by Kirby Lindsay Laney
Originally published March 22, 2006 in the North Seattle Herald-Outlook
First, a disclaimer: I do not expect to convey in printed word the energy and enthusiasm of Simon Neale. Neither can I capture the charming English accent he retains after 23 years in the States. I hope to simply introduce one of the people responsible for keeping fun in Fremont.
Bringing Us Moisture
“It’s going to be really big,” Simon bragged about this year’s Moisture Festival, running through April 9. As one of five producers of this outrageous vaudevillian event, Simon will be on hand at every show.
“We’ve attracted a lot of fellow performers,” Simon announced proudly. Artists from around the world heard of the festival and came for an opportunity to perform with other comedy/variety acts.
Moisture Festival features juggling, clowning, bubble-blowing, music, trapeze and other entirely indescribable acts all done on stage, live.
“That form of entertainment is soaring in popularity in Europe,” Simon spoke with authority after his recent European tour with Cirque de Flambé.
Considering the crowds at last year’s festival, some could argue it’s soaring in popularity right here. “Hale’s [Palladium] was [at] capacity last year, and it will be capacity this year.” Which means if you haven’t already purchased tickets (available through Brown Paper Tickets), run for them now!
Fremont Players, A Personal Project
Simon takes part in Cirque de Flambé — most easily described as a circus of fire performances — and Cirque’s producer, Maque da Vis, takes part in Simon’s personal creative project, the Fremont Players. Maque encouraged Simon to pursue his lifelong interest in British Panto.
Simon produces the Fremont Players, where the actors use a workshop process, and improvisation, to put together a show. “Panto should always have the feel of improvisation,” Simon explains. “We took the story and broke it down into scenes” and identified “what needs to come across to the audience” and to move the story forward.
“We get input from everybody in the room,” in the process, “each show grows like a tree. Hopefully, all the dead wood falls away in the process.”
The Fremont Players have performed ‘Aladdin,’ ‘Jack in the Beanstalk’ and ‘Babes in the Woods.’ Simon hopes to debut their next effort this summer.
“My favorite part is audience interaction,” and often children have less inhibition about responding, but “it’s not [just] a children’s show. It’s a great thrill for parents and the kids,” he said.
The Dame character is a traditional part of British Panto, and Simon created the Dame Widow Twankey —“obviously a guy in a dress” — for ‘Aladdin.’
She also wowed the crowds at the Texas Chainsaw Pumpkin Carving at Fremont Oktoberfest: “I won that seven or eight years in a row, and there was some grumbling…so the last time, I just emceed it.”
Last year, Widow Twankey didn’t appear in any guise at the fall event. “I’m almost getting to saturation point. Something may have to go,” he’s admitted, even after cutting out Oktoberfest.
‘Here, Hold This!’
Simon originally moved to Seattle to stay near his son, “and I haven’t looked back. I love the place!” After seeing his first Fremont Arts Council Solstice Parade in 1993, Simon thought “I love these people!”
The following year he wandered inside the FAC Powerhouse on Fremont Avenue before the parade, “and it was the classic ‘Here, hold this!”
Simon asked if he could help and everyone said, “Go find Maque.” Simon eventually located Maque and was handed a wheel and told to replace it on that float. Simon did as asked, and returned half an hour later to be told, “No, not that wheel. This one.”
Simon changed wheels again, and he was hooked.
As Simon’s son, Keith, helped with parade floats, he would say, “I wish this was our float.” A week before the parade, Maque called Simon and said a group had backed out. Quickly, Simon and Keith recreated Stonehenge, with a “trilogy of the three stones” performances during the parade. Simon added a hinge on the top lintel of the stones, and at the climax of the ceremony the hinge would lift up and down. Laughter slowly grew as crowds caught the “Stone Hinge” joke, and Simon committed to making Fremont folk smile. “I’ve found my people!”
‘The Whole Room Laughing’
As he rushes off to prepare the third-annual Moisture Festival, Simon revels in “the magic of it. The joy of what we’re creating in the room.” Simon makes 75 percent of his living as a carpenter and independent contractor.
“I can set my own schedule” and work around performances. “I’d love to be performing full time,” he said. “The ideal thing for me would be to open a cabaret theatre in the heart of Fremont.”
In the end, he just loves entertaining: “There is nothing like the feeling of doing something funny and having the whole room laughing.”
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©2016 Kirby Laney. This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws. Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.