JACK WHITEHALL

Comedians can be pretty rock and roll you know. Some are so hardcore they put even our finest musical hipsters to shame.

So what kind of crazy antics do you reckon the young darling of the current British comedy circuit, Jack Whitehall, gets up to in his spare time?

“I’m at home with my dad watching Royal Ascot. Well, we’re not really watching it but it’s on. I went there with my friends and lost a lot of money. And there were a lot of scouse girls there with lots of fake tan with a few of them had just passed out on the floor. Everyone was taking photographs, which is such a horribly British thing to do. Someone passes out on the floor but you don’t help them, you just take a photo.”

Bigmouth strikes again

Crazy insane, or not. But whilst Jack Whitehall may not be the most unruly of comedians out there he has been turning more than a few heads with a number of notable television appearances, as well as making waves on the live comedy circuit. After initially making a name for himself as the presenter of Big Brother’s Big Mouth for a series, the boy seems to be doing rather well for himself. But being the young, sharp funny guy; it doesn’t come without a few hiccups, surely?

“I don’t really mean to be offensive or anything. I just say what makes me laugh and sometimes that offends other people, which is when it tends to go a bit wrong. I don’t mean to do it, I only really do it when I’m nervous. Some people do get really offended and it’s just like, you do have the ability to change the channel or just go to the bar and have a drink. God, idiots. Fucking idiots they are. Hopefully that’ll annoy them even more.

“The worst experience I had was in Bournemouth; that name alone scares me. These people worked in this industrial warehouse and it was their Christmas party. I decided to take the piss out of one of them who happened to be the biggest one there and I thought it’d help, but it didn’t. He got up on to the stage and got me in a headlock so the security had to come up. When he left I was a little bit shaky and felt really violated, but I carried on with the show. It was one of those things where, you know how when people get assaulted they take themselves to a different place? I did that, I just kept thinking of happier times. I ran and when I got back to London I just cried myself to sleep.

“Another time where we almost got beaten up was in Wigan. I don’t know why I did the gig but the guy was quite nice so I went there and it was this hard biker pub. I went in there and there were about 60 men and most of them weren’t really watching. Then I started doing some jokes about bikers and stuff and no one was really laughing. So I said something like ‘what happened, did someone fall off a bike or something?’ And later the guy was like ‘oh yeah, I forgot to warn you, but the bar lady’s husband recently fell off his bike and died’. Which was pretty bad.”

Band aid

Thankfully Jack has managed to survive and is continuing his good work on our TVs, from panel shows to award ceremonies, no doubt meeting lots of lovely and interesting people along the way that he’d happily pass comment on.

“I went to the NME Awards and I met a lot of people and it’s just, fucking hell. Well, actually no, it’s hard to tell because they’re all fucked. Like, I interviewed Kasabian and they were just so fucked and it was impossible to tell whether they were dicks or whether they were just nice guys but fucked. But yeah, people in bands are weird. I met Jack Tweed and he’s a monster. I was talking to this girl and I was saying it was my birthday in July and she was like ‘Oh, I’m 20th of July!’ or whatever, and then she just looked at me and said ‘Cancer!’ as Jack Tweed walked past. Like, fucking hell. And I’m pretty sure he heard.”

Nonetheless, expect to see plenty more of Jack Whitehall in the future, happily swearing away and laughing at all things inappropriate in a time where both young and talented comedians can be pretty hard to come by these days. Unless he goes back to Bournemouth or Wigan any time soon, which might not be the best idea.

Words by Brad Ferguson