Pantos

I was recently involved in a panto. I was coerced into it initially, with great reluctance, knowing the appallingness of my acting skills. 'Wooden' summed them up, plus a lack of memory so profound I was having difficulty learning my lines. All 3 of them.

However, as the weeks got closer to the actual performance (and we got our costumes), I began to feel a certain swell of excitement. Plus, the acting ability in our village was phenomenal. I can't believe how much talent there is when you scratch the surface of such a small community.

In the end, it was a triumph, and from behind the stage all we could hear were endless guffaws of laughter. Everyone said it was what a village panto should be; full of references to local things, quietly mocking local personalities and generally making total tits of ourselves and everyone else.

By the final performance, even I, who initially had stood like a zombie delivering my words read from a script, was beginning to improvise. I doubt I'll have any Hollywood agents knocking at my door, but I am definitely a convert and ready and waiting for the next one. Though everyone in the world now wants to be involved. We might have to audition!

Funnily enough, an American friend who saw my facebook status after it had all finished:
'No panto, no life',
asked me what a panto actually was.

I explained and discussed with a fellow English/American why she thought they don't have pantos in the States.

I agree with her analysis. 'British men love dressing up as women; American men don't'.

Steve

Has anyone else with AOL noticed, on the home page, a guy called Steve, sitting, on a stannah stairlift, waving at you? I've inspected him carefully and he scares me. He's an engineer for the company, but he has an alarming twitch in his left leg and a smile that catapults across his face and then disappears, before it has a chance to properly work as a smile. It looks like he's a prisoner in the chair, a piece of tape runs either side across his lap. Does he need rescuing? I'm sure he's way too young and fit to actually need a stannah stairlift.

I'm wondering whether AOL, in some voodoo mystical way, knows that Rob is now 60 and may, in the future, be a prime candidate for a stair lift? Spooky.