The Live Show That Received Record Complaints!

Abroad in Japan

The hosts discuss Chris Broad's recent UK book tour, highlighting the energetic crowds and the surprising number of formal complaints received due to frequent swearing during live

Key takeaways

• Chris Broad's UK book tour drew significant crowds but generated around 18-19 formal complaints due to frequent swearing during live events.
• McDonald's Japan is officially changing its mascot's name from Donald McDonald to Ronald McDonald, ending a long-standing localized branding strategy.

Main topics

• UK book tour experiences and live audience complaints
• McDonald's Japan mascot rebranding and food quality issues

Notable quotes

I think you've been hoisted by your own petard there, really.

Conclusion

The episode offers a candid look at the realities of live podcasting and book

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) I Speaker 1 (0:01) just hit myself in the head with the springy headphones. Oh Speaker 2 (0:05) no, I'm glad we didn't record that Speaker 1 (0:07) one. Hello Speaker 2 (0:09) and Speaker 1 (0:10) welcome to the Abroad in Japan podcast. Probably the best way of learning about life in Japan without actually being in Japan. I'm your host Chris Broad, but joined as always by England's top Japan enthusiast, Mr. Pete Donaldson. Pete, is that you on your shirt? He's got like a weird shirt. It's Speaker 2 (0:22) a Speaker 1 (0:22) ravishing Rick Rude. What does it say? Swag? What? Swag. Uh, yeah. Speaker 2 (0:27) No. Yes, it does say swag. It's Speaker 1 (0:29) like if you had some protein Speaker 2 (0:30) bars. The last time, I'll have you know, I've been Speaker 1 (0:32) having some creatine working on my guns. Everyone takes creatine now. Yeah, it seems to be... Big creatine's paid off. Creatine, Speaker 2 (0:39) protein, everyone's obsessed with getting the maximum amount of protein out of all of their dinners. And Speaker 1 (0:45) I can't wait in five years when it's like... Speaker 1 (0:49) Apparently it leads to hair loss or something. Apparently Speaker 2 (0:53) it does. I looked at that as a man with much thinner hair than you. I did look into that as I was starting my creating journey. Little blue teddy bears I have every day. Speaker 1 (1:03) Where did you hear it? Because I've been taking creatine since March. Have you? And I do think on the Cyclothon 55, which I don't know what season it is. I think it's season five. Right. At the end of each day, I felt a little bit better than I did on previous cycle songs. And I'm not, you know, I haven't cycled for a year. I think the creatine helped keep my muscles in better shape than before. I Speaker 2 (1:31) think it's, for me... It's mostly just generally good for you, I think. I'm not usually one to bother with the supplements, but I did start going, you know what, I need to do something. I need to start doing a bit of cycling or a little bit of weight or something. And apparently it does help when you can't form thought in your head when you're tired. Apparently it does help with that sort of stuff. So that's all good. Speaker 1 (1:55) That's all solid stuff, isn't it? We should be selling creators. We should change the podcast from Japan to health. We've Speaker 2 (2:00) not added a health... food adjacent product Speaker 1 (2:04) for such a long time fucking sim Speaker 2 (2:07) cards and bollocks that's all we've been talking about but don't take Speaker 1 (2:10) creatine after listening to this do your research do your research do your own research personally don't bother with the vaccines do your research do uh you know i found it's helped me a little bit but the results have been good but it's sort of also like a bit negligible it's hard to have you seen Speaker 2 (2:24) have you seen that guy who uh it was the aussie block who end today bodybuilding competition Speaker 1 (2:30) Did a cycle of steroids Speaker 2 (2:32) and didn't work out at all. Speaker 1 (2:35) He Speaker 2 (2:35) just wanted to see what he could look like if he just took steroids. I think he did look marginally more muscular. Right. And he didn't win the bodybuilding contest. I'll say that for nothing. But it's just funny that he just juiced up for a rap so he said, oh. He Speaker 1 (2:48) needed more creatine. Speaker 2 (2:50) Look, he needs to concentrate on the creatine for crying out loud. And he needs to buy my brand new book. Speaker 1 (2:54) Now, I'm not going to talk about the book all day. I will. I've done that. It's out now. It's out now. But we've just, I've just got Speaker 2 (2:59) back from Speaker 1 (3:00) the book tour. Yes. Which was really fun. I think the only sad thing about the book tour is obviously this time it's localised in the UK and I'm painfully aware that many of you, I think most of our listeners and viewers on Abroad Japan are not in the UK. So it's like, I've left out 80 Speaker 2 (3:14) % of the Speaker 1 (3:14) audience. So, but if this book does well and it's looking like it's going all right, we might do something next year. But also, I'm all booked out. I never want to talk about books again. No. Apart from right now. But we did a book tour. Pete Donaldson was the MC for two of the events. You booked Speaker 2 (3:29) me Speaker 1 (3:30) for your book tour. We brought out the big bucks. Big books. They were like, do you know anyone that can interview you? I was like, Pete Donaldson will do. I don't mind. Speaker 2 (3:38) Penguin paid me, but I would have done it for the free meal we got anyway. Me and, I said. Have they already paid you? No, they have not. Don't let him Speaker 1 (3:46) give Speaker 2 (3:47) the money to me. They have not made it clear where I sell my invoice. But yeah, no, you said, can you come do this thing? It's paid. I was like, well, if you're paying, I'm not going to ask for payment because I'm a solid friend. But if Penguin are paying, show me the money. But yeah, they've not told me how to invoice. But we did do, I did get a free meal. And that's good enough for me, I would say. Speaker 1 (4:11) And you got... I think 18 complaints for swearing. I Speaker 2 (4:15) believe it was 19 complaints. I didn't get 19 complaints myself for swearing. We did a show in London where the metropolitan elites who know how to deal with challenging subjects. And then we did a show in Bath, which was a really fun show, I thought. Speaker 1 (4:31) Yeah, I mean, I did like four or five events. Really fucking good show, I thought. The Bath show was the most raucous and loud and energetic. It was like 450 people. Yeah. And then at the end of it, well, actually in Edinburgh, Edinburgh Bath, it's the same independent bookshop. I see. Toppers and they're pretty cool. How Speaker 2 (4:49) independent can you be if you've got one in Edinburgh and Bath, I ask you? It's a Speaker 1 (4:54) pretty big independent shop. Pretty Speaker 2 (4:56) big one. Speaker 1 (4:57) But the guy was like, just before I went out, he was like, oh, I think you only got 18 complaints. I was like, only? What? Complaints? Complaints. And apparently, yeah, because we were swearing. Speaker 2 (5:05) Because we were using potty language. But like, that. It's a brawn Japan. It's Speaker 1 (5:09) a Speaker 2 (5:09) brawn Japan. You've Speaker 1 (5:10) got Speaker 2 (5:10) fucking Natsuki on the show. Every fourth word is a swear word. I think you... You've been hoisted by your own petard there, really. You've been hoisted by your new fan base, which does contain a lot of people who just read the book last time out. Actually, there was a teacher in Bath who stood up, and he was very keen to ask a question. I was like, we've got to get this guy to ask a question. And he basically asked, I'm one of the few people probably who don't know you from YouTube. Speaker 1 (5:36) I don't know who Speaker 2 (5:36) you are. And I just read your book, and I enjoyed it. And there was inexplicably a 10-year-old kid. who was asking questions. It might have been even younger. I imagine if I was Speaker 1 (5:48) going Speaker 2 (5:48) to put my money on anybody complaining about the swearing, it would have been Abe's family. But yeah, it was just... And he asked a question about... Was it Tamagor? No, Tamagor's just egg. What's the character that's based on that little sad egg? Speaker 1 (6:03) It was a character and I... Didn't know. But you knew what it was. Speaker 2 (6:06) It's not Tamagotchi. It's a sad floppy egg. Fukushima Industries egg. Sad egg character Japanese. But it was Speaker 1 (6:16) awkward. We'd been swearing. Gudetama. We'd been swearing and being awful for about an hour. We had, yeah. And then the 10-year-old kid was like, hello. Speaker 2 (6:25) And it was like, oh no. Oh, fuck. Speaker 1 (6:28) And Speaker 2 (6:29) I Speaker 1 (6:29) imagine, yeah, a good chunk of the audience didn't really know who we were. It's the book man. He's written a book. Speaker 2 (6:35) Why Speaker 1 (6:35) would Speaker 2 (6:35) people not Speaker 1 (6:36) go there? Speaker 2 (6:37) But it was good. We had Connor in the back as well in Charlotte and the Crowd and the Penguin lot. The best one Speaker 1 (6:42) was I went to the Wirral, a beautiful place over the river from Liverpool City Centre. It's where our Andy Burns from, I believe. That's Speaker 2 (6:51) right, Speaker 1 (6:51) yeah. And I did a show there. And Connor's mum was in the audience. Oh, that's hilarious. She's lovely. Is she Speaker 2 (6:58) Mould-based? Because they're from Mould, aren't Speaker 1 (7:00) they? Speaker 2 (7:00) Right, Keris. Lovely lady. Keris. The most Welsh name ever. I was like, does everybody here love Speaker 1 (7:06) Connor? And most of the audience was like, eee. And then I was like, does anybody not like Connor? And I think like three people were like, eee. And I was like, his mum's over there. His mum's going to have a word with you after the end of Speaker 2 (7:18) this. Can't believe Keris didn't put her hand up. Brilliant. Speaker 1 (7:20) Fantastic. But it was a really good vibe. And then Edinburgh at the end as well. People in Scotland were like the most fun and laid back. I basically went out with a can of Iron Brew. Was it 1901? Yeah, because they reduced the Speaker 2 (7:35) sugar in the sugar taxing. That's right. This is the original Speaker 1 (7:37) kind of. I did a book signing in Glasgow in the afternoon before I went to Edinburgh and I kept getting gifted iron brew. You've got Speaker 2 (7:44) to try this, drink me. Speaker 1 (7:45) As if I've never had iron brew before. Well, of course I have. It's just I avoid it. And by the end of Glasgow, the fucking table was like creaking under the weight of like eight gallons of iron brew. Yeah. How would you describe iron brew for people not in the UK? I Speaker 2 (8:01) mean, they sort of make it clear that in the adverts of the 80s that it was made in Scotland, which it is made in Scotland, from girders. They try and make the salt. It looks a bit rusty. It looks a bit, you drink it and you're like, oh, it's tart. I don't even really know what the flavours are, but it's multifrutable. It's Speaker 1 (8:20) a Speaker 2 (8:20) multifrutable flavour and it's a little bit tart and it's just, it's a banging drink. On a hangover, a bottle