Nick's history of involvement with street theatre stemmed from his interest in Engineering in the 1980's and early 90's. Through working in engineering and as a blacksmith for many years he developed an interest in kinetic and abstract sculpture, which then led him to working back stage as a prop and set designer for Crude Apache Theatre Company. He soon found his place in front of the audience as well with an almost exclusive interest in non speaking comedy roles. In the mid 90's he really found his niche in combining all his engineering and artistic skills to write, direct and perform in shows such as the "Ironing Board Waltz" (Six ironing Boards waltzing to the Blue Danube), Surrealist moments with the "Fly Skull Orchestra" (Posh musicians, manic conducting & silent instruments - except for the rotating skull that sounds like a fly); and film making with the acclaimed short film "Wash and Go" (A love story between a Washing Machine and Tumble Dryer set to music by the likes of Grieg, Frankie lane, Wreckless Eric, and Lorraine Ellison.

It was here within Crude Apache that Nick and Bert first met, and it was from this meeting that a common sense of humour was discovered that led on to their friendship and ultimately working relationship.

In the late 90’s he started working with Theatre of Adventure, helping design and fabricate props, rigs, and sets for many of their static and street shows. He then took the opportunity to work with them as a street performer with their show "Organ Zola & Friends", which is where Edmond Tahl was born. It quickly became obvious that Edmond was more suited to being a solo show, and so from the summer of 2001 he has been doing his own inimitable thing.

In 2003 Nick and Bert joined forces to form ‘Stuff & Things Theatre Company’ - the name had arisen a few years previously -  from an early morning/late night moment at Glastonbury Festival, after an extended tour round the stone circle persuading the assembled brethren that life was all about  ‘Stuff & Things’ – I guess you had to be there.

So 2004 saw the introduction of two new shows – Futter’s Child and Smudge & Futter’s Antidote to Life. Futter’s Child being Bert’s solo show, and Antidote to life being a co-performed and co-produced work. Antidote to life was originally conceived as a walkabout show with Pall Bearers, but our interest in producing a tightly choreographed performance art piece led to its final format as a static show more suited to cabaret and static street venues.

In 2005/2006  Nick and Bert realised their original plan and wrote The Lost Funeral, taking their coffin walkabout complete with radio microphone technology, misprinted maps, compass, sextant, and a trail of emotional responses from their audiences. To perform and get a round of applause is great, but to perform and get real and genuine emotional response is what it is all about. We try and produce work that is both contemporary and challenging to cultural concepts. This makes many of our performances a bit intentionally edgy in order to get that emotional response.

In 2006 the company welcomed Paul Preston Mills to the mix, as an associate and hired performer. Paul’s first involvement was as Carpet Man for the 2006 season in Carpet Man & Lino Boy’s Complete Clothing Solutions. Nick had been searching for another performer to work with on this show after two years of writing and feasibility studies, and Paul was keen to extend his stage and screen career to the street. This show took a huge amount of costume and prop development to achieve the desired results. We knew what we wanted but as is the way with a lot of our work there is no one to ask about how best to do it – you just have to get on with it. Months later we had a huge wardrobe full of bizarre and charming costumes – which we are still adding to every season. This show has the wonderful format of letting the public in on the act – giving them a chance to perform in a safe environment.

The winter of 2006/2007 has seen the development of another new show that has been a few years in the planning –The Keystone Kops. Based on the original concept from the Keystone studios silent films of the early 1900’s, this show combines all the essence of Edmond Tahl, in an ensemble piece that is very light to travel with. Since most of our shows are very prop heavy it’s an exciting prospect to be able to tour this show without arranging  the air freighting of a coffin, or breaching inflight seating restrictions on wet cress suits. Nick has written, directed, developed and produced this show all on his own. He has used all that he has learnt from his years of performing as Edmond Tahl, to create a very modern twist on an old concept. The key to this show is the performers ability to improvise as a walkabout ensemble. Whilst there will be some rehearsed and choreographed routines, the essence of the performance is as with Edmond – be prepared but be led by the environment.

After much pondering over the winter of 2009 / 2010 Nick and Paul wrote what has turned out to be a very successful new show – The Thinker. Nick had been toying with the idea of concealing a PA system as some sort of body-pack, and linking it to a second person  via a radio microphone who was to do perform the ‘thinking’ of the character. The whole concept fell into place very quickly after the selection of an appropriate character – Vernon Ponder – a retired Northerner, rather confused by the modern world. It has been a great success with surrealist shows all the way from the Caribbean to the RHS Cardiff flower show; and is one of Nick’s most favourite performances to do. It combines the very trivial, the very deep, the absurdist, the surreal, and the very present passing moment in a hugely rich and yet beautifully simple world of telepathy that can be enjoyed on so many simultaneous levels.

2010 / 2011 /2012 has been very heavily invested in the development of new technologies and concepts for audiObscura – an installation soundscape project funded by the Arts Council. The concept was conceived by Nick and Paul whilst on tour through Central America over the winter of 2010 / 11 with the help of Sea Change Arts from Great Yarmouth, who helped steer the application process. We hope to explore entirely new performance areas with this show, both in terms of venues and audiences by reaching worlds that we do not normally work with as a street theatre company. Some of the most exciting of these are woodlands where we will be sending sound vibrations through trees, storytelling benches, and philosophising Port-a-Loos.