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If you’re a regular listener of the ‘My Mate’s A Footballer’ podcast, you’ll know that comedian, Joe Wilkinson asks Leeds United forward Patrick Bamford questions about life as a footballer.

The roles were reversed for the final episode of the second series. Joe was in the hot seat and Patrick questioned him on what it’s like being a comedian.

Listen to the episode now on the free 麻豆约拍 Sounds app.

Here’s what we found out about Joe Wilkinson’s career so far in comedy.

One of Joe Wilkinson’s biggest break throughs in comedy was appearing on the Channel 4 show, ‘8 Out of 10 Cats’. Patrick asked Joe whether comedians on the panel show got competitive with each other.

Patrick: “When you're on 8 Out of 10 Cats or a show similar to that, is it like a team or are you actually kind of competing against the other people to be the funniest?”

Joe: “Well, for me personally and most people, I don't think you're trying to out do anyone. You're just sort of trying to do your bit to make the show funny. As long as you kind of bring enough funny bits, that's your job.

One of the regular panellists on 8 Out of 10 Cats was comedian Sean Lock. He was a team captain on the show for 10 years, before his death from cancer in 2021. He was just 58. Joe Wilkinson spoke about why Lock was one of the best in the business - and what it earned him from the audience.

Joe: “When you're the master, like someone like Sean Lock, they [the audience] trust you and they love you.

"He was the best. He did it for years. He can take more risks. And if it if it doesn't go as well the first bit they go, well he's brilliant.

Patrick: “So he's got a bit more license to kind of mess up?”

Joe: “Yeah. So, to keep bringing it back to football, if [Lionel] Messi has a bad game he's not getting dropped, right?”

For every comedian the audience is the hardest nut to crack; one night can be very different to the next. Patrick asked Joe if there was a city or town where he felt he couldn’t ever perform there again.

Patrick: “Are there any cities that you just refuse, or you won't play at because of a past experience, or you know that the audience don’t like you?

Joe: “Sometimes you have like a haunting memory, but it's not the city.

“The only example I could think of genuinely is me doing the warmup for Russell Howard and I would stink out the room, like a lot.

“Everyone has it where you go, I can't go back to that town. You think the whole town's talking about you? ‘God, this guy was toss!’”

One of Joe's more recent successes has come in the hit Netflix series ‘After Life’ - written, directed and starred in by fellow comedian, Ricky Gervais.

Joe features throughout the three series as Pat, the postman to Gervais’ character Tony.

Patrick asked Joe how he ended up in ‘After Life’:

Patrick: “Did that literally come about, by, like, Ricky Gervais just approaching you and saying, ‘Do you want to be a postman?’

Joe: “Do you know what, that is spot on what happened.

“I was just at home or something. Oh, it might be, I was walking down the street, and I got a call from him [Ricky Gervais]. Chatted to him for a bit, and he goes: ‘I’m doing this new show, would you do us a favour and play the postman?’

“And I went: ‘yeah, yeah cool’

“He went: ‘alright, cool, cool. I’ll send you the details. Bye, mate.’

Patrick: “So you didn’t know anything about it, just that you were going to be a postman?”

Hear more stories about Joe Wilkinson being a comedian in the latest episode, available now on 麻豆约拍 Sounds.