Tony Brown

ABOUT ME

It all began early in 1974 at the height of the conflict in Northern Ireland. I was a war baby, my mother surrendered. Mother a successful cabaret singer and father a soldier, you could say mum did her bit for Queen and country. Nine months later in a West Germany military hospital little Tony was born. Born in Germany with a Norn Irish showbiz mother and Scottish disciplinary sergeant major as a father you could say a career in comedy was inevitable from such a confused DNA mix. First few years were spent travelling the world following my father’s deployments. Mishap and comedy were never far away even then, including being kidnapped by the children of a remote village in El Salvador and being whisked into the jungle fascinated by the blonde haired, blue eyed baby in a buggy…. obviously, I was eventually recovered. Is this the first time I realized I had the power to bring enjoyment and laughter? Is this when I got the addiction to entertain at 18 months old? Perhaps it was all destined to be……….

The first hurdle to overcome in search of my showbiz career was my father. At the age of 9 I asked if I could do Irish Dancing, this clearly was not what my Boxing Champion father had hoped for me, to quote “no poofter son of mine is going to prance about a stage” Showbiz mum was all for it, and as the story has been told it was now time for my father to surrender, after a three month nookie ban, he waved his white y fronts one evening and showbiz mum won…..now I was an Irish Dancer. Sergeant Dad in fear of another nookie ban even accompanied showbiz mum and I to my first festival/competition, walking into the hall head down three steps behind us, he walked out beside us head held high carrying our winning trophies, with a smile that was filled with pride and a look of ‘that’s my boy!’

So, it started my addiction for the smell of the grease paint and the roar of the crowd. I joined McMaster Stage School and Bangor Operatic Society and at the age of 13 started taking lead roles in pantomimes and musicals.

I auditioned for the world-famous Italia Conti Academy of Performing and Broadcast Arts. At the age of 16 I left for London and joined their three-year Diploma course. Life for a small town Northern Irish lad who never had even got a bus on his own was a struggle at first. I quickly gained the reputation of the funny one after a series of mishaps secured my infamy in the college. Mishaps like my shoe catching fire whilst leaving the underground, getting off a train on the wrong side, being attacked by a homeless man I had tried to help, attending St Barts A and E with a dance shoe super glued to my hand and many more.

Professionally I was given the opportunity to perform twice at the London Palladium, Royal Variety shows, was a stunt double for East 17s Tony Mortimer in a TV commercial in which I managed to only sustain third degree burns to my back and shoulders, I was however successful in guaranteeing Mr. Mortimer sustained no injuries. I even featured on an episode of The Bill.

My years at Italia Conti are described as the one of the most successful periods in the college’s history with many friends hitting the big time like Russell Brand (who taught me to drink), Louise Redknapp (my first kiss, stick that Sergeant dad not bad for your poofter son), Martine McCutcheon, Lisa Scott Lee from Steps, Kelle Bryan from Hollyoaks and Loose Women, Kelly Brook, actor Daniel Mays…to name just a few. The closest I came was to get down to the final three for the role of Aiden the Irish footballer that featured for a couple of years in EastEnders. Final day, screen test on set with Arthur Fowler there was me authentic Irish boy, a Pakistani boy, and a cockney who had had some success in Grange Hill. Surely this was in the bag, the characters Irish for blarney sakes. Screen test in the bag done and dusted, I swaggered back to the waiting room humming the EastEnders theme tune in my head. Waiting there thinking my future was made the Producer and Director come in and rather than hearing the famous EastEnders dum, dum ,dumtity dum dum and the role goes to…..Tony. No, they introduced the chief football coach for Watford FC, they wanted to see our football skills. The three wannabes are led into an empty studio, the floor decorated with traffic cones in a row and we had to perform some basic football moves. Disaster, Sergeant Dad would be having the last laugh instead of pooftering about in tap shoes I should have been butchly chasing after a ball in the mud. I chased after my ball like it was the end of a Benny Hill episode. If only the role had been for an Irish Tap dancer. The role went to Cockney Sean Maguire and the Beeb engaged a dialect coach to help with his Irish accent. Not that I took it badly, but I watched all his 167 episodes and only once did he kick a ball across Albert Square.

On graduating I joined the world-famous Entertainment Army as a Butlins’s Redcoat and learnt my craft in variety. I quickly developed several routines and became popular on the Holiday Park circuit for my stand-up and best-known routine my Rubberdance, Riverdance sketch, which featured me Irish Dancing and being accompanied by 4 inflatable dolls rigged to move in sync with my legs and arms culminating in chaos as one deflates and other flies off into the audience. These routines took me all over the country including seasons in Blackpool, where the routine was seen by Bobby Davro, who subsequently bought the routine and props off me. My first experience writing for someone else.

In 1998 I returned to Northern Ireland fed up travelling constantly. In the hope of developing a career there. In a strange agent David Hull of David Hull Promotions ended up engaging me as an agent in the office allowing me to manage the careers of some of his comedy talent. My role within the company grew over 16 years and I managed the company with him. Writing, Producing, Promoting, and developing careers, live and TV shows. During this time, I worked with most of Ireland’s premium presenting and comedy talent.

I decided to try a completely different route in 2013 and David Hull allowed my creativity to flourish in a new direction. When we opened Ireland’s largest Family Entertainment Centre. I wanted it to incorporate live family entertainment as well as soft play, so the Centre included a full stage rig and children’s entertainment a mix of standard soft play and my holiday camp background. I completely themed the Centre and created costume characters etc and so Happy Town was born and characters like Mayor Tumbledown, Nurse Milly and PC Nick were born into the childhood of children from the Greater Belfast area.

In 2017 after some personal difficulties, I moved on from Happy Town. Since then, I have been afforded the luxury of picking and choosing what I do to fill my time. I have also had time to pursue other activities like more writing and directing and returned to performing occasionally. I have Bi-Polar disorder and have worked with various mental health charities, a cause remarkably close to my heart.

And so, the remainder of my story is blank pages awaiting new, exciting, and no doubt in true Tony style bizarre surreal events to occur…. life is always far from dull and never far from comedy mishaps……….

TO BE CONTINUED…………