JACK CANNOY’S MISSION.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1475, 1 August 1918, Page 35

JACK CANNOY’S MISSION.

PITTS THE LAUGHTER INTO REVUES. Jack Cannot is still continuing his mission for laughter, his place as chief of the “Bing Boys” in the big J. C. Williamson revue being worthily earned. It was in 1911 that the breezy English comedian made his first visit to * New Zealand and infected audiences with his good humour and exuberance by his work as dame in the J. C. Williamson pantomime “Jack and the Beanstalk.” Two years later he came along with the Royal Comic Opera Company in “The Quaker Girl” and “The Sunshine Girl.” After that he accepted an engagement under the Hugh D. Mclntosh banner and was the comedy spark in the Tivoli Follies, his last visit to New Zealand prior to this being under that management, two years ago. Altogether Mr. Cannot has served in his role as comedian four and a-half years with J. C. Williamson, Ltd., and two and a-half years with the Tivoli Follies, and has just signed another contract with J. C. Williamson, Ltd., for an additional two years. During his stay in Australia he has taken unto himself a wife —an Adelaide girl—and has a little son and daughter, with his home at Coogee, Sydney. Mr. Cannot comes from a good fighting family, and has numerous relations at the front, all French, who have been there “since the word, go.”

While in Auckland Mr. Cannot received a cable from Home to say that his uncle , General Cannot, C.M.G., had been awarded the D.S.O. and was appointed Officier de Liason, the commanding link for the Imperial Forces between the War Office and the armies of the field, an office of recent institution. From war to revue is a far cry. Yet it is that very distance that has brought about the vogue for the revue style of entertainment with our boys at Home. It is such a complete diversion. “This is the time for revues,” said Mr. Cannot. “They’re bright and nonsensical, with plenty of pretty girls and picturesque dressing, plenty of music and catchy airs, no plot to worry over, and not too much of anything to bore one. And another thing in their favour you can go into a performance at any time and enjoy it without having to know what happened in the first act. You can pick up the thread anywhere.”