Jack Whitehall has opened up about how uneasy he feels performing his material in the US.
The British comedian, 36, who went to the Wiltshire private school Marlborough College alongside Kate Middleton and is known for his posh persona, last toured the States with his show Jackarse in 2023.
Whitehall said doing stand-up in America is always “quite hard” and revealed he had once been threatened with a gun while performing in Texas.
Speaking to Tom Kerridge and Chris Stark on the Proper Tasty Pub Quiz podcast, Whitehall explained he never feels “fully comfortable” on stage in the US.
“You feel like you sort of lose your safety net because you can’t dip into old routines,” he said. “You never know when you’ve got a reference that’s not going to land around the corner.
“I have to be much more on it when I’m on stage there,” he explained.
“But I guess the flip side of that is that they are much more giving with laughter compared to British audiences, which tend to be a little bit more apathetic.”
When asked by Stark whether American audiences heckle comedians, Whitehall replied: “I had one heckle when I did a show in Texas, and I was making a load of jokes about Texans, and a guy shouted out, ‘Careful, buddy, we’ve got guns’. I was like ‘wow.’”
Elsewhere in the interview, Whitehall revealed the “worst review” his comedy had ever received had come from a member of the public who was watching his material on a long haul flight.
“I saw someone watching my stand up on the in-flight entertainment system,’ he recalled.
“And I was like, ‘oh my god, that’s amazing!’ I’ve got a fan and it’s really cool, you know, someone’s watching me at 50,000 feet.’”
He continued: “And then about 10 minutes in, I watched him switch it off and put on the in-flight map. I was like, that is the worst review you could possibly get.
“He would rather watch a little cartoon aeroplane crawl across a map than watch my stand up. I almost wanted to go over and take exception with him and be like, ‘what was it?!’
In September, Whitehall released his latest series Fatherhood With My Father, which follows the comedian as he learns to be a parent with his dad Michael.
The show received a two star review from The Independent’s Katie Rosseinsky who concluded: “The most profound it gets is during an episode all about longevity when Michael suggests that his son would be better off just spending time with his child rather than messing around with biohacking in an attempt to prolong his life.
“It’s hard not to draw similar conclusions from the show overall. Surely the best way to learn about parenting is to, well, do some, rather than squabbling in the metaverse with your elderly dad.”
