I wouldn’t win it, but I’d love to do Strictly
JOE PASQUALE TALKS TO MARION McMULLEN ABOUT A LIFE IN COMEDY AS HE BEGINS HIS NEW TOUR
The tour is called The New Normal – 40 Years of Cack – Continued! and celebrates a career spanning more than four decades? How did it all begin for you?
I was 16 when I left school and I was a civil servant for a year. I worked for the Department of Transport and Environment – Dangerous Goods Branch. I just filed paperwork and made the tea really.
Then I got a job at Smithfield’s – the meat market, Dagenham, working with Ford Cortinas, a margarine factory, building sites... and I thought “I can’t do any of these until I retire at 65”, and then I got a job at holiday camp.
Someone sent off an application as a joke for me to go on TV talent show New Faces and applied for me without me even knowing. I got a letter saying come to an audition and I went. I didn’t have an act. I just went on and mucked about and I won the heat, came second in the grand final and never looked back.
Who gave you the best advice?
I was very lucky that Ken Dodd was on the New Faces judging panel and he had watched everything in the afternoon before the live show.
I went into make-up and he came and sat next to me. I was thinking, “Oh, my god, it’s Ken Dodd”, and he said: “Can I give you a bit of advice, son?” I thought he was going to tell me to go home, but he pulled out a bit of paper and he had my whole act written down word for word and he showed me how to move things around to get bigger laughs.
He said: “When you pull the rabbit out of your hat, put it down your trousers and shake it down your leg and it will give you an extra laugh.”
He gave me a couple of other jokes and said: “If you do this tonight, you’ll win it.” I did it and won it. He was amazing and we stayed friends until he died.
I was lucky I had some proper geniuses who helped me – Bob Monkhouse, Ken Dodd and Des O’Connor. They took me under their wing all three of them. They were mentors to me.
You were impaled on the antlers of a moose on your last tour. Is the moose being ditched this time around?
I’m actually making a safer, smaller version of the moose head now.
I was in Skegness and it was the second night of the tour and I was on stage after the curtain came down and there was this moose head with big horns lying on the floor.
My show is always like a [car] boot sale afterwards with stuff strewn everywhere and I tripped over in the darkness. I was in mid-air and spun and landed in the middle of the horns on my back, but the back of my leg landed straight onto one of them. The curtain was down, and everyone heard this big crash in the audience and I lifted the curtain up and said: “Don’t worry it’s only me.”
You needed hospital treatment afterwards. How are you doing now?
I’m OK, but I still have a big scar on my leg. I put it on Instagram and the next day I’m reading the news feeds and they say: “Legendary comedian has near-death experience.” And I thought: “Oh, I wonder who that is? I’ve got to read that,” and my name and picture came up.
Is that the worst accident you’ve had on stage?
Oh, no, I’ve done worst than that. I’ve dislocated my shoulder in panto, I’ve broken my foot, I’ve broken my hand and I was doing a bingo club once and I got my leg stuck in a hole and had to do my whole act with my leg in the hole and needed 15 stitches.
I’m quite accidentprone. I wonder every day: “What accident is it going to be today?”
You’ve done musicals and stage shows, won I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! and The Masked Singer last year as Dunny. Is there any other show you’d like to do?
I’d love to do Strictly. I did Dancing On Ice about 12 years ago, but I would love Strictly.
I know I’m never going to win it, but just to get the experience of doing that show and learning how to do some dancing, and get some ballroom dancing under my belt would be fantastic.
It was great to do musicals like Spamalot. I love Mel Brooks and did The Producers and I was Frank Spencer in the tour of Some Mother’s Do ’Ave ‘Em, so I’ve been very lucky. I like challenging myself. If someone says, “Can you do that?” I never say no, and if I can’t I learn how to do it before rehearsals.
What are you looking forward to on tour?
I had some proper geniuses help me – Bob Monkhouse, Ken Dodd and Des O’Connor
Joe Pasquale
My only job is to make myself laugh and everyone else laugh. If it ever felt like I job, I would stop it, because it’s too hard if you are not enjoying it.
I don’t do anything political, there’s no social commentary, there’s nothing in there that’s contentious.
I’m just like an 11-year-up there having a laugh. (Chuckles) I’ve never grown up really.
The New Normal – 40 Years of Cack – Continued! tours the country until November 23. Visit joepasquale.com for ticket bookings.