What is your act name? Forbidden Nights
What are your names?
Billy (aerial chains acts), Lewis W (compare), Lewis C (singer), Lex (Cyr wheel), Ozzy (fire act), Olly (pole act), Gustav (dancer), Reece (choreographer)
Give us a little bio about you as a group and individuals?
Forbidden Nights is a male variety show, infusing circus skills, elements of strip tease and full theatre production to create a new breed of genre taking the nation by storm.
What made you go into being a show group?
We spotted a niche in the market for a classy show catered towards a female audience. To date the only shows across the world seem to be a bit stagnant and have kept a similar format for over twenty years. After creating this concept although met with apprehension has been a huge success. We have infused all the best elements from the successful male strip genre, left out the full nudity, drag queens and audience participation, as we like to keep our stage clear for full production variety act. It seams women appreciate our cocktail of more talent and less nudity. As producers of the show we wanted to create something that had never been done to give us a genuine USP and by creating this new genre it has given us much more satisfaction than copying something that has been done before.
You performed on Britain’s Got Talent, what was that like?
Incredible. With our audition nearly reaching 50 million hits we could not be happier. We put over three month planning, research and rehearsals to come up with a concept that was unique and shocking. After reviewing the top 20 viral YouTube hits from the past ten years of the series, we knew this was our target and it was clear the audition had to have a shock element. Although it was difficult to come up with something that had not been done in 10 years and after thousands of auditions, we had finally decided on the variety performance, once we’d decided what we were going to do we knew it had great potential. Luckily everything went well on the day and it was a great life experience.
What was the best advice you received on the show if you received any?
‘Stay humble’ from runners to producers. Our work ethic and grateful attitude stood out.
Would you recommend BGT to other Acts, Artists and Bands?
100% if you are confident in your ability it is a great way to showcase your act and open doors. However it always boils down to the hard work you put in achieve your own level of success.
You’re heading out on tour, what was/is the planning like for it?
A lot of planning goes in to producing the show and then taking it on tour. A lot of work goes on behind the scenes and the workload continues being on tour with loading the stage ect into the vans to setting up the show. Although you can’t complain when it comes to performing because that is what keeps us going and we all have a great time!
Where are you most excited to perform?
We are looking forward to taking the show over to Ireland for the first time this November; it is always good to visit somewhere new although we do love returning to all our theatres. It is really cool that we get to see all our supporters that have seen the show in previous years and we love that they come back to see us. Generally we look forward to every theatre that we do.
You work with Quite Great PR, how did that come together?
We first started working with QG after BGT and since then we have worked together on a few projects.
When you’re not practicing for shows, what do you do?
We all have a very busy life outside of the show from personal training, running businesses, attending appearances and events. We all very much enjoy chilling out going to the gym and practicing our variety skills.
What influenced you to become Forbidden Nights?
It was a classy but fun way of showcasing our variety skills with a twist of Forbidden. Its so great to get regular work and perform at beautiful theatres across the country.
If you could have a celebrity in Forbidden Nights, who would it be?
Channing Tatum, he killed it in Magic Mike.
What’s the best advice you have ever been given?
From Billy’s Mum- ‘do what you love in life and don’t worry about earning a fortune or Have a career you don’t enjoy as much but earn good money to spend on life experiences outside of your 9-5 or ultimately do what you love and earn good money’ #ForbiddenNightsJ
When you are at a gig, what are 5 things you cannot forget?
The cast (this has happened)
Fake tan
Show costume (once Billy lost his knee pad and had to make the appearance of one out of duct tape.)
Lighter (we have a big fire production number and its scary how many times we cannot find a lighter before we go on stage)
And lastly we could never forget how grateful we are to be able to do what we love.
