John Mawer, Coquetdale's Comedian and Pantomime Creator

It was such fun to talk with John Mawer, all the way back in July 2019. Of course, a lot has happened since then, which you can read about, after the original interview (below).

Born in Plymouth in 1974, John and his family moved around quite a lot for his father's work as a marine architect in the merchant navy. In his free time John loved listening to radio comedy shows, making all kinds of models, and role-playing games. When John taught himself to juggle, it was a revelation to realise that skills can be learned; they are not necessarily innate. 'It feels like luck, then you realise it is skill'.

John studied ElectroMechanical engineering at Aston University. This period was formative. Not the degree learning - but the social side.

'I felt like this was the year I was born into life'.

John had discovered improvisation and stand-up comedy. It was a time of great inventiveness and when he was asked, in his second year, to write the Pantomime for the new intake of freshers, he recalls:

'It felt like the most powerful work I have done in my life, I loved it!'. John had found his talent; this led to a life of compering and performing stand-up.

Moving to London after graduating, he found lucrative work in computer technology. But it was the weekends and evenings that John lived for.

He developed his stand-up routines and was in great demand.

Over the next 20+ years John's career in building websites brought in a steady income allowing him to develop his comedic knowledge and skills.

Forming different partnerships and groups, performing and teaching improvisation at corporate workshops, helping TV execs devise new programme ideas.

He even performed at an after party for the Brit Awards.

His 'day job' took him to America to work for 8 years, a great opportunity, but he missed his life of comedy and performance.

In 2015 John and his wife (local author, Kirsty McKay) and children settled in Coquetdale. Here he found the Newcastle based Improvisation group: The Suggestibles, of which he is now a member.

Kirsty saw an advert, asking for help with the annual local pantomime. John's creative career turned full circle. From his first attempts at creativity at university, writing panto, here he was, in Coquetdale, writing panto again.

And he couldn't be happier. 'I love to make people laugh'.

Catch John at the Improv Festival 27 July -4 August

John second from the right.

So, what kind of a mind could dream up this multi-layered concoction of plots? The answer comes in the form of John Mawer. John arrived in the Coquet Valley with his wife, Kirsty, and their young family in 2016, and he has been writing scripts, and directing CADS productions, ever since.

John himself was born in Plymouth and was the son of a merchant seaman, He attended Aston University where midway through his degree he realised that his interests and passions lay in a completely different direction to the electromagnetic engineering course he had enrolled to study.

He joined a drama group and as part of that group he was encouraged to write his first ever pantomime entitled Scrooge. After graduating, John moved to London where, buoyed up by his pantomime writing success he toured the pubs as a stand-up comedian by night, whilst holding down a succession of more menial daytime jobs to 'keep the wolf away from the door.'

As his stand-up comedian career developed, he became increasingly drawn towards improv(improvisation). This genre of comedy is totally different to stand-up comedy. It is completely spontaneous and non-scripted and involves small clutches of people who bounce comedic ideas off each other to produce unique one-off comedy sketches and they perform these to audiences of complete strangers.

With this background it is easy to understand how John can write such unique pantomime material. His aim is to embroider the normal 'run of the mill' pantomime with assortments of interesting and/or obscure characters, and he punctuates the plot with slapstick humour and quick-fire jokes. When John starts work on a new script, he usually has a 'germ' of an idea in his head, this rolls around gathering further ideas, and John writes every one of them down - regardless of how bizarre or 'off the wall 'they might be.

The idea for “A Titanic Pantomime” was triggered, in part, by a throw away remark made by Stella, the musical director, about her penchant for Queen's music, and soon, in John's head - a fat bottomed girl became a fat bottom gull.

From that moment on, the cogs in John's head were whirring away and he was forever adding ideas to an ever-growing list. From this large list of both inter-related and totally dis connected ideas, he formed a structure in his head and then wove the ideas together in such a way that the outcome was not predictable to the audience. However, he also allowed the audience into a secret to which the cast on stage seemed oblivious. Why was the ship-owner's daughter making secret deals with a millionairess?

John admits that he never really enjoys writing the script so he has to do it in short sharp bursts, usually when there is nothing else he can do - like when travelling on long distance business trips!

But even when the script is written it is constantly evolving while John decides whether or not it will actually work on stage.

When September arrives and another new CADS season starts the script will usually be 'nearly ready' John and his Musical director, Stella, choose the songs to accompany the script with great care so that they portray the perfect emotion for each scene, and they change the lyrics accordingly.

If a song doesn't work, it could be discarded and replaced at any time.

Since John took over as Director, he has devoted the first few weeks of the new CADS season to teach stagecraft through drama games and improvisation in the hope that everyone - old timers and newcomers alike - can lose their inhibitions and just be themselves, and everyone learns that nothing is ever too silly.

After the read through and auditions, the rehearsals begin, and John starts to direct his cast.

In some ways, John finds this the hardest stage in the process because he would like every actor to put their own stamp on their character. However, it is also vitally important that every character interacts appropriately with the other characters in order to make sense of the story - This is always such a fine line to tread! The last few weeks of rehearsing are both tense and intense - but although some would be scratching their heads and worrying about the duration of the 'first half', John always remains positive - after all, when in doubt you can always improvise - you just need to relax, have fun, take risks and just let go!

Thanks to Julie Muller for this excellent review!