Carol's Own Shows

In 1994 I was asked to perform something for the annual 'Brighton Festival'. I didn't have much time so I thought it best to put a show together around something I knew a fair bit about without having to do too much research....like GLAMOUR! Having never done a one-woman show, never written anything and never produced anything before.....this was quite a challenge!

The first thing was to find a director, which was easier than I'd thought it would be. A friend Jonathan Kiley, who is now executive producer of Qdos Productions, offered to do the job and was a great stage manager as well! Jonathan also introduced me to Simon Grey, pianist, composer and producer, who did a splendid job of accompanying me on the keyboard. We had a lot of fun putting it all together!

The venue couldn't have been more delightful. I had a room in our wonderful Brighton Pavilion. The show was well attended and well received. I was invited to do a live interview with Sheridan Morley on the Radio 2 Arts Program, to include an extract from my show. So flushed was I with my success that I chose to sing my own song, 'The W.W. Song'......a sweet little ditty about my hysterectomy!! (Can't believe I did that!!)

I performed the show again at a 'Cult TV' convention in 1995 and again the following year on the QE2. And THIS is what its all about.......

Pom-Poms Up is an autobiographical, humorous and informative look at the glamour business:

Beginning with a brief history of early Hollywood, Carol acts out the glory and heartbreak of its glamorous stars ... Marilyn Monroe, Mae West, Marlene Dietrich ... pointing out that only the toughest survived and sometimes being clever meant playing dumb! She then charts her own life as a glamour-girl, form puberty to post-Python, through songs, jokes, poems, anecdotes ... and some saucy revelations!

Starting with her birth ... "Congratulations Mrs. Cleveland. It's a fine, healthy little glamour-girl" .. she moves from her own Hollywood school days to becoming a well-rounded teenager learning the tricks of the trade. As a Pom-Pom girl in high school she mastered the art of "Pom-Poms Up!" and never looked back (in fact no-one has looked at her back since!)

She then offers an amusing insight into the world of models, beauty queens, Playboy bunnies and 'glamour stooges', while advising the would-be glamour girls in the audience on the do's and don'ts. And of course, there are behind-the-scenes stories of her Python days.

While never divulging her true age ... "glamour girls always lie" ... she does finally admit to having crossed the bridge from glamour girl to glamour gran, and to the indignity of aging, e.g. being subjected to a tortuous mammogram "the guy who invented that contraption must hate women with a passion!"

The show ends with the audience being initiated into her fan club by singing along with The Carol Cleveland Song (written by an adoring fan some years ago, while obviously drunk or brain-damaged!)

Most of the material is original, including the songs. Carol wrote at least two of the numbers, Miss Paddington Shopping Queen and the W.W. Song (Wombless Woman!); others are adapted.

Altogether, it's fun, glamorous, original, informative and a little outrageous!

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