Strictly's Chris McCausland career switch after spending 'too much time in the pub'

Chris McCausland on the Have A Word podcast
-Credit:Have A Word Pod/YouTube


Chris McCausland has explained how he went through a spell of being unemployed and even hedged his bets by applying to MI5. The Liverpool-born stand-up comedian appeared on the Have A Word podcast where he chatted to Scouse comedian Adam Rowe and Alfie Brown about his life.

Chris, who is blind due to a genetic condition called retinitis pigmentosa (RP), switched careers after his eyesight began to deteriorate. Chris lost his sight gradually, becoming completely blind at the age of 22.

Speaking to the podcast, just months on from winning BBC's Strictly Come Dancing and being the show's first-ever blind contestant, Chris explained his close encounter with the UK's Security Service. He said: "I was spending too much time in the pub, applying for jobs and not getting them.

ADVERTISEMENT

READ MORE: 'I moved from Poland to Merseyside and now I finally feel at home'

READ MORE: ITV Coronation Street fans left shocked as huge secret exposed

"I'd like to say it's because of my eyesight but I did only have a 2:2, it wasn't like I was selling a first to get jobs. I was unemployed for a while and I applied for loads of mad s***t. I've talked about it loads, I applied to be a spy for MI5." In disbelief, Adam asked: "What do you mean?"

Chris replied: "They have a graduate scheme but it is for a spy...They recruit graduates and I applied just as a laugh because I wasn't getting anything in computers.

"I did it just for a joke to see what it was and there was 3,000 applicants and I got down to 30. I was down to the last 1%."

Speaking about his eventual appearance on the BBC show, the 47-year-old told the podcast he kept saying no to appearing on Strictly. He said: "They kept asking me and I kept on saying no. I didn't want to do it. They asked me to do the year before, I said no. They asked me to do the Christmas special, I said no.

ADVERTISEMENT

"They asked me to do last year's show, which I was on, and I said no, which shows the amount of willpower I've got. They asked me to do the Christmas special last year, I said no, because I didn't think I could do it and I thought it would probably be a disaster.

"As you know, as a comedian, [when] you get asked to do something you go and look at what it is, you go and prep, you see what it is that's expected of you and you go 'Yeah, I could do that, that looks fun'. I couldn't do that with Strictly because it's visual isn't it so I had no idea what it was that was being asked of me."