Alan Carr shares secrets on his friendship with Adele and his marriage breakup.

well alan carr it is great to see you lovely to see you too look at us in our shirts we could be like soul sisters couldn't we we could couldn't we you like look at this do you like the yellow it's like a bruise yeah it's kind of like an old bruise you know we're all right okay come on try and be nice craig please oh how could i be anything else you know you don't need to be doris stokes to know we are going to have a lot of laughs during our chat we are we are i can feel it in my waters yes and in my waters as well and could you imagine if they both broke together there'd be a tsunami might i say before we start happy birthday for next week because i know you have a um a birthday coming up and happy birthday do you know who i share my birthday with do tell paul o'grady lily lily savage boy george there's a fantastic comedian called tom allen who's camper's christmas it's the gayest star sign in the world june the 14th is such a gay day and you know we share it with but don't tell anyone you tell donald trump oh god i know he didn't get the memo did he he certainly didn't or either you didn't because none of you are bright orange no no imagine my hair is fake [Laughter] um you know when you think about you alan you are one of the most naturally hilarious people you know there are people who are hilarious and funny because it's scripted and it's all worked out things just fly from your lips and they're wonderful oh don't that's a lot of pressure for a long interview that's coming up but no do you know what we all know these comedians and you're laughing and howling at them on stage and then you invite them around for dinner and you think we are gonna have the biggest and they're miserable as sin yes they're so miserable you're like what you're on the telly you're on the stage have fun smile have a laugh there's so many miserable celebrities out there does my head in i know but you see if if somebody would have come to your dinner table they would find you funny and smiling and having a great time see that's what i mean you are just naturally hilarious and gorgeously warm by nature oh that's very kind thank you and that's why when i worked at the call center i was such a hit because i really i can really pretend you know to give a toss not only the call center i've heard that you also collected trolleys i think for tesco and you worked at a cd factory and you worked at a shampoo factory along the way is that right yes i packed the shampoo i packed dog food i used to work in a call center and because of my voice they'd always say oh thank you madam at the end and you'll be like no i'm a man i'm a man yeah i'm collecting collecting the trollies that was depressing but then sometimes you'd you'd find a pound still in you know the thing and then you'd keep the pound that'd be like a little tip i mean how far i've come i mean that was a big deal if you found a couple of trollies with a pound still in them it was like winning the lottery now you grew up in northampton and your dad of course was at one time uh graeme carr a big football player and he then went on to be the the manager of a football club at any point did he ever think now alan i'd like you stepping into my footy boots every time and he still mentions it when the fa cup was on it'd say to me oh alan it's my dream to see you at wembley stadium and i was like i went and saw madonna what more do you want but it's funny you know because um the two tours are back i did a one called specsy beast and i did an arena tour and my dad came along to see me and i think then it's when it dawned on me dawned on him especially he went oh alan he's just you performing here i said yeah yeah dad that's what i love doing and i think he sort of dawned on him that although we're very very um different and everything um that that was my kind of football pitch the the stage you know i mean i go out there i get nervous before i go on just like my dad used to i've had people boo i've had people cheer and we're very similar very similar chris but my dad's my biggest fan now and you know he came in the other day and he said i'm gonna watch rupaul's drag race to support alan well he came in white as a sheet i don't think he was ready for rupaul's drag race but you know what that must bring you such a joy to know that your father is really proud of all that you've achieved oh i know it is nice and we haven't always seen eye to eye and i know like he used to you know i always thought there was a mix up at the hospital do you know what i mean i mean i thought you know there was some hairdresser looking out the window watching his son play keep it up here or something going why why isn't he interested in perms and hair and the golden girls and it's funny how it but you know what he's like my biggest fan now and i recently did the royal variety performance which was such a magical night to host that and to have him there as well with my mum and he was crying and not because my jokes were bad because it was emotional so that was really sweet what was it like for you as a kid though growing up with all of that kind of football stuff around would you know what's really funny why you asked me this well you don't know why you're asking me this but um i've recently write written a sitcom i'm halfway through writing a sitcom which is having a lot of interest in it and i'm it's a six six episodes and i've written three of them already with this amazing writer who's also gay and uh you asking me about this is yeah i'm really unpacking a lot of stuff and it's about me growing up in northampton as a very camp boy having a dad who's uh who's a football manager and um it is bittersweet it's bittersweet really people ask about your childhood but it was all right till about 12 you know when puberty happens and then overnight i'd gone up a cup size i was these were going like this and then my voice went higher instead of going lower and then you start fancying people that you shouldn't and then and then you turn up to school and then every and i remember coming in saying to the boys oh did you watch the golden girls last night or do you watch victoria wood and they're like you are like that and then then you got to that awful bit a few years later where the girls don't want to hang around you they want to hang around the boy with the motorbike and the fast cars they're not interested in what happened in dynasty or the colbys and the boys and the boys don't even want to know do they see you end up just chatting to a dinner lady or a man walking his dog across the football field so yeah it was it was very weird it's very strange growing up very strange but then but then uh like i said the first the first time i did drama and we'd all did a play we did um there's some shakespearean play and then they said let's watch your performance back and honestly craig i could have cried i've never seen myself before i was basically voguing i was like no wonder people are shouting those things at me i was like a teapot i'd stop on stage and of course no one ever tells you now we live in a world where you've got face time you've mirrors everywhere back then it was such a shock i was like i am so camped you know alan really i feel it because it was the same for me the first time i looked back being on television was like oh my god just dig a hole and put me in and throw the dirt over the top i was the same i was letting people think you put it on and i remember it was actually in sydney this woman came up to me this is before i was even on the telly she went i can't stand affected camp i said oh i know [Music] you know speaking of that somebody once described you and i mean this affectionately it was not a pejorative if kenneth williams and frankie howard could have a love child it would be alan carr i take that as a very big compliment because they were great weren't they they were absolute pioneering greats they don't seem to make them like that anymore when you watch them back on those chat shows they were just brilliant weren't they when i see frankie howard walk on stage and kenneth williams i'm laughing already made me a comedian that you start laughing at just when you see him oh amazing and you look at kenneth williams in in those wonderful carry-on movies with matron and the nostrils flare and all of that just happens naturally i mean these people were so ahead of their time and frankly it's so brave do you know who i supported when they came over here years and years ago bob down you know mark travero louisiana he's another one that i just look at and i love we had a tour a 2004 2005 all going around scotland and everywhere we just spent the whole time howling because we've got such the same sense of humor and when i've had a few roses i'll often go on youtube and pop in bob down and just laugh my head off because then it all come but all these memories come back of him you know i said you know all that singing and all that and the hair and the teeth he should have had danger money for the amount of polyester he had to wear he was so sweet he came to see my show when i was back in sydney and it was so lovely to catch up with him what a lovely bloke it's so funny a lot of people don't know this about you funny little bit of um trivia but you i think in your 20s so that was what in the 90s you actually lived in australia for a little while didn't you didn't you arrive here as a backpacker and kind of took it from there yes yes i ended up working at hih insurance which down by darling harbour and my job because i've got no skills or any discernible talent my job was to take the claim forms off the facts and it'd have the name the address the injury and where you got it so there's this farmer i think from queensland blah blah his name and address what's your injury it said piles and he said where on your body where'd you effin think so so there and then i used to live in darling nurse with two lesbians and three irish builders in the two typical backpackers like this all like that and then round the corner which isn't there anymore gay bingo what's that pub called the aubry albany or something that's right yeah i think gay bingo still goes but it goes in all sorts of pubs now it's spread like a choco vine but we used to go there on monday and i mean you really didn't want to win the prizes because i mean it was like an end summers you know it was like things you really didn't want to put in my luggage when i got home i don't want to see that going around the carousel do you know what i mean they were quite um she'll say risque so what was it like for you living in australia for that little time because you were you did you did dishwashing for a bit in a restaurant now we know that yeah dish pig now we know that you worked for an insurance company with that very i mean the pressure on your shoulders must have been amazing taking the faxes off the machine and onto an entry oh my god the paper cuts craig the paper cuts and sometimes i had to put printer actually it printer ink in the fax it wasn't just walking around and then i always got told off for gossiping with all the women but yeah so i was a dish pig at cafe 191. is that nightclub ark still there yes it is of course when that opened i was there the opening night of that so all these no no i was working washing up taking the bins out as i went past all these muscle mary's silly crop tops they've got six packs and i'm coming through because they they deliberately gave me these pink marigolds and so i would like coming through coming through and i'd bring all the bins past all these muscle marys and they were scowling at me because i must have looked like a troll coming out this door move out the way move out the way and then then i became a bit of a character there and people would just call me dish pig and they'd go dish pig and then my hands would come out and grab all the dirty things and then just pull them in i was like a man of mystery all you saw was the pink marigolds you know what can i be honest i used to hate it when people had the curries because it was because i had to have the scourer on the wok and it was really and me hands honestly oh they'd have been bright orange wouldn't they with all that turmeric and curry powder i know i know i know but yeah you know what and i'm making it sound like it was awful but i just no responsibility i had such a laugh and i'll take me i'd take me marigolds off of me penny i'd get changed in the toilets and then i'd hit the town it was great it was so fun it was so fun of course it was you actually seriously you studied drama and theater at university and i think i read somewhere alan that it was with a view to becoming a serious actor like doing the classics that may be like the national theater or something oh yeah i'd love to do that but then i soon realized i had no range i've got no range right and then um there was a play called saved that was banned because it was so and it's quite grim um a man this is i don't i don't know how dark you're pod i don't don't know how dark you want to go but don't worry i'll tell you as dark as you want to okay well listen he has a baby with this woman and he doesn't want the baby anymore it's a six year so he stones the baby to death in the pram i told you it was dark yeah so i'm acting on the stage and i and then the woman comes in with the baby i don't want it so i push the pram away like that and then i pick up the stones to throw at the baby well i can't fro so i was missing the pram and the baby and then i could see people i could see people in the in the audience sort of like that and then putting handbags up and i'm not being funny but that baby would have lived to be in its twenties or thirties i mean there's no way but i mean it was the worst bit of casting ever and my opening lie opening i had to have sex with a woman on the sofa and then have a [ __ ] at the end and then and then the mat i got the lowest mark ever and he said it was like lily savage i was i was meant to be dark and brooding but it was awful it was awful and then i thought you know alan you're just not very good at this so is that when you turned your laser-like focus onto comedy as a degree it wasn't the best degree in the world and you'd pick your different modules you'd do all different kinds of theater stage site lighting sound and then there was this um stand-up comedy module and you you did a 10 minute act and you went down to a local comedy bar and your teacher sat there as a punter and you saw how you got on well i'm not blowing smoke up my bum and me and all that but i ripped the roof off i had and everyone said you should do it but you know what i said i'm not gonna do it again because the nerves were too much i was just so sick and then i ended up working in a call center and i get psoriasis really badly and it was probably at my lowest deb and and i said oh alan what am i going to do how am i going to get out of this job and someone said you know when you just stand up you're really funny so i just i did that and you know baby steps baby so cut a long story short i ended up at edinburgh the fringe and channel 4 saw me and friday night project then chatty man and then you hadn't stopped working since alan chatty man 16 seasons a bathroom award and we loved it here in australia i mean you chatted with a galaxy of stars was there one celebrity that was an absolute standout just by nature of a beautiful heart or something you saw inside them well do you know what i love lady gaga yeah and she always came on the show every time she was in london even if she didn't have really anything to promote really lovely backstage you know no divas you know nothing really we couldn't talk about rihanna was so much fun and you know what sometimes you know they are nice on the show obviously to me because they're plugging things but i was at the brits and um and she walked past and went oh my god chatty man and she gave me the biggest hug and i thought you know she didn't need to do that she was with all the bouncers and you know i know i meet these celebrities but you still fan girl you know you still get excited and everything i mean did you see my um an audience with adele or did you see an audience with alan that's what people are calling it yeah yes yes alan do you come talk for five minutes why it fixes your face then for real i have to say that was a beautiful moment alan and when she was overwhelmed because the old school teacher you hopping up doing that song thank god you knew all the words you liar now listen that is the one i'm not lying i sang every word because everyone goes oh it was set up alan that ma it was not set up you could see that and then of course in the edit i'm for five minutes i'm going no adele no no there's [ __ ] there's jeweleeper over there ask her she's a proper singer no no no and of course in the edit they cut all that out i'm straight up like a like a rat up a drain pipe oh yes neville's always loving this and then what she said to me was because i was going when the wind is on your face and then she said alan that words are on the auto cue i looked up it was chasing pavement so and i thought i'm not singing chase people are gonna think i'm starting a medley [Laughter] make me feel your love i think was the song wasn't it alan yes yes it was and it's got that weird one make when the wind is on your fan i couldn't work out whether it was wind or rain i had a trouble with wind oh well charcoal tablets are good for that eye here [Laughter] you know what you you brought up adele and the world absolutely loves your friendship with her but i mean you two met her i think what 14 years ago at the brit awards and hit it off like that didn't you yeah yeah she lived around the corner from us and uh we just had the best time you know and people say what's she really like and i think what you see is what you get because you know people say that what's she really like that that's her cackling away with a glass of wine having a laugh that's her she hasn't changed a bit and i love her for it well and not only that but i mean as a friend she sort of went over and above because she not only hosted your wedding in 2018 but she officiated at it yeah it was so funny because obviously we went to we've got to go to the court with the actual paper to get it officiated stuff you know and hand over the woman she says okay she's like okay so who married you adele atkins oh you brits are crazy your prince are crazy i was like no it is a what she thought we've got someone to like and tell so i love you brits you're so crazy i was like no she didn't do it yeah it's the most wonderful day ever and listen i know me and paul are are divorced now and stuff but you know you get a lot of head tilting oh i hear your divorce but me and paul we're still good friends john we gave it 14 years you know and in gay years that's two thousand four hundred years i mean people look at me like i'm sure gabor or i mean 14 years is a long time and we fell out of love is that okay let's move on life's too sure and then you know and i get adele at the weekends he gets adele in the week well as long as somebody's having a bit of adele at some point in time i think everyone needs a bit of a doubt you know what thinking back to your chatty man show which as i say ran for 16 seasons netted you a bafta and fans all over the world um you had a lot of aussies on your couch i remember from elle mcpherson to pete andre i think adam hills was there both of the minogues danny and kylie was there ever an aussie that you would love to have seen on your la may couch oh don't forget dame edna everett oh of course but how could i hush my mouth i don't yes i'm trying a thing kylie's kind um kylie was on shoot who and aussie let me have a well you know what i used to love and i don't want to be i don't know if that was still with us but you know i used to love prisoner cell block h i mean i would i used to what i don't if any of them are still around today i've got a lot of very dear friends in that show maggie kirkpatrick who was joan ferguson the freak oh my god friends oh my gosh yes uh val layman who of course was b smith top dog she's only over the road seriously no way absolutely every way can i come over and meet them i will be i'll be like we know when rihanna at the brits i'll be like that would be smith you better be mum used to stay up all night and watch that and then vinegar tits and when chrissy latham killed that woman with the with the trouser breasts the drugs in the tennis balls getting thrown over i was hooked honestly and because they used to put it on um like one o'clock at night i mean i would stay up all night and then i'd be at school like that because i haven't slept watching what's happening in that bloody prison oh my god can you send them my love can you send to my love oh my gosh you know what both val and maggie would be absolutely blown away that you are a great fan of this and i know we're talking about your show shortly but you're coming to brisbane they don't live far away i think we should all have a drink don't you think we should be on a promise for that i think we should have some grog as lizzy would say oh oh that's you know what that's maybe that show honestly that that brings back so many memories of me you know and i don't know just staying at night and then i'd put the telly on and i put a towel i mean you think i'd be watching porn or something i'll put the tail i put the towel under the door somebody wouldn't see the telly on and just watch oh wow oh that's amazing oh i know if i am coming to brisbane and i love bris vegas i love it speaking of your talk show because it was just it was so cutting edge and you had such a natural way of just engaging people of all of the stars you had on my god you had everybody from joan collins to jennifer lopez you name it but was there one legend you'd really would love to have had on your couch i love madonna big madonna fan yeah and that girly show doubt live down under 19. i was there on the opening night in wembley stadium so i've got that dvd of her yeah but i'd like her but when she was a bit more fun because she's a bit miserable now aren't she i know what's happened ellen well she's got that fake bum and i think it's made her a bit wobbly ever since she's had that fake bum everything's gone wrong i think it's haunted yeah listen so when people say oh what i'd love madonna big madonna van i even bought madame x i even when i saw that madame xtall where she had the limp did i moan about the limp and the fake bum and the eyes the eye patch where she was staggering around i couldn't see where she was going i'm a big madonna fan but if she could come back from the disco area you know confessions on the i wish you all the later where she cracked a smile once in a while yeah i'd like to interview them and i heard somewhere along the way that you're a big angela lansbury fan oh god yes yes yes yes and she's still going isn't she you know i had the great joy of interviewing her at her home i wish she was on your couch she is the most divine woman in all of the world please please you must try and find her and have a chatty man moment with angela lansbury oh i mean that's another thing you know and you know you talk about me growing up i mean you know when i came out you know this is what i was saying to someone about coming out you see and people go oh alan you were never in like that but it is so important to come out just yeah just just for your own mental health and good to say i'm out and i know i was the campus person in northampton but it does make me laugh i mean my dad trying to get me out to kick about and i'm watching murder she wrote i'm talking to everyone about prisoner cell blockage i mean it can't have been a big shock i mean murder shiro i mean i know all of them i mean yeah and aunt jess and all that and but i i just think she's absolutely brilliant i mean and i know we talk about murder shiro but what about some of those early ones she did you know the portrait of dory and gray where she's singing and fanny by gaslight hey can i tell you that i'm probably going off a bit pc people don't know what a number is but i am sort of fascinated by but you know that netflix thing that was a bit so so about hollywood you know it showed the golden age of hollywood yes and there was all you know at that that director's partner party some of the men partnered off took their clothes off and went in the pool and there wasn't did that really happen now angela lansbury's probably the only woman left who went to those parties did you read that interview where she said you know we never saw any nudity there but when i went home i don't know what happened but to think that she was around that golden age of hollywood at those parties that netflix now are showing and doing it's amazing isn't it absolutely she was one of she's one of the only great old stars from the 30s and 40s and so forth that is still with us i think she's what 94 or 95 she's got a marble she's absolutely fabulous speaking of absolute great salon car roseanne barr now you supported her in the uk and i hear she's one of your favorite people oh my god oh what a miserable cow oh i don't know i just i don't know what i don't know it's just like because i go there and they go oh miss bar you don't touch her or you know that's if i'm going to touch her don't touch her don't talk to her unless she talks to you and she does not shake hands so i thought i didn't know whether i was tempted to just slip the tongue in but yeah she was all right and all that but i mean it's just yeah it's just an odd but yeah there's not she just you know what you know when people talk about her now that she's quite mean yes and i sort of yeah and i sort of got that back then i was i was a big roseanne barr fan and i just felt she was a bit off with me and a bit i mean got specifics but you know i'm terrified i've only been doing comedy for two years and she's a bit yeah you know i don't know i don't know i feel like i'm being mean but i was just she could have been a bit nicer you know we're all in this business together we're all trying to oh i agree alan and i've had a similar experience with her so i i ca i completely concur but the other thing that maybe not a lot of people know is she reads everything including hello i'm roseanne barr off an auto cue did you know she does she does oh my god we did this thing in leicester now she did one night in leicester and i said why are you doing leicester she thought it was next door to leicester square which is in the center of london so she's in leicester which is like an hour and a half up in this you know lovely theater and all that but i was watching from the back of the stage she's got hello lester are you having a good time on the auto queue i mean talk about let it come from the heart really and you know what as well this is really petty and people are just going to think oh well and you're being petty now but i came off stage and i wanted a glass of red wine and there was a bottle of red which maybe she'd put in the thing thank you very much rosember and i went and said oh you haven't got a corkscrew out for you there was a corkscrew on the table i looked at it she looked at it and they went no i know it's the most boring showbiz story you've ever heard but i was like i can see that how mean is that you think about your life on telly now judging rupaul's drag race hosting interior design masters now i believe you are a dab hand at plumping cushions is that right the secret's out yes i can't i can't put a shelf up i can't do any units but i can plump in the chop yeah i can light a joe malone candle that's i can squirt a room spray that's it you know what we're very excited here in australia because you are heading our way very soon well when i say very soon november december this year i love the name of your show regional trinket as opposed to national treasure it's just divine i know do you know what you must be the same there's so many people now who were called national treasures and you're like really really so i thought oh i'm gonna you know maya i'm always like dragging myself down and not you know so i thought i'm going to call myself a regional trinket and i am because you know that's me very simple don't like to make a fuss and in my show is about exploring the simpler things in my life like i said you know going through a divorce a bit of reassessment during covid looking at yourself yeah it's enjoying the smaller things in life and alan series for a moment it is quite a personal show isn't it you've really kind of opened yourself up and let basically it all hang out yeah yeah i wrote the show like i said it was all about the wedding and adele marrying us being all in love he's a farmer we live in this farming kent like that and um and then uh yeah and then a marriage broke down during covid and then when i came out of covid and all the tall days got put back on i looked at my material and i was like oh this doesn't make sense and there'd been a bit in the paper about paul and everything so i couldn't lie i couldn't and i don't lying i don't like i don't like lying um so i was really honest i've got no filter so i sort of and once i've written a show i like to just write it and then go and perform it i was writing it on the hoof um and um and you know it's a better show for it it's raw it's honest i'm not lying this is how i feel and listen i'm one of those people when life gives you lemons you make lemonade don't you and you know what comedy is misery plus timing and it's been one of those weird years for me professionally it has been absolutely amazing you know it's been um you know did the raw variety of always everything gets recommissioned rupaul's drag race which i adore but personally it's just been a bit rubbish and it's one of those weird years you get you know what about for you nick so we've got the tour that's november december and the dates will be up on the screen too by the way we're like that's wonderful that's perfect but what about for you i mean you've written two fabulous books another book maybe another tv chat show what about alan carr the movie well listen alan carl the movie is a little bit far-fetched but alan carl the sitcom i can't really say but i'm halfway through that we have got the most amazing little ellen we auditioned 400 400 little boys and they came forward i mean some of them were basically insulting it was like a whole day or hello america you know so so that's exciting so that's a little exclusive for you that's what i'll be working on but someone's very very interested in it fabulous and i'd love it to come to australia so i think we'll be filming that getting on with that and so and it's so funny you know asking about my dad and stuff and the memories are there in the front of my mind because i'm just reminiscing and isn't it funny like you know me dad and all that you know we we didn't get along at times but now he's my biggest fan and it's it's we i think everyone should really write a sitcom about when they're younger because you do look at things and you thought my dad was moaning and shouting on a friday night it's because he was stressed about the big game the next day like sometimes before i go on stage i need me me time and you know that hasn't happened in a long time but you know i've done in the early days people boo in shouting abuse my dad got that when he was in the dugout but then when they went and got promoted i got a cheer and i get a cheer it's so weird i'm having a really it's good for comedy i'm having a lot of reassessing what do i want in my life and stuff but sitcom first and then some time off i think you are an absolute treasure or a regional trinket as you preferred to be known as not a national or even an international treasure i remember the elizabeth taylor once said i don't want to be known as a national treasure or some kind of legend because it's the kind of things that pigeons pop on that's perfect isn't that perfect i can't wait to be in australia and listen i'm on i'm not one of those celebrities that then you know when you ring up the hotel and say are we having that wine i'm like craig who please call me because i will be by myself i need you know i need some good company i need some wine and listen let's catch up and do this all and we can talk about roseanne barr in private oh i can't wait well look here is to you happy birthday and we look forward to welcome you to australia and i promise you i'll gather together a little party maggie kirkpatrick val layman and you will be in prisoner nirvana okay well i'll bring my vinegar tits and we're laughing you've been a joy thank you alan carr thank you craig thank you so much [Music] you

Channel: Celebrity Drop

Views: 12,077

Keywords: Madonna, adele, chatty man, rupaul, roseanne barr, coming out, Bob downe, mark trevorrow, paul o'grady, boy george, prisoner, prisoner cell block h, vinegar tits, joan ferguson, maggie smith, val lehman, royal variety performance, angela lansbury, regional trinket

Id: yi8E6zHZn8Q

Length: 36min 17sec (2177 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 12 2022