Kerry Jay

[00:00:09.290] - Gordon
Hello, and welcome to FACE: The Podcast, the podcast for family and children's entertainers, where we find out all about different entertainers, who they are, what they do, and how they do it. My name is Gordon Drayson, and I am a full time children's entertainer and also your host. If you are new here or you haven't yet done so, please make sure to, like, share and subscribe. We're on YouTube. You can like and subscribe. Press the little bell icon to make sure you're alerted every time there's a new podcast released. Or if you listen to the podcast on whatever platform you use, please make sure to leave a comment or subscribe to that so once again, you are alerted every time a new episode is released. This episode is slightly different because it's someone that you probably haven't heard of. Kerry Jay is our guest for today, and she has a wealth of entertainment knowledge and experience. Although she's come to children and family entertainment in a slightly different way to most of us. We'll hear all about her story coming up. So without further ado, let's get straight into it and talk to our guest today, Kerry Jay.

[00:01:31.630] - Gordon
So hello, Kerry Jay. Welcome to FACE: The Podcast.

[00:01:37.070] - Kerry
Thank you very much for having me.

[00:01:38.830] - Gordon
Well, it's lovely to have you. And you have a very different story to all of the other entertainers and family entertainers that we've had on this series so far. So for those people who haven't yet heard of Kerry Jay, can you give us just a brief overview of who Kerry Jay is?

[00:02:00.950] - Kerry
In a nutshell! I don't know, really. So I've been in the entertainments industry pretty much all my life. Started off with talent competitions and things as a kid, always dancing and singing and everything like that. Went into sort of shows really, summer season, panto early on. I was a dancer for majority of my life. And then things changed when children came along and moved more into the kids' entertainment side of things in recent years. But it's been a fairly recent thing. But so my kids are now 13 and 15, the boys. So the children's entertainment side of things really being to work around them. It was a job that fitted around all of their schedules, school runs and things like that. I think had they not come along or had schedules been easier, I might have opened up a dance school or something like that. But I think because my partner, their dad, my kids' dad has a very sporadic work life with shift patterns, it was never going to work to be able to do anything normal around the childcare. So this sort of thing has worked quite well. Just kind of creating my own hours and working around them, really.

[00:03:31.650] - Gordon
Okay, so let's go right the way back then and let's start at the beginning, as it were, a very good place to start. There you go, there's a hint of what's to come, because for those of you who don't know, Kerry Jay is a West End star. We've got a West End star on our podcast today. It's just amazing. So let's go to before that. You said you did lots of talent competitions and things. Is this sort of your parents pushing you to do this or is this something that you actually wanted to do yourself?

[00:04:07.950] - Kerry
I think you couldn't stop me, really. Like every obnoxious, stage-schooly kid that just wouldn't shut up and stop kicking her legs around. Yeah. Me and my sister used to have a sister act, very old school, going around the holiday camps, and that was our summer holiday, really. You'd win the competition in the little holiday camp, you'd go on to do the grand final and it was nice because you'd meet the same families year after year in the final they used to have in Weymouth. And it was all always over Halloween, so it was back in the 80s, Halloween was the smell of bin bags and I'm instantly transported back there. It wasn't your shop bought costumes, it was bin bags galore. But, yeah, me and my sister ended up winning the grand final one year, which was fantastic.

[00:05:06.440] - Gordon
Congratulations.

[00:05:08.850] - Kerry
We had a great little, we did a ballad, I think, in fact, what did we sing? Truly Scrumptious.

[00:05:16.700] - Gordon
Ahhh, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

[00:05:16.910] - Kerry
Oh, yes. But Bananarama style. Whipped off the dresses, sparkly leotards underneath, and did a tap dance to Ugly Bug Ball.

[00:05:25.570] - Gordon
Amazing.

[00:05:26.730] - Kerry
Fabulous.

[00:05:27.970] - Gordon
It's really funny you talk about the holiday parks, because I had experience both on that side of it by doing the talent competitions as a children's entertainer. But I was also a Blue Coat at one point for Haven Warner. So one of my tasks every week was to do the talent competition. And honestly, some of the kids really did not want to be there. They had these really really pushy parents, which is why I had my question at the beginning. They had these pushy parents that were going, come on, sing up, sing up. I've just recently watched the... I've just watched the original Gipsy.

[00:06:10.310] - Kerry
So I was in that with Ruth Maddock actually. I was a child when Ruth Maddock was Mama Rose. It was the UK tour of that. So I was one of the littlies in that, which was great.

[00:06:22.480] - Gordon
You didn't have to say "Hello! My name's Kerry. What's yours?"

[00:06:31.610] - Kerry
I don't know. People say about these virtuosos and you know incredible violinists and. "Oh, God, their parents have forced them to do it from an early age." Having two kids myself now, there is no way you can force a kid to do something it doesn't want to do. Absolutely no way.

[00:06:47.750] - Gordon
There needs to be some sort of inclination with them, doesn't it?

[00:06:51.590] - Kerry
Yeah. I've tried everything to get my kids into doing their piano practise, and there's just no way it's going to. I finally gave up on my son when he ran into the road in his socks to escape piano lesson. "Okay, I admit defeat."

[00:07:07.930] - Gordon
Sort of making a bit of a statement there, isn't he?

[00:07:11.530] - Kerry
"I don't want you to get run over. So I tell you what, let's stop piano." Yeah. I went to stage school, so I went to Laine Theatre Arts at 16, so I left home, moved to London. Surrey, it felt like London. So moved out of home when I was 16 to go to theatre college. So did my three years there. Actually, kind of wasn't sure at that point. I was a bit overwhelmed, I think, by all the super sparkly, perfect hair and makeup. It was a bit 'big wide world' at 16 to be moving into. Coming from a family where we cut corners and we didn't really wear makeup, and it wasn't, to the very shiny people at stage school. So I ended up actually doing A-Levels at night school and then going off to university for a year to do sports science, because it was the only course of science that they'd take me onto, because I kind of blagged my way into the course somehow, but because I think I chose a London university. So I went to Roehampton Institute, which was part of the University of Surrey, but it was in Wandsworth. So I started. I had a brilliant time, met some awesome people, real student life, but started buying The Stage newspaper, which at the time was where all the auditions were. So just kind of, "oh, maybe I" "it's a free dance class if I pop along to this audition." I ended up getting a contract on a cruise ship after about eight months or so.

[00:09:06.670] - Gordon
So was this the dream? When you went to Laines the dream was to be a dancer and an entertainer.

[00:09:10.680] - Kerry
The dream was to be West End. And I actually started going to auditions while I was at Laine. And I did get down to the very last few for the first cast of Sunset Boulevard, but didn't quite get it. I think because I was only 17 at the time. I shouldn't have really been going, you're not meant to go to auditions, so probably they figured plenty of time. And I don't know, I love musicals, I love performing. I don't so much love all the showy backstage stuff sometimes. I think there's a niche of people. I think especially at that age, kind of 16 to 18, you're finding your crowd, aren't you? You're establishing yourself, trying to work out who you are.

[00:10:03.330] - Gordon
Yeah, definitely. And who you want to be even more important.

[00:10:06.400] - Kerry
Yeah, exactly.

[00:10:08.370] - Gordon
So you got a cruise ship contract. Now, again, a lot of entertainers will know what that's like because they'll have had cruise ship contracts before, but not the same, because when we go on as entertainers, we're normally either a single or a double act. And so we're going to be sort of on our own a lot. And there's an awful lot of magicians and entertainers who have done the cruise ships, and they've just done one of two things. They've either just saved all the money that they earn so that when they get back, they can just buy a house and that part of life is done and then they're a bit more stable. The other side of it is to teach yourself a skill. I know that we've got Russ Stevens, who did a lot of cruise ships, big illusionist, and he taught himself how to edit video in his downtime, of which there's a lot of it. And so he sort of gave himself a new skill during that time. But your sort of experience is going to be slightly different, I'm guessing, because you're with a dance troupe, right? So you're doing shows probably a lot more than we are, and the same shows over and over for different audiences.

[00:11:25.460] - Kerry
I think it's probably a very similar experience. You're stuck in a one place. It depends. A lot of magicians, I think, will go on to do a two week kind of contract or a one cruise, and then they'll come off and then they'll go, you are on the one ship with your little cabin and you are there for a six month contract. But I think generally it's pretty similar experience. I hung out with the musicians a lot. I was learning loads about jazz and I took my guitar and was improving on skills like that. So that was good fun, just getting really learning to listen. And I think I was getting really into Joni Mitchell and Jaco Pastorius at the time. And then the bass player played me what I was reading about, and we were just bouncing, just jamming cabins, really. It was a nice six months. I probably had enough by the end of six months. And you save, like you say, you save loads. And that was brilliant. Managing to save a bit of money, come back.

[00:12:29.780] - Gordon
It's a bit like university, but being paid to do it, isn't it? Because you've got the social life there as well.

[00:12:35.720] - Kerry
Yeah, definitely social life.

[00:12:37.890] - Gordon
So did you sort of speak with any of the special acts as they came on, or were they sort of separate from where you were?

[00:12:48.390] - Kerry
I can't really remember. It was a while ago. Probably, yeah.

[00:12:53.590] - Gordon
They would have been on when you had nights off, I guess. Or if there's more than one venue, you'd be in a different venue.

[00:12:59.850] - Kerry
Yeah, not so much. I don't think they hang out quite so much at the time, but, yeah, I don't remember any magicians or jugglers or anything like that at the time. But saying that, I did a lot of summer season and panto. So while I was actually at college, because I lived in Clacton, which is a seaside town, there used to be the end of the pier kind of summer season. So I'd been doing summer seasons and pantos in my kind of off time at college. So I learned a lot, I think, of the skills there from the other acts. So it was a real old school summer season in that the comedian would always end with a song. There was a certain way of doing things. You had the sketches in between the dance numbers, in between, you know 'the twirlies and the turns,' and it was that real last old school way of doing summer season. And I think I learned a lot from the other acts on that because they were. I mean, some of those comedians had been doing the same act for like 40 years, but really honed their craft.

[00:14:07.150] - Gordon
They know everything about that, right? They know exactly where the laughs are happening and if they're not, what to do to get them. Yeah. Amazing. You're learning all these skills, you've been to college, you've been to university, you're learning everything you can about the entertainment industry and your dream is to be a West End star. What did you do to make that happen?

[00:14:34.950] - Kerry
I think I struggled initially. I didn't have an agent or had lot... As I say, I went back to kind of. In fact, I came back to London again, having a university in London, having a place to stay in London was a godsend. And even though I wasn't still at the university, I had some very good friends who were. And some nice couches to sleep on. So I could go and hang in London and go to auditions and I got into more of the kind of commercial side of it. So pop videos, modelling, they used a lot of on fashion shows they'd have a lot of 'proper models' and 'dancer models.' So I was one of the dancer models. And, yeah, all the commercials, all the... Pop videos was a big business at the time for dancers, so I did all of that.

[00:15:33.980] - Gordon
So what would we have seen you in? What can we go look up and find a young Kerry Jay in?

[00:15:40.030] - Kerry
I don't know, the Blue one with Elton John. There was a Brian Adams one. There was a... Some are better than others. I'm not quite sure which to recommend. I think there's an S Club 7 one at the time as well.

[00:15:57.810] - Gordon
Amazing. Living the life, huh?

[00:16:01.970] - Kerry
No, it was good fun, but, yeah, eventually just went along to an audition for Chicago, actually, and ended up getting it, which was brilliant. That was the dream so.

[00:16:17.850] - Gordon
Chicago is a great show.

[00:16:19.180] - Kerry
It was a fabulous show and it was so wonderful. I joined the cast as Sasha Distelle was the lead in it and, wow. I mean, he's legend. And because they tended to have. You had the same cast for a year, but then all the celebrities were on a kind of six weeks, maybe four, three or four month contract, so went through loads of really cool people coming through and then after a year, I was asked to stay on and then take on the first cover for Roxy. So I was, who's the female lead. Every time for example it's Denise Van Outen coming in. So if she was off sick, I was on, which is brilliant.

[00:17:06.980] - Gordon
Is that a quick phone call to your parents? Going, quick, quick, come in now I'm on.

[00:17:14.810] - Kerry
It really was yeah. So my mum's a dance teacher. She used to teach Ballroom and Latin, but also more keep fit classes was at the time I was doing that and she said, "I'll just stick a note..." It was before social media and before emailing everything. "I'll just stick a note on the village hall and I'll be there on the train." They made it down.

[00:17:36.660] - Gordon
Amazing.

[00:17:37.190] - Kerry
Yeah, it was lovely to do. It's a gorgeous show. As much as anything, each person, each member of the cast is a character. You all take a bow at the end. It's not like your random chorus person, you've got character. Each one of the 'merry murderesses' has got story, even in the chorus, so it was lovely to do. And no costume changes. You're there in your bra and knickers for two and a half hours, so you don't have to faff around with costume and hair changes, which you must have just experienced being a dame.

[00:18:16.910] - Gordon
Well yes I had... For those who are listening in England, in the UK we have something called pantomime, which Kerry mentioned earlier. And it's a show that's very unique to the UK. And we have the principal boy is played by a woman in normal...

[00:18:36.310] - Kerry
I was Dick once for Christmas, Dick Whittington.

[00:18:36.930] - Gordon
Although that tradition is going, it's a real shame. They're putting boys in the principal boys part, which is just wrong. The principal girl is a girl. And then you have this dame who is a man dressed up as a woman. And for the first time - I've done ugly sister, which is a baddie. But for the first time this last Christmas, I was Aunt Sally and we did Dick Whittington, just as you mentioned there. And yeah, I had like, I think seven costume changes, which was just nuts. The only time I got to sit down was during the interval. And even then I had to make sure that everything else was all in place. It was madness, but great, great fun. And again, learning a lot, learning lots and lots from working with another group of people, which is very different to what I do in my day job, which is just working solo, unless I'm doing my double act. But your Chicago, was this the one at the Adelphi, I want to say.

[00:19:35.510] - Kerry
Yeah.

[00:19:36.210] - Gordon
Okay. So that obviously then gave you a springboard because people were able to come and see you and could see what you could do. Did you then have sort of roles rolling in?

[00:19:48.570] - Kerry
Well, you know I got a better agent come in. I think I went from there. Did a stint at the Royal Festival Hall with Stephen Sondheim's 'Follies,' which was a lovely show to do because for those of you who don't know Follies. It's about old showgirls looking back on their career. So you had all these incredible older lady actors. I mean the older me was Louise Gold, who is one of the original Muppets characters. She puppeteers and singer. She's just an incredible woman. And then all these other old ladies, some which were in Carry On films, some just people, old ladies. Some of them were in their eighties and doing tap dancing. And just these stories they had to tell was really amazing.

[00:20:43.870] - Gordon
And you were the flashbacks.

[00:20:45.970] - Kerry
Yeah. So we were the flashbacks. So I was young Phyllis who was looking, which were the two, there's two main girls. But the costumes were all sponsored by Swarovski Crystals as well. So I was there on the dressing room floor looking for crystals. I made myself a few bracelets out of it.

[00:21:08.790] - Gordon
Fantastic.

[00:21:09.630] - Kerry
Actually, hang on a second, I think I've got. Oh, there's a Chicago one actually. That's me and Denise Van Outen in Chicago.

[00:21:17.380] - Gordon
Lovely.

[00:21:20.090] - Kerry
Oh, yeah, that's my Chicago. That's me!

[00:21:23.850] - Gordon
Amazing.

[00:21:24.570] - Kerry
Oh, here we go.

[00:21:25.440] - Gordon
I have one of those.

[00:21:26.170] - Kerry
Here's the Follies costume.

[00:21:26.880] - Gordon
I've got one of those flyers, the Chicago one. I've got one of those.

[00:21:30.270] - Kerry
Have you?

[00:21:30.940] - Gordon
Yeah.

[00:21:32.430] - Kerry
That's my costume. So you can see how it's dripping with crystals. That's me with the other girl, so yeah. Real beautiful costumes on there.

[00:21:46.740] - Gordon
Amazing.

[00:21:47.600] - Kerry
Festival hall as well, which was lovely.

[00:21:51.690] - Gordon
Which is a lovely venue.

[00:21:52.110] - Kerry
Full orchestra. It was a lovely show to do.

[00:21:54.680] - Gordon
Bit spoiled, really. Bit spoiled.

[00:21:56.520] - Kerry
I know. And it was a long enough cut. It wasn't too long either. It was only about three or four months long. So it wasn't long enough to kind of take for granted either. It was lovely.

[00:22:12.090] - Gordon
Well, I mean, I could talk with you all day about musicals, because I just love musicals. In fact, I'm going to see one tonight, although I have no idea what it's like.

[00:22:20.335] - Kerry
Oh what are you seeing?

[00:22:21.550] - Gordon
I've heard mixed reviews. It's 'I should be so lucky.' Which is the Stock Aitken and Waterman music with some sort of story put around it. And it's at the Wimbledon Theatre, which is a lovely theatre. That's a really nice theatre. But yeah, we shall see how that is. That was a present.

[00:22:41.730] - Kerry
Yeah. I'm not sure. The one I went to do after that was 'We Will Rock You.' And again, it's one of these let's take pop songs and kind of shoe horn a plot around it.

[00:22:51.750] - Gordon
Yeah. I'm not convinced they work so well.

[00:22:54.340] - Kerry
Yeah I'm not such a fan, no.

[00:22:54.640] - Gordon
I'm not sure if people go because they like the story. I think the answer is no. I think they go because they like and want to hear the music. And so it's just like a musical pop concert, effectively.

[00:23:07.030] - Kerry
Yeah.

[00:23:07.560] - Gordon
And I think, in fact, 'Six' is a bit like that. I love 'Six,' but I feel that people go for the music rather than listening to the actual lyrics and learning something about the six wives. I think they just go because they love the look and the music.

[00:23:22.770] - Kerry
It's a bit of fluffy facts going on in there, isn't it?

[00:23:26.980] - Gordon
Little bit. I do like it. I think it's a great show.

[00:23:30.370] - Kerry
Yeah. Good songs.

[00:23:31.800] - Gordon
So you then moved to Les Misérables. You moved to Grease.

[00:23:36.040] - Kerry
No, Les Mis was when I was little. I was one of the, yeah, I was in the first cast of that. So with the very very first cast.

[00:23:43.620] - Gordon
So was that your first West End show?

[00:23:45.480] - Kerry
Yeah.

[00:23:46.220] - Gordon
Wow.

[00:23:49.190] - Kerry
I was about nine, eight. No, nine or ten, something like that.

[00:23:51.220] - Gordon
And you were Cosette?

[00:23:53.370] - Kerry
No, I was. Eponine. Doesn't get the song. She's the understudy who doesn't actually get to sing, but because you have to get in it on the basis of that if Cossette wasn't on, you could step into her shoes on that night.

[00:24:11.310] - Gordon
Right.

[00:24:11.910] - Kerry
But it was lovely to do, especially with the incredible first cast.

[00:24:17.150] - Gordon
And the bug bit then, I'm guessing.

[00:24:20.210] - Kerry
I think it was long before that, really. I remember doing cartwheels up the aisle, up the theatre in rehearsals.

[00:24:31.190] - Gordon
Just because you could.

[00:24:32.680] - Kerry
Yeah. See if I can cartwheel all the way down from the top.

[00:24:36.780] - Gordon
Fantastic.

[00:24:38.730] - Kerry
Yeah. No, yeah. A few other shows, which was nice. And then met a boy.

[00:24:47.390] - Gordon
Was this around the time that you did 'Grease?' Because that would be quite ironic.

[00:24:53.710] - Kerry
I think it was after 'Grease.' It was probably towards the end of, I can't remember, 'We Will Rock You,' it might have been, I don't know. But he was Kiwi, so I ended up moving out to New Zealand for a year. Which was nice, it made a change. I think it was nice to have a little bit of a break at that stage and do a bit of travelling, because I hadn't really done the independent 'explore the world' thing, so I did a bit of travelling around it and I made sure that even though I went out to see who's now my kid's dad, I didn't just stay with him. I did a bit of Malaysia and Thailand, doing the whole exploring. Worked a bit in Australia, so I had a year out doing that and came back and yeah. So I guess I was in my early 30s by then and felt like having a family. So that's when we...

[00:25:52.110] - Gordon
So that's when everything changed. You hung up your West End wig, as it were.

[00:25:57.650] - Kerry
Yeah. I didn't think I was going to. I really genuinely didn't. I thought we were going to stay in London. I'd carry on somehow, I don't know... In my head, I was going to have a baby and then go back to it. But the reality, a show is eight shows a week. You'd never do, like, bedtime is such an... Bedtime story, the bath time, when you've got a little baby, that's such an important time, and you couldn't do that. And also, at the time, I think I was eight months pregnant and then my partner got a job in Oxfordshire, so he works for Formula One. So he was working at McLaren, which was doable, from London, but then he got a job up in Oxfordshire, a permanent job for Mercedes so we moved out of town. I was very reluctant to move out of town. I didn't want to leave London.

[00:27:01.670] - Gordon
That's like the final... That's it, isn't it, if you move?

[00:27:04.070] - Kerry
Yeah. We were looking for somewhere to live. We were looking at sort of one and a half bedroom flats, not really any garden, and we've got a four bedroom house with a massive garden opposite the park. Now, my 15 year old hates me for moving. "Why did you ever leave London? It's so cool." And it's a place for. Yeah, I don't know. Who knows if it was the right decision. But anyway, life changed. Babies come along and just needed a new... You know, you love the first couple of years and you're loving being a mum and all of that. But very soon, I think I needed to find me again.

[00:27:44.310] - Gordon
The call of the applause is pulling you back again, isn't it?

[00:27:49.030] - Kerry
Exactly. You change a nappy, nobody gives you a round of applause for that.

[00:27:53.190] - Gordon
And I've done it and they should. They should definitely. I've done it.

[00:27:57.029] - Kerry
Yes!

[00:27:58.010] - Gordon
We'll be right back with Kerry after this notice from our sponsor. And today our sponsor is me. I run a company called Drayson Design. And Drayson Design do lots of different things. One of the things that they do is build websites, and we specialise in websites for entertainers. If you are looking to make changes to your website, or even if you don't have a website yet, then please get in contact. We can talk you through what you need, what your requirements are, and we're very customer focused, so we will look at your website and see if it's doing what you want it to do from your customers' point of view. It's all very well having a website that you like as an entertainer, but if your customers aren't looking at it and making contact with you, then it's a website that's not doing its job. You can see some examples of work that we have done and created for other entertainers if you look at draysondesign.com that's spelt D-R-A-Y-S-O-N design.com. And don't forget, just get in contact and we can talk to you about your new website or an update to your existing website. It costs nothing to talk to us and you may find that we have some good ideas that will help your business. So, once again, draysondesign.com, please get in contact. I look forward to hearing from you. Right, let's get back and hear more from Kerry Jay.

[00:29:39.530] - Gordon
So, being a full time mum and getting to the point when, you know your children, I'm guessing, were sort of going to nursery and so forth, you had a bit more time on your hands and you thought, "right, let's get back into entertainment." How did this come about? What did you decide? How did that work?

[00:30:00.180] - Kerry
Well, the obvious move was to start a dance school. So I thought, "well, ok, I'll start a dance school. I'll find a babysitter." Because Dan works a split shift, so one week he's on an early shift one week he's on a late shift, which means I don't have a consistent time where he'd be able to look after the kids. So it had to be something. I tried finding someone to look after them and mixed results really. And I don't think I'm a very good teacher. Like you say, we want the applause. I don't want to be telling somebody off and I don't want to be teaching anybody who doesn't want to be there. So I did it for a little while, but was kind of going through the motions. And then somebody just asked me if I could do a party for them. So, yeah, just came out of that, really. I did a bit of singing and dancing at a party and it developed really. I was running two businesses at the same time as well as... So I say I don't like teaching people. I didn't mind teaching adults because they kind of make a decision. So what I was also doing is teaching adults wedding dances. Because your first wedding dance, you're at a lovely stage of your life, happy people, and it could be done, I'd go to their front room. And the idea of getting away for 2 hours to spend in adult company and actually leave the house.

[00:31:36.740] - Gordon
And dancing.

[00:31:38.430] - Kerry
Yeah, dancing, yeah, it was fab. So I did that. As well as dabbling in the parties, I went to a wedding fair to try and promote the wedding dance business and saw a balloon twister there.

[00:31:54.610] - Gordon
Aha! So this is your way into children's entertainment. So balloons was it for you?

[00:32:01.990] - Kerry
So I saw a balloon twister. I was like, "oh, that's really cool, I want to do it." So I went home, practised, and then started selling myself as a balloon twister, which went on for a few years. And then I've got a very good friend called Louise Clark, who I met at a convention called the Blackpool Balloon bash. So I went to this convention to try and learn some more, develop my craft as a balloon twister doing balloons at parties. And she said, "oh, you should come to this other convention, Trix in the like Stix, it's like a children's entertainer convention." Okay. So I came along. What she didn't say it was like, it's 90% magic really, isn't it?

[00:32:46.410] - Gordon
Yeah.

[00:32:47.140] - Kerry
Yeah, children's entertainer, but children's magician convention. And again, I didn't know what anybody was talking about. I didn't know what a breakaway wand was. I didn't get half of the gags. Ended up meeting a very nice chap called Gordon.

[00:33:11.630] - Gordon
That's weird, cos that's my name!

[00:33:11.950] - Kerry
We bonded over Noel Coward, I think.

[00:33:17.070] - Gordon
We did.

[00:33:17.430] - Kerry
We talked for hours about that. But yeah, I went home so that was in the July. No, when was it was it? It was in the May I think that convention happens, Trix in the Stix.

[00:33:25.950] - Gordon
Yes.

[00:33:26.300] - Kerry
And by July, I'd done my first magic show. So just went home and practised and got the props I was told to. And then from the September, it was now a regular part. So that was September before last. So a year and a half ago now. So that's when I started introducing the magic show as a part of my party, which is now my main business.

[00:33:49.690] - Gordon
Right. So let's move into that, because you do lots of things. You do bubbles, you do magic, you do your balloons, you've got different themes. So is it a case of people ring you up and say, "this is what we want," and you go, "yeah, okay, I can do that." And then figure it out? Or do you do it the other way? Do you think of things that you think will sell and then create those packages, as it were?

[00:34:22.370] - Kerry
For a little while, I used to do the princessing and doing fully costumed characters, so I would have a certain amount of high quality costumes that I would go out as that character. When I first started doing that, people would ask for a princess, and you'd put on a beautiful dress and a crown, and you could do a princess party. It very soon turned into "which princess are you?" And people would expect Disney parks accurate. They would want the perfect wig, the perfect, accurate dress, which is limiting. And I feel if I'm going out as Elsa, I want... Elsa wouldn't do silly things. She's not. She's a refined princess queen. She's not silly. She wouldn't play silly games. And I felt uncomfortable representing her in that way. I also hated turning up in my car and then them asking how you got there. You're meant to turn up in a carriage. It just felt wrong. And trying to set up a PA in a mermaid tail is just not fun by anybody's stretch or that Rapunzel wig trying to. I just didn't feel I was providing the best entertainment I could.

[00:35:39.050] - Gordon
So. Sorry. Sorry to interrupt. Just briefly, just briefly. You're coming at this from the actor's point of view. You're thinking character, character, character. Not just putting on a dress and turning up.

[00:35:52.530] - Kerry
But I think it's important.

[00:35:52.870] - Gordon
No, I agree. But I don't think a lot of other mascot companies, if you want to call them that, do the same thing. They just put the wig and the costume on, they go out and they sing, maybe even the wrong song, and they're not staying in character. But as a trained actor, you have been taught that this is how certain people react and how they behave, and that's why you, I'm guessing, felt wrong doing things that they wouldn't normally do.

[00:36:21.930] - Kerry
Yeah, you want to answer the children's questions in character, but you also don't want to be lying to them, especially when you can be proved wrong, as in, "how did you get here?" "The prince drove me in his carriage." "Yeah, I saw you get out your Vauxhall out there."

[00:36:39.790] - Gordon
What, you don't have a McLaren? A Mercedes? What's going on?

[00:36:45.730] - Kerry
Yeah. So in order to go back to your original question, how does the theme fit in? I work, I nod to a theme rather than overly theme. I have some, you know, magic tricks that can be adapted to provide the result that fits the theme. So in terms of, if it was a card trick. I've got lots of Top Trumps cards or snap cards, I've got Disney princess ones, I've got superhero ones, I've got pirate ones. And then the final results will suddenly produce a magical balloon that is that character, whether it is Elsa or whether it is Spiderman. So that's a sort of trick that, for example, the birthday child will do to produce the result that is that theme. You know, things like the magic birthday card colouring card trick, it's always to do with the theme that they've asked for. But that's the same trick I'm doing at every party, you know, within reason. I mix things around, because obviously, if you're doing the same group of kids, you need a little rotation of tricks. But, yeah, using music that's appropriate to the theme and dressing. So I make a lot of my own dresses. So I love sewing, so my auntie Peggy gave me her a sewing machine, but fabric's expensive and quite often quite boring so I use duvet covers. I've got a Spiderman duvet cover that I've turned into a Spiderman print dress, princess dress, a unicorn dress, but all of them come out of duvet covers, so I've got quite a wardrobe and they're the sort of fitted 50 style fun dress or some I've got like the Pokémon. I wear the red cap and a Pokémon print t-shirt with sparkly trousers. So I'm putting the effort in to represent their theme, but it's a nod to the theme. I'm not saying I am Batgirl or whatever. Also, in terms of superhero parties, I used to do Batgirl, wear a mask. You're so blocked. I can't interact if I'm not using my eyes and my face. And I find occasionally I get asked to bring a Spiderman mascot along. I've got a couple of chaps that I do use that can be Spiderman, who are great. I mean, they're gymnasts and they do the whole thing. But a kind of six foot bloke walking into a four year old's party with a mask on is quite scary and I think parents don't quite realise that. I've given up trying to explain it now because, "oh, my child's fine!" And they tend to get defensive and however nicely you put it, but most of the time when a masked character will walk into a party, children, it is a scary thing.

[00:39:50.200] - Gordon
Yeah, yeah.

[00:39:51.100] - Kerry
I remember actually taking my own kids to Blenheim Palace to see 'Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom' mascots who are meant to be these teeny tiny elves. And they're these seven foot tall kind of... and my kids screamed.

[00:40:08.770] - Gordon
They're a lot bigger in real life children. From what I'm getting from what you just said, is that you turn up in lots of different costumes as lots of different characters.

[00:40:21.910] - Kerry
No, always me.

[00:40:24.130] - Gordon
A nod to.

[00:40:25.240] - Kerry
Yeah, always me, but in a print where they can look at my dress and then say, "oh, what can you see on this dress?" "Oh, I can see Mario and I can see toad" "And what else can you see?" And that's a conversation starter as it is.

[00:40:34.760] - Gordon
And it looks just like my bed, because I've got a duvet that looks like that.

[00:40:43.930] - Kerry
I have had that before. "Oh I recognise that!"

[00:40:44.350] - Gordon
Are you marketing yourself as Kerry Jay or are you marketing yourself as "Come to My Party," which is your company name.

[00:40:50.260] - Kerry
Come To My Party, because, I mean, pre-Covid, I did have about three or four people on the team at one point. I don't think I could go back to it now because pre-Covid, we were still doing lots of different characters, we were still princessing a bit and offering a mainly dancing games party. Now, I've worked on the magic, I've got more expensive props. Now I'm me and I don't think I would take anybody else on again because I feel the product that I provide is the high quality one that can justify the price tag that I'm charging. Whereas I don't want to advertise, not that the other girls were inferior, but they were great at the singing and dancing, but they all had different skill sets but also didn't invest in the same way as I did. It's my company, I've invested in it. I've worked hard on my routines, on my everything and nobody's going to feel as passionate about your business as you do.

[00:41:57.000] - Gordon
No, they never do.

[00:41:58.380] - Kerry
No.

[00:41:59.990] - Gordon
And do you find that now you've added the magic to your shows, do you find that you get different reactions or do you find that you're just a lot more satisfied with the product that you are offering? What sort of feedback have you got since the magic has been added?

[00:42:16.950] - Kerry
I think it's a lot more of a professional all round show. I'm happy with the format. I feel kids, I've always worked in the way that kids will get bored very quickly, so I use a lot of props, wizz out a new prop, get the parachute out or get the scarves out or get things. But before we put the scarves away, we can do a little magic trick where the birthday child, the change bag thing, and suddenly they've got a rainbow. And I think it just breaks things up. I think it's not everybody sit down for one whole show. It's, let's do this, and then we're going to do this, and then this is going to happen, and then this is going to happen. And it's lots of things happening within the two hour party that sort of keeps their attention span, which is what you want with four and five year olds. You want to keep their attention. I mean, it's three to kind of nine, I suppose, is the age group, but probably predominantly five, six year olds is what I get booked for, five to seven, maybe.

[00:43:23.060] - Gordon
Okay.

[00:43:24.610] - Kerry
Yeah. Just keeping their attention span by the lots of the different things. And I think that's where the magic helps section off the show, section off the party. And, yeah, it's a higher quality product overall.

[00:43:43.010] - Gordon
So thank you, Louise, for introducing you to Trix in the Stix.

[00:43:46.510] - Kerry
I know, she's lovely.

[00:43:48.510] - Gordon
And I have to say, actually, Trix in the Stix is a great convention. There's another one called Kidology. They're both very similar in different ways.

[00:43:56.890] - Kerry
They are very different.

[00:43:58.220] - Gordon
They're both aimed at children and family entertainers, but they do it in a very very different way. And some people like one and not the other, and some people like both. So my recommendation is, if you are a family or children's entertainer in the UK, go to both and then you can decide which one or both you go to in following years. They are both really good for me. I enjoy all of them.

[00:44:21.110] - Kerry
And I think if you take away one trick from a convention, it's worth its weight in gold, as in one little tip. Like, I think, was it Ricky McLeod who did the like the strike it happy thing with the emoji? It's a little game, really, in the middle of your magic show, you get everybody standing on their feet to play a game and sit down. It takes a few minutes of just getting everybody to be a volunteer and on their feet, rather than just sitting down. And that was the trick that I got from Kidology that was worth its weight in gold, that was worth the price of the convention for me because it was... And seeing people as well, that's the other thing, seeing people connecting with people because meeting such brilliant people that now count as friends, but also that you can bounce off. You're having trouble with this trick, this business situation, just having people that understand where you're coming from and you can talk to as a peer, because we don't have that water cooler moment on a Monday morning, do we? Where we "oh, how was your weekend? How's your day been? How's your week been?" And you need people like yourself, but like all the people that we meet at these conventions that know exactly where we're coming from. And don't think you're being precocious because you're saying something that's a bit flamboyant, or just people who get you it's nice.

[00:45:59.630] - Gordon
Someone to ride the highs with you. When you come away from a gig and you feel like it's been like a really good gig, telling your other half, they go, "oh, that's nice, dear. I'm glad you had a good day." But if you talk to another entertainer or someone who's got the knowledge of it, they'll be able to understand and celebrate with you. And that's one of the reasons I started this podcast, is to bring people together like that. And if you haven't already, please join the Facebook page. It's family and children's entertainers, and you can meet like minded people and we can use that as a water cooler sort of time if you want to talk to someone, or just you know, put something on there about how happy you are about something that you've tried and it went really well. It's a really good place to do that. That's one of the aims of this podcast. Your show sounds like it's going from one thing to the other to the other, doing magic, then a game and then parachute and everything else. Is this something that you have an order for, or do you pick and choose, depending on the group of children, or how does it work for you?

[00:47:12.890] - Kerry
I have a very set format. It sounds flaky and flighty, but it is quite structured. So the first 15 minutes as children arrive, I give them all a hand stamp, like a little ink stamp, and it's a way parents will say, "I want to get a face painter" and I don't want to be losing them, the children, I want their attention. I don't want their attention somewhere else. I want their attention with me. And this is a way to give them something physical on their body for those who want it, which is a tiny little ink stamp, which, again, I will theme to fit the party. So that's a way, I will play music. And it's a way of gently introducing yourself to maybe that shy four year old who doesn't really want to join in and doesn't want to say hello. "Would you like a tiny little Spiderman stamp on your arm?" Okay, well, maybe. So then you're drawing them in because, as you know, if a party start time is three o'clock you can't launch into your show at three o'clock you have to have that buffer. So that's my little 15 minutes buffer. There's then 45 minutes of dancing and games where I do use lots of props, and I'll maybe slip in a tiny magic trick in, but it will be mainly music and games. Then I will pass over to the parents for the food while I set up. So I would then pack away that side of things, the props, and set up for a magic show. And then the children will sit down and it will be a 40 minute magic show that we will all end up dancing. A very last thing, birthday child gets a prize; everybody else, I'll give them all a balloon sword at the end. So that's, again something I'll prep in the 15 minute food break. We'll get the balloon swords done. Then we'll pop the bubbles with the balloon swords. It is chaos. If a parent's picking up, they just must think, "oh, God, what a chaotic party." But it is very structured and if they've arrived a little bit sooner, they'll see more of a proper, structured show. But no. Yeah, the way I've described it previously sounds chaotic, but it has got a very definite structure.

[00:49:26.470] - Gordon
Knowing what I do about you, I figured that would be the case. But it's like acting, though, isn't it? To make sure that it appears like it's the first time this has ever happened. Grabbing the handkerchiefs and, "hey, I tell you what we could do. We could change them into a rainbow." It's like the first time that's ever happened. But you've got to be able to act that and make it look like it's the first time. Not, as I call it, 'Groundhog Day magic,' where you look like you've done it many, many times and it just looks like it. That's the pitfall.

[00:50:04.150] - Kerry
No you never want to look tired.

[00:50:04.340] - Gordon
No, I want to stop before I get to that point. If you ever see me perform and I look like that, please come and tell me. Because sometimes we don't recognise it ourselves. I've got a question for you that I think you're going to have trouble answering. So as a female performer, you probably get a very different sort of enquiry to me, as a male performer. Do you find that you get enquiries from people saying, "it's so nice to see a lady doing this because there aren't many of them?" Or do you find they come to you because they think you're more of a mother type figure, being a mother yourself? Do you get any sort of feedback for that? I don't quite know how this question is supposed to be worded. I'm trying really hard not to sound sexist in any way, but it's something that I think is subconsciously happening and I don't know if it's something that you've picked up on.

[00:51:06.870] - Kerry
I don't think quite so much in terms of children's entertainment, because I think there's a lot of general children's entertainers who are female.

[00:51:19.190] - Gordon
There's a lot more now, definitely, they seem to be coming into children's entertainment more than they do any other type of entertainment, like close up magic, for example. There's not as many close up female magicians.

[00:51:31.610] - Kerry
And for example, we're going to the Blackpool Magic Convention in a couple of weeks. It was my first time there last year and I remember walking into. So there's the pub, The Ruskin, that everybody hangs out in. How many does it hold? About 500 people, probably.

[00:51:48.480] - Gordon
Oh it's huge.

[00:51:50.130] - Kerry
It's massive. It is 99.8% male in there. And every single person has got a pack of cards in their back pocket and wants to show you something.

[00:51:58.630] - Gordon
For those who don't know, Blackpool Magic Convention is the biggest magic convention in the world. I think there's about four and a half thousand people who go every year now. And historically, it's been very much aimed at sort of the close up performer, because I'm guessing that's what the hobbyists do, they pick up close up tricks to show their friends. Luckily, we've got Russ Brown, who is a children's entertainer, a family entertainer, who's very, very good, in Blackpool, who's now on the committee, and he's been pushing for more and more children's entertainers events. The competition is there, they've got the lectures. We had Mario Maker last year, who was very much children and family orientated. It is widening, and I think because of that, it's attracting more children and family entertainers like yourself. But, yeah, I found definitely that there's a lot more female entertainers coming into this side of it than there is coming into another type of magic.

[00:53:03.710] - Kerry
I think the other type of magic to be a good, for example, wedding close up magician is very very skillful. And there are some very good female close up magicians. Not, nowhere near as many as men. I don't know, maybe it's a time thing. A hobbyist would more likely to be male for some reason. I don't know why. I'd love to be able to do it. I'm certainly not skilled enough. I've come into magic learning self taught easy tricks and then slowly developing odd skills. The other thing is, so my next door neighbour wanted to hire a magician for her office Christmas party. I put her onto my magic club because... My local magic club and she hired one of the guys from there, which was great. I wouldn't have considered doing it. She said there are load of, it's a construction company.

[00:54:11.650] - Gordon
Can be a tough crowd.

[00:54:11.970] - Kerry
There was a massive complaint last year because one of the blokes grabbed one of the singing waitresses ass. I think I would have felt slightly awkward in that situation doing close up magic. You would have had comments, no matter what you'd have worn or there's situation - and where there's a lot of drunk people you need to be a very witty. I don't think I'm quite strong enough to deal with drunk men making close up propositions. I can probably deal with it on a stage and where there's the barrier. But in terms of close up, I think it takes a great deal of skill. And there's definitely people who have that sort of skill. But I don't think I'm one of them.

[00:55:05.410] - Gordon
I need to just clarify something you said there. Skill as in technical skill and skill and experience in that situation. Because I feel that...

[00:55:13.320] - Kerry
I think experience in that situation is definitely able to fend off drunk men making inappropriate...

[00:55:23.190] - Gordon
Because I think family and children dentures also require a lot of skill.

[00:55:27.630] - Kerry
They do completely.

[00:55:30.010] - Gordon
I would love to see some of these close up performers doing a children's party. And in fact I've spoken to many of them and they say, "oh, I don't know how you do it. It's not even something I would consider!" Which is exactly what you're saying. But that's because they haven't got the skills and the experience to know what to do and how to do it. So I think children's entertaining and family entertaining is very, very skilful and we're learning all the time and I feel that, again, one of the reasons I set this up is that we are the entertainers who probably do more gigs than the other entertainers.

[00:56:06.170] - Kerry
I mean a wedding you would do on one Saturday night, wouldn't you? Probably. Whereas we're always four shows a week, four shows a weekend because you do a morning party and an afternoon party on a Saturday or Sunday. I think also though it's a different skill set so I'm stage, I'm magic, I'm tada, where's my applause? Actors, you will get the wonderful Shakespearean fabulous actors which are very different to 'EastEnders' kind of you know yes, some people can do both and some people can do both brilliantly but a lot of TV actors aren't good on the stage and a lot of stage actors aren't good on TV, it's the same. A close up something, subtle something, jokey jokey close up is completely different to 'here I am, this is this magical event and come with me on this journey' and it's something completely different and different skills.

[00:57:06.030] - Gordon
And getting it right in one take as well which you need to do on the stage whereas...

[00:57:09.730] - Kerry
Well exactly.

[00:57:10.650] - Gordon
Film and TV: "Oh, that was rubbish let's do another one!"

[00:57:14.320] - Kerry
Need to be perfect eight shows a week.

[00:57:17.390] - Gordon
Yeah and that takes a lot of work, that takes a lot of work. So you have the 'Greatest Showman circus party,' did you learn circus skills for this as well?

[00:57:31.540] - Kerry
Circus has been, if you'd have asked little Kerry, age eight what she wanted to be when she grew up trapeze artist.

[00:57:40.360] - Gordon
Wow.

[00:57:42.690] - Kerry
Just, that, the circus has been my passion I mean, I'm looking on my wall over there I've got posters from circuses and I love the circus and I always wanted to run away to join, I've read all the Noel Stretfield circus books, the Enid Blyton ones and that's something I loved and I can't really do it. I did trapeze for a while a few years ago there was the circus school around here and I did a trapeze course there which was fantastic fun but, I can't juggle - I mean I can juggle three balls I can't do anything more exciting than three balls... Said the actress to the bishop.

[00:58:31.090] - Gordon
PG. PG.

[00:58:36.870] - Kerry
Basically I was thinking about doing circus workshops. Well, I started doing festivals. Actually this is going to hark back to your previous question have I ever been booked because I was female? The very festivals is the one instance where as I'm being booked hopefully this year I'm having discussions with somebody I've done a lot of festivals before and he says one of the key things about me is that he knows lots of male magicians who can come and put on a show, he knows lots of female face painters and lots of female other things but to put on a show that is my niche. And that's why he particularly wants me on this festival, because I am female. He didn't quite put it like that. He put it very subtly. But, yes, I think later in this year, if I am booked with it, hopefully I will be on this job. One of the key factors will be because I am different from other people, because I am female.

[00:59:37.410] - Gordon
It's one of your unique selling propositions, isn't it?

[00:59:40.330] - Kerry
Yeah, I guess it just presents a different way of looking at things. But going back to that, working with these festivals in the past, which I've done, watching the circus workshops on there, I've loved joining in and having a go. My son learnt to unicycle at one of these festivals and going back year after year and he's got a unicycle himself now. I love the circus. So basically I've got a load of circus equipment that is easy for kids to do, that I can demonstrate easily. And we do the whole party. We do the first half as a workshop where I demonstrate all the different things, how to use stilts, because a lot of people hold stilts like that and try and stand up, keeping them to your body. Diablos and ribbons and just lots of little things really, like that. So we'll demonstrate it, they'll go, let rip. Watching dads trying to spin a plate is brilliant. I try and get mums joined in and trying to get them to spin plates.

[01:00:53.290] - Gordon
"She makes it look so easy!"

[01:00:58.450] - Kerry
Doing all that, but I still keep the structure. I only want that to happen for about 45 minutes, tops. Pass to the food, pack all the kit away. Either do a magic show usually then, or do some dancing and games, or if they want to keep it free flow and put a bouncy castle up or something I'll do balloon modelling. But I don't know about you, I mean, I don't want to do anything, we never want a bouncy castle up or something when we're entertaining. So if that's happening, I always just do something that can work in the background, like balloon modelling, rather than.

[01:01:35.280] - Gordon
I bought myself a remote control plug and if there's ever a bouncy castle in the room, I will go and take the plug out of the bouncy castle, put my socket in and then plug it back in again. So just for a fraction of a second, it's off and then it's back on again. And then when we start the show, without telling anyone, I say, "Right. Oh, gosh. Bouncy castle is really noisy. Isn't it? Tell you what, everyone wiggle your fingers at the bouncy castle." And as they do, it just goes zzzzzsssh, which is just great.

[01:02:07.750] - Kerry
I love it.

[01:02:08.840] - Gordon
It's very magical.

[01:02:09.950] - Kerry
As long as there's no kids still on it.

[01:02:11.370] - Gordon
Yeah, I do make sure they're off.

[01:02:14.170] - Kerry
Oh, that's brilliant. I love it.

[01:02:16.220] - Gordon
But it's a great way to do some magic. But also get rid of the distraction and the noise, because they can be really really noisy. Sounds like you needed to have done 'Barnum' at some point.

[01:02:27.790] - Kerry
Oh, I love that show. I would have loved to have done that show. That is my dream show.

[01:02:33.510] - Gordon
My double act partner, Paul Longhurst, who we'll have on this show one time.

[01:02:39.330] - Kerry
Has he not been on already?

[01:02:40.080] - Gordon
No he hasn't. No. Well, I didn't want to show favouritism, you know. But he was in 'Barnum' and he took the part of P. T. Barnum and yeah, the tightrope walking was. If you ever see Paul Longhurst, go up to him and say, "how's your tightrope walking?" And he'll tell you the story of it. I shall say no more. I shall leave that to him.

[01:03:02.970] - Kerry
Oh I'm definitely going to ask that.

[01:03:04.350] - Gordon
But yes. So just to sort of wrap up the time that we have with you, can I thank you, first of all for spending time with us and telling us about your journey, because it's a very different journey to most of the children's entertainers and family entertainers that we come across. They are sort of hooked at the age of three or something, and then they just learn magic, magic, magic. And they don't learn all of the theatrical skills that you need to be able to work on a stage or in a festival. You're quite often on a huge stage with thousands of people and you've got to make sure that the show that you provide for them is going to be suitable for that venue. And sometimes 'Run, Rabbit, Run' isn't going to cut it because it's here rather than out here somewhere.

[01:03:54.730] - Kerry
I've done the old climbing balloon a few times at festivals.

[01:03:59.630] - Gordon
I bet that goes down well. Yeah I can imagine.

[01:04:02.510] - Kerry
Hopefully you don't want a big tiger.

[01:04:07.150] - Gordon
So, last question for you then, Kerry, before I let you go. And you've probably got a school run coming up knowing you.

[01:04:15.210] - Kerry
Yep.

[01:04:15.870] - Gordon
Yep, there we go. Ok, so where is Kerry Jay going? What's the next big adventure? What's going to happen in the next few years?

[01:04:24.450] - Kerry
Oh, my gosh. I don't know. I don't know. I'd love to get back into singing a little bit more again. Maybe doing some gigs for fun with that or bringing it back in. I don't know. I'd like to go back and do, I like the idea of cruise ships again but as a just let's go on a two week cruise and do it.

[01:04:49.290] - Gordon
A guest stint, yeah.

[01:04:50.080] - Kerry
But that's very much going to be at least five years down the line when my 13 year old's a bit older. But I do like the idea of going to do more things like that. I don't know. Everything. I never know. You asked me two years ago, you'd have told me two years ago I'd have been a magician I'd have laughed at you. I don't know. My whole thing always has been just say yes to everything. Can you do this? Yes. Can you do this? Yes. I think you just take an opportunity where you see it and if you don't know, it's that old thing on people, the actors. "Can you ride a horse?" "Yes, of course I can." You figure if you get the job, you'll take a horse riding lesson. If something sounds appealing, can you do it? Yes, of course I can. So I think I'll just see what opportunities come along really.

[01:05:50.850] - Gordon
Well, I wish you all the best in the future.

[01:05:54.530] - Kerry
Thank you.

[01:05:54.890] - Gordon
If you want to find out more about Kerry, how do they go about that? You've got your website. Come to my Party where you have your children's entertainment. Do you have any other social media that you promote things with?

[01:06:11.030] - Kerry
No, I'm not so good on that. I did have a website, kerryjay.com, which is probably hopelessly out of date, that I haven't actually looked at for about ten years. So probably don't look at that. Edit that out.

[01:06:22.970] - Gordon
It's a bit late now. You've just said it. Everyone's going to be.

[01:06:27.080] - Kerry
I haven't looked at that for years. So it's one that's been ticking along in the background that I haven't looked at. Yeah, there's various videos on YouTube and things.

[01:06:41.010] - Gordon
Well, if you see Kerry at Trix in the Stix or Kidology or Blackpool or the Balloon Bash, please go and say hello because she's such a lovely person and she will give you this really big smile that she has and she is so knowledgeable, she's so talented. But thank you so much for spending time with us, Kerry.

[01:07:05.670] - Kerry
Oh thank you. It's been really fun.

[01:07:06.000] - Gordon
I'm looking forward to seeing you in Blackpool.

[01:07:08.110] - Kerry
Yes. Can't wait to hang out.

[01:07:10.120] - Gordon
Great. Thank you, Kerry.

[01:07:12.330] - Gordon
So that was Kerry Jay. A very interesting person and a lovely lady to boot. She's got such a lot of experience by working in the West End on proper shows. I say the word proper shows, but you know what I mean. We all do proper shows, but these shows are shows where people are actually paying top price in the West End to go and see these particular shows. And they've got to be good. There's no second chances, there's no, "Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot to bring something." It's got to be 100% good and accurate and professional eight times a week. Eight shows a week. Now, there's a lot of people who do this and after a short while, they get very bored of it and they can't show that as a professional, they need to make sure that they give as much energy to the first show of the week as they do to the last show of the week and six months later down the line, they have to do it exactly the same each time. We are lucky in some respects, in the fact that because we control our own shows, we can do what we want with our show. If we want to throw something new into it, well, we can do so just as long as we make sure it's of good enough quality. There's a conversation for another time. What do you take out to put something new in? I've got some very interesting views on that. I'll talk about that in the future. Kerry Jay though, she did the course, she went through college, she got the job, she did the interviews, she landed the roles, and she put in all the hard work that was needed to get to the point of being a West End star. And then children came along and she changed tack. She changed from being someone who works every night on a show to someone that you can hire to go to their party. So a very different route into children and family entertainment, but nonetheless valid. And, in fact, probably she's learnt the 'performance' skills way before the 'entertainment of children' skills. And because of her knowledge, just getting a few tricks and practising and practising and practising them allowed her to become a magician, a children's entertainer very quickly. One of the things that Kerry spoke about, which I found very interesting, is when she was going out as a princess and she would be sort of one of the Disney princesses and felt that she was not giving her all to that character because she wasn't actually acting in the same way that that character is expected to act. You know, she was talking about Elsa from Frozen and how Elsa would not arrive in a car, she would arrive in a carriage, definitely. She would have footmen around her. She was talking about how the princess wouldn't play silly games because she's a very refined princess. And this created a problem for Kerry because she couldn't give the character 100%. And I really hadn't thought of it this way. When these mascot companies go out as their characters, not only are they supposed to be that character, they're supposed to act and think like that character as well. And a lot of these characters that I see don't do that. In fact, a lot of the characters don't sing; they don't act the way they should. If they do sing, they maybe just sing a different song completely. They might have a little CD player or something along that, an MP3 player. And would the princess, would she actually have one of those, or would she do it in a different way? I found that very very interesting. And it just goes to show how being an actor and being trained as an actor gives you a completely different outlook to how these characters should be played. And because she wasn't able to do what she wants to do as an actor, she's now tipping a nod to the theme rather than saying that she is these characters. And I think that's a really sensible way of doing that. It also allows her to be as flexible as possible. She can add a new character or a new theme, I should say, into her shows very easily and just sort of theme a little bit about what she does and how she does it rather than being a brand new character. Kerry is such a lovely person. If you do see her at any convention, please go and say hi. She is very bubbly, she's very smiley, and she's got this sort of light up the room type smile that she has. So do go and say hello. I know she'd love to speak to you. She's very sociable and I would like to thank her once again for spending time with me talking about her career to this point. And hopefully at some point in the future, we'll go back and we'll find out where Kerry Jay is now, what twists and turns her career has taken, and what she's doing at that point. If you haven't already, please, like, share and subscribe on YouTube, on the website FaceThePodcast.com or on your podcast platform, wherever you get your podcasts. Every feedback, every comment, every like, really helps me. I don't do this for the money. I do this because I feel it's right and something we should have for the family and the children's entertainers. And it's the sort of thing that will spur me on. Once I get feedback, to hear that you are actually enjoying these episodes and every episode takes me about a week or so to do, which is why they don't come out as often as maybe I would like them to, but I have to fit them in around all my other work, so the more feedback I get, the more impetus I'll have behind me to get a new episode out. Once again, the website is FaceThePodcast.com and you'll be able to see all of the episodes up there or listen to them on your favourite podcast platform. Until the next episode, my name is Gordon Drayson and it's been a pleasure to be your host for this episode, and I look forward to speaking with you in real life, if you see me, come and say hello; on the Facebook page that we have, which is Family And Children's Entertainers; in real life; or maybe just have you listen to the next episode. Until then, my name's Gordon Drayson and I will look forward to you joining me next time on FACE: The Podcast. Until then, goodbye.