Camp comic Julian Clary reckons that his lost loved ones are with him when he is on stage, and knowing that has helped him keep entertaining while dealing with grief
Comedian Julian Clary has said he performs stand-up shows with the ghosts of dead relatives in the audience.
The camp comic said that knowing loved ones are with him when he is on stage has helped him keep entertaining crowds while coping with loss.
Julian, 65, revealed: “That all takes time and I was lucky to have the distraction of work, I guess. But I often think that when people die, that they’d want you to… you’ve got to live for them as well. So you’ve got to carry on. You’ve got to have a great time and sort of do it for them.
“I have various rituals for a gone stage and one of which is to do with dead people.
“And it’s a very kind of Catholic idea that they’re looking down on you, but as you get older, more and more people have died.
“There’s a whole gallery of people now. And you think, oh, who’s in tonight?
“Oh, it’s my grandmother. Oh, it’s my father. And so that’s sort of a comforting thing.
“And you think, well, I’ll do this show for them.”
Julian told telly presenter Fearne Cotton on her Happy Place podcast that he often likes to think loved ones watch him from beyond the grave.
He said: “There’s an acknowledgement, yes, but they always look ecstatic in their prime, which is a nice thought, that that’s what happens.
“I often feel looked after, you know, by some sort of, I wouldn’t say a higher force even, but I often think that there is a kind of symmetry or there’s like, the way things work out, there was a reason for that.”
It’s not the first time Julian has spoke of loss. He said after the death of friend Paul O’Grady that he “kept forgetting” the star was dead.
Writing for The Telegraph last year, he said: “You just think ‘Oh, he’ll phone soon.’
“We wouldn’t speak for weeks and then would have a phone call for an hour and a half. He made me laugh more than anyone.
“I don’t know how you get over that… a terrible loss and a terrible shock because it was such a sudden departure.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
