The comedian was hailed as an inspiration after his performance
Strictly Come Dancing viewers were in stitches as Chris McCausland called out a problem on tonight’s show. The Scouse comedian returned to the dancefloor for week two of the popular BBC contest.
The comic was joined by his partner, Dianne Buswell, as they danced a Foxtrot to Be Young, Be Foolish, Be Happy. The 47-year-old is the show’s first ever blind contestant and viewers were amazed at Chris’ incredible performance.
Viewers following the show on social media platform X branded Chris as an inspiration and said he hopes he wins this season’s show. Tom said: “Chris is my winner. His skill is outstanding and makes it look effortless.”
Sarah posted: “Chris needs to win this, he’s on the Bill Bailey arc of ‘genuine beginner to joyful dancer’.” Anna commented: “Chris making me well up at the TV every week with pride”
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Imogen posted: “I still get emotional when Chris last night said on Dianne’s vid diaries that he feels left out when he’s literally the SOUL of the show this series” Becca said: “Why do I always have a lump in my throat watching Chris dance? That was beautiful!”
However, Chris joked he was at a disadvantage due to his dance taking place at the same time Liverpool FC took on Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League. The comic took to the dancefloor in the last minutes as Arne Slot’s side sealed a 2 – 1 to go to the top of the table.
After the dance, Claudia was in stitches after she asked Chris how he was feeling after his dance. He said “I’m not happy to be honest as they’ve put me on 10 minutes before the Liverpool game ends. That’s half of Liverpool watching the football, that’s half of my core voter group.”
Chris needn’t worry as he put in an incredible performance that received superb marks from the judges. The comic received a combined total of 29 from judges Shirley Ballas, Motsi Mabuse, Craig Revel Horwood and Anton Du Beke.
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Chris hails from West Derby and has been a stand-up comic since 2003. Chris was born with a genetic condition called retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and lost his sight aged 22. He worked as a web designer until his eyesight began to deteriorate, when he decided to have a go at stand up.
Speaking to the ECHO in 2016, he said: “When I finished uni I focused on designing websites, but then my eyesight started deteriorating and I had enough. I knocked it on the head and tried to find something else to do. I was unemployed for maybe a year and a half and in the end I got a job doing business sales. It was really, really boring stuff – just filling the time until I figured out what I properly wanted to do.
“Then, when I was 26, I got shingles and was signed off from work for two weeks. I was bored out of my head and as a dare from myself I decided to have a go at stand-up.”
Speaking about his first gig he said: “I don’t think it could have been scarier. I didn’t eat a thing all day and just paced around my flat. I’d never been a public speaker, I have no drama experience or anything.
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“It was in this venue in Balham, south London. I was quite lucky because it went well – in fact the first ten or so gigs I did went well. Then after that I played some gigs which were so bad that if they’d been my first gig I would have never done stand-up again. Those first few gigs really gave me the stand-up bug and I’ve been doing it ever since.”
Chris’ career has continued to go from strength to strength as now fronts his own Saturday morning chat show and has appeared on a number of TV shows. He said none of this would have been possible if he didn’t dare himself to get up on stage.
He told the ECHO: “The thing with comedy though is that once you start doing it it opens a lot of doors to other things. Last year I acted in a BBC1 Jimmy McGovern drama called ‘Moving On’, set in Liverpool.
“I’d never done straight acting before but I enjoyed doing it. It’s good to do something as part of a team as stand-up’s quite solitary. I used a computer to learn my lines. Everything talks these days – they just email me stuff and I listen to it. It’s great.”