Johnny Shentall (CelebAir) Interview

Starting on Tuesday 2nd September 2008, ITV2 will be taking to the skies with the brand new show, CelebAir; with a real plane, flying to real places, staffed by real celebrities!

In this new eight-part series, 11 celebrities will take on a range of jobs on the ground and in the air to battle it out ultimately to become CelebAir’s star employee and win thousands of pounds for the charity of their choice.

Ex-Hear-Say band member, Johnny trained at Performers College after which he then went straight into commercial dance. A successful career followed, dancing with the likes of Diana Ross in the television programme An Audience with Diana Ross, Robbie Williams at The Brit Awards, Atomic Kitten, Five and with Steps on tour. After this he signed his first record deal and had a hit with the band Boom. He then signed his second professional record deal with Hear’Say, where he had huge success including a number six single in the official UK charts. Johnny also starred as Chuck in the West End production of Footloose.


Favourite holiday destination?

I have got two favourite holiday destinations. Las Vegas, because you can go there with either your wife or your mates and have a great time. However, my ultimate holiday was where I went on my honeymoon to a private island just overlooking Bora Bora in the French Polynesia. It is the most beautiful and romantic place I’ve ever been to.

Any holiday disasters?

My worst holiday disaster was when I lost my suitcase on my honeymoon. I had to wait three days before it turned up. Luckily it was such a relaxed place that you could wear shorts and a t-shirt everywhere.

My three travel essentials?

Swimming shorts, iPod and good company.

If I could serve any famous passenger?

I’d love to serve someone like Michael Jackson or Jon Bon Jovi, someone who is really respected as an artist or entertainer. And the worst person would be someone who is just blatantly rude all the time. Perhaps John McCririck. He’s probably the nicest guy in the world, but he always comes across so rude.

Am I a Speedos or shorts guy?

Shorts all the way, never Speedos.

My favourite holiday anthem?

Summer of 69 by Bryan Adams is a cracking song.

Am I excited or nervous?

I’m looking forward to taking part, because I think that when people start watching the first show they will realise how much hard work and how much time we have actually spent training. We are all looking forward to getting up into the air and putting into practise what we have been taught in the classroom.

How will I deal with awkward people?

Before I started training I probably would have said I would just ignore them and carry on, but now we have been taught how to deal with them and how to diffuse the situation. Basically my aim will be to try and bring them back round to how I’m thinking and how I would like them to act on a plane.

How am I finding the training?

The trainers are throwing questions at us really fast, because when you’re on a plane and someone asks a question you need to answer straight away. I’ve loved it and it has been a great challenge, good for my brain. It’s great going home to a newborn baby as well, as it’s been tough to leave him for such a long day, but it’s good to do this and it is all for his future.

Is there going to be any rivalry between you and Lisa?

There is always rivalry between us, because Lisa’s very competitive, even when it comes down to playing snooker or pool and other fun things. I’d love Lisa to do better than me and she would love me to do better than her, but she’d never say that! There’s a hidden rule where we both support each other 100% in all that we do, but if we do stuff together someone always wants to beat the other and I think it is healthy banter. Lisa said that she didn’t realise how clever I was which is great for me and to be honest with you I felt the same. I was really nervous about the academic side of it, because I was never very good at school and I surprised myself. If I had applied myself like this at school, I probably could have done really well; you always learn when it is too late.