IN A show that he was going to call ‘Bed Knobs and Knee Pads’, comedian and novelist Julian Clary is pledging to bare his soul in his new tour.

In the show, Born to Mince, Clary will take off the shackles and, in his words, “butcher” some well-known songs and tell tales of his time in the entertainment world.

The self-described proud homosexual has always worn his sexuality on his sleeve, from performing in glam make-up under the name of Gillian Pieface to appearing on various TV shows, it is a subject Clary has not shied away from.

So much so it has been a running theme through his touring shows.

He said: “The last one was The Joy of Mincing. Before that was Natural Born Mincer, Lord of the Mince, Mincing Machine.

“You get the general idea. I just like to get ‘mincing’ in the title.”

He added: “I’ve been reading a lot about gay aversion therapy recently, so I had this idea that we could try heterosexual aversion therapy and get some men out in the audience, wire up their genitals, and show them pictures of Coleen Nolan. If there’s any twinge of arousal they’ll get 40 volts through the testicles!”

It is clear that Clary is not afraid of causing a bit of controversy in his material, but it was his upfront brutal honesty that further endeared him to the British public when he won Celebrity Big Brother 10 in 2012.

But it is this honesty that Clary leans into when he is on stage.

“It’s one of the reasons people come to see me: they desperately want to hear graphic descriptions of homosexual sex acts.

“They want to see if I’ll go too far. It livens up their otherwise dreary lives I expect. It gets the heart rate going, much like fairground rides or watching a horror movie.”

It is a tool that the writer has held in his arsenal since bursting on to the comedy scene in the 1980s.

He added: “Prejudice, ignorance and fear were rife back then. I felt if you talked about the mechanics of gay sex, for example, it would be shocking to them, but it would demystify it. They would leave better people than when they arrived.”

If you are thinking of attending Clary’s show and sitting a safe distance away from the stage to avoid ridicule, then it would not be a wise choice.

“I wander around now, so you’re not safe anywhere,” Clary continues.

“I’ve always found people’s lives are more interesting than mine, and so I’m interested in talking to people and improvising.”

Born to Mince comes to The Anvil on Friday, 17 May. For more information and tickets visit anvilarts.org.uk.