Playing a home game's special says Lancashire's Jon Culshaw ahead of two shows in the county
Lancashire born comedian and impressionist Jon Culsaw is heading back to his home county twice this month with his latest show and he chatted to us all about it.
Jon Culshaw from Ormsirk is well known as the master of impressions with his 30 years in entertainment seeing him star in Spitting Image, Dead Ringers and his own show with Debra Stephenson.
The 56-year-old can also boast acting roles in Doctor Who, Horrible Histories and most recently Parygate but now he is embarking on a new adventure, his first ever national tour of a solo stand up show.
Called ‘Imposter Syndrome’, Jon is heading to the Chorley Theatre with it on Sunday, February 2 and then to the Blackpool Grand Theatre on February 23.
Although tickets for Chorley are now sold out, the last few tickets for Jon’s Blackpool show are still available here.
Ahead of his arrival in Lancashire, Jon sat down for an interview with our celebrity reporter where he told us all about his show and his love for Lancashire so take a look at what he had to say below.
How are you feeling about kicking off your national tour next month?
“It's come around so quickly! I sorta had the idea to give the show a run again last summer, and it all feels so distant and far away when you talk about it at that point. But then time has a habit of just whip cracking right to the present moment, and it's starting very soon, so I'm very much looking forward to it, ready to go.
“I did a shorter run of this show in Edinburgh at the Fringe, and you get about just under an hour for an Edinburgh show so here's a chance to broaden this one out, add in some more characters, add in some music, make it two acts, give the theaters a chance to open the bar and get it up to its full speed, its full tilt.”
What can audiences expect from ‘Imposter Syndrome’?
“Well there's a run through all the characters, old and new, looking at some of those classic ones -familiar prime ministers, familiar presidents- compared with the ones of today, and how more or less flamboyant they may or may not be. Same with sport.
“Quite a few anecdotes as well, about times when you've met characters who you impersonate and how that goes, everyone from King Charles to Ozzy Osbourne to Chris Eubank to William Hague, whoever it might be - Liam Gallagher, another one -what happens when you impersonate people opposite them. And some of the favorite songs and tunes and pop videos which I've sort of converted to the stage that we've done over the years. So yes, that kind of blend.”
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So you sing?
“Yeah! I do a version of the Arctic Monkeys where they morph into George Formby. I do a Liam Gallagher song based on the night when he and Nicole Appleton gave me a lift home. I came inside and he played loads of demos, some of which never heard the light of day but they were brilliant, brilliant songs.
“I also, because I've been doing them on ‘I'm sorry I haven't a clue’ on Radio 4, do one song to the tune of another, they make wonderful things to bring to the stage. So the lyrics of Spiderman to the music of Les Mis ‘Bring him home’ works bizarrely beautifully well, as does the words of the theme tune to Only Fools and Horses to the music of ‘Nessun Dormer’, or singing a Libertines song in the style of Andy Williams. Sometimes you do these crossovers for humor, other times it's quite interesting. So yes, I sing a bit, so long as I stay within my bandwidth, I'm all right.”
Am I right in thinking this is your first national tour?
“On my own, yes. I did a few shows with Bill Dare called The Great British Takeoff and I did a national tour playing Les Dawson, which was a one man show called the Les Dawson Flying High Show. I did four shows at the Lowther Pavilion with that, as well as the Lowry in Manchester and the Lancaster Grand so that was a solo show but this is my first one man stand up show, quite surprisingly, but yeah, this is the time for that.”
Why is now the time for that?
“It just sort of evolved. I'd done the show with Bill, and I'd done the show playing Les Dawson, and in the Edinburgh Fringe, I was playing Hughie Green in a show about the life and career of Lena Zavaroni, and the timing of that show was 12:30 and it seemed to leave the entire afternoon free to do another one. So I hit upon this name ‘Imposter Syndrome’ and I thought, ‘let's just stride out there and do it.’”
Why did you go for the title ‘Imposter Syndrome?
“Finding a title is a tricky thing because they've all been thought of. You know, ‘Rory Bremner, Who Else?’ - brilliant title that. ‘Lewis MacLeod Is Not Himself’- brilliant title. So you're always slightly on the lookout. I think I saw the name imposter syndrome in a quote or as a subheading to something, and I thought ‘Ah, that's good’. I immediately jotted it down into the notes on the phone and I thought, next time I do a show, I'm going to have that title up my sleeve.”
If people at home know you best from your TV shows, how is your performance different when on a stage compared to behind a screen?
“Well you can interact with the audience, you can surf with their reaction, you can chat with them. TV is a beautifully disciplined thing -, take one, take two, take three and then another day you're filming something else, and it's all put together in a sort of a patchwork, unless it's a live show- but there's something really immediate and right there, when you've got an audience right in front of you, and yeah just the feeling that you can interact with the audience, be a bit spontaneous. Sometimes they'll ask for characters, and you're living it with the audience so that's always a lovely, visceral thing to do.”
Speaking of audiences, you’re coming to Blackpool with the show, how are you feeling about that?
“Oh, well, Blackpool is Las Vegas with fish and chips, and the atmosphere that you get with a show in Blackpool, it's so celebratory, it's so beautifully vivid, and it'll bring all the memories of my working in Blackpool over the years at Radio Wave -for about four years-, at Red Rose Radio in Preston- where I started- and I remember when I was 20, I used to be a DJ in a few Blackpool nightclubs- Shades, Jellies. I used to be there playing Bananaramor and Rick Astley when I was 20 in 1988 so yeah, wonderful memories. You step into Blackpool, it's so vivid and celebratory, and it just brings back all the lovely memories, puts you instantly into a good mood.
“I’m very fond of Blackpool,l I will always have a perpetual connection to Blackpool, lived and worked there for many, many years.”
How did those early career moves in Lancashire help shape you into who you are now?
“One step just leads to the next bit of inspiration, rather like links in a chain. So when I was a teenager, I'd figured out that my career would be in some manner of performance or broadcasting. I knew that I'd be rubbish if I'd worked in an office or a bank, I'd have been like Frank Spencer or Stan Laurel if I'd have done that, chaos would have ensued. I knew that I'd be some sort of performer and wondering where to start, I aimed at the radio stations that were on my doorstep and having got there, the next thing was to do a few voice overs on commercials within the radio stations.
“Then I would do a few character voices in those and on the show and whilst I was at Viking Radio in Hull, I happened to have an interview with Lenny Henry and we just started to, very naturally, play about with voices. It was great, great fun and at the end, he said ‘you should send a tape to Spitting Image because they're always looking for people’. So I set about making a tape to do just that and when Steve Coogan moved on from Spitting Image, he left a bit of a gap, and me and Alistair McGowan and so on, we joined in around about that time. So yeah, one thing leads to the next and to the next- on it goes like that.”
So you lived in Lancashire for a while too?
“Yes I did. I lived on Blackpool Old Road, not too far from Mowbray Drive, where the radio station was, and I lived in a little cul-de-sac called Newton Place for a while. I lived in Poulton-le-Fylde on High Cross Road for a time, I was a housemate with some friends there. So yeah, always, always joyful. I always used to love the drive from Poulton-le-Fylde into Blackpool, where, with every 100 yards, you get closer into the showbiz heart of the middle of town, so, yeah, lovely.”
Can you mention any old haunts?
“Oh, now then, yes, I used to go in the Il Casaro restaurant quite a lot on Clifton Street, the High Cross pub was a great one, Lawdy Miss Clawdy's in Poulton-le-Fylde and Shades and Jellies, were I used to work.
“Radio Wave used to have programming meetings, and wisely, they'd be done in a pub and there was one meeting that was held, I think, for two o'clock in the Number Three -there's a pub called The Number Three- and I went for three o'clock in The Number Four or something like that. I confused the names, and it was just me sat there at the wrong one at the wrong time!”
Have you been back up to Lancashire since you left?
“Well, yes, my hometown is Ormskirk so I'm between there and London. And it really was a boy coming back to do the Les Dawson Flying High Show at the Lowther Pavilion. You know, Les Dawson's hometown so that was very special to bring that to Les' home theater. That was the last time I did that show and I'll do that again in the years to come, I think.”
And whilst you're up in Blackpool again, have you got any plans as of yet?
“I think I will have a nice stroll about and just enjoy it and I'll catch up with a few friends. Simon Tate from Radio Wave, John and Danielle from there as well, Tracy Dawson perhaps, who I got to know very well, along with Charlotte, when we were doing the show for Les. Tracy, very kindly, let me borrow some of Les’ jewelry and his watch to wear on stage so that was absolutely lovely.”
Being from Ormskirk, does it feel different when you're on stage in Lancashire compared to elsewhere?
“I think it does because you’re playing a home game, and you know there might be some of your relatives in the audience, or some old school friends, or people who you've known over the years. So that's that's always there and that gives you a little bit of an extra frisson to things because you don’t want to muck that up when there's folks you know in the crowd. So yes, you are aware of that but it does make you feel all the more supported, all the more amongst friends so yeah, it's special to play a home game.”
It’s the Grand you’re coming to, have you been there before?
“Oh, I have, I have. I have. The first thing that I ever did in the Grand Theater was with Radio Wave in Blackpool, and I interviewed Midge Ure on the stage at the Blackpool Grand. I interviewed him there, and it was great. He said [puts on Scottish accent] ‘I love that. I love the classic Victoriana, beautiful classic Victoriana’. And I did a show, the Great British Takeoff, there as well a few years ago. And yes, it's the Palladium of Blackpool, isn't it? You know, the Grand. You walk a little taller when you go in, it's called Grand for a reason so I shall be very proud to be back there.”
Final question, why should people reading this article buy those tickets to come see you?
“Oh, because I would love to see them and we'll run through all the classic characters, you know, the new fresh ones, and the old classics, from sport, from politics, from music, from everywhere. And, yes, it'll just be a nice chance for me and the audience to put our heads together and see which characters come to mind, see which guests we can invite in!”