Jonas Hollerup Helle on remixing reality and the tiny details that make us believe

What if your favorite celebrities sat down for a talk… and none of it ever happened?Jonas Hollerup Helle is the artist behind THE TALK — a viral video series where he constructs fictional interviews using archival footage from The Charlie Rose Show.Maybe you've seen one of his videos. There’s the one with Kanye and Elon. Will Smith and Chris Rock. Cher and David Lynch.They’re strange, a little awkward, and very convincing.In this episode, we talk about what really goes into making those videos, where the idea came from, and what it means to create something that feels unreal and believable at the same time. We also get into how early YouTube culture shaped Jonas’ creative approach, the unexpected pressure that comes with going wildly viral, and why he's not too bothered when people assume his work was generated by AI.We recorded this in front of a live audience at HUSET in Copenhagen in April 2025 — my first time doing an interview on stage. The mic setup didn’t work quite the way I’d hoped, I forgot to hit record at the beginning, and you can hear me laughing in the background more than I’d like.But the room was lively, and the conversation landed somewhere honest — so I’m sharing it here.We pick things up right after the part I forgot to record.I hope you'll give this a listen.  * * *During our conversation, Jonas was showing stuff on a screen that you obviously can't see while listening to this podcast. Some of it isn't available online, but some of it is. Here are the links so you can follow along:THE TALK – Ed Sheeran & David ByrneTHE TALK – David Lynch & CherTHE TALK – Kanye West & Elon MuskTHE TALK – Will Smith & Chris RockTHE TALK – Werner Herzog & Mike TysonJonas also referenced Christian Marclay’s “The Clock”, a 24-hour video installation that works like a clock, made from thousands of movie and TV clips showing different times of day. When it was exhibited, the video was synced to real time, so whatever time it actually was, that's what you'd see on screen. Here’s a nice feature on the artwork by the Walker Art Center.* * *Curious Neighbours is a new platform and community for creatives in the Nordics — one that values personal stories as essential to deepening our appreciation of what it means to create.This podcast is hosted and produced by Gus Guerrero.Executive Producer, Katrine Garcia Madsbjerg.Visuals by Louis Montes.Music by Psyche, courtesy of Four Flies Records.Special thanks to Jonas Hollerup Helle.Also, thank you to our friends at HUSET for hosting us, to Union for kindly letting me record in their studio, and to everyone who came to see the show — we really appreciate your support, and it was wonderful to hear you laughing in all the right places.If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend and consider leaving a review. Your comments can help others discover this show, plus, as a new podcast, we would really love the feedback.Finally, go ahead and follow us on Instagram @curiousneighbours. What do you have to lose? We’ll be back with another episode soon, thank you for listening