My favourite fabulous English seaside town, with all the trimmings, glitter and even a bit of sunshine in February.
The very first time I went to blackpool was in 2007, to be part of Admission All Classes, which went on to become Showzam. It was a life changing weekend spent in some of the most romantic and beautiful theatres and buildings I had ever seen.
Here I also met some of the excellent people whom I am now endlessly inspired by. On the last afternoon we all decided to stay an extra night, and over a huge dinner at mamma’s Italian restaurant we discussed how we would bring new variety back to its original home and make Blackpool amazing again. ‘2010!’ we shouted with enthusiasm. By then it would be a huge festival! I think we had talked it up to Glastonbury proportions.. We headed off to Funnygirls and through a chorus line of sequin-seamed high leg kicks, my love affair with this seaside town was engrained for life.
This year’s showzam was particularly fun (and busy) for me, I performed during the day at the Showzam central site in Olympia, part of the Winter Gardens. In the evenings I performed with La Clique in what felt like its perfect home, the Tower Circus. There was also the Carnival Ball in the Tower Ballroom, and my new Koringa act which was part of the Magic show all weekend. It was 2 weeks of shows, Abingdon market, good coffee’s, magicians, great friends, beautiful paintings and sideshow scares. Circus and variety – old and new, but only the good bits.
This is my account of how it went down, I hope it brings back the good memories or helps you share in the fun we had.
The magic show was held on the weekends in the Tom Norman tent where I walked up a ladder of knives, and tamed a snake… sort of.
This act was a recreation of a famous act that was performed in the 50’s and 60’s by ‘Koringa - the only female fakir’. There were people in the audience who had seen her perform and even some people who had worked with her – much to my horror! but thankfully they all said wonderful things so that was a relief. Strangely as the 2 weeks progressed a huge pimple that really hurt appeared on my head above my left eyebrow. Well, it felt like a pimple but it was sort of just a red lump. Anyway. Koringa used to have a beauty spot like the one I mark on my cheek but hers was on her forehead. I had been drawing it above my right eyebrow, mirroring her posters, but by the weekend this red lump was so big I decided she was trying to tell me I had been drawing it on the wrong side..
Also in the show was Tim Cockerill, who was under the guise of Dr Walford Bodie, a master of electricity who used to demonstrate all sorts of electrical feats, which Tim recreated with the assistance of his glamorous assistant Electra. Tim is a legend.
I spent my weekends asking him questions that he always had the answers for; how did you make the chariot that the flea pulls? How many volts are you plugging electra into? How big is the biggest insect? (57 cm!!) How many insects are there in the malayasian forest? Tim is doing his PHD on insects at Cambridge and he is going to Malaysia for 5 months to collect creepy crawlies. Especially the ones that haven’t been discovered yet. He is also a good cook and travels with a spice kit.
Masterminding the magic show was Andrew Van Buren, who performed many amazing magic tricks made famous over the years, even recreating an act made famous by his parents! here is father and son:
During the week the Tom Norman tent was host to a series of video’s curated By Professor Vanessa, the hardest working woman I know, mastermind behind so much of this festival, im pretty sure she never sleeps.. the video's were so beautiful and were often accompanied by Stephen Horne on piano ( and sometimes flute too at THE SAME TIME!)
To pull in the crowds there was the very glamorous Miss Behave barking her lungs out, along with various performances including Michael Diamond doing all sorts of fire tricks, and even some Frodo and Miranda music moments.
Professor Jon was also running his side shows as well:
There were many great things to see there, the headless lady, and the new monster show – which during the magic convention was also home to some nifty pick-pocketers..
There was also an amazing palm reader this year, and for the first time ever I had my palm read – it was a bit daunting – took me a week to get around to it – but I was very happy after! Her daughter nancy also happens to be a super accordian player, coming 3rd in the world accordian competition in Italy last year! wowsers.
There were also these two, who were always around looking after my hoops for me! I gave them lots of tips on how to get grip off a skateboard…
Michael from dingles was selling so many great circus books –
There was much excitement amongst the clique about performing in the tower circus. It was such an amazing venue. And I really liked going up in the air there because the winch was so fast!
It was the first time they had ever had seats in the ring – and it was neat seeing the circus show during the day which has a water finale where the stage sinks and the fountain in the middle of the pool sprays water nearly to the ceiling - and then knowing that at night we were performing in the same spot.
Miss Behave outdid herself for carnival ball with the most insane outfit I have seen her in to date. ( where are the photo's please?!) I didn’t catch much of the show as we had la Clique down stairs in the Circus. Straight after the show, George and I caught the service lift up to the ballroom to perform in the carnivale – Glamour!
I have been blogging the food constantly here,
Phil from the Grande theatre was the loveliest host as always, keeping matchums open for amy’s birthday, so nice, there was pizza and biscuits and all sorts.. it was so nice to see everyone too, relaxed and not running off to do a show..
Magic convention – by the 2nd weekend it was apparent that the magicians were in town, there was a murmur during the week, the odd 3 piece satin suit in marks and spencer buying egg sandwiches, or the couple in their 60’s in very matching very bright outfits with hats casually strolling through town.. by the weekend there was no shyness, the cards were out and you couldn’t get through a bucket of chips without having to think of a card..
The Green Parrot – This was the highly anticipated opening that we were all waiting for. Amy had no doubt that it was going to be a total success ,but there was still an air of anticipation as to whether or not Betty Legs Diamond was going to give us all the splits, tricks and wigs that we were hoping for.
There was no dissapointment.
Screaming, yes. High leg kicks and back up dancers that made you want to take up tap dancing, yes. Lips that told 300 stories in the space of one song, of course. I was very happy about the hair, and the legs, geez. There was ample acrobatics too..
This year is Barnum’s 200th anniversary, To celebrate, Professor Vanessa commissioned Mark Copeland from the Insect Circus to paint a series of Barnum paintings.
These were then turned into banners and hung around Olympia, seriously beautiful pieces that are now on display in Sheffield at the National Fairground Archive.
Vanessa, Robin, Mark and Sarah looked after Amy and I nearly every night as we crawled in the door greeted by this team, who always had a most delicious dinner waiting for us, which I would gratefully finish and then crawl back upstairs to sleep. There was many an apple pie, and many a good conversation. Chris and claire from the council worked round the clock, solving all sorts of problems even the small ones ie. me running out of carrots to slice on the sword ladder (thanks chris!) And when it all got too much, i could always be found here watching the lunchtime ballroom dancers go through there routines some with meticulous precision, others not so much so.. Showzam is the kind of festival I wish I could have as a job, nothing keeps me quite as entertained on every level.
Im sorry if i missed anyone out - there was too much going on to keep track of it all! I cant wait for next year and am hoping to make it back down for the illuminations and the world fireworks competition. Blackpool is the future.
