10 Questions: An Interview with John Dumont
Today in our spotlight falls on John Dumnot, actor and co-writer of the Children’s show, The Sun Dragon which takes place at the Pleasance Courtyard throughout the duration of the Fringe. Starting daily at 12.45 pm John is joined by four fellow actors to take children on an intergalactic fairy tail journey following the adventures of Jacob who dreams of flying. So let’s learn more about John and their show, The Sun Dragon….
1. What inspired you to become a performer and writer?
Donald O’Connor singing “Make ‘em laugh” in Singin’ in the Rain and Orson Welles, who played Unicron in Transformers the Movie.
2. What is your show about and what should the public expect from your show at the 2008 Edinburgh Festival Fringe?
The Sun Dragon is a magical fairytale about a boy who has to travel to another world to rescue their Sun from a dragon, with the help and hindrance of the planet’s inhabitants who range from the wise, to the nasty, to the very, very, silly.
The public should expect magic and fun and to enjoy themselves a lot more than they expected to.
3. What are your funniest and worst experiences performing in front of an audience?
Excuse the length of this anecdote, but it was a series of mishaps that shaped the whole comedy of this experience: I was in a production of the Mysteries and needed the loo. So I asked a fellow player if I had time and they said yes so off I dashed. Taking off my Shepherds hat and very warm jacket on the way. When I got back (in quick time I might add) I discovered that the other two shepherds had just gone on with their sheep in tow. So I grab my jacket, throw it on, grab my hat, and grab the packet of Cherry Bakewells that I had to pull from my trousers to offer as a gift to baby Jesus. As you do.
So I run into the hall, it was an en promenade performance, catch up my shephards, kicking a sheep in the face as I went, and continued to try and get my rather stubborn jacket on, as it seemed that I had put my arm into the lining rather than the sleeve. All the while my packet of Cherry Bakewells were retreating further and further down my trousers.
We were now on our stage and I’d given up with the jacket, forcing my arm through with a sickening tearing noise and slapping my cap onto my head finally. I then waddled over to baby Jesus, with my Cherry Bakewells now below my knee in the horribly ill-fitting trousers that I’d been costumed in and proceeded to delve into my trousers a little bit too deep to be in entirely good taste and handed Jesus some Bakewells. It got a good laugh.
My worst experience was the time we were booked to do a short vignette from the children’s puppet play we were performing up at the Fringe that year at a Midnight Cabaret. The act before us was a stripper, the act after us a man singing about his penis. They loved it. As did I actually, maybe this is the best?
4. What was the last Fringe or Festival you performed at and what was it like?
Last years Fringe, it was very wet, but very enjoyable.
5. What’s your best advice for aspiring performers in your theatrical medium?
Take the audience on a ride, include them in everything, it is all about them.
6. Are there any dreams or goals that you have yet to fulfill?
I’d like to write something that is loved by everyone. Which is impossible, but aim high I guess.
7. What is the best advice you have ever been given? And did you follow it?
In my schools leavers book my drama teacher wrote “Rum-diddle-de-de, an actor’s life for thee.” Until that point I didn’t know what the hell to do, but I find it impossible not to obey anything that starts “Rum-diddle-de-de”.
8. What is the best book or books you have read and why do you like them?
Catch 22 for it’s sense of humour, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest for it’s characters and implementation of message and themes, Dracula for the way the narrative unfolds, Treasure Island for it’s adventure, and The Little Prince for it’s innocent charm.
9. Who is the person you most admire and why?
Woody Allen, because I love a well constructed joke, and he’s the master.
10. If you could change one thing about the world what would it be?
I’d shuffle the wealth about a bit, I guess. Put more into the advancement of the human race and less into the advancement of the running shoe; that sort of thing.
