At the time I spoke to the lanky, beardy funnyman, Jack was doing his best to declare his love of Aberdeen, ahead of his Jack Whitehall Gets Around stand-up tour, which kicks off in the city next week. But if truth be told, he was slightly disappointed with the fruits of his labour.
“I really thought my love-in with Aberdeen on the Graham Norton show would cause the date to sell out and it just hasn’t. Maybe people didn’t believe I was genuinely in love with the city,” Jack said, in his slightly droll but suitably charming RP accent.
And it’s true, while on the chat show he reeled off a series of facts about the Granite City, most notably that the iron lung was invented in 1933 by University of Aberdeen graduate Robert Anderson.
“But to be honest,” Jack admitted, “I’m not even sure what an iron lung is.”
And so that fun fact will probably not feature in next week’s gig at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre. Instead, he will rely on his quick wit and signature self-deprecatory patter to get audiences onside.
Summing it up, Jack explained that attendees can expect “a long string of stories about humiliations of mine, and then me saying and doing the wrong thing and being an idiot”.
“It’s quite an honest show,” he added.
“I definitely don’t come out of it with my head held high. But then there’s a fine line between comedy and therapy and I think I straddle it. I sometimes tell stories when maybe, the first time, it feels like sharing too much. That ‘too much information’ thing. But then, in the show, there are also some big set-pieces, with me doing terrible accents. But not an Aberdeen accent, I promise.”
Something which will set Jack’s gig apart from your everyday stand-up show is the fact that it will be performed in the round – with the conventional seating arrangement changed to a circular format, with Jack at the centre.
Like a gladiatorial arena, I joked, to which he quipped that if he were to be any gladiator, it would be Hunter, Wolf, or perhaps Jet.
He doesn’t claim the “stand-up in the round” idea as his own, though, noting that it has worked very well in the past for fellow comedians such as Geordie funnyman Ross Noble. He just thinks that it’s a great way to engage better with the audience.
“I think the thing about doing a show in an arena is the level of immediacy. It feels like people are sitting a million of miles away from you. But if you get it right in the round, it can break away some of that. And then you’ve got screens on four sides, which helps, too. It’s just an interesting way of making that space work,” Jack said.
As for his quirky and hyper-honest observations on life, very little is out of Jack’s purview, from family dynamics to failed sexual escapades and chronic foot-in-mouth situations. But as with comedy and therapy, he finds there’s a fine line between being a decent human being and a comedy vulture, ripping at the carcase of your life in search of humorous scraps.
“The most important thing as a stand-up when you’re going through life is to make sure you can detach yourself from it,” he said.
“It’s that terrible thing when you look at all your life experiences and you think: ‘What makes good material?’ You need to remember to be a human being, otherwise you become a social freak.”
Between this new tour, his recent book which he co-wrote with his father – the former theatrical agent Michael Whitehall – starring roles in TV comedy hits Fresh Meat and Bad Education, plus regular appearances on panel shows like A League of Their Own, Jack is a very busy boy. Add to that the 25-year-old’s recent chat show, Back Chat (also with his dry-witted father), it seems astonishing he has managed to fit everything in without collapsing in a heap.
“I definitely do too much,” he said candidly. “But it’s because I love working and doing bits of everything. And throughout it all, I’m doing my stand-up. I film and then rush off to do gigs and previews and stuff. It’s a constant process and the show is ever-developing and evolving. But yes, it’s a bit overwhelming at times.”
And as it happens, being a chat-show host has never been on Jack’s bucket list, although he notes that he’s delighted to do it for the purposes of the show. In a very effective double act, Jack and Michael have lightly grilled a fair few big names during the series, including Jeremy Paxman, Danny Dyer, Bear Grylls and Gary Lineker.
The father-son dynamic, it transpires, is a great foil for interviewing.
“While my dad’s probably not like any of the viewers’ parents, and I’m probably not from the same background as most of them, it’s about finding that something which people can relate to,” he said.
“So here it’s about how your dad is always criticising you, wanting you to be better and telling you off for being rude.
“Hopefully, people can relate to that. I think it’s important for me that we explore those avenues of our relationship, rather than him talking too much about people like Nigel Havers.”
So, now a somewhat accomplished chat-show host, who would top Jack’s list of ideal interviewees?
“It’s funny, today we had a meeting at which we were trying to decide on guests for Back Chat for future episodes. And I really pushed very hard to have the Chuckle Brothers on, but I was kind of kiboshed. They just thought it would be weird.”
So, if not the Chuckle Brothers, then who, I ask.
“What about Annie Lennox? She’s from Aberdeen. I came on to my last show to Walking On Broken Glass. It’s actually my favourite song ever. But if I couldn’t have Annie Lennox, then I would want to interview Mary Garden, the opera singer, or Seb Rochford from the band Polar Bear. Or maybe Colin Angus from The Shamen.”
And just like that, I’m back to being amazed at the level of research Jack has done on the great and good of Aberdeen. I compliment him on his dedication, to which he quietly whispers: “I’m reading off a list.”
Ah. Gotcha. As you were. All the same, I award him half a point for trying. And then another half when I hear the sincerity in his voice when I ask how he feels to be kicking off his tour in the north-east.
“I think I’m going to try and build it up to a proper event, and not just a gig or the leg of a tour,” he said.
“It’ll be my first night of the tour, and I’ve made quite a lot of the fact that I’m starting in Aberdeen. So I want it so be a night to remember, rather than just me turning up to do it. I want to make sure it’s a special night.”
Jack’s tour, Jack Whitehall Gets Around, plays the AECC next Wednesday, March 5. For further information and tickets, visit www.jackwhitehall.com