People do strange things for charity. Like that Chilean prostitute who raised $4000 by auctioning 24 hours of sex to raise money for the national equivalent of Comic Relief. Move over Billy Connelly's flapping gonads! Or that man from Chicago who lifted a 56 pound child last month using only his facial hair. Well James Corless, a 29-year-old sound engineer, has chosen to do something a little less weird but just as, if not more, plucky than the Chilean prostitute. To raise money for Unicef he is performing 29 tasks all chosen by various friends in 29 weeks. So far he's worked as a drag queen in a gay bar, re-made his favourite film - ET, climbed Ben Nevis, and performed with an all-male troupe of strippers (which included the full body wax prep). The final, and perhaps most terrifying task, is to perform a stand-up gig in a London comedy club along with regular comedians.
How the plan came to fruition is a bit hazy for James: "I think alcohol had a lot to do with it! Me and some friends were discussing things to do before you're thirty and the idea of doing this came about and they held me to it! It became apparent I couldn't get out of it and now I think some of them are enjoying watching the humiliation week by week!" So it all sounds ambitious enough but surely there must have been some evil tasks he couldn't bring himself to attempt? "The only ones that have ever fallen through were down to logistics or complications. I got a chest infection before the Paris Marathon so I couldn't run that but I've done months of training so I'm booked in to do the Dublin one instead. Basically if someone came up with it and we could do it there was never a question of not doing it."
A couple of the tasks might sound like a walk in the park to some - like learning to horse ride, but bear in mind James had a fear of horses before he started and you begin to appreciate his dedication. So what have been his worst tasks so far? "Well, I had to work as a drag queen in a gay night club which was completely over my head and they referred to me in the end as 'straight and terrified' which was my title for the evening! The most tearful one was the waxing. Then I had to strip in a club in Brighton with a troupe of male strippers that do hen parties. They were pretty forgiving considering I had only done four hours practice."
Even with all 28 tasks behind him, it's the final, 29th performance that is scaring him the most: "Talking to most comedians they all say the first time is a total disaster but the only thing in my favour is that I'll know some of the people in the crowd. Although some guys from work are insisting they're going to heckle. It's a 10 minute slot and the MC said any longer than that and I'll really struggle. I can't get up on stage and deliver straight jokes so I think it's best if I tell my story 'Dave Gorman' style. I can talk about how embarrassing it is trying to masturbate in a nightclub stock cupboard trying to get aroused before you go on stage because that's what you've been told to do by a group of strippers. And that's probably the first time anyone's done that for Unicef!"
Incredibly, as part of the challenge, James has also had to give up alcohol for the last 5 months and 3 weeks so he hasn't even been aided by Dutch courage. Let's hope the colleagues are gentle...
James will be performing the 29th task at the Good Ship in Kilburn on Wednesday along with Adam Bloom, Mike Wozniak, Isy Suttie and Sy Thomas.
Click here to visit James' website and see some of his other challenges.
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