We sat down with comedian Jack Whitehall to discuss his upcoming arena tour, his love for The Rock, and why he loves to put on a show. Watch the interview above...
Sent to boarding school at the age of eleven by his well-to-do parents - his mother an actress, his father a successful theatrical agent - Jack Whitehall's upbringing was one of privilege, the kind that usually leads to a high-flying career and a little black book of middle-class connections.
Indeed, his old school mates and fellow alumni include Twilight actor Robert Pattinson and the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton - both of whom have featured in the Londoner's stand-up.
Known as the posh boy of English comedy, Jack has successfully embraced his Putney upbringing to further his career. As a stand-up, he is effeminate and self-ridiculing, often aligning himself with conflicting personalities - such as his fellow League of Their Own panelists Jamie Redknapp and Freddie Flintoff - to show just how posh he really is.
However, this wasn't always the case. Waving off a corner office career for a life spent touring the UK's comedy circuit, the then 17-year-old hid his boyish charms for a gruffer, deeper-voiced, persona - one that would hide his opulent roots.
"I look back at some of my early stand-up performances and my early appearances on TV and I just cringe so much, because I did a lot of my growing up on TV," Jack told RTÉ Culture. "For the first three years of my career, I would talk like Danny Dyer whenever I was on TV because I didn't want people thinking I was posh."
"I looked like I had just put my finger in a plug socket," he added, smiling. "In many ways, I wish that I had started a lot later or that I hadn't been discovered until a lot later because then we wouldn't have documentation of that period."
From a string of stand-up tours to leading roles in British sit-coms Bad Education and Fresh Meat, Whitehall's career has followed an upward trajectory, eventually landing him a role in Disney's fifth-highest-grossing film of all time, Frozen - a 'nonspeaking' animated role that didn't make the final cut, but still.
On a mission to break America, the funnyman spent last year working alongside megastars Keira Knightley, Helen Mirren, and Morgan Freeman in The Nutcracker And The Four Realms. Now, he's set to star in Disney's upcoming Jungle Cruise opposite Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt, something he says felt like a dream come true.
"When I was growing up, I really genuinely loved wrestling, and have always been into wrestling, especially when he [The Rock] was a wrestler. There's actually a load of interviews that we kept finding when we were doing the film, where I talk about The Rock and there's lots of things where I'm being asked who I would most like to meet and I'm like, 'Oh, I love Dwayne Johnson - The Rock - he's so great," he laughed.
"There is a whole, vast, archive of me fangirling about The Rock," he added, bashfully. "And then I did actually get to work with him."
As if all that wasn't enough, Whitehall now plans to celebrate his 14 years of stand-up by touring the UK and Ireland with his new show, Stood Up. Described as his biggest arena tour to date, fans can expect great things from the showman who has a penchant for big openers and bigger finales, using everything from dance numbers and pyrotechnics to animals and prosthetics.
"I've slightly set myself up in a way because I do love doing those big endings and I do like having a finale and I do like production value and making it feel like an actual show," he explained.
"I feel like, when you're in those venues, you have a duty to because the other people who are doing those venues are Ariana Grande or Lady Gaga - they put on a show so why shouldn't you? That's my approach to it anyway."
Jack Whitehall: Stood Up comes to 3Arena, Dublin for two nights on 17 & 18 December 2019 - find out more here.
