INFORMAL - AN INTERVIEW SERIES
JOE PASQUALE
As someone who grew up watching Joe Pasquale on TV - The Buckets of Doom was a personal favourite! - it was a pleasure to meet him at the lauch of this year's pantomime at the New Wimbledon Theatre, JACK AND THE BEANSTALK. Joe is not only starring as Silly Simon but is also directing the festive treat.
Joe is celebrating 40 years in show business and has been touring in his show 40 Years of Cack. When we met he was in the middle of the tour and I asked him how it was going: "I love it but I'm really tired! It's a one night tour and I recently travelled 2,500 miles in 5 days so it's much more work than just the 2 hours on stage. Eating at garages at 1 am isn't the healthiest thing but no one's forcing me to do it and I absolutely love performing. The only time I feel in control of my life is when I'm on stage!"
Joe's passion for performing is quickly evident and I'm sure his audiences can feel that energy every night: "I have an ego, we all do, but it's not expanded so much that it's beyond me. I'm not bothered about what I'm doing as long as it's nice work with nice people, and I'm making people laugh. With the world we're living in today and the negativity all I want to do is laugh and hopefully make other people laugh at the same time. That may sound simple and naive, but that's what keeps me going."
As the old saying goes, 'laughter is the best medicine' and Joe is prescribing it in spades: "What I like to think is that when I'm on stage - whether that be in panto, a play or doing my stand-up - is that I'm giving people freedom from concern. For the time they're watching me perform they have freedom of concern from all the things going on in their lives." I always say that theatre is an escapism and Joe's words ring very true with me here.
I asked Joe whether his stand-up puts him in good stead for panto: "Oh yes! Panto and my stand-up are an extension of each other really because what I do isn't childish it's childlike, and there is a difference, and panto is the same. Panto is an art form like any other and is physically demanding with 12 shows a week. It's about finding the place to sit your performance so someone coming on closing night gets the same level of performance from you that they do on the opening night."
And how does he ensure that he has the stamina to get through a gruelling panto run?: "You have to physically look after yourself. It's a marathon not a sprint. I don't drink or smoke, I try to go to the gym and eat as healthy as possible and I go to bed early when I'm doing panto. People have paid good money to see you perform and you don't want to get ill for them, or for yourself."
Joe is Silly Simon in JACK AND THE BEANSTALK and he told me about what he brings to his roles in panto: "I've played everyone in Panto from Buttons and Muddles to Smee and the Court Jester in panto, and for me they're all the same character, just in a different costume! My very first panto was with Rod Hull and Emu and Rod taught me that you have to create mayhem but you also have to control it. So there is a place for anarchy in panto and that's what I bring! I know then in my head that when I go out there I'm not doing the same thing I did the night before. There are certain scenes where you do have to keep to the script but the bits in between I have carte blanche, and the audience want to see you creating havoc. Even I don't know what I'm going to do next!"
Panto is all about audience participation and Joe loves that interaction: "What's amazing in Panto is that you manage to get it on in 10 days. There's no 3 month rehearsal process. You can rehearse it as much as you want but until you get it on the stage there's a cast member missing, and that's the audience. They perform for us as much as we perform for them and without them there's no show. The audience throw their inhibitions out the window as much as we do!"
He loves having the kids in the audience and especially enjoys the matinee performances when there are school parties in: "They're all shouting and creating a wall of sound which is fantastic. You want them to express themselves. This is usually their first theatre experience and if they love it you've got a theatre goer for life."
I asked Joe about the dynamics for him with being the director alongside performing in the show: "I find it hard in some ways because when I'm directing I tend to skip my scenes - 'We'll go over that later' - and I end up being the most under rehearsed in the company! But I get out there and it's fine. I like to fly by the seat of my pants anyway, but it can be difficult doing both. I love it though because the two things that make panto work are the comedy and, even more importantly, a really strong baddie. You have a strong baddie and you the panto's going to be great. This year we've got Alexandra (Burke) and I've seen her in panto and she's great so I'm really looking forward to working with her. Without the baddie there's no one to boo and then there's no one to cheer and it's important to get that dynamic"
I concluded by asking Joe how important he thinks panto is to the theatre industry as a whole: "The industry has a lot of expenditure such as lighting, heating and staffing costs, and panto does extremely good business everywhere and it subsidises a lot of theatres and keeps them going throughout the rest of the year. So it's important of an economical scale but it feeds the businesses around it - the car parks, restaurants etc."
And panto is a real family activity: "Some people save up all year to bring the family to a panto because it's a tradition that brings families together like nothing else."
Joe closes by asking me a question: "What have you done to me Neill? That was very sensible for me, very deep at times. Usually I talk out of my rear end!"
It was such a privilege to meet the ultimate funny man and you can see Joe this Christmas in the GIGANTIC pantomime JACK AND THE BEANSTALK, which is presented by New Wimbledon Theatre and Crossroads Pantomimes, alongside Alexandra Burke as Mrs Blunderbore, Ria Jones as The Spirit of the Beans, Ceri Dupree as Dame Trot and Benjamin Yates as Jack Trot.
Jack and the Beanstalk
New Wimbledon Theatre
Saturday 7th December 2024 - Sunday 5th January 2025
Interview conducted by Neill Kovacic-Clarke for Pink Prince Theatre on 18/09/24
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