Chris McCausland sits down with Editor Melissa Holmes to chat stand-up, Strictly, and Waffle
When you look back over your career, does it feel like you’ve carefully constructed it, or that you’ve said yes to loads of strange things and somehow pulled this off?
I don’t think you can carefully construct comedy. It’s not like a career choice. It’s something you do as a challenge to yourself, because you want to have a go, and it becomes a hobby. Then people start paying you. It opens so many crazy doors to things – you have to go where it takes you.
Has becoming more publicly known as a disabled person changed the way you think about your disability?
It’s not changed the way I think about my disability, but it’s changed the way I think about my responsibility. Until Strictly, I was just doing what every other comedian does – taking opportunities. I’d always try and represent in a way that sent out a good message. The amount of messages we got saying what we were doing meant something to people because of how disability was being represented on TV – not even people with disabilities, but people with gambling addictions, with agoraphobia. Watching us do these difficult things encouraged them to do things that had been obstacles.
What’s been your favourite thing to do so far?
I love being on tour. I love doing stand-up. That’s the obvious one. My favourite thing was writing and making a Christmas film – Bad Tidings – for Sky with Lee Mack. You come up with this crazy idea, then before you know it you’ve got over 100 people involved, you’ve rented a whole street, and you’ve got a crane with a moon on it. That was mind-blowing.
And the most proud I’ve ever been of anything, it’s gotta be Strictly. I mean, I’d never made a Christmas film before, but that’s within my wheelhouse; it was about stretching yourself into new things. But Strictly? Different planet. And the most terrified I’ve ever been of anything in my life. To do what we did over four months in front of eight million people on live TV… I can’t believe we did it, to be honest.
The most wonderful thing about it from one perspective is the number of people who said they forgot I was blind; that you’d watch it, and you’d have to remind yourself. That’s what we were aiming for – to do something to the level that people wouldn’t be able to tell. For me, that’s where you make a big impact. People used to say to me, ‘You’re inspiring blind people’. No, you’re not inspiring blind people. Blind people can sort themselves out. What you’re doing is educating everybody else; showing them that disabled people are more capable than they might give them credit for.
You’ve talked about how exhausting it can be to be dependent on other people when you’re blind. What’s the most ridiculous situation you’ve found yourself in?
A lot of hotel rooms – sometimes the time it can take me to find a plug socket is ridiculous, or even control the heating. It’s infuriating when they make something that should be easy to use, not usable – like touchscreen temperature controls in hotel rooms. Technology is both the biggest enabler and the biggest obstacle.
How much of your Absolute Radio show is planned, versus how much of it is you and Jon Long turning up and talking nonsense?
It’s a bit of both – planned and unplanned. We know where we’re going, but the conversation is ad-libbed. It’s good, because it gives me an outlet. Comedians are needy attention seekers; it’s a way of getting attention and it takes the pressure off my family a bit, when I get to go somewhere and talk nonsense. It’s also good to have to come up with a whole show every week. It’s like going to comedy gym.
You’re a big vinyl fan. What three records would tell me the most about Chris McCausland?
We’d have to go with Abbey Road from The Beatles. That’s where music begins for me. Ten by Pearl Jam, because I’m a child of the ’90s grunge scene. And anything by Jimi Hendrix – studio outtakes, rehearsals, anything.
Your last tour, Yonks, ran for more than 250 dates. Tell us about the new tour.
There’s something really exciting about the fact that people wanna come out and sit there and watch you. It’s a privilege. I’m in the process of trying to write the new show. I’m about halfway. But it’s mad as a comedian that you have to put these things on sale that don’t exist. Do you wanna buy some tickets to this thing that only half exists at the minute?
I don’t do politics. It’s just stand-up. It’s called Waffle because I don’t like to raise people’s expectations too much, and that’s what comedians do – we write funny waffle. I like one-word titles for shows. You’ve got to come up with a name that doesn’t nail you into a corner – because I haven’t finished writing it yet and it could be about anything. You don’t want to call it A History of Paperclips, and then realise that none of your paperclip stuff’s funny.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
The Chris McCausland Show is on Absolute Radio every Sunday from 8am.
Chris’s new tour, Waffle, starts September 2027. Tickets go on sale on 6 November 2026.
Find out more at chrismccausland.com