Ian Talbot - “It's great you've got an agent but you employ them, they don't employ you.”
Acting on ExperienceShow Notes
Ian Talbot ran the Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park for twenty years, but his route into the industry began with a teacher, a producer's tip-off and a favour pulled in from a theatre manager in Barrow-in-Furness. In this episode of Acting on Experience, Michael Jibson sits down with the actor and director to trace a career that stretches from weekly rep in the 1960s to Hairspray, Mrs Doubtfire and his recent national tour of Priscilla Queen of the Desert at the age of 83.
Ian talks candidly about the apprenticeship actors used to serve in stage management, what it was like to open a new play every Monday. He reflects on handing early jobs to Benedict Cumberbatch, Marianne Elliott, Damien Lewis and Joanna Riding, and why Regent's Park became a genuine repertory home for musical theatre performers and classical actors alike. The conversation turns to how the industry has changed for younger actors, the pressure of eight recalls for a single role, the strange etiquette of self tapes, and why Ian still insists on a proper chat in every audition room.
He is honest too about the hardest chapter of his life, running the park while his first wife was terminally ill, and the company who carried him through it. For actors, drama school leavers, directors and anyone fascinated by British theatre history, musical theatre revivals, open air Shakespeare and the realities of a lifelong acting career, this is a warm and quietly instructive listen.
Acting on Experience is the podcast where Olivier Award winner Michael Jibson has honest conversations with experienced actors and performers about the craft, the industry and the stories that rarely get told, made for actors and anyone fascinated by life on stage and screen.
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Timestamps: 02:51 Priscilla on tour and still working at 83 04:18 Breaking the ice with a young company 05:34 Co-directing Eugenius and the director mindset 08:31 From tennis court to Central School 10:04 The 'mafia' favour that got him started 11:14 Life as an ASM and sleeping in the theatre 15:55 The brutal reality of weekly rep 18:22 Getting an agent by not corpsing 23:18 Self tapes, Zoom and the lost art of audition 28:05 Why acting is harder now than ever 29:52 Mentors and the Regent's Park offer 31:22 Lying his way into directing 38:45 Auditioning himself for The Boyfriend 42:02 Reinventing musicals at Regent's Park 45:06 Losing his wife while running the park 46:28 An ass's head and 400 terrified kids 48:45 Pamela Anderson at Wimbledon Wetherspoons 50:01 The young talent he helped launch 51:40 Manners, luck and never dreading work Music by Stuart Hancock. Produced by Ian Miller for somethingreal.media
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Welcome to Acting On Experience, a podcast about actors: the craft, career, and real-life stories behind long and varied careers in the entertainment industry.