COMEDIANS AMUSING EXPERIENCES

Evening Star, Issue 14516, 7 November 1910, Page 3

COMEDIANS AMUSING EXPERIENCES

Mr Charles Colletto is one of theanost versatile comedians and dejightful raconteurs on the English stag© to-day. Ho is just chock-full of amusing anecdotes, and wo select at haphazard these specimens of his reminiscences:— —Among the Dublin "Jarvies."— " Apropos of repartee and resource, commend mo for smartness to the Dublin cardriver. I.arrived at Westland Row Station onoe after having been absent for .about two yews. I placed my portmanteau on an 'outside,' and tiio driver turning round said: ' Shelbourne Hotel, I suppose, Mr Collett? and drove away. Thought I: 'This is fame to be remeinbcrcd by a car-driver after so long an absence,' and addressing the jarvey I said: ' You appear to know mo, my man.' ' Sure, sir,' said he, with a grin, 'everybody in Dublin knows Misther CoMte, and we are mighty glad to see you back again!' ' More fume,' thought I, but still with some lingering doubts as to the man's sincerity." As I was paying his fare at the hotel 1 said: 'See hero, my lad, Til give you an extra shilling if you will tell mo how you came to remember me.' He held out an expectant palm, in which I placed a shilling, saying: ' Now, how did you know?' ' Sure,' said he, with a knowing grin, 'I saw the name, on your portmanteau.' ■'My best experience of an Irish bull? (mo morning in Dublin I was not feeling very well, so I hired a car at Stephen's Green, and asked the man to drive me about for an hour, for which the faro was half-a-crown. T told him to drivo carefully by Glasenovin, the Phoenix Park, or anywhere outside tho town. Ho started off at a hard gallop, myself holding on to the rails of the car. ' Stop, stop!' I cried. 'Didn't I tell vou to go easy?' 'Ah! to hell wid ye!' says he. 'Do you think I'm goin' to be the whole day driving a bally hour!'" —Down on tho Stage.— "There has been a great deal of controvcrsv of late as to an 'entente cordialo' between the Church and the, Stage. It lias been my personal privilege to number amongst'my acquaintances many delightful clerical friends. I was acting at the Theatre Royal, York, some years ago, when my old friend. Canon , who was

sitting in my dressing room, expressed a desiro to see what the stage looked like from our side of the curtain. So between the acta 1 took him on, and in crossing he fell over some obstacle. I assisted him to rise, and apologised for the semi-dark-ness, which caused the accident., 'Oh! don't trouble, yourself, my dear Charley,' said he. 'This is not the hist time that the Church has been down on the stage!'" —Late King Edward's Greeting.— Discussing some of his many appearances before Royalty, Mr Colletto referred to tho first time'he "played at Marlborough House before (the late" King (then Prince of Wales). He previously asked the equerry whether his entertainment should take any particular form, and the reply was: "Mr Collettc, you will give your entertainment in exactly tho same form as you would do in any other gentleman's drawing room." Being" ushered into the drawing room, the Prince, with characteristic tact and good nature, advanced to meet him, shaking him by the hand, and making a few .complimentary remarks upon the part he was then playing at the Haymarket Theatre. The Prince led off a little'round of applause as a reception, and from that moment ho felt as much at homo as if he had been amongst ]>ersonal friends. —"I Was tho Goat." — Mr Cullette is one of the numerous class of actors who have forsaken the Army for tlie stage. He was gazetted to a commission iu the Prince of Wales's Dragoon Guards, ami seven years later to a day signed his iirst engagement at the Prince of Wales's Theatre, Tottenham Court road. Singularly enough, the first lines he had to speak were: " 1 wonder what thoy are saying about me at the War Otike now?" Out in India he had previously managed the regimental theatre, and, with his brother officers, had put on a number of pieces, among others 'Esmeralda.' a travesty of Hugo's ' Notre Dame.' A clever lad,"the son of one of the men in the regiment, played the goat. " Many years afterwards," remarked Mr Collettc. "in the buffet at tho Central Station, Manchester, I there saw three Uoop .sergeant-majors of my old regiment. I invited them to have a drink—l always do that when I sec the old familiar facings—but one of fh;' men seemed disposed to resent the invitation, saying that he was drinking with hi'-. friends." I explained that 1 was an oxofficer of hit: regiment, and on that the demeanor of tltc man changed at once. One of them asked nip my name. I told bins. and the sergeant-major said he remembered me. 'You recollect, sir,' he remarked, 'when you produced 'Esmeralda' at .\limednug'gur.' I assented. 'Well.' isaii! the soldier with evident pride, ' 1 wa>> the goat.' " —A Narrow Escape.---Mr Col let te thus described the narrowest escape iie had during his military caieev. "Once when out on a shooting expedition I had climbed down a. cliff, when I was horrified to find that the portion, on which I was standing was giving way. J held oib .'is best I could, and shouted at the top of my voice to attract the. attention of those who wore at the top. The cliff was quickly, as it seemed to me, crumbling away, when I heard someone call from above. By that time I was beginning to feel faint. .lust then I saw a rope with a looped end descending towards me. I managed to get it around my body, and as I did so the portion of the cliff on which I had been standing collapsed completely. My friends rapidly hauled me up, and in a few minutes 1 was landed on firm ground." —A Fortune That Came Too Late.— He had an extremely sad experience when quartered ill a garrison town in the South of England. He heard a gun shot whilst reading in his rooms-, and immediately afterwards someone knocked feebly at the door. An old friend and brother officer, bis face covered 1 with blood, staggered into the room and fell across the bed. Nothing could bo done for the poor fellow, and the conclusion arrived at by a jury was that death was the result of an accident. But ho had certainly gone the pice when on a recent visit to Vienna, and had lost heavily at cards. By the irony of fatp a few days afterwards'news cam© that tho poor fellow, had bo lived, would have succeeded to a fortune yielding £5,000 a year.