Funnyman Joe Pasquale heads North this August to make his Edinburgh Fringe debut, at the age of 65, in 11½ Angry Men, a spoof on the 2003 Fringe hit 12 Angry Men, which featured a cast of stand-up comics.
It’s the hottest day of the year, a storm is brewing, and 11½ very angry men attempt to decide the fate of a boy accused of a heinous murder in 1950’s New York City – when the world was ruled by furious white men, unlike today! The jurors would like to do the right thing and the evidence against the boy stinks, but they all have places to go and far more important issues on their minds. Will a lethal German sausage save him? Or send him sizzling to the electric chair? Needing a unanimous verdict, will they still find their way to a swift conviction?
The show parodies the 2003 comedian led Fringe production of Reginald Rose’s 1954 TV legal drama 12 Angry Men, which he later adapted for the 1957 big screen version directed by Sidney Lumet, with Pasquale joining four of the original cast, Ian Coppinger, Phil Nichol, David Calvitto and Owen O’Neill, alongside Spencer Jones, Tom Stade, Terry Alderton, Mark Maier, Glenn Wool, JJ Whitehead and Stephen K Amos,
Pasquale can’t wait, he says, “I am so excited to be making my Fringe debut at the ripe old age of 65. I have been doing stand-up comedy for nearly 45 years and I love working with younger comics. Even though most of the lads in the show are in their 40s and 50s, they are still young comics. I am the old man of the group, literally, playing a 74-year-old tap dancing vaudevillian, which has been difficult as I don’t tap dance.
“I pointed this out to the director who replied, ‘Don’t worry ’bout that, you’ve got four months to learn,’ which at 65 and with terrible bunions was no mean feet. That’s not a typo, my feet are mean. But when I was asked to be a member of the cast, a cast of 11 of the best comics in the country, and me, how could I say no? To join them on stage was a no-brainer, so here I am, at 65, the new boy.”
11½ Angry Men receives its World Premiere at the Pleasance EICC Pentland Theatre for 17 performances from 5-22 August and is written by Owen O’Neill, directed by Guy Masterson, and features Katy Tuxford’s original set designs from 2003.
Pasquale’s TV career started as a runner-up on New Faces in 1987 and since then he has gone on to be crowned King Of The Jungle on I’m a Celebrity Get Me out Of Here, hosted The Price Is Right and starred in Dancing on Ice. His theatre credits include Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Mel Brooks The Producers, Doctor In The House with Robert Powell and as Frank Spencer in the stage adaptation of Some Mothers Do Ave Em.
Full details and tickets HERE
