Riddle as Peter Kay scraps his £40m tour for ‘family reasons’
COMEDIAN Peter Kay cancelled his first tour in eight years yesterday due to ‘unforeseen family circumstances’.
He had been due to perform 112 shows between next April and March 2019 at cities including Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester, London and Dublin.
Nearly two million tickets priced between £40 and £60 had been sold, with some changing hands for £2,000 on resale sites
The Have Gags, Will Travel tour was expected to bring in £40million.
But father-of-two Kay, 44, who told last month how excited he was to return when he announced the dates, said in a statement: ‘Due to unforeseen family circumstances, I deeply regret that I am having to cancel all of my upcoming work projects.
‘My sincerest apologies: The decision has not been taken lightly and I’m sure you’ll understand my family must always come first.’
Fans who bought tickets, which were priced from around £40 to £60, will be refunded from their original point of purchase.
One of Britain’s best-loved comedians, Kay has starred in Phoenix Nights, Car Share and Cradle To Grave on TV, as well as topping the charts with a series of charity singles, including (Is This The Way To) Amarillo.
His 2010 show The Tour That Didn’t Tour was watched by 1.2million fans, setting a Guinness World Record for a comedy tour.
Kay has amassed a fortune estimated at £50million but family has always been a priority.
He has gone to great lengths to ensure he spends time with his wife Susan, 46, and sons Charlie, 13 and Finley, ten.
During the 2010 tour he flew back to his £900,000 home in Bolton, near where he grew up, rather than stay in hotels. He said it was because he wanted to do the school run.
He added: ‘Being a dad is just brilliant and fantastic. You can’t put it into words what it’s like.
‘I’ve met so many older actors and comedians who’ve told me they wished they’d spent as much time with their kids as they did chasing the money.
‘I didn’t want to be away for weeks on end. I would have regretted being stuck in London on the phone to my family every night saying, “I’ll be home soon”. That would have outweighed any joy I had doing the show.
‘I like to be low-profile and keep my head down. I still go up to the Co-op Late Shop for a bottle of Tizer. Staying in Bolton has been hugely important for me. Every street is a memory or a story for me. This is my home.’
He has never made any secret of priorities, observing that ‘sometimes your work can become your life and real life can take a back seat – for me, it’s the other way round. Where I live, and my family, are my life.’
Announcing his 2018 tour, Kay said he missed live stand-up and could not wait to return.
‘I really miss it. I know how lucky I am to be making television series and have really loved these past few years working on Car Share, but I miss doing stand-up.
‘As terrifying as it is, when it works there’s nothing more fun and exciting. Plus, a lot has happened in the last eight years. I can’t wait to get back up on stage.’
Last month, on the Jonathan Ross Show, Kay promised: ‘It’s ideal for the old mum and dad, nan and grandad, very clean. I do a family show.’
News that the tour has been cancelled brought disappointment – and concern – to his legions of fans. One, Saira Khan said on Twitter: ‘Gutted about Peter Kay cancelling his tour, I had bought tickets – but more importantly I hope he and his family are OK. Family always comes first.’
The comedian will still be on TV screens in the new year. The final two episodes of the second series of Peter Kay’s Car Share have already been filmed, the BBC confirmed yesterday.
The BBC1 comedy, which centres around two colleagues, supermarket manager (Kay) and his promotions manager (Sian Gibson) who have to travel to work together due to a company scheme, pulls in an average of 5.6million viewers.
In 2016 the show won two Baftas, for Best Scripted Comedy and Best Male Comedy Performance.
Kay received the awards and gave a silent ‘acceptance speech’ of thanks, puffing his cheeks, pointing and pulling faces.
His huge popularity is in part because his act does not depend on him peddling vulgar, offensive or foul-mouthed material like so many modern comedians. He claims he tries out his jokes on his mother, who hates swearing.
He is never overtly ‘clever’, merely silly – but the silliness is based on his acute observation of
‘My family must always come first’ ‘I miss doing stand-up’
people. He once contended that the funniest thing on TV was You’ve Been Framed. ‘You’ll never top the sight of a pensioner falling over at a wedding,’ he said.
‘The smallest, apparently mundane details of life are what tickle me, like the fact that you are always left with that tiny sliver of soap and the sticker when you use Imperial Leather.’
Kay is proud of his northern working-class background and at ease with his large figure, which owes much to his love of meat pies. He does not have a showbusiness background – his father was an engineer in a factory and his mother a housewife.
Kay was educated at the local Catholic school, Mount St Josephs, but was not a success academically, gaining a single GCSE in art.
He managed to wheedle his way on to a drama course at Liverpool University by exaggerating his qualifications, but dropped out to attend Adelphi College at Salford University, where he studied media performance.
It was here that he tried standup – and loved it. Between 1996 and 2000, he worked incessantly, playing 500 clubs.
To make ends meet he worked as a mobile DJ, cinema usher, toilet roll packer, supermarket shelf stacker, in a video shop and in the bar at a bingo hall - all providing valuable comedy material.
He met Susan when they were both teenagers, while on a night out in Bolton, and they married in 2001, as he was finding fame in Phoenix Nights.