People often ask me how I ended up working in London. It's long story but I condensed it down to 14 minutes and told it at the monthly True Stories Told Live event which I co-organize and MC. (More about TSTL here).

How I Ended Up Working In London

My first UK acting job was Bar Mitzvah Boy, a West End musical, in 1978. In the 1980's, I worked mostly in British regional theatre: four plays at Northampton, including Privates On Parade, four plays at the Bristol Old Vic, including Henry V and a production of Orton's Loot at the Derby Playhouse. Since then, I've remained in London for my theatre work, except for my solo shows (more info on them at the bottom of the page) which I would road test at the Edinburgh Fringe.

I broke into BBC Radio when I read the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A Confederacy of Dunces as a Book At Bedtime. This led to many radio plays, which eventually led to radio readings of Bill Bryson's books. Radio readings begat audio books (more info on audio books in the Credits section) and audio books have actually brought me acting work.

I used to dub a lot of films, including Jackie Chan's early Hong Kong stuff. I once re-voiced a 6 foot 4 inch villain in a Bond flick (I'm 5 foot 4 but I can sound 6 foot 4).

After a few years on stage, I started to work on television, presenting a children's series called Let's Pretend. I have an ancient videotape of this. No one but my wife has ever seen it. Or will ever see it.

I quit Let's Pretend to take a part in my first film, Yentl.

Around this time, I also played Ronnie Corbett's 14 year-old godson in an episode of his series Sorry!. I was 28 at the time. Check it out.

Think that was an unusual leap? Watch Mr Beaver's heartfelt description of Aslan (Christ, basically) in the BBC's The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe on You Tube. (Once the soppy music stops, for pity's sake, switch off!)

All those Bar Mitzvah lessons and I end up advertising the opposition...

Favourite jobs of the past few years include:

- playing "Earl Holub", the condemned murderer in His Girl Friday at the National Theatre

- playing uber-agent "Swifty Lazar" in the original cast of Frost/Nixon at the Donmar and the Gielgud Theatres

- my role as weapons inspector "Eric Howlitt" in BBC TV's 10 Days To War, which filmed in Jordan

- and acting as a panellist on radio and telly (Saturday Review, Newsnight Review and The Review Show).

In addition to the acting, I eventually snagged a top voice agent and started doing radio and telly voiceovers, documentary narration and ADR for British animation series. What's ADR? I explain in this interview for the Radio 4 series Word Of Mouth:

My Solo Shows

I wrote and performed five of them. One of them had been done before, but the others were world premieres*.

A Confederacy of Dunces* (1985)
Based on the novel by John Kennedy Toole.

Dreaming of Babylon* (1986)
Based on the novel by Richard Brautigan.

Herringbone - a musical for one performer (1990)
By Tom Cone, Skip Kennon and Ellen Fitzhugh.

The Set-up* (1992)
Based on the poem by Joseph Moncure March.

The Prince of West End Avenue* (1997)
Based on the novel by Alan Isler (photo below)

Caveman, Inc.* (2002)
Based on the novel Pastoralia by George Saunders.

These projects were the most difficult and most satisfying jobs I have ever tackled. They took me around the world, from the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh to the Amsterdam front room of the notorious "Happy Hooker", from a tiny English-language theatre in Berlin to a huge outdoor amphitheatre near Cape Town, from The Sydney Opera House to the 59E59 Theater in New York.

For twenty years (my last solo show was the New York revival of The Prince of West End Avenue in 2005), I played over a hundred characters of all shapes, colours, sizes and accents.

These projects saved my sanity and nearly drove me insane. They were also a great excuse for posters that look great in our downstairs hallway. This is my favourite, by the cartoonist Steven Appleby.

The Prince of West End Avenue was the show that really took off. I was happy to tour it because the main character was 86 years old and had to sit down a lot. Here's an article I wrote for The Guardian about performing in that Amsterdam front room:

Guardian Article

Currently, I'm writing a new adaptation of The Prince of West End Avenue: a stage play for a cast of nine. Most of the actors will play three or four parts. I don't plan to appear in it... but I must admit I'm tempted....