Lee Mack – who hosts The 1% Club tonight (Saturday, May 18) – once shared the reason he gave up alcohol – admitting it “changed my whole attitude”
The 55-year-old comedian and actor, whose career spans decades, has become a firm-favourite with viewers over the years. Lee is back on screens on Sunday (May 5) for another episode of smash hit show The 1% Club.
But away from the glitz and glam of the showbiz world, Lee once struggled with his booze intake. So much so, that he ended up getting the “sack” from a job.
The 1% Club host Lee Mack on getting ‘very drunk’
Back in 2020, Lee admitted how he used booze as a confidence booster, in his early days of being a comic.
Speaking on The Graham Norton Show, he revealed he got “very drunk” when he was working as a Pontins Blue Coat. On stage, and after downing more and more pints, things took an awkward turn when a heckler disrupted his stand-up.
Lee ended up calling the audience member a rather rude word – which led to him being “sacked” from the resort in Hemsby, Norfolk.
However, it was years later in 2017 when Lee decided to cut booze altogether after reading a life-changing book.
“Probably the number one reason I gave up drinking was a book recommendation,” he revealed on a 2021 episode of the I Can’t Believe It’s Not Buddha podcast with Neil Webster.
Lee added: “I read a book that changed my whole attitude towards alcohol. It was by Allen Carr. Not that Alan Carr. Allen Carr’s quit smoking book The Easy Way to Stop Smoking.”
Lee ‘had a long relationship with booze’
The comedian said: “It sounds a bit like some sort of pyramid scheme type, but it’s incredible. I mean, it really is the world’s most successful way of stopping smoking. And then he brought out another one called controlling alcohol.”
He went on to clarify: “Now, I wasn’t waking up in a skip. I wasn’t that kind of drinker. I was just reading this book out of interest. I’ve had a long relationship with booze because I grew up in a pub, and I have got a history of my family being very heavy drinkers.”
Lee realised that the author was encouraging readers to quit alcohol altogether – so Lee did just that. He went on: “The general rule is that people think that you are trying to control your urge to drink and that you’re saying, ‘okay, I’d like to have a drink, but I won’t because it’s better for my health’.
“In other words, you’re giving something up. This [book] changes that completely. It’s just you just don’t want one anymore. That’s the difference.”
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Read more: Lee Mack confirms he won’t be doing Not Going Out in 2024: ‘It’s not always my decision’
The 1% Club airs today (Saturday, May 18) at 8.50pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
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