Round about 1990, my old sports club decided to put on an amateur stage Revue and members of the different sections worked out a number of variety acts to perform.

It was for one night only. There was no dress rehearsal and in fact many acts were kept secret until the actual performance. The only thing that was known about them was the approximate time on stage.

Sounds like a recipe for disaster? Well in fact it actually worked, though it was a little scary for the producers, and the format was continued for about 10 years.

I missed the very first Revue but saw the video. Some of the acts were a little "samey" and frankly a bit boring. You can only endure one spoof "sports committee meeting"!

The audience was made up mostly of sports club members with a few family and friends. So there were lots of in-jokes and mickey-taking of well known people in the club.

However, I was very impressed by one chap who came out dressed as a vicar and delivered a very funny monologue which brought the house down!

I said to myself, "I could do that!"

So the next year my career in amateur variety got under way with this character, SAM AYRES ...

squash

I wrote and performed a monologue in verse (delivered in the style of Pam Ayres) about the misadventures of a hopeless, ungainly, accident-prone, misfit of a squash player, who didn't understand the game, and got in a terrible muddle playing one of the ladies, and ended up in the ladies changing rooms with her screaming blue murder.

The act went down very well and became the start of a fun period of my life which I will always cherish.

Sorry this post is a bit long! :oops: