When Adam Buxton interviewed Paul Weller live on BBC Radio 2 in 2010, he hit upon the brilliant idea of singing, Grease-style, “Paul Weller, Weller, Weller, ooh! Tell me more! Tell me more!” to his guest’s face. The notoriously truculent Modfather was not amused and the rest of the interview continued under a cloud of extreme awkwardness.
This is typical of the anecdotes you’ll find in I Love You, Byeee, the second enjoyable volume of Buxton’s memoir, in which the genial comedian and podcaster presents a litany of blunders for our amusement. His almost constant self-deprecation would be wearing were it not for the fact that Buckles – as he’s affectionately known to his large cult fan-base – is a self-evidently genuine, thoughtful and naturally funny man who’s also justifiably proud of the work he created with his ‘comedy wife’ Joe Cornish.
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The detailed chapters on the making of their inventive low-budget DIY comedy opus The Adam and Joe Show are catnip for comedy nerds. A pair of old schoolfriends steeped in pop culture and silly creativity, they were given carte blanche by Channel 4 to make the show they wanted to make.
The acutely self-aware Buxton admits that being privately educated, well-spoken white men gave them an automatic head start. He also reveals that working with Cornish sometimes put a strain on their friendship. Both insecure and competitive – Buxton secretly worried that Cornish was more talented than him – the accounts of their occasional “wobbly voiced” arguments will resonate with anyone who hates confrontation. But they love each other, clearly.
Buxton also writes movingly about his mother, who passed away in 2020; the book, for all its mirth and nonsense, is essentially a tribute to her.
