‘I’d love to be an MP – for all the wrong reasons’
Comedian Jim Davidson will be talking about wokeness, cancel culture and his own ‘chaotic’ life when he takes to the stage in the West Country next month. JEFFREY DAVIES finds out more...
Jim Davidson is back – and apparently more outrageous than ever. The controversial comic is set to bring his new Unlocked stage show to the West Country next month.
Written and developed by Jim, the show – says the blurb – aims to challenge the “PC world” we now find ourselves in, where society is so preoccupied with trying to avoid offence, it struggles to communicate; and the authorities are so fanatical about political correctness, they open themselves up to ridicule. The policing of the English language can be just as oppressive and offensive as any perceived insult and enough is enough, argues Jim, who has been the subject of his fair share of headlines in recent years.
Jim first came to prominence in 1976 when he won the TV talent show New Faces. He became a household name hosting family TV shows including The Generation Game and Big Break, and has topped the bill in many theatres in London’s West End and across the UK.
As Jim Davidson: Unlocked heads to Weston-super-mare, i ask him what can audiences expect this time around?
“Well, first of all don’t expect anything like the title says because people tend to pick titles for me. i think having a title to a show binds you too much into what that’s all about. i mean we’re well unlocked away now from the pandemic and someone has just forgotten to change the name of it. But what they can expect of me is the unexpected,” a most welcoming and friendly Jim told me.
But the “unexpected” aside,
fans can expect an entertaining evening of banter, stories and comedy, i remarked.
“Well, i think so. People turn up to see me to be either upset or to have a laugh. They expect me to do certain things so i always tend to not do that and do something else; especially people that have not seen me.
“They think, ‘Oh we’ll go out and listen to ‘im, he’s right up our street’ and then, possibly, i don’t do exactly what’s in their mind and hopefully they’ll enjoy that better.”
So can the London-born comedian, of Scottish and irish heritage, give a taster of where he will be venturing with his comedy on this tour?
“i’ll certainly be talking about my life and how chaotic it is. And i’ll talk about comedy. i’ll also talk about all this ‘woke’ stuff and cancellation culture and why that led to me forming my own television station that’s been valued today at five million quid. Yippee!
“i will just talk to the audience about all the frustrations that we have jointly,” he summed up.
it’s hard to believe that the one-time New Faces winner is now 68.
“i’m 69 at Christmas; isn’t that appalling! i used to be the young comic. Now parts start to fall off and shrink and go in. The ears and eyes; everything’s gone. You suddenly look down and you’ve got your father’s arms,” he said with a laugh.
As he mentioned earlier, the comedian launched his own video streaming channel, Ustreme, during lockdown which reportedly attracted 10,000 subscribers in its first year, inviting viewers to “laugh like you used to” in its strapline.
Does Jim feel all areas of life are fair game for a comedian to include in their comedy routine?
“i think so, yes. But to an extent. i think that any comedian that sets out deliberately to upset a section of the audience is mad. You set out to make the audience laugh. Unfortunately, some people set out to be upset. They’re the ones that are dragged along. i do believe in the right of free speech. But where do you draw the line? How do you know what’s going to upset that person?”
He then referred to reports that his show had been dropped by a West Country theatre last year because, he says, of comments he made about a routine performed by dance troupe Diversity in support of
Black Lives matter.
“i played a theatre twice a year for 40 years,” he said. “i did seven 12-week summer seasons there on the trot. it went well. i always packed the place out. i got on great with all the staff and then suddenly someone from head office said, ‘We don’t want Jim Davidson there. What he said about Diversity...!’ So that was it. i was banned from that theatre by someone who’s probably never, ever seen me live in her life.”
He continued: “There’s a theatre i play in Scotland and the manager’s a mate. He said we’ve had people phone up here and complain that you’re on. i said where are they from? Locals? No, they’re from all over the place.
“So you get these groups of people who politically lobby
other theatres to impose their will; their will being I don’t like anyone who doesn’t think like me. They must be cancelled. And unfortunately that’s happened. It’s really annoying,” Jim said, adding that another new manager at another venue had apparently said, “You’ll see Jim Davidson play this theatre over my dead body.”
“I think we should let people vote with their feet,” Jim said.
Would he say that people today are more easily offended and outraged than ever before?
“Yes. To talk about items that are taboo I think is fun. As long as you are not setting out just to cause offence because you just fall into their laps. I just want people to walk out of the theatre holding their stomach and laughing. That’s what I try to do,” he replied with a smile.
With social media, cancel culture and ‘wokeness’, there have been enormous global changes in attitude in a relatively short period of time. Is modern life just ripe for comedic comment?
“Yes. I think everything is fitting for comedy. I say let’s try and work out what’s happened over the last couple of decades that has caused us to become ‘wokey’ like this, frightened to death to say anything. I believe that protecting people, wrapping them in cotton wool when they don’t want to be wrapped in cotton wool just divides the nation rather than brings them together.”
He went on: “Just take a look at the advent of social media where the minority can hide behind the wall of secrecy and impose their will collectively with other likeminded people to cancel people. They can just get together and say something like, ‘I didn’t like that Eric Morecambe; I didn’t like that joke he did about Scottish people, so we want to ban him’.”
Would it be fair to say there is comedy in most areas of everyday life?
“I think there is. If you look at the military where they’re in a trench soaking wet, freezing cold, haven’t eaten for four days and the only prospect they’ve got for the next day is being shelled by the enemy or led into battle, they sit there and laugh their heads off at their predicament. If civilians heard the military humour they’d be horrified. We’re the only creatures on Earth that laugh,” Jim said, adding that he can’t watch Tom and Jerry because it makes him laugh so much it would bring on a heart attack.
A comic now, was Jim funny as a child?
“Yeah, I was because I wanted to be funny. It was a determination to make people like me and to look at me, which they did. When I was a little kid – about three or four – I used to go down to the front garden gate of our council house when people were walking along and I’d have a little Tommy Steele guitar that I’d play. I’d try and entertain these people with this gobbledygook and songs. Then when I was 12 I was in The Gang Show with Ralph Reader. So I always wanted to be an entertainer, “he recalled, adding that he’s always the entertainer even at a dinner table with family and friends.
“If one looks at oneself, why does one want to be a comedian? Fame, money, better-looking women? No, it’s an instant result for what you do. You go on stage, be funny and a thousand people laugh their heads off and love you.
The response is immediate with comedy. Bang, bang, bang – jokes, roars of laughter,” Jim answered with a smile, as I remarked that the great Eric Morecambe once told me that “no one claps a surgeon or says well done, Surge” for his work.
A funny man who made me laugh so much throughout our chat, would Jim say comedy was in his family’s DNA, or is it just in him?
“I think it’s in the genes. Probably from my father’s side. My brothers and sisters are all quite witty and very confident. And my children are very confident and witty and clever as well,” he replied.
Comedy and being funny can get you out of trouble, I asserted.
“It can also get you in a lot of trouble as well. Jimmy Carr says the joke that will get him cancelled forever he probably told five years ago! Now me with my television station Ustreme, instead of being online, we will be on terrestrial television via an app. So I am going to go through all my old stuff and I will edit some of the things that were acceptable then but not acceptable now. I don’t want to give the moaners ammunition to give me grief. So really what I’m doing to myself is what I hate other people doing to me. I’m a paradox, mate,” he laughed.
A man with strong views on all manner of things, would Jim ever consider becoming a politician in order to change things and make a difference?
“I am going to give you a very honest answer, Jeffrey. Yes, I’d love to be an MP but for all the wrong reasons. I’d like to be an MP so all people voted for me and loved me. But then I’d have to go and do it,” he laughed out loud.
“Ninety per cent of the country will hate your guts. And, of course, being an MP doesn’t pay enough!”
Jim Davidson founded the British Forces Foundation in 2000. He was awarded an OBE for his services to charity in 2001.
Jim Davidson: Unlocked takes to the stage of The Playhouse Weston-super-mare on September 8. Tickets can be booked on 01934 645544 or by email Wsmboxoffice@parkwood-leisure.co.uk
I believe that protecting people, wrapping them in cotton wool when they don’t want to be wrapped in cotton wool just divides the nation rather than brings them together Jim Davidson