Comic shares his most embarrassing travel stories

Jack Whitehall has revealed he once turned up to do a stand-up gig – only to find it was in a sex shop.

And he confessed that he bottled out of doing the performance.

It came when he was in Los Angeles working on his film career and his agent booked him some gigs.

Speaking to Alan Carr on his Life’s A Beach podcast, Whitehall recalls his moment of embarrassment in West Hollywood, saying:  ‘I got to the address and thought. "This can’t be right"

He called his agent, who admitted he hadn’t mentioned the nature  of the venue which was hosting a ‘quirky comedy night’

‘There was no stage,’ the comic said. ‘It was like 30 seats set out in the middle of an active sex shop with people looking around.

‘My ego is moderate but there are standards that I have, and I am afraid this is the threshold to tell them my plane got cancelled / I never arrived / I perished in the ocean’

As he took in his situation, Whitehall was approached by a member of staff who asked if he was there for the comedy show. Panicked, he said no.

‘So I had to browse,’ he said. ‘I did some window shopping, and then walked out and went home.’

It wasn’t the only cringeworthy experience he shared on the podcast,  admitting that on his first las’ holiday – going to  Ibiza as a 19-year-old – his mum  Hilary bundled a stash of condoms into his bag.

‘I was still living at home at the time,’ he said. ‘I got out there and my mum had somehow managed to get into my suitcase.

‘I opened it up on day one of this holiday and there were 30 condoms that she had smuggled into the bag. I was there for three days.

‘I was like, "How much use do you think these would get?". I was a very awkward 19-year-old boy.

‘And the funny thing is, I counted them when I came back and there were 31. I’d gained a condom rather than used any of them on that trip."

Published: 13 Dec 2022