Lee Evans

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I'm banned from Hollywood ... by the missus
By DAVE MASTERS
The Sun

CHRISTMAS may be a time for giving – but for joker Lee Evans it’s no fun when all you ever end up with is a headache. The funnyman is not a big fan of the festivities and complains they rub him up the wrong way.

He says: “Every year my wife really annoys me by bringing the outside of the house inside. She’ll walk in one day with a giant tree, then mistletoe, the Yuletide log and next, holly. I said to her the other day that I might go and sit outside in the garden because there’s more room. There’s so much stuff in our house, so much jungle. I keep thinking Ant and Dec are going to jump out and get me to do a Bushtucker Trial.”

He adds: “I’ve been asking my wife what she wants for Christmas. She says, ‘Oh, don’t get me nuffin’!’ “Oh yes, right, I like that one. If I didn’t get her anything I’d get a punch in the teeth!”

Stand-up Lee, 44, rose to fame in the 1990s with his loud, energetic on-stage performances, funny voices and very physical comedy in the style of Norman Wisdom and Michael Crawford. In 1993 he won the Perrier Comedy Award for his work at the Edinburgh Festival and has since starred in a number of films including Funny Bones, Mousehunt, The Fifth Element and There’s Something About Mary.

This year he is planning to spend Christmas at his family home in Billericay, Essex – where wife Heather and teenage daughter Mollie will have to put up with his gripes. Yet while many of us can escape the present-wrapping madness now and again by slipping out to the shops, Lee can’t stand it there either.

He says: “I don’t mind Christmas shoppers too much, it’s just the music. It really gets me down. How can anyone in their right mind take a completely decent piece of music and turn it into a piece of cr*p they play in stores? Who writes this stuff? Was there some bloke in a room somewhere one day playing the piano and someone said, ‘You have a gift to be ignored by millions. I reckon you should write muzak!’? Every year it does my head in. And you see the poor shop staff who have to listen to the songs on a loop all day. They’re half way to committing suicide. I noticed that all the rope in B&Q had gone . . . ”

Lee puts his Jingle Bells hell down to the dreaded Christmas No 1 single, which looks set to be The X Factor winner again this year. He says: “Every time they’re really rubbish. They’ll have boy bands in scarves, walking around in fake snow, singing about how they’ve lost their loves. Hey? How do they know what it’s all about? These kids have just left school.”

Lee’s wacky observations on life have made him one of Britain’s best-loved comedians. He recently finished one of the biggest comedy tours ever, performing to more than a MILLION fans across the UK. His routine covers all sorts of subjects, from the frustration of getting stuck behind a tractor to being caught having sex by your dog. There’s even a gag about teenagers and guns – but Lee believes comics should be allowed to poke fun at taboo subjects.

He says: “I don’t care. What I write is what I do and how I am. I just say what I’m thinking and if you can put it a certain way, people will get the gist of it. I just take the really annoying things in life and see if people have seen the same thing.”

In 2004 he went down a storm playing accountant Leo Bloom in West End comedy musical The Producers and making people laugh remains the most important thing for Lee, which is why he plans to carry on doing so – on stage and the big screen. The comic has had a taste of Hollywood fame and, although he has a comedy film of his own in the pipeline called I Was Hitler’s Weatherman he’s in no rush to return to the States.

He says: “I’m not allowed out of the country. It’s nothing to do with Customs – it’s my wife. I spent two years working out there with them at home and I can’t do it. Los Angeles is such a lonely place, too. It’s full of people that talk bollocks, I quickly found that out.”

Lee knows what he does best – and is proud his comedy has cheered up so many in recent hard months. He adds: “I’m not an actor, I’m a stand-up comedian and people would give their right arm to do what I’m doing. My fans are just really nice, normal, working-class people who have come to see the gig. Nobody rubs their beard and goes, ‘Very clever, I like what he said at the end there’. It’s just people that go to work every day who have come to the show and forgotten about all that’s going on at home. It’s simple.”

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Lee Evans to get honorary degree
October 15, 2009

Essex comedian Lee Evans is to receive an honorary degree from Anglia Ruskin University to recognise his achievements in the entertainment industry. The Billericay funnyman will receive an Honorary Doctor of Arts award from the Ashcroft International Business School at the University's Chelmsford campus at one of the graduation ceremonies for students on November 24.

Evans, 45, has found international success and recognition as a comedian, writer and actor. Last year on his Big UK tour of arenas, he performed to more than 500,000 people. Evans will be joining more than 1,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students from Essex who are preparing to don their ceremonial gowns for the graduation ceremonies on November 24, 25 and 26.