LIFE THE UNIVERSE AND PART 6 & 6(a)

Wednesday, 6 May 2020

LIFE THE UNIVERSE AND PART 6 & 6(a)

LIFE STORY PART 6

My run in the Whitehall theatre came to an end in early October and I went to Malta for a months work in a wonderful night club run by an old friend, I took my girlfriend at the time and the trip was eventful, in those days to get to Heathrow you took an airport bus from Victoria Station, a little nervous of flying we had a few drinks to calm our nerves, by the time we got to the Terminal we were as calm as newts .

We were put into the VIP lounge at Heathrow had a few more Chardonnays 

and found out that travelling on the same plane was a well known Magician /Illusionist whose main trick was the famous 'Bullet Catch', now this was '73 and the latest threat was plane hi-jacking , (it's how Cuba got a tourist industry)
so security measures were strict including the transportation of the guns and bullets for the Magicians act, now in those days there were no moving walkways , jetways or other ways to get from Terminal to the plane just a walk from the building across the tarmac to the front for first class or the rear for everyone else so on this particular evening approaching the front of the plane was a line-up led by the cabin crew, the pilot at the front carrying the gun, a steward following with the box for the bullets , the magician, his assistants and bringing up the rear me and Mary staggering ever so slightly , I can't adequately describe the different looks we got from the passengers queueing at the rear door waiting to board but I can guarantee that we were the subject of many stories when they got back home . There was more drinking on the plane but the biggest surprise was to come at Valetta airport where a press conference had been arranged to herald the arrival of both me and the magician, he was appearing at the other famous Maltese nightspot the Buskett roadhouse , around the press office were posters advertising the two different clubs mine was black letters on a dayglo green background with the following text
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

THE NIGRET NIGHT CLUB AND RESTAURANT 

IS PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE 

FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MALTA 

A SPECIAL GUEST APPEARANCE

by

DAVID KONYOT 

* A STAR IN LONDON AND MOST PLACES IN ENGLAND *

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was probably around then I sobered up and started to re-consider my future.

Malta was an absolute blast, we had a beautiful apartment and Paul , the club owner, gave me use of his Chevrolet Camaro while we were there, I worked about 3 nights a week mostly to British army Soldiers and Staff who were stationed on the island so a good time was had by all.

But,

there's always a 'But '

before I left for Malta Terry and I had another of our conversations about my future, I had been thinking quite a lot about this during the West End run and a certain amount of realism and logical thinking had entered my brain, I was hoping it would leave quite soon but it resulted in an honest and in my opinion a true assessment of my situation, I made a mental list of my pro's and cons, 

on the plus side I could sing, dance, do good impressions, could tell a joke plus play a couple of instruments and over the previous 9 years I had built up a decent reputation as a good all-round entertainer, privately I had a decent flat in Hendon, a new Ford Capri and money in the bank , on the con side the cabaret/club circuit was changing and working alone was not what I wanted any more.
Another option was to try to get into musicals and maybe dramatic theatre but that was a part of show business that always had a 80% unemployment rate and I liked to eat so there was a lot to think about . 

While I had been working at the Star and Garter I had got a strange phone call from an old friend Micheal Austin.

We had known each other since we were kids and he was one of the few Circus friends I'd kept vaguely in touch with over the years, The phone call was to offer me a job with a Circus he was taking out, Co-incidentally it came on the same day I got the part for Pyjama Tops so I politely declined.

This was 1973 and mobile phones were not around yet so for Michael to trace me had taken some effort and I wanted to thank him for thinking of me soon my return from Malta I found out that he was working for Chipperfields Circus at the Bingley Hall in Birmingham so I drove up to see him , a journey that would have life changing consequences.

What happened over the next week is strange and I still don't completely understand it , Circumstance, Serendipity, Fate, Happenstance, Re-alignment of the Stars, and to paraphrase Prime Minister Macmillan” Event's dear boy, Events”
It started when Gordon Howes got a sore throat, Gordon was a wild animal trainer but was Ringmaster for this winter season of the circus and for obvious reasons a sore throat is not a good thing for a Ringmaster to have, Had I not been there that would have been the end of the story but I was and it wasn't so someone, I don't know who but if I ever find out there will be a conversation, suggested that because I was a comedian/ entertainer and was used to talking in public I could be RM for a day or two until Gordon got better, This was eventually proposed to me and I said OK but I only have my day clothes so I'll do the announcing from behind the curtains which was fine until Gordon's daughter Barbara came out with his Red Tailcoat so that was that .

I did a couple of shows and went back home but returned the following week for a few days because it had been fun and the company was good , as I was wandering around when Dickie Chipperfield Jnr called me into his waggon and offered me a job as Ringmaster for the Circus for the upcoming season, without a moments hesitation I said yes.

Over the last 46 years I have thought about that decision and it's ramifications many times, but never, ever, not for a moment, have I regretted it .

As I drove back to London I realised that my flat would have to go but that wouldn't be a problem, luckily I still had my caravan parked at Rosaires farm, I would need a proper Ringmasters Red Coat would have to be made so I would have to visit my tailor , yes I had a tailor, a lovely guy in Hammersmith who made my dinner suits and working costumes, I still had a couple of months work on the clubs and Chipperfields didn't start for a while so I had time to make all the arrangements.

For quite a few years despite the uncertainty of show-business I had worked regularly, I had been paid well plus the last couple of years in London and my stint in the Whitehall theatre had pushed me way up on the salary scale so the fact that I'd just accepted a job for £45 a week was a little surprising, and there was still the conversation with Terry to be had, I thought it would be uncomfortable but it was the opposite, he agreed that the cabaret scene was undergoing a dramatic change, with smaller stages to accommodate more seating the predominance of Organ and Drums duos replacing live bands of 5/6 musicians and with the amount of comedians and impressionists on TV it was hard to keep up with new material that an audience hadn't seen the night before,  Terry accepted my decision with his normal good grace, he was and still is a very good friend and over the years we kept in touch he now runs a very good tour with his orchestra raising funds for the British Legion, we actually did some shows with him a couple of years ago which was fun and an enjoyable trip down memory lane.

Before the season started I arrived at Chipperfields winter quarters nr Chipping Norton a place I remembered from my childhood, they had bought the farm in the late 50's when the show was at Bingley Hall for Xmas, My father was in charge of the Elephants at the time and had journeyed there to check out the stabling for the animals, I was with him so we were the first to see the now famous or infamous farm , co-incidentally that show saw the first “Grimble Clowns ' the story that I understood was they had employed a troupe of continental clowns who had backed out at the last minute and Uncle Dick Chipperfield had come up with the idea of getting my Dad, who was a good clown, to put some sort of act together The previous season dad had worked in the show with Richard Hearne the famous ( for anyone over 60 ) Mr Pastry, For the advertising posters there had to be a name so Uncle Dick came up with 'The Grimble Clowns' the act was my Dad , Tommy Fossett, my mum and Bill Smee who was the shows signwriter / painter. From this mix came a very good clown act and a name that Tommy Fossett later took over with outstanding success, many years later Tommy was the inspiration for me to start my own musical clown act. Very quickly so as to get it out of the way my Father was, in my opinion, one of the best clowns I ever saw, he was also very good with animals, if he had been as funny and as good with his family our lives would have been very different and a whole lot better.

OK back to the timeline, it's coming up to Easter '74 and I have arrived at the Chipperfield winter Quarters , there was a lot going on and somewhere in the middle of the lot going on I got a job fixing the lights on the transport now I am not nor ever have been an auto electrician , after 40+ years I know my way around a tool kit and I can wire a plug but in '74 I knew sod-all so off I went to and auto shop in oxford bought a book and a whole load of auto electrics went back to the farm and gave in the bill to Auntie Myrtle (Mrs Dick Chipperfield) it was then I learnt an important lesson , Circuses don't like to spend money ! I'll emphasise that CIRCUSES DON'T LIKE TO SPEND MONEY !!!!!!!!.

That evening slowly but surely my caravan filled up with people until there some playing a multiple patience card game at one end coffee being drunk at the other and a hum of chatter and laughter from everywhere and I realised what had been missing from my life for as long as I could remember .
The cabaret circuit meant a different town and a different club each week you made friends along the way but they were transitory , a six week panto or a decent summer season was good for flirting and a couple of parties but then it was over and off you went again , 

In my caravan on that evening in that far flung desolate piece of middle England I laughed and enjoyed myself more than I had for many years and made friends that I still have to this day, a confirmation that my decisions was good .

The work of lights on the transport was taken very seriously , at least by me , at the time I didn't know of the reputation that Chipperfields had about their transport so I carried on regardless. Every day at some point John jnr would pass by whatever lorry I was working on or under, he'd stop and say “it'll all end in tears “ day after day very quietly he'd just appear and repeat “It'll all end in tears “ a couple of days before we set out for the season all the vehicles were done, any lorry could be coupled up to any waggon and the lights would work, my job here was done now I could buckle down to the new challenge of being a RingMaster. On the day we set out, the lead load, an Albion tractor with two trailers, was driven by Dickie jnr, as he exited the farm he turned right instead of left and scraped every light off the right hand side of the load and – you guessed it, standing behind me was John jnr who looked at me and said , very quietly “I told you it would end in tears” I loved John jnr like a brother, we had met over the years at Circus re-unions and always got on, he had a dry sense of humour loved Neil Diamond and not a day went by that we didn't laugh over something or nothing , Sadly he was taken from us a few years ago re-inforcing the saying that the good die young , in Johns case way too young.

Jim Stockley gets a whole paragraph to himself, another one of the Chipperfields family his Dad, Jim snr had been the transport manager on the show at the same time my dad was there and they were good friends as their sons would be a few years later , his mum auntie Marjorie became my surrogate mother she was a wonderful lady with a wicked sense of humour a constant twinkle in her eye and an ear that would listen to any problem with sympathy and a cup of tea .OK back to Jim and the rest of his paragraph , I never saw him flustered , in the middle of any crisis and there were always crisis , crisises , crisi , what is the plural of crisis ? There must be one , if there is it'll have something to do with circus 'cos theres always a crisis ( singular) anyway before , during and after any crisis Jim was a steady balanced figure who never ran or seemed to hurry anywhere, his long lanky figure would lope and yes thats the word I'm gonna use, he would lope into view and generally sort things out or not as the case may be, his sense of humour was just as sharp as john but a little more subtle, in his later years he has turned out to be something of a historian, he knows and has learned lots about the family and their ups and downs through the generations and is the go-to authority on all things Chipperfield , he lives in S.A and one of the great joys of social media is the ability to be able to connect with those friends and family who are spread throughout the world, Jim and I meet regularly on FB , the last time we met face to face was a few years ago when he was visiting the UK and we were both driving around the M25, with phone calls and sat-navs we met up on a slip road nr gatwick and had a few minutes of re-union and like all good friendships the years in between slipped away for a few moments before we split to go our seperate ways.
There will be more on Jim, John jnr, Dickie ,Mike and Dave Freeman , Rudi, Colin and the Enos family , Carol, Claire, Sally, Tommy, the Valla- Bertinis, the Icarus flyers ,Charlie and Nora Bale, Herman , the Major and many others who made that season , my first back in Circus, funny, muddy and memorable

in Part 7