A Job to Do by John Gordon

Author:John Gordon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography/Military
ISBN: 9781775591986
Publisher: Exisle Publishing
Published: 2009-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

‘Please can I ave a mugev-water?’

Terry referred him to Jim Millins in the wings and off trotted Dick, glancing behind him all the time as though afraid that the band or Terry would throw him out. After a couple of items he would be back, poking his head round the curtain and beckoning Terry for yet another ‘mugevwater.’ This went on several times until Terry got distracted and demanded:

‘Another “mugevwater,” what are you doing with it all?’

‘Well, you see, my truck’s on fire!’ answered Dick in his most lugubrious tones.

‘But surely it must be out by now, with all the water you’ve had.’

‘Oh, no,’ said Dick, ‘my mate’s keeping it going while I get the water.’

It was in this show that Terry introduced the stage band playing ‘The William Tell’ Overture, conducted by that eminent maestro Professor Leopold Popowski – the item that had New Zealand audiences in tears. There can be no doubt about Terry’s artistry, but if there was any, his performance as the ‘eminent maestro’ soon dispelled it; his gestures and antics were clever to the last degree, and the whole satire was polished and finished to its very last note and movement.

The British Public Relations Service had organised a daily newspaper in Tripoli soon after the troops moved in, and they gave us a very glowing write-up:

‘I take my hat off to Terry Vaughan for his orchestrations, his satire of Leopold Popowski, and I take off my jacket to the pathetic figure, scruffy, sorrowful, mug in hand, who interrupts the show time and again to ask for a mug of water.

‘And my shirt – that comes off for Wally Prictor, the prima donna of all female impersonators. Impersonation becomes so finished when Wally Prictor sings, ‘torch-like’ into the mike that you need a course in Pelmanism to remember that the lovely blonde is none other than Sergeant Wally Prictor.

‘And before I finish I take off what is left of my clothing, W.D., in praise of the beefy singer, Tony Rex, and the Chaplinesque humour of John Reidy, the trombone player who doesn’t need to say anything to be funny.

‘So, left in my shoes, I stand in naked praise of the best show in Africa.’

1944, Sing as We Go

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