Gail Porter Interview. Part Two.
So obviously all these charity events equal a lot of parties that you just ‘have’ to go to!
Oooh I’m terrible though, the older I’m getting the worse I am. By about 11 I’m nearly finished and some people are just getting started. Honey’s involved with a lot of them as well so she gets the come to a lot of places that I work and it makes her realise her life is better as well because I think she realises she’s a lucky girl, she’s got her mummy and it’s great to involve her in these things.
I bet she enjoys all the glitz and glam that comes with it!
Oh yes, she does get more premier invites that I have in my entire life. We just went to see The Chipmunks 2 the other night and she got to meet all the chipmunks and we met some amazing people, she’s had Mika sing for her and Gwen Stefani gave her an album and she’ll be like “yeah that’s quite cool” and I’ll be like “No, that’s so cool Honey, you don’t understand how cool that is”.
What about you, how do you fair with all the glitz and glam of the business?
I’m not very good at it, I’m a bit gawky whenever I’ve got pictures taken my feet are always faced inwards and I always get a bit nervous at these things. I still get nervous at these things and think ‘wow, that’s amazing’.
It seems quite nice, you shouldn’t lose the excitement of it all I think people can get a bit jaded with it whereas I just think “god almighty this is crazy!”
You did a fashion show in Liverpool recently...
Yeah it was organised by a woman called Joanna Jones and it was amazing, it’s for cystic fibrosis and it was just absolutely amazing. It’s nice when people think 'right, I’m going to go ring Gail Porter and see if she can help' and I’m like “of course I will!” and if they don’t ask, they don’t get and it’s just nice for all the local charities as well because sometimes they might think they’re just going to get rolled over for one of the major ones but she did it all on her own back. It’s nice to be asked, I love it.
You’ve been doing even more Up North lately haven’t you; you’ve been up in Manchester opening up the Magic Bing Dome in the city.
Yes, I did, it was really lovely because I haven’t been to Manchester for years, my mum used to bring me up quite a lot when I was younger and in my old crazy days i'd stay in the Hacienda. To see the difference in Manchester since the last time I was there is great.
And also I’m a big fan of Microsoft and this new site that they’ve got, it’s absolutely amazing, I didn’t realise how quick it was, I used to use it all the time and sometimes you’d be a bit dubious by sites but this one actually literally does what it says – you type anything in, your flight number perhaps and it will tell you the flight time, where the flight is, what time you’re going to land - it’s very quick and I love all that new technology you know, I worked on The Gadget Show quite a lot of the time so anything that’s new and exciting I’m happy to be part of.
And any plans for the future, what have you got going on?
I’ve got a few things going really, I’ll be doing the Wright stuff again obviously, there’s a couple of documentaries I’m working on, I’ve been doing some stand up comedy in London, which is a bit scary but I enjoy it and I’m putting most of my effort into the band, yeah I think they’re going to do really well, they’ve got a New Year gig in Camden and they’re doing the Camden Crawl and yeah they’ve got loads of stuff coming up. It’s quite exciting to actually be in the background and sit and watch someone else coming up and I really enjoy that.
You briefly mentioned you’re doing some stand up sets, what does your stand up consist of, what kind of jokes have you got in there?
It’s not really jokey, it’s more observational comedy and I talk a lot about growing up in Scotland because a lot of people come down to London and I’m like “I remember when I did this at school” and you see a lot of people look at you with an open mouth and I think oh, is that not normal? It’s like a Billy Conley type thing, you just chat away about things with your Scottish accent which gets and instant laugh!
The first time I did a few little gigs at the Comedy Store a few weeks ago and I literally got up and I remember standing up there and looking at everyone and everything I had just planned went out my head and I just thought “oh my god, I’m at the comedy store”. They’ve had great comedians there and then there’s me like “hello!” every minute, but I managed to pull it out the bag and a few people laughed and it’s a difficult thing to doubt I quite enjoy it. I think I’m having a mid-life crisis, I don’t really know what’s going on.
Yeah, you keep putting yourself in all these scary situations!
I know! You’d think by now I’d just want to settle down and put my slippers on but I’m like ‘no, come on! Let’s do something really scary!” and then I really do.
You seem to be doing something within every aspect of the entertainment industry!
Yeah, it’s really exciting like being scared and nervous again.
What’s the most enjoyable aspect of any of the work that you do?
I think when positive things start to come through like the band and getting all the gigs, it feels quite like I’ve done something good. The comedy, that’s just a personal thing because I usually like making people laugh at me so I’m glad they’re laughing with me and not at me.
Female First - Carla Pearce
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