Mickey the chancer (From Surrey Comet)

Mickey the chancer

5:36pm Thursday 14th September 2006 in Comedy By Nancy Groves

Mickey Hutton may live in the same riverside apartment block as John Major, Jay Kay from Jamiroquai and Lee from Blue, but that doesn't make him a schmoozer.

"I hang out with the cleaners instead," says the Geordie comic, who will be headlining Jongleurs Batterseas twice this weekend, "and that's all right by me."

The trappings of fame have never been a major motivation, he says, and nor, when he comes to think about it, has fame itself.

"I started out as a musician and I just liked being on stage. I wanted to do gigs, never to be on TV or to be famous. But after I moved to London, someone came up to me at a gig and said: Do you want to act?' There was no ulterior motive in it for me."

Soon, Hutton was presenting cult kids show Hangar 17 at teatime, while after the watershed, he was playing the villainous Spud Tate on Spender.

In fact, such has been the range of his career - from performing alongside Jimmy Nail in Crocodile Shoes to ghostwriting a book for Big Brother's Nasty Nick - that it's hard to pin down exactly what it is he does.

"Chancer is the word you're looking for," he says with a chuckle. "The main thing is to get up and do stuff. Learn the skill first and then put it to the test. And just be nice to people."

A lesson for Big Brother contestants if ever there was one! So, how do the prospects of this year's housemates compare to Nasty Nick seven years ago?

"Well, Nick is still playing the game and that's why he is a very wealthy man," says Hutton.

"But these people have no idea! They say, I wanna be a presenter' but basically what they are saying is I want to be famous.' And then they end up modelling lingerie. It's not their fault, of course. Just don't tell them they can do it when they can't."

For Hatton, in contrast, things could not be going better. Currently working on new sketch shows for the UK and US, he is still much in demand on the comedy circuit, too. So, no regrets?

"What I do regret is not taking more advantage of my time on Hangar 17," he confesses.

"We used to get all the bands on and one time, Take That were doing a camera check and needed a stand-in for Robbie.

"They asked me but I wanted to catch ZZ Top in the Top of the Pops studio. So the director did it. What was I thinking? I could have had a video of me in Take That!"

Well, at least Gary Barlow knows who to ask if he needs another Robbie for the next tour...

Mickey Hutton, Jongleurs, 49 Lavender Gardens, Battersea, Friday, September 15, and Saturday, September 16, 7pm, from £15. Call 0870 7870707, visit jongleurs.com