Joey Essex has spoken about his upcoming new show ‘Educating Joey Essex: Space Cadet’, which sees him spending time at a space camp in Alabama, before heading to the infamous Area 51 in Nevada to explore all things extra-terrestrial and paranormal.
In what can only be described as one small step for man, and one giant leap for Essex-kind, the former ‘TOWIE’ star says he feels “proud” to be the “first Essex boy… or whatever” to travel to the facility, which has been at the centre of a number of conspiracy theories.
Joey Essex in 'Educating Joey Essex: Space Cadet'
However, he did say that it was one of the scariest parts of filming the documentary, particularly after being witness to some suspicious goings on.
Speaking to HuffPost UK exclusively, Joey says: “You can’t fly planes there, so if you do see something in the sky, it’s obviously something that’s not meant to be there. It’s pretty weird, there’s no phone signal there.”
We’re guessing the scary part was the unexplained things in the sky, rather than the lack of phone signal, although we’d be frightened if we had to go a whole 48 hours without a selfie session too.
He adds: “There’s like these vans at Area 51. You’re in the middle of the desert, there’s no one there. If we drove there now, you’d randomly get these vans come up to you - blacked out, white vans that circle you, and then drive off.”
Joey looking 'reem' in a spacesuit
However, despite having been up to the gate of Area 51, Joey says he didn’t get too close as he “didn’t want to get shot”, claiming he resisted the urge to ask Barack Obama for special permission to film at the mysterious base.
Joey explains: “I dunno if he would have let me. We’re not friends yet.”
‘Yet’? There’s one Facebook friend request Obama can look forward to, then.
His experiences on his new show have led Joey to say he now believes in aliens - saying he feels he is “helping the world” by bringing the subject to the public’s attention - and he even claims that he may have come into contact with one while recording the episode.
According to Joey: “I sort of met this lady called T.M. And I don’t know if she was a lady or what she was, no one could work it out. When you see it you’ll realise what I mean.
“She’s got, like, really weird curly hair and was always wearing a hat for some reason..? Why would you always be wearing a hat? You’re obviously trying to tell people that you’re not… real…”
Obviously.
‘Educating Joey Essex: Space Cadet’ airs at on Tuesday, 10 September at 9pm on ITV2.