Nath Valvo, before anything else, is a talker. The man loves a good conversation and sharing a laugh with a friend or stranger – even a foe. We spoke just the day after he left the I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here Australia jungle ahead of his homebody comedy tour, and he already is planning his next TV gig.
“Get me on The Traitors. That’s the next thing,” says Nath. “Absolutely. I love it.”
Controversially, the most recent season of I’m A Celebrity was pre-recorded, so Nath had to wait until the finale week before he could speak about his experience.
“I got back on the 23rd of December,” he shares. “We went from being starving for a month to Christmas. I was an absolute pig on Christmas day.”
Nath and fellow celebrity and comedian (and now Queen of the Jungle) Concetta Caristo were often the ones who helped the rest stave off boredom in camp.
“I feel that I would also bestow the other honour there to Chet,” he admits. “Probably to the detriment of annoying other campmates.”
And there was one campmate in particular who didn’t appreciate their antics, and was none other than the fabulous Deni Hines. It was surprising as they arrived in the camp together and appeared to be fast friends.
“Well, yeah!” agrees Nath. “Deni’s funny, like proper funny. And we were laughing a lot those first couple of days, that first day especially.”
“You kind of have a little extra special bond with the very first people you meet. For me, that was Rebekah and Deni who got thrown up to the sky together. So, I feel like that’s probably another reason why I was so upset when it all got a bit yucky because I really did like her.”
And despite what he’s jokingly shared on other media outlets, he still does like her.
“I still do, obviously, but I mean, it was a bit of a crash down from such a good high that we started out.”
Now that he’s had some time to process, he realises it wasn’t about him.
“I actually think it wasn’t me. At the time, I thought it was me, and I took it very personally. But now, with some time, I feel like it had nothing to do with me. I just think Deni was having her own battles. She openly admitted to not being around people a lot. She’s alone a lot, she said.”
“So, I just think, for some reason, just because of the way I am, I feel like she may have channelled it to me. And Rachel was amazing when they had their big creek chat about it that made the show, because Rachel was saying maybe it’s just something bigger. And I think it was. I think we’re all in there battling our own insecurities. So, it’s all good. I’m so fine. If she wants to hang out, it’s all good.”
Read on for our conversation about his time on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here Australia.
Was the jungle everything you expected before you arrived?
Nothing will ever prepare you for this show. It’s absolutely insane. It’s almost like a science experiment. And I know we all can watch the show, and we can all comment as I do as well and judge and gossip. But when you are in there, it is very hard to explain how small your world becomes, how little things become huge.
You become very sensitive, hyper-aware of stuff. It’s just this little melting pot. Nothing will prepare you for what the show does to you once you’re in there. The hunger and everything else do these weird things to you, and you don’t have your husband or your bestie to reach out to. I’m an introverted extrovert, so I absolutely love being around people. I love talking, I love mucking around, I love socialising, but I have a really hard out.
I have this moment where my battery goes down: bye-bye. And I’m a big ghoster; a big ghoster. I love leaving. It’s a little joke I have in my show about how much I love leaving events. But you can’t leave, you just cannot go anywhere. The campsite is so much smaller than it looks on TV. So you become… I wouldn’t use the word trapped, but it just becomes very small, very quick.
In that environment, did you find that you clung to those who were familiar to you? Like you and Concetta work in similar worlds.
Look, we had met a few times, but we were nowhere near as close as we have become. But you know what George actually just kept sayingwas we were just there because it’s a TV show, and some people needed to be reminded of that sometimes. It’s TV, guys, come on! Like, let’s get up. And not in an annoying way, because you definitely need to let people nap and rest, because everyone just needs to have energy. But at the same time, we’re getting paid, and there are worse jobs to have in the world. So come on, let’s try and do some stuff and make some TV.
How did you keep yourselves entertained?
So, I kind of promised myself that at least once a day I would do something silly and fun and big, so it’s just there if they need it or not.
And those things end up becoming great moments, like doing the catwalk with Rachel Hunter, which became a highlight and Bec (Rebekah Elmalgalou) teaching me how to do the soap opera kiss was one of my highlights and teaching Matt Zukowski how to do stand up and putting on the comedy night was one of my favourite moments. That show went for way longer than it showed, and Luke (Bateman) did some stand-up, and Barry Williams sang a song. We just had a ball that night.
Matt mentioned that you’ve inspired him to continue the comedy game.
Well, I kept telling him, he is too good-looking for comedy. Comedy is for the six-out-of-tens it’s for, it’s for the regular folk. So, he’s only going to succeed if he does material about his looks, Love Island and his life, but he surprised me. We’ve become good friends. We speak quite a lot, actually, and I like that. I like that a lot.
So, if the camp had both highlights and lowlights, where do the animal encounters sit on your scale? Robert Irwin seemed to take a special interest in introducing you to the animals you were afraid of.
Can we talk about how lucky I am to have had, I think, three personal one-on-one trauma sessions with Robert?!
Yeah, people pay big bucks for that.
He and Julia impressed me every single time we went to a trial. I’ve been lucky enough to work with Julia before over the years. So, I already was a fan, and I already knew how good she is at what she does. But Rob just really surprised me as well. He’s just so kind and wasn’t faking it. Plus, he could tell how genuinely terrified I was. It’s just in his instinct to go, well, “I don’t want you to feel like that because animals are good”. So, he’d go and get it and make sure that I knew they were okay, and he did it with others as well.
He really wants you to know about it and touch it and hold it and learn all about it. He’s just got this instinct to make you feel better. I’m not going to tell him that the snakes thing is that’s still happening, but that’s fine. I did touch them in that final puzzle, and I didn’t even notice I was so in the moment. It wasn’t until after that, a couple of the crew were like, “Um, did you just see you with the snakes?” and I was like, I didn’t even know; I didn’t even click.
And one of the reasons I said yes to the show is I’m, I have eight nieces and nephews, and they can’t come to my comedy shows. I can’t watch the shows I normally do with them. And this is the first time they’ve ever watched me, and they’re doing stuff, and it’s, they loved it, and they FaceTime, and they’re grilling me by the way. They’re roasting me, and I love it.
So, it’s been amazing to have them watching me with crocs and snakes and stuff.
Tell me about your new comedy show, Homebody.
I have a lot to say about it. I feel like you don’t want to bang one about too much, just in case people haven’t seen the show. So, I’m making sure I’ve got enough in there for people who have seen it, but also the people who haven’t. You’ve got to find that balance. I definitely have some stuff I want to get off my chest. How can I not? This s**t that I’ve just gone through, if I’m going to eat an ox penis on national TV, I’m going to talk about it.
But I’m really excited. I love stand-up. That’s what I do. I work really hard on stand-up. I, you know, so I want to make the show as good as I can. It would be a real thrill if people check me out for the first time after watching I’m A Celeb. I think that would be a really cool thing.
Lifeline was your chosen charity on I’m A Celeb. They are an incredible resource. Can you tell me why you chose them?
I think it’s pretty shocking how many people have experienced suicide in their family or their friendship group. It is just everywhere, and it’s a lot more common than people think. There’s so much stuff out there about long-form therapy and bigger picture stuff, but just to be an actual crisis hotline number in the moment for that one action, I think, is really important. Just that one decision, just that one more phone call, or in that moment, just to do one more. And I also do a tech service. So yeah, that’s why I’m passionate about it, because it’s focused on just that single moment that can change everything.
Nath Valvo’s new show, Homebody, is currently touring around Australia. Find out more information here.
Stream the latest season of I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here Australia on 10 Play.
Find out more about Lifeline here.
