Julian Clary doesn’t like being called ‘openly gay: ‘I was never closed’

Julian Clary cannot wait to get back to live comedy (Picture: Shutterstock/Metro.co.uk)

The comedian, 62, on his return to the West End, protesting in the ’80s and what Changes he’d make to Regent’s Park.

What can you tell us about your return to Proud Cabaret? You, Denise Van Outen and Duncan James are sharing hosting duties…

Just how marvellous it is to be back on stage in a luscious burlesque show. It’s all gold and glitter and red velvet. Everything is beautifully lit. It’s the kind of world I’m ready for.

There are dancers, fire acts, aerial acts, people doing things on rocking horses and in giant champagne glasses.

It’s quite decadent and adult. I’m hosting and doing a song here and there, messing around with the audience, who are nice and close – although not too close what with social distancing.

I started out in clubs so it’s like going back to one’s roots.

Julian is returning to the West End’s Proud Cabaret with Denise van Outen (Picture: Mike Marsland/WireImage)

Can you remember the first club you played?

My first ever gig was in a vegetarian restaurant in Highgate, London, called
The Earth Exchange.

You didn’t get paid, you got a plate of lentils instead. There wasn’t a stage, you stood in the fireplace among the tables.

Did you do any Zoom gigs or drive-ins during lockdown?

No, I knew that my comedy wouldn’t work on Zoom or in a car park [laughs]. I need to see people. I need to pick on their hair and their clothes, all that sort of nonsense.

I think my husband is relieved I’m going back to work so I don’t just amuse myself by picking on him all evening. I’ve been rather itching to do the real thing.

Pride started as more of a protest than a celebration, says Julian (Picture: Wojtek Radwanski / AFP)

What are your memories of your very first Pride?

We marched through central London and we were all shaking our fists
and chanting and being quite angry.

We had fun, don’t get me wrong, but it was more of a protest than a celebration. I can’t think what year it would have been, 1980 or ’81.

We stopped outside the South African embassy and were very cross there because we wanted Nelson Mandela freed.

How has the event changed for you?

I went to do a gig at Ronnie Scott’s on Pride Day a couple of years ago and
I had to go through Soho. There were thousands of people.

Big gangs of Essex women come up because they like the gays and they like a day out. I kept worrying about how they were all going to get home and where were they going to go to the lavatory. It was wild.

It’s evolved into something quite spectacular and I like all that but I wouldn’t want to be revelling in the streets at my age.

Do you feel 62 years old?

No, I don’t feel much different from when I was about 30. It’s very interesting, ageing. You worry less. I’m much more content and happy to live in the moment. You don’t have all the expectations of yourself that you had at 30. I know what I’ve done with my life now. It’s too late to change that.

The Wikipedia entry for you describes you as ‘openly gay’. Does that seem a strangely jarring description?

Yes – I didn’t put that. That’s horrible, isn’t it? It’s wrong. ‘Openly gay’ is a horrible phrase. It’s very old-fashioned and lazy. I was never ‘closed’, if you see what I mean.

If you were mayor of London for the day, what is the first thing you would do?

I spend a lot of time in Regent’s Park and I have done through lockdown. I live around the corner so it’s not an issue for me but there are no toilets so people do what they have to do in the flowerbeds.

I’ve got two dogs that go in there and the sight of my Gigi running around the playing fields with a sanitary towel in her mouth is not what I want to see. I don’t blame people for doing it at all but there really ought to be some facilities.

Have your dogs been a comfort in lockdown?

Yes, they put everything in proportion. Gigi likes me to sit on the sofa between 2.15pm and 3pm or there is a riot.

She’s got a bit of a shock coming when I go on tour. My second memoir, which is out this October, called The Lick Of Love, is about how each dog is sent by a higher force to enhance your life.

What are your plans for the rest of today?

I am sorting out a bit of my… ooh, that’s the front door. Do you mind if I get it
in case it’s an exciting delivery? [Answers door.]

Flowers. They are purple and they are very tasteful. This is not your cheap nonsense. There’s a card. Oh, that’s sweet. I wasn’t very well yesterday.

It’s from the people at Proud. Well, I like them all the more.

So I will be admiring my flowers today and then working on my script for the stage version of The Bolds and having a house party with my mother and my sisters, which we do twice a week at five o’clock.

What happens at these house parties?

We just look at each other. We often ask what we are having for tea. My mother says how nice her lawn is. One of my sisters lives in Spain so she goes on about how hot it is. So there you are.

Clary is starring in Cabaret All Stars at Proud Embankment until July 30. Visit the website for more.

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