Personality profile
Home is where the heart is
The king of innuendo admits he’s happy to have traded the “urban gay scene” of the capital for a more bucolic lifestyle in Kent.
Speaking from his country retreat, which he shares with his delightful dogs, Albie and Valerie (his deaf whippet), and his companion of 13 years, Ian Mackley, he describes his rural idyll in Aldington, overlooking the inspirational and windswept Romney Marsh.
After 30 years in stand-up, for the
doyen of double entendre, it’s time to be with the things that make him truly happy, after the death of his partner Christopher from Aids in 1991 and a period of deep depression.
Now 56, he jokes, he’s thrilled with his
grey hair, describing his transformation from a “fluffy chicken into a silver fox” as a positive – if unstoppable – step and his move to the country, highly appropriate.
Image courtesy of Eddie Botsio.
He adds: “There’s nothing drearier than a 56-year-old homosexual hanging around Soho in Lycra. Mercifully, one grows out of that. Thank goodness. I like to keep myself nice these days.
“Every decade is better than the last”
“When you're young, there are all
these things you want to achieve. Then, when you get to your 50s, you've either done them or you haven't, so the physical deterioration is offset by the things that you can tick off the list. In that respect each decade is better than the last. Although I'm sure one reaches a tipping point where that's not the case anymore.”
His comedy, too, has matured,
describing his early scripts as a reaction to the “right-wing men in bow-ties offered as light entertainment back then”.
Dawn Kingsford caught up with entertainer Julian Clary to ask him about his rural retreat in Kent.
“I think you evolve, whether you want to or not,” he says.
“There was a certain amount of anger and delight in confronting people when I started, which has more or less gone now.
“Making people laugh is my main aim
in life these days. I don't think there's so much to be angry about.”
He’s also happy to be on the road again, adding: “This is what I’ve always wanted to do, and I'm still doing it: standing on stage, talking about myself and getting applause for it. What’s not to like?”
Born in Surrey, to a policeman and his
probation officer wife, he spent much of his early life being anti-establishment. However, Julian seems to have made
Mid Kent Living 7
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