37. Presque French - with Paul Taylor

Send us Fan MailToday's guest is someone you might have heard of if you're a) Francophile, and/or b) a comedy enthusiast. Paul Taylor is a British stand-up comedian who lives in Paris with his French wife and daughter, and performs both in English and French.  We talk about his career transition from Apple employee to full-time comedian, how to do comedy in two languages, the peculiarity of accents and in particular British vs. American English,  and our theories on why some people have stronger accents than others. Paul gives us a glimpse into the life of a stand-up comedian, different stand-up cultures in different countries, and how comedy has been greatly helped by the advancement of Netflix. Since both of us are language nerds and subtitle enthusiasts, our conversation dives deep into that part of linguistics. We also talk about the challenges of bringing up kids with multiple languages and cultures, and how we can keep a connection to a country we don't live in. Paul's first hour-long stand-up routine, Franglais, is available on YouTube, while his second show, So British ou Presque, was interrupted by the pandemic, and is starting up again now - so if you're in France later this year, you're in luck! Tickets are available on his website.  Paul also vlogs regularly, and he does a live show where viewers/listeners call in to contribute, Happy Hour Live. All his materials can be found here.