Don’t Shoot Me continues to entertain from London to Narrogin

Playing Johann Sebastian Bach with one hand and Andrew Lloyd Webber with the other, David Scheel still finds time to have a laugh with the audience.

Talent and humour are the two ingredients that have kept his show, Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Only the Piano Player, running since the 1980s.

He has pulled in audiences From London’s West End to the Edinburgh Festival — success he attributes to keeping things “fresh”.

“It’s fun at the expense of music but it’s also fun at the expense of whoever or whatever might be making the news ... sort of like a one-man The Project,” Mr Scheel said.

“It’s funny things that have happened to me, bad pianos I’ve had to play ... stories so fantastic you wouldn’t think they’re true.

“It’s very approachable. At one point, I’ll play a piece by Bach and another by Andrew Lloyd Webber and I do one in the left hand and one in the right hand but the audience does not have to be educated in classical music to understand.

“If they don’t know who Bach and Beethoven are, they’ll still have a good time.”

In the early days of Don’t Shoot Me, Mr Scheel would impersonate the late Margaret Thatcher.

More recently, he has taken aim at the COVID-19 pandemic and Christian Porter.

He has had good and bad experiences as a performer, but he said they were all part of show business.

The challenging moments had helped teach him the importance of improvisation — “because things can and do go wrong”.

Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Only The Piano Player will show in Narrogin on May 26. For tickets, contact ARTS Narrogin.