Julian Clary
(born 25 May 1959) is an English comedian and novelist, known for his deliberately stereotypical camp style, with a heavy reliance on innuendo and double entendre.
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JULIAN CLARY TICKETS
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Biography
Clary was born in
Surbiton. He is partly of German descent.
[1]
By his own , he was conceived in broad daylight in Clacton-on-Sea in the autumn of 1958, Julian was born the following May to Peter Clary, a policeman, and Brenda, a probation officer. He lived in Teddington with his parents and two older sisters, looking after guinea pigs and never even going to a single disco, until he left for Goldsmith’s College at 18 to study Drama.
Clary was educated at
St Benedict's School, an
independent Catholic school in
Ealing,
London. He studied English and Drama at
Goldsmith's College, part of the
University of London.
Stand-up comedy
Clary started his performing career as a fake
keyboardist for pop band "
Thinkman" (a recording project conceived by
Rupert Hine) under the name Leo Hurll.
[2] [3] His comedy career started on the
alternative comedy scene in the early 1980s, first under the alias "Gillian Pieface" and later as
The Joan Collins Fanclub
. He wore heavy
glam make-up and dressed in outrageous fashions, usually involving leather and hinting at
bondage. His pet dog "Fanny the Wonder Dog" also featured in performances.
Since then, Clary has undertaken several successful tours of his stage act, two of which have been released on video:
The Mincing Machine Tour
(1989), and
My Glittering Passage
(1993).
From September 2009, Clary will tour the UK in
Lord Of The Mince
, his first UK tour for five years.
Television and theatre
After a number of appearances in the mid 1980s on
Friday Night Live
, he co-hosted the shortlived ITV game show "Trick Or Treat" (1989) with Mike Smith, before going on to greater success later in 1989 with his own high-camp gameshow
Sticky Moments with Julian Clary
for
Channel 4. More of a vehicle for Clary's brand of humour than a genuine gameshow, Sticky Moments was a light-hearted "non-quiz" satire, with Clary often awarding points because he liked the contestants rather than for any particular skill or aptitude. He later starred in the 1992 "audience participation sitcom"
Terry and Julian
with
Lee Simpson, again for Channel 4. His next series was the BBC's studio-based
All Rise for Julian Clary
in 1996, in which he played a judge in a mock courtroom setting.
In 1992, he played a cameo guest star part in the BBC drama, "
Virtual Murder". In his episode, "A Dream of Dracula", he played an undertaker, alongside other guest stars including
Alfred Marks,
Jill Gascoine,
Ronald Fraser, and
Peggy Mount. The same year he also played a role in
Carry On Columbus, an unsuccessful revival of the Carry On films (see below). He also appeared in an episode of the improvisational comedy show
Whose Line Is It Anyway?
In 1999, he became a team captain on the quiz show
It's Only TV... But I Like It
along with
Phill Jupitus and
Jonathan Ross.
In 2004, Clary took part in the
BBC series
Strictly Come Dancing
, finishing third with his partner
Erin Boag.
In 2005, Clary hosted
Come and Have A Go
for the
National Lottery.
On 1 February 2006, he appeared on the
BBC 2 programme
Who Do You Think You Are?
, a
genealogy series which traced his
ancestors to a
World War I flight engineer and
German immigrants among both his mother's and father's forebears. In May 2006, Clary hosted the topical quiz show
Have I Got News for You
.
In September 2006, Clary returned to primetime TV as presenter and judge on Channel 5's brand new celebrity performance programme
The All Star Talent Show
. He was joined by two guest judges every week to assess celebrity performances and co-presented with
Myleene Klass and
Andi Peters. He also voices the Channel 5 children's series "
The Little Princess" with
Jane Horrocks.
In November 2006, Clary joined the panel of
QI
, a
panel game/
comedy show hosted by
Stephen Fry, and also appeared on an episode of
The New Paul O'Grady Show
.
In 2007, he made a cameo appearance in the
Australian soap opera,
Neighbours, in scenes filmed in
London with
Natalie Bassingthwaighte.
From 20 March 2007, Clary presented a brand new show for the
BBC called The Underdog Show. Celebrities and children were paired up with rescue dogs. They then commenced training and competed against each other in obedience and agility trials in a live arena. The show ran until 26 April 2007 Some of the celebrities let viewers adopt the dog which they rescued, while others kept their dog because they couldn't let them go.
From April - May 2007 Clary toured various theatres in the UK in
An Evening with... Julian Clary
, produced by
Marc Sinden (who had also appeared with Julian in
Carry on Columbus
) for his
One Night Booking Company.
From 2 October 2007 - 19 April 2008, Clary played the much coveted role of '
Emcee', in
Rufus Norris’s
Olivier Award winning production of
Cabaret, now in its second year in the West End of
London.
In January 2008, Clary was drafted in as a relief presenter for
This Morning
, co-presenting alongside
Fern Britton and
Ruth Langsford during
Phillip Schofield's absence. Both he and
Michael Ball are set to appear throughout this year when Schofield is on holiday.
On 25 April 2008, Clary again fronted the
BBC 1 TV Show
Have I Got News For You.
In May 2008, Clary filmed an appearance in Celebrity
Bargain Hunt to be shown later this year.
Clary has been confirmed to be taking part in the
Strictly Come Dancing Tour in January and February 2009 with
Lilia Kopylova and dancing a
Quickstep and a
Samba.
On 16 October 2008, Clary was a short-notice guest on
The Paul O'Grady Show after
Peter Andre and
Katie Price couldn't appear.
Film
Clary appeared in the film
Carry on Columbus
(1992), an unsuccessful attempt to revive the "
Carry On" series of films. It was widely panned by critics.
Clary returned to film in 2001 in the film
The Baby Juice Express
which starred
Lisa Faulkner,
Samantha Janus,
Ruth Jones and
David Seaman, about a prisoner who is desperate to find some way of conceiving with his wife whilst he is prison, but the sperm ends up getting hijacked. It was released on DVD in 2004.
Radio
In 1992 Clary hosted a radio show for the BBC called
Intimate Contact
, the premise of which was for him to act as a genial 'Mr Fix-it' for a wide range of 'punter' problems. Clary attempted to solve these issues over the telephone, with the assistance of roving reporter
Hugh Jelly
(actor
Philip Herbert). It originally aired on
BBC Radio 1 for two series; the pilot and 6-part first series have since been repeated on
BBC Radio 7 a number of times.
Clary had also appeared regularly in
The Big Fun Show
in 1988.
Writing
Clary has released two comedy books: "My Life With Fanny The Wonder Dog" (1989) and "How To Be A Man" (1992).
Since 2005, Clary has written a fortnightly column for
New Statesman magazine. He has also published an autobiography,
A Young Man's Passage
, which covers his life and career up to the 1993 "Norman Lamont incident" at the British Comedy Awards (see below). In 2007, Clary released his first novel,
Murder Most Fab
, published by
Ebury Press, and is due to publish his second novel,
Devil in Disguise
in 2009.
Personal life
Clary owns a seven-bedroom farmhouse near
Ashford, Kent, formerly owned by
Noel Coward. His neighbour is
Paul O'Grady. He owns a whippet-mongrel dog called Valerie who starred alongside Clary in ''The Underdog Show.
Clary is a close friend of fellow comedian
Paul Merton, who was one of the writers for his 1989 show
Sticky Moments
, before Merton earned fame on
Whose Line Is It Anyway?
(Clary has appeared as a guest on an episode of "WLIIA?", and Merton is one of the regular panellists for
Have I Got News For You
). Clary also appeared on an episode of
Room 101
. For this episode, he was allowed to sit on the left, in Merton's usual spot, so that the right side of his face was facing the camera; he nominated his left side, which he believes to be unphotogenic, for Room 101.
On 7 September 2005,
Goldsmiths College made Clary an
honorary fellow.
Clary owns a plot of land on the Pacific coast in Nicaragua, where he plans one day to build a house.
Controversy
In 1993, Clary courted much controversy after making a sexually explicit joke about Conservative politician and then-Chancellor
Norman Lamont ("I've just been
fisting Norman Lamont") during a live broadcast of the
British Comedy Awards
ceremony, before the nine o'clock
watershed. The audience reaction was sufficiently raucous that his intended punchline ("Talk about a
red box!") was almost entirely drowned out. Although the joke created considerable controversy (including a failed campaign by tabloid TV critic
Garry Bushell to prevent Clary from ever appearing on live television again), there is considerable debate as to how much (if at all) this incident affected his career. Regardless, Clary has continued to be a regular (if slightly less risque) fixture on British television since.
References
- WDYTYA? Series Two: Celebrity Gallery
- visible in the video for the song "formula"
- Julian Clary confirms this in his autobiography- "A young man's passage".