| | | intro | news | diary | history | gallery | contact | wapcam | links | misc | outro | | |

A brief summary

What A Palaver!! are a comedy/speciality/circus/cabaret/street theatre kind of double act - consisting of Robert Sim and Ian Adcock.
They first met in 1985 when they were part of "the Madcaps Clown Show" at Mr Marvel's Fun Park in Scarborough, and the following summer met up again to do a summer season of Shakespeare in Oxford.
In the autumn of 1986 they set up their own theatre company - The Travelling Players - along with Phil Galloway, and toured several original shows around primary schools in Oxfordshire and an adaptation of "The Beggars Opera" - called "The Burgers Opera" - around arts centres and theatres nationwide.
1988 saw an amicable split and Rob went off to spend a few years with Web Foote Productions and several other theatre companies doing all kinds of stuff from T.I.E. to Macbeth to improv.
Ian stayed in Oxford and set up "Happyhead Entertainment Organisation" - and "The Ubiquitous Jugglers From Hell" with Richie Routini, and also worked as bookings manager for Dave Seamer Entertainments until 1992 when he spent the summer in the U.S. teaching circus skills.
On his return he and Rob decided it was time to get back together again and in early 1993 What A Palaver!! was born.

What we do

We have an extensive repertoire of shows and routines, involving juggling, fire-eating, the bed of nails, unicycling and stilt-walking; from 10 minutes to an hour and a half; cabaret or street theatre; suitable for all ages and any occasion with plenty of audience participation.
We are also responsible for Palavering
And we are also The Digital Paparazzi
And our latest big new thing is slabsquare.com

T.V. appearances include:

• Dial-A-Date - ITV (twice)
• Value For Money - BBC1
• Red Velvet - Channel 4
• Newsnight - BBC2
• Sword & Sorcery weekend - The Disney Channel
• The Big End - BBC1
• Scratchy & Co. (twice) - ITV
• Blue Peter - BBC1
• The Ant & Dec Show - BBC1
• Hotel Babylon - ITV
• Blind Date - ITV
• The Freddie Starr Show - ITV
• Calendar - ITV
• Central News - ITV
• Look North - BBC1

Sporting events where we have performed:

• Commonwealth Games, Manchester, 2002
• European Champions Cup final, Paris, 2000
• Euro '96 football championships
• Liverpool Victoria Charity Challenge snooker tournament ('98 & '99)
• London Monarchs American Football home games 1997 season
• Market Rasen races
• The Great Nottinghamshire Bike Ride
• Newmarket 1,000 Guineas festival

Opening night parties:

• Martin Guerre
• The Borrowers
• 13 Riva Bingo Halls

International stuff:

• Private party, Long Island, NY
• Les Medievales de Quebec, Canada
• Heiligenhaus Stadfest, Germany
• Rugby Club, Bahrain
• Mallory Quay, Key West, US
• Juggling conventions in Holland, Germany, Italy, South Dakota, Las Vegas, Scotland, Hawaii

Themed events we have done/can do:

• Medieval
• Tudor
• Pirate
• Roman
• Victorian
• Edwardian
• Caribbean
• Arabian
• Viking
• 1970s

Private parties we have done/can do:

• wedding
• wedding anniversary
• 18th Birthday
• 21st Birthday
• 30th Birthday
• 40th Birthday
• 50th Birthday
• Bar Mitzvah
• memorial

Some corporations we have worked for:

• IBM
• Kodak
• Hewlett Packard
• BT
• Texaco
• Unilever
• 3M
• Smith-Kline-Beacham
• British Airways
• Anderson Consulting
• H.M. Armed Forces
• Proctor & Gamble
• Xerox UK
• Ford
• Nissan
• Grundig

| | | intro | news | diary | history | gallery | contact | wapcam | links | misc | outro | | |