D Day again

Another visit to Southsea in November and one of my favourite visiting spaces, the D Day Museum car park on Clarence Esplanade, with the wind and rain lashing the lorry.  Just a literal stone’s throw from the Solent but feeling like a boat rocking on it.  The occasional roar of the Isle of Wight hovercraft passing in the long dark. I find it comforting though I guess many might not like the physical fragility of this travelling life.  I love it.  It reminds me of the impermanence of everything.  I like keeping the rain out as it tries insistently to dribble in to the living space. And stuffing socks into gaps where the wind whistles through.  And my life-saving, god-sent woodburner churning out the dry warmth and cracking and tinging as it does the magic, dries the towels and cheers the soul.

Other magic too.  I don’t even need to leave the cocooned warmth of my life pod to trudge across the weather-whipped carpark to shove pound coins in to the machine.  One click on the app, three numbers of the CVC and it’s found me, charged my card and saved the receipt for tax reckoning day.  And all for only an extra 20p a shot.

Talking of tax reckoning day, I’ve just spent the most tedious days of my year doing mine for 2017/18.  The only joy involved is the memory of the events passed, the props purchased or the teeth fixed. (I am in that wonderful profession where I can set dentistry and haircuts as a legitimate expense – you wouldn’t like a toothless hairy Mr A, now would you?) I don’t think I’ve ever had the accounts away from my desk in November before.  It’s so often been a mad dash to the post on Christmas Eve.  Pity the poor accountant coming in after the break to that mail bag.  But then, they did decide to become accountants…

And tomorrow a radio interview.  Not just ANY radio, but the BBC World Service, the programme Outlook and the broadcast day, Christmas Day.  Another step in my plan for international fame, and all arising from Rhys Edwards’ fabulous film on National Geographic. If you’ve not seen it check it out here –

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/video/shorts/a-look-at-the-whimsical-life-of-a-traveling-showman/

The World Service reporter AND a photographer (it comes to fame when you have a photographer too) are coming down to Portsmouth tomorrow for the recording in my lorry alongside Nelson’s Victory at the Historic Dockyard.  All my Great British goosebumps will be jostling…

Arriving at the Historic Dockyard but, this year, no worming my way through to the pleasant but hidden Second Sea Lord’s residence where previously I have been sited. No, this year, THE gate is opened and here I am nudged up alongside the majestic Victory with all its history, the awe and wonder of that classic bark. 

It must rank among the best locations.  No, it really is THE best.

And a good interview.  Listen on Christmas Day.  Just before AND just after The Queen.  Hey twice in one day, or so the lovely Mariana, producer of the World Service told me.  A young lady of considerable talent for her meagre years.  Expert at handling the recorder and at encouraging me to talk.  I can’t wait to hear the result. Another chapter in the white book.

All the best from a historic battleship near you,

Mr Alexander

Plus ça change…

It has been a year of many changes.  As I look towards 2019 and my seventieth year on the planet it is a really good time to reflect on change and to accept that there are some things that I can no longer do easily in the way I have been used to, and others that I should be doing to make sure I can continue working in the profession I love.

The first one of those is a decision to come down permanently from the knife-juggling chair balance routine.  Those who experienced my fall on the second day at Shrewsbury Flower Show this year were amazed I could carry on with the show.  I was amazed myself, but I suppose I just leapt into full adrenaline-fuelled mode and there was only a short way to go before the end anyway.  Someone sent me a video but I still haven’t dared watch it. The hat was the fullest I have ever had, so thank you.  I have mused on that hat for a while… perhaps I should fall over more often?

So if I’m not climbing up chairs what am I doing?  It hasn’t been difficult to decide.  I have so many routines buried in the repertoire, many of which are only half finished, so I have been developing those.  I’ve also tried to be closer to the audiences, by which I mean to be more accessible during the show, maybe that means being more human.  Making eye contact, stopping to notice particular reactions, talking to people.  I’m also planning another height adventure, but this time without the danger.  Something I’ve been toying with for a while.  And that’s enough from Tantalus.

The first season without Mimi and Blue alongside me.  This has been hard in many ways and if I didn’t know it was right for them it would be much harder, but little Mimi has had a lot of health challenges after the Rushden accident and its after-effects.  It turns out she has a heart murmur, an enlarged liver and other issues so all in all she is much better off on the sofa with Blue and Hilary, having lovely hand-cooked dinners and sitting in her dog pram (yes, really) while Blue trots alongside for half the walk in the park. She then gets out and walks back for the exercise and because her dinner is waiting at home.  When I’m there I love pushing her in the pram.  She looks like a Queen, which she is, surveying her kingdom and receiving all manner of comments (most of them kind) and laughter from other walkers on route.  But I do miss them in the lorry and in the show. I still do see them a lot when I am in Chester and staying with Hilary. They will join the long list of famous personalities who have once trod the boards with Mr Alexander.

As will The Old Time Rags, who after a lovely short season of shows with me on the stage have decided to develop their own stage, built on to the back of their live-in van.  They have been fantastic companions this summer and we have all learned from each other, which is how it should be.  I wish them great luck as they develop their careers together in this strange business.  Another change in that I am welcoming other performers to join me on the stage, after years of going it alone.  My role will to become the Master of Ceremonies, the Barker, the Stepright (‘Step right this way, ladies and gentlemen’).  And of course the stage putter upperer. Which has been made a lot easier now with the addition of four hydraulic jacks, remotely controlled, which lift the stage trailer up to the required height and automatically level it.  Expensive kit, yes, but only on the day I bought it.  And ever since I’ve loved the ease, especially at the end of the day when I just press a button on the remote and we’re ready for the road.

Another bit of good change news is that Martin Orbidans, Mr Alexander’s Accompanist, the Queeen’s Pianist, will be making a comeback in 2019.  He is currently living abroad and will continue to commute by air at the beginning and end of the season.  He is coming over in mid-May and will stay until September, working every show with me.  I have found him a lovely little vintage Carlight caravan to live in which will sit behind my car, allowing us a vehicle on site sometimes to escape from the showground.  It’s very exciting and I am beginning to think up a range of routines which will be all the better for live music.

So all change, all good and all the best from a road near you,

Mr Alexander

The end of the summer season

Well I did think I would be writing more chapters but somehow they didn’t happen, and I’m sorry to all my regular readers for that.  Not that it was an uneventful season, just a lack of inspiration to set it down in words as it was happening.  However, now it has gone, I am feeling much more inspired to sum up the summer.

It was a classic British one for me.  A memory of summers long passed, when you could say for certain on a Tuesday that the following weekend would be bright, sunny and warm. And it was, almost without exception. The one exception was the Cumbria Steam Rally.  Wet and cold for the second year running.  I felt so sorry for the organisers, particularly when the Friday before and the Monday after were both so glorious.  And, as a result, they have said they won’t be able to afford to invite me next year, so that’s my memory of Cumbria Steam – sitting watching the rain lash down the windows.

But the rest was epic.  Event after event of blasting heat and some exciting new places alongside the old favourites.  Despite a late cancellation as a result of waterlogged ground on the early May Bank Holiday at Rushden, the early season started well. MalvernSpring Garden Festival was as magical as ever with a much better location for the stage. It’s becoming a lovely annual occasion for me, and I am welcomed as an old friend. Herts County Show has changed committee, and after giving them loads of feedback, they didn’t reply and, despite reminders, were too late with their enquiry for 2019, so I won’t be back there again next year. Instead, I have been booked by the FairylandTrust for their annual frolics in Norfolk (very me, don’t you think?).  Look them up – they're brilliant. Sad for Herts County Show, but that is how it is.  There are always shows…

Barking Folk Festival was friendly and welcoming, although I found the cultural changes in London remarkable.  I am not sure if my show was fully understood.  Not just linguistically, although that too.  Just a feeling that I was being watched by people who didn’t have a vintage variety show in their cultural vocabulary.  They were friendly and appreciative, just slightly vague and open-mouthed.  Was it me?   Maybe.  I am hoping to be back next year and I will write a chapter as it happens. The immediate area around the Abbey where I was sited, was historically fascinating.  A few miles from the Thames on the River Roding, it had been the port which brought medieval fish into London.  I had noticed the fish on one of the flags and asked a few questions.  Alongside the Abbey Green is the old port and I could imagine it in medieval times as a bustling little fishing town, now completely swallowed by London.  Fascinating and almost forgotten.

And then there was Ulverston and Another Fine Fest.  Birthplace of Stan Laurel, hence the imaginative event name.  What a sweet event and such a nice town.  But strange reactions from several of the town traders to the event.  I always like to investigate local reactions to new events, and this one was quite revealing.  The ones I spoke to just didn’t like it.  Most of the reaction centred on the type of music played on the several stages through the town, some disliked the ‘type of people’ attracted. But I loved it.  The sweet Laurel and Hardy museum in the town’s cinema was the centre of the event.  I am hoping to be invited back again next year and will report again.

July and August was as July and August are always is for me.  The summer had arrived.  The back end fairs, with all the romance of early autumn came and went. I didn’t know until recently that ‘back end’ is a much more general Northern phrase for Autumn.  I thought it had been only associated with showmen.  There you go.

A final outing in October to a new event, but one which I think will grow on me.  Whitchurch Blackberry Festival.  A lovely season for blackberries this year.  The event has been going a few years.  I met a young man who I hadn’t seen since he was 8.  I had worked with his dad, Chris Panic of Panic Circus at Bodelwyddan Castle in North Wales in the early 80’s and he said I had apparently encouraged him to bring magic into his performances.  He did and still does.  How lovely.

And the summer has brought other changes which I will detail in the next chapter.  Watch out for it soon.  I’m back at the keyboard…

All the best from a road near you,

Mr Alexander