COMEDIAN Joe Pasquale has been to Weymouth so many times he's familiar with one of its best remembered 'residents'.

A regular face at Weymouth Pavilion, Joe has spent so much time here he remembers Randy the dolphin with fondness.

"You even had that dolphin that became a thing," he tells me.

For the uninitiated, Randy was a bottlenose dolphin who appeared one day in Weymouth Bay in 2002 and took a shine to swimmers.

Sadly without even a wave of his dorsal fin Randy swam away to Plymouth, ending a seemingly endless succession of Echo articles written about the amorous mammal.

Luckily for us Joe still has reason to bring his new stand up show to Weymouth.

"I was reading on the internet today that it's one of the best places to go for a holiday.

"Sadly though when you're on tour you never get the chance to enjoy anything like that.

"I love the theatre and I love the town, it's very old and quaint.

"It's not like Blackpool, all commercial and full of stuff - and you have dolphins like Randy and fun things like that."

This tour, with Weymouth the second date, will continue until the end of August.

Joe has just finished playing King Arthur in the UK tour of Monty Python comedy Spamalot.

His son Joe Tracini, or Joe Jr as he is known, was also in Spamalot.

"We just finished it on Saturday and to be honest with you I'm knackered Jo," he tells me.

"It was great working with Little Joe and who knows perhaps we will work together again one day."

Joe's son is best known for appearing in Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks. And it's obvious from the way Joe Senior talks of him, he has one very proud father.

It has been 18 months since Joe has been on a stand-up tour, but he has been keeping a hand in, he tells me.

"I've been doing gigs here and there all the time, but the majority of my work at the moment has been doing plays.

"Gigging is one of those things that's just natural. For me it's just about going out and having a laugh, getting people up on stage.

"I think people can take comedy too seriously, I don't. If I can't enjoy it myself then what's the point?"

As much as he loves gigging, Joes says a life on the road can be exhausting - and one of the toughest challenges is hunting for vegetables!

"Being on the stage for those two hours is what it's all about for me.

"People only see that bit, but there's the other eight hours of driving to where I have to go to, trying to find somewhere decent to eat and the driving to the hotel and you get up in the morning and do it all again.

"I sound like I'm moaning don't I?" he asks.

I tell Joe, no of course I don't think that - and checking he's still happy with his lot, ask him if he'd prefer a 9 to 5 office job.

"The being on stage, I'd do it for nothing," he says.

"The best part of your day is being up there doing it but the rest of it is all about going from A to B.

"It's the food - in some places you struggle to find vegetables - it's chips with everything.

"I need my greens and my carrots."

Essex-born Joe endeared himself to the nation on I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here and was crowned King of the Jungle in 2004.

I make the mistake of suggesting he has done a 'fair few' reality shows.

"I've done two in the last 11 years!" he tells me.

"I never think 'I want to do more of that' but if you're self-employed, you wait until someone phones you.

"I'm not interested in being on Big Brother or anything like that but I like to do something that improves me."

And let's hope that the Strictly Come Dancing producers are all ears - because that's one show he's not ruling out.

"I would go on Strictly, yes, and learn how to dance.

"I would also go on a cookery show and learn how to cook because I'm hopeless at that - anything that benefits me like that is good."

Proof that he already has many strings to his bow, Joe is 90 points away from completing a degree in earth science with the Open University.

And, he confesses, if the comedy all comes to an end there's one dream job out there for him.

"I would love to move into television science for children.

"I think Brian Cox has really opened up the door for all of that."

*Joe Pasquale is at Weymouth Pavilion on Monday July 27 at 7.30pm. There's another chance to catch him in Dorsetat the Tivoli Theatre, Wimborne on Saturday August 29.

Contact the venues for tickets.