Joe Pasquale
Encyclopedia
Joseph Ellis "Joe" Pasquale (born 20 August 1961) is an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...

 (of Italian descent) from Grays
Grays
Grays is the largest town in the borough and unitary authority of Thurrock in Essex and one of the Thurrock's traditional parishes...

, Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...

, arguably most famous for his high-pitched voice, use of visual gags and more recently being crowned "King of the Jungle", on the reality TV show I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!. He also hosted the revived version of the game show The Price is Right
The Price Is Right (UK game show)
The Price Is Right in the UK was hosted by Leslie Crowther, Bob Warman, Bruce Forsyth, and Joe Pasquale. It ran from 24 March 1984 to 12 January 2007.-Crowther era :...

.

Before fame

Pasquale worked for the Civil Service
Civil service
The term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....

's Department of Transport
Department for Transport
In the United Kingdom, the Department for Transport is the government department responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland which are not devolved...

 before joining Smithfields meat market. The hours at the meat market became too much for a young Pasquale, so he left to work at a building site and at the Ford factory in Dagenham
Dagenham
Dagenham is a large suburb in East London, forming the eastern part of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham and located east of Charing Cross. It was historically an agrarian village in the county of Essex and remained mostly undeveloped until 1921 when the London County Council began...

.

For a few years, Pasquale worked as an entertainer at holiday camps across the UK and became entertainment manager at Warner Holidays
Bourne Leisure
Bourne Leisure Holdings Limited is a British private company which owns a number of subsidiary undertakings operating in the leisure and holiday sectors in the United Kingdom....

 Corton
Corton, Suffolk
Corton is a suburb in the town of Lowestoft in the English county of Suffolk. Corton is located around north of the centre of town. The local church is dedicated to St Bartholomew. The estimated population was 1,140 in 2008. It has boundaries with the suburb of Gunton. -Features:Corton is home to...

 in Suffolk. Later, he became entertainment manager at Torquay
Torquay
Torquay is a town in the unitary authority area of Torbay and ceremonial county of Devon, England. It lies south of Exeter along the A380 on the north of Torbay, north-east of Plymouth and adjoins the neighbouring town of Paignton on the west of the bay. Torquay’s population of 63,998 during the...

. His big break finally came when he entered and came second in the New Faces
New Faces
New Faces was a British television talent show popular in the 1970s and 1980s, presented originally by Derek Hobson. It was produced by ATV Network Limited for the ITV Network. The first run of the show was from 29 September 1973 to 2 April 1978 and was recorded at the ATV Centre, Birmingham...

competition in 1987.

On stage

Pasquale's live shows include Live And Squeaky (1996), Twin Squeaks (1997), The Crazy World Of Joe Pasquale (1998), Bubble And Squeak (2000), The Everything I Have Ever Done & The First Of Many Goodbye Tours (2004), Does He Really Talk Like That? The Live Show (2005) and Return Of The Love Monkey (2006).

He has done six Royal Variety Performance
Royal Variety Performance
The Royal Variety Performance is a gala evening held annually in the United Kingdom, which is attended by senior members of the British Royal Family, usually the reigning monarch. In more recent years Queen Elizabeth II and The Prince of Wales have alternately attended the performance...

s, most recently in 2005. Pasquale once described how he got drunk one night causing the other performers to avoid him for the entire evening. The situation worsened when the Queen greeted the performers, including Pasquale, who was the 'most drunk' he'd ever been.

In recent years Pasquale has begun acting on stage. In 1999, he appeared as a lead character in The Nerd. The show received rave reviews with one source describing it as "rib shatteringly funny". He returned to the stage in Autumn 2004 in the comedy Tom, Dick and Harry.

Pasquale is also well known for his pantomime
Pantomime
Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...

 appearances. For nine years he played 'Smee' in Peter Pan
Peter Pan
Peter Pan is a character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie . A mischievous boy who can fly and magically refuses to grow up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood adventuring on the small island of Neverland as the leader of his gang the Lost Boys, interacting with...

alongside former-soap actor Leslie Grantham
Leslie Grantham
Leslie Michael Grantham is an English actor best known for his role as "Dirty" Den Watts in the soap opera EastEnders. He is also a convicted murderer, having served 10 years for the killing of a German taxi driver, and he generated significant press coverage as the result of an online sex scandal...

. In December 2004 and January 2005, he played Jack in Jack and the Beanstalk
Jack and the Beanstalk
Jack and the Beanstalk is a folktale said by English historian Francis Palgrave to be an oral legend that arrived in England with the Vikings. The tale is closely associated with the tale of Jack the Giant-killer. It is known under a number of versions...

at the Birmingham Hippodrome
Birmingham Hippodrome
The Birmingham Hippodrome is a theatre situated on Hurst Street in the Chinese Quarter of Birmingham, England.Although best known as the home stage of the Birmingham Royal Ballet, it also hosts a wide variety of other performances including visiting opera and ballet companies, touring West End...

. The show was a massive success for the Hippodrome, and the shows sold out rapidly thanks to Pasquale's success in the jungle. Unfortunately, tragedy struck in January when, whilst on stage, he fell and severely injured his shoulder.

Pasquale performed in the Mel Brooks's West End musical 'The Producers
The Producers
The Producers commonly refers to Mel Brooks' series of comedic works about two con-men who attempt to cheat theater investors out of their money, only to have the scheme improbably backfire:...

' as Leo Bloom. In the panto season of 2007, Pasquale played Buttons in Cinderella
Cinderella
"Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper" is a folk tale embodying a myth-element of unjust oppression/triumphant reward. Thousands of variants are known throughout the world. The title character is a young woman living in unfortunate circumstances that are suddenly changed to remarkable fortune...

 at the Cliffs Pavilion
Cliffs Pavilion
Cliffs Pavilion is a live theatre in Station Road, Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, England, which seats 1,630 and offers an assortment of variety acts....

 in Southend-on-Sea
Southend-on-Sea
Southend-on-Sea is a unitary authority area, town, and seaside resort in Essex, England. The district has Borough status, and comprises the towns of Chalkwell, Eastwood, Leigh-on-Sea, North Shoebury, Prittlewell, Shoeburyness, Southchurch, Thorpe Bay, and Westcliff-on-Sea. The district is situated...

 along with Jon Robyns
Jon Robyns
Jon Robyns is a British stage actor, who is perhaps best known for playing the roles of Princeton and Rod in Avenue Q the musical in London's West End. He left the show in December 2007, and appeared as Marius in the London production of Les Misérables.-Early life:Robyns grew up in Liverpool,...

, from the original London cast of Avenue Q

On 9 December, 2001, during the first annual MuppetFest celebration, Pasquale performed on The Muppet Show
The Muppet Show
The Muppet Show is a British television programme produced by American puppeteer Jim Henson and featuring Muppets. After two pilot episodes were produced in 1974 and 1975, the show premiered on 5 September 1976 and five series were produced until 15 March 1981, lasting 120 episodes...

 Live which was staged at the Hollywood Palace in Hollywood, California. Gonzo the Great
Gonzo the Great
Gonzo the Great is a puppet character, one of Jim Henson's Muppets. He was developed and performed by Dave Goelz. The character made his first appearance in a 1970 Christmas special entitled "The Great Santa Claus Switch". Known as a "Whatever" , he is considered one of The Frackles...

 introduce him saying...
'Hello, again. Y'know, one of favorite things about "The Muppet Show" was giving a break to talented newcomes. Tonight, we'd like to continue that tradition by introducing someone I recently discovered in England. This is his first appearance in America...and with your help, it can be his last. Ladies and Gentleman, the astounding and baffling Joe Pasquale!'.

I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!

On 6 December 2004 he won the fourth series of the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 television show I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!. Pasquale overcame competition from butler
Butler
A butler is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantry. Some also have charge of the entire parlour floor, and housekeepers caring for the entire house and its...

 Paul Burrell
Paul Burrell
Paul Burrell, RVM is a former servant of the British Royal Household. He was a footman for Queen Elizabeth II and later butler to Diana, Princess of Wales...

 and nightclub
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...

 owner Fran Cosgrave
Fran Cosgrave
Fran Cosgrave is an Irish nightclub owner, famous for appearing on reality television programmes and being the former Westlife bodyguard.-Biography:Cosgrave won the first season of ITV's Celebrity Love Island reality show in 2005...

. During his time in the jungle, Pasquale became well known for his relationship with the two emu
Emu
The Emu Dromaius novaehollandiae) is the largest bird native to Australia and the only extant member of the genus Dromaius. It is the second-largest extant bird in the world by height, after its ratite relative, the ostrich. There are three subspecies of Emus in Australia...

s and his use of the term "Jacobs" (for Jacobs Crackers: a rhyming slang term for testicles).

He was the first celebrity to earn full stars in a bushtucker trial. The special trial involved Pasquale climbing out of an airborne helicopter and climbing down a ladder recovering the stars as he went. This was notable due his fear of flying. Later on in the show, Pasquale found himself being buried underground for five minutes with rat
Rat
Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus...

s in a trial called Danger Down Under.

Before doing the show, Pasquale made his worries about doing the show clear. He insisted it wouldn't be the bushtucker trials that worried him, rather the other 'celebrities'. He claimed to be terrible and shy when it came to meeting new people and was worried about them not liking him. However, he got along well with the other contestants.

For the 16-day duration of the show, Pasquale was the bookies' favourite for the entire time, so it came as no surprise when the presenters, Ant & Dec
Ant & Dec
Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly , known collectively as Ant & Dec, are an English comedy and TV presenting duo from Newcastle upon Tyne, England...

, announced him as the new "King of the Jungle". The only surprise was that Paul Burrell, the bookmakers' biggest underdog at the start of the series, managed to finish second. The vote between the two, percentage-wise, is believed to have been about 55-45 in Pasquale's favour.

Since the jungle

Since the Jungle, Pasquale has become more popular, making numerous TV appearances including The Weakest Link
The Weakest Link
The Weakest Link is a television game show which first appeared in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on 14 August 2000 and will end its run in 2012 when its host Anne Robinson ends her contract. The original British version of the show airs around the world on BBC Entertainment...

, The Paul O'Grady Show
The Paul O'Grady Show
The Paul O'Grady Show was a BAFTA award-winning British comedy chat show hosted by Birkenhead-born comedian Paul O'Grady. The format was originally devised by Granada Television and was broadcast on ITV before moving to Channel 4...

and the popular Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway.

On 19 February 2005, ITV1
ITV1
ITV1 is a generic brand that is used by twelve franchises of the British ITV Network in the English regions, Wales, southern Scotland , the Isle of Man and the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey. The ITV1 brand was introduced by Carlton and Granada in 2001, alongside the regional identities of their...

 broadcast An Audience with Joe Pasquale, containing some routines from his stage show — culminating in the Edward Scissorhands
Edward Scissorhands
Edward Scissorhands is a 1990 romantic fantasy film directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp. The film shows the story of an artificial man named Edward, an unfinished creation, who has scissors for hands. Edward is taken in by a suburban family and falls in love with their teenage daughter...

inspired snow sequence. Nine million people tuned in, and ITV commissioned Another Audience with Joe Pasquale which aired in 2006.

In addition, Pasquale is using his fame to raise money and awareness for charitable causes. With the help of other celebrities, he backed the Man Alive
Man Alive
Man Alive was a Canadian television series about faith and spirituality. It took its name from a poem by St. Irenaeus, a 2nd-century Bishop of Lyon who wrote: The glory of God is a man truly alive....

 2005 campaign. The campaign, which was run by Cancer Research
Cancer research
Cancer research is basic research into cancer in order to identify causes and develop strategies for prevention, diagnosis, treatments and cure....

, is hoping to alert men of the dangers of being overweight and encourage exercise. The main danger being highlighted in the campaign is that obesity
Obesity
Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems...

/physical inactivity causes cancer in men. The cancer caused by obesity is preventable with a healthy diet and regular exercise.

During 2005, Pasquale toured the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 with his summer tour, Does He Really Talk Like That?! which is the name of his autobiography which released in September 2006. The DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 of Pasquale's 2005 tour was released in time for Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...

 2005.

On the 24th September 2005, the 30 minute Breakout Trust DVD, entitled "It's a Boy", was published. Pasquale starred as the voice of an Innkeeper named Garralus. Alongside him were such performers as Cannon and Ball
Cannon and Ball
Cannon and Ball are an English comedy double act consisting of Tommy Cannon and Bobby Ball. The duo met in the early 1960s while working as welders in Oldham, Lancashire...

, and Sir Cliff Richard. The production is a new take on the nativity
Nativity play
A Nativity play or Christmas pageant is a play which recounts the story of the Nativity of Jesus. It is usually performed at Christmas, the feast of the Nativity.-Liturgical:...

 story and was released in time for Christmas 2005.

Pasquale went back to Birmingham to do pantomime again from 21 December 2005 to 29 January 2006. Pasquale played the part of Mr. Smee in the Qdos entertainments production of Peter Pan. He directed and produced his musical, Rent-A-Ghost, during Spring 2006.

In 2006 he presented The Price is Right
The Price Is Right (UK game show)
The Price Is Right in the UK was hosted by Leslie Crowther, Bob Warman, Bruce Forsyth, and Joe Pasquale. It ran from 24 March 1984 to 12 January 2007.-Crowther era :...

at 2pm and 5pm, weekdays on ITV1
ITV1
ITV1 is a generic brand that is used by twelve franchises of the British ITV Network in the English regions, Wales, southern Scotland , the Isle of Man and the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey. The ITV1 brand was introduced by Carlton and Granada in 2001, alongside the regional identities of their...

. Previous hosts included Leslie Crowther
Leslie Crowther
Leslie Crowther, CBE was an English comedian, actor and gameshow host.-Biography:Crowther was born in West Bridgford in Nottinghamshire. At the end of 1944 he moved to London with his parents, but was evacuated for a few months to Bute until just after the war ended.His father, Leslie Frederick...

 in 1984, Bob Warman
Bob Warman
Bob Warman is a British television presenter, born in Walsall, West Midlands .Between the ages of 13 and 18, Warman attended Wrekin College in Wellington, Shropshire. He has spent most of his television career at ATV and Central, presenting regional news programmes.He was also a regional presenter...

 in 1989, and Bruce Forsyth
Bruce Forsyth
Sir Bruce Joseph Forsyth-Johnson, CBE , commonly known as Bruce Forsyth, or Brucie, is an English TV personality...

 in 1995. Notably, he was insistent that the stars of the game show are the people selected from the audience, not, as the announcer portrays, him.

Pasquale has also found the time to overcome his fear of flying, and has now gained a pilots licence.

Pasquale toured during 2006 with a new show The Return of the Love Monkey that was filmed in Southend, Essex, for a new DVD and that was shown on ITV in 2007.

Pasquale also performed at the Bristol Hippodrome
Bristol Hippodrome
The Bristol Hippodrome is a theatre in the centre of Bristol, England with seating on three levels giving a capacity of 1,951. It frequently features West End theatre shows when they tour the UK as well regular visits by Welsh National Opera, and an annual pantomime.- History :The theatre was...

 where he performed Peter Pan in pantomime, from 15 December 2006 to 13 January 2007.

Pasquale then turned to performing in The Producers
The Producers (musical)
The Producers is a musical adapted by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan from Brooks' 1968 film of the same name, with lyrics written by Brooks and music composed by Brooks and arranged by Glen Kelly and Doug Besterman. As in the film, the story concerns two theatrical producers who scheme to get rich...

on tour, largely financed by renowned media mogul, Mick Fall.

On 26 February 2008, Pasquale attended the press launch of BingoLotto
Bingolotto
Bingolotto is a Swedish highly popular primetime television game show lottery that was first broadcast 1989 on local TV and since 1991 nationwide on the Swedish network TV4. The show is a collaboration work between Swedish TV channel TV4, the Swedish lottery game company Folkspel and the Swedish...

 in Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square is a public space and tourist attraction in central London, England, United Kingdom. At its centre is Nelson's Column, which is guarded by four lion statues at its base. There are a number of statues and sculptures in the square, with one plinth displaying changing pieces of...

. BingoLotto was a weekly game broadcast on digital TV channels Virgin1 and Challenge every Friday night. The game was co-hosted by Suzanne Shaw
Suzanne Shaw
Suzanne Shaw is an English actress, singer and television personality...

. Pasquale also voiced the cat in CBBC
CBBC
CBBC is one of two brand names used for the BBC's children's television strands. Between 1985 and 2002, CBBC was the name given to all the BBC's programmes on TV for children aged under 14...

's Frankenstein's Cat
Frankenstein's Cat
Frankenstein's Cat http://www.wimp.com/frankensteincat/ ISBN 0-689-84695-9), created by Curtis Jobling, is a children's picture book that follows the exploits of Doctor Frankenstein's first experiment. The cat is created by the Doctor out of nine different cats, leading to his name being Nine...

.

In March 2009, he starred in a number of pantomimes, his latest playing Smee in Peter Pan at The Orchard Theatre, Dartford in 2008 with a supporting cast including around 25 children who attend The Liz Burville Performing Arts Centre, Old Bexley, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

.

He also presented The Paul O'Grady Show on Friday 10 April 2009 and again Thursday 15 October 2009, for Paul's absence, and appeared as a contestant on BBC1's Celebrity Mastermind
Celebrity Mastermind
Celebrity Mastermind is a British television quiz show broadcast by BBC television. The show is a spin-off of the long running quiz show Mastermind, with the exception that all the contestants are celebrities. As with the main show, John Humphrys is the host and question-master...

, aired on 30 December 2009.

Pasquale was in the panto Sleeping Beauty (19th Dec 2009 - 31st Jan 2010) as Muddles, the princess's best friend.

Joe took part in a celebrity version of TV show Total Wipeout
Total Wipeout
Total Wipeout is a British game show, hosted by Richard Hammond and Amanda Byram, which first aired on 3 January 2009. Each week 20 contestants compete in a series of challenges in an attempt to win £10,000. These challenges are based in large pools of water or mud and generally involve large...

 which aired on 2 January 2010.

In 2010 he was a celebrity guest team captain on What Do Kids Know?
What Do Kids Know?
What Do Kids Know? Is a brand new family entertainment show exclusive to Watch, where celebrities and children celebrate the humour and bewilderment of Britain's generation gap. Hosted by Rufus Hound with resident team captains Joe Swash and Sara Cox. It has similarities to Small Talk...

 along with Rufus Hound
Rufus Hound
Rufus Hound is a British comedian and presenter. He is also the winner of 2010 "Let's Dance for Comic Relief".-Career:...

, Joe Swash
Joe Swash
Joseph Adam Swash is an English actor and presenter. He once played Mickey Miller in the British television soap opera EastEnders. He is the older brother of Shana Swash, who played his on-screen younger sister Demi Miller until July 2006. He also won the TV reality show I'm a Celebrity... Get Me...

 and Sara Cox
Sara Cox
Sara Cox , known as "Coxy", is an English TV presenter and radio DJ, most well known for presenting the breakfast show on BBC Radio 1 between 2000 and 2003...

 on Watch (TV channel)
Watch (TV channel)
Watch is a general entertainment channel broadcasting in the United Kingdom and Ireland, as part of the UKTV network. The channel launched on 7 October 2008 on satellite through Sky and on cable primarily through Virgin Media.-History:...

. Rentaghost
Rentaghost
Rentaghost is a British children's television comedy show, broadcast by the BBC between 6 January 1976 and 6 November 1984. The show's plot centred on the antics of a number of ghosts who worked for a firm called Rentaghost, which rented out the ghosts for various tasks.-Background:The company,...

 with his tour manager Ray Tizzard.

He performed the voice of a rat in Garfield 2
Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties
Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties is the 2006 sequel to 2004's live-action feature film Garfield: The Movie...

.

Stand-up VHS & DVDs

  • Live And Squeaky (1996)
  • Twin Squeaks (20 October 1997)
  • The Crazy World Of Joe Pasquale (26 October 1998)
  • Bubble And Squeak (13 November 2000)
  • The Everything I Have Ever Done & The First Of Many Goodbye Tours (1 November 2004)
  • Does He Really Talk Like That? The Live Show (21 November 2005)
  • Return Of The Love Monkey (20 November 2006)


External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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