Lee Mack – who hosts The 1% Club tonight (Saturday, August 24) – 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.
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, August 24) at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
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