No sleeping on the job for pantomime star Joe Pasquale

The comedian will be coming to Wolverhampton later this year to star in the Grand Theatre's Sleeping Beauty pantomime.

But anyone who thinks the 51-year-old star will be putting his feet up until then should think again.

The all-action man has a busy work schedule in the coming months and is set to head out on a UK wide stand-up tour which will call at Telford in August.

When he can find the time he might fit in a spot of flying, a hobby he picked up after having to jump out a plane on I'm A Celebrity Get me Out of Here, or ice skating which he still tries to keep up in the wake of his appearance on ITV's Dancing On Ice last year.

And that's without taking into account work for his Geoscience degree that he is currently studying for via the Open University.

The funnyman, who has six Royal Variety performances under his belt, says: "I don't like to do anything for too long – if I was doing the same thing all the time I would get bored."

The star does have a love of pantomime though, and in recent years has become a mainstay of the British panto season staring in shows up and down the country.

Topical

His appearance at the Grand as Muddles will be the fifth time he has performed Sleeping Beauty, but he says the show is still as fresh as ever to him as he is constantly changing it depending on the hot topics of the day.

"I change it on a daily basis with anything topical such as last year when we had the horse meat scandal. If you book an actor – and I don't want to knock actors as we need them as well – they stick to the script but I have carte blanche to do what I want. That is why I love it."

And he added: "Sleeping Beauty is a great show, it really has got something for everyone. I think it is popular as a lot of it is about tradition, if you began going as a kid then you will take your own kids.

"It is a chance to interact with a live audience. If you get a child to be a theatre goer as a kid then you have got a theatre goer for life."

The show will run in the city from December 7 until January 19 and the comic is hoping for an easier stretch during the season compared to last year when he was training for Dancing On Ice before getting on stage.

"Last year I was up at 6am then I would go skating until 10am before getting ready to do two shows. Hopefully this year will be easier if I am not skating."

It was back in 2004 when he became king of the jungle in ITV's I'm A Celebrity, and although he has had plenty of offers since then, it was not until Dancing On Ice came up that he decided to take the plunge into reality TV once again.

"You can't compare the two shows as they are both completely different to each other. After the jungle I got offers from every reality TV show going but I only wanted to do something if I could learn from it.

"The first week I tried ice skating I hated it, I could not stand up and I fell over 29 times in the first half an hour, but it is like anything, the more you do something the better you get.

"To get to the level I got to I was amazed. I still get on with the others who were in the show, you start the training months beforehand so you get to know people quite well."

Aside from his stand-up, studying, theatre work and leisure pursuits, in recent years Joe has also voiced characters for Hollywood movies Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties and Horton Hears A Who!

While in 2011 he completed the Virgin London Marathon raising funds for Diabetes UK.

And even that is not enough, as now he would like to present some documentaries – particularly anything based around volcanoes which he says he has become interested in through his degree.

"I've got the attention span of an eight-year-old," he jokes.

l Tickets for the pantomime range from £16.50 to £26.50 and are available from the Grand Theatre box office on 01902 429212.