Get Me a Celebrity: Memoirs of a Celebrity Booker is a book by Stanley Jackson (see Amazon). He had a background in financial services and then morphed into a Celebrity booker.

In a nutshell anyone that wanted an after-dinner speaker or someone to do a comedy spot – his company, Performing Artistes, would link them up with an appropriate person.

The bit relevant to this blog starts on Page 227.

He describes Jimmy as a “celebrity with an impressive work ethic” and how he had firsthand experience of his reputation for being “hardest working comedian on the circuit” when he booked him for an awards ceremony at a prestigious Park Lane Hotel.

There was to be a technical rehearsal at 4pm and Jimmy had called the day before to ask if they could fix him up with a room to use, between rehearsal and event, as he was proof reading his book and had a deadline looming. He’d apparently stressed that he didn’t want an overnight room and nor did he want to cause the client to be charged any extra.

The book was The Naked Jape so this would have been sometime in 2006, before the November release date.

The room was arranged – Jimmy arrived at 3.45pm, dropped his things in the allocated room and was taken at 4pm to rehearsal, in the ballroom.

Post rehearsals he disappeared, to his proof reading, and was there at 8.30pm to hand his bag (with a change of clothes and his manuscript inside) to the Manager (to be stored somewhere for a couple of hours).

As he went to get his things, at 10.45pm, apparently the Estonian desk clerk was not aware of the arrangement and wouldn’t hand over the bag without ID.

Stanley said Jimmy was calm personified and quietly said:

“If you look in the pocket on the front of the bag you will find a passport with my photo on it”.

As Stanley worried about the bag not being handed over the Manager arrived and intervened. SJ wrote that, after the Manager had said “don’t you recognise him” Jimmy had pointed out that he wasn’t complaining, the guy was only doing his job and he was pleased that security was taken seriously.

Jimmy then waved, dashed out into a taxi and was taken to another venue where he was due to appear at a second event in 10 minutes time.

Stanley’s summary?

“What energy…what a pro…”