Interviews

What’s the new tour about?

Well it’s called the ESP Tour and it features all sorts of craziness and a bit more of the ESP stuff. I’ve always been quite intrigued by that sort of thing and the way mind readers use it – but I just take the mick out of it and people love it. My favourite bits of the show are always the bits with the audience. To be honest, it’s not something I really
believe in, though. When I was in the Scouts, we used to go round collecting jumble, and we’d sort through it for the good stuff before we handed it over. From one lot, I got a lava lamp and a Ouija board, and me and my mate Kevin and some others went into the church and contacted a ghost called Colin, but we don’t know if it was real or
just somebody pushing the board around. We got rid of the board and put it back into the jumble!

You worked your way up in showbiz through working as a comic at Pontins, but you also appeared on New Faces. What do you think of TV talent shows?

I think they’re a gift but it depends which way you look at it. Richard Holloway, the producer of Britain’s Got Talent, was the producer of New Faces when I did it, and executive producer when I was doing The Price Is Right.
People like Richard and Simon Cowell have discovered that there are as many nutters around now as there were 20 years ago, and I was one of them, and there was just as much entertainment value in watching the auditions as the actual show. BGT isn’t that different from New Faces or Opportunity Knocks, in that they turn it round and
show you the audition process. If you put yourself up for these talent shows, you know what you’re doing, and
everyone wants their 15 minutes of fame.

Why do you keep taking on these challenges?

I don’t want to turn into my dad! He’s got a mobile phone and he can barely turn it on and he keeps sending me blank texts or pictures of up his nose.

What’s the bravest thing you’ve ever done?

I think jumping out of a plane into the jungle, possibly, but I suppose going out onstage in front of an audience is considered brave too, but I’ve got balls – if someone says go out and do half an hour, I’ll do it. I went to Iraq two years ago and we were mortared in a helicopter, so bravery is all relative! Some people think it was brave to give up my day job to become a comic. One of my first jobs was at Smithfield meat market with all these chunky East End geezers all taking the mick out of each other, and I was a 9½ stone weakling and had to keep up by making them laugh whilst carting carcasses about!

Who are your big comedy influences?

I was lucky enough to know Bob Monkhouse, and was close to him at the end. He was a great influence in my life and my attitude to the business. He was a gentleman, with not a bad word to say about anyone. I also like Steve Martin; he was the first to do that random, anarchic kind of comedy, and a genius at stand-up and then
packed it in. Having read his book it seems like he didn’t enjoy it too much.

But you still enjoy performing?

Yes, and if you don’t, you have to remind yourself why you came into the business in the first place – the answer
should never be for the money, but just for the job. I did a play recently with Stephen Berkoff for two nights at the
New End Theatre in Hampstead. Berkoff had rewritten the Bible, and wanted me to play David in David and Goliath, which he’d done like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and it was quite sweary, and I never swear on
stage, so it was quite exciting just swearing in front of an audience! As a performer, you get bolder as you get older. You don’t care what you do, as long as people think the show is good. I’ve never been one of the
fashionable comics, so I’ve never gone out of fashion, and that’s why I’m hereafter 25 years in show business. I like
working, and I don’t have to get up every morning and do a proper job -no carting carcasses around for me!

Joe will be appearing at the Ashcroft Theatre, Croydon, on 12th November. Visit
www.fairfield.co.uk

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What’s the new tour about? Well it’s called the ESP Tour and it features all sorts of craziness and a bit more of the ESP stuff. I’ve always been quite intrigued by that sort of thing and the way mind readers use it – but I just take the mick out of it and people [...]

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What’s the new tour about? Well it’s called the ESP Tour and it features all sorts of craziness and a bit more of the ESP stuff. I’ve always been quite intrigued by that sort of thing and the way mind readers use it – but I just take the mick out of it and people [...]