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.He’d also played a Perkins in The Bailiff, the sketch that Mr Luscombe had so enthused about, and so I wrote to my erstwhile mentor that I was appearing opposite the great man at the Met on Edgware Road.The very next day he appeared at the stage door, bubbling with excitement.“I say, Arthur,” Luscombe jabbered, as I took him (or, more accurately, let him take me) for a quick drink before the show to calm him down.“Appearing with Fred Kitchen! You know what…?” He dealt me a healthy slap on the back.“Meredith – you’re in!”And I was.I did another stint then with Billie Ritchie as the principal comic.Ritchie was a wiry little chap, with a mop of black, curly hair and a little toothbrush moustache bristling away on his top lip.Onstage he was wont to wear trousers that were a couple of sizes too large and a jacket that was a couple of sizes too small, and he walked – well, waddled, more like – with his flat feet at ten to two and his knees spread bandily apart.He always carried a cane, a springy one, which he liked to twirl, and often used to prod an antagonist in the chest or behind, and the whole effect was generally topped off with a battered derby hat.His stock in trade was the downtrodden underdog everyman, battling the injustices of the world with his unquenchable spirit.Sound familiar? I should think it does.5I learned plenty from those shows and those old hands, and Karno also made sure that I saw other acts that could teach me a thing or two.Little Tich, T.E.Dunville, Mark Sheridan, George Robey of course, Vesta Tilley and Marie Lloyd – all were weighed and measured.But the man I learned the most from was the Guv’nor himself.I picked up all sorts of pantomime techniques, a whole dictionary of mime gestures, from Karno.When a man is amazed, for example, he tips his hat back and scratches his head.When he is thinking, he frowns and scratches his chin.I used to wonder how such exaggerated moves came to mean the thing that they meant, but obviously, originally, they must have come from life, mustn’t they? I always used to get a kick out of seeing someone, in real life, scratching his head in amazement, or wringing her hands in dismay, not because they wanted to convey these things to an audience, but because that’s how their very bodies reacted in these situations, because that was the truth.One key element to Karno’s comedy was a quality he called “wistfulness”.Time and again in rehearsals at the Miracle I remember him slowing down a scene, and murmuring: “Wistful, keep it wistful…” – reminding the actors to tug at the heartstrings as well as going for the funnybone.He himself had been a performing gymnast as a young man, so when he made the transition to pantomime he brought a whole range of specialist skills with him.One time, I remember, tired of trying to explain, he demonstrated a flawless rolling fall for us, right there in his smart suit and shiny shoes, bobbing up to his feet again with the spring of a sixteen-year-old.“There,” he said, brushing the dust from his sleeves.“That’s how we used to do it.”I was fascinated by this glimpse of the Guv’nor’s former career as a performer, and after the rehearsal I plucked up the courage to ask him about it.He cocked his head on one side and regarded me with half a smile for a moment.“Come over to t’ house,” he said then, to a background of astonished gasps from those close enough to overhear, and I followed him as he trotted over the road from the Fun Factory to his home at number 28 opposite.Inside he led me into the kitchen, and I sat there at the table while he trotted upstairs to look something out.I didn’t want to do anything to tarnish the moment, so I sat very still with my hands on my knees, like a schoolboy waiting for the headmaster.As I listened to the Guv’nor’s footsteps clicking to and fro across the wooden floor upstairs, I suddenly became aware that I was not alone.I risked a glance over my shoulder, and there, almost on top of me, as if he had just materialised out of thin air, was a wild-looking elderly man.His hair was white and wild, sprouting in all directions at once, with odd-coloured bits in it, and he was wearing only a dark tartan dressing gown, beneath which his bony shins and bare feet were visible.“Aaaagh!” I gasped, as this apparition smiled, revealing at most three teeth, and reached out to me with one skeletal hand balled into a fist.Slowly the fingers unclenched to reveal a small mass of dirty-yellowish putty.“Cheese?” the vision offered.“N-no, thank you very much.”“Go on, it’s Wensleydale,” the old geezer wheezed.“Really, I’m fine, thank you.”“I think I’ve got some Red Leicester if you’d rather…”All of a sudden he clambered up onto my lap, shoving one bony kneecap into my groin, and began rubbing some cheese against my face, trying to force it between my lips.“Cheee-eee-eeese!” my assailant keened happily.“Ahem!”A little cough from the doorway.Abruptly the assault was over, and the ancient figure scampered off up the passage and away up the stairs.I wiped my face quickly with both hands and looked up.There was the Guv’nor, slightly flushed, clutching a leather-bound album in one hand, while with the other he guided a buxom and cheerful-looking woman towards me.“Arthur, may I present Mrs Karno?”“Arthur Dandoe,” I spluttered, scrambling to my feet and offering my hand.“Charmed, I’m sure, Mrs Karno.”“Please, call me Maria,” Mrs Karno smiled [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]