Comedian, author, TV and radio star – Julian Clary has been in the business for 30 years.
His latest, anniversary tour, The Joy of Mincing, follows the tours Lord of the Mince, Natural Born Mincer and Mincing Machine, his first tour in 1989.

The 56-year-old shot to fame on Friday Night Live in the mid 1980s before co-hosting the ITV game show Trick or Treat with Mike Smith in 1989, going on to have his own gameshow, Sticky Moments with Julian Clary.

He won Celebrity Big Brother in 2012, became a Sunday Times best-selling novelist and launched a series of children’s books featuring The Bolds. Julian also fronted a new three-part natural history series for ITV, entitled Nature Nuts.

I suppose mincing, apart from being a means of walking around, is a way of life...

The Joy of Mincing is a declaration of the joy of life despite disapproval, perhaps. I think there probably is some [disapproval]. And mincing, which is an old-fashioned word, was probably in its day born out of standing up in the face of that disapproval. I don’t want to be filthy for the sake of it, but I think it’s a comic device. You just exaggerate who you really are on stage and I’m quite fond of moments of vulgarity.

It’s my 30th anniversary and the audience has changed beyond all recognition...

It used to be an eclectic selection of people in small rooms above pubs, in the 1980s. Our comedy was a reaction against the right-wing men in bow-ties who were being offered as light entertainment in those days. I think you evolve, whether you want to or not. Making people laugh is my main aim in life these days. I don’t think that there’s so much to be angry about now.

I once saved Joan Collins’s life in a swimming pool in St Tropez...

It’s a true story, which I won’t give away now, but it’s a long, meandering tale that fills the first half of my show. Then the second half is about MBEs. I’ve noticed a lot of my friends in the business are getting these awards. They’re handing them out like Smarties. So during the show, I give myself one and call it Mincer of the British Empire. I’m making lots of these MBEs and handing some out to people in the audience – it’s not included in the ticket price, though.

I have fans who come along and bring their children...

There’s a delightful family from Tunbridge Wells I’ve known since the boy was 13 and now he’s a grown-up. It’s charming. We talk about the old days at the Hackney Empire, or our aches and pains. There’s a connection there.

Other comedians complain that touring is lonely and that you eat badly...

Well, nobody’s making you do it! And there’s a Waitrose in every town these days. It’s probably just the dreary, married heterosexual types that complain. This is what I wanted to do 30 years ago, and I’m still doing it – standing on stage, talking about myself and getting applause for it. What’s not to like?

I’ve still got the old outfits, though goodness knows what I’ll ever do with them...

I might bring some of them on the tour, as it’s my 30th anniversary. A kind of retrospective fashion show. I used to look at all these drawings of rubber outfits covered in feathers and think “My goodness, that’s outrageous, I couldn’t possibly”. But that was part of the fun. I sniff them sometimes, just for old times’ sake. Scent is very evocative, isn’t it? A lung full of my old diamanté jockstrap and I’m immediately transported back to the London Palladium in 1993.

Maybe people imagine I’m camp and outrageous all the time...

And that I wear full make-up and glittery outfits when I’m at home doing the hoovering. In fact I wear just a touch of raspberry lip balm and a drip-dry kimono. Just like anyone else.

Most people in my village (Aldington) have got better things to do than get excited about celebrities in their midst...

Mind you, I was in the front garden recently and a woman drove past with a friend and then I heard her car screech to a halt. And I heard her say “There he is, look, there he is”. Then she shouted out to me “Where’s the other one?”, meaning Paul O’Grady, who lives in the same village.

DETAILS

The Joy of Mincing, Julian Clary’s celebration of 30 years as a camp comedian, will be at the Assembly Hall Theatre, Tunbridge Wells, on Friday, April 22. Tickets £23, on 01892 530613 or at assemblyhalltheatre.co.uk

He will also be at the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury, on Sunday, April 24, at 7.30pm. For tickets at £23, call 01227 787787 or visit marlowetheatre.com

Juilian’s children’s book, The Bolds to the Rescue, was published by Andersen Press last month and costs £6.99.