Kevin Clifton, 36, is best known as one of the professional dancers on Strictly Come Dancing. Last year, he lifted the Glitterball trophy for the first time, having made it to his fifth final, this time with celebrity partner Stacey Dooley, 32. Since then, the pair have struck up a romance and are now in a relationship. However, Kevin also has a business on the side, working as a property investor.
Speaking on Rom Moore’s The Disruptive Entrepreneur podcast, the Strictly star recently recalled a hilarious incident which occurred when he first attended a training course for investors.
“When I first came to Progressive, I went on one of the courses, the course that was about speaking,” he said.
“I was sat at a table with a group of people and we were sort of saying hello and things and I was really shy,” Kevin continued.
“People were going, ‘Hi, what’s your name?’ and I was going, ’My name’s Kevin.’ And this lovely lady next to me asked me, ‘What do you do?’”
The Grimsby-born dancer laughed as he said he told her he was doing buy-to-lets.
Kevin explained how the woman had gone on to quiz him about his property business, asking if he did it full-time.
When he said he didn’t, she pressed him on his other job.
“‘Oh, I’m self-employed,’” Kevin recalled answering evasively.
“Because I’m on TV, the perception would be that I’m mad confident. I’m not,” he said. “I never have been.
“It wasn’t within me to say to her, ‘Well, I’m one of the most successful professionals on Strictly come Dancing! Did you not see my hips as I walked in?!’
“In the end she said, ‘I don’t want to be rude and you don’t have to tell me, but what is it that you do? Because you seem like you don’t want to say.’”
Kevin then explained how he wound up being mistaken for an exotic dancer, saying: “In the end I said, ‘I’m a dancer,’ and just sort of left it there. And because I’d been so embarrassed about it she assumed I was some sort of stripper!
“She was like, ‘Is it that kind of dancing you do, like in the clubs?’” he chuckled.
“I was like, ‘No, look at me. Of course not! That would be unsuccessful.”
Ultimately, the woman realised Kevin was one of the fan favourites on Strictly Come Dancing.
Strictly Come Dancing 2019 launches soon on BBC One.
