Why doing "pantomime is a bit like starting a football match 3-0 up"

“You've got the audience on your side and wanting to have a great time”, he explains. By the end of it all, the score will probably be something like 12-0.

Callum is looking forward to his ninth year as comic at Chequer Mead, East Grinstead and his second as a co-writer, with Cinderella running at the venue from December 6-January 4. He's delighted to be teaming up once again with his long-term partner in panto Kevin Gauntlett, the venue's regular dame and in this show our fairy godmother.

“I truly believe our productions are always of the highest quality, and we keep getting better every year. In my first year in East Grinstead in 2017, the first year it became a professional production, we struggled to sell out 22 shows... This year we are doing 43!

“This is my second time playing Buttons and actually my tenth pantomime at the venue in all including an Easter pantomime that we did. The best thing about Chequer Mead is that it has the feel of a big theatre with the circle and the stalls but it has all the intimacy of a small theatre. It's 320 seats. For panto, particularly as a comic I hear everything that anyone says.

“Everyone likes to think that every show is different and that you're always doing something fresh but sometimes with the bigger pantos that's not true. But genuinely this is because I think in this venue the audience reaction is unique to every show.

“Playing the comic is all about the energy. When you're going through the script it's about how you can bring that energy to the whole show. Nine years ago when I started it was a bit tougher because people didn't know me but now, as I say, doing panto here is a bit like starting a football match 3-0 up. The audiences know their role and they know what to do and pretty soon it feels like you are scoring another goal! But my job is all about the energy. But also if something goes wrong or if we miss a beat or if there is illness in the cast or something, then my role is to say ‘I've got this’ and we will get this show sorted. I have got to be ready.”

After all, panto has an important role: “It is a lot of people's first introduction to the theatre. It doesn't have the traditional stuffiness and the traditional rules of theatre. People come along when they are younger, and the jokes are there for everyone. The best jokes in the show are when you can see everyone laughing, the child and their parents and their grandparents. It really is about the whole age demographic. With panto you don't leave anybody behind. You take absolutely everyone along for the ride.

“And what we do at Chequer Mead after every show is that I go out into the foyer and meet people and have photos. There are photos of me with toddlers from ten years ago and those toddlers are now at secondary school.”

This year the show is Cinderella: “And yes, I think it is the best panto. It has all the beats that you want to hit in panto and Buttons is the iconic comic role within panto. I did Buttons six or seven years ago and I find walking around East Grinstead, if people recognise me it's for Buttons. And also the Cinderella story is so fantastic. The Cinderella story is a phrase itself and it's got everything that you want from a pantomime.”