Category Archives: Humour

Luke’s Improvised Storytelling: Jurassic Park 🦖 [1004] Listen & Learn English

Retelling the story of your favourite film, or book, can be a great way to practise your speaking skills in English. It can help you focus on narrative tenses, vocabulary recall and spoken fluency, while having fun reliving some great moments from cinema or literature. In this episode I demonstrate this, while giving you an entertaining re-telling of Steven Spielberg’s classic dinosaur adventure, Jurassic Park (the original and best in the franchise).

Listen as I tell the story from the point of view of one of the main characters. Notice the phrases and descriptive words I use, and check the PDF transcript later to reinforce your learning through reading. In the second half of the episode to hear my own self-corrections and feedback, focusing on better vocabulary and scientific terms I could have used in the episode.

Improvising this version of the story was both a challenge, and a lot of fun for me! You can try it too. No need to use the original plot – feel free to get creative and just have fun telling your own version of a story you know well.

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Get the PDF transcript here 👇

For my premium series based on this episode (coming soon) with vocabulary review and pronunciation practice (chunking) sign up to LEP Premium here 👇

Luke’s English Podcast Premium


Other episodes with improvised stories like this one

Testing My Friends on English Grammar / Irregular Verbs with Amber & Paul 🎯 [1003]

Following a challenge from the comment section, I decided to see if it was possible to make an entire episode with my friends Amber and Paul based on the table of irregular verbs. This is the result. I decided to test the POD-PALS on their grammatical knowledge, and to see what anecdotes and funny comments I could get from them. The result is both a classic Amber & Paul episode, and quite a revealing demonstration of how English native speakers process grammar in their first language.

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https://youtu.be/3Y5KpLXsMSQ


Funny Childhood Memories & Stories (with Martin) [997]

Martin returns with a set of questions about childhood, sparking a funny conversation full of stories from school, family holidays, getting into trouble, and formative years of Luke growing up both in urban West London and rural West Midlands. Expect a premium episode dealing with vocabulary in this conversation.

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https://youtu.be/5mVHR3qW-yo?si=xCWOUf9Vp-KXYjjA

Get the PDF transcript here 👇


How to talk about HEATWAVES like a (sweaty) British man [995]

There has been an awful heatwave in Europe recently, with really high temperatures and a humid, sticky atmosphere. In this episode I ramble about the conditions, explore vocabulary with the words “hot” and “heat” and show the typical things British people say when the weather is boiling. Expect various funny tangents, anecdotes and improvisations, including a David Attenborough BBC nature documentary about Luke trying to buy lunch on a red-hot Paris boulevard, and plenty more. PDF notes available.

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https://youtu.be/cJniaswOsRs

Get the episode PDF with notes and full transcript 👇


Music, Marketing & Memories with Jez Booker [993]

In this episode I reconnect with an old friend after 25+ years of not seeing each other. Expect a chat full of natural English expressions and slang, plus some marketing vocabulary, as Jez and I reminisce and jog each other’s memories of things we did together years ago, and talk about Jez’s career and recent projects.  Check out the premium episode accompanying this conversation: P82 Vocabulary Quiz for LEP992.

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Check out Jez’s channel “Get Out” 👇

https://www.youtube.com/@getoutfilms

Get the PDF transcript 👇

Check out the vocabulary preview/review for this episode in P82 Vocabualry Quiz for LEP993 with Jez Booker – available now with LEP Premium.


Crazy Questions with my daughter [989]

Here is an adorable episode with my adorable daughter. In this one, we discuss various absurd questions and end up improvising chats between odd socks, speculating about spaghetti hair, analysing the weaknesses of the human body, considering the importance of sleep, looking at the fear of long words, analysing completely mad nursery rhymes in English and French, speculating about societies run by ducks or cats, being painted by Leonardo DaVinci, and describing the dreams of dogs. All in a normal day spent chatting with my daughter.

This is a natural, funny and heart-warming English conversation full of real spoken English, perfect for English learners who want to improve their listening skills, vocabulary, pronunciation and fluency.

[DOWNLOAD AUDIO]

https://youtu.be/yZUEf6KheGI?si=0fPP8EU1iu3Jehs-

Get the episode PDF 👇

The Questions

  1. If your socks could talk, what would they complain about?
  2. If you woke up tomorrow and your hair had turned into spaghetti, what would you do?
  3. If you could change one thing about the human body, what would you change?
  4. Would you rather sleep in a skip for a week or skip a week’s sleep?
  5. Would you rather suffer from arachibutyrophobia (fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth) or hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia (fear of long words)?
  6. Would you rather be one of the three bears or one of the three blind mice?
  7. If you had to eat only one food forever, what would you choose?
  8. If pizza could have absolutely any topping, even crazy ones, what would you put on it?
  9. What if gravity stopped working for five minutes?
  10. What if everyone in the world suddenly started speaking like a duck?
  11. What if cats suddenly became the rulers of the world?
  12. If you were going to be in a race, would you rather be a tortoise or a hare?
    I know in the story the tortoise won, but how likely is that to happen again?
  13. Would you rather be able to fly, turn invisible, or talk to animals?
  14. If you were the boss of the world for a day, what new rules would you make?
  15. If you could shrink to the size of an ant for a day, what would you do?
  16. Would you rather play footgolf or basketballoon?
  17. Would you rather be painted by Leonardo da Vinci or have a song written about you by Paul McCartney?
  18. Would you rather discover the bones of an unknown species of dinosaur that would be named after you, or discover buried treasure?
  19. Would you rather be locked down or locked up?
  20. Would you rather have one marshmallow now or wait until tomorrow for a whole bag of marshmallows? 
  21. What do you think dogs dream about?

10 Questions about Food with Martin [985]

A funny conversation about food, cooking & eating habits, with my friend Martin. Why is British food a bit of a joke? Do French people have the right to criticise British cuisine? What is marmite, and why don’t Brits just throw it away? What did Luke eat for lunch every single day during secondary school? And, who would be Luke’s dream dinner party guests? All that and more, in a conversation full of tangents, recipes, rants and apologies, and a nice range of vocabulary expressions to spot. Enjoy! PDF Transcript available.

[DOWNLOAD AUDIO]

https://youtu.be/uEZkemBkRPU?si=d2CTn2X56_zD0JL8

Get the PDF transcript 👇

Join LEP Premium and listen to the vocabulary quiz episode with my wife, and learn 30+ vocabulary items from this episode. Start here 👇 it’s episode P79.


Martin’s previous appearance on LEP 👇

Room 101 with Charlie Baxter [980] Funny British English Listening Practice

[980] Practise listening to British English conversation and enjoy some complaining, ranting and funny anecdotes in this episode based on the concept of a popular BBC TV chat show. My guest is Charlie Baxter from The British English Podcast. Charlie has chosen 3 things which he wants to be locked inside the mythical “Room 101” 🚪 an imaginary place where all the things you hate in the world are stored forever. What would Charlie like to remove from the world to be kept inside this room? And what is the shocking revelation about a certain popular British English YouTuber 👩‍🏫that could break the internet? 🤔

[DOWNLOAD AUDIO]

https://youtu.be/dCJ5rFjhc9A

Get the PDF transcript 👇

Luke’s Room 101 choices on The British English Podcast this week 👇

Listen to The British English Podcast wherever you get your podcasts 👉 https://pod.link/1533216336

🙇 Sign up to LEP Premium to listen to an episode with a vocabulary quiz and full review of 30+ vocabulary items from today’s episode. (Episode P77) 👇


RAMBLEMANIA: 3+ Hours of English Listening & Learning with Luke [976]

[976] Here’s an epic rambling episode in which I talk about learning English with BBC Radio and TV 📻 expressions with the word ‘thumb’ 👍 the story of how I became a taxi driver on the streets of Paris 🚖 the grammar of Yoda 🐸 fantastic haikus written by my listeners ✍️ and getting pecked in the face by a swan 🦢. 3h30min+ of English from me to you.

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https://youtu.be/P5YtZLwCGoE

A Phrasal Verb a Day Podcast 👉 https://apvad.libsyn.com

Get the episode PDF here 👇


Robbing the Louvre / Escaping to Nigeria (with Amber & Paul) [967] Catching Up #16

[967] Time for another tangential conversation in the podcastle with my pals Amber & Paul. In this one we chat about Paul’s ambitious international marathon plans (what is he running from exactly?), what Amber knows about the famous robbery of the Louvre this year, and Paul’s dramatic “Jason Bourne” style situation which he faced in West Africa recently. Listen to some spontaneous English conversation between friends. Full transcript available.

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https://youtu.be/N0GGZZ-d4tg?si=X9lb7zoG20YrffQw

Get the PDF transcript 👇

See Paul Taylor’s show “F*ck Me I’m French!” on stage in France in 2026 👇

👉 https://paultaylorcomedy.com/tickets