This article was taken from the December 2012 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by <span class="s1">subscribing online.
Actor, comedian, talk-show host extraordinaire, Twitter maven, digital renaissance man and inveterate technology fan, Rob Brydon has found time to drop in and introduce this year's annual Wired Gear Guide.
A studio in east London: sirens sound as the roof retracts and, lit up by blazing spotlights, Rob Brydon descends, his jet pack roaring. He touches down, hands his helmet to a body-suited assistant and, straightening his tie, sits down to talk to Wired about personal transportation, his obsession with US talk shows and why Apple is the Jerry Seinfeld of the tech world.
How was the jet pack?
It was easier to fly than I'd imagined. And the distance I went!
We were in London when I put it on, and I went to Cardiff, Tenby, Aberystwyth, then to the top of Snowdon, which was nice. And then I thought, "Let's do Ben Nevis!" Back down past Newcastle, over the university, then I flew over Cambridge, just a tour of universities basically, and back to London. It's very nice, very nice indeed, and very easy to fly.
[pullquote source="Rob Brydon]
[b]Were people surprised to see you flying around?[/b]
I would say shocked, more than surprised. As I struggled to steer, that shock turned into terror -- abject terror, which is the worse kind. I'm comfortable with terror, but abject terror is another matter -- in fact, abject anything. Misery, I'm comfortable with --
I grew up in Port Talbot -- but abject misery, I draw the line at that. My big worry with jet packs, and one of the reasons I've not done as much research into it as I might have done, is sustainability. That's why I shut my laboratory that had been working on it in Swansea for ten years. I thought, "This might be damaging the environment." So I laid off all the staff. There were two very unhappy men.
[b]Is that the lab where you invented the internet?[/b]
Yes, in Swansea in the 70s when I was at school. It didn't catch on, I'll be honest. But I remember being in a café one day and there was a chap, a [link url="https://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-11/09/raw-data"]Mr Berners-Lee[/link]. And he seemed to be jotting stuff down, and the next thing, bang, he's taking credit for it. I'd love a jet pack, though. Once Apple have made them really user-friendly -- although this one is really lovely-looking. I was expecting something a bit more Heath Robinson -- a bit stuck on, but it looks lovely.
[image id="1w4ReLkQ9Jo"]
[b]You're a very big Apple fan.[/b]
My first bit of kit was an Amstrad word processor. Then I got a PC, but I can vividly remember in 1996 -- when did the internet happen? -- having a PC with a dial-up modem, with all those noises which will be alien now to kids. My big thing with my first PC was altering the sounds. I put on little clips of Elvis. So when you made a mistake, instead of going beep, it'd go [eerily accurate Elvis impression] "Thank you, son". I went from that to a Sony Vaio laptop. And then it was Stephen Fry banging on about Apple. My impression was that you needed tech knowledge to get into Apple.
Then the message came through that it was very intuitive, very user-friendly.
I eventually took the plunge and bought a Power Mac. I have since become a bit of a bore, and now get everything. I've got a MacBook Air and an iMac, two iPads, a million iPods. I like it --
Apple is like Jerry Seinfeld, who has this clarity in everything he does, these smooth lines. I keep all my Apple stuff, I have a little museum in my office at home. Is it a shrine? It's not as nicely arranged as a shrine.
[b]If you were in charge of Apple, what would you release?[/b]
A statement saying I can't cope. Because I'm not cut out for the job. Good God, I've no idea. You might as well ask Tim Cook what he'd talk about if he was doing stand-up. An Apple car would probably be good, though, wouldn't it?
[b]It would have terrible satnav.[/b]
That's not been their finest hour; the quality of their maps really is shocking. But people like me who are real devotees are very forgiving, because you feel like it's a relationship with them. You go, OK, oh well, the maps didn't work, but that's fine, they're going to work it out. I don't think Android users would understand.
[b]You're clearly a very busy man right now -- you're a film and television actor, on stage in the West End at the moment in [i]A Chorus of Disapproval[/i], a talk-show host, a comedian...
[/b] I'm a bit of an oddity. A lot of the work I do is of the moment -- if you do a panel show, or you host a chat show, you're living on your wits. You're living in the moment. But as an actor you sometimes want something a little more nourishing. For [i]A Chorus of Disapproval[/i], there were five weeks of rehearsal, a week of tech and then the preview. You're trying to create something of substance that will stand up night after night, and you can hone and tweak it.
[Quote"]I put stuff on Twitter because it's so easy to do and I enjoy trying to construct something pithy in 140 characters[/pullquote]
You've now done three series of The Rob Brydon Show -- is it a challenge to keep a chat show fresh and interesting?
In the first series, we used favours -- people I know. Stephen Fry, Terry Wogan, Ronnie Corbett. So we used up all of those. Then on the second series, similar thing, and I started to run out of show-business friends, so we made a few changes because there are no half-hour chat shows. People aren't used to the grammar of a chat show of that length. We try to cast the right people; a lot of the time we've managed to get really good conversations going, as opposed to just coming on and talking about their latest thing.
Research is important; it's quite nice if you can uncover a thing.
And people who speak their mind. I'd love to have Noel Gallagher.
He speaks his mind -- I saw him on Parkinson not so long ago, and it was like watching a 1970s Parkinson, when people just came on and said what they liked, and were not so aware of offending this group or that group and staying anodyne.
What's the gold standard for talk shows?
I could talk you to death about American shows, especially [David] Letterman's, whom I'm a minor authority on. [Jay] Leno, Conan
[O'Brien]. It's not about Oliver Reed getting pissed. That's nonsense. What I'm interested in is great talk-show guests -- Don Rickles, you look at some of his appearances on Letterman, or Martin Short. Steve Martin is a wonderful guest. Bill Murray can be; he's quite mercurial. I suppose I'm aiming to get to that position. It takes time for a show. I've only been doing this for three series. And also with me, as you were saying earlier about all the different things I do, audiences ask: who are we getting here? Is it the guy in The Trip, because that was the real him (and it wasn't, it was a distortion), or is it the guy in
Gavin & Stacey, or someone else?
Conan O'Brien took to the web when his TV show was cancelled. How important is that to you? Your website is called "My Impressive Online Presence"...
If I'm being very honest with you, it's kind of hard to keep on top of. It's so time-consuming and demanding. I'm quite busy on Twitter. I put stuff on Twitter because it's so easy to do and I enjoy trying to construct something pithy in 140 characters.
Do you like the interaction?
I do like it. One way to go is to be too cool for school and not to be accessible, but it's just not me. Last night it was the final of the Ryder Cup - mind you, if I'm drinking wine at home, that's when my Twitter use goes up. That was fun, going back and forth.
And I like directing people to things. I'm always forwarding clips.
And that's a nice feeling, it feels like a community.
"We were promised jet packs" is a lament for the over-promised, undelivered future. What other technologies would you like to see? Hover boots. I'm holding out for hover boots. When Back to the Future 2 came out, they predicted hovering skateboards, didn't they? Here's what happens. I loved skateboards when I was a boy.
And I used to wish I could afford Kryptonic wheels and gullwing trucks. And now I can afford it, I could probably have the nicest skateboard known to man, but I don't want one any more. Maybe the Apple stuff fills that void. You need to have some money when you're a kid. And then you turn into Michael Jackson. He was an adult, but he spent money like a child.
You've grown a beard. Yes.
You're currently sitting in Shoreditch.
Yes... Nearly.
Are you going to launch a cool startup?
It's only a matter of time, isn't it? I'd have to get some tighter trousers that don't quite reach my ankles, maybe a cardigan over a T-shirt, and some pink day-glo headphones that are larger than they need be -- then I think I'm away.
What would the business plan be? Oh, I would just live the Shoreditch life.
Rob Brydon is in A Chorus of Disapproval *at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London until January 5, 2013.
Tickets: 0844 871 7622. achorusofdisapproval.com*
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
