Julian Clary is marking 30 years in the spotlight with his first stand-up tour in five years, including gigs in Lancashire. But we discovered a quieter side to the outrageous comedian.

WHEN it comes to the art of camp comedy, Julian Clary is peerless.

His double entendre-laden comic routines have won him legions of fans since he started out aged just 19.

But behind the heavy make-up, leather and innuendo there’s a much softer side to the man who brought us Sticky Moments and titled his autobiography A Young Man’s Passage.

“I’m very different off stage,” said Julian, over the phone, during our interview. I’m really quite an introvert and I’m quite quiet.

“Like this morning, I’ve been pottering around at home feeding my chickens, walking the dogs and being quite quiet. I don’t feel the need to be the centre of attention all the time.”

Is this side of his character a foil to his risqué on-stage persona?

“I haven’t really analysed it,” he said, honestly.

“But I don’t go out every night. I don’t go to parties and things. I’m really quite domestic when I’m off stage. I like the simple things in life.”

Since graduating from Goldsmiths College University, London, in the '80s with a degree in English Drama, Julian Clary has gone on to become one of the country’s most recognisable and much-loved entertainers.

During 30 years in showbusiness he has turned his hand to comedy, acting, presenting, writing and even performing as a novice dancer on Strictly Come Dancing, where he reached the final.

Now he’s touring the country with his first stand-up tour in five years, Lord of the Mince (so called because Julian claims he’s done for mincing what Michael Flatley did for Irish dancing).

And he reckons it’s still stand-up comedy that sets him alight like nothing else.

“Stand-up is what I started out doing,” he said.

“But as your life evolves you find yourself doing other things like writing books and doing radio, but for actual job satisfaction standing on stage on your own and making a lot of people laugh is the most joyful of all of my activities.”

In the show Julian talks about being 50 (he celebrated his birthday last May), how he managed to keep in the spotlight for 30 years and why he’s refusing to leave.

“I thought it was a good time to look back over what I’ve achieved, all the high points and low points,” said Julian.

And rather than worrying about being over-the-hill, he’s thrilled to have reached half a century.

“I felt a sense of achievement that I’m still here,” he said.

“I think every decade is important but 50 is quite something.

“I’m a bit wiser and there are certain things you may have achieved when you’re 50 that you were hoping to do, but unsure if you could, in your twenties. When you’ve got to 50 you’ve either done them or you haven’t and the course of your life is more or less set by then.

“I’m proud of what I’ve achieved. I’ve had a good life. It’s been eventful.”

Julian has appeared on countless television programmes, ranging from Friday Night Live, Sticky Moments and Terry and Julian, It’s Only TV But I Like It, four ITV Christmas pantomimes, The National Lottery show, Come And Have A Go and Who Do You Think You Are?.

He has toured the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand many times and also appeared in Boy George’s West End musical Taboo. His indelible impact on the entertainment world was recognised in 2001 when he was awarded ‘the big red book’ by Michael Aspel on This Is Your Life.

In recent years Julian has enjoyed success as an author. His autobiography was published in 2006 and was a Sunday Times bestseller and his first novel, Murder Most Fab, was published in 2007. His second novel, Devil In Disguise, was published in May 2009.

He writes from his seven-bedroom farmhouse near Ashford, Kent, formerly owned by Noel Coward. And he reckons it was his stint on reality TV show Strictly Come Dancing in 2004 that led to his incarnation as a novelist.

“When I agreed to do Strictly I thought I’d be in it for a couple of weeks. I didn’t really think I’d get into it in the way that I did,” said Julian, who captured the imagination of viewers with his dances with partner Erin Boag, and reached the contest’s final.

“Being on Strictly changed my way of looking at lots of different things,” he continued.

“I don’t think I’d have written books if I hadn’t done Strictly because it opens your mind up to different possibilities. Before that I would have said that I couldn’t write a book, that I didn’t have a book in me, but I’d have also said that I couldn’t ballroom dance. And I realised if I could learn to do that at 47 I could learn to do anything really.”

The secret of his success, according to Julian, is his dogged attitude.

“I’m very tenacious,” he said.

“I always keep going. I don’t give up on things. Once I found something I liked doing I just carried on doing it and didn’t stop, although I must say when I started I didn’t imagine I’d still be doing it now. The years have just flown by really.”

* Julian Clary — Lord of the Mince is at Blackpool Grand Theatre on Friday, February 19 (box office: 01253 290190) and at Burnley Mechanics on Thursday, March 11 (box office: 01282 664400).