Episode 4 How to Be Epic @ Everything

Welcome to the world of Epic,

the place where you can become a master at everything on the planet.

No matter what it is, this programme shows you how to do it,

so sit back, strap yourself in

and get ready to become Epic At Everything!

Welcome to your total random fix of epicness.

We've got an amazing line-up of experts, hotshots

and all-round dudes with the lowdown on how you can do what they can do.

In just 15 minutes, you'll know how to...

shear a sheep...

become a mathematician...

do a trick with an orange...

dance the running man...

play the sitar...

and this kid will show you how to die like a king.

But, before any of that, grab your towel,

because you're about to dive into the sea of epicosity.

And you'll need to take a deep breath to do what this girl does.

Drumming is pretty epic.

But unless you got a spare bedroom, where do you put your drum kit?

SHE BEATBOXES

How about in your mouth, like this girl?

Hey, what's up? My name's Bellatrix, and I'm a world champion beatboxer.

Show off!

I'm going to show you some simple steps of how you can turn yourself

into your very own human beatbox,

so you can impress your friends at parties.

A little something like this...

-SHE BEATBOXES

-OK, that's pretty amazing.

How do I do it?

First off, I want you to think of your voice as a drum kit.

OK.

Each of the sounds we're going to be making is going to be

a part of that drum kit, so we'll start with the bass drum.

Which you can think of as the letter B.

Buh-buh-buh.

Buh-buh-buh... Got it. Next?

Next we're going to introduce the high-hat,

which is basically two cymbals that you hit.

They can be represented by the letter T.

Tuh-tuh-tss-tss.

Tss-tss. This is easy.

Finally, we're going to bring in the snare drum.

You can think of the snare drum like the letter K.

Kuh!

O-K.

So, now we've got the three basic sounds. The bass drum - buh-buh...

the high-hat - tss-tss...

and the snare drum - kuh-kuh.

With just those three sounds, you can do a lot.

For example...

SHE BEATBOXES

Whoa! That's great!

Just remember not to try it at the dinner table.

And that's how to be epic at beatboxing.

Thank you, Bellatrix.

That's your first wave of epicness over, but don't dry off just yet,

there's plenty more coming your way -

like maths. No, seriously, it's cool.

Guess what? Maths is like magic. Don't believe me?

This girl's going to prove it.

Hi, I'm Rachel Riley,

and I'm going to teach you how to become a math-magician,

and predict a number that someone's thinking about.

And while there's no actual magic involved,

there is a little bit of maths trickery.

Go on, show us this magic maths.

Think of a number below ten.

-Five.

-Now double it.

Five plus five is ten.

Add six to your new number.

Ten plus six is 16.

-Halve it.

-Eight.

And lastly, subtract your original number.

Er, three.

Now, using my maths superpowers,

I can tell you that the number you're thinking about...

is three.

No way! How does that work?

The answer is always three - and this is why.

OK, show us how it's done. Different number.

-So, in our trick, we first think of a number.

-Seven.

-And then we doubled it.

-14.

-And then we added six.

-20.

So when we halved this, we ended up with one of our number

and half of six.

And when we took away our original number,

all that was left was half of six, which is three.

-Aha!

-And the answer is three, and it's always three.

Oh, cool trick. Thanks, Rachel!

From a math-magician to a dance floor diva.

Throw your calculators away - the only numbers you need

are one, two, three, four,

five, six, seven, eight.

If you don't want to dance like your dad then get on your feet

and get ready to learn a truly epic move.

Hi, I'm Lizzie Gough,

and I'm going to teach you a classic dance move that you HAVE to learn.

This is how to do the running man.

Amazing! Tell me more, running lady.

First, you're going to start with one leg up in the air,

-and you have your hands forward.

-Got it.

You're going to bring your arms back, and you're going to

hop on the supporting leg, and put both feet on the floor.

Right, arms back and feet down. Next?

Then you're going to repeat the move,

so you're going to hop on the other foot.

At the same time, you're going to bring your arms forward.

Then you just keep repeating this move.

One, two...

I'll be hopping mad if I can't learn that.

-Sorry.

-One, two...

And then you can keep going faster, turning around,

playing with it - just experiment.

And that's how you can be epic doing the running man.

Thank you Lizzie. Run along, now.

If Lizzie's running man has worn you out, tough!

Because there's still an epirrific mountain to climb.

Our resident king of uselessness has a trick up his sleeve...

you learn how to play this...

and this bloke does this.

But first - want to know how to die like a king?

Well, this kid will show you how it's done.

Picture the scene. You're the king of medieval England,

and you're taking your steed for a morning ride.

Ooh!

Phew!

-BIRD SQUAWKS

-Argh!

That's bad luck, that is.

HE GROANS

Looks like your kinging days are over.

You need to plan your state funeral, and quick.

But how do you die like a king?

Well, to turn your funeral from a boo-hoo into a woo-hoo,

here's top actor and history fan Stephen Graham.

Take it away, big man.

So, you want the best funeral ever.

Um...yeah.

Here's a look at the most bizarre funerals from the past.

Let's get morbid. First up, ancient Egypt.

Ah...

Eh?

A funeral for a pharaoh was a very elaborate occasion.

First, they had to be mummified.

Mummies are epic.

-Ah!

-What else?

Rumour has it that the slaves of the king were buried alive with them,

so they could wait on them in the next life.

Bit mean.

The pharaohs certainly knew how to make a funeral last.

But, for the drama, the only way was the Viking way.

Hi!

The Vikings believed in more than one god.

Ooh!

They believed that after their death,

they would meet all their gods in a place called Valhalla.

Now, the only way to get to Valhalla was by boat.

The Vikings would lay the body in the boat, then push it out to sea.

Then the village's best archer would fire a burning arrow...

HE IMITATES ARROW

..hit the main sail and set the boat on fire.

Of course. You had me, until the burning in a boat.

What's next?

Hello!

In Roman times, the funeral rituals began before death.

The eldest member of the family would be summoned to catch

and inhale the last breath of whomever was dying.

Eurgh.

That is gross.

There's got to be something better than that.

Oh!

Then, after eight days, the body would be ready for burial.

It would be taken through town, followed by a procession

of musicians, mourners and family members...

Hey, this is more like it! Party!

..who'd be wearing masks to look like their dead ancestors.

Spooky.

Hang on, that's pretty freaky.

And that...is how to die like a king.

Right, well, that was grim. Thanks, Stephen.

Moving on. What rhymes with "guitar"

and kind of looks a bit like one, too?

A sitar, of course!

Do you want to know how to play a sitar?

Well, listen up, cos we've got the sorcerer of sound

to show you how to make this centuries-old Indian instrument

sound seriously epic.

Hi, I'm Jonathan Mayer, and I'm going to show you how to play the sitar.

Mm, spectacular. Show me the sitar skills, sir.

Firstly, we have a mizrab, or plectrum,

which goes on my index finger like this.

Oof! OK, mizrab on. Next?

You need to get yourself in the right seated position,

because you don't want to be uncomfortable while you're playing.

So, sit - ahh!

-You have to get you right leg on top of your left leg...

-You what?

..like this.

-GRUNTS:

-Right... Comfy. Next?

Rest the main body of the sitar on your left foot.

-The neck should rest on your right knee.

-Got it.

Rest the thumb of your right hand on the bottom of the neck,

where the pattern stops.

Just about there.

Now we know where everything goes,

-I'm going to teach you the jalla technique.

-Jally good!

You need to pluck the first string...

and then reach up to hit the rhythmical strings three times,

like this.

MUSIC

-Yup.

-And then you just repeat it.

MUSIC

Sounding great, JM!

Once you've got the basics down, eventually, you'll be able to play

something like this.

MUSIC

Rocking it, sitar-style!

INTRICATE MUSIC

And that's how to become epic at playing the sitar.

Really epic sitar skills. Thanks, Jonathan!

Sitars are definitely epic, but they're not crazy epic.

For that, there is only one man you need to call - this guy.

He's the Prince of Pointlessness, the Emperor of the Absurd,

the Saint of Silliness.

He's Max Byrne and he's always got a trick that is totally useless,

-but brilliant.

-Vah!

And for this, you'll need an orange.

Shamai! I'm Max Byrne.

SIZZLING

What's that, I hear? You want me to tell you something interesting and,

yes, slightly mind-blowing? I can tell you how many individual segments

-there are in this orange.

-No way.

-What's that?

-Are you talking to me?

-Is he talking to me?

-There's ten segments in this orange.

Don't believe me?

No...but I'd like to.

Ten segments, you say, Max? Prove it.

One, two, three, four,

five, six, seven, eight,

nine...

..ten.

Amazing! Come on, how did you do it?

Now, what I didn't show you was that, before the trick,

-I removed the green plug at the top of the orange.

-Why?

At the top of the orange, there are little small holes.

Each one of these holes represents

an individual segment inside this orange.

You count them and that tells you how many individual segments are inside.

Holes = segments. Sneaky.

Now, orange-you glad you knew that?!

Oh, dear, Max.

-Get out of here.

-Ta-ra!

Right, there's just enough time for one last throw of the dice

of epicorama. Is it six?

No! It's a sheep.

I bet you can't name an animal more epic than a sheep.

What's that?

A lion? Hmm....OK.

Another one.

An elephant? Good suggestion.

OK, one last go.

A shark? Fair point.

But can you shear a shark? No!

And that's why sheep are epic!

Wool is brilliant. It comes right off a sheep's back,

literally. But how do you get it from sheep to shop?

To show you how, we've got this top farmer.

Hi, I'm Gareth and I'm going to show you how to shear a sheep.

-He's going to what?

-Shearing is a bit like

-a haircut, but for sheep.

-That sheep looks like it can't wait(!)

Sheep need to be sheared once a year.

They like to stay cool in the summer, just like we do.

Ah, that'll explain the vest!

-I'm going to use a sheep-shearing machine.

-Say what?

-A sheep-shearing machine.

-Once more.

-A sheep-shearing machine.

That's easy for you to say(!)

Let's do this!

-So, we start with the belly...

-Uh-huh.

-..then, the hind leg.

-Oh.

-We do the back leg and the tail.

-Oh, I bet that tickles.

I wonder what looks like from shears' point of view?

-Oh, epic!

-We have one stroke down the neck and, then, the other stroke

-up the neck.

-That makes sense.

-Down onto the leg.

Coming round...

I think he only wanted a trim, Gareth.

..onto the back, on the big strokes, the long strokes.

This really reminds me of something.

It's a bit like peeling an orange.

Nah, it wasn't that.

Now we're coming on to the final piece of shearing.

Keeping the comb full. Keeping the sheep happy.

A happy sheep is a sheared sheep.

-This is now a fleece. We need to wrap it up, tidily...

-Oh, cosy.

..then it goes off to make jumpers, carpets, and even aeroplane seats.

Let's stick to jumpers. I think you might need one for the winter.

HE SPEAKS WELSH

And that means..?

That's how you shear a sheep.

Oh, right. Cheers, Gareth!

Right, that brings us to the end of 15 minutes

of total random epicness. You should now be able to try this...

..and this, that and that.

This and this....

and even that.

Now go forth and be epic at everything!