Chris McCausland on His Northern Roots as He Continues His Tour of The Region
Northern funnyman Chris McCausland is in demand as he continues his stand-up tour of more than 250 dates
As seen on The Royal Variety Performance and Live at the Apollo, Chris has also fronted his own TV series, Wonders Of The World I Can’t See, and hosted his own radio show, You Heard It Here First. He was crowned the winner of Strictly Come Dancing in 2024 and, with no sign of slowing down, he’s continuing his stand-up tour ‘Yonks!’.
Chris grew up in Liverpool. ‘Our Liverpool neighbourhood was a fantastic place to grow up, and the ‘80s was a great decade to do it,’ he says. ‘Even though I’m a tech nerd, I have such a nostalgia for those simpler times and feel sorry for kids these days that they just don’t have the same simple life and freedom that I had growing up on those vibrant Liverpool streets.’ As many raised in the City of Music do, Chris loves music. ‘[I’m] probably only a comedian because I’ve got no musical talent so couldn’t be in a band,’ he adds. ‘I love listening to music though and am one of those annoying people that buys it on vinyl. Don’t get me started, I’ll talk your ear off about it.’
He’s proud of where he’s from and loves the people of Liverpool. ‘Their pride, their friendliness, their politics, their humour and their resilience. It’s the people that make the city, and I feel very lucky to have been born into a city with such an incredible identity,’ he says. He’s also a keen supporter of Liverpool Football Club. ‘Well it was never a choice, I was just one of the lucky ones,’ says Chris. ‘I mean, how many nights of magic can one team give its fans?’
Chris has retinitis pigmentosa, which caused his loss of vision, and he had lost his sight completely by the age of 22. He jokes that if he hadn’t lost his sight he’d obviously be retired from a 20-year career as Liverpool’s highest ever goalscorer – but he’s always been a fan of stand-up, having been gifted a video of a Rowan Atkinson live show for Christmas as a child. Chris became a web designer and when he lost his sight, tried stand-up as a bucket-list dare that became a hobby, and then a job, and now it’s his whole career.
His first gig was at a pub in Balham, London more than 20 years ago and one of his first on-screen credits was for the CBeebies show Me Too!. Now he’s a regular on panel shows including Have I Got News for You, Would I Lie to You? and QI. ‘To do something like Have I Got News For You, a show that has been around since I was a kid, is amazing,’ he says, ‘and it’s my dad’s favourite comedy show. I’m not naturally politically opinionated really, but I love the challenge of doing it.’
Sometimes some small adjustments need to be made to a format. ‘I did a week of Richard Osman’s House of Games where they made the whole week completely non-visual,’ explains Chris. ‘The picture rounds were replaced with audio clues for everyone and Richard didn’t even use the autocue so nobody else could see the questions before I did.’
In his Channel 4 travel series, The Wonders of the World I Can’t See, he was often unimpressed by the places he visited. ‘I really enjoyed making the show, but in terms of sightseeing, some of the things were great and some of the things weren’t really worth the effort,’ he says. ‘Niagara Falls was staggering, but the surrounding area was tackier than Blackpool in the 1980s. It was amazing to be in the Colosseum with Tom Allen, but I still don’t really know what that wonder was that Guz Kahn was trying to describe to me in Jordan.’
Chris dipped his toe into reality TV in 2023 with Scared of the Dark, where he shared a blacked out house with fellow celebrities, and formed a friendship with the winner Paul Gascoigne. On his radio panel show, You Heard It Here First (now in its third series), Chris gets guests to answer sound-based questions, like identifying a celebrity talking while eating cake, and it’s featured guests including Lee Mack, Kerry Godliman and Alan Davies. After a clip of Chris presenting an award with Lee Mack at the BAFTAs went viral, Lee invited Chris to star in an episode of his sitcom Not Going Out.
In 2024, Chris was the first blind contestant on Strictly Come Dancing, and won with his pro partner Dianne Buswell. Their powerful waltz to You’ll Never Walk Alone, which featured an emotional blackout moment, will be remembered for years to come and won a Memorable Moment award at the BAFTAs. ‘I was very nervous performing it because I just didn’t want to do a bad job to a song that means so much to so many,’ Chris says. ‘We weren’t just dancing to a football song, we were hoping to represent the city as a whole with graphics of the Albert Dock setting the scene. I couldn’t have been happier with how it went, and the BAFTA was a huge surprise – we were up against Gavin and Stacey for God’s sake!’
His last tour, Speaky Blinder, which ran for more than 140 dates and was filmed for broadcast on Channel 4, focused a lot on Chris’s experiences of being a dad, a husband, and, he says, ‘doing all of that in the dark’. His new show, Yonks!, is different. He says he’s ‘gone old school’ and it shares everything from his hatred of Shakespeare to his love of Schwarzenegger. ‘I am enjoying touring at the moment and will get on with writing a new show when this tour’s over,’ he tells us. ‘I am very lucky to get to be on loads of TV shows as well, so hopefully that will continue. I love my job, so I will just keep on doing that I suppose.’
– QUICK-FIRE QUESTIONS –
What are your thoughts on Liverpool FC’s performance?
It’s tough at the minute, but only because our expectations and standards are so high. We are having the season we should have had last season when we won the league – which was a surprise to everybody. Football’s a funny old game isn’t it? I think we’ll get top four though.
Is there an actor/comedian from the North West you’d love to work with?
Ricky Tomlinson is just brilliant in everything he does. I grew up watching him on Brookside and he’s one of those rare people who can do both funny and serious to an exceptional level. I would love to be in a scene with him, although I reckon I would be bringing the quality down quite a bit.
What advice do you have for young northerners wanting to get into comedy?
Write your own stuff, and unless you want to be a character act, just be yourself. Don’t pretend to be something you’re not, audiences can see right through it.
Is there one TV show you’d love to appear on that you haven’t already?
Red Dwarf. I’ve had a word with the writers and told them if they get to make another series, I’ll be anything – the voice of a lift or a talking vending machine – anything!
Is there an item you couldn’t live without?
Unfortunately it’s my iPhone as it provides access to so many things that otherwise would not be accessible to somebody blind. But apart from that, my record player I suppose, or I’d have a lot of records taking up space and nothing to play them on.
Where’s your favourite place to walk in Liverpool?
Down the road I grew up on, where my parents still live.
Where’s your happy place in the North West?
I have such fond memories of performing at the Blackpool Tower [Ballroom] with Dianne for Strictly. Just thinking back to that weekend makes me smile.
