Jon Courtenay heads to Lancashire

Comedian and BGT winner Jon Courtenay explains what you can expect from his latest show, as it heads to Chorley and Lytham St Annes this Spring.

Transcript

00:00 What is the first half of the album?

00:08 The first half is very much what I've been doing for the last 20 years

00:12 in as much as it's piano and songs and chatting and a bit of stand-up and mostly comedy.

00:19 There's a couple of songs there that I've written with which unusually I didn't write to try and be funny,

00:24 just a couple of songs that I really like performing.

00:26 So the first half is pretty much piano and chatting and quite informal

00:31 and then the second half is a rewrite of a show that I took to Edinburgh two years ago called Against the Odds

00:38 which started as my way of processing what I'd gone through with the whole cancer thing.

00:44 I think the problem with trying to sell this is people hear the word cancer and go 'Oh my God, why do we want to go and see a show?'

00:51 It's not just about that, as I say, it's got the broader theme of making the most of every day

00:56 but I was certainly influenced by what I went through.

00:59 Combined with what I was going through, it was the highest point of my career and the lowest point of my health.

01:04 I'd never been that sick before and for a long time that was tearing me in half.

01:09 I didn't know how to process any of it.

01:11 I should have been jumping off the sofa and amazed that all this excitement was happening to my career after 25 years

01:18 but I wasn't because I'd have one day doing a recording at the studios

01:24 and then two days later I'd be at hospital having treatment and being scared out of my wits.

01:30 So I started writing the show about that but again, being who I am and what I do,

01:34 I was not laughing at it because that makes it sound frivolous and it was too important for that

01:39 but certainly trying to keep my chin up, the stiff upper lip and all that business.

01:43 I wrote a lot of stuff during that time and at the end of that period, once I'd got the all clear

01:49 that it had been a year and a half, this show came out of it which mixes the whole BGT stuff.

01:56 It's got some of the behind the scenes stories going on that were happening on BGT

02:01 combined with me dashing to the hospital but it's all told with this musical winks kind of thing.

02:08 It's fun. It is a fun show.

02:11 I know that's a really hard sell when you hear the synopsis.

02:15 It doesn't sound like something that's going to be fun but it is.

02:18 I think it's an interesting story. With so many people nowadays being affected by cancer,

02:23 it used to be one in three when I was growing up.

02:26 My granddad and my great granddad, they all suffered but now it's one in two.

02:31 It's a scary statistic.

02:34 So even if it's not yourself, then it's your neighbour or your family or somebody like that.

02:38 I think there's a message in the show about how you can possibly get your head around it

02:41 and how you can help cope, whether it's you or a friend or family member.

02:46 Yeah, hopefully. That's the idea.

02:48 If you come and see the show, I can promise you I will do my best

02:57 to give you a really memorable night's entertainment.

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