Frank Skinner tells Chris Evans about life at 66: ‘I like to think I've got funnier’ 

Virgin Radio

6 Oct 2023, 10:49

When Frank Skinner joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with cinch to talk about his new stand-up show, he spoke about how he feels like he has “always been a 66-year-old man-in-waiting”.

The comedy and telly legend’s latest show, 30 Years of Dirt, is coming to London’s West End’s Lyric Theatre for seven nights only, following a sold-out run at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe. He also plays shows in Leicester, Halifax, Middlesbrough and Reading. It is described as “a celebration of smut. But it’s smut without crudeness; gentlemanly smut from a 66-year-old with a poetry podcast.”

Speaking about his age, Frank told Chris: “I'm good with it. I think I've always been a 66-year-old man-in-waiting, even when I was about 50. It really sort of suits me, the old guy thing.”

He continued: “I like to think I've got funnier. Because, you know, it's all about sausage meat, for making the sausages, and obviously the older you get, the more years, the more days, the more sausage meat. There’s more experiences, more things happen. And different things happen to you as you get older.

“For example, I can't really enjoy Alphabetti Spaghetti nowadays, unless I’m wearing my reading glasses.”

Speaking about the demographic of the audiences at his live shows, the comedian said: “I get quite a bit of white hair as well. Sometimes we don't even need to put the house lights on, they generate their own! You know when it snows, it never really gets dark because of the snow on the ground? I get the mix, but they sit at the front because they want to be able to hear me.”

Frank's glittering TV career includes The Frank Skinner Show, which attracted 11 million viewers at its peak. He also hosted seven series of BBC1’s Room 101 and, with David Baddiel, he created and presented both Fantasy Football League and Baddiel & Skinner Unplanned. On his telly career these days, he said: “I do poetry documentaries on Sky Arts.” 

Speaking about not being on TV as much, he told Chris: “I had a dream, and in the dream I was in a really, really luxurious hotel room. But there was somebody knocking on the door going, ‘Frank, Frank, Frank, Frank’. And I woke up and I was like [gasps for breath], and I thought, ‘Oh my God, my life was like that for about 20 years’. All the loveliness and the luxury and breakfast in bed and other stuff in bed, but someone is always banging on the door. And this is the sort of thing that people say, when their TV career crumbles, they say, ‘well, of course, I’ve had enough anyway’. 

“I'd like to be saying no to more things, is basically what I'm saying. But I don't miss that knocking on the door.”

Frank, who was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to entertainment, added: “I've got a kid now. You do a deal when you have a kid, and you think ‘You know what, I've got so much to give, and I'm going to give it to this thing at home. Not so much out there’. But I don't want to be one of those soap stars who say ‘I'm leaving for other projects’, and they turn out to be 1000 piece jigsaws.”

He observed: “There can be no greater show of optimism than to buy a second hand jigsaw!”

30 Years Of Dirt runs at The Lyric Theatre In London from Monday 30th October to Sunday 5th November. Tickets to all of his upcoming shows are on sale from frankskinnerlive.com.

For more great interviews listen to  The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with cinch weekdays from 6:30am on Virgin Radio, or catch up on-demand here.