Alan Carr

THE BLOKE YOU’D MOST LIKE TO HAVE A DRINK WITH, THE TV CHAT SHOW HOST WHO CAN’T STOP LAUGHING, ALAN CARR IS EXACTLY THE SAME ON A SKYPE CALL FROM BALI. AND HE’LL TALK ABOUT EVERYTHING FROM HOMOPHOBIA TO ALCOHOLISM

WORDS: DAVID MCGILLIVRAY PHOTOGRAPHS: LEIGH KEILY FASHION: JOSEPH KOCHARIAN

ICON AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING OR LI FETIME ACHIEVEMENT

‘ CHATTY MAN CHARTS ’

SUPPORTED BY SKY

Alan wears blazer by Paul Smith at Selfridges, shirt by Gucci, trousers by Noose & Monkey at ASOS, shoes by Jimmy Choo, t-shirt, Alan’s own

He didn’t exactly spring from nowhere. He served his apprenticeship on open-mic nights and at a corporate gig for the Abbey National where he was pelted with Cadbury Mini Eggs. Even so, funnyman Alan Carr seems to have been with us forever. He’s the chat show host to whom we’d like to chat because he’d ply us with drink, laugh at everything we said, and not put on an act like some other talk show hosts. You know who I mean.

Alan Carr deserves an Attitude Icon Award because he’s what he appears to be: an out and proud gay man who entertains the nation and gives homosexuality a good name. He’d be the last person to accept that he’s a role model, but that’s what he is. As a boy, he was put through the mill. When he minced down the street, his mother cried, “Alan! Stop that,” and his football manager father was even more aggressive, calling him a “fat fairy.” Alan, now 40, could have become a victim but he was determined to rise above it. Knowing he wanted to perform, he studied drama at Middlesex University. In his first autobiography, Look Who It Is! (2008), he declared, “I wanted a Lifetime Achievement BAFTA and I wanted it now.” It wasn’t long before he won the BBC New Stand-up Comedian of the Year, two National Television awards — and indeed a BAFTA. But that’s not all. He considered himself almost undateable. (His doctor thought an ailment he’d developed might have been caused by excessive masturbation).