Jake Lambert Talks Comedy Tour, Packers & More with Rich

Jake Lambert told his management there was exactly one thing he wanted booked during his first trip to Los Angeles. "Genuinely, I just said if you can get me on the Rich Eisen Show, that's you, then you've done your job. You've earned your commission," the British comedian told Rich. He left with a mug.

Lambert, who lives in London, is in town for 10 days, and it is his first time in Los Angeles. His early review: it's hot, everyone is lovely, and the traffic is not as bad as people say. "I live in London," he explained. "Here the car moves at least." Then he admitted he had already been on the 405 and might have to change his mind.

He did his first set at the Comedy Store the night before, as the last act on a 7:30 show. When he walked out and said hello, the entire audience said it right back, something that has never happened to him. Rich suspected the alcohol. The crowd had also locked their phones in pouches, so nobody knew the result of "the thing that happened" on election night until Lambert told them from the stage.

Back home, his favorite club is a small room in Kingston called Outside the Box that holds about 50 people. Lambert said Robin Williams once dropped in to do a spot there while in the country doing something for the Queen, and people still talk about it 20 years later. "The audience didn't believe it was him. They thought it was someone impersonating him," Lambert said. Rich asked if he was there. "I didn't start when I was 12," Lambert said.

Lambert's first Hollywood celebrity sighting came at a studio, where he sat in the same waiting room as Shaquille O'Neal. He didn't recognize him at first and avoided staring. "I thought maybe they're just doing a documentary on, like, the world's tallest man or something," Lambert said, "and I thought maybe he might be self-conscious, so I won't look." Then someone called for Shaq.

He was so tempted to lean over and ask if they were up for the same role. He didn't. "I crumbled," Lambert said. "I couldn't even make eye contact."

Lambert's comedy started on Twitter, where he posted one-liners until comedians began messaging him asking to buy the jokes. He decided to tell them himself and booked a gig in London. One of the first: "My mom makes a mean dinner. Last night's was alphabetti spaghetti that spelled out 'you're adopted.'"

He has since moved to storytelling, which lets him keep building. In March 2023 he started posting videos on Instagram, and "that changed everything." A year later, he launched his first tour, and it is still going. America in March next year will be the 21st country, after stops around the UK and Europe, Iceland, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. The U.S. was the hardest country to get into, he said, with visa costs and lawyer fees.

In Iceland, staff warned him before he went on that nobody had any money and had spent it on this show, so "make sure it's good." The best country, surprisingly, was Germany. In the UK, comedy shows have intervals, so Lambert did 20 minutes, announced a break and walked off. When he came back, he discovered nobody had left. They didn't know where he had gone. "They thought I'd gone to the toilet," he said. "They just sat there and politely just waited for me to come back."

Lambert also hosts the Had Worse Mondays podcast, where he sits down with a cup of tea and talks about his week. The name comes from an old video he made mocking the vacation captions people post, like "not a bad view," as if they invented them. "What they want to say is my life's going better than yours at the minute," Lambert said. "But they can't say that, so they say 'had worse Mondays.'"

So how does a Londoner end up a Green Bay fan? Lambert said he wanted to pick a team. "The least cool answer is that green's my favorite color." Then he learned the team is fan-owned. Then the clincher: people back home call him Lambeau. When he found out it was Lambeau Field, that settled it. "It just led to it, so I had no choice," he said. "Now I love them."

He watches every week, starting at 6 p.m. on Sundays in the UK, with Red Zone and Scott Hanson, who now follows him on Instagram and DMs with him. For a while, Lambert thought Hanson was the guy from Dateline. "What a turn of events, to go from catching predators to just announcing football scores," he said. Rich loved the image of the guy from To Catch a Predator talking about eight things at once without a bathroom break for four and a half hours.

Lambert came aboard in the Aaron Rodgers era and also supports Tottenham, and he sees eerie parallels. The Packers lost Rodgers around the same time Spurs lost Harry Kane. Both had too many wide receivers or wingers who couldn't build chemistry while being rotated. This year, both started badly and turned it around in the same week. "So we play on a Saturday, then you'll see how the Packers will do on a Sunday," he said.

Rich has called NFL games at Tottenham's stadium, which he called as good as any NFL stadium. He recalled one where the home team was Tampa Bay, and the stadium was dressed in red, which he was told is Arsenal's color and an affront to Spurs. Lambert said no red team will host a game there again; they'll go to Wembley. Rich added that Tottenham insisted on green pellets in the NFL turf so the fake grass matches. Rich's conclusion: "You Brits are very fussy." Lambert agreed, then shared that Americans want direct answers, a lesson he learned trying to get a social security number while repeating "I don't know" until he sounded like he was malfunctioning.

As Rich pointed out, Lambeau Field is not named for Lambert. Lambert has still never been, and wants to go for a winter game next year. Rich suggested he try a Lambeau Leap, with a warning: "The wall is way taller than you think." Lambert requested a mini trampoline.

Then came the mug and a tea debate. Rich takes his with a little milk and two spoonfuls of sugar, down from four. Lambert said back home that is called a builder's tea, and noted that after the third spoonful, it doesn't change the taste anyway.

Lambert has a sold-out show at Union Hall in New York on November 13 and tours America next year. Follow him at @jakelambertcomedy on Instagram.