No.1 for Interviews - Louie Spence
Louie Spence

Pineapple Dance Studio’s Louie Spence

Dancer, diva and all round drama queen; Sky 1’s smash hit reality TV series has provided us with a new national hero and Cara Kennedy got to speak to him

Interviewing celebrities can be a little tricky – especially if you’re fan. All too often have various members of the No.1 team had their crushes crushed, their adoration demolished and even their vague sense of respect rendered null and void after a, shall we say, less than successful interview. It was therefore with a slight sense of trepidation that No.1 spoke to Louie Spence – star of smash hit reality TV series Pineapple Dance Studios and one of the funniest, and campest, men in Britain. Thankfully, we needn’t have worried as Louie is exactly as he appears on TV. Conducting part of his interview whilst in the splits (we’re not kidding), by the end of it he had invited the No.1 team to Pineapple so that he might impart some of his, not inconsiderable, dancing knowledge – and the best bit was it was a genuine invitation. But that’s the thing about Louie; he is absolutely genuine. Genuinely funny, genuinely talented and genuinely outrageous!

We caught up with him to find out how success has treated him so far, whether we are likely to continue seeing him on our TV screens now the series is over, and found out why he has to stop sunbathing in his G-string!
Pineapple Dance Studios has been an amazing success – largely down to you! Are you surprised it has done so well?
I think everyone who is involved with the show is surprised. It is just phenomenal. But then again, everyone who comes into a place like Pineapple is likely to be theatrical so when they see that the red camera light is on, they are off! There’s no stopping us darling, red doesn’t mean stop in this building!

You specifically have caught the public’s attention – did you ever expect that?
Not at all, not at the age of 41 when I had given up dancing. But I’m really enjoying it. I’ve been a performer all my life and it now seems like my star is shining! 

How do you feel when people recognise you in the street?
It’s amazing because it’s so across the board. I get everyone from little kids of two and three, to grannies coming up to me. I’ve actually just had the police in. Honestly darling I have! The police are in all the time wanting photos with me – every time they come in I think I’m going to be arrested! And I get taxi drivers and builders shouting to me all the time – it’s fabulous! I think what I find so surprising is that all the attention is so positive, I just wouldn’t have thought that someone of my, shall we say, eccentricity would appeal to men as well as women. 

How did you come to work at Pineapple?
I stopped dancing professionally around about 2001. At that time I was coming up for 31 and I didn’t want to dance with kids anymore and darling, I was too old to dance behind pop acts! I didn’t want to look like one of those old hookers out there trying to do it with the young ones so I had to make a decision. I decided that I had had a great career but it was time to make that transition and that was when I found my job at Pineapple. I’ve been here 10 years but I’ve been coming to classes at the studios all my life – nearly every dancer has been through here at some point; it’s a dancer’s home darling!

With all the interest in you, you must have had a lot of offers, would you ever consider leaving Pineapple?
I would never fully leave Pineapple; it’s always been my life. What’s happening right now is absolutely wonderful but it’s show business. Hopefully this will sustain and I’ll have two, three, maybe five years of entertaining people by just being me, but I’ll always come back here – this will always be my base.

You’re 41 and you are still unbelievably fit and supple – do you keep up your dancing for work or is it for fun?
It’s totally for fun but I do still take it seriously. I can laugh at many things but the only thing in life that I can’t laugh at is the fact that I can’t do some of the things that I used to be able to do. However, I’m not saying that I’ve lost it darling! Believe me, I’ve still got it! Make sure you write that down!

You have an unbelievable amount of energy – are you like that all the time, or is it just for show?
Babes, just look as I’m talking to you: I’m walking round in circles, doing click ball changes – I can’t help it! I just can’t sit still! I do have a lot of energy but I am much better in the morning, in the evening there are moments when I do have a lull.

Do you drive your friends and family mad?!
No, I’ve always been this way. I have a selected number of friends and when I say ‘selected’ I mean small. Come to think of it maybe that’s because people don’t want to be my friend because I do their brains in!

What do they think of it all?
It’s been quite an adjustment for my family but they love it – especially my mum, and especially if I get her a freebie! I mean she got her Botox free but she wants more!

Did your mum love being on the show?
She was a bit nervous but she did love it. She keeps saying, ‘I want to be on it again!’ but she keeps farting so I’ve told her no! It’s only because she had deep vein thrombosis and she had to take Warfarin for it and it makes you fart so that’s why but still, it’s embarrassing!

What would you like to happen next – are we going to see more of you on TV in the near future?
I hope so. I’ve been having lots of meetings with lots of different people. I think the most important thing for me is that if this is my moment, I don’t want to be a flash in the pan so I don’t just want to do any old crap! I want to make sure that, along with my agent, I choose my career path wisely and try to sustain it for as long as I can. It’s because I am very lovely and I feel that something magical has happened that if I am giving all this joy to all these people just by being me then let’s keep the joy going.

And also babe, I’m going to be honest here; let’s make me lots of money! I’ve been council all my life so let’s keep it real. I’m not being greedy but if I can get a nice car and if I could own my own property – I’ve never owned my own property before – so if I could do something like that, it would be amazing. Oh to have a garden instead of a window box! You can’t have a barbeque in a bloody window box can you? If I could just achieve something on TV and get myself a house and a garden that would just be the ultimate. I mean I’m sick of being in a G-string in a public park darling. I’m 41, gravity is setting in and things are starting to drop – I need a space of my own!

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