The question
Which moment embarrassed you most?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A verbatim recurring question in The Guardian's Q&A series.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Being torn to shreds by a very elderly woman for driving badly on the Isle of Man, maybe 15 years ago. She stopped in the middle of the road and really let me have it.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 October 2024 source ↗
I once found myself chatting to a big handsome bloke at a party in Oslo. I said, “And what do you do?” “Well,” he said, “I am the king.” Being a great wordsmith, I zinged back, “Oh. Errm. Cool.”
Leaving the stage from a panic attack in my 20s. Hearing the audience angry.
Do you have 10 pages? Once, I was dancing in a costume that was like a corset. During a move, the corset ripped and exploded, and I had to carry on doing the number practically in my jockstrap.
Eight or nine years ago, I disgraced myself in the Japanese ambassador’s home in Dublin, at a celebration for my late mother-in-law’s book about living in Japan. Afterwards, when I had to apologise, she told me it was the worst night of her life and, because I was drunk enough not to remember the details, it will never not be the most embarrassing night of my life. People are filling in details even now – “Remember when you fell under the table during the first course?”
Still to come, I think.
As vital as breathing.
As an optimist.
The different areas of global catastrophe.
At King’s College hospital when I was 16; the job was putting hundreds of pieces of A4 paper into A4 transparent envelopes. I lasted one day.
To do the very best you can and then let it go.
Omid Djalili, Michael Ball, Fay Ripley, Olly Alexander, Pauline McLynn, Craig Charles
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