If there is one place Bobby Davro likes to be it's onstage. "It's my happy place," says the 66-year-old funnyman. Which means he is going to be particularly happy this year as he is hitting the road with his Everything Is Funny If You Can Laugh At It show.
It is the seasoned entertainer's first tour in a decade. So what took him so long? "I've always been busy with things like panto." But last summer he did a successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe up against the young whippersnappers of stand-up and it went so well that he wanted to do more dates.
Add this to that the fact that he is due to become a grandfather for the first time in May and 2025 is looking good for Davro. Which is nice because he has had a few difficult years. His father, who he describes as his "best friend and hero", died in 2021 and then his fiancée Vicky Wright, the daughter of England football captain Billy Wright, passed away in 2023, leaving Davro "heartbroken and devastated".
And in January last year he had a stroke shortly after coming offstage at a show in Coulsdon, south London. He was fortunate that a hospital was nearby and is full of praise for the treatment he received. I mention Tommy Cooper who died onstage and Eric Morecambe who died just after a live appearance. "I was very lucky," he says.
Davro is now fighting fit and as the title of his show underlines, he can even see the funny side of his scare. "They say laughter is the best medicine. Unless you've had a stroke, in which case statins are better." And he got plenty of material out of it: "My ex-wife didn't phone for an ambulance, she wrote for one."
Onstage he delivers something for comedy fans of all ages. They might not always be the world's most original jokes, but to borrow from late Irish stand-up Frank Carson, it's the way Davro tells them. "Bob Monkhouse was a good friend and he used to say that there are a lot of great young comedians but they don't have the stagecraft."
Davro, on the other hand, has stagecraft to spare. He's a true all-round entertainer, with songs too – "Elton John, George Michael, Frank Sinatra. And Tom Jones for the ladies."
He is a little ruder than he was on the TV as nobody can censor him onstage. His show starts with a comical warning that this is not a politically correct set. Any subject is suitable for humour. "If you're on the frontline, you're in the punchline," he giggles.
But most people will be waiting for his skills as an impressionist that made his name on his 1980s primetime shows such as Bobby Davro on the Box. There's a routine in which he impersonates some of the biggest young comedians in the business: "I call it Still Alive At the Apollo. I do Michael McIntyre, John Bishop, Johnny Vegas, Billy Connolly." He breaks into a bit of Connolly and it's as if the Big Yin in his prime is in the room.
Davro has certainly has an eventful career. For fourteen months he played cheeky rogue Vinnie Monks in EastEnders. He left in 2008 because he couldn't fit in his other commitments, but his character was never killed off. Maybe he could return? "I don't know if I'd fit in now but I loved doing it and I'd love to do more acting. I did a play, Not A Game for Boys, at the King's Head in Islington. I think comedians make good actors. We are acting all the time."
One thing puzzles me. His real name is Robert Nankeville, so where did Davro come from? "My name was Robert, my brothers's name was David, so my father, who was an Olympic runner then a salesman, when he opened a store he called it Davro's Discount Store."
Davro was a keen athlete himself, appearing in the TV show The Games in 2003. And his brain is quick too. He is very proud to say that he won Celebrity Mastermind in 2023. His specialist subject was singer/songwriter Gilbert O'Sullivan. "I was 12 when I heard my first Gilbert O'Sullivan song 'Nothing Rhymed'. It seemed to connect with me. Then later on I got to know him and we became friends. He's a legend."
And Bobby Davro is also a legend. Maybe one day he'll get the ultimate accolade and will be a subject on Mastermind himself. He definitely has no thoughts of retiring though. "I've realised it's good to have goals in life and this tour is my latest goal."
For Bobby Davro's tour dates visit: www.beyondthejoke.co.uk/content/15620/bobby-davro-tour-dates
