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Joe Pasquale

Joe Pasquale (Joseph Ellis Pasquale, 20 August 1961) is an English comedian from Grays, Essex, arguably most famous for his high-pitched voice, use of visual gags and more recently being crowned "King of the Jungle", on the ITV realityTV show I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!. He also hosted The Price Is Right which was originally hosted by Bruce Forsyth (and Leslie Crowther).

Before fame

Joe dropped out of school at the age of 15. He tried several occupations before turning to the stage. He worked for the Civil Service's Department of Transport before joining Smithfields meat market. The hours at the meat market became too much for a young Joe, so he left to work at a building site and at the Ford factory in Dagenham.

For a few years, Joe worked as an entertainer at holiday camps across the UK and became entertainment manager at Warner Holidays Corton in Suffolk. Later, he became entertainment manager at Torquay. His big break finally came when he entered and came second in the New Faces competition in 1987.

On stage

Joe's live shows include Live & Squeaky, 1996, Twin Squeaks, 1997, 2000, The Everything I Have Ever Done and the First of Many Goodbye Tours, 2004,Return of the Love Monkey, 2006, Back on the road, 2008. The VHS to Live & Squeaky grossed in excess of £1 million, earning Joe an award from the British Video Association.

He has done six Royal Variety Performances, most recently in 2005. Joe 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 Joe, who was the 'most drunk' he'd ever been.

In recent years Joe 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.

Joe is also well known for his pantomime appearances. For nine years he played 'Smee' in Peter Pan alongside former-soap actor Leslie Grantham. In December 2004 and January 2005, he played Jack in Jack and the Beanstalk at the Birmingham Hippodrome. The show was a massive success for the Hippodrome, and the shows sold out rapidly thanks to Joe's success in the jungle. Unfortunately, tragedy struck in January when, whilst on stage, he fell and severely injured his shoulder.

Joe performed in the Mel Brooks' West End musical 'The Producers' as Leo Bloom. In the panto season of 2007, Joe played Buttons in Cinderella at the Cliffs Pavilion in Southend-on-Sea along with Jon Robyns, from the original London cast of Avenue Q

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

On 6 December 2004 he won the fourth series of the UK television show I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!. Joe overcame competition from butler Paul Burrell and nightclub owner Fran Cosgrave. During his time in the jungle, Joe became well known for his relationship with the two emus and his use of the word "Jacobs", a slang term for testicles.

He was the first celebrity to earn full stars in a bushtucker trial. The special trial involved Joe 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, Joe found himself being buried underground for five minutes with rats in a trial called Danger Down Under.

Before doing the show, Joe 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, Joe was the bookies' favourite for the entire time, so it came as no surprise when the presenters, Ant & Dec, 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 Joe's favour.

Since the jungle

Since the Jungle, Joe became more popular, making numerous TV appearances including The Weakest Link, The Paul O'Grady Show and the popular Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway.

On 19 February 2005, ITV1 broadcast An Audience with Joe Pasquale, containing some routines from his stage show — culminating in the Edward Scissorhands inspired snow sequence. Nine million people tuned in, and ITV commissioned Another Audience With Joe Pasquale which aired in 2006.

In addition, Joe is using his fame to raise money and awareness for charitable causes. With the help of other celebrities, he backed the Man Alive 2005 campaign. The campaign, which was run by Cancer Research, 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/physical inactivity causes cancer in men. The cancer caused by obesity is preventable with a healthy diet and regular exercise.

During 2005, Joe toured the UK with his summer tour, Does He Really Talk Like That?! which is the name of his autobiography which released in September 2006. The DVD of Joe's 2005 tour was released in time for Christmas 2005.

On the 24th of 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, and Sir Cliff Richard. The production is a new take on the nativity story and was released in time for Christmas of 2005.

Joe went back to Birmingham to do pantomime again from 21 December 2005-29 January 2006. Joe 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.

His latest endeavour is presenting The Price Is Right at 2pm and 5pm, weekdays on ITV1. Previous hosts have include Leslie Crowther in 1984, Bob Warman in 1989, and Bruce Forsyth in 2001. Notably, he is insistent that the stars of the game show are the people selected from the audience, not, as the announcer portrays, him.

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

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

Joe also performed at the Bristol Hippodrome where he performed Peter Pan in pantomime, from 15 December 2006 to 13 January 2007.

Joe is now performing in The Producers which is on tour, largely financed by renowned media mogul, Mick Fall.

On 26 February 2008, Joe attended the press launch of BingoLotto in Trafalgar Square. BingoLotto will be a weekly game broadcast on digital TV channels Virgin1 and Challenge every Friday night. The game will be co-hosted by Suzanne Shaw. Joe voices the cat in CBBC's Frankenstein's cat.

Tours

Live & Squeaky (1996)
Twin Squeaks (1997)
The Crazy World of Joe Pasquale (1999)
Bubble & Squeak (2000)
The Everything I Have Ever Done and the First of Many Goodbye Tours (2004)
Does He Really Talk Like That? (2005)
Return of the Love Monkey (2006)
Back on the Road (2008)

Trivia

Pasquale wrote the musical stage version of Rentaghost with his tour manager Ray Tizzard
He did a voice of a rat in Garfield 2.
He is of Italian descent.
Some of his material has been copied from comedians such as Brian Conley, such as an eskimo having a wee, an unsuccessful rap, and eating pieces of paper for it to reform, only to reveal the pieces are still in his mouth. Stewart Lee commented on this aspect of his career onstage.