For those of you who haven’t seen it, Travel man is a delightful travel show where the very dry English Comedian Richard Ayoade takes a celebrity, usually a British comedian, for a quick 48 hour trip to a city around the world. They often partake in local customs as well as doing some more unconventional touristy stuff while engaging in witty banter. In the latest episode, the Christmas special, Ayoade takes John Hamm to Hong Kong and I was delightfully surprised how well they play off each other. I now want a whole show of just them traveling together. I also now really want to visit Hong Kong and get a 24 hour suit.
The episode has popped up on YouTube but I don’t know how long it will stay there. Link
I think Richard Ayoade is funny as hell, so I watched that. I found the time that Ayoade was getting a foot massage and the tai chi kind of cringe-y to watch, but thought the food tour was good and loved the suits. Like, seriously loved the suits. I’ve never seen Mad Men, but John Hamm came across as a pretty cool guy, for an actor. And yeah, the chemistry between the two of them was good. Throw in Sam the tailor as a regular and you’ve got a pretty good, if weird, sit-com premise somewhere in there.
Check out the IT Crowd if you get the chance. It’s very funny though the humor relies on a lot of cringe so if you’re sensitive to that it might not be for you.
A couple of other great episodes of Travel Man are the ones with Matt Lucas in Rome, and with his old friend from *The IT Crowd * Chris O’Dowd in Vienna.
I just watched the Hong Kong episode and it was delightful. The highlight was the foot massage which Jon Hamm seemed to love but Richard was alternately distressed or tickled by. Also the tai chi lesson and their outfits for it was great. It made me want to go to Hong Kong, though I would skip the street food tour.
I’ve watched the first four series of the show now and basically every episode made me want to travel to that location, though ideally it would be with Richard Ayoade. My favorites were with Chris O’Dowd in Vienna and Paul Rudd in Helsinki. None of the episodes go super in depth since except for the Christmas special they are half hour episodes but I feel like it always gives a good idea of what a place is like.
I found travel man initially a little dry but once I got in the same headspace as Richard, and was following all the understated humor, I loved it.
As a Chinese resident I can add a couple things about the HK episode specifically:
The tai chi thing was indeed a bit cringeworthy, but the massage is very relateable for me. Chinese massages are very firm, and frequently involve knuckles being dug into sensitive joints; foot massages are painful unless / until you tell the masseur to tone it down.
(And FYI full body massages can be excruciating: they often include that maneuver where you’re lying face down and they sit on your legs, hold your hands and pull your torso up backwards)
Many times they were buying the most fancy, touristy version of popular treats and services. For the suit for example you can get a nice tailored suit on the Chinese mainland for $130 or less, and I’d imagine in HK you could find places in the same ballpark.
After seeing how good Rick’s unconventional colors looked, I’m tempted to emulate it
It reminded me of the scene in Rush Hour 2 where they get suited (which also featured unconventional suits that looked pretty fine).
I actually know the guy that they sit next to and talk to when they’re in the sauna. Paul Rudd was also described in the Finnish media as that guy who played Phoebe’s boyfriend in Friends. I think they filmed the Helsinki episode before Antman came out.
My wife and I went for foot massages in Nanjing. When it felt like someone jabbing a chopstick into the sole of my foot as hard as possible, that was enough for me.
We have pig uteruses for sale at the local Chinese supermarket, and I always wondered how you would prepare them. Now I know!
And yeah, the chemistry between the two of them was good. Throw in Sam the tailor as a regular and you’ve got a pretty good, if weird, sit-com premise somewhere in there.