People and Personalities

As a firefighter for 12 years, he risked life and limb on the front line in the Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service. Then, in 2001, he made the brave decision to go back to college and become a professional actor.

The risk paid off and during the past five years as a pro he has spent two of them in the hugely successful "Abba musical" Mamma Mia in London's West End, turned down a part in Lord of the Rings, and is now in Joseph at the Adelphi with Any Dream Will Do winner Lee Mead. Not only that, he still works part-time as a firefighter in his home town of Welwyn Garden City.

He told us all about life both on stage and in the fire engine!

What part are you playing at the moment?

John: I'm doing Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat at the Adelphi Theatre in London. I had about seven auditions for Lord of the Rings and got offered some parts but really the financial side wasn't good enough so I decided not to take it - much to my agent's displeasure it has to be said!

Then last January my agent retired and I found myself without an agent or any work to invite potential agents to. I heard that they were auditioning for Joseph so I phoned the casting director who I knew from Mamma Mia and asked if I could be seen for it. I had about three or four auditions, got offered it and decided to take it!

pic: Tristram Kenton©The Really Useful Group 2007

What part are you playing?

John: I'm playing Joseph's elder brother Ruben. He's just the big tall one with the big beard who stands at the back in the middle all the time. It's a big dance show. Well, for trained dancers it's probably not a big dance show at all, but for someone like me who is not a trained dancer but a trained fireman, you can imagine the struggle I've had with the dancing! Hopefully, if you see the show, you'll see that I have got there in the end!

It must be a great show to be in?

John: It's 1,200 people every night. When most people go to work they don't get 1,200 people standing and clapping them. I know they're not clapping me, they're clapping the show and they're clapping Lee Mead of course because he is the show really, but it's an amazing feeling every night. At the end of the show you're always on a high, it's fantastic. It's getting great reviews, the audience response is terrific, and it's a great family show I think.

It's just telling the story from the Bible and it's done in lots of colours and with great tunes. It's all pastiche really and in this production it's all very kitsch all the way through and very funny.

And it's 40 years old now isn't it?

John: Yes, and I think it stands the test of time. It's still widely done in schools as a piece so it's a great testament. They've put a new song in for the Pharoah to sing as well, a sort of low tempo ballad in the Elvis style of course. But it's all fun, it's a lot of hard work and takes a lot of energy. It's a massive ensemble piece and you're on stage pretty much all the time.

This show has had a lot of publicity because of the TV series 'Any Dream Will Do' where you got your title character Joseph in the form of Lee Mead. Were you doing auditions at the same time as the show was going on. Did you watch the show knowing that you'd be acting with whoever won it?

John: Yes - the auditions were going on when the show was running in the early stages. We actually started rehearsals about three or four weeks before the show finished so we didn't actually know who we were going to get! We all had our likes and dislikes but I can pretty much say across the board Lee was one of the ones that we were going for! Because he's been in the business for a while, so he gets the deal. He doesn't throw fits or get precious about things. He goes out every night after the show signing autographs and he does an enormous amount of publicity work, so it was good that he got it because he understands the deal and there's no showbiz to him. He doesn't go and do the big party scene and come in knackered the following day. He takes responsibility for the work which is great I think. And he's a nice chap!

It would have probably been annoying if someone with no training walks into a lead role when you'd got there in the conventional fashion, but I guess that's the way things seem to go now?

John: I think if you talk to any actors about the whole reality TV thing they are all pretty anti it. I think there's a lot less acting work to be had these days, particularly on television, because of reality TV. You can't knock the individuals per se, but from a trained actor's point of view and someone who's trying to make a living out of it, I think it's not a good thing and I think it's to the detriment of the public really. They don't get as high a quality because of reality TV. But that's not to say that Lee and Connie are not high quality because I think they both are! I think that was the great thing about those two programmes in that it all came good in the end! The public obviously saw something in these two which I think their training gave them. But reality TV has taken up so much of the airwaves now that there's not a lot of room for actors. 

Mead: Tristram Kenton©The Really Useful Group 2007

So Lee was a good choice from your point of view?

John: An excellent choice! He's fun. All of us brothers and Lee, we all get on and that's a nice feeling. He's also under a lot of pressure and he manages that pressure very well.

You had an unusual start to acting too because you haven't always done this have you?

John: No - I actually started off in print and design and advertising, and then back in around 1991 I went into the fire brigade as a full time fireman. I did that for nearly 12 years and then left and went to drama school for a year, and then for the past four years I've been out acting and trying to earn a living. It's really very difficult so I keep other things on the go - I'm still a fireman part time and I run a media company and do kids magic shows as Mr Cheesy.

But I think doing all that is important. When you look at some of the younger people coming out of college into the industry they've got nothing to fall back on but for me - and it's more luck than judgement - I've built a business and do my magic and it's just something I can fall back on when I'm not working. I left Mamma Mia in March 2006 and I didn't work until November. So I went from a high end London show where I played a lead part to nothing for eight months. But the industry is like that. There isn't really a career path in this industry and that's why I keep all the other things in the balance to help pay the bills when times are lean.

So how did you get from firefighter to actor? Had you always acted at amateur level and decided to just go for it?

John: Yes - I joined the Barn Theatre in Welwyn Garden back in 1982 when I was about 14. And it was something that really got me off the streets. I was getting into trouble with the wrong kind of crowd and I was a naughty boy. Then one of my teachers at school, who I am eternally grateful to, asked if I wanted to be involved in this play. I didn't know anything about this fellow called Shakespeare and they were doing a Midsummer Night's Dream and he asked me to be a fairy. Now, I was a kind of cropped haired bovver boy but I was little, so I went up to the Barn Theatre and thought it was a bit of fun and got involved and ended up being there all through my teens. I absolutely loved it and it really did just suddenly click for me.

My plan when I went into the fire brigade at 23 was I would retire after 30 years service at 53 and then go into acting from there, as I thought you're never too old to become an actor. But I think I just got impatient. I went to some quite big incidents with the fire brigade and just felt I'd done my bit really. I had some money saved and just thought let's do it. I was fortunate to get into the college that I wanted - the Webber Douglas Academy - who have a really good one year postgraduate course. And it all kind of went from there really.       

And you still combine it with being a part time [retained] firefighter as well don't you?

John: Yes - I'm about a three or four minute drive from the station in Welwyn Garden City and that's where I was whole time as well. It's something that I can do because I'm only at work in the evenings. When I get home at night at about 11.30pm I'm tired but I can then be on call until around 2.30pm-3.00pm the following day on a normal day - not a matinee day. I give myself a couple of hours before I'm due to leave for work in case we go to an extended job. But it's good because I think I can bring a lot of experience to it, having done it as a professional and I enjoy it.

From a very early age (five or six) I can remember loving the fire engines, and from 12 or 13 I was always involved in amateur dramatics so to do two things that I've always loved doing and always intended to do is unusual. A lot of people don't have the privilege of doing two jobs that they really want to do and someone once said, 'find a job you love doing and you'll never work another day in your life'.

Of course there are times when you don't want to go into work. When you do a long contract like Joseph or Mamma Mia it becomes a job of work and people go into work every day in different moods, but ultimately you've still got people paying £40-£50 a head to come and see the show so you have to put on a performance for them. That's what it's all about. It doesn't matter what happens off stage, you've got to get on with it and that's part of doing any job.

Are you on call from the moment you come back from doing the show or do you allow yourself a bit of rest?

John: No - basically I'm on call. Every week we have to fill out a kind of chart which says when we think we're going to be available so they get an idea of if they will have full manning or not. It's not that busy, we probably get three or four calls a week so I don't feel that it's a massive commitment and it's also something you can give back. The acting profession is by definition quite a selfish profession as you have to be promoting yourself all the time. That's the one thing I found difficult when I came out of the fire brigade, suddenly it was all about me, me, me and I really did miss that whole sense of giving something back to the community, so now I still get that sense of helping people which I love.

2006: John as Abanazar in panto in Watford

What do your mates at the fire station think of your other job?

John: They take the mickey of course because of some of the costumes I've got to wear but they're great! They love it - I think it's something for them to talk about as well. It's something they can dig at me for but I think they quite like it really!

How long are you due to be in Joseph for?

John: I'm there until next June, I'm contracted until then, but whether I'll stay - or whether they'll want me to stay in it after that I don't know. Again that's part of the deal - you're contracted for a year and you make a decision nearer the time.

So you're not thinking about what's next yet?

John: My main consideration now is to get myself an agent. That will be my main focus in January / February - sending my show reel off and inviting them to see the show and hopefully get an agent that's going to work for me in the right way. Sometimes I think you just click with an agent and honesty is always a big thing for me - I need someone to tell me how it is and not pussy foot around.

I'm not saying I'm the best actor or the best singer and I'm certainly not the best dancer but I think I've got something to offer. I enjoy doing musicals but I think it's very easy to get typecast as a musical theatre performer and I don't really want to get in one of those pigeonholes. I want to do some TV work just for the experience to see if I'm any good at it.

Maybe musical theatre is the best thing I do but I don't know yet. I'm always very realistic about my prospects as an actor because you have to be - it's a very, very difficult profession. I just want to earn a living - I'm not prepared to act and be on the breadline - absolutely not. I just try to keep lots of things up in the air in case one drops out for a while.