Being able to tour again is giving comedian Jim Davidson a chance to build on his biggest popularity surge since winning Celebrity Big Brother.
The controversial stand-up romped to victory on the Channel 5 hit back in 2014, just months after it was confirmed he’d be subject to no action in relation to the Operation Yewtree investigation – he’d been arrested twice in 2013 – which followed the Jimmy Savile revelations.
Looking back, ex-Big Break and Generation Game host Davidson regards his reality series triumph as a bittersweet moment.
Legions of new fans
“It got me a quarter of a million followers on Twitter that never came to see me live ‘cos they were all too young,” he sighs.
“I was a shock to some of the young people who were thinking, ‘Who’s this bloke? He’s funny, he’s good, we’ll vote for him’, but have they got 25 quid to come and see me? No.
“They’ll probably want to go and see Jimmy Carr – good luck to them.”
The son of Scots-Irish parents, London-born Jim, 67, had spent much of the Big Brother run-up living in Glasgow.
“I lived up there for a year so I kept out the way,” he recalls.
“The night I was let out after being arrested – I wasn’t charged with anything – I drove straight back to Glasgow and it made all the newspapers the next day.
“So the first thing I did instead of hiding was I went to the pub and all the boys, and one said (puts on a Glasgow accent), ‘Don’t think you’re getting any f****** sympathy here, lad!’ Outstanding!”
The UK’s funniest man
Once named the UK’s funniest man by listings bible TV Times, the Londoner launched his own YouTube channel at the pandemic’s start.
Such was his topical output’s success he started his own subscription-based four-channel website last November.
“We’ve had 10,000 members since we’ve been open,” he says.
“It’s been really, really popular and now we’re just raising the money to make more programmes. With streaming, people can watch a week’s worth of television in a day now.
“Mine’s called Ustreme. I must have spelt it when I was pissed!”
He plays “one of the prettiest theatres ever”, Dunfermline’s Alhambra (October 30), and admits to having over-indulged in Fife hospitality down the years.
Another favourite place is Gleneagles, where the comic went to learn equestrianism 20 years ago, but adds, “The first time I sat on one of my b******* that was the end of horse riding!”
While he’s happy to be earning a crust again, Jim insists the pandemic isn’t a subject he sees as a source of comedic material – despite his no-holds-barred reputation.
“I didn’t work for 18 months, so not only did I forget the act, but the sporran needed topping up very quickly – it was a bit empty,” he quips.
Talking to the audience
“My act is sort of conversational. I like talking to the audience and seeing what their lives are like, and letting them know how bizarre my life is and how pissed off I get with things.
“It makes them think that they’re not alone. They think, ‘Oh Christ, this man’s getting it up the a*** as well!” It’s hard out there at the moment for everybody.
“In the interval the other day I sat down on the front of the stage and had a pint with everyone. I like to be that free with it all, but you have to be very wary.
“You can come unstuck by talking about the pandemic. I talk about it, but in a serious way, to say, ‘Come on, we’ll all get through this’, and that’s it. There’s so many other looney things to talk about.”
Mention of a recent Generation Game retrospective in which his seven-year spell went unmentioned prompts the line, “If I was a statue I’d be torn down”, and it’s clear Davidson has a vehement abhorrence of cancel culture.
Asked what awaits people going to his show, he insists punches won’t be pulled.
“They can expect to laugh, but not to analyse it,” he declares.
“Tell me another comedian that’s around now that can make people rock with laughter until they’re begging you to stop – that’s my target.
“It doesn’t matter how you do it, just make them laugh their heads off. We’ve not got Billy Connolly anymore to get them rolling so it’s down to me.”
