Our celebrity reporter chats to Jay McGuinness (The Wanted) and Vera Chok (Hollyoaks) ahead of their performances in 2:22 A Ghost Story at the Blackpool Grand.
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00:00 Obviously we're here because you're bringing 222 Ghost Story to Blackpool.
00:03 Could you both first start by describing what the show is?
00:07 You know, people who have not heard of it, what they should expect?
00:10 The story is a dinner party by a young couple, or a couple who've just had a baby,
00:16 and then dinner guests arrive. That's us, we're the dinner guests.
00:21 And then the mother of your child goes, "There's a ghost in the house.
00:24 We want you to stay and find out to see if it arrives at 222."
00:29 And during the course of the evening...
00:30 We eat, we drink, we discuss, we fight. There might be a kiss, there might be a...
00:36 I don't want to give too much away.
00:38 No, fuck!
00:39 That's enough. That's enough.
00:40 And as we count down to 222 to see if there is actually a ghost, it's... yeah.
00:46 Would you describe it as scary?
00:49 I think... I think... is it scary?
00:54 I feel like that...
00:55 Spooky.
00:56 It's spooky and the hairs on my arms definitely stand out during the show.
01:02 There's some fun jump scares, but it's not like scary, scary.
01:06 It's super funny, for sure. 100% funny.
01:09 And it's... I don't think it's too scary.
01:12 No.
01:13 No.
01:14 But it does very much look at whether or not there are ghosts,
01:18 whether or not people believe in life after death.
01:20 So it's, you know, it does deal with that.
01:25 You both have already a long list of stage credits, so why did you audition for this show?
01:30 You've got a good story.
01:33 Yeah, so I watched it like six months ago.
01:36 Me and my manager watched a different cast doing it.
01:39 I was so impressed by it. I was so shocked by the twists at the end.
01:44 I...
01:45 There's a twist?
01:46 There's a twist.
01:47 Oh my god.
01:48 And I straight away just said to my manager,
01:51 "Please, please, please get me an audition. I just really would love to have a go."
01:55 And I think that in my audition, it probably came across how
01:58 mad keen and pretty obsessed with the show I was.
02:01 So it all went well, and I'm genuinely pinching myself that I'm now putting on the suit
02:08 and shoes with no socks on, and putting on my gold watch and gold chain,
02:13 and strutting around that stage like I own the place.
02:15 Feel very grateful.
02:16 Aww.
02:18 I just loved the opportunity to play a three-dimensional actual human being
02:28 where the character's got nothing to do with my ethnicity.
02:30 I've had a long battle with fighting stereotypes, being a Southeast Asian.
02:38 And Lauren is so...
02:40 It's exactly my casting of someone who's putting on a brave face and doing her best,
02:46 but really struggling. And so I really wanted to play her, yeah.
02:50 And it's such an entertaining play.
02:52 When I saw the show, I was like, "Oh my god, yeah.
02:54 I want to be able to entertain audiences in this way."
02:59 Yeah.
02:59 Great script.
03:01 It was a great script.
03:02 Obviously, you're bringing it to Blackpool.
03:05 How are you feeling about bringing it all the way up to Lancashire?
03:07 I've been meaning to...
03:11 When I lived in Liverpool, I really wanted to go to Blackpool.
03:13 Like, time and time again, I planned trips and they all failed.
03:18 So finally, I'm going to get to Blackpool.
03:20 I'm so excited.
03:22 So for people who will be watching this video, reading the article,
03:26 that haven't got tickets yet,
03:28 why would you encourage the people of Lancashire to get the last ones?
03:31 I think if you heard anything about 2/22,
03:36 then you know that there's a bit of a fuss being made about it.
03:40 And I want to reassure people, when you go there,
03:42 when I went there, I was like, "Oh, I get why it's so popular."
03:45 It was so gripping.
03:46 So it lives up to the hype, in my opinion.
03:50 It is a good night out.
03:52 It's so simple.
03:53 Like, it's entertaining.
03:54 It's sort of stimulating.
03:56 You get to chat to the people around you and keep chatting for days afterwards.
04:01 It's just super fun.
04:02 And it's, yeah, I highly recommend.
04:05 It's everything I would want from a theatre show, from a live event.
04:10 Yeah.
04:10 Yeah.
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