Michael Cowin, aka Pullman
Whether it’s in his weekly newspaper column or radio slot or live in front of an audience, Pullyman has certainly shown that he has a way with words.
Michael Cowin was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease 10 years ago. He discovered writing four years ago when he woke up one morning with a ready-formed poem in his head that went on to be broadcast.
Since then, he’s written five booklets of poems and essays, got every Tynwald member to read one of his poems for a CD, and had weekly slots with the Manx Independent and Manx Radio for two and a half years.
He’s put himself firmly in the spotlight with sell-out Pullyman and Friends variety shows held at Peel’s Centenary Centre and Erin Arts Centre.
He’s now set his sights on the Gaiety Theatre for his next concert on November 18. In the process, he’s raised many thousands of pounds for Parkinson’s and other charities.
Now, Pullyman, 75, who lives in Groudle Road, Onchan, has been nominated in the Steam Packet Pride in Mann Awards by one of his fellow performers, Di Benson.
Nominating him in the Culture and Arts Champion category, she said: ‘I would like to nominate Michael for all the pleasure he brings with his poetry and tall stories not only on the radio but in the paper.
‘He has helped me with becoming a performance poet and I was able to perform in his last show Pullyman and Friends. He raises a great deal of money for charity, especially Parkinson’s.’
Pullyman’s creations range from the nostalgic to the side-achingly funny. He said the pleasure and the warmth he gets from the people that he’s talking to is hugely rewarding. So it’s no surprise he can’t wait to be performing in front of his biggest audience yet, at the Gaiety.
‘We’ll have people on stage that have only been on stage twice before. It’s a huge step for them to stand there and do it. And it’s a huge step for me to stand up and say I can make it possible for them. I’ve never done anything like it.’
He added: ‘We’re a bunch of amateurs who are going to make everyone laugh. They will because they have absolute confidence they can do it.’
Pullyman said his plan had evolved over the four years but that everything had always fallen into place. The Centenary Centre show last October came to him when he was driving past the venue one day.
‘I thought: “I wonder what it would be like putting on a show there?”. There and then I shook hands on the day I was going to put a concert on.’
He said: ‘Apart from the efforts of my fellow performers, the production and success of the shows has only been possible because of the commitment of my hard working friends on the team, Hazel and Bill, and tech Ernie.’
When he first took part in an open mic night four and a half years ago he almost ‘bottled it’, and it was his wife Irene who persuaded him to perform. ‘Since Parkinson’s I have had no inhibitions about standing up in front of people.
‘If I can overcome this...’ he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment