Ripley is the lip-syncing Scottish satirist who was recently crowned the winner of Bette Rinse’s It’s a Knockout at Halfway to Heaven following a sensational grand final performance that wowed everyone in attendance. This week, Jason Reid caught up with the man behind the make up, Calum Ross…
Hey Calum! Firstly, congratulations on winning It’s a Knockout. You must be very pleased?
Thrilled, yeah. I’m totally shocked I got as far as I did.
Why?
When we all met for the first time we had a round table discussion of our experiences, and everybody else pretty much came from a drama school or theatre background, whereas I did graphic design at school, worked for a charity, and am now a journalist. To be honest I thought I’d end up being more of a filler in the competition.
So did you feel at a disadvantage from the get-go?
Definitely. I had absolutely no history with being in live productions; at that point I was just a lip-syncer who wore a different wig each week.
At the end of the competition you said that as a lip-sync artist you felt like you had something to prove. What was that?
I wanted to prove that lip-syncing isn’t lazy. Quite often, particularly more in the west end, if you talk about being a mime artist there’s a bit of a stigma attached to it.
Why do you think that is?
Traditionally in the west end cabaret is more centred around live acts and I wanted to show that lip-syncing can be much more than jumping onstage and spinning around to Beyoncé for three minutes. A lot of work goes into creating an actual story, a flowing narrative. For my performances in the competition I laid down all my own vocals at home and memorised it off by heart, down to every single recorded breath, so that I could nail it on the night.
Was it your initial aim to take the performance to a different level each week, incorporating social issues and politics?
Yes, I really wanted to push a very specific message with each performance. The week I was given disco as a musical genre to work with (and maybe this is just how my mind works) I instantly thought: Germany; Angela Merkel; refugee crisis.
I take it you’re very politically minded?
Very much so. Some drag queens would say their idol is Liza Minnelli or Madonna, mine is Nicola Sturgeon.
Your mentor in the competition was another strong character, Rose Garden. How was it working with her?
It was a match made in heaven. She advised me to go away and have a think about my performance, then I went round to her place for dinner one evening to go through everything. Thankfully she liked what I’d come up with. As I rehearsed Rose helped me with the bits that needed tidying up and certain nuances of stagecraft.
What would you like the future to hold for Ripley?
I would love to develop my ‘like a Sturgeon’ routine into a full show, with more political commentary, characters, and guests performances from other satirists.
