The Tommy Cooper Show / Spain

He performed his first Tommy Cooper impersonation at St Lukes School, Portsmouth in 1968 when he performed the Tommy Cooper egg bag routine in front of his class mates. In 1972 Steve joined the Royal Marines, during his service with the Marines Steve had ample opportunity to perform for the Troops especially when sailing to the Caribbean onboard HMS Hermes when the ship’s Captain decided to clear the Aircraft hanger and put on a show the Sods Opera as it was called attracted members of the ships company to perform what talents they had including his Impersonation of Tommy Cooper you could call it a command performance as HRH Prince Charles was in the audience as he was serving onboard HMS Hermes at the time as a Helicopter Pilot.

After leaving the Royal Marines he became a Commercial Diver in the Oil industry and one day in 1992 whilst jogging around the helipad on a offshore Oil Rig in the Middle East, he decided to hang up his Flippers and pursue a career in acting. He was 37. he got his first break in 1994 at the Torch Theatre in Milford Haven when the Artistic Director Mike James, casted Steve in a play Frankie & Tommy about the early days of Tommy Coopers career with ENSA entertaining the troops in WW2.

The play was about a Double act that Tommy and his partner Frankie Lyons performed during a brief period in Egypt. He received rave reviews for his portrayal of Tommy and went on to form a stage show A Tribute to Tommy Cooper directed by the late Denis Kirkland a former producer of the Benny Hill show and the Tommy Cooper half hour.

He was introduced to Tommy’s Widow Gwen Cooper and became a regular visitor to her home in Chiswick, during one particular visit Gwen gave him an original Fez worn by Tommy and various small props that Steve still uses today in his show. He toured with the show extensively from 1994 throughout the UK and worked with some great artists such as Jim Davidson, Joe Longthorne, Jimmy Cricket, Norman Wisdom, Nicholas Parsons, Chaz & Dave, Bradley Walsh, Madeline Bell and many more. He as performed the Tribute Show on cruise ships and toured overseas for Major Holiday companies in Spain, Cyprus and the Canary Islands before taking up residency in Lanzarote where he toured with the show until late 2003. In 2004 he moved to Dubai where he performed his show in front of many expats throughout the UAE, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, and Bahrain.