After starring in Spamalot in the West End last year, Joe Pasquale is picking up his crown once more for the Monty Python-inspired show’s national tour.
And considering he’s just finished his annual panto run, that must make Joe the hardest-working man in showbusiness.
“I finished panto on the Sunday, didn’t get home until one o’clock in the morning, and had to get up at eight o’clock Monday morning to start rehearsing Spamalot,” reveals Joe (53).
“But I’m earning a living people forget is it’s my job.
“You might think: ‘Oh, I want a week off’ but you’re self-employed, so you can’t.”
Spamalot is proving to be something of a Dancing On Ice reunion tour, as Joe’s on-ice rival Todd Carty plays Patsy in the musical, which is “lovingly ripped off from” Monty Python And The Holy Grail.
“It’s great because we know each other really well,” the former I’m A Celebrity champion nods.
“And what’s really weird is everybody knows Todd from the telly when you meet him, you think you know him better than you do because you grew up watching him on Grange Hill, then Tucker’s Luck, EastEnders and The Bill.
“Everyone thinks he’s their mate.
“This is his third tour he loves it. He only has eight lines in the whole show, but he makes every word count.
“Todd’s brilliant, he really makes me laugh.
“I can’t look at him at all during the show because he’s got this gormless look on his face like he’s been slapped with a wet fish, and there are certain bits that I know if I look at him, I’m gonna go.”
It was actually another Dancing On Ice pal, Bonnie Langford, who suggested Joe for Spamalot’s West End run while she was playing the show’s Lady In The Lake last year.
“Yeah, we’ve known each other for 25 years and there was a space in the West End when they said: ‘We haven’t got a King at the moment!’ and she said: ‘Well, what about Joe?’” he recalls.
“And that was it, I was in.
“But the thing is, I would have paid them to be in Spamalot. If you look at the papers or turn the telly on, there are so many bad things going on in the world that to go into work and know you’re going to laugh for two hours and a thousand people are going to come and laugh as well, that’s what it’s all about.
“I saw The Holy Grail when I was 13 with two mates and they just didn’t get it but I was in hysterics.
“Even now, I still cry at it, it makes me laugh so much.
“It’s just my sense of humour that’s why I’d pay to do it.”
Having experienced both, has Joe found a difference between playing King Arthur in the West End run and tour?
“I don’t think so,” he says. “It doesn’t matter if it’s Manchester or Great Yarmouth.
“If people are laughing, that’s what’s important.
“I’ve toured for 30 years and that’s usually one-nighters, so to be able to do a week somewhere, that’s a holiday.”
Spamalot is on tour until June. For information, visit www.spamalotontour.co.uk.
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