The deadpan YouTuber went from quizzing grime stars over wings to Vanity Fair’s Oscars party red carpet. What happens now she’s becoming as famous as the people she interviews?
“You’re about to get on to the red carpet for one of the most exclusive awards ceremonies of the year!” a voice booms. “It’s showtime!” It looks more like Amelia Dimoldenberg and I are walking down a dark corridor; this isn’t Hollywood, but London’s Madame Tussauds. “Is that a real person?” she jumps as we pass a plastic paparazzo. Then a human photographer fawns over us as if we were real stars. Except … “Oh my goodness, it’s you!” he giggles, overcome. Is this still a bit? Or has the presence of an actual celeb melted Madame’s waxy fourth wall?
It’s the latter. He wants a photo – but his camera is fake and he has no phone. “How would you take it then?!” says Dimoldenberg, bemused. At least the fake photographer gets to experience her trademark sharp-shooting. As host of the comedy interview series Chicken Shop Date (CSD), Dimoldenberg takes celebrities out for nuggets, purportedly on her quest for true love, although her exaggerated awkwardness doesn’t exactly make for traditional romance. “So, how do you sext?” she asks Ed Sheeran in one episode. (“Wow. In person.”) To rapper Fuse ODG: “Did you have dreams of being an electrician?” And, infamously, “Can you remember any of the rap that you did?” to Louis Theroux. He did, spawning last year’s best meme by reciting the “My money don’t jiggle jiggle / It folds” rap from Weird Weekends. (The Theroux episode of CSD has now been viewed 11m times.) “As someone who’s always been so interested in pop culture, to be part of a big pop culture moment like that was really amazing,” says Dimoldenberg.
