their day, they made huge props in order to, you know, make a huge telephone, a huge chair so they could play miniature. Yeah. Whereas, of course, nowadays it's so easy, you just do a JPEG and you diminish it. Yes. So, but anyway, I was I was blown away by you know, I I keep returning to the qualities of Stan Laurel as a true inspiration, someone who reminds me as a bit of a style guide to keep it kind, to keep it simple, therefore accessible, and to keep it hapless a bit. I I quite like the fact that I'm a little bit of a hapless twonk as well. And then Michael Palin and Monty Python was my sort of more adolescent version. So I I love comedy to this day, that's a great inspiration.

Linda Jacomb:

Yeah, yeah. Fantastic. And um yeah, Sam, and i you're not dissimilar to Stan Laurel in your your your comedy style, I would say, which has sort of pathos, a lot of physicality, and uh and uh and as you say, a slight haplessness, but actually underneath that a very sharp insight.

Chris Grimes:

That's very kind of you to say.

Linda Jacomb:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm so I'm not surprised I I did predict that he would be featuring at some point in the show. Shall we say? Shall we say? So it's sort of it are we sort of saying Stan Laura come Michael Palin? Do they they kind of you know both of them?

Chris Grimes:

Very ironically, I had the great privilege um about two months ago of interviewing John Cleese on stage.

Speaker:

Yes.

Chris Grimes:

And it wasn't my gig, so he didn't come in and do my show. And when I first started this show at the top of my tree was Michael Palin. He doesn't know that yet, he doesn't know I'm coming for him. But uh very listening. But I hope he is. But very ironically, John Cleves, just before we went on stage, said Chris, come here, I've got a joke for you. Go on stage and say how disappointed you are it's not Michael Palin. And I went on stage and I said that because I had his permission, but I thought it was a huge privilege to meet the comedy legend of John Cleves, but I was thinking Little does he know. Little true. It's actually true. Yes. But it was, you know.

Linda Jacomb:

Yeah.

Chris Grimes:

So yes, he's definitely there.

Linda Jacomb:

Yeah, we're still on things that have that have inspired you.

Chris Grimes:

So what's the set your second the other thing that really inspires me is tennis. You mentioned very charmingly that I'm because I play tennis in a place in Bristol called Victoria Park that happens to be called Windmill Hill, I am indeed the Windmill Hill Bubbldum champion of two years ago. It's very random because it's mixed doubles and you pick a number out of a hat, and I am on a cup, but to this day people go, how the fuck in hell did he win? You know, so so it's not I'm not really a champion, but I'm a champion. I'm on the cup.

Speaker 2:

Wow.

Chris Grimes:

Um but the idea of also the pandemic, the idea of just twonking a ball about as a way of getting out of what you're worrying about. I love to this day the notion of just well, it the expression is just twatting a ball 25 feet away to somebody else. And then the comedy story about that was during the pandemic, there was even a moment when the tennis courts were closed. I don't know if you remember this, and we'd gone down a really weird trap of um wearing a glove on one hand in case you're tonking five white virus balls at each other.

Linda Jacomb:

Right.

Chris Grimes:

And then there's a neighbour who lives opposite to this day who one fateful day I came out on the way to tennis again, and then he said to me, You are sanitizing your balls. And I was uh I'll sanitise your balls in a moment. But but but there was sort of a tragic comedy sort of serious thing, and then after that there was a comedy week where I was literally dishwashering my balls just in case you'd be twatting virus balls at each other. But anyway, the world went a bit mad. Yes. And I slightly think that's just loony, but but I'm I'm I still love the fact that tennis is just every every Saturday, it's actually you know it would be very sad if I said Victoria Park Tennis Club is my clearing, but it is also a happy place because I go every Saturday one till three, and there's this sort of fixture that's quite regular, and Stan's coming back to play.

Linda Jacomb:

Yes.

Chris Grimes:

Um and and Stan has completely taken the mantle of being far better.

Linda Jacomb:

Excellent. But but he's not yet a Windmill Hillbledon champion.

Chris Grimes:

He's not on the trophy.

Linda Jacomb:

Yes. So, you know, he you might say he's better, but he's not really.

Chris Grimes:

And linked to that is also my love of ping pong. I absolutely bloody love table tennis.

Linda Jacomb:

I remember once playing with you, and you were so good I get I didn't e I I I just didn't even try another one. It wasn't it wasn't fun for me, and it wasn't fun for you. You needed someone much better.

Chris Grimes:

And Stan has now nicked that mantle for me as well. So it's the natural order of the succession planning, shall we say. Stan's better at tennis and ping-pong now, but that's that's what I that's by design. I love that.

Linda Jacomb:

So would you say you're a bit of an Ivon Gully Grimes? See what I did there.

Chris Grimes:

I did, and I love that.

Linda Jacomb:

And for anybody aged under about 55. Yvon Gulagrimes. Is uh is is a little rift on Yvonne Gulligon, who was a very famous tennis player in the 1970s when Chris and I were little lads. Little and probably most of you weren't even born. Right. Have we have we have we done the three? Um I think we have. Yeah, because we got Stan Laurel and then we got Michael Palin. Was that he number two? Yes. They sort of merged together, but that's fine.

Chris Grimes:

And kindness inspires me. Kindness. And you you I must say this because you introduced me, reintroduced me to the lovely Brendan O'Hay, who wrote the book with Dame Judy Dinch, the man who pays the rent. And he was in the show, and he very kindly, uh very spontaneously said, What I love about your show is you've curated an oasis of kindness. Oh. And it's a perfect way to spend an hour of your time. And I was thinking, wow, that's that's wonderful.

Linda Jacomb:

What a what a what a lovely expression he's got. He's got a great turn turn with words, isn't he? Um great. Okay. Now we're on to the squirrel! Squirrel! I can't do this as well as you, but I am gonna chuck a squirrel your way, and you've you have inadvertently headed it. That was me right. And it squirreled off in that direction. It's squirreled off, but that's the thing about squirrels. They go in all sorts of sometimes really unpredictable. So this is the moment where you talk to me about two things which never fail to grab your attention. Number one, please, Chris.

Chris Grimes:

Squirrel. Number one, please. Easy. Um, it has to be food. I am so I love food. And so I'm always squirrelling to nom nom nom nom nom when what is next. So I love I love food. I love I I love I used to love beer and pizza, but then my you know, I I I I'm in danger of encroaching type 2 diabetes. And so um as we get older, um so um never used to be happier than when I had an ice cold beer and a pizza, but now it's more red wine, but not by the point.

Linda Jacomb:

And still the pizza?

Chris Grimes:

Uh intermittently. Okay. But it's not it's a bit like intermittent fasting.

Linda Jacomb:

It's intermittent pizza. Intermittent being a fat bastard is what I've you you have a slice, wait five minutes, then you have another one. Exactly.

Chris Grimes:

And at school I used to be called sticky, as in stick insect, and I wouldn't be called a stick insect now. So over time, obviously your your your biorhythms change and your your diet yeah, you get bigger. Yeah. So so I just uh you know I I love food.

Linda Jacomb:

Nom nom nom nom nom is my if you were to pick you know that the the the old kind of thing of you're you're gonna die tomorrow. What is your what is your last meal? What's your what's your kind of meal of choice?

Chris Grimes:

It would be either a a a roast chicken or or it'd be um a steak. And it's gotta have chips, tomatoes, you know, red wine.

Linda Jacomb:

Chips with your roast chicken.

Chris Grimes:

Uh no, roasty tatties. Yeah, so so potatoes of some form. Um yes, so it would definitely And all the trimmings. Okay. Absolutely. J uh that's the the squirrel. Any trimmings, yes, please.

Linda Jacomb:

Okay, thank you. And um number two?

Chris Grimes:

Squirrel number two would just be comedy, because I just love the idea when things renew to make me laugh again, um I love it. Um so it's it's re the revisiting classic Stan Laurel stuff, or you know, I I love being caught by surprise with the next thing that makes me laugh.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Chris Grimes:

Yeah. So so it's definitely and I love deconstructing jokes, I like telling jokes.

Linda Jacomb:

And of some of the because you you've mentioned um you know quite quite a lot of the comedians that you know we grew up with when we were children. I think I think a lot of us do find that very funny. Of some of the more modern comedians, so people who are around at the moment, who who, if anyone, who is it that you particularly like?

Chris Grimes:

Um people like Bob Mortimer, who have the most brilliant uh brilliant depth of randomness is very appealing. And then there's somebody else that I can't remember the name of that was in that lovely series about Last One to Laugh. Uh and there's a guy who's very beardy. Um and if you can remember his name, I'd love you for that, because he's incredibly not Richard Iowadi. No, he's very, very funny as well.

Linda Jacomb:

Yes.

Chris Grimes:

Uh so i i if you watch that series, The Last One to Laugh, there are about three or four of those lovely people in there.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Chris Grimes:

And also the character Kunk, uh the one who does Philomena Kunk. Philomena Kunk. That was a Radio 4 moment. She's called Diana somebody, but she really Diana Morgan, I've I've actually written to her agent and asked her if she'd be a guest. I think she's hilarious.

Linda Jacomb:

She is hilarious.

Chris Grimes:

And I love that. Yeah, yeah. And then I was at um I was at the Westfield College, which was the gate crashing scene for uh the central school, where I went did most of my acting in the early days before going to the Bristol of it. I was at college with uh Bill Bailey. He was is the funniest person I've ever met.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Chris Grimes:

Uh and and as in I knew him, uh, and I've been trying to get hold of him ever since, but I can't seem to get through his peoples, people's, peoples, people.

Linda Jacomb:

Oh dear.

Chris Grimes:

So Bill Bailey, I need to ask you to be on the show as well.

Linda Jacomb:

Bill. I saw him quite recently at the Proms. He was at the Proms. Yes. Did you see it? I did. And he did that wonderful type typewriting thing, which is, I mean, it's worth looking back on. It is so brilliant.

Chris Grimes:

He was pulling out all the stops on the organ, wasn't he? Yeah.

Linda Jacomb:

Well he's doing the organ, but also he did it, he did a thing, you know, the little bing did. And that that is actually uh a piece of music, which I didn't realise. And the orchestra behind him when he was just but he but but he he's got an incredible sense of he's very musical as well, isn't he? Yeah, he's a he's an extraordinary talent. Brilliant. Okay, thank you. And it's come to the moment. Hurrah. Mr. Grimes, where you have to reveal a quirky or unusual fact about you that we may not know.

Chris Grimes:

Yes. Now this is um part of the sort of ADHDness of the notion of comedy. Okay. Um I I once uh didn't go on holiday because I'd spent two thousand pounds on getting a an extra large wheelie bin made. Because I wanted to do a character that popped out of a box, and it was a character which I'm slightly embarrassed about to this day called Stan Trolley, and why he was in a bin as a Jack in the Box is he could have been a comedy contender, he could have wheelie been somebody. So the the idea was genius, but the execution was it was sort of an afterburn of of this film I was very proud of called Knock Knock. And and I do to this day think of it as being a really important experiment because one of the things I do when I commit, I really commit and I'm very tenacious and I'm very persistent, and I think that's a superpower, but also it's something that can be quite exhausting and a bit relentless sometimes. Uh so so that's a quirky or unusual fact that and I and I I don't really want people to go looking for it because it's something that I'm sort of detached from now.

Linda Jacomb:

Right. Do you do you still have the Wheelie?

Chris Grimes:

No, it's uh it's um gone into the I think it went to a children's theatre company somewhere. Right.

Linda Jacomb:

Yeah, yeah.

Chris Grimes:

Uh and I I uh it it didn't have any sort of re repurpose value, shall we say.

Linda Jacomb:

Well, you could have got a lot of rubbish in there.

Chris Grimes:

Yeah, there was a yes, and I did put a lot of rubbish in there, I'm telling you. So yes, that's a quirky unusual fact, but it's it's true.

Linda Jacomb:

Yes, yeah.

Chris Grimes:

But I I you know I maintain that I could have given a there was something a bit cathartically dark about it because you know, as your life progresses, you know, you may think you'll be somewhere, but you're somewhere different. And that's not being dashed on a rock of disappointment, but I was using it as a way of saying that this is a sort of I was trying to make an internet sensation happen. But of course no one can plan that.

Linda Jacomb:

Yes, indeed. But you've always been really good at kind of at starting things. You're a real doer, you get things going, you you you you start them. And um you don't know whether you don't know what's going to happen to them. But but it's but it's it's I mean everything is is a little bit about kind of because I think your whole whole career has been about kind of pl you know really getting as as many things done as you as you can. Some of them fly, some of them don't, but that's life, isn't it?

Chris Grimes:

And another thing I'm proud of, which again didn't really go anywhere, but it's a double act called Archie Turnip and Harry Flange.

Linda Jacomb:

I remember with what lovely Howard Coggins is no longer with us lastly, yeah.

Chris Grimes:

And and that was a really absolutely it that sort of this is a big mention to the lovely, gorgeous man that was Howard Coggins. It was a very brief project, but he went, Yeah, alright then. And we were doing uh old-time music uh hall characters, Archie Turnip and Harry Flange. Yes. So if you if you Google Archie Turnip and Harry Flange, again it's out there.

Linda Jacomb:

Thank you. And and I think as well, I'm right, because you've you've mentioned Nock Nock a few times, which I think is brilliant, and has our very good and wonderful friend um Chris Bianchi. Yes. Who was fantastic in it. And that is on YouTube, I believe, as well as it is, yes, yes. Yes, yes. I'm sure if you Google knock knock Chris Grimes, it will be.

Chris Grimes:

Oh, and I must mention that sorry, the huge inspiration and the huge thing that, you know, the the the I love being co-artistic director of Instant Wit, the comedy improvisation company with with the lovely Stephanie Weston. And you you formed it with us many, many, many years ago. And I'm, you know, we were there at the beginning, which was really exciting.

Linda Jacomb:

Yeah, yeah, no, it was a wonderful time. Okay, we're at the uh the moment where um the alchemy and gold moment is this a bit of gold.

Chris Grimes:

That is a bit of gold there.

Linda Jacomb:

It's not really gold because it's very it's very light. For gold. Yes, for gold. I could chuck it at you. Oh well caught. He caught the gold. He caught the gold. Love that. Um right, okay. So when you are fully at purpose and in flow, what is it that you're doing?

Chris Grimes:

It's when I'm making people laugh, I think, on stage, of all the clearings, it's when I step onto a stage where anything is possible, and through the lovely mindset of yes and, yes and, yes and, yes and, as opposed to no but, no but, or yes but, yes but, yes but. The sort of yes and mindset that informs all of my facilitation, you know, the fact that I have the unique drama teacher, actor, comedy improvisation training, it all then, as a factory default, you know, once or twice a month I get to twonk about in front of an audience where I walk on stage and coming full circle to Lily's teacher saying, Step into the golden light, cross the line to connect. I I just love I love making people laugh.

Linda Jacomb:

Great. And you are brilliant at it. So that is a that is a great, great, uh, great piece of purpose and flow. It's cake time. Huzzah! Huzzar. How are you on cake? Are you a fan? Uh yes, intermittently I love a bit of cake. Oh, like the pizza. Like the pizza. Have a slice, wait five minutes, have another one.

Chris Grimes:

Exactly that. Okay, okay. And your cake of choice would be Um I'm gonna go uh lemon drizzle. Okay. Or carrot, if I can be greedy.

Linda Jacomb:

I've got to force you to make a decision here, Chris. Is it lemon drizzle or is it carrot?

Chris Grimes:

I think it's a carrot.

Linda Jacomb:

You think it's a carrot with with the icing and everything?

Chris Grimes:

Not yeah, the butter icing, nom nom nom, all of that.

Linda Jacomb:

Very, very nice. And um as a cherry on your cake, I think maybe you've already said it, but an inspirational quote which inspires you. Well, it would inspire if it's inspirational, wouldn't it?

Chris Grimes:

Um a recent quote that I they always evolve and change. Yeah, yeah. So we have to laugh was that one about freedom. Um I love a recent quote which is Be Where Your Feet Are, which plays into the wonderment of being able to be present. And the world is so full of monsters of distraction, squirrels that it's very different, difficult sometimes to be truly present. So be where your feet are, and then linked to resilience, I love the Hamlet quote, which is nothing is either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Chris Grimes:

And when we you know struggle in life, um I I that's always a good thing to remember. And uh linked to that when something happens. Dave Stewart, who I mentioned at the beginning, talked about when shit happens in life, just regard it as a plot twist in the story of your life.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Chris Grimes:

And then try and reframe what's just happened with it's good, isn't it? Because and that often you can turn adversity into something special or something that you learnt from. I mean, not always, I mean there's there's catastrophe going on in the world where you can't say it's good, isn't it? Uh you can't do that. But um for for those of us where our problems are mostly first world by comparison, yes, I think you know, don't overthink stuff. Yeah, nothing is either good or bad, but but thinking makes it so be where your feet are, and um it's good, isn't it?

Linda Jacomb:

Because Yeah. And bringing that back to tennis, oddly, um there's a great piece of and Roger Federer gives a great speech to an American university, I don't know if you've heard it, where he's talking about his career and he he talks about he's he's he won about 80% of all his professional matches, but only 54% of the points. You've that's familiar to you, right? And and and there's something I think in in that about the the how you interpret losing a point. And his his absolute genius was never worrying about what's just happened and always being able to focus on the next thing right up to the end of the match, which made him so successful. Yes. So it's that uh it's that that that kind of incremental thing that happens in life.

Chris Grimes:

And in the in the athletics world, it's so relatable because you know you cannot change what's just happened, the past, but you can absolutely change the future.

Linda Jacomb:

Brilliant, very good. Thank you for that. That that was that was fad. Right. I'm sure you've been given advice. Some of it kind, some of it not kind. What is the best piece of advice that's ever been given to you? And by whom?

Chris Grimes:

Ooh. Um now that's a definite Well I'm having to think quite deeply about this. I think it's don't w I think probably my dad actually just saying d don't worry, it'll be okay. As just something that's quite flipped to throw away. And and it it links to a lovely allegory I like, which is the story of something called the Helsinki Bus Garage. Do you know what that story is?

Linda Jacomb:

You t tell me.

Chris Grimes:

Um it's about keeping persistent, keeping tenacious, and the the the the famous story that I discovered as a Guardian article about 12 years ago, whenever. But it's it's about the Helsinki bus garage has 11 bus platforms that are all side by side, totally in parallel, and they're about to all set off on exactly the same trajectory in order to get out of Helsinki, and it's 11 bus stops. So it's two equations of 11, 11 parallel buses, all going in exactly the same direction. Anybody that starts out in the creative endeavour, because we're getting going in a creative career, roundabout bus stop four, go, come on, and you get impatient and you get off the bus and you start to ply your trade. Oh, I'm a photographer. Look, can I show you my portfolio? And someone says, Oh, you're a photographer. Have you seen the work of they've done some wonderful photographs that are just like that? And you go, Who? Oh, for God's sake, or acting or any creative endeavour, and people sort of go, and then go back to the bus station and get back on another bus and then get impatient around a bus stop. Six, seven. So the punchline is, and it's a graphic punchline, but the punchline is stay on the fucking bus. Just stay on the fucking bus because it can only diversify once you've gone into the delta of your own style, approach, brilliance. You have to you have to spend 20,000 hours to reach mastery in something. So stay on the fucking bus, which has become a a different way of wrapping the same best advice that I give to myself, which is just keep on keeping on.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Chris Grimes:

Stay on the fucking bus. And and you know, I I've been on the bus since 1988 professionally, and I'm still on the bus. And because I'm still on the bus, this storytelling construct is the best creative idea I think I've ever had. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm still on the bus.

Linda Jacomb:

Well done. And the stops uh there are many stops ahead of you on the bus.

Chris Grimes:

I'm hoping to recalibrate the stops because I'm enjoying the ride much more now. Right. Particularly the fact that I've stumbled upon something that's been there all along, uh, which is a special series strand to it called Legacy Life Reflections, using the same storytelling structure, but much more preciously to record either your own story or the story of somebody precious to you for posterity.

Linda Jacomb:

So tell us a bit more about that, because I know that relates to the t-shirt that you're wearing, which enigmatically says, What's your story?

Chris Grimes:

This has just been produced literally three days ago because I'm about to be at an exhibition, the Entrepreneurs Convention, uh, for the Entrepreneur's Circle, which is something that I'm I'm involved in. I'm paying for my own sort of business development, but I I'm also in something called the Nigel Bottle Inner Circle, which is where you you you pay to be in the room where you get the ear of the king, but you have in in each group you've got like 14 other entrepreneurs who are all there to promote their own business, not promote it, but but get better at it, but you all become a bit of a hive mind. And this year, on January the 3rd, I suddenly found myself thinking, What have I let myself in for? But it was a bit like either being on the voice on the BBC where the judges turn round, or being on Dragon's Den, where the judges turn round, everybody in that room went, This is a really good idea. And this year they said, Whatever you do, dig up the golden nugget that's been in the Good Listening to show all along, put it on its own plinth with its own website. So legacy lifereflections.com has been my main cut and thrust.

unknown:

Okay.

Chris Grimes:

And five years ago, and I mentioned my dad at the beginning, I recorded my dad, Colin Grimes, Cheers to a Good Life. He's now become an energetic mascot for it because he was the first ever willing guinea pig for it. He knew exactly what I was doing, but there was no morbid intention, and there still isn't to this day. But with the gift of hindsight, I recorded my dad in the halcyon days of his 80s before he slipped into a crater of declining health. Now that I still have the recording, because what we miss the most is the sound of their voice. You know, I wish I could hear Hazel's voice again. And I really wish that I could do that. I've now got it and it's incredibly precious. So actually, Dad's face is going to be big and majestic. And and and you know, I'm grateful to you because you're actually coming to help.

Linda Jacomb:

I am. I'm very much looking forward to it.

Chris Grimes:

You'll have one of these. I've given it to you just today. You'll be wearing your own. So on the stand, it'll be watch your story to hook you in, yeah. And then you get to scan a QR code and then win the chance of uh a completely done for you episode of Legacy Life Reflections. Uh, and that'll be um very dynamically and manically happening as part of the Entrepreneurs Convention.

Linda Jacomb:

Aaron Ross Powell, so anyone that's listening that might be attending that, that's something that they can that they can um b hopefully bid for or or or apply to. That's great. And that's going to so that's an offering. So just to just to clarify, that is for people who are maybe in the autumn of their years. Would that be fair?

Chris Grimes:

Aaron Ross Powell You can either play into one someone wanting to record their own story for their children, they've reached that point, or it's something you can gift to someone that you love or is precious to you.

Linda Jacomb:

Yeah. So it's it's a real presumably at any time of life.

Chris Grimes:

Yeah, so watch your story is the hook.

Linda Jacomb:

Yes.

Chris Grimes:

And everybody I mean my my guiding principle is that everybody has an interesting story to tell, provided you give them the courtesy of a damn good listening to. And in fact, this used to be called when I first got going the damn good listening to, because that's also linked to coaching. I think of coaching as being giving somebody a damn good listening to.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Chris Grimes:

And so the the the premise is, you know, if we're not careful, accidentally, because our all of our lives deserve a documentary, not a footnote, people's stories can stay locked in, untold, unheard, unloved. And this is a really kind, genuine, authentic, human and connecting, and it's warm way, without going to some of the AI solutions, where you can just get you can get a chat GPT version of your dead relative if you want, but I wouldn't do that. And in fact, someone got in touch saying, listen to this, they they repurposed my dad, which was very kind of them to do that, but it was just uh um mum may be watching, and I've not told her about this yet, and I don't think I'll play it to her because it's just one-dimensional, sort of sounds like dad and he's wibbling on about the bowls club because they just nicked. But I I just thought that's really not what this is about. I mean, uh AI is phenomenal, and I'm not trashing it for one moment, and I need to embrace it more. But this is warm, human, interactive, connecting, and generous. Not because I'm being generous, but because it's if you give somebody a good listening to, what what a graceful thing to do.

Linda Jacomb:

Great. And we'll find out more where people can access that website. It's got it's got its own website, is that up and running?

Chris Grimes:

Yes, legacylifereflections.com.

Linda Jacomb:

Wonderful.

Chris Grimes:

And I think our wonderful Courtney, who's our technical assistant, can flash up a QR code.

Linda Jacomb:

Excellent. Let's have the QR code. So uh yes, please click on the QR code. Um great stuff. Okay, now um if you could give one piece of advice to your younger self, uh what would it be, Chris?

Chris Grimes:

I believe sincerely, I've already I feel it's the same as stay persistent, stay on the bus, uh and and and keep on keeping on. One of my Favourite quotes is from the fish Dory in Finding Nemo, which is keep on swimming, keep on swimming, keep on swimming, keep on swimming. In this life of ours, it's not over until it's over. So just keep on, keeping on, keeping on.

Linda Jacomb:

And and the the life of a sort of creative can there's lots of things that can get in the way of that, that that sort of self-belief thing. And it's I think we're we're sort of quite privileged kind of being maybe kind of knocking knocking on the door of our elder um selves to be able to look back and kind of think, oh, when that happened, it's just a a holding, you know, bit of a holding pattern for this to then happen. But but at the time it's very difficult because there might be young people listening who are in the creative industries, and it's it's it is hard, isn't it? Because when you're in it, you just think, oh god, the phone hasn't rung, I haven't done anything, nothing, nothing that I'm nothing that I've tried to do is getting off the ground. What do how do I get out of that sticky situation? And I think what you're saying is just persist.

Chris Grimes:

And you've just made me think, and I'm this is thank you, this is a whole new thought. Um I would like to go and visit my younger self on the bridge of the sixth form, where I heard that slightly inappropriate but very cathartic joke, and I just like to wrap my arms around myself and say it'll be okay. And you know, I do miss Hazel. She's the in the Orion's Belt constellation in the sky, and I even looked at it last night when I got up for a wee because I'm at that age now. But uh Orion's belt was beaming majestic. The third star in Orion's belt, the middle one, winks a bit. And when Hazel first died, I went out for a a walk, the the sky was clear, and I saw that winking at me. So that's always been Hazel Star. So I think I'd go back to myself and wrap my arms around myself in that sixth form who has just finished pissing himself and crying a bit, because there's such a relationship between you know happiness and despair, crying and laughter, because I think it was just cathartic, and I was probably using it as a huge outlet to cry a bit, probably as well. But it was it would that's the that's where I'd go to wrap my arms around myself and just say, Look, you'll be fine. Keep going.

Linda Jacomb:

That's so lovely, thank you. Do you cry more when uh now that you're 60?

Chris Grimes:

I than you did. I do, but I go for months and months without crying, and then suddenly I'll be get a a period of of being extra emotional. Um I'm getting very tired at the moment because of everything that's been building up to what's coming next week. Yes. And I'll be hugely relieved. Relieved. Relieved? I'd made up a new word. Relief. I'll be relieved.

Linda Jacomb:

You will be relieved, yeah.

Chris Grimes:

Um you know, I'd go I think I'd quite like a little cry soon. Yes. Because I there's more crying to be done about you know dad, what he's now doing for me as this sort of energetic mascot. Yes. What makes me cry the most is the worry that my mum is lonely. So uh that'll get me going. If I think about that, but that's that's what I cry about the most. And that's why I've had an extraordinary relationship with my mother anyway, all my life, but particularly this last year where you know the the the loneliness of you know d mum and dad met when um mum went to dad's 14th birthday party.

Linda Jacomb:

Oh my goodness.

Chris Grimes:

And uh you know, they were together all that time, and the fact they're not together now um is is obviously incredibly sad. And he was eighty-seven, mum's now eighty-eight, um, and and you know, my my my desire to be present for my mum is really important.

Linda Jacomb:

Well, uh you are. You just just by saying that you are. Um we come to the moment where I you passed me this golden vat on at the top of the show. I've got to pass it back to you. Thank you very much. Now, when this happens, it won't be me, it will be you. Yeah. But who would you who would you like to be a future guest on this show?

Chris Grimes:

Well, I just want to put it out there when I first first first first got going with this whole construct five years ago. I'm now about 270 episodes in. Wow. On day one, I did say I would like to interview Sir Michael Palin. I've no idea whether he'll be listening, but I'd like to just put it out there to the universe that I would very, very, very much like to interview Sir Michael Palin. Uh Rob Bryden was in the show live a couple of months ago.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Chris Grimes:

Uh and um I'm on a path to getting to Michael Palin. I've interviewed a wonderful man who's his best friend called John Altman.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Chris Grimes:

I've also had John Cleese saying to me, Go on and say how disappointed you are, it's not Sir Michael Palin. So it's not about that. It would just be an immense privilege. And I'd love to do it live as well, because you know, the m I I said back then, the moment you can see me interviewing Sir Michael Palin, we'll all know that I've made it. But of course that's just the next mountain before you go to the next mountain after that and after that and after that. But I would absolutely love to interview him, not just on remote on restream. I would absolutely love to interview him live on stage.

Linda Jacomb:

Are you particularly inspired by the kind of Monty Python era? Or is it more the the the kind of later travel stuff and all the other stuff that he's done, or is it or is it everything about Michael?

Chris Grimes:

I I think it's everything because the comedy was ri I mean he was always the kindest, stan most Stan Laurel like. He was always the kindest, the warmest.

Linda Jacomb:

Was he your favourite?

Chris Grimes:

Yeah, of the Python, he was my favourite.

Linda Jacomb:

Yeah, yeah.

Chris Grimes:

And there's that wonderful thing in um The Holy Grail when they're by the window and he goes, you know, someday all this will be yours. What the curtains? No, not the curtains, you're dust a path. And that that that to this day I still slap Stan round the head when we're standing by a window and say, Someday, all this will be yours. And he goes, What the curtain no, not the curtains, your dust epithet. So there's so much brilliance that he's done. But anyway, since then the travel log stuff, because I love travel as well.

Linda Jacomb:

Yes, yeah.

Chris Grimes:

And um yes, yeah, he's sort of everything about him.

Linda Jacomb:

Yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah. Well, listen, that's a great sort of fan fanboy call out to Michael Palin. If anybody is listening and knows how to get hold of Mr. Palin uh or get him to listen to this or something, then uh then please, please get him to get hold of it.

Chris Grimes:

That'll be a no left. Actor's disappointment.

Linda Jacomb:

But whatever you do, you stay on the bus if that happens. Yes. But you don't get off. Yes. Because he's just saying no now. He might say yes.

Chris Grimes:

In the universe of no, there's a yes as well.

Linda Jacomb:

Now I am going to grab this first, it's not a first folio, but it's is your Shakespeare, all um your complete works of Shakespeare, which I know you you uh took to drama school back in 1986 when we first started, 1696. What's the day today? 25-9. Ooh. So we're a week out. Well, 30 years in a week. Yes. 30 not 39 years. Wow. Jesus wept. Right. I think that's right. Maybe my maths is wrong, but anyway, all the world estage, all the men and women merely players. Do you know? I saw As You Like It um the other week, and um God, I'm trying to remember her name, the person who played Jake Quees. Really famous actress. Uh it's it's it's a man, but do you do you know? No. Oh God, Harriet Walter. Oh, gorgeous, yeah. She was fucking amazing. She really was. I cried. I mean, talking about crying, I cried during that speech. It was so brilliantly done. She was excellent. But that's not why I'm bringing it up.

Chris Grimes:

Thank you.

Linda Jacomb:

I'll look that up and I'm bringing it up because um when all is said and done, when people are around your gravestone, the mourners are there, and they go for a cup of tea and a ham sandwich or a slice of pizza afterwards, and they say, Do you know the thing about Chris was how would you like to be best? Remember Ed.

Chris Grimes:

He was a really nice bloke and he made me laugh.

Linda Jacomb:

It's in the bag, Bob. That is that is what people will say. Yeah. Um, wonderful. Thank you, Chris. Right, where can we find you on the internet? I I asked this question and I and I I Googled you, and it's quite hard not to find you on the internet. I I've found because I've got Google Chris Grimes. There's a therapist called Chris Grimes, that's not you. Um there's somebody else, I think there's a journalist called Chris Grimes, but there's a there's a you you are you're very prolific on on internet. Um so if you just Google the name, but what where in particular would you like people to be drawn to?

Chris Grimes:

I would love people to well connect with me on LinkedIn if you'd like to, because that's you know the sort of more grown-up world of where we can all play. Yeah. Because there's a series strand called Brand Strand Founder Stories using the same structure to get companies to tell stories. But yes, Google Chris Grimes, but the good listening to show.com is what I'm really proud of. It's become a storytelling platform that I'm I'm I'm so enamoured with and love it because it represents all of the clearing stuff that I described. And then legacylifereflections.com. Also look at instantwit.co.uk because that's the the wonderful perpetual joy of being in instant wit. And our next show is the 17th of October at the Alma Tavern Theatre here in Bristol. Lovely. Get that date in your diary. Steph did say please mention the show. I'd given it a plug. Um so yes, Google Chris Grimes, LinkedIn, uh thegoodlistening to you show.com and legacylifereflections.com. And um, you know, get in touch if you'd like to find out more.

Linda Jacomb:

Thank you. We're about to close. It goes very quickly, doesn't it?

Chris Grimes:

And thank you so much as well. I've I've I've had a very extraordinary time, I have to say, I got um more emotional than I thought I might because of the pragmatism of knowing what was coming.

Linda Jacomb:

Well, you've you've you've you've absolutely given everything, uh as you always do to everything, but you've given everything to this interview. So um it's going to be very special. Before we leave, is there anything else you'd like to share?

Chris Grimes:

I would just like to leave by saying thanks for watching and listening, and um thank you to you. And I'm so grateful uh for our ongoing friendship and connection.

Linda Jacomb:

Well, it's been a great privilege to interview you for one show only. Um, regular listeners who are sort of chewing at the bit saying, Well, who is that awful person interviewing? Don't worry, Mr. Grimes will be back in a safe place next week or whenever interviewing somebody else. But in the meantime, Chris Grimes, thank you very much. And good night. Good night.

Chris Grimes:

Thank you. You've been listening to the Good Listening to Show with me, Chris Grimes. If you'd like to be in the show too, or indeed gift an episode to capture the story of someone else with me as your host, then you can find out how. Care of the series strands the goodlistening to show.com website. If you'd like to connect with me on LinkedIn, please do so. And if you'd like to have some coaching with me, care of my personal impact game changer program, then you can contact me and also about the show at Chris at secondcurve.uk. On X and Instagram, it's at thatCrisGrimes. Tune in next week for more stories from the clearing, and don't forget to subscribe and review wherever you get your podcasts.