Comic recalls one of his strangest gigs

Having a reputation for off-the-wall comedy can backfire – as Harry Hill has revealed.

The comic has shared the story of a worrying stage invasion, completely ignored by the venue security who thought it was all part of the show.

Appearing on the Always Be Comedy podcast, Hill recalled: ‘I was on tour once, this bloke stripped to his pants – or he just appeared to me in pants. He walked from the back of the room up to the front,  just wearing pants. I’m assuming he stripped off.

‘And he's climbed up on to the stage and stood next to me. I was thinking, "Okay, any moment now the security guards will bundle him off". And he just stood there and I was chatting to him in an unentertaining sort of way. And in the end he went.

‘He's obviously off his face on something, In the end he went and sat back down. And afterwards, I said to the security, "you know, what, were you thinking? Why didn’t you came and get him". They said: ‘I thought it was part of the show.’

The comedian also told how a punter had a heart attack one night during his 2004 Hooves tour after ‘laughing too much’.

The man collapsed in the interval – although no one told the comic  what had happened.

He told podcast host  James Gill: ’The intervals going on and on and on, so I said to the theatre manager, "what the hell's going on?". He said, "Oh, someone’s had a heart attack. We have to wait for an ambulance."

‘Sure enough, he was stretchered off,  and then it was… "Welcome back Harry Hill".’

But the comic said the rest of the gig went fine – at least for everybody else – despite the unsettling incident.

Published: 27 Apr 2023