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On site: writers, actors, tycoons, painters, politicians, prelates, commentators, media leaders, comedians, or just larger-than-life people I liked. . Also: vanishing institutions, cricket, philosophy.. - Geoffrey Mather
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On site: writers, actors, tycoons, painters, politicians, prelates, commentators, media leaders, comedians, or just larger-than-life people I liked. . Also: vanishing institutions, cricket, philosophy.. - Geoffrey Mather
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Warm-up man Dudley Doolittle, Blackpool Opera House, 1985
The toughest ,job in show business, is being" performed by a comedian billed as Dudley Doolittte whose real name is Steve Pickering. It is at Blackpool Opera House, where Cannon and Ball top the bill, but do not appear on stage until the second half..
At 6.10 each night,. you get the overture, the dancers -"all bang-bang-bang” -
Then him: one man with a manic strut, moving from side to side on stage, saying “Good evening,” and expecting a reply.
The psychology is to turn an audience subdued by the day’s battles of the beaches with fretting children into a happy family of friends. In precisely 12 minutes.
Miraculously, he can do it. He does much the same for TV as warm-up man for studio audiences. He says he “tickles them along gently,” having conversations rather than telling straight jokes. It can be tough.
"First night, OK," he says. "Second night, first house, diabolical. Someone said, 'We've had comics do that spot before and they've never ever gone welL.' I thought: Well, I will. Last night they shouted for more. If they’d said they were not paying me I would not have bothered. I was over the moon. "
His dressing room is on an upper floor and he runs up and down stairs fit, never stopping talking or smiling. Optimism and energy spur him to constant movement.
He is 39 And started with a guitar. "This is gospel truth - I was sitting at home and a guy knocked on the door. (do you take sugar?). He said, 'How many chords do you know?' I said, 'Four.' He said, 'We only know three. Do you want to ,join the group?'
"I put my guitar in a case and said to my mother, ‘I’m joining a group. I'm going on the bus.' That is how I got into the business."
He moved into comedy when he found people preferred it to a guitar.
“Clubs,” he said, “are great for keeping your feet on the floor. I worked with The Drifters when they first came here. A guy on stage in Yorkshire said, ‘Right, ladies and gentlemen, top of the bill here. They’re not my cup of tea. In fact, the committee’s gone over my head. Four singers from America. The Drifters.’ I nearly died.”
In TV he entertains while they shift scenes for such as Little and Large. “First time I ever did a TV warm-up I had 20 minutes’ clean material and they said the most I would do was half an hour.
"A camera broke down. I did an hour and a half, opening pores that weren't there before. I was petrified.
"Kenny Everett, great bloke, but 90 per cent of his show was done by the time he reached the studio and what they had there was two, maybe three, sketches. Remember the one with the big foot? Imagine how long it took to get that right.
"We were there from 6.30 or 7pm until about 10.30 and all we did were two sketches. I must have done two hours myself. Oh dear. You're fighting for your life. You're locked up more than in a boxing ring.
"A commupance for me was when I worked, my first old people's audience. If you treat them like idiots. they hate you. If you’re blue, they hate you.
"I don't know how much material I have but it all has to be clean.
"I love people, love listening. I was offered TV myself and I’ve turned quite a lot down. In those days I did not feel I was ready. It’s a two-edged knife. I enjoy my job. When I was ill and couldn’t walk properly for three years, I decided that whatever I do, I’m going to be healthy and happy.
"If you make it nationally, that's a bonus. Not everybody can be a star. A lot have made themselves ill trying to be. I hope I make it. If I don’t, I'm having a great time.
“About four years ago I did seven nights a week for six months in my own show and police at one motorway service station got used to me stopping for a-sleep. 'How are you Dudley, all right?' they'd say.
"I got so tired I couldn't drive back home. So it depends on how hard you play it. Yon can’t burn the candle at both ends."
Geoffrey Mather © 2004
26 March, 2005