Page 57 - The Peorian, Vol 3 Issue 2

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College in “Godspell” in the fall
of 1979.
Later that year he performed
in a variety show at the college,
doing a skit with another student.
It was then he heard what
became the music to his ears. “It
hit me while we were doing that
skit that people were laughing
at me. At me! I loved it. I was
hooked.”
His first community theatre
show was in the summer of 1981
in a show directed by the late
Leonard Costa. “I found it was
a great way to meet people and
to just have a lot of fun. Then
a couple years later my first
lead role was also at the tent, in
“Pippin.” Then tent was like a
whole other world to me. I kept
going back there and trying the
other theatres.
“I don’t know if I can play just
anything on stage, but it is a lot of
fun to try. And that is really the
great thing about acting. You can
be somebody else, anybody else. I
am just as happy playing a small
character role as I am a lead role,”
said Challacombe, who listed
Tim Conway and Steve Martin
as among those from whom he’s
drawn inspiration.
He’s not afraid of physical
comedy, such as taking a fall
if the script calls for it. “When
they are planned, I’ll do it,” he
said. He then related a story
about coming off stage one night
during a blackout and, after
realizing he’d gone the wrong
way he backed up a few feet –
and landed on his back in the
orchestra pit.
It wasn’t until he’d climbed
out and slunk to the backstage
area that he realized he was in
pain. “Everybody in the cast was
laughing at me. I laughed too, but
it hurt every time I did.”
But that kind of feeling is
prevalent in comedy theatre.
Laughing at yourself, that is.
“If there is something wrong,
you gotta shake it off before you
go on because you can’t fool an
audience,” he said.
Challacombe met his
wife, dancer-singer-actress-
choreographer-teacher Tamra
Challacombe, in the theatre, of
course. The first time he saw her
he was in the audience to see her
perform in a show, “Dames at
Sea,” at Peoria Players.
“I asked somebody in the cast
to introduce me. Then later she
came to a cast party for a show
I was in and we talked some
more. She had black hair then, I
remember. Then later we were
in ‘Company’ together at Corn
Stock. I was playing Bobby and
in a way it was the story of my
life. I was in my mid-30s, didn’t
really have much interest in
getting married, just having
fun. Well, my character and
Tamra’s character had a bed
scene together and after the show
closed I said, ‘well now that
we’ve been to bed together, want
to go out?’ ‘’
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