Jim Gaffigan lands a big gig

Jim Gaffigan is to perform stand-up for the Pope.

The Catholic comic has been selected to perform for the Pontiff when he visits Philadelphia later this month.

'This is insane,' Gaffigan said. 'I am going to be doing stand-up comedy for Pope Francis. This is not a joke.'

He broke the news on last night's Conan O'Brien show, prompting the host to call it 'the most insane gig I ever heard of'.

'He doesn't know,' Gaffigan joked. 'He has no idea!'

The comic went on to explain how he got the gig at the Festival of Families for Pope Francis on September 26.

'Six months ago I got an email inviting me to be at this event in Philadelphia for Pope Francis and I thought, "Oh this is nice." The Bishop of Philadelphia invited me and I was like , "Oh this is great", my wife is very Catholic, she's like a Shiite Catholic, so she was thrilled.

'So a couple of weeks ago the organisers came to see a show I was doing in Atlantic City and afterwards they were like "So how long do you want to do?" and I'm like "Oh, I'm performing?" And they're like, "Yeh, you're performing in front of the Pope." And I'm like, "Wha-a? Does he know English?" No he doesn't, it'll be translated.

'What I realised is that I'm going to be performing in front of the Pope AND over a million people outside in Philadelphia.

'I keep thinking there's going to be a phone call wehere there'y going to be like, "Oh, we just watched the stand-up and we changed our mind".'

Also on the bull are Aretha Franklin, Andrea Bocelli, The Fray, Sister Sledge, and The Philadelphia Orchestra.

Here is Gaffigan telling Conan about his gig:

Published: 15 Sep 2015