THE Masked Singer has made Joel Dommett so famous that he is scared to leave his house because of swarms of obsessive fans.
But the biggest problem isn’t devotees of the ITV show’s hunky host, it’s the viewers who are desperate to grill him on which celebrities are inside the wacky costumes.
Yet Joel, 36 — just like the fans who have flocked to the prime-time guessing game show — doesn’t know who the secret guests are until the moment they have to take off their masks.
On the first night of his comedy tour, Unapologetic (If That’s OK?) in Dunstable, Beds, he said: “I have to stay in the house as people shout at me on the street, ‘Who the f* is Traffic Cone?’ It is so mad.
“People always ask me if I know who is in the costume and I don’t, and when it comes to the reveals I don’t know who it will be.”
Tonight the show reaches the semi-final stage, with five contestants remaining: Robo-bunny, Panda, Rockhopper, Mushroom and Traffic Cone.
The amazing outfits mask a range of mystery famous faces who the studio audience, the panel of celebrity judges and viewers at home try to guess.
Since the current series began on January 1 there have been some wildly different guesses as to who is inside each costume — and those guesses seem to change week by week.
Joel joked that some of the famous people who are revealed are better known to him than others — and that means there is a chance he could get their names wrong.
He joked to his audience: “The more high-pitched my voice goes, the less I know the person.
“The problem is they say the name in my ear, I say it out loud and then have got to remember it, as I have to say it at the end.
“When Morten Harket (of Norwegian band A-ha) was revealed I was like, ‘It is not Morgan Freeman’.
“It is a weird show. It is so odd from my perspective. If you haven’t seen it, just imagine taking mushrooms.”
Gloucestershire-born Joel has explored almost every field of entertainment, from acting in his early years to comedy, and in recent years, TV presenting.
He shot to fame as a contestant on I’m A Celebrity in 2016, finishing in second place behind Scarlett Moffatt. As a result he went on to host the spin-off show, Extra Camp.
Now as host of The Masked Singer — alongside judges Jonathan Ross, Davina McCall, Mo Gilligan and Rita Ora — he has taken ownership of a huge hit which has made him a wealthy man.
But after three series he admits that with fame and fortune come certain obligations which, like the show itself, are a bit peculiar.
‘I did a couple of upgrades for my wedding. I got
Joel during his stand-up gig
a brace, a facial and a butt wax. It was one of the best things I have ever had in my life’
He recalled: “In lockdown they asked me to do corporate versions over Zoom. I said yes, because I love money. It was wild, man.
“There was one man in a pharmaceutical company who dressed up as an inhaler and he started dancing and singing. I just shut my laptop and went to bed. It is so odd.
“I started filming the show days after my wedding. So I spent my honeymoon in Bovingdon studios with Jonathan Ross.”
The Masked Singer first aired in January 2020, after Joel had married 30-year-old model Hannah Cooper.
Despite being famed for his good looks and honed physique from his time in I’m A Celebrity, Joel felt he still had to enhance his appearance for the big day on the Greek isle of Mykonos, on September 10, 2019.
He said in his stand-up show: “I did a couple of upgrades for my wedding, as you are always going to look back on those photos.
“First of all I got an Invisalign, which is like a brace you wear and you only take it out for food and sex.
“I also got my butt waxed. I went in for a facial and it was on sale, so I got it. I genuinely got it.
“I took off my boxers and lay down and she told me to spread my cheeks. She then put talcum powder on me. It was one of the best things I have ever had in my life. Her name is Mary and I go back every week.”
Joel and Hannah, who met on Instagram in 2016, now live in domestic bliss at their home in Surrey — where their greatest problem is getting rid of foxes in their garden.
After becoming obsessed with them during lockdown, Joel has gone to bizarre lengths to try to ward off the noisy critters, with very mixed results.
He said: “We had a fox problem at home and we googled it and it said, ‘You should get lion’s p*’.
“That is what it said in the forum, and you can buy it on Amazon. You spray it all over the garden. Apparently the foxes come and say, ‘Whatever that is, it’s big’. But that didn’t work at all.
“The second thing on the forum was playing them Radio 4. They don’t like the BBC because it is talking, and they don’t like talking, apparently.
“So I bought a little waterproof radio and put it outside my house — it has been a long couple of years, man. Now I can’t sleep as I can hear the voices.
“Then I looked out the window and there were four foxes around the radio.”
The semi-final of The Masked Singer continues on ITV tonight at 7pm.
Joel’s Unapologetic (If That’s OK?) tour continues until May. Visit joeldommett.com.
