Jack Whitehall has recalled the time he “bombed so hard” at a private comedy gig for King Charles III after poking fun at his daughter-in-law Kate Middleton.
Middleton, 41, and Whitehall, 34, both went to Wiltshire private school Marlborough College.
The comedian shared his experience while appearing on The Late Late Show with James Corden after Whitehall joked that he was “NFI’ed” (“Not F***ing Invited”) to the forthcoming coronation due to his set from years ago.
Discussing the awkward encounter, the Jungle Cruise actor explained that he was hired by King Charles to perform a show at Kensington Palace for his staff’s Christmas party.
Sharing his recollection of the gig, he said: “I went out and they were sat, him and Camilla, in the front row in thrones, literally in thrones.
“And I had no microphone, so I was literally the court jester for half an hour.
“I did a load of jokes about Kate Middleton because she’d been at my school, and I was referring to her as ‘the one that got away’, which he didn’t like at all.”
The TV star then added: “I literally bombed so hard and afterwards I had to meet him and I had to bow and he said, ‘Yes, well, I think next year we might try a magician.’”
Whitehall’s appearance on the CBS show comes as James Corden gears up to leave the series after seven years at the helm.
The Gavin & Stacey star announced that he was leaving the series last April and revealed that he would be moving back to the UK following his tenure in Los Angeles.
Ahead the show’s finale on April 27, the 44-year-old admitted that he feels “huge amounts of fear”, but is looking forward to focusing on his theatre career once back on home soil.
Earlier this month, Corden shared at PaleyFest: “I haven’t felt this scared since I decided to take the show, to move here. I haven’t felt on such unstable ground... (But) I have to embrace that fear... I’m just aware that what I’m trying to do isn’t the road that’s often travelled.
“To go from like National Theatre, writing a TV show on the BBC, Broadway, host of a late-night talk show, shooting stuff in the middle of that, stopping the late-night talk show and then going, ‘Oh, I’d like to do another play now.’
“It just isn’t the road that’s been travelled to my knowledge, so with that comes a huge amount of fear. It’s terrifying, it’s absolutely terrifying.”
Corden took over as presenter of The Late Late Show in 2015 from Scotland-born comedian Craig Ferguson, who spent 10 years as host.
His first episode, which aired in March of that year, featured Hollywood superstar Tom Hanks as a special guest.
