JACK WHITEHALL
There seems to be no stopping Jack Whitehall as he veers between blockbuster BBC adaptations and large arena tours. Brian Donaldson hears from a man who just wants to thank his mum
BIG TIME
‘I just swore and talked about out ded my knob: I really needed of that release.’ This memory of een leaving a TV studio where he had been g rip on his best behaviour before letting rip across on a live stage is the only time across master Jack a 20-minute phone chat that master Jack courteous Whitehall is anything other than courteous es Britain, and polite. Well, brace yourselves Britain, out to get because this charming man is about to get es himself even more i lthy when he launches himself atre tour, upon a new arena / sizeable theatre tour, Jack Whitehall At Large.
et stories ‘I really enjoy telling indiscreet stories plenty of and oversharing so there’ll be plenty of e slightly that,’ he reveals. ‘It will possibly be slightly n you’ve ruder than I’ve done before. When you’ve TV taste been working in the coni nes of TV taste e else is and decency, and where someone else is stand-up editing it, there’s something about stand-up n and say that makes you just want to go on and say whatever you want.’
all beast is This unleashing of the Whitehall beast is i lming the looming before us after a summer i lming the r in a BBC starring role of Paul Pennyfeather in a BBC Decline and adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s Decline and d Suchet and Fall alongside the likes of David Suchet and my mum will Eva Longoria (‘it’s something that my mum will to him quite watch’), another step on the way to him quite probably taking over the world. o his head (let’s So, were someone to put a gun to his head (let’s d demands that hope it never comes to this) and demands that d-up or acting, he chooses a career in either stand-up or acting, at what point which would it be? ‘It depends at what point o my head,’ he the person was putting the gun to my head,’ he ight at the end responds gamely. ‘So if it was right at the end But right now, of this tour I’d easily say acting. But right now, stand-up again I really am so excited about doing stand-up again and doing gigs.’
Whitehall-watchers will have encountered Whiteh Jack’s d Jack’s dad Michael from their joint talk show, Backchat Backchat, but during our conversation, he namechec namechecks his mother more. It certainly seems that she h that she has been a guiding light for parts of his comedy. ‘S comedy. ‘She inl uences my comedy in that I’m very much h very much her son and we’re still very close. I’ve learned a lot learned a lot from her; she’s a very patient woman, and she’s very and she’s very good about me talking about her or my family on stag family on stage. They’re all very understanding which I’m very thank I’m very thankful for; it would be difi cult if they were not, as I talk a not, as I talk about them a lot.’ In three con In three consecutive years, Whitehall was named as the ‘King of C the ‘King of Comedy’ via a public vote at the British Comedy Awa Comedy Awards and, to put right some who see him as just that gu as just that guy from Fresh Meat or Bad Education, he’s no stand- he’s no stand-up novice. His live comedy career began a decade ago a decade ago and, having performed at i ve Edinburgh Fringes, he’s Fringes, he’s now on his second major tour after 2014’s Jack W 2014’s Jack Whitehall Gets Around (he performed his set in the roun set in the round). Having paid Having paid those early dues by working the small clubs and p clubs and pub circuit, he’s clearly relishing the opportunity to opportunity to step out in front of substantial numbers of people once of people once again. And with the promise embedded in his press in his press release that there will be ‘comedy pyrotechnics’, pyrotechnics’, those crowds could be in for a hair- raising treat. raising treat. ‘I’ve pitched ‘I’ve pitched some fairly outlandish ideas to my production de production designer so we’ll see if some of them come to fruitio come to fruition. I think there will certainly be a fairly spectacular be spectacular beginning to the night, which I think is the least I can do least I can do. If you come out and have paid for a ticket, I think ticket, I think you should put on a proper show. I’m going to give going to give them . . . let’s call it razzmatazz.’
Jack Whitehall At Large, Edinburgh Jack Whit Playhouse Playhouse, Wed 11 & Fri 12 Jan; Clyde Auditorium, Glasgow, Wed 1–Fri 3 Feb. Auditoriu 3 Nov 2016–31 Jan 2017 THE LIST 61