After stopping in Australia to get rid of his jetlag, English comedian Alan Carr is back in Aotearoa to perform his show Regional Trinket.
He tells Jesse Mulligan it's a very personal show reflecting on his recent divorce from long-term partner Paul Drayton.
Alan Carr and Jesse Mulligan Photo: Melita Tull
Carr and Paul were together for 13 years before being married by the pop star Adele in 2018.
While the couple were staying on a farm during lockdown, the relationship fell apart.
Carr says he wasn't used to paparazzi following him – "I felt like one of the Kardashians. I've never had anyone interested in my love life before."
This year, Paul was imprisoned for 14 weeks after drunkenly reversing into a police car.
"I had an imprisoned ex-husband. I've never felt so butch."
Although Regional Trinket is personal and raw, Carr says performing it is like therapy.
"Just let me get out there and have a laugh. I'm not a moper."
This January, filming will begin on Changing Ends - a sitcom he wrote about his childhood in Northampton in the 1980s.
"I was fat, goofy, glasses then I'm gay as well. Why don't I just have a hearing aid and get the full set?
"Ultra-confident till 10, 11. Then I started having feelings, then you get self-conscious. 14 to 15 I got my mojo and I was like 'yeah, I'm proud of who I am."
Over 500 children sent in audition tapes for the role of young Alan - some of them "downright offensive", he says.
"There were kids in fat suits and people in prosthetic teeth… [I was thinking] this is a hate crime."
Eventually, Belfast actor Oliver Savell was cast.
Carr says his mother is "terrified" about who will play her: "I'm teasing her and saying someone off RuPaul's Drag Race.'
Alan Carr hosts the comedy chat show Chatty Man and the travel podcast Life's a Beach. He will perform in Christchurch on 23 November, Auckland on 24 November and Wellington on 26 November.
