Here in Worthing, we love Patrick Monahan! From his “hilarious” performance in our panto to his regular stand-up shows, he’s a firm favourite with the community!
Patrick is back in Worthing with his sell-out tour, Exclusively! We caught up with him to find out more.
Hey Patrick, for people who haven’t come across you before, tell us about yourself and your style of comedy.
My style is modern comedy, it’s very observational, it’s about what’s going on in my life and, hopefully, relatable to most people as well. It is seen as alternative and modern, it’s not offensive or anything that crosses a line. It’s just great fun!
In my show I talk about where I’m at in my life, what I’ve been up to, and talk about my life growing up, as well as what’s going on in the world. And because I tour every year, I always do a brand-new show.
When I tour, my audience will range in age from 14 to 84, you know? So there’s something there for everyone. I like to get the audience involved as well – I don’t have a support act, because in the first half, I have a quick chat with the audience. And because I always tour to the same places, like Worthing, I know the whole audience! It’s almost like they’re an extended family. I literally know people by name, which makes it fun as well.
That sounds like a special experience for the audience too.
Yeah! Normally people don’t want to book the front row for standup, or the first two rows are always a bit sparse. But in Worthing? Everyone tries to book the first rows first, and then sit near the front because they want to get involved.
Given that you do a new show every year, what can people expect from Exclusively!
I chat with the audience, and also do a bit on what’s been on in the news – I’ll take the mick out of things in a fun way. And then the second half of it is talking about family life, relationships, things like that. Sometimes I’ll compare things to previous decades, like the 80s and 90s. I think everyone enjoys comparisons like that, even young people who weren’t around then, they love the nostalgia of those decades. So there is literally something for everyone. Everyone can relate to it because it’s about the things we all go through. And that’s why I try to do a new show each year because then when someone comes again they can talk about previous shows too.
It’s a lovely method, because it gives your whole career a narrative, and people can join an ongoing conversation, year after year.
Yeah, exactly, and we all feel part of it, feel part of the journey!
You were obviously a fan favourite in Sleeping Beauty: the Pantomime, and you had such a broad appeal, like you said, from grandparents to children. What do you think it is about you or your comedic ability in general that makes you so popular?
It’s maybe because I don’t tailor it or water it down for anybody. I think kids, and grandparents too, love it when you treat them the same.
I think sometimes comics might panic; they spot a 10 or 12-year-old kid in the audience and panic. But I’m like, ”So what?” you still do your show. If there’s something that you think will offend a kid there’s a good chance it would probably offend older people too! And there’s no point being offensive anyway. Or if they’re not offensive, sometimes people panic because they think different generations aren’t gonna get it. And then that’s underselling the audience, and you’re underselling yourself. So just do your show and make it funny.
But I feel, whenever you get a kid in the audience, the kids will heckle better than I hope could ever do! Kids don’t hold back. They could just sit there and have a bottle of pop and then scream out stuff that you couldn’t even come up with in six months of trying! That’s why I love doing Panto each year. These kids clearly won’t have seen me before because they’re only six or seven years old, it might be their first ever panto. So you’ve got that excitement of someone seeing a show like this for the first time. And you don’t get that when it’s stand-up; it’s still never gonna be the same as having an audience of kids who’ve never been to a theatre.
I remember seeing some of the kids come in for Sleeping Beauty, and they’re running around – for them, it’s like they’re going to Magaluf for the first time! They’re getting so excited. And then imagine that in a theatre but times it by 600! That energy’s crazy. They just get to go and enjoy it and get lost in it. They don’t worry about how things work, they just want to scream and go “oh my God, he’s flying now!” You wouldn’t change that for the world.
Have you got a favourite anecdote or interaction you’ve had throughout your career?
Yeah I’ve got loads! From both panto and stand-up. Panto is special because the kids will just shout loads of things. In Sleeping Beauty there was the bit where I say “I’m gonna put a curse on the baby, and if she touches the rose she’ll die” and this kid shouts “It doesn’t matter they can have another baby in nine months!” Doesn’t miss a beat – not even seconds – they shouted it while I was still saying my line! And I’m like, how do they even think like that!
Then in stand-up, and I’ve had this in Worthing actually because I go round to the same places I see the same people. I’ve had it where people come to their first show as friends, and I’ll do a joke where I’m teasing and asking if they’re together. And then the next time they’re dating, then the next time they’re engaged or married! I think that’s happened a lot and it’s special. It’s one of the things I love – you couldn’t manufacture that!
Every review we had for Sleeping Beauty mentioned your performance and how much they enjoyed the Evil Underlord. You’ve also done panto with us before as Captain Hook in Peter Pan. What is it that you enjoy about being the villain?
It’s that you can really break that 4th wall. You can’t do that so much with the other characters. As the baddie you can actually take the mick out of people and they know it’s all just fun because you’re the bad guy. It gives you the freedom to really go for it! In my comedy and in my day-to-day life, I’m positive and it’s all very nice. My friends or people who see my show were all like “The baddie? You?” But you’re able to break character and have so much fun. I was worried that it would be quite a serious role – especially with Captain Hook. But then actually doing it, I realised being bad is built for being funny.
The amount of heckling when I’m coming out and trying to be scary was amazing. You’d get kids shouting “You’re not scary!” And you have so much fun with them. At one point I was told that I had to stop getting the kids to cheer for me so much at the end! But that’s why I love kids; they don’t think like us – they think it’s great fun to hijack the play!
Thinking about how you’re such a lovable person on stage – you hold the world record for the longest hug! How did that come about?
It was really a natural thing actually – When you’ve been doing stand-up for a while people notice things about what you do and say. I sort of got branded as a hugger! It was just one of those things I did – hug the other people on stage, hug and high-five the audience, and then at the end of the show, people would stay for a hug or say thanks very much, and I didn’t realise but I’m just very huggy!
My friend, and comedian promoter, Bob Slater, told me the world record was 24 hours and we both reckoned I could beat that! So we said we’d do it for 24 hours and 1 minute in Edinburgh at the Fringe. So, after my show I always thank everyone for coming, and people hang about for hugs and a chat. In the middle of the festival before the Sunday everyone had off, Bob came along as I was thanking everyone, and came up and we started the hug.
The rule was once we were joined, as long as we didn’t break apart completely it’s valid, but we could open up and let others in for the hug. So it started at 8pm that night and would go through to Sunday night. I even did Late and Live at like 3am while we were hugging! You could only do something like that in Edinburgh.
It was hard at first because it’s just constant for 24 hours. You don’t think about the body heat coming off each other and the strain of holding someone that long! But once you break through the midpoint, it starts to go so fast. Before we knew it there were only a couple of hours left.
At 7:45pm on Sunday, we turned up at the venue to finish – we had some press and the Guinness World Record Judge there – but there was also a queue of people! People had heard through word of mouth and wanted to come and see us break apart. We then chatted on stage for another hour about what it had been like, doing some jokes, and doing a Q&A with the audience. Next thing we know it’s like 9:30pm, and we’ve done well over 25 hours! And so then the press and the judges were like “Come on – let’s do this!” So we went way past the last time, but we hold the record!
We’re very glad that you keep coming back to Worthing and we can’t wait to have you back for Exclusively! in February and June.
You know, Worthing is part of it now. It’s such a nice place. That whole South Coast is just ridiculous, it’s beautiful! You get such a great vibe. It’s calm and warm and it’s just a lovely pace of life. I think I’d like to retire there when I’m old – just perform in Worthing for my final swansong. Just wheel me out for it!
I’ll definitely be back! I love that there’s such great support in Worthing. The fact we’ve been able to add an extra show in Worthing – that’s the audience, that just shows how great they are.
Thank you, Patrick!
Give Patrick a follow @PatrickJMonahan on instagram, twitter, facebook and tiktok!