Interview: Joe Pasquale

Cup Of Joe

Quiz show host, actor, jungle king, comedian – performer. Joe Pasquale is a man of many hats and joys – not least farting! Victoria Nangle finds out what tickles him and why rocks are his favourite things

How’s your day been today?
“It’s alright, it’s not too bad. It’s pouring down with rain and I’m stuck in Blackpool but apart from that it’s fine, love.”

How are you finding the new show?
“Well, we haven’t started that yet. I’m on tour with a play at the moment. I’m doing Doctor In The House with Robert Powell so the tour starts in August, so another six weeks of this yet.”

I thought you would planning on getting the show ready…
“No, I haven’t done any work on that yet, it’s just one of those things. I don’t put it together until about a week before I do it because it stays fresh then.”

That’s pretty impressive…
“I don’t think it is, I don’t take it that seriously really. Life’s too short to take it seriously. The whole thing is I love to do a bit of stand-up as I like to muck about, it’s just two hours of absolute nonsense. I have some bits I plan, some bits I don’t and I think that way no-one knows what’s happening, least of all me. You know what I mean? It actually shows in the show then because the first person that’s got to enjoy it is me. If it becomes like a job then I wouldn’t want to do it.”

So it’s a laugh?
“Oh yeah, definitely. 100 per cent. People say comedy is a serious business but I don’t think it is, it’s just mucking about and having a laugh.”

Do you have a notepad with you wherever you go so you can write things down?
“No, I’ve got an iPad now, so I talk into that; that’s what I’ve started to do. People think you’re mad.”

What do you do to relax?
“I fly a plane. I learnt to fly a few years ago and I’m doing a degree with the Open University in Geology.”

Are you enjoying it?
“I absolutely love it. If I had the time, I’d do it full-time but you can’t unfortunately do 40 hours a week and what I do but I manage to do about 25 hours a week with it.”

Do you incorporate your tour with research for your degree?
“Yeah, I do sometimes, I try and put a little bit of geology in it, a little bit of science in the show as well. I have a little bit this year about science, demonstrating how gravity works and a experiment on gravity, so that will be interesting.”

That sounds great. You could do a whole show at the Science Museum.
“I’d love to start doing stuff like that, I’ve done quite a bit of documentary work over the years anyway for Sky and the Discovery Channel, and I get asked to do bits and pieces so it would be great to do a bit more of that.”

With you coming to prominence on New Faces [TV talent show of the 1980s], What do you think of the current crop of talent shows?
“I think it’s great they’re still out there, unfortunately there’s just so many now that nobody gets a chance to expand on their career. You’re on there for however long you’re on there and then the next one’s coming along, whereas when I did it, there were only four channels on the telly and that was it. Unfortunately there’s so many now that everyone gets their five minutes of fame and then it’s off to the next reality show but then that’s the nature of the business, it’s changed. You have to work harder, but most of them are just music shows that’s come out so there’s not much variety other than Britain’s Got Talent.”

What makes you laugh so much you fall off your chair?
“Farts. Farting. There’s nothing as funny as a fart. Nothing at all. I did one the other night on Doctor In The House and Robert Powell had to leave the stage. He was laughing so much he was crying. He heard it, no-one else heard it though.”

How difficult do you find it doing straight acting when you know how to interact with an audience?
“It depends on what the play is. If I was doing Chekov, which I’d never get booked for, it would be a different matter. But with a light comedy like this you can play about with them a little bit. And all the acting I’ve done has been mainly comedy stuff. I did Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead a few years ago which was quite heavy but still interacting with the audience up to a point. I did the Mel Brooks musical, The Producers, a few years ago so that was just comedy anyway and that was all about the contact with the audience. I don’t think it will ever be an issue with me because I don’t think I’ll ever unfortunately be able to play a baddie – it would be like Noddy with a headache.”

Joe Pasquale, Pavilion Theatre, Worthing, Tuesday 21 August, 7.45pm, £17/15.50, 01903 206 206, www.worthingtheatres.co.uk