David Fellows, born in 1944 in Nairobi, Kenya, just before the D-Day landings of World War II, is an accomplished actor, writer, and voice artist known for his roles in the film The Illusionist and the TV series Borgia, he is also a founding member of the Prague Shakespeare Company and a friend of mine whom I have known for nearly 25 years. David has quite an eclectic professional, personal, and performative history, for example he is responsible for pitching the idea of the internet. Now there are a few of us left who remember a time pre-World Wide Web and David was essentially the guy who was given the opportunity to pitch this new idea and a cruise ship of all things, to about 300 of the world's top tech executives and industrialists. If you're unhappy with the internet, you can blame David. He tells that story in this episode and it's fairly fascinating, imagine having to explain what the internet will be and do before it ever existed. With an acting career spanning decades, Mr. Fellows has dedicated himself extensively to performing on stage, screen, and invoice, and he is not the only Fellows who has done so. David is part of a prominent family of artists and entertainers that includes his brothers Rory and Julian Fellows, who have also made a name for themselves, but I forget for what. It'll come to me. So, get ready to hear an old white guy telling a bunch of stories about them olden days. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you David Fellows. What, what? Charlie Good Show. Good Times. Here we go. Alright, alright, alright. The "Offstage Acting" podcast is back in your ear balls. Yes, we are. With a special episode. With a special guest. Yes. Special friend. So much special. Stick around. Stay with us. How was that? It's a special day. Special day. Feel special. I said special about six times, so it must be special. You sure did. Let's say it a seven time. What makes it so special? Special guest makes it special. Who's the special guest you ask? I do. Good question. Good question. Old dear friend of mine, we're going to jump right in. I want to introduce him straight away. This is a guy I met. We've been friends since probably 20 years. Oh. 20 years. Great. Yeah, madam and Prague. We started doing some theatre together back in the day. Theatre. Yes, yes, and I'm speaking like that because that's how he speaks. His name is David Fellows, and we're going to introduce him right away. Here he is. Ladies and gentlemen, David Fellows. Welcome to the show. Hello. I'm so pleased to be here. We're pleased that you made it, buddy. Why? Bit of a trial to get into the studio today, wasn't it? But you look great. You look very distinguished. It looks very distinguished, doesn't it? Yes. As long as I'm distinct as well. Yes. You have a distinct -- he cuts a distinct figure, doesn't he, Jay? He sure does. The suit jacket, the distinguished, distinct voice. I love it. Yeah, yeah, very -- this is how I met him. How old are you now, David, may I ask? I am 80. Wow. Okay. Yes. I was born just before D-Day. Dear God. I would say it was just before D-Day. And my father was there, obviously, because he was in the Army. What my mother was doing, the one's quite explained. Anyway. Is that what your name starts with D? David D-Day. David D-Day for David D-Day. David D-Day. Well, I was just trying to figure out, because when I met you, I was probably like Jay's age. And you must have been just about my -- well, a little bit older than me, I guess. Because we've been friends since early days in Prague. 2002, something like that. 2001. I was doing theater. Do you remember how we met? I don't remember how we met now. John McKillip. John McKillip. Oh, right. And Wenceslas Square. Wenceslas Square. Yes. And I had -- We did a play. I did a play called Wenceslas Square. Wenceslas Square. Wenceslas Square. Wenceslas Square. Great play. The name of the author is escaping me. It went pretty well, but we decided -- John wanted to do it again. And that's where he wanted me to play the role again and comment. And we were going to redo it. And that's where I was introduced to David. David made very elaborate sets for it. You guys went ahead and did it the second time. I did not do it the second time. I felt bad for David because he spent a lot of money on those sets. And they were massive and heavy. Do you remember that? Oh, yes. You had to move them. And I remember helping you move them at some point, like a year later. You're like, "I got to get these things out of storage." And I was like, "I told you not to build these elaborate sets. All you need is like a -- I put -- when we did it, I put on the stage, I ended up kind of directing the thing at the original. I put a coat rack on the stage for change of costumes and very simple change of scenery. And then you guys redid it and it was super elaborate. Look great. Look great. Yes, worth every ounce. Yeah, of effort and money. You put a lot of money into it, I remember. But anyway, you had timber. It was all wooden and it was made -- big, heavy wheels and wooden. And it had to be moved -- it took six men to move the thing around. And it was just -- it was all elaborate. It was all the days. It was all the days. Everybody got excited about theater back in those days. It was beautiful. But anyway, David and I remained friends for a long period of time. I'm just going to give a little backstory and then we're going to talk about more. We're going to hear from you. Okay. And we did a lot more theater along the way. And we'll talk about that. We ended up -- you moved to England and then I moved to England. And then we picked up our friendship from there because we actually didn't live too far away from each other at the time. And that's kind of the history of our friendship, would you say? Yes. Would you agree? Yes. Well, it's the first few chapters. We have yet to see. We have to continue. It shall continue. So the thing about David is he's very intelligent, very prolific in his ways and very educated, well-educated and creative. That's the nicest thing anybody said to me recently. In a long time, hasn't it? Yeah. It's the only thing I'll say. Yeah, don't worry. That's the last you'll hear of that too. It is the last. I'm going to puff your ego up too much. But I do want to go back and I want to start from the very beginning because you have the most unique sort of background that I ever -- because at some point, and this may surprise Jay, I kept calling David English, the Englishman. English, English, British, British, English. And he finally David goes, "I'm African." Hello. And my jaw dropped on the floor. I was like, "What do you think? You're not African. You don't look African. You don't sound African." No. He will tell you now. Nairobi, it was Nairobi just before D-Day. And I came to the world. Why is that funny? Well, it seems a little unlikely. And it was, I must say, it was good fun. I was born in Nairobi, but I was a teenager in Nigeria. So it was also quite a lot of fun. What was one thing and another? I know. It's really cool. Before B-Afra, so it just was most wonderful time. Yes. We had the local tribe of whom I was particularly fond. We were ready. I loved them because they left us water-ski on their lake. They haven't let anybody else ever do. So we were breaking new ground in all kinds of ways. I remember you telling all kinds of stories about how great your childhood was. And it just sounded amazing because it was, this is the 50s, the 50s, I guess. Yeah, yeah. But it was the, I mean, one of the things that has affected me in my life is the fact that I was raised in the monastery. Right. After I, my school was a monastery. And it's left, it's left traces, let's say. But we always, because you start in the castle and you can see the main school across the valley. Yeah. And you know, as you, at the age of eight, you know you're doomed. And the first cloud settles over you and it's never gone. Oh. Oh, because you, I mean, obviously, it's not that much fun being raised in the monastery. Plus, you get to understand. No, that's not the fun part. That isn't the fun part. I mean, you also learn how people come to believe things. Right. Which helps in the theatre. I have to tell you. All right. No. You have to have a, how to make a convincing performance. Why were you raising the monastery? I kind of wanted to, a little bit about your family. So why Africa and then why raising the monastery? Well, as I say, I have no idea why Africa at the beginning because there was a, there were a number of programs that went on around D-Day, which were basically intended to mislead people. And as I say, somehow rather my mother, my mother was one of those forces to be reckoned with. Even in the middle of the war, she managed to come to my father so that I could be boy. She, she, he could supervise my birth. I mean, as I say, we've no idea. Perhaps he was only when I was conceived. I would never really fall back on. Yeah. So he was military. He was a captain. Yeah. He was captain. And, and he, he did what he, what he did. And then we, he, his, his career took him into the oil business because oil, Africa is full of oil. Sure. And, and so that's what took me to, to Nigeria in those days. But in between, they foolishly insisted on giving me a good education. Yeah. And they paid the price ever since. Yeah. Because now you're just full of it. Yes. Indeed. The education. I carefully tended. Yeah. And I also remember you sort of saying, I said something once about your mother blah, blah, blah. And this and that, what we were talking about. And you said, I was raised. Who were you raised by? There was a woman. Well, I was an African woman that was sort of raised you, I think. Oh, right. From a young person. No, because I thought you were going to go off into the, my mother. Tell me. I don't know. All right. Sorry, my mother's, my mother's maiden name was Stuart Jones. Right. Which basically we felt covered the whole Welsh Scott thing. Right. That's everybody. And, and so there was somebody, and I, you know, I'm terribly sorry. I forgot my name. That's right. It might come to you. Yes. But on the other hand, I've developed a habit of forgetting things. Well, we should, can we mention? Because maybe it's interesting that people could be important, but you have diagnosed early onset dementia. Now, maybe not early. Well, no, no, it's Alzheimer's. It's Alzheimer's. Is it Alzheimer's? It just is taking an odd path. Right. Because the specialist said to me, you're about the level. You said, well, you have to take a list when you go shopping. Right. But no human goes shopping without a list. This is madness. So, but on the other hand, I've taken that as the level at which it. So you've gone, you've just downgraded from genius to normal person. It's a normal person. Yeah. You've chopped out a list. Thank you very much. Yeah. But you only buy like six things. Not true. Grapes. And what I want. And I know when I see it. All right. I know. I'm now living up some steps from Tesco. And it's a very odd experience to come out of your front door. And know where you're going instantly. You're great at Tesco. Because that's where everything is. That's where everything is, right? Yes. You just take the one. Yeah. There's the one trajectory. Yes. Upon leaving the home. Yeah. There's nowhere else to go. Well, exactly. You've got your dogs. You walk your dogs. You've got a couple of dogs. Of course I walk the dogs. Yes. I have the threatens. Yeah. I must. Still with us. There have been a few dogs. Yeah. By the time you get to my age, you measure your life in terms of your dog. Dogs. Dogs. Yeah. So there was the wolf on time. Yeah. That was great fun. That was great fun. But also, you know, very small dogs. All right. Let's go back to Africa. Let's go back to Africa. Back to Africa before we lose completely lose the plot. As fascinating as your life now is in going to Tesco and walking dogs. I'm going to get to the back story a little bit. Okay. You have two brothers. I have three brothers. You have three brothers, right? Yes. I know Julian. I know Rory. Yeah. And who's the other? Oh, that's right. Yeah. Well, Nick, you wouldn't probably know because Nick was six years older than I was. Right. But he didn't really... He's with us still? Yes, he is. He's enough. He was in France. Okay. For them you, as they say. And yes, he's... I mean, we've all led very different lives. It's hard. Every now and again we get together. And it's quite extraordinary how little we have in common now. Yeah. I remember you sort of saying that back in the early days when I met you that you had this kind of great childhood with your brothers to some degree because you're also running around and like feral children almost unsupervised in the plains of Africa. Right. Enjoying. And then everybody sort of went off in their own trajectory. But I guess I was kind of getting... I don't know what your older brother is doing. But the other two brothers are in the biz. Yeah. Theatrical and working in entertainment as you ended up sort of doing as well. Yeah. Was there some kind of influence? I'm looking for influence back in each other. Yes. I honestly can't think of anything that will make us do this. Just how did all of you end up... Yeah. Well, this is working in show builds essentially. Julian, Julian, of course, we have to get in the Oscars and so on. He just went on his own way and is, you know, now living the life of the Lord in the... Yes. Julian's fellow is the... Well, I remember in Prague you kind of said, well, the movie "Gosford Park" had come out. And he said, you know this movie. And I said, yeah, it was kind of known. It was a good movie. Great. Actually a great movie. And he said, that's my brother. That's Julian. He wrote that. And I think we're all sort of proud like, oh, wow, this is good for him. You know, great. And now Julian has gone on to create "Down to an Abbey" which everyone has heard of, I guess. Yes. And he won the Academy Award for that as well. Yeah, yeah. That's it. And Rory is a playwright and an actor as well. Yes. He is indeed. It's all those things. Yeah. And you. And I, yes. Well, I started acting. Dabble. Yes. Well, I started acting quite early in the time of the four places which was great fun. And it is one of those things that you once you're bitten. Right. It just seems reasonable that you should say words that somebody else wrote. You know, started having a thinking tool for yourself. Right. You come on, say the words as if you mean them and go off. And that seemed a perfectly reasonable way to make a living. So as I was concerned. Right. And I pursued it. Not with the figure, but the certain amount of vigor. Yes. But yes, Prague was the big. Prague was when things really kicked off. And you were already in your 50s, I guess, by the time you hit Prague and started doing that. But until then you had kind of a varied life. So, but I wanted to see about. So there's no real reason that any of the family members went into entertainment. Nothing based on childhood or experience. I can't imagine there was a lot of theater in Nairobi and Kenya at the time. No. Nothing to. And no showbiz folk. No showbiz folk. Interesting. Interesting. Even in Nigeria, there was no official version of life. Right. We just simply were living. But it wasn't an absolutely wonderful place to live. Yeah. And just the whole essence of Africa somehow just appealed enormously. Because you could do whatever you wanted and everybody but just go along with it. It was just, you know, I mean, whole tribes would come up and say, Oh, is that what you want? Boom. And there you would be. Wow. As I say, this was long before, you know. Yeah, the world found Africa. Okay. So you David is a teenager. And then at some point he's got to leave Africa. Where does he go? Well, he goes. This was a peculiar thing. But for various reasons, I got persuaded to go back to university and get a degree. And I had a very good tutor by name, Alistair White. And his party was to me really, where if you get a good degree, I'm leaving the profession. However, in the middle of that, we got a year off to go and teach in Grenoble. Where, of course, we sort of, we just want languages. I gave them English. They gave me French, which meant, of course, that when I got back to where Alistair was waiting to see my, the collapse of my plans, I spoke perfectly good French. And of course, if you speak perfectly good French, you can get a degree in French quite easily. So sticking my two one up his nose, I went on into the life generally. So what was that? What's your degree in? Just French? Just in French. Like the language of French? The language of French. The language, the history, the woman and so forth, all of that. But it wasn't so much the content of it was simply the fact that you had to be able to do it in French. And fortunately, I had a talent for speaking, which I was able to use in a couple of languages. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you didn't find university enthralling. No, it was, I must say, the university I came to, a mutual understanding. They didn't want me there, and I didn't want to be there. But on the other hand, you know, once you're there, you might as well pick up the ticket. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're paying for it. Yeah. Come out with the paper. So you managed that. Yeah. Okay. So you got your little degree in French, all French. As it were. Did Alice Kirk quit? What did Alice Kirk quit? What did Mr White, Professor White do? All I remember of Alice Kirk is departing back. Bye-bye, Alice. All right. Farewell. Fair enough. Okay. What does David do with his little French degree out in the world? Where does he go? Well, actually, I then went strangely to Timeth, which was my first time. Where is that? Timeth is up in Yorkshire. Still Yorkshire. Okay. But it's quite high. It's quite far up. Yeah. And I started acting. Kind of particularly good reason, except that there was a rep there. And I wanted to do something where I could at least give some impression of having a plan. And that was good. I worked well. And then I thought, well, this is actually something that I really could do for a while. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. You're 20, 22? Yeah, something like that. Yeah. Okay. Next thing you know. Next thing you know, I'm in Prague. Right. In the Prague Shakespeare Company. And it was very interesting to you. You know how interesting it was, but it was very interesting in that. When you're doing Shakespeare in a country that doesn't really know Shakespeare, you have a lot more freedom. You can screw it up. You can screw it up. Yeah. Yeah. Which we did. We did. Yes. We appeared in Macbeth together. Yes, we did. And it was you and Guy came in from Texas. Yep. And was a Shakespeare guy literally. And he started kind of being very passionate about wanting to do a lot of Shakespeare. And so we ended up starting doing stuff and you helped him found this Prague Shakespeare Company, which I think is still going strong. Oh yeah. Quite strong today. Yeah. And we did it. We did it. Well, the play that shall not be named. We did together. I played Macduff and you played the king. Yes. It was good production actually. Yes, it was. It was. The great thing about it all was that, you know, the enthusiasm. Yeah. The enthusiasm of the cast seemed to spread into the audience, and even though a lot of them, you know, having some school, in fact, considerable difficulty, understanding what was going on. And because one thing about the checks is that they don't need a lot of reason to join together as long as there's going to be an interval. And then they can go to the bar. And so, you know, basically then life goes on, you know, with or without half the audience. Well, it was also a great introduction because we should say that checks have a quite prolific and rich theatre history themselves. Vaclav Havel, the first president after the fall of communism was a playwright. And a lot of their, they have tremendous theatre system. The whole town, the city is dotted with theatres in the tradition of the Austro-Habsburgian Empire, you can say. And so we kind of took advantage of that as a collective of expatriate actors and we would take over the spaces when they weren't being used. We would get in and we just kind of had carte blanche in a sense because nobody was interested in English language theatre at the time. We weren't competing with anyone who was, you know, selling Czech tickets, Czech language theatre tickets. So we kind of could fly into the radar in that respect. We had a niche. A bit of a niche and then we kind of, you know, now it's huge, it took over. I mean, English language theatre is now, you know, much more prolific in Prague. I still hear from the expats every now and again. You keep in touch? I keep in touch. I keep in touch with a few as well. Yeah. Yeah. It's fun that I was going to, actually. I seriously consider ending my days in Prague. I really loved being there. And... But your wife is Czech. She is Czech, but she's the reason we had to leave because she hates the Czechs. Oh! So my friend. Yeah. It's such a nice class. Do you remember? Yeah, I remember. You had a great set up there. Yes. It was one that lasted. Yeah. Yeah. Is that your phone popping off, by the way? Can you mute that thing? Somebody's phone is going off. No, I know. No. Okay. Yeah. There was a... Well, Czechs are challenging too. There's good ones, but there's... Especially in those times, it was a bit of a challenge. The kind of Eastern European mentality and things. Yes. A lot of things to... There was still a lot of people who regretted the loss of the power of being communist. They really wanted to be back in that game. Yeah. They invested a lot in that, and then it was all pulled out from under them and one fell swoop. Yeah. Anybody who was hoping to move ahead by becoming full-fledged members of the Communist Party and moving up through those ranks, and all of a sudden, part of spring. Yes. That's right. It was pulled swiftly. And then all of a sudden, everybody was just kind of struggling to make ends meet. They're doing fine now, though. Oh, yes. They make a good living. But when we were there, it was the Wild Wild East, as we called it. Yes. But that just did allow us to do a lot of theater, a lot of film and television. You and I also were in a film together. Well, we were in several, we appeared in several films together, but there was one in particular. Do you remember? Not one. What? I've never seen it. I don't know if you have. I think you might have gotten me in on that one, too. We always helped each other out. But Victory Day? Remember that one? Oh, yes. Yes. Did you ever see that? Yes, I did. But somehow I've managed to bluff it out. Yeah. I think it's entirely blotable. Yeah. It was good. Yes, but it was good. The thing about that whole time was that there was nothing. People never said no. You said you want to make a movie where this happens and that happens and so on. You always said yes. And some of the things that you end up doing, of course, you don't want any written record to appear. But it was a tremendous fun. It was a lot and a great learning experience because you got to be able to really experiment. And like you said, if it was successful, great. And people enjoyed it. Wonderful. If it bombed, no harm, no foul because it was not like public record, as you said. But it was really like an extension of the university times in a lot of ways because you could live there cheaply. It was a small town full of creative people who were interested in just getting into stuff. And ultimately, kind of an experimental time where because you didn't have to run around in the rat race and make a lot of money in order to survive, you had a lot of leisure time free time. Right. But also you could just try something. If you had an idea, you could just try it. There was nobody wanted to stop you because they also had ideas. They wanted to just try. And it was because it's a very interesting time to be in a country when it's no longer communist. But they have no experience of any other kind of system. Right. So you could introduce them to whatever system you came from. Yes. And they were keen to learn because one thing about communism is it doesn't like people trying stuff. Outsiders. Yeah. New stuff. So if you came from England or France or L.A. like I had come straight from L.A. Wherever you had come from and ended up there, a lot of different people from all over the world were finding themselves in Prague. And it just became this kind of cosmopolitan cultural melting pot of expats for a good decade or so anyway. Yeah. Some of them are still there. Yeah. A lot of them. A lot of them there for a long time. Now there's a little gap here though somewhere. We jumped. You started with... Yeah. I was 22. And then I was... In Yorkshire. Yeah. I was up in New Yorkshire acting. And then next thing I know, 30 years later, I found myself in Prague. Right. Can we slice into that 30-year cap somehow? I see. Because I remember you did a lot of stuff. I mean, you were in the States for a while. Oh, indeed. I have. Of course, one of the things that because my father was born in Alberta, I had the right to a Canadian passport. Right. And with that, clap's in my hand. I just played Fast and Loose with the... It was just America. Yeah. There was a big bit at the top. And he got really cold if he went too far. And he got really warm if he went too far down the other way. That's right. But you know, but I ended up... I mean, first... My first thing was in Toronto. It was with film articles. I didn't mention that. The... That was my first experience with all... Eventually became the projecting system and so on and so forth. But it was... Film articles did the "Opticals of Film" funnily enough. Not an imaginative name, but still at your point. And... Apropos. And they had inadvertently sold to General Motors a launch of a new line of... Cars. And anyway, eventually there was a meeting when it was revealed to the man from General Motors that they hadn't started on it because they had to clue what to do. Right. And anyway, at a crucial moment in the... Meeting. I should tell you now that I had also been at that time working on the punch tape systems and so on and so forth. The old IBM computers. The punch cards? Yeah. It was good. It was all good stuff. Anyway, at a crucial moment, the man from General Motors said, "Does nobody know?" I figured my American accent. "Does nobody know how any of this works?" And I looked around the assembled multitude. There was nobody volunteering. So I said, "Well, I do." And he turned to the audience and said, "What this man wants. This man gets." And I was given the total responsibility of reducing this show from scratch. And never having seen a launch of any kind. But by gosh, it was hugely successful. And you did it. Yeah, yeah. And did it in one swell poop. And a swell poop. But it was great because then it started that they said, "Well, okay, what can we do? Now we've done this three-screen extravaganza. What can we do next?" And I thought, "Well, why don't we make a big one-screen and just blend the edges of the projector stacks so that we've got cinemascope." I was inventing cinemascope, I thought. And sure enough, David Corley, you remember David Corley, he produced a little things that you put into the images called fuzzies. And they just blended the light from one projector to another. And because some optical scholars shoot absolutely accurately, the slide is going on, we ended up with these enormous theatrical presentations. And then we thought, well, if we're doing this with a couple of projectors, surely we could do it with more projectors. And by the time I finished doing those things, we had nine projector stacks behind each one of the five screens. Oh, my gosh, that stuff moved. What were you presenting? Well, just about anything, really, because once you've got that level of control, you can do very good, very big, and very exciting because they all moved to music, presentations of just about anything that you wanted to do. One of them, I was down in -- I was down in Bahamut somewhere. I was down in Florida, I was down in Florida. And somebody said to me, could you do a pitch? We're going to take these guys down, we're going to take them to Bahamut, we can play golf, and then we'll bring them back. And while they're on the boat, we want you to pitch them the idea for a thing we think should be called the Internet. And I said, oh, that sounds like a good plan. And then we started talking about fees. And then we came back to the central plan. And the thing that -- I mean, I knew they were serious because when the boat left harbor, we were flanked by fully armed submarines. Although they were quick to tell me it wasn't for me. It was for the 300 leading industrialists that we're going to build. Okay. But anyway, the net net was that everybody, when they got back off the boat, signed up. For the Internet? Everybody signed up for the Internet. And that gave the Internet itself the cash to be founded. And so they went, yes. You were the pitchman to get the Internet off the ground. Truth is, I've always felt that it was slightly my fault. And you have been unable to use the Internet yourself all this time. All this time. It remains a mystery even to you. I shunned it. It's no fault. You are somewhat responsible for this. Absolutely. You're a pitchman. But it was -- how do you find yourself in a situation? Oh, I don't know if it's like -- I don't know, it's like Vitro. Vitro makes glass. It's not an imaginative name, but they make glass and they make a lot of it. I always used to say never work for the second largest glass producer in Mexico because he can't afford you. Right. And they had -- they did a rear projection version with five, nine stack set up. And it just somehow really worked for them. I mean, they were getting contracts all around the world and so on. Simply because when the audience came in, there was a screen. There was no sign of a projector. There was just movies. And, you know, if you've got a decent set of stacks and you can make that stuff really fly. Sorry, is that me? I believe so. Your phone has been popping off this whole time. There we go. You want to answer it? No, I want to turn it off somehow. Can you mute it as well, maybe? Yeah. This is -- call it answered. Who is it? Is it important? No, no. I'm just trying to figure out. This is a podcast after all. Oh, okay, yeah. Oh, my gosh. Okay. Amateur mistake. It's like we're in the theatre. Yeah. I'm sorry. I can't talk right now. Nice. Allow me to rephrase that. I'm just wondering. How does one -- how does -- one is yourself sort of -- Yeah. I don't want to call you lazy, but I do know you to some degree. I tried -- I tried to achieve the maximum amount with the minimum amount of effort. Yeah, that's a good -- It's like your forward? It's a good way to put it. And I've seen pictures of you back in your youth and you look quite hippie-esque, I want to say, to some degree. Is that fair enough? Yes. That's absolutely fair. But don't look as distinguished as you do now. You didn't look as distinguished as you do now, for sure. No. So why would someone come up to you and say, "Hey, how'd you like to become influential in the world?" Well -- Well -- All right. Yes. No, but funny enough, it was wrong. Like, do you remember the program called Life? It was -- it was -- I remember the magazine called Life. Yeah, no, but this was -- it was a thing about life -- it was called Plant Genetic Systems, was the name of the client, BGS. And they were going to create new kinds of life forms. And they were going to do it through modifying the genetic structure of the plants. And I mean, nowadays, of course -- Sounds trivial. Sounds trivial. Sounds -- But at the time, it was a very difficult idea to get across that this was actually going to be safe. Right. You know, it was -- Yes. It was not that I got artificial intelligence now. Yeah, it sounds monstrous, but okay. Yes. Well, the thing -- I mean, artificial intelligence. One of the things that -- why is it not artificial intelligence? Is -- there's nothing wrong with artificial intelligence. On the other hand, artificial stupidity is going to kill a lot of this. The -- it's just amazing how stupid these artificial intelligence devices are. I seem to have lost both of you from my screen, so I'm going to pretend that I know each of them. We're here. Okay. We are -- I'm laughing and nodding. Okay. Excellent. So, anyway. So, I still have -- still circling the question as to what -- how did you get into these positions of authority? Do you just bamboozle your way in? Flim flam? Is it carpet baggery? Is it shystery? What -- what form? No, I -- I resemble that remark. The -- the thing about it was -- and it was -- I mean, it was shameless, entirely. I mean, look, you know, the -- the difficult thing is, once you're the only person who knows how to do the latest version of the thing, people come to you and say, "Can you do it for me?" And -- and so, you spend your time -- you spend your time zipping about the world because at that point, I was the only person anybody had ever heard of. You know? I mean, there were lots of other people who was like, like, you know -- I'm still confused. Andrew McCray. You know? Well, you know, I -- I said, "Without Andrew McCray, there is no David Fellows." He didn't get the line like because people didn't know his name. Right. And -- and my name was easy to remember because it was the only name. And it -- you know, I'm not -- The only name you would do it. Well, I was the one who could do it. If you wanted something done in this kind of field, you started with me. Right. And then you went on to other people. But how did you know? How did I know how to do this? Yeah. Because I made it up. Right. As I went along. You said yes. Oh. Okay. So it's flint flamory. No, it's -- no, it wasn't flint flamory. No, I -- there is a technology to this. Yeah. And I was expert in that technology. How did you become an expert, though? I became an expert in it because, as I say, I made it up. When I started with that -- It sounds like you're making this up now. No, no. I started with those screens. I'm there. And people said, "I want one like that." Yeah. And people then said, "How do you get one like that?" Okay. And they said, "You have to talk to David." Right. Right. And I never said no. So -- Hey, you said yes. My life, generally. Yes, ma'am. I -- so I just said, "Yes, I can do that." And then they'd say, "Well, would it be better than the last one?" And they'd say, "Of course it would be better than the last one." Right. Right. And then, gradually, I got people like Andrew McCray and, you know, around me who knew how to implement it and then, eventually, how to do it, how to, you know, deal with David Corley and the masks and all the rest of that made everything possible. So we ended up with these enormous stacks. Right. Oh, that's -- Projection stacks. Projection stacks, yes. Right. And then, of course, once you've done it and it's worked, people want -- Right. And I say, "But it's worked. I don't mean the thing actually ran." But the results, in terms of whatever it is they were trying to do, in terms of getting the buy-in to some new idea or whatever. And because that actually worked, then it became important to get to the person who knew how to make it actually work. And it was -- I mean, but it wasn't -- as you know, now it's familiar stuff. And it works, you know, it works -- but it works because it changes minds in a way that you can't do easily any other way, because it's very difficult even in -- even with motion picture. In fact, that particular motion picture. Motion picture tends to look like the real thing. And so the brain is able to deal with it and also forget about it. But what we were doing looked like how you remember things. And so they were stored as memories. And once something is stored as a memory, you're there. Okay. Yeah. All right. Let's get into a few things. I'm conscious of time. I want to get a lot. I want to talk a lot of stuff. I'm still San Francisco. Yes. Tell us a little bit about that. You were there for a while. Your daughter lives there still, right, in the area? No, no. She's now living in New York. Okay. Right. And yes, that's -- if I know -- yeah, but San Francisco was just -- I mean, I'm still doing just basically the same thing. But, you see, this is the other thing. People think, you know, people right now with the election going on, people keep talking as though Americans was some kind of breed or something. But Americans come in at least 57 varieties. Yeah. You know, it's -- All shapes and sizes. All shapes and sizes. And they're not -- they're not predictable because they're used to not being predictable. There's nothing in the American way of life that says you have to be like this. I know we give the impression that there is some kind of binding force. But particularly when I was working with Americans, as you know, they were the first to do something out of character, the first to try something, the first to not merely try it but codify it, and get it working as a system and then on into the rest of it. It's no coincidence that the U.S.A. is now the driving force for practically speaking everything because it has this enormous wealth of unpredictability. And that's the thing that always came up -- you know, came up trumps. And I've used the word advice, you know. But it was -- It's just -- It might come up trumps again as of today. As of the recording of this today, by the way, folks. The U.S. elections are ongoing and we have to get the results. Although I have to say that the idea -- the phrase, the last Trump presidency -- I don't know if you know much about the last Trump, but it means the end of the world. That is how we first -- the universe is coming to an end is because we hear the last Trump. So the phrase is -- Is that Gabriel's trumpet? That is Gabriel calling the show. I almost said Peter Gabriel for some time. Peter Gabriel's trumpet. I mean, yes, but the thing is the America is the only country in the world. It gives itself into this trouble. Are you playing with something on your microphone? No. Fiddling with a cable. Am I? Yeah, maybe. Okay, can you see this, by the way? No, I can't. If you just touch -- maybe just hit the space bar or something. The computer might have just gone to sleep a little bit. Yeah, that's something. I'm not going to touch too much. Just to face that. Just move the -- your finger just moved the little track pad. See if it pops up. No? No, I can -- I mean, I've got the arrow. Can I pop it on something? Press the arrow. No, well, all right. Better leave it. Better leave it. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so that -- I don't know if that explains much of the gap of 30 years, but -- Right. In terms of -- let's talk about modern David Fellows. Yes. The last 10 years. So we did bump into each other. I remember helping you find an agent, a voice agent. Yes. And helping you with getting your voice real and things like that. I always thought you had an amazing voice. We did some stuff in Prague. Yes. But you started doing quite a bit. Now you're working kind of regularly. Yes. In Voice, how's things going? It's so ho. Voice is our friends over there. It's so ho. Yes, our voices. Yes, and I've actually just discovered a fabulous little studio that is just down the road from me. It's people called Yaya, which is -- Anyway, what kind of work are you doing? I haven't caught up with you in another while. Are you doing audiobooks, corporate video? Yeah, no, I'm just doing -- it's still basically pitches, really. Right. It's still a pitchman. It's still a pitchman. Always a pitchman. But it is -- I mean, there's enough fun to be had still in the business. And that I'm reluctant to say that I won't do that again or something, anything. Yeah. You know, my instinct always is yes. And then later on I say, "Why did I do that?" But still, you know, but by then -- That's how we met. Yes, basically. Yeah. That's right. Anyway. Yeah, but things are going well for you on the acting front. Yeah, just because it's interesting at your advanced years that you can still be working as an actor. There's no retirement for an actor, really. No, indeed. And it's just -- I've been moving a lot recently, sort of skipping around various places. Yeah. Why have you done that? You were in Hastings for a while. You were in Rye when I first got here, and then you were in Hastings now. I was in Hastings, and then my wife's knees gave out. And the free story has a bad knees. Right. So then I went looking for a place -- and I went to a place called Mex Hill, which is very nice. Yeah, Mex Hill. And found a flat that was actually flat. And from one end to the other, it didn't go up more than an inch or two. And that was great. And we had a wonderful time there. And then they wanted to knock that down. And so I moved to Tentedan. And Tentedan is, you know, a great place from all kinds of points of view. But not least, because they -- just basically everybody knows that the main rule in Tentedan is to be nice. Whatever else happens, even if something looks completely inexplicable to you, be nice about it. And so you can kind of relax. You know, and I have the dogs and the dogs make friends with everybody. Right. And, you know, so I have this sort of semi-quag prepared life. Where's your favorite place been so far that you've lived and experienced? You've lived around. Yes, I've been everywhere, man. I've been everywhere, man. But I have. And, you know, I can't say that I have a favorite. Because they're just no places like any other. And it's a bit -- I mean, it's a bit like menus, you know. If you keep eating the same thing from the menu, you won't ever discover. How good other things can be. But, you know, if it's -- well, as with everything, the more you experience, the more you are keen and look forward to the next experience. And, you know, maybe 18 now, but you should come back in a decade or two. And we'll see how much fun I'm having. I was looking for some photos of us when we were younger. I came across a few. But here's you with the brothers. This was an evening we had out. I don't know if you can see -- oh, you can't. That's you and Rory and Julian. Oh, all right. When we were -- we went and saw Rory's play. Yeah. Was it about Sir Isaac Newton, I believe, was it? Yes. Yeah. You keep it in touch with the brothers? Oh, yes. Yes, we do. Well, family reunions. Julian otherwise known as his lordship. Oh, he's a Sir now, isn't he, Julian? His lord. Oh, goodness. Yeah. His lordship. Which is a neighbor. He's got a very nice house and lots of rooms. So it's -- that's where, in fact, he gave me my 80th birthday party. So that was great. Where was my invitation? Well, of course. There are these little slip-ups. Yeah, of course. I was invited to -- I think I was invited to some -- his party, and then I was kicked out. All right. That's -- that's -- how did he like it? You don't remember? That was the same night. And then we went out for drinks, and it turned out it was his party, and there was a meal, and they tried to be -- Oh, right. Yes. Unceremoniously. All right. I was asked to no longer be in the place where I was, which was at the party. Right. You were quite embarrassed, to be fair. Yes. Every now and again, my family just does something bizarre. And it's -- you know, you can't -- you can't go around and say it didn't happen, because there's always too many witnesses. So I just -- I just now turn my back to it and talk to somebody else. Yeah. Yeah. Fair enough. Yeah. Well, I was just wondering because if -- I -- it always kind of astounded me that they never really helped you or helped each other, I don't know, in the business a little bit, because -- Well, certainly Julian has a lot of contacts and things. Well, he does now. But the thing is that -- I don't know. I've never really thought that anybody should help me. Right. It's, you know, certainly, you know, you believe me? I mean, it's -- it's -- because it's because I've always -- you know, it's been my road to how. And so I don't have any sense that somebody has let me down. Now, I'm the only person now who might have let me down is me. And what is I? And it's -- I've not found that a bad way to live, you know? I like that. It's not -- you're not putting expectations on other people. It's not like you -- you're not owed anything. No one -- it's up to you as the yes man for to have the power over your own destiny. That -- that was pitifully put, if I may say that. Yes, it's exactly that. It's your -- you know, your fate is in your hands. And if it isn't, then you've got something to worry about. Yes. Yeah. Because if it's in somebody else's hands, you're on dodgy ground. Fortunately, that hasn't happened. Is David Fellows happy with the -- his life story and the trajectory and -- is there something more that -- I know you always wanted to write like a memoir, haven't you? Well, yes, if he had books. No, no, the thing is -- actually, I think the memories are going to have to suffice. I mean, I have this. I mean, my memory is getting worse and worse. But on the other hand, you know, I mean, it's -- What more would you have liked to have done if you could have done like one or two things that you just felt like you might have missed out on? You know, I have to say, I've done everything I wanted to do. And I -- and I got other people to help me. And that, basically, is how it -- it's how it goes. You got other people to help you. You just said you didn't want help. All right. Right. And then -- No, no. Yes, you're quite right. Am I contradicting myself? It's time to do that. Yeah, there it is. Well, let's -- it's a pleasure. I see that we're out of time real quick. Yeah. I will -- David's in a studio right now, and he's being chucked out, so -- Yes. We'll have to say goodbye. We'll -- I'm going to share a little clip on our way out. Okay. And -- but for now, David, Dan, really pleasure. I'm glad you had this chance. Yes. It was great to see you. Thank you. Thank you very much for it. Do you have any words of wisdom for young people out there? Oh, well, I mean, for young people. Anyone. Anyone. Anyone. Do it. Do it. And then find out somewhere of getting it cured. Ladies and gentlemen, there he is. David Fellows. It was a true pleasure, David. Thank you so much, buddy. We'll talk soon. We'll be in touch. Thank you. All right. There he goes. Wow. What do you think, Jay? I love that. He's great. I love that. He -- I love his energy and his vibe. And I know you're like, you're kind of contradicting yourself, but I feel like I got it. I feel like I was right on board with him, the Yes Man from Africa. I love it. Yeah. Yeah. I loved it. Yeah. It's quite a rich background and things. And, I mean, a lot of stories in there. I was hoping he would get into a few more, huh? That's a big one. That's a big one. Yeah. And that's all true. Yeah. But I couldn't quite get out of him like, why? How did you get in these situations? He's vague. He's vague about a lot of things. Always has been kind of. And you get -- Sounds like he just says, "Yes." Sounds like he just says, "Oh, yeah." Yeah. Yeah. That's part of it. And then he forgets how it happened, probably, because he's not voting on. And there's only one thing that he can remember that, like, yeah. Or, you know, that he knows they got him to it. It's just like, "Well, I just said yes." And then it happened and then there's nothing else to really -- There was more to it, but he just doesn't -- he hasn't focused on it. Yeah. I think so. I think that's -- I think I'm going to be him when -- I think I'm going to be him when I'm 80. I feel like I was like, "Oh, my gosh, I saw -- I saw Future J. I could be wrong." But I feel like I did. You might? Yeah. Maybe hopefully he'll be that -- I really did. Good. I hope all the answers did too. You want to watch me and David in a little McCast real quick? This is a solid bat. Oh, yeah. Here we go. Bloody man is that! This is a state of fight. I'd save the jim. I'd save the jim. I'd save the jim. I'd save the jim. I'd save the jim. I'd save the jim. I'd save the jim. I'd save the jim. I'd save the jim. That's me. I'd save the jim. I'd save the jim. I'd save the jim. I'd save the jim. That's me. that do cling together and show their art. The merciless McDonald's, assisted by that most disloyal trait of the day of a car door, began a dismal conflict. And fortune, on his damned, quarrel-smiling show of like a rebel's whore. But all is too weak. But brave, then bet, and well, he deserves that name. Distaining fortune with his brand new steel, which smoked a bloody execution like it. Okay. I'd say good job, but again, the echo is a bit, I couldn't understand it. Great job. We were supposed to fix that. That's right. We will show it at the end. You look swole. You look buff. Yeah, I was playing, I was playing McDuff, so I had to, yeah, you had to be the head of the guy that goes. He's like, not the antagonist, because he's essentially a good guy, but he's the one that he's the one. Yeah, the witches come to Macbeth and they tell him, "Don't worry, you can't be killed by anyone born, any man born of woman." So he, Macbeth, goes, "Well, great. That means anybody, because who isn't born of woman of a woman?" And then I get into a battle with him, and then at some point he's going, "I can't be killed, so I don't know what you're on about." And I go, "Guess what? I was C-section baby." Oh yeah, that's right. And you weren't, because you weren't born from the way of woman. I was, I was from my mother's womb untimely ripped, and then Macbeth goes, "Oh, oh." His jaw drops, and I go, "Yeah, that's right, mother Eppa." And then I swing my mighty sword and slay him. And it's a good little ending to the show. Anyway, I was a little bit with Guy Roberts, who I've been trying to get as a guest on the show, but I don't know, he's ghosting me. But it'd be nice to talk to him, because he's blowing up as well. And we could talk more about Prague and Prague Shakespeare and what he does. I mean, at this point, I got to go visit Prague. Like, at this point, it'll just be expensive if I don't ever go there. Yeah, yeah, I got to go back at some point too. I got a lot of friends there, and if you do go, let me know. I'll hook you up. I will. You will, you'll have plenty to say, I know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes. That's our, that's our program. Thank you, everyone. We're good. It's a bit clunky there, but hey, we had fun. And we learned a little something, and we got to meet David Fellows finally. The picture of the internet. The picture of the internet. Beautiful. Thank you audiences. Thanks, everybody, for checking in with us this time. The Offstage Acting podcast with our guest, David Fellows, my sidekick, Jay Riem, my tech man, boy Andy, and myself, Todd Kramer. We'll see you next time on the Offstage Acting podcast. [BLANK_AUDIO]
