Fun ride with comic chameleon

LEIGH Francis, better known as his alter egos Keith Lemon, Avid Merrion and the big chinned prosthetic masked celebrities he skilfully skewered in his long running hit Channel 4 comedy series Bo’Selecta!, strode on stage to Elton John’s Tiny Dancer and thunderous applause from a packed audience (Elton John — “I hate people!” was one of many celebrities taken down over the years in Bo’Selecta!).

For a comedian who has made a career getting up famous people’s noses — “Craig David liked Bo’Selecta! – until he didn’t” (in response to a question from the audience), Leigh spent a fascinating hour revealing (and concealing) like the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland the vulnerable and creative soul behind the fairground mirror masks and star skimming hats.

“I like your Pink Panther jumper,” he purred to Gaby Roslin, perhaps more to put himself and not just his charming interviewer at ease, a beautiful blonde Tinkerbell to his Peter Pan.

Because for the next hour, the audience were in the inner sanctum and treated to “the real Leigh Francis” as they got to see the man behind the masks as he talked about his recently published autobiography Leigh, Myself and I.

He spoke movingly about his childhood growing up in Beeston, a suburb of Leeds, and how his mum’s home is still his favourite place in the whole world, bar her cooking (“I just say, “Mum, I’m having summat later”).

He talked about how Star Wars, ET and Spiderman opened up an immersive world in which the young boy Leigh climbed and happily lost himself in an era when films still created mass hysteria in far blown Yorkshire cinemas long before t’internet came along.

He spoke touchingly about his father’s death and how writing his autobiography was cathartic but an emotional process.

And his early start in London as a young comic, in a writing room with nearly all the famous comedians Britain has produced in the past 25 years (Dom Joly, David Walliams, Sacha Baron Cohen etc) but only recognised his hero Matt Lucas, alias George Dawes, as none of them had made it yet.

The audience learned how in a career of many alter egos, art is still his Polaris, how he navigates life. How his Latvian tutor’s voice at art college in Leeds still resonates (“If you go over that pencil with a pen I will bloody kill you!”). How Ed Sheeran and his father John, who happened to know his art tutor Laimonis Mierins, generously gifted him two artworks by his tutor which he still treasures.

Prior to coming on stage that evening, he had sketched a self-portrait of himself as a monkey (“an orangutan”). He had been inspired to “interpret Robbie Williams who used a CGI monkey to play himself” in the upcoming biographical film Better Man.

He made one 12-year-old boy who had snuck out to see his comedy hero very happy, inviting him on stage, saying, “Ah, a fellow ginger — we must be related!” to ask about a Keith Lemon prank in LA gone dangerously wrong involving Vinnie Jones and a baseball bat (!).

Later, in a big hearted gesture, he gifted his thrilled young fan his self-portrait. He and Roslin led the audience into a rousing mass singalong serenading a lady in a sparkling dress who was celebrating her 40th birthday.

Anarchic, irreverent, hilarious and unapologetically himself, the audience may not have ultimately pierced the earth’s inner core to successfully unmask the eternally shape shifting Cheshire Cat — but it was a hell of a fun ride getting there!

Banny Hay