Comedian Jenny Eclair is heading for Dundee on a tour that has been “extended due to popular demand” – although she has her own take on that.
“Well we all say that, don’t we? They’re just flogging me out on tour again, because management can’t think of anything else to do with me,” she deadpanned.
“They’re just sort of throwing me out on the road to fend for myself for another three months, so I’m not in London moaning.”
But on a more serious note, Jenny admits to loving touring and also loving her current show – Jenny Eclair Sixty Plus! (FFS) which she is bringing to the Gardyne Theatre in Dundee next week.
“It’s a show I’ve been touring ever since we were allowed to gig again post Covid andI it’s all about being 60,” said the acclaimed comedian and writer and star of the legendary series Grumpy Old Women.
On her dramatic life since she turned 60
“But I’ve got some new material because in the past year, I’ve become a grandmother and I’ve lost my mother.
“So I’ve become orphaned and grandmothered within the space of six months. It’s just life kind of stuff, the things that happen.
“And things don’t stop happening to you, just because you’re in your 60s, and it’s quite dramatic. Everything since I’ve turned 60 has been dramatic.
“Basically, Covid arrived on my 60th birthday and my 60s haven’t stopped being dramatic since.”
Which, of course, means Jenny has more than enough material to draw on to keep the audience entertained when she steps onto the Gardyne stage, such as confronting a “new decade of decrepitude” and scrolling down endlessly to find her date of birth in online forms.
“Well obviously, I’m hilarious,” she said, laughing.
“But there is a lot of reflecting the audience’s life back at them, because I think there’s a lot of shared experience that I inhabit on the stage that I talk about that the women – and it is about 95% women – can relate to.
“Of course, men are really, really welcome and what’s charming is when the men really enjoy it. You can feel them sort of resist if for the first 10 minutes, then you can feel them relax and give into it because it’s easier.”
Jenny Eclair’s many silver linings in her ‘decade of decrepitude’
While she doesn’t flinch away from the travails of being a woman in her 60s, Jenny said there are many silver linings to be found – such as free public transport and various concessions.
But the biggest gift of all, she says, is becoming a grandmother.
“I’m a nana until he learns to talk and calls me whatever he wants… he turns one next week. I just adore the baby.
“I mean I wasn’t very interested in babies the first time around – I more or less neglected my daughter.
“To be quite honest I fobbed her off on anyone I could pay to look after her,” she said.
“But this one I am very precious about. I am genuinely finding the baby fascinating.
“Just watching him learning on a weekly basis is like these daily tiny miracles of him just getting stuff, like putting things on top of things or laughing when things fall over.
“I’m just really enjoying watching this little personality come out.”
Another source of joy for Jenny was her part in the most recent series of the iconic Channel 4 show, Taskmaster, with Greg Davies and Alex Horne.
“Taskmaster was one of the highlights of my TV career. An absolute Holy Grail of mine was doing the show because I have wanted to do it for a long time.
“It was one of my happiest TV experiences. I loved everybody I did the show with and I adored Alex and Greg. I think they are magical.”
Jenny added: “I loved the potato catching hat task – I was in my element with that”.
And Jenny hopes audiences will get as much out of her show at the Gardyne as she did from Taskmaster.
“I genuinely hope they are taken away from any worries, stress or anxiety and are just transported into a couple of hours of having a good laugh.”
Jenny Éclair Sixty Plus (FFS) is at The Gardyne Theatre in Dundee on Friday, September 8. For information and tickets visit the See Tickets website.
