Decades of laughter
Top UK comic poet brings popular show to Paphos
Britain’s favourite comic poet, Pam Ayres, is always watching and listening. Her job depends on spotting the funny quirks and oddities of everyday life. Her comic verse is observational, from know-it-all husbands and taking too many clothes on holiday, to looking after your teeth and your son’s wife.
Now celebrating 33 years as an international entertainer, she’s bringing her one-woman show to Cyprus in April for the first time. ”I can’t wait,” she says. “I’ve heard a lot about it.”
Pam has performed her show well, just about everywhere, France, Kenya, Canada, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Australia (in front of over 2000 people at the Sydney Opera House), and she averages the equivalent of one concert a week in theatres throughout Britain.
Now both a comedian and a best-selling author, with reported book sales of three million worldwide, she was recently featured in a list of Britain’s 20 Funniest Women.
As a schoolgirl she shone brilliantly at English and art “but not much else – but I was always good at writing. I just loved it,” she says. “I found it exciting and creative and I loved inventing characters and situations. My school library was like a window being opened – it was a revelation for me.”
“Because I was the youngest of six, my older brothers used to bring home the music of the day like Lonny Donegan’s ‘Does your chewing gum lose its flavour on the bedpost overnight?’ and ‘My old man’s a dustman’, and I started to write parodies of them to fit my own words.
“People often call me a poet and I always feel a bit of a fraud when people say that – because my goal is to build a story in verse which will make people laugh”.
Her shows are “conversational” she says, based on her family experiences and those of others.
“It’s very much a performance with stories and things. I don’t just stand there and reel off loads of poems, one after other.”
Born in Stanford-in-the-Vale, Berkshire in 1947, Pam landed her first job as a secretary – which bored her – and then joined the Women’s Royal Air Force. It was then she developed her show business ambitions. The entertainer in her was born.
Her comic verses started out as a hobby, performed at the local folk club, but her first big break came when, at the age of 27, she read one of her poems on BBC local radio – subsequently repeated in the 1974 BBC Pick of the Year programme. This was followed by her first TV performance on Opportunity Knocks.
She discovered that her humour struck a chord, particularly among women and realised she could earn a better living doing what she loved rather than her day job – which she hated!
It was the start of an original career. None of her contemporaries has established themselves by performing their own humorous verse. She’s appeared before the British Queen and was made an MBE in the Queen’s 2004 Birthday Honours.
Pam and husband and manager Dudley Russell have two sons, William and James, aged 25 and 23. They live in the Cotswolds, where they keep rare breeds of cattle, and sheep, pigs, chickens and guinea fowl.
Her book, Pam Ayres -Surgically enhanced has become a best-seller and she’s been a regular on BBC Radio, presenting a music and chat show, followed by Pam Ayres’ Open Road’.
last month she started somethingg new, taking part in her first sitcom, Potting On currently on BBC Radio 4 and the third series of her own Ayres On The Air will be broadcast later in the year.
Recently one of her poems, “I Wish I’d Looked after me teeth”, was voted into the top ten of a BBC poll to find the UK’s 100 Favourite Comic Poems – in which she was one of the few writers who is still alive!
“I never wanted my verses to be read as opposed to performed,” she says. “It’s just that they’re so tailored to my delivery, voice and sense of mischief – it’s all about performance first.”
And her advice for any aspiring performance poets?
“Expect to be terrified and to make toe-curling mistakes. Remember that the more you do it, the more you can do it.”
Pam Ayres performs on Friday 18 April 2008
at the Coral Beach Hotel in Paphos – 8pm til late
Tickets: €34 for show or
€58 including a pre-show buffet
Call the hotel on 26 881000 for tickets.
Box 1
WHEN WILL I HAVE SUFFERED ENOUGH?
When will I have suffered enough?
When will I have suffered enough?
I bathed him and fed him and coaxed up each burp,
I bought him revolvers, just like Wyatt Earp,
And now I must welcome his wife, who’s a twerp.
When will I have suffered enough?
Pam Ayres
Box 2
Comic verse competition
Turn On Your Imagination and Surprise Yourself!
Just how funny do you think you can be with pen and paper?
If you believe you’ve got what it takes to write a poem that makes eyes water with laughter, then give it your best shot and enter your unique piece in a competition that will give you the chance to win complimentary show tickets to see Pam Ayres on April 18 at the Coral Beach Hotel in Paphos.
More than that, you’ll have the opportunity to enjoy an overnight stay at the Coral Beach Hotel with a hotel suite and breakfast for up to four guests. The lucky winner will also receive a Hearns Bookshop gift voucher, as well as personal photo and the winning poem published in the Cyprus Mail.
“It seems to me that not many people get a chance to use their imagination any more,” says the organiser of the event, Tony Willmett.
“I’m hoping this competition will get people to turn off their mobile phones, turn off the TV, and show what they’re made of. Without imagination there wouldn’t have been Harry Potter and Pam Ayres wouldn’t have started writing comic verse at school and made a life long career out of it.”
The poems should be short, to the point and funny.
“All comic verse is observational – perhaps about a wife, husband, mum and dad or experiences at work or school,” says Tony.
Entries must be a maximum of six verses and maximum of four lines each. Entries must also include your age, name and phone number. Your message/envelope must be marked ‘Comic Verse Competition’.
Email to: [email protected]
Post to: Hearn’s Bookshop, Paphos. PO Box 60667
By fax: 26-813825
