Joe Sugg on his YouTube fame, Strictly and challenging himself by performing on the West End

YouTube mega-star turned Strictly finalist and author Joe Sugg joins Kate to chat through his new book Grow, the mad rush of internet fame that kickstarted his career, and his new life with Strictly partner and girlfriend Dianne Buswell.

White Wine Question Time with Kate Thornton is the podcast that brings together well-known guests to answer three thought-provoking questions over three glasses of wine. Discover the friendships behind the entertainment headlines, and listen in on their conversations for a side to the celebrities you've never heard before. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts, and follow on Instagram (@whitewineqt) & Twitter (@WhiteWineQT) to keep up to date with the latest guests, news and more.

Video transcript

JOE SUGG: There was no one that was doing things I guess the level that our generation of online stars got to. We just didn't know where it was going to lead to and how big it would actually get to. So I was, in my mind, I was fully prepared to sort of give it a go for a year. And then if it all didn't pan out, I would just go back to being a roof thatcher.

It was like a new sort of breed of fans I guess, because they're from the internet. It was like they feel like they know you, because they've watched your life. Like, vlogging is literally sharing an element of your day with your audience of what you get up to. So it's all very real. Your audience really had a strong connection with you and felt like they knew you, when you didn't know anything about them.

In the past, there's definitely things that I've sort of thought were beyond me and too scary and too much of a risk and to putting myself out there a bit too much. I think what really sort of amplifies that now in my head is the fact that I did do "Strictly," and especially even the West End musical, "Waitress," because that, for me, I'd never-- I was riding high off confidence of the back of "Strictly," and so I was like, yeah, of course I'll go in for audition for a West End musical.

There's an expectation with "Strictly" is that I came in as a non-dancer, so they weren't expecting me to be good, whereas in a West End musical, they're expecting you to be good because you've got an audience coming in that aren't coming to watch it because you're in it, Joe Sugg.