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the shoWs are incrediBlY Warm. theY’re full of heart. i think the element of comedY that i’ve BrouGht has Been verY popular, BeCaUse THaT MaKes THe sHOW iNTeRaCTiVe – aUDieNCes aRe PaRTiCiPaTiNG iN THe sHOW THROUGH THeiR laUGHTeR.
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I think also that Giffords Circus is genuinely a family, because we keep certain performers back each year – Bibi and Bichu obviously, Nancy and Tweedy, etc. So the audience get to know these people, and they get to love them.
one, am much more careful than I was in that first year.
It’s lovely to sit in the audience when the lights come on and hear a whisper go around the tent when Bibi and Bichu come on (which you also get with Tweedy) and there are running jokes about them that the audience get, because they see them every year. I think the audience feels a sense of ownership that they might not get with other shows and circuses.
I was an actor for a long time, around twenty years. I always did comedy and I suppose that without thinking about it I was always a bit of a physical comedian – it was just something instinctive.
Do you have a stand out memory from your years working with Giffords Circus? The first year I was with Giffords, I decided to throw a party. I got so drunk at this party that I ended up wandering around Bourton-on-theWater completely unable to remember where I was staying. I’d spent a lot of money on this party for the whole company, and everybody had gone home, and I was wandering around Bourton crying, and saying: ‘why is this happening to me?’ Somebody found me and put me in a hotel. The next day, a few people were absent from rehearsals. We still do the party, but I, for
How did you get into the business of directing physical comedy?
I then appeared in a show directed by the famous performance guru Philippe Gaulier, who I’d studied with.Then people started asking me to direct them – such as The Mighty Boosh, who were just two comedians at the time. I just got a name for being able to make things funny. The directing just sort of took off! I gradually took on more of the directing work that I was offered than the acting. I love my job. I still do tiny bits of acting now and again – I did some of the motion capture work in the Paddington movie, and I’m about to start work on the new Paddington movie. I had a small part in The Amazing Spiderman 2, where I was physical comedy director. I love all those, but my favourite gig every year is Giffords Circus. www.cotswold-homes.com
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