‘I keep my bike in the house, I’m afraid of someone stealing it’
glucosamine, Opti Turmeric and omega 3, 6 and 9 for my joints. I started this regime a year ago and have been committed to it ever since. I have started to look after myself because my big fear is to develop diabetes.
How do you take time out?
Cycling. Because I go out early in the morning there is very little traffic about. I scare myself all the time by watching bicycle crashes on YouTube. It is great to get out on the bike but I didn’t take to it straight away as you have to wear special shoes and I couldn’t get my feet into the pedals and thought I was going to fall off. After a few months, though, I just love it so much. I keep my bicycle in the house because I am so afraid of someone stealing it and it not being there for me. I have a garage and it is like Fort Knox but I still keep the bike in the house.
How well do you sleep?
Pretty well but my knee gives me some trouble. My kids got me a FitBit two years ago and it’s like wearing an electronic tag because it tells you when you haven’t walked 10,000 steps every day. At one stage I was putting in everything that I ate and drank but once I got the bike I stopped. Now I have an app on my phone which knows where I am when I’m out cycling and can tell my wife if I have come off the bike. Do you worry about getting old? I don’t feel old anymore, I feel mortal. A good friend of mine, journalist Seamus Kelters died last week aged 54 and he was such a lovely and very intelligent man. I recall Gerry Anderson saying to Sean Rafferty once when a friend our age passed away ‘they’re starting to take people from our pen’. That’s when you feel mortal. I don‘t think growing old is the worry as whatever age you are feels the same unless you are infirm. But it’s when you are reminded about you’re own mortality.
What is your go-to product or habit that keeps you feeling healthy?
Again, it’s riding the bike because it has transformed my existence. I used to do a lot of running until my knee became arthritic. I wanted to get fit for my job too, especially for my one-man show Frank Carson — A Rebel Without A Pause. When I was performing it at the Edinburgh Fringe recently I walked to and from the theatre as I didn’t have the bike. I need to stay in shape for that role on stage and have the stamina for it. I do a bit of jumping around and a bit of Irish dancing so I need to be healthy.
Frank Carson — A Rebel Without A Pause, written and performed by Dan Gordon is at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast, from November 1-5. Tickets cost £20 from lyrictheatre.co.uk/event/frank-carson-arebel-without-a-pause/
INTERVIEW BY HELEN CARSON