Roger: I didn't just grow up in England, I grew up in 1980s England. Ivor: Yes, I seem to remember you insisted when we had the room decorated, you had the stars and stripes, the whole wall was. This is American Fiasco, a show that, much like America itself, starts in England. Roger: Just about the only thing in my life that rivaled my love for soccer as a kid was my complete and utter fascination with all things American. Sports Commentator 1: The crowd are on their feet. If someone casually mentions 1985, my mind automatically defaults to 1986, when the Cup happened to be in Mexico, and I was a 10th grader in Liverpool. Some of my earliest memories as a kid revolve around watching the delirious scenes of the 1978 World Cup unfold in Argentina. The apex of every football fan's calendar is the World Cup, a circus which happens every four years. Football made me feel things, emotions about victory, defeat, happiness, doom, all of which I'm largely numb to in real life. He was alleged to have once said, 'Everything I know about morality and the obligations of men, I owe it to football.' He may or may not have said those words, but it's exactly how I live my life. Roger: Albert Camus, bit of a writer, but before that, he was almost a professional-grade goal-keeper. I have been saying that about Everton for years. You have to look forward, but you never know what's going to be.

Ivor Bennett: You never know in life what's coming along. It's often a lesson in life suffering and about enjoying the moment.

When I tell anyone that I'm an Evertonian, they know immediately that I fill my life with tiny, carefully regulated bursts of hope. One thing you've got to understand about growing up in England is that we define ourselves by our football affiliation. It's to be a fan of a football team, a soccer team. 'What's an Evertonian?' I hear you asking, obviously in an American accent. In Liverpool, I'm known as an Evertonian, just like my dad before me, and his dad before him. I'm Roger Bennett, and I grew up in Liverpool, England, a city in which football, soccer, is pretty much everything. Roger Bennett: I'm here with my dad in the living room in Liverpool.

This american life fiascos