Joe Pasquale admits stand-up comedy scares him even after 40 years

Comedian and horror author Joe Pasquale has said performing a stand-up routine in front of an expecting audience terrifies him, but he does it because “I like being scared”.

The 61-year-old is kicking off his comedy tour The New Normal – 40 Years Of Cack on July 28 after four decades performing stand-up, weeks after his third collection of horror stories is set to be published.

Of Mice And Wolfmen, a collection of a dozen horror tales, follows on from his first two horror books Deadknobs And Doomsticks volume one and two, and will be published on June 16.

As a life-long fan of horror, Pasquale told the PA news agency: “I like being scared and doing stand up scares me, I think that’s part of it.”

He continued: “When I was 13, I got ran over and it was quite a bad break, I was off school for the best part of a year.

“The plastering was almost full body and I had the next six months sleeping on the settee downstairs, couldn’t climb stairs, couldn’t use a toilet, had to use a bedpan, that was fun as a 13-year-old.

“In those days there was only three channels…it would invariably have horror films on every night and I got obsessed. My mum also used to collect these porcelain antique dolls…She must have had about 50 of them, all around the living room.

“You couldn’t go anywhere in the house without a doll looking at you and they had these spooky, really creepy, glass eyes. Every night I would look at these dolls and I swear their eyes would move…and then I became obsessed.”

“That (time) was the birth of my horror love,” he told PA.

The foreword to his latest horror book has been written by The Chase presenter, actor and singer Bradley Walsh.

Pasquale said: “Brad and I, we’ve known each other for 40 years, so we started out doing talent shows together and I always send him my stories and he’s obsessed by how my brain works because his brain doesn’t work like that.”

In 2004, Pasquale charmed viewers on I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! with his trademark high-pitched voice and his career received a bounce after, starring in ITV comedy special An Audience With Joe Pasquale in 2005.

Four decades after he first began calling bingo at a holiday camp because he did not want to do a “proper job”, Pasquale is returning to the stage for his stand-up tour.

Pasquale said his comedy is like “watching a nine-year-old on stage, it’s very silly, very stupid”.

He said: “There’s so many bad things going on in the world and I know a lot of comics draw their material from the state of the world but I think for me personally, if I want to go and watch some comedy, I don’t want to be reminded of all the bad things in life, I want to go and forget about it for an hour.

“I actually think my job is to make people free of concern for the amount of time that they’re watching the show.

“When I’m doing the show, I’m free of concern completely. The only concern I have is to make those people laugh…that’s an escapism for me, as much as it is for the audience.”

He added: “They always say laughter is the best medicine, but I think it’s true.”

Joe Pasquale’s book of horror short stories Of Mice And Wolfmen and tickets for his stand-up tour The New Normal – 40 Years Of Cack are on sale now.