Viva Brighton Issue #30 August 2015

comedy...........................Pete BennettBig Brother winner turned compere“I’ve been talking to the other acts to learn stuff offthem. They say ‘just think of something funny andwrite it down’ and I’ve thought ‘oh, is it that easy?’”I’m talking to Pete Bennett, the 2007 Big Brotherwinner, that one with Tourette’s, who has ridden adown-on-his-luck period (punctuated by periodsof ketamine abuse and homelessness) and is nowhatching a new career as a comedian. We’re sittingin the plush refurbed Nightingale Theatre, in theall-new Grand Central, where he’s currently comperinga weekly show, Comedy Capers.“So I got myself a notepad, but all I could do wasdraw pictures of penises.”His Tourette’s is much better than when he brieflybecame an unlikely national treasure, winning themost votes in Big Brother history. “The doctorssaid that it would start to get better after I turned30,” he says. “For once they were right. I used to say‘wankers’ all the time. I’ve shortened that to ‘wank’.People don’t feel it’s aimed at them, so they don’tget so offended.”He is accompanied on stage by self-made puppets,who he has conversations with. “It’s a vent for myTourette’s,” he says. “They can say things that Iwouldn’t get away with. I first started making themwhen I got married.”He used to film late-night conversations betweenthe first two he made, Gubbage and Spit, puttingthe videos on YouTube. He sees me hesitating whenwriting down the first name, and spells it out forme. “G.U.B.B.A.G.E. That’s the shit on the cornerof the mouth that drug users get. Spit is just spit.”Big Brother, it seems, was good preparation for hisnew career. “I used to bounce ideas off Big Brotherin the diary room,” he says. “But it didn’t help meget rid of stage fright. It was being in a band thathelped me get over that.” The band in questionwas called Pete Bennett and the Love Dogs; he hasrecently stated that he has given up music in orderto concentrate on his comedy career.In April he appeared on the Jeremy Kyle Show, andon a Big Brother reunion show, and he is gettingrecognised in the street again. “It died down for abit, but now it’s bedlam again.” He likes the attention,he says.But where does he get the material for his act, if hedoesn’t write notes? “I store ideas in my head,” hesays. “One gig a few weeks ago I realised I didn’thave any ideas left to do,” he says. “So I ad-libbed.It was a great gig. I’ll have to think up some more:most of my material comes from things that havehappened in my mad life. Still I can’t use all of it.One of my mates died, and he owed me a tenner.That wasn’t funny.” Alex LeithPete’s Comedy Caper every Friday night, 8pm atGrand Central, grandcentralbrighton.co.uk....46....