Paulus - Looking For Me Friend: The Music of Victoria Wood

Looking For Me Friend: The Music of Victoria Wood, the celebration of the music of the late comedy genius and national treasure is written and performed by Paulus (‘The Cabaret Geek’, from BBC1’s All Together Now. Here he tells us what audiences can expect from his show.

What can audiences expect when they come to see the show?

Mostly it's a night of nostalgia, fun, laughs and 21 of Victoria Wood's songs in a whistle-stop tour around her career. Of course, The Ballad of Barry and Freda (Let's Do It) is in there but she registered 200 songs in total with the Performing Rights Society, so there's lots to choose from. There are some poignant songs, there are ones about childhood, ones about old age and ones that she wrote in the 70s about politics which seem like she wrote them yesterday, astonishingly. The relevance is really quite striking. What I also find really fascinating, along with many things about Victoria, is that there's not a single co-writer for lyrics or music.

You've also got pianist Michael Roulston on stage with you. What does he bring to the mix?

I share him with Fascinating Aïda. They're touring the country at the moment as well, so Michael's busy with them a lot of the time and then he gets to come and slum it in small venues with me. We're proving once again that it takes two men to do the job of one woman, because I couldn't do this show on my own. He's like Julie Walters to my Victoria Wood in many ways and there's a lot of what I call 'Victoria Wood tennis', where I say a word or a line and he throws back the bon mot or catchphrase that is the next bit. And sometimes the audience get to throw it back instead. But I'm not impersonating Victoria and I don't think anyone would want me to. It's not a tribute act per se, it's a celebration of someone I really loved and miss.

Can you recall when you first encountered Victoria’s comedy genius?©

I was around ten and would have been watching As Seen on TV with my mum and my sister. My mum would have been 45 and my sister would have been 18, but generationally Victoria made all of us laugh, which I think is a really rare quality. I didn't understand everything she was saying but she looked and sounded funny, and there was a musicality to her phrasing and word choices that I immediately latched onto.

Do you think Victoria’s look was revolutionary at the time?

I do, yes. If you look at her stand-up routines from As Seen on TV, she was there in a tie and a big, boxy, man's jacket, jeans probably and trainers. I guess if she was on TV now, we'd assume that she was trans or at least a lesbian and there would be a whole hoo-ha about her appearance. But in 1985 she just showed up, said 'My name's Victoria and this is what I look like' and nobody ever questioned it. Watching her choosing to be original and unusual must have had a big impact on me as a gay man. People talk about her being a genius a lot and I don't disagree with them. She was an extremely hard-working, very smart person but she didn't ever bang on about stuff. She just placed things in front of us like body positivity or about being an outlier in society but still knowing that you have a right to belong. These things were key to her work.

How would you sum up your love and affection for Victoria?

I would describe it as obsessional at this stage! I love her and I love her most because she made my mum laugh. Mum worked hard and had her share of problems, so to watch her laughing so much that she was crying was wonderful. Whether it was in our front room or us going to see her at the Royal Albert Hall when I was a teenager, it was great to see how much joy she gave my mother. So this is all just a way of saying thank you to Victoria.

Did you ever get to meet Victoria?

No and I didn't really want to, to be honest with you. If I'd wanted to I could have met her because I know people that have worked with her. I saw her live about nine times but I never wanted to go backstage. I never wanted to hang out for an autograph because I knew she was private. I was also really worried I'd be disappointed so I deliberately didn't go backstage because it's the work that I admire. I didn't need to know anything about her children or what colour her curtains were to know what a genius she was. When she died in 2016 I was devastated. We lost so many people that year, like Prince, David Bowie and Alan Rickman. But for Vic fans like me across the country hers was certainly the heaviest of losses.

Do you think Victoria was sometimes overlooked as a songwriter?

Yes and that's why I wanted to make this show because there's a spotlight often on her other work, whether that be because she won a BAFTA award for Housewife, 49 or that we have all watched and celebrated Acorn Antiques and the Two Soups sketch many times. I think comparatively, given what a big part of her career music was, it really was rather overlooked. The songs seem simple. They seem very straightforward but, as Michael would attest, they're not. They're very complicated things. I'm lucky that I don't have to sing them and play them because doing one or the other is enough of a job, quite frankly.

You're working with Sarah-Louise Young as your director. How is it collaborating with her?

She's my best friend and she's wonderful. She's had enormous success with her shows about Julie Andrews and Kate Bush and she's been so generous, not just as a director and helping us to decide which of those 200 to include but also in helping me to navigate being a promoter and producer as well. I book the tour and produce the show myself and she's been generous with all of her knowledge in that regard too.

What attracted you to cabaret as a career?

I'm not very good at repeating things. Funnily enough, I think I've performed this show 130-ish times now but that's very unusual for me. I was in Sweeney Todd for a month once and I've done panto for a month too, but I don't do long runs of musicals or anything like that because it bores me. With cabaret, I love the lack of fourth wall and being able to speak to the here and now of what's going on in the world.

What have been your favourite jobs over the years?

I did a TV programme called All Together Now with Geri from the Spice Girls and Rob Beckett a few years ago where I was the hard-to-impress judge on a talent show. That was very funny, being the baddie on Saturday night TV on BBC One. We did two series and a celebrity Christmas special, and it was weird getting noticed by taxi drivers and abused by people on the street. Another job I loved was when I workshopped the Boy George musical Taboo and got to develop the role of Philip Salon.

You've been doing Looking For Me Friend five years now. What reaction have you had from fans?

It's such a joy. We've met people who went to primary school with Victoria. We've met people who were taught by her mother, who was a teacher. We've met people who were in As Seen on TV, Pat and Margaret or dinnerladies who have been so kind, as has Mark Gatiss from The League of Gentlemen. She was in their movie and they're huge Victoria Wood fans. After one show this man came up to me who must've been in his early thirties and another time this woman in her late seventies came up to me. They both clearly identified as queer and they both said the same sentence, which was 'You've just told my life story on stage'. But the show isn't necessarily about being gay. It can be about being too spotty or fat or black or anything that makes you Other, anything that makes you an outlier in life. She was a place of warmth, a place of fun and a place that said: 'You can hang out here and you're one of us. The weirder, the lumpier and the pongier, the better.'

Are there any stops on the tour that you are especially looking forward to?

I like it whenever we go somewhere that is significant to Victoria or her coterie. So Julie Waters is from Smethwick and we're going there in June. Sometimes it's just because they're funny place names because, like Victoria, I do enjoy a funny place name. The day we get to go to Ecclefechan, I'll be made up. But I enjoy wherever we end up playing [laughs] especially if I get to shift some merch. Fans can buy stuff like tea towels, aprons, tote bags and oven gloves featuring words and phrases associated with Vic. I'm proud to say that in Bury, where she grew up, they've included the design as part of their permanent Victoria Wood collection at Bury Art Museum.

Looking For Me Friend - Michael Roulston and Paulus Photo: David Munn©

Looking For Me Friend: The Music of Victoria Wood plays
Thu 4 April 2024 – Norton Priory, RUNCORN † – 7.30pm
Wed 17 April 2024 – The Lowther Pavilion Theatre, LYTHAM ST ANNES – 7.30pm
Fri 26 April 2024 – Town Hall, SELBY – 7.30pm
Sat 27 April 2024 – Otley Courthouse, OTLEY – 7.30pm
Sun 26 May 2024 – CHORLEY Theatre – 7.30pm
Wed 29 May 2024 – King’s Hall, ILKLEY – 7.30pm
Fri 31 May 2024 – The Ropewalk, Ropery Hall, BARTON-UPON-HUMBER
Fri 5 July 2024 – RIPON Theatre Festival * – 8.00pm –
Tue 17 September 2024 – Town Hall Theatre, HARTLEPOOL
Sat 21 September 2024 – BOSTON SPA Village Hall – 8.00pm
Fri 11 October 2024 – Helmsley Arts Centre, YORK – 7.30pm

* 1-hour-long version of the show on these dates
† 1-hour long version + Q&A

https://thecabaretgeek.com/looking-for-me-friend-show-dates-tickets/