He left school at 16 and spent the next two years working in a betting shop, before spending the summer of 1966 working as a Red Coatin Butlins Holiday camp at Mosney, County Meath. He spent the following two summers at the Butlins Holiday Camp in Clacton. By the early1970s he was living in Manchester. From 1972 he worked at the Pontins holiday camps in Southport and Morecambe. He returned to Clacton-on-Sea in 2006 to star in the eight week summer show, Summer Special, at the West Cliff Theatre.

http://www.jimmycricket.co.uk/html/magennis_the_musical.html

Television

With Matt Lucas and PeterKay he appeared in the comic relief video of The Proclaimers song I would walk 500 Miles.

Style

Jimmy Cricket's humour is entirely clean, in marked contrast to some other Irish comedians. A popular theme of his comedy is Irish logic, and the ubiquitous letter from his"Mammy". He almost always appears in his trademark outfit of cut-off evening trousers, tuxedo, hat (given to him by the BBC to wear on The Good Old Days) and wellies marked "L" and "R" for left and right, but worn on the wrongfeet.

Catchphrases

His catchphrases include "come 'ere" and "...and there's more."