Preview: Jenny "The Vixen" Ryan: Out of The Box at South Shields Customs House

Jenny “The Vixen” Ryan: Out of The Box tour: ‘It’s ok to be a dork and a pop star’

The Chase star heads to The Customs House as part of her national tour

Jenny "The Vixen" Ryan: Out of The Box

South Shields Customs House

Wednesday 25 September 2024

For millions of viewers, Jenny Ryan is best known as The Vixen on ITV’s The Chase, a professional quizzer who has shattered the hopes of countless contestants. But there’s much more to this trivia queen than first meets the eye, as she reveals in her new autobiographical cabaret show Out of the Box.

She grew up in Bolton, in a “working class single parent household”, and inherited a love of TV quiz shows from her grandfather, who also taught her to read and write. 

As a student in Leeds she got her first taste of appearing on such programmes herself when she took park in University Challenge, helping her team reach the semi-finals. “I remember that everyone else was really nervous during filming,” she recalls, “whereas I just felt completely at ease.” 

She started applying for more shows, and soon became a familiar face on programmes such as Mastermind, Are You an Egghead? and the notoriously difficult Only Connect, which her team won in 2010. She even did a stint as a QI elf (Out of the Box includes a glorious tidbit about Stephen Fry). But it was The Chase that turned her into a household name. 

“The Vixen is very much a character that lets me behave with a bit more confidence and sass than I do in my everyday life,” she says. “People often meet me and say ‘you’re actually really nice!’” 

In 2019, Ryan wowed the nation when she took part in The X Factor: Celebrity. Her performances of pop classics including Queen’s “Somebody to Love” and Lady Gaga’s “The Edge of Glory” led her to the final, and won her an army of fans. 

Looking back now she describes the experience as “unreal”, to the point where it felt like “playing a video game”. It was certainly unexpected for someone who “didn’t realise until quite late on that I had a good voice”.

Since then, she’s had many requests to sing again. So last year she got together with her friend, musical director Eoin Mallon, to discuss doing a show together. “We talked about the songs I enjoy singing, that bring me joy. Once we put them all together we realised they told a story, and could be linked to different points in my journey.”

Fast forward a few months and they were premiering Out of the Box at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. It’s a festival Ryan knows well, having seen her friends perform in shows there over the years. 

“I knew what a risk we were taking at the Fringe,” she says. “But honestly I was blown away by the response. We sold out the run and people came from all over to see it. Every night when I looked out to a full house, I was just astonished that of all the shows at the festival, people had chosen to come and spend an evening with me.”

One of her favourite sections of Out of the Box is the audience Q&A, as she says she’s always “knocked sideways” by at least one of the questions. An example is when someone asked her to name her favourite musicals, and the parts she’d most like to play. “I don’t think they were expecting me to answer King George in Hamilton,” she laughs.

The show, which features Mallon on piano, reflects her love of musical theatre, with songs from Chicago and Everybody's Talking About Jamie. Others range in style from classic torch songs to a recent Austrian Eurovision winner. It’s an eclectic mix, reflecting a multifaceted personality. “They all reflect moments in my life,” she says.

So how did she first discover her love of singing? “It’s always brought me personal joy, singing into my hairbrush and that kind of thing, but I was always in the back row of the choir and never got cast in the main roles in the school productions. I certainly never thought I’d be someone who ended up singing on Saturday night TV and performing my own show!”

She adds that she hopes Out of the Box will serve as inspiration to anyone who is unsure of how to best express their abilities. As she puts it, “becoming a professional quizzer isn’t something a careers advisor ever told me was possible”.

After the rapturous response in Edinburgh, many people contacted her asking when it would be visiting other venues, so she’s delighted to now be taking the show on a wide-ranging tour of the UK. “We’ve tried to cover as much of the country as we can, and I’m really excited to visit some familiar places alongside some I’ve never been to before.”

She’s especially excited about her South Shields show: “I’m really looking forward to getting back to the North East. I was in panto in Darlington not too long ago and had a brilliant time.”

Audiences can certainly look forward to a performance unlike any they’ve experienced before. As Ryan says, if there’s one thing her unusual journey has taught her, it’s that “it’s ok to be a dork and a pop star.”

Tickets:

Jenny "The Vixen" Ryan: Out of The Box is on at The Customs House in South Shields on Wednesday 25th September at 7.30pm.

To buy tickets or for more information go to www.customshouse.co.uk or call the box office on 0191 454 1234.