It probably would have been worthwhile to keep a blog during pantomime, but I fear some of the words I may have used might not be permissible in such a forum. Anyone who knows about this most exhaustive and interactive form of theatre knows that you barely get the chance to breathe, let alone find access to a computer to blog your existence away. Friends of mine are doing up to 3 shows a day (still). We were not quite so cruelly punished.

What really struck me as a first timer was the employment of stock characters not only onstage, but reflected offstage also: Princess – Tall and pretty, usually a dancer with bonuses; Prince – Straight theatre actor, also tall and pretty; Dame – Old theatre Queen with chutzpah to boot; Patriarch – Usually some sort of West End legend in their 60's; a bunch of newly-graduated, good-looking dancers; a celebrity (Ranging from B-List to Z-List) and me: comic foil with some semblance of comedy timing and an interesting body type.

For an art form so steeped in campery, I've never tried so hard to act straight on stage in my whole life! It's paradoxical that while panto is truly a fluid art form (Evolving nightly, breaking the fourth wall, improvising at will), it is also most restrictive in that the stock characters onstage adhere to centuries of convention and must not be toyed with. I found this frustrating and liberating in equal parts.

I'm glad I can add a pantomime to my CV. It serves to tell employers that I have been part of a great British tradition, one that everyone I've worked with over the last 2 months is immensely proud of. And I've finally managed to banish the quiet, but menacing refrains of “Hiya kids!” from my dreams, and repair my speaking voice now the season is over.

My next venture is the European premiere of spoof musical, Silence! (of the lambs) at the Above The Stag theatre in Victoria, playing sociopath Buffalo Bill. I didn't think the kids would have appreciated seeing that appear in the panto program, but it should be a hoot!

Updated on Friday 1 January 2010

It's difficult to gauge the success of a jobbing actor. Does the number of jobs you have had score you more points or is it the money you have made? Are you famous? Have you had your 'big break' yet?

If I had to average it out, I've probably been to one audition per week this year, brought about both because of my agent and because of some serious grafting on my part. These have ranged from low to no budget student films, profit shares the length and breadth of England (and one in Wales) right through to the ENO, Number One UK Tours, West End and one for an international theatre festival in Montreal.

As a 'foreigner', it's always hard to compete with the Mountviews, the Laines, the Centrals that I constantly come up against, especially when you trained in a country South of nowhere at a school that sounds like an antibiotic; but you don't have to have trained in London to be able to network, send a CV or sing in tune, although it helps. The old adage 'It's not what you know, but who you know' stands as true now as it ever did. With the added bonus of technology on our generation's side, networking is something I have grown to know and love.

The work I have done 'in between jobs' has been many and varied: flyering for a night club in Covent Garden, jumping around in a blow up sumo suit for charity, selling plastic goods to nurseries, cold calling Japanese businesses in the dead of night, office temping, and like many of my peers – the Saturday ritual of teaching the Devil's spawn at Stagecoach. And although the words 'profit share' ring alarm bells in most actor's ears, I did (once or twice) indulge my passion for the stage with a profit share or two in the last year. All this, along with an Edinburgh Festival (where I played a cross-dressing, androgynous Starfish and just about expired) filled up my year.

In amongst the endless cattle calls, go-sees, interviews, auditions, callbacks and Casting Call Pro briefs, it's easy to see yourself as an indispensable, worthless piece of meat who will never amount to anything more than a second rate TIE actor who sprays fragrance on the side, but for me, the goal has never been wealth or fame. I have never sought overnight success. The goal has and always will be to sustain myself in a notoriously difficult profession. A difficult profession, but one I know and love. And as I embark on that great British tradition that is pantomime for the first time, I look forward to the challenges I encounter in the next year – both on stage and off.

Updated on Tuesday 24 November 2009