A Brief History of George
I was lucky enough to work with Paul Daniels in 2011. He told me his secrets (well, some of them)!
When I was a kid I was fascinated by magic, not by the glitz of the magician or the patter but how the tricks worked. I would watch Paul Daniels on the BBC and desperately try to work out how he did each trick. I would be awed by an effect but very quickly my mind would be racing. But how on earth did he do it?!
The BBC later made a murder mystery show called Jonathan Creek. The protagonist was a “magic consultant”, not interested in being on the stage, only interested in the mechanism of how the trick worked. It’s like it was made for me!
It wasn’t very long before I discovered that a theatre is a magical place.
School Years
My first experience actually on a stage was a school pantomime when I was 10 years old. I played the dame. It might have been my best role.
I was in a musical production of Animal Farm in my first year of senior school when, at one point during the technical rehearsal, the director noticed my incredible singing voice (ahem), I was accused of being “aggressively tone deaf” and to keep away from the people with microphones.
A few embarrassing on-stage experiences later and I asked my drama teacher if I could “help out backstage”.
My first role was follow-spotting the school’s Recycled Fashion Show. Spending a long day perspiring on a catwalk above the auditorium. I wasn’t brilliant, but what I loved about the experience was the camaraderie and community derived from a group of people working towards a common goal.
And so, a lifelong passion for technical theatre was born.
My first lighting desk, a Strand GSX. I learned to programme one of these at school.