A single mom from London, England on her own in Vancouver B.C. raising two boys is a typical story. However, consummate veteran entertainer/performer Gillian Campbell’s single mom tale is laced with years of international performances and repeat appearances in Yukon, Barkerville, Edmonton Klondike Days (5 times as the headliner “Klondike Kate”), Skagway Alaska, Whistler, cruise ships to Alaska and the Caribbean, as well as hundreds of corporate shows in downtown Vancouver hotels and convention centres. In the last year she performed for the Canadian and Chinese Prime Ministers and Canadian Premiers in Shanghai, and the people of Whitehorse, Yukon for their Rendezvous celebrations.
Currently Gillian’s oldest son, Richard Campbell, is her drummer, and Edward Thompson is her second husband who she says “is much better than the first.” This spring she brings her live show complete with a band and can can dancers to the public at St. James Community Square in Kitsilano on June 15 @ 2pm (3214 W 10th Ave, Vancouver, BC). Tickets available at www.brownpapertickets.com or phone:1 800 838-3006
Gillian Campbell has become a modern-day personification of the legendary Klondike Kate – saloon sweetheart of the Klondike Gold Rush in Canada’s far North in the late 1890’s. Gillian is familiar to event planners around the world. They know her show is a winner – a combination of risque humor, absolutely stunning and unique costuming, constant banter, complete and shameless audience involvement, musical excellence, and sheer fun. The Gillian Campbell Show is always well received, and frequently ends in standing ovations.
Of course Gillian wasn’t always a headliner. In the beginning she was part of a troupe of performers known as the Gaslight Follies at the Palace Grand Theatre in Dawson City, Yukon. After Dawson, she joined the Frantic Follies in Whitehorse. Fran Dowie later produced a show in Barkerville hiring Gillian for that show. In between performances she was busy raising her boys and making extra money doing the laundry for the cast on the road or back home in Vancouver working at Watts’ Costumes. The sons (Jason and Richard) spent the lion’s share of the year at school in Burnaby. When tourist season started they would finish their schooling in the Yukon which truly is a second home.
This hard work has paid off in show biz gold. Not only did she raise two sons who would later play in her band, Gillian met Ray Buchanan and Ross Wright at Watts Costumes who have designed all of her priceless original gowns, hats, jewellery, and boas. She attributes her career longevity to her old friend Ray.
In performance, Gillian gets the party started by asking everyone to turn around and say to their neighbours, “Ello, Ducky, ‘ow you doing?” Backed by a solid live band, she will then get the audience singing along while roaming the tables and aisles in search of her next hapless victim, invariably a middle-aged, slightly balding, non-partying, conservative gentleman. What follows is always a surprise, both for her victim and for the audience.
The gentleman might turn into either a pleading, Al Jolson-type crooner asking for his “mammy” while making his way to the stage on his knees, or a befuddled impromptu dancer trying to “wiggle his derrière” in time to the music and her own constant motion (“Don’t look down or you’ll get seasick!”). Naturally, with her talent for finding just the right person to pick on, she sometimes even walks the entire length of a ballroom with hundreds of people watching, just to say to someone starting to nod off from a long flight, “Wake up, Ducky, we’ve started!”
The show also displays the virtuosity of Gillian’s live band Motherlode (featuring Richard Campbell: drums, Bill Costin: piano, Ron Thompson: guitar/banjo), and her line of 4 beautifully costumed can-can kick line known as the Sarah Moore Diamond Dust Dancers.
Gillian Campbell was inducted into the B.C. Entertainment Hall of Fame by her peers and nominated for the 2002 Entertainer of the Year Spotlight Award. She has entertained royalty including Princess Margaret, Prince Charles and Lady Diana, and Princess Margriet of the Netherlands. Locations of performances: Holland, Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, all over the USA (Disneyland, Disney World, Lake Tahoe, San Francisco, Miami, and Dallas. There is no question this mother of two has made a mark in entertainment.
Performance: St. James Community Square 3214 W 10th Ave, Vancouver, BC on
June 15 @ 2pm. (tickets available at www.brownpapertickets.com or phone (1 800 838-3006)