About Chris – Biography
Actor, Director & Facilitator!
The early years!
His first theatrical outing was at the age of 6 at the Winter Gardens Eastbourne in the Sooty Show, where he was chosen to play the villain by Harry H Corbett himself.
He studied drama at Loughborough University to study drama. Inspired by the punk movement, his final year thesis was the release of a single with the band The Type “Bright Green Angels” on Broken Records.
He then moved to London and was part of the anarchic collective that ran the Forbidden Planet bookshop in Denmark St, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Charles Shaar Murray, Nick Kent and Angela Carter. During this time he played the drums in various London bands before deciding to turn to the world of variety just as the alternative comedy boom was starting where he joined satirical songsters Skint Video as one of the Cryptic Twins.
Training and Performance
He gained his equity card slogging around the new variety circuit in the late eighties with musical comedy act Skint Video. He then joined comedy circus Ra Ra Zoo playing to international audiences in places as far flung as Singapore, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Poland, Paris and Germany.
He has also trained and worked with John Mowat, Nola Rae, Theatre de Complicite, Archaos, Angela de Castro, Commotion Theatre company and DNA animation theatre becoming a household face in Norway with a long running series of award winning commercials, he has advertised sausages in Denmark, fruit juice in Holland, spectacles in Germany and Yellow Pages in France.
He has appeared on television in this country in various guises including Blue Peter, Pebble Mill at One where he was invited to join Aswad for a gig and given a comedy eyebrow workshop by Frankie Vaughan.
He has been featured working with Bruce Forsyth on the Generation Game. Been a guest on Nicholas Parsons Show and had a feature role as ‘Prodnose’ in Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Chris Cresswell has a rare gift. He is able to bring about personal and professional development, not by delivering it, not even by facilitating it. He does it by standing behind you, pointing to the space where all is possible, and knowing just the right moment to nudge you into it!
Comedy & Music
He was one half of outrageous cult comedy duo Lennie and Morris (with Ruth Glaser) which led to the formation of his own vaudeville company Voodoo Vaudeville a theatre and cabaret performance company resident at the Komedia, Brighton for a decadent decade between 2000 and 2010
He has formed several street theatre companies including junk percussion outfit Clatteratti who have been performing internationally for over 15 years
He has worked as a compere for the past 15 years , presiding over the chaos of the circus tent at Glastonbury to Miss Pole Dance UK at the Scala, he has also worked at formal occasions at the Brighton Dome as well as ten years compering at the Komedia in Brighton.
He is also the voice of Baby Warhol, a puppet oracle favourite on the twisted cabaret circuit.
Director
As a director he has worked in theatre, dance, puppetry, circus performance, spectacle, site specific and street theatre with work appearing in the London Mime Festival and other visual theatre festivals.
Most recently he has been working on the Age Is A Stage project in collaboration with the Theatre Royal Brighton. This has been running for five years providing clown based theatrical workshops and performances for the over 50’s. AIAS has featured as part of the program at the Spiegeltent for the past couple of years in the Brighton Fringe Festival
Teaching
Alongside his performance career Chris has always enjoyed passing on his knowledge and experience as a teacher. His particular interest has always been vaudeville theatre, and the role of the clown in theatre. In 1999 he gained an MA in Theatre Studies from Middlesex University and was Course Leader on the Acting Degree at the Italia Conti Academy in London.
He has also taught performance, clown and physical comedy at Circus Space London, Die Etage Theater School Berlin and at Northbrook College, Brighton and the University of Brighton. He has also led and devised workshops for Ra Ra Zoo, Everyman Theatre, Liverpool and Old Museum Arts, Belfast and the Dome, Brighton.
He is currently an associate lecturer in clown and mask performance at Chichester University
Blood on my Chips
Chris has also published a book of poems “Blood on my Chips” and exhibited a sound installation ‘Secrets’ at ‘Artiste’ exhibition, Brighton 2004