He’s modelled with Kate Moss and starred in primetime TV soaps Hollyoaks and Casualty, but JAMES REDMOND tells NEIL D’ARCY JONES ahead of his show at Colchester’s Charter Hall it’s his most recent career as a stand-up comedian which has given him the biggest confidence boost.

MOST people would probably have been more than happy doing modelling assignments with the likes of Kate Moss and Helena Christensen.

But not James Redmond.

After five years he swapped his photoshoot lifestyle for a career in front of another camera first as Finn in the hit teen soap, Hollyoaks, and then later as Abs in BBC TV’s Casualty.

Then four years ago he made another career change, this time to become a stand-up comedian, a role Colchester comedy lovers can see him in at Charter Hall this weekend.

“It’s just something that I had always wanted to do,” he tells me. “I didn’t want to be old and grey and sitting in my rocking chair thinking ‘why didn’t I give that stand-up comedy a go’.”

Born in Bristol, James had always been interested in acting at school but got into modelling when he was discovered working as a barman in Greece.

“I know it’s a bit of a cliche,” he laughs, “but yeah that’s where I was ‘discovered’.

“It was a brilliant life,” he continues. “I had wanted to go travelling and this was a perfect way of doing it while also getting paid.

“I lived in Milan, got to hang out with beautiful women and worked for the likes of Calvin Klein. That was the first of two jobs I did with Kate Moss.”

And what was it like working with people like the Croydon supermodel?

“Do you know what,” he sighs, “those girls get a real bad press sometimes. Us boys never got hassle like they did and pretty much all of them were really great and lovely to work with.”

But after a while James confesses he had had enough.

“I’d pretty much done everything that I had wanted to do with modelling,” he explains. “I had made enough money and wanted another challenge. I had always wanted to act so when the Hollyoaks people asked me to audition for a part they wanted me to do, I thought ‘yeah great’.”

James was on the show from 1998 to 2002 and next month will be making a special one-off return to be screened on E4.

“I’ve just done a little mini-series for Hollyoaks, which is going out in October,” he reveals.

“Tony, who has been in it from the start, has this storyline that he has cancer and he has this bucket list he wants to do. We filmed it in Spain and Morocco and I’m in it as well as Jeremy Edwards. Danny Dyer also makes a guest appearance.

“It was a little weird going back to the character, but a lot of fun. “Danny was brilliant. He’s a great guy and extremely talented at what he does.”

James reveals it could be the first of some more acting roles for him.

“It’s funny,” he begins, “but since doing the stand-up I have a pretty steady wage and so when I go for auditions I perhaps don’t appear as desperate for the parts as others might be.

“Doing the stand-up also gives you a huge amount of confidence so in a way doing the comedy has really helped the acting.”

But then why not just stick with the acting?

“I really loved the acting, especially Casualty,” he says. “It was filmed back in my home town so as well as being on a primetime show I was hanging out with friends and playing football with my old team.

“After about five years there was a rumour they were going to move to Cardiff and I just thought people might get a bit sick of me if I stayed on the show any longer, so I went travelling for a while and then when I got back, I went on a comedy course.”

Starting off doing open mic nights and then paying his dues on the UK comedy circuit, often getting paid very little or nothing at all, it wasn’t until two years ago when James started making enough money to pay the bills.

This weekend he will be host comedian for the launch of the Charter Hall Comedy Club with a bill including headliner Dominic Holland.

Also performing sets will be Maff Brown, founder of the award-winning Outside the Box Comedy Clubs and a former professional footballer with Brentford, and Australian comedian Colin Cole, who was once described by the New York Times as “one of the most exciting performers to come out of Australia since Skippy”.

“The most common feedback I get is ‘no offence, but I didn’t think you were going to be that funny’,” James admits. “You get booked because you’re the guy off Hollyoaks and Casualty. “I don’t mind really because this business is so hard there are usually another hundred guys out there trying to get the same gigs you are.

“Of course the other side to that coin is if you’re an unknown the audience usually give you five minutes grace.

“They expect me to be funny straight away.”

James Redmond
The Charter Hall Comedy Club
Charter Hall,
Cowdray Avenue, Colchester.
Saturday. Doors open at 7pm. The show starts at 8pm.
Tickets cost £12, or £100 for a table, which seats up to ten people, with a free bottle of house wine for all table bookings, or £10 for Comedy Club members.
01206 282020 or book online at www.charter-hall.co.uk