Jeff Innocent: I grew facial hair to stop people thinking I’m a racist

Résumé détaillé

‘The only problem is, I’ve gone from looking like a 1990s racist to a Victorian racist’.

It’s not the first time Jeff Innocent has had this shouted at him while out and about.

Jeff may be a grandad – in fact he has two grandkids – but he’s quite passionately anti-racist.

Yet after his viral clips, Jeff has found himself on the receiving end of this name-calling in public. After all, it’s how he referred to his aesthetic during his last tour, Smart Casual.

Wearing a blue tracksuit top, camo print trousers and trainers, he told the audience: ‘I call this look “Racist Grandad”.

‘If I ever had my own celebrity fashion line, I’d call it the “Jeff Innocent Retired Cockney Criminal Leisurewear Collection”‘.

When I log on to our Zoom call, I’m not greeted with the Jeff I’m expecting.

Yes, he’s still shaven-headed, dressed in a tracksuit and sporting his signature hoop earring, but he’s also wearing very trendy circular glasses and has a well-maintained beard and curly mustache.

I ask whether he’s grown facial hair to stop people assuming he’s far-right and he admits that that, actually, that did factor in.

‘The only problem is, I’ve gone from looking like a 1990s racist to a Victorian racist’.

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