Jimmy Cricket on his love for Blackpool ‘which keeps reinventing itself while other resorts have gone to bed’
Watch comedian Jimmy Cricket speak on his love for Blackpool, where he says he would become a punter and see shows on his day off.
Comedy legend Jimmy Cricket has spoken of his love for performing in Blackpool, saying the town ‘keeps reinventing itself while other resorts have gone to bed’.
79-year-old Jimmy from Northern Ireland, who is in his 10th year entertaining at the Lyndene Hotel, has an endless number of brilliant anecdotes from his over five-decade-long career.
Jimmy said: “My relationship with Blackpool goes back to 1969 because I came to be a Red Coat at the Metropole Hotel and Blackpool was awash with summer seasons. I mean you had Val Doonican and Arthur Askey at the Winter Gardens, you had Cilla Black up at the ABC, you had Harry Worth, actually the North Pier, I would look out of my hotel room and see Harry's name on my day off, I would go to all these shows, I would buy a ticket you know, I was a punter. This is wonderful, you know, to be part of that. And I managed, when I did get a break in the early 80s in a TV talent show to do pantomime with both Harry Worth and Cilla Black on the same bill. So, you know, dreams can come true.
“I did a couple of seasons at the South Pier which were nice, but obviously as it gets into October it gets a bit windy. And well Mrs Cricket was coming down once and she nearly flew off the edge coming down but luckily the manager of the theatre sort of grabbed her. But throughout the year you do your act. It's a concert situation, you do your hour, and each time I made my appearance through the show, there'd be less and less people because down there they really didn't have the heating and I remember by the time I got to do my main spot at the end, there was quite a lot of empty seats.
“There's something about Blackpool that keeps reinventing itself because you could be driving down on a cold January night and the lights will be on and there'll be music emanating and there'll be laughter coming from it and that's Blackpool. Other resorts have sort of gone to bed unfortunately.
“I think the main word I'm looking for, I think for any comic and for young comics, is adaptability. Vital for the younger singers to learn their trade. It's imperative that they get their experience in these places. It's trial and error. Learn, get a notebook, write, try and avoid a get rich quick thing. A TV talent show with a hostile environment isn't good. Without even saying it, you know. Anything that’s worth having is worth working for.”