James Acaster Got Heckled by the Same Person in Three Different Countries

-Our next guest is a very talented comedian and actor. He's currently on his "Hecklers Welcome" stand-up tour and is performing at the Beacon Theatre in New York City tomorrow night. Please welcome back to the show our friend James Acaster. [ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪ Welcome back, James. -Hello, Seth. How come there's a door there and no one ever walks through it? -It's a great question. -It's very confusing that we have to come through the window every time. -Yeah. Do you want to use the door n

ext time? -Well, I think someone should use the door. -Okay. -I think -- Look, I don't fully know all the American customs, but back in the UK, we enter through the door. [ Laughter ] -We believe it's good luck to have a door you never use. Yeah. -That's nice, actually. I will remember that for next time I'm visiting an American friend. -You sent me a lovely text. When I came back, first show after the writers' strike, I thanked everybody who helped the writers get the deal they deserved. And th

en you -- The next day, you texted me and said, I also should have said you're the best guest we have on the show. You said I missed an opportunity. -It was weird that you left that out. I watched it and I thought, "This is a lovely homage to all of the writers, but, clearly, someone didn't write this monologue for him, because if they did, they would have said, 'By the way, James Acaster was the best guest we've ever had on the show.'" But, you know, it was weird. But I just enjoy texting you,

Seth. -Oh, well, thank you. I've texted you in the past. -You have. We've texted each other. And we couldn't text for five months because of the writers' strike. -Exactly. We could have called, but neither of us wanted that. -No, we didn't text. We didn't e-mail. I sent my mother a blank birthday card. God knows how it got to her. -Oh, right. Even the address. Sure, sure, sure. I texted you once... [ Laughter ] I text you once, 'cause my kids have this story box, and you put a little -- like, a

fella on top, and it tells you a story. And they have "James and the Giant Peach." And I'm listening to it, and, all of a sudden, I go, "I know that voice," and it was your voice. You read "James and the Giant Peach" to my kids, and I texted you to say how great it was. -Yeah. It meant a lot that -- Because I know that you couldn't read it to them because of the readers' strike. [ Laughter ] Of course. -Yeah, yeah, yeah. -Everyone knows that. -Yeah. -There was a lot of people like you. -Yeah. -Y

ou refused to read to your kids ever... -Absolutely, yeah. -...during that strike, and you had to -- You had constant negotiations with your kids. -Yep. I was like, "I'd love to, but this is a union household." -Yeah. And, eventually, you came to an agreement, and they were like -- They drew up the contracts, and you were like, "I'm not signing something I can't read." [ Laughter ] It was a sad day. -It was a tough time. "Hecklers Welcome" is a -- This is a tour you've been on for a while, and y

ou basically do a thing that I think no comedian actually ever does, which is you invite the audience to heckle you. Do you have a favorite heckle from recent shows? -Well, right. So, I did it in Scandinavia first. I did a tour of Scandinavia, and in Gothenburg, which I'd never been to before. I got heckled with -- "You have freakishly long fingers" is what the person -- So, that's that's not freakishly long. I don't think that's -- I'll get the angle right. Oh! -Yeah. -Now that I see it on came

ra... [ Laughter ] Good God! -Yeah. -Some heckles are quite useful, actually. -Well, there's not much you can do about it, though. -Not much you could do about that at the time. I can't -- I'm holding the mic, so I've got to continue to have them on full display. And I said -- But it was an English voice heckling me, and I was like, "We're in Sweden." And he was like, "Yeah, I flew over to see the show." This is a fan. -Yeah. -Someone who's supposed to like me. -Yeah. -And they heckle that. And

I remember, afterwards, thinking it's a bit odd that he's flown quite a long way just to heckle me. Then I did a gig in Scotland, in Glasgow, and midway through that, someone heckles me and goes, "You were better in Gothenburg." [ Laughter ] And I'm thinking in my head, "That's the last place I got a mean heckle. I mean, did you heckle me there, as well?" He went, "Yeah, yeah, yeah." I mean, "About the fingers?" "Yeah, yeah, yeah." "Well, you got me twice. You're a bully." He was like, "Yeah, ye

ah, yeah." He said, "I don't even live here." [ Laughter ] Flown -- I was like, "Right, okay." Last week, I was in Vancouver. -Uh-huh. -"You were better in Glasgow." I went, "That better not be who I think it is." He's like, "Yeah, yeah, I've flown here." Same guy. Same guy. I hate that I'm mentioning it on TV, because he's going to love this. He's going to be delighted that it's worked. He's going to turn up and see me somewhere else. And, I mean, I'm trying to come up with a comeback, because

it's going to be, "You were better in Vancouver." -Yeah. You have time to plan it. -I've got so much time. But he's good. -Yeah. -And is this -- -He's good. I can't -- I mean, he's better than I am. -You recently got heckled in your own home. -Yeah. -Yeah. -You know, this might be a bit -- I'm worried this will be a bit too mean for American audiences. -Okay. -You know, they often -- They're more empathetic. In England, we think this is funny. -Okay. -I had a TV delivered, and the guy delivering

the TV put it down in my living room, pointed at it, and went, "Ain't seen you on one of these in a while. You been fired?" [ Laughter ] "You been fired?" -- from TV. From old TV. That's why I'm here. -Oh, to prove to him? -Yeah, prove to him, man, 'cause I am fired from all UK TV. -Okay. The Beacon -- I'm very excited you're going to be at the Beacon, one of my favorite venues in New York to see shows at, to do shows at. I've been doing shows with John Oliver there once a month. -Yeah, yeah, y

eah, yeah. [ Laughter ] I'm aware. -Okay. -I thought it was a really big deal. I was really excited about doing the Beacon. -Yeah. -I get there. It's where you try out your new material. It's just a jolly for you. You and Oliver rock up and try out new gags. Who cares? It's a -- I turned up and I was like, "Here we go. I'm in the big city." I was like, "Is this the Beacon Theatre?" And they went, "Are you here to see Seth Meyers do new material?" "No, I'm here to perform my polished show that I'

ve worked for ages on." But, yeah, they speak very highly of you there, Seth. -I'm very happy to hear it. Now, you know, John Oliver -- obviously, you know, he came over, made a big deal of himself here in the U.S. Is that a path you see for yourself one day? -It would be if Oliver wasn't so goddamn territorial. -Oh. [ Laughter ] Oh, so that's, like, very off limits for -- -You can't -- You come over here, you open your door to your dressing room, he's in the corner peeing. -No! No! -He pees all

over everything. If you're a UK comic in the U.S., you get on your flight, he's at your seat. Just soakin' it up. Sprinkling it everywhere. He goes, "Enjoy the flight. Remember who the king is." -Oh, my God. That doesn't sound like the John I know. -And then he sits on the pilot's lap and makes airplane noises the whole way. [ Laughter ] -I can't -- I work with this person. I can't believe he's that cruel. -Well, you're lucky that you're American. If you're UK, my whole journey has just been ur

ine wall-to-wall, John Oliver's urine. And he's drinking nothing but Dr Pepper. -You did make some real -- You got a real foothold here in the U.S. You're in the new "Ghostbusters" movie. There you are. That's you. [ Cheers and applause ] That's Dan Aykroyd. -That's Dan Aykroyd. -That's a really big deal. -Yeah, it's -- I'm waiting for them to realize they've made a mistake. -Yeah. It seems like it would be hard to edit you out. You're right in the middle of the shot. -Yeah. I mean, my plan real

ly, obviously, is to take that guy who delivered my TV to the cinema. And then fired me from that. I got a promotion. Bad luck. -Was it exciting? -It's very exciting. Every day was nuts. You meet Dan Aykroyd and Slimer. -Slimer a good guy in person? -Lovely guy, Slimer. -Yeah. -I tell you what -- when Slimer has left the room, it's a lot cleaner than when John Oliver's been in there. -You know what? We'll leave it at that. You guys, that's James Acaster, everybody. For tickets to his tour, visit

jamesacaster.com. We'll be right back with more "Late Night."