The world record for balancing toilet rolls on your head

Worthing’s big festive show comes promised as the town’s “dreamiest panto yet” – Sleeping Beauty, running from Friday, December 1-Monday, January 1 (tickets on www.wtm.uk or 01903 206206).

And Jay will be gracing it with the most unusual of skills. These are not just any old world records we are talking about. These are the ones that really matter. Jay is your man if you want to see new heights scaled when it comes to balancing toilet rolls on your head or chairs on your chin - all part of his lockdown diversification.

“This is my third panto (his first was 2021) and I've always loved watching panto since I was a kid. I always wanted to do it but never had the right connections and then got in touch with someone and unfortunately I got the first one just before the first lockdown. My panto debut was delayed by a couple of years give or take.

“I was in the weird position where my job became illegal overnight. So I ended up breaking records instead. I just kind of thought it might be something useful careerwise! And I ended up breaking about 15 Guinness World Records. The one that got the most press was the most toilet rolls balanced on the head – just before there was the toilet roll shortage! I managed 46 on my head and it was broadcast on radio and the Guinness World Record official was on Zoom to check it and then the video was uploaded to the radio.

“My very first Guinness World Record was on Britain's Got Talent balancing the most chairs on the chin. That was 11 chairs, and they have to be full-sized adult chairs that have not been modified in any way!”

And yes, Jay might just be showing some of these skills in pantomime this Christmas in Worthing. For the rest of the year, Jay does a solo show.

“I work a lot on the cruise ships. I have flown back from Hong Kong and I also was working quite a bit on cruises going out of Israel. I'm obviously not doing that at the moment! But actually I was out there when it all kicked off and luckily we were away from port when it happened but I got evacuated from that ship and put on the next ship where there was a typhoon!”

Things should be rather quieter in Worthing this Christmas: “There's just something about panto that is like nothing else. It is an incredibly British thing and when you're doing the comedy part it's great because you can just keep going if anything goes wrong. If you're one of the more serious big parts then there is less scope to go off the rails but as a comedy character you can break the fourth wall and play with the audience a little bit which is great fun. With my comedy show I'm going around the country and I go from one place to the next and then I do another show but with this it's great because you stay there and you are with lots of other people and it just becomes one big family.”