Legerdemain (and Legerderemaining).
My favourite line from Channel 5’s ace
(no card-pun intended) documentary on Paul Daniels last week was, "It took
twenty years for Paul to become an overnight success."
That’s a statement most people in the performing arts industry can relate too, and a sobering reminder of just how much work and commitment is required to sustain a long career. These things don’t just come overnight, and if they do, that’s not to say they’ll stay. It’s a fickle and often-thankless world to be a part of, save for those few moments when you’re onstage and things fall into place. But Daniels career is testament to the fact that hard work does pay off; in his case, the years of effort he put to the cause prepared him for the success that followed.
What underlined this for me while watching the programme was seeing footage of one of Paul’s earliest TV appearances, on the variety show The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club in the mid-1970s. He kicked off his set with exactly the same chop cup routine he did at Mostly Comedy in 2015, which was an effect he’d perfected on the working men's club circuit all those years previously. By the time he got his big break he knew it off-pat; it was as effortless and perfect as it was in Hitchin forty years later; it’s that level of commitment without any sense of weariness or staleness that made him one of the best.
Sometimes you need these reminders to keep faith in what you do. I left drama school fifteen years ago and somehow, I’m still going strong, despite working in a field that’s notorious for people dropping out of the industry. On the whole, I've done okay; I’ve toured the country, worked in the West End, done a little TV and gradually gravitated towards stand-up (while also co-running a successful comedy club by accident). At the very least I’ve had some great experiences - and if Paul Daniels could keep his energy and verve for so many years, I’m sure I've got a few more weeks left in me.
That’s a statement most people in the performing arts industry can relate too, and a sobering reminder of just how much work and commitment is required to sustain a long career. These things don’t just come overnight, and if they do, that’s not to say they’ll stay. It’s a fickle and often-thankless world to be a part of, save for those few moments when you’re onstage and things fall into place. But Daniels career is testament to the fact that hard work does pay off; in his case, the years of effort he put to the cause prepared him for the success that followed.
What underlined this for me while watching the programme was seeing footage of one of Paul’s earliest TV appearances, on the variety show The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club in the mid-1970s. He kicked off his set with exactly the same chop cup routine he did at Mostly Comedy in 2015, which was an effect he’d perfected on the working men's club circuit all those years previously. By the time he got his big break he knew it off-pat; it was as effortless and perfect as it was in Hitchin forty years later; it’s that level of commitment without any sense of weariness or staleness that made him one of the best.
Sometimes you need these reminders to keep faith in what you do. I left drama school fifteen years ago and somehow, I’m still going strong, despite working in a field that’s notorious for people dropping out of the industry. On the whole, I've done okay; I’ve toured the country, worked in the West End, done a little TV and gradually gravitated towards stand-up (while also co-running a successful comedy club by accident). At the very least I’ve had some great experiences - and if Paul Daniels could keep his energy and verve for so many years, I’m sure I've got a few more weeks left in me.
