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FROM Saturday-shoppers browsing market bargains to wide-eyed primary school pupils, John Hegley has forged a career sharing his illustrated, musical, poetic and funny storytelling with an audience that defies pigeonholes.
Now he returns to the Cockpit Theatre for a three-night, pre-Christmas run of his new show, Do Horses Have Teeth, Sir?

He first played the Edgware Road venue 45 years ago, and has spent the intervening period honing an act that takes the audience into Hegley’s uniquely humorous world of language.

His journey, which has seen him give school assemblies stadium concert levels of fun, began in earnest in Kentish Town in the early 1980s. John scored a summer job working at the community youth project Interchange in Talacre Gardens.

Before this break – which wedded him to an ambition of entertaining people of all ages – John’s work was forged among fruit and veg, bric-a-brac and possibly knock-off goods: John’s first public performances was as a busker in the north east.

“I began as a performer on the street,” he recalls. “I started busking in Hull in 1976. My girlfriend had a market stall so I stood behind her and played some tunes.

“I did all right. I ended up following her around all the northern market towns – she’d set up her stall and I’d go off and busk. I did all the flea markets.”

They moved to London and John explored the city via numerous busking pitches.

“There were so many options,” he says. “I used to busk outside the Westminster public toilets with a joss stick burning to mask the smell.”

And an experience forged on playing in front of literally everybody passing by gave John an ambition to please the crowd.

“With street performance, you really do have to appeal to everyone. I mean, why wouldn’t you? It’s like a dinner table conversation. You wouldn’t solely hold a conversation about one thing, for one person, that no one else had any interest in whatsoever.”

As those who have been blessed enough to catch John at work, you’ll know his shows come packed with songs, poetry, word-adventures, and a selection of his drawings. John has always used his shows to craft art live, creating characters as he goes – and he says his new festive offering is full of horses, as well as other creatures from his extensive back catalogue drawn loosely from the animal kingdom.

There is a family reason behind his life-long interest in art: his father was a keen and accomplished painter.

“I like the idea of carrying on my dad’s artwork,” says John. “Dad had post traumatic stress from the war and painting helped. He could be quite insular and painting was a safe place for him.”

He says he is often inspired by the children he performs for – and the new show is no different. He explains where the title comes from.

“It was something I heard a child say to his teacher one day when we were on a course,” he says. John was on a school trip out of London. “This child saw a horse,” he remembers. “Now, this was a child who had not had much opportunity to go out into the countryside.

“I said to another teacher: what do you think of that? And it was expressed that this could be seen as quite sad.

“But it is very positive in one way, in terms of talking about inspiring children. He had this real curiosity, a beautiful curiosity as to what this animal was.”

Some of the work is based on his sell-out Edinburgh run in the summer – so expect a smattering of some classic Hegley numbers from his extensive back catalogue, as well as new material including a skit on a novelty fancy dress disco featuring a French Baroque composer.

John’s show marries poetry and music, though he did not start out as a poet – his focus was originally on songwriting.

“In 1979, I was performing at the King’s Head in Islington, and someone told me I was a wordsmith and that really stuck,” he says. “I had always written poetry. Sometimes I found that I just really wanted to say something rather than sing it. Some lyrics don’t need music – but they do need some rhythm.”

That rhythm of the words is addictive and captivating.

“I just love reciting a poem – and sometimes you surprise yourself,” he says. “And sometimes you have things that just need to be said, not sung. But many poems you can also set to music and they work.”

He recalls a childhood full of rhyme, and loved Hilaire Belloc.

“I had the poem Tarantella read to me by Mr Brennan at St Joseph’s school, Luton, and it stuck.

“Poetry and rhyme has always been there, in the background. I always enjoyed word play. I loved reciting rhymes in the playground.”

As a student at Bradford University, he discovered a burgeoning poetry scene, contributing to magazines, newsletters and performances – and wordsmithery has always been at the forefront of his work.

It prompted a lifetime spent as a poet, comedian, Luton Town fan and author of 14 books.

And he was already bringing smiles to faces when he saw the advert for a play scheme at Talacre.

“I had worked with children,” he says. “And the organiser, Phil Ryder, was doing community Shakespeare shows at the time and had seen me perform.

“It started a move from solely playing songs to also performing poetry. I did it for a summer and I began thinking this is a nice way to earn a living – when it ended, I wanted to do more – and today, I still am.”

• Do Horses Have Teeth, Sir? is on December 20 and 21, 7.30pm, and December 22, 1.30pm, at the Cockpit Theatre, Gateforth Street, NW8 8EH. £15/£12. www.thecockpit.org.uk