Viv Hardwick talks to Jasper Carrott about his return to stand-up, thanks to his love of singing Status Quo songs

THE last time Jasper Carrott toured to Darlington was around 1998 and he confesses that many of his interviewers “were little more that a fetus” when he was at the height of his fame in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

“You don’t really know how to pitch interviews because you know you can’t discuss, ‘Where were you when Kennedy was shot?’ The chances are the answer is ‘Kennedy who?’,” he jokes.

He’s been working since that 1998 tour, but younger audiences are probably more familiar with Carrott hosting Golden Balls on TV rather than BBC’s The Detectives, his stand-up shows or that Funky Moped/Magic Roundabout single that reached the top five in 1975.

Now there’s Stand Up & Rock where the man christened Robert Norman Davis switches between comedy and crooning alongside musician and friend of 60 years Bev Bevan, of ELO fame. Tickets are already going well for his one-nighter at the Civic Theatre on .

“But, it’s 15 years since I’ve toured and gone to far-flung places. I sort or rediscovered myself because I got bored with it to be blunt. I always said I’d never do it for the money because the audience know whether I’m interested or not. Eighteen months I toured with Bev Bevan because if we didn’t do it we never would and it was incredibly successful. We did 60 shows and we’re doing another 60 this year,” says Carrott.

“I’m having time of my life and writing new material and regurgitating old material and bringing it up to date. We’ve discovered an audience that wasn’t really catered for. It’s comedy that doesn’t have expletives, so they are comfortable with that and the music is from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, with songs that everybody knows,” he says.

One theme is getting older and is part of Carrott’s “what I am, who I am, where I am” starting point for comedy.

“There is a vein of comedy about getting old and these up-and-coming comedians can’t do that because they aren’t old enough. I hit 70 a few weeks ago and, tell you what, it comes at you like you can’t believe. I keep thinking, ‘How many shows have I got left?’ If I don’t do Darlington soon, I’ll never get another chance,” he says.

Carrott has been overwhelmed by people from his past who have turned up for shows, particularly old friends from his days as a Birmingham City director. He’s fascinated to learn about Darlington 1883’s exploits and hopes that the club will go on to clinch promotion and play Blyth Spartans next season – the team which almost put his beloved City out of the FA Cup.

Football moves him on to the subject of Sunderland and the fact that a son-in-law gives Carrott a strong connection with the North-East.

“I love winding him up. I tell him, ‘It’s always nice to hear a good Geordie’. God he flares up. He’s got a Sunderland season ticket and, blimey, that’s a touchy subject. Other people don’t realise the feeling between Macams and Geordies,” he says.

The man who ended up as compere of the Boggery Folk Club in the 1970s, when his comedy took off and his singing didn’t, says he never dreamed about a folk career.

“I wouldn’t be here talking to you now because I’d be out on the circuit with Ralph McTell or Martin Carthy. I shall be forever grateful to the folk clubs because that’s how I learned to be a raconteur. I tried a week singing in cabaret and I hated every second of it. I built up three hours of comedy material and when I got the chance to appear on TV there was I with jokes that people had never heard of.

“At one time I just wanted to manage others and had my own music agency. For three years I very successfully lost money. I was working the folk clubs to keep the agency going. That’s how bizarre it was, but when I became popular I had a promoter’s hat as well as a performer’s hat,” he says.

Carrott admits to being a closet Status Quo fan and will be performing a three-song medley on stage.

“We started out with Rocking All Over The World and I soon realised that the reception was better than when I did the comedy,” he jokes.

Carrott is finding working with “musos” a challenge. “They are like goalkeepers. They are all bonkers. If you said to a muso, ‘It’s not going down very well tonight’. The first thing they say is, ‘Can’t they hear me?’ That’s why they end up turning those bloody amps up. I have to get the sound engineer to put a limiter on it. Musos are never happy. The tea’s too cold or the lighting is wrong. For 40 years I was solo and never had to worry about these things. They have no idea what entertainment is. They want to educate. ‘You’ve got to hear this B-side from Del Shannon from 1959’. You tell them, ‘No, it’s awful, no one will like it’. ‘They will by the time I’ve finished’. I’m going to have to do a routine on musos, but not until I’ve stopped touring with them,” he says.

The touring bug gets Carrott talking about life on the road and a visit to Scunthorpe Baths where the comic found himself booked as musical entertainment for the night.

“This was down to my hit single in 1975 and I turned up with an acoustic guitar. The sound guy said, ‘Where’s the rest of the band?’ and his face went white. Then I found I had 800 people expecting to hear music and to dance. The stage was about half-an-inch high and I was almost nose-to-nose with them. They were totally bemused and found I had to do 45 minutes. I remember playing Hava Nagila three times and it sort of worked.

“Right at the end, I saw my manager with this big wad of money and mouthing ‘I’ve got the bleeding money’. I got to the car and the manager came running out and I think he was saying, ‘Can’t you do an encore’?”

n Stand Up & Rock, Darlington Civic Theatre, Tuesday, June 2. Box Office: 01325-486555 or darlingtoncivic.co.uk

n Also announced, Scarborough Spa, Wednesday, November 18. Box Office: 01723-821888 or scarboroughspa.co.uk