Ep43 Colombian Chaos & the Shrewsbury Biscuit - Alex Whiteley

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Luke 00:00:07  Welcome to another episode of the Improv Pod podcast. My guest today is Alex Whiteley. So you run a podcast called the Shrewsbury Biscuit Podcast. Can you tell me a bit about that?

Alex 00:00:20  I wanted to create something about Shrewsbury, about my love for this town. My ethos is to tell a story of a name above a door that starts shop. You walk past all the time and you don't know what goes on inside that building. Let's tell that story and let's try and draw people into not necessarily just to come and buy things, but to say hello to the owner and to know what their story is. And that's what the Shrewsbury biscuit is all about. It's not just about business owners, though. It's about charities and events and about people with interesting stories, artists, authors, culture in general. And with over 500 episodes gone, it's a great project to be working on and I absolutely adore it. I'm in a bit of a transition at the moment. I spent just under ten years as a support worker.

Alex 00:01:04  The job was full of complications and confusions and I was really struggling with it, and I was actually diagnosed with PTSD, childhood trauma, work related stress. And I had no idea these things were going on in the background. I've decided to step away from support now. I feel like with what's going on with my mental health, I don't feel like I can offer what I used to be able to offer to other people. I'm actually just got a job, a factory at Muller, which is like, sounds like a mad thing to do, but it's well-paid and I get to just switch off and to just do a job. I'm to be, responsible for somebody's life. I don't have to be on my game all the time and have my game face on whilst I'm hiding my pain behind me. I've always wanted to sit behind a microphone and create content for a living. Not just create content, but to have a steady job in like, radio or podcast. Like I say, your music choices for the Steve Cripps episode were phenomenal.

Alex 00:02:00  The second song you played really, actually made me feel quite emotional. So I love what you do. I really do.

Luke 00:02:06  Great, thanks. So I'm going to play you a piece of music, and I want you to tell me what it makes you think of. So that's anything that comes into your mind sort of thoughts, ideas, emotions. And it's completely improvised. So what are your thoughts on that?

Alex 00:03:40  The first few notes I thought of this scene in Batman where his parents get killed. It just took me to Gotham. It really did. I actually wrote down Trying through sadness and that is, you know, I guess it's because of a lot of what's going on with me at the moment, learning about PTSD and my own history in the past and stuff that through these terrible things that happened to us that have long lasting effects, there can actually be success and to be able to build on that. So the second thing I wrote was the grind. After struggle, I feel like something sad has happened, or something sincere doesn't have to be sad, something very emotional, something deep, and then the grind afterwards of building up after that.

Alex 00:04:21  And that's what I thought of.

Luke 00:04:23  Was there some sort of resolution.

Alex 00:04:25  In my eyes, my personal sort of background. And what I think about is how to live a normal life after tragedy. It's like, how do you fit in amongst the world whilst so many bad things have happened and just live that rat race that day to day life? So for me, that's what it feels like. I feel like that is the triumph and that is the outcome is to be able to live that normal life like everyone else, when really you should feel sad and you should possibly probably fail. I feel like that's what resonates with me.

Luke 00:05:03  I'd like you to tell me a story of some kind, and I'm going to improvise a soundtrack to the story.

Alex 00:05:10  I was within AirDrop, or within a few feet of possibly having a bad effect on one of the biggest mic drop moments in comic book history. And I am talking about an event that was talked about by, Kevin Smith, who is the movie director and podcast pioneer on his shows.

Alex 00:05:29  And it was the ending of The Walking Dead comic book, one of the biggest independent selling comic books of all time. It literally just ended. Nobody knew. And of course, I host the Shrewsbury Biscuit Podcast in Shrewsbury. Not only are we the birthplace of Charles Darwin, we also have Charlie Adler, who was the co-creator of The Walking Dead. I was hosting two podcasts at the time. I was hosting a podcast called Thor's Ken, which is about bringing people together, and a lot of the content was geeky, cultured movies, TV, comic books, and kind of things I also covered the local stuff. So one of the first celebrities, big guests that we ever had was Charlie Adler. Now this guy is phenomenal. He's one of the most down to earth people you'll ever meet. He's worth a lot of money, but he is also an advocate for young people on art, and he is happy to speak to anybody. He's so down to earth, but he comes around my house and I've got my co-host who lives in Vermont, on the laptop.

Alex 00:06:23  I cleaned my house top to bottom. I was like, this house has gotta look spotless. I bought him some nice teas and some nice biscuits. He walks in and just a glass of water. That's fine. I did this nervous interview. It was fantastic. It went really well. Tom Bruno was a bit cheeky because he was asking questions. That was a bit difficult. I was like, Tom, I'm in the same room as this guy. You can't be asking these kinds of questions. But anyway, I got invited to a comic book event called Comic Solo in Shrewsbury with The Shrewsbury Biscuit. We had a studio in that place for two days, and the idea was that if you've ever been to a Comic-Con, the whole panels where they sit and speak to various people in the comic book world, and our studio was right next to where the panels are being held. So people come from the panels straight into our studio, and we'd interview them, and we spent the whole two days doing this.

Alex 00:07:11  And I remember towards the end of the weekend, standing with my co-host at the time, Shane and Charlie Adelaide, who'd just been on my podcast. We're best mates now, you know, it's standing a few feet away from me talking to this gentleman, and I walk up to him and I say, oh, Charlie, we didn't get an interview from you from comics. And he looks at me and he looks quite cross at me, and he goes, I'm really busy, Alex. I'm closing up now. I've got to go. And he walks off and I was like, Charlie, one of the nicest guys I've ever met. Matt. It's just been a bit strange with me. I just come get it and skip ahead a year, right? A year I open up a studio in the parade shopping centre in Shrewsbury. It's a very nice favour. There were empty units in the shopping centre and they were letting me use it as a studio. I arranged a group of guests to honor the opening of this brand new studio.

Alex 00:08:00  The shoes we best get. And one of the guests was Charlie Adler. So he comes walking in and he sits down and we're face to face, and we start recording, and I'm like, hey, man, how you been? You've been busy. Yeah, I've been busy and goes, I've got a bone to pick with you, Alex. And I was like, oh, okay. And he says to me, it was last year, and I'm stood talking to the only person in the whole of the UK that knows what is happening with The Walking Dead ending. There's nobody else in the UK that knows about it apart from Robert Kirkman, who's in America. And you are standing there with a live microphone within ten feet of me. So when you come and ask me for an interview, I was so nervous that you'd recorded the whole conversation, and you're about to ruin this mic drop moment and all my like I said, if you Google Walking Dead ending. The whole world was talking about this because again, it's such a huge IP, it's massive.

Alex 00:08:59  I have these mixed emotions. I want to cry because I thought, oh my God, Charlie Adler isn't annoyed with me. There was a genuine reason and oh my God, I was so close to one of the biggest moments in comic book history. But also, I like to think I'm trustworthy people. I work around with press embargoes and things all the time, but it was just so nice that Charlie Adler, not only was he not cross at me, but this moment had stuck with it. He was like, I was so stressed for months that the leak was going to come from the Shrewsbury Biscuit Podcast about this thing. So that is my story about how I was really close to one of the biggest mic drop moments in comic book history.

Luke 00:09:36  Okay. Great story. So in terms of the music, I was going to get over this sense of anxiety that then turned into relief, I guess when he when you realized that he was worried, I had no idea what was going on in.

Alex 00:11:31  There was a sense of wonderment and intrigue in that, in that moment.

Alex 00:11:36  I'm sat there in my house and waiting for him to knock my door. And that's like that beginning, that intrigue, that kind of how is this going to go? It's going to like the biscuits I bought. And then there's the me quietly stepping towards him on the stairs at the comics, ready to speak to him. And then that kind of like confusion of this stuck with me for a while, and obviously stuck with Charlie for a bit as well, because he was worried that I was going to ruin his. And Rob Kirkman's big surprise. You hit that on the head a bit. I was expecting to have a couple goes at it, but I feel like that kind of gentle, sort of tiptoeing towards that intrigue and investigating what was happening. And then the forlorn bit at the end was that kind of, oh, what is this thing? I think you got.

Luke 00:12:18  It thinking your way as if it was a soundtrack to something in a comic universe.

Alex 00:12:23  Yeah, I think I really did enjoy that because of how gentle you went with it.

Alex 00:12:27  I think there's different types of anxiety. There's that kind of like gentle tapping, like, this could be bad, this could be bad. And then there's the kind of, oh my God, this is terrible. What are we going to do? Panic. And I feel like you got in that music the first part of that kind of gentle worry that you get with anxiety, that kind of little tap in that nervous little, this could go terribly bad. I think both me and Charlie felt that. I think you did well with that.

Luke 00:12:57  Story number two then.

Alex 00:12:59  My wife is Colombian. She's from Colombia, and we've been to Colombia a couple of times to go and see her family, and it's amazing going to Bogota and it's lots of different places on the outskirts and stuff. It's been really nice getting involved with a beautiful culture and a beautiful country. But when we first went in 2013, one of my wife's rules was when we get into the back of a taxi, I'll do the talking because there are a couple of complications.

Alex 00:13:23  The taxi driver might try and rip us off, or there's muggings and things that happen in Colombia like they do in most major cities. And Bogota's like a big city. After a couple of days, I got a bit more comfortable and I'm like walking to the shop and I'm going to buy things and I'd learn how to order a beer in a city, you know, all these kind of things. There's this one night where we go out with my wife's cousin and she's an actress over in Colombia, so she isn't a nice bars. She can take us nice places. she knows where to go to give someone a good night. And we have this amazing night. But my problem is, when you go and have a drink in Colombia, you don't necessarily order a round at the bar. You order a bottle for the table. Right? So we're all drinking these spirits, and I'm. And I get drunk and a little bit too brave, if you like. By the end of the night I'm in a taxi.

Alex 00:14:12  And bearing in mind my wife is like, you don't speak in the taxis. I'll do all that. I'm hanging out the window. Bogota, I love you. I'm so drunk. I'm waving at people at this taxi. The taxi driver is loving it. I'm being a complete idiot. Right? And the last stop is this amazing bar that Jimena, my wife's cousin, is taking us to. And it's a kind of a swanky place where you might find the odd celebrity or two. But at this point, I think my wife's had enough. She says no, we get we're going home. So we pull up outside the bar and I'm like, I'm gonna go for a wee in this bar. So I ended up paying like a tenner or something to go in this bar just to use the toilet. It's ridiculous. So I go to this bar and it's a bit like a giant mansion. It's not like a normal bar. I remember coming outside and there's all these people surrounding it, and I see my wife, she's in tears, like what is going on? And I walk up to her and she's pointing at what is like Colombia's version at the time of Robbie Williams.

Alex 00:15:07  His name is Fonseca and in Colombia he is an A-lister. People love his music. If you like Latino music, you're going. You'll love Fonseca. And she's crying and I'm like, oh my God, this is crazy. Me being drunk and really brave. I walk up to Fonseca and I bear hug him and I put him down. He's still the look of surprise in this guy's face. I bear hug him and I put him down and I was like, I don't know who the eff you are, but if my wife loves you, then I love you. And his bodyguards are starting to surround me and he's waving them back. No. It's okay, it's okay. It's okay. It's very nice. You meet me. It's nice to meet you. You know, my wife is behind me with her hands over her mouth and she's. What are you doing, you idiot? So then I get obviously told off by my wife, and we have a very awkward cab ride on the way home.

Alex 00:15:59  But that look of, like, shock on my wife's face as I've picked this guy up, I would never normally do something like that. I have social anxiety. I don't know what happened. I probably could have got battered by his bodyguards, and rightly so, because you don't just pick someone up like that. That's very inappropriate. So that is my story of absolute chaos in Colombia.

Luke 00:16:19  I'm gonna start in the taxi where you said you were riding out the window or something like that, and it's crazy, chaotic, dangerous fun. And then you go into this other bar to go to the toilet. Do you remember what the vibe was like in that place?

Alex 00:16:33  Do you know the house in interview, the vampire, the French sort of interior with the plants all draping down a big high pillars to the ceiling. It was that French sort of mansion vibe. And by the way, like the bars and clubs over there, if you go with their not knowing anything about Colombian culture, you would be completely shocked by what you're going to see.

Alex 00:16:54  Because one minute you're going to see kids dancing, salsa, proper salsa. And we're talking young people like. And then next thing David Guetta will come on and they're all jumping around like everybody else, and then salsa will come back on. And that is like the norm. Yeah. So there is a real like a Latin music vibe to that place. It's not just a myth. It's it's not a stereotype. That is their way of life. It's really incredible to see.

Luke 00:17:16  So I'm going to try and get a sense of that. Don't play the Latin really, but I'll try to get a sense of the Latin. I play like dodgy British Latin. So a sense of that crazy time you're having and then a sense of where you go to go and bear hug this Colombian actor. I'll try and get a sense of your wife's expression. Just surprised. Disgust. Tricky. I don't know anything about that kind of music.

Alex 00:19:27  It is a tricky one because it's not your traditional story as it is.

Alex 00:19:31  It's about a guy who's just absolutely out of control. I just want to let people know that I listen to this, because I will share the link. And I know there's probably people that know me listen to this. I am not the kind of guy to walk up to someone and just pick them up and swear at them. That don't think badly of me.

Luke 00:19:44  Did that do anything for you then? The best music.

Alex 00:19:47  Yeah, I really liked it because when we go out, I drink and we do these strange things that we do and we've had a few. There is that moment, a sort of chaos, but it's like excitable chaos, an excitable puppy. And I feel like you got that. That dude did the soundtrack of my life. Really? I could see myself walking out of this club or this this venue and seeing my wife, like, crying and be like, what's going on? And then that moment I'm born, as I'm picking the guy up and looking around to my wife, she's like, what are you doing? I'm actually really humbled by your talent to be able to do that.

Alex 00:20:19  I've a story I just told you that's actually quite complex. You know the other one with Charlie. Adelaide as well. Not easy stories to tell you. So hats off to you.

Luke 00:20:28  Thank you again for that Latin vibe. And then it just going out of hand and the sort of discordant stuff coming in.

Alex 00:20:36  You say you have a massive understanding about the Latin music, but it fits because I'm a British bloke in an alien world just picking up things you shouldn't be picking up. But Fonseka, if you're listening to this, I'm very sorry. I hope you're, You forgive me and hope you're doing well.

Luke 00:21:00  What did you get out of this podcast?

Alex 00:21:02  So music is something that I'm envious about because I can't do, but I absolutely love. And it's woven into every sort of fabric of my fiber. And there are different musics that I need to get me through the day, and the kind of music you make part of everything. For me, I get so emotional just listening to music. Duel of fate is one of my favorite pieces of music of all time.

Alex 00:21:23  From Star Wars Episode one. The music from up makes me cry every time I think about it. When it comes to piano music and the kind of music you make, I feel like it's that simplicity that's really hard to come across. And I'm after listening to your to your interview with Steve Cripps and how you put it all together. I was so excited to come and speak to you, and I feel like making a soundtrack of someone's life, and the complicated crap that comes with life is not an easy task, so thank you. I really do appreciate it.

Luke 00:21:53  It's nice to have a fan.

Alex 00:21:56  I'd like to invite you on my show. So I have another show. I have another show called The Biscuit Guy, which I'm trying to launch because the Shrewsbury biscuit is very Shropshire focused and it's also quite sophisticated, family friendly. I wanted the opportunity just to run to the world a little bit and throw a few tricks into it, you know? so I like to invite people to come on that show to have a glass of wine, relax, talk about what you want.

Alex 00:22:19  I the way I describe it is it's really good to rant. It's really good to rant about good things and bad things. So whatever you're passionate about, whether you're angry about whatever's annoying you at the time, get it off your chest. And that's what the biscuit guy comes in.

Luke 00:22:30  So people want to check it out.

Alex 00:22:31  Yeah, I'm on iTunes, Spotify. I have a website called the Shrewsbury Biscuit Podcast. Co.Uk, and I also have a podcast called The Biscuit Guy.

Luke 00:22:39  Simply thank you very much for being on the podcast. Yeah, it's been very insightful. Join us next week for another episode of Improv Pod. Thanks for listening.

Luke 00:22:50  The Empire Pod Podcast is slowly becoming a global phenomena, featuring guests from Barcelona to Lockhart, Texas, with stories and listeners from all over the planet, from Vanuatu to Chongqing. That's why I've made this interactive map where you can listen to stories and explore their locations. Find out approximately where the guests were interviewed and the listeners are. It's a completely new way to experience the Info Pod podcast.

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