The Sentinel - Velma Celli - 30 December 2016

Here is a feature write-up I did under the 'On Stage' section of The Sentinel which usually appears on a Friday. For this week I met up with Ian Stroughair at The Regent Theatre for a quick chat about his alter ego Velma Celli. The performance took place at the Piano Bar with proceeds donated to charity.  I watched Ian perform when I went to see Cinderella so it was nice to chat with him in person. He was in his dressing room, doing his make-up while I casually chatted with him.  He is really nice and down-to-earth. He spoke about how the idea of the show was born while he was holidaying in South Africa, his love for baking and his intentions of travelling the world.  Velma Celli has received rave reviews and she has a large following on Twitter.

The Sentinel is based in Hanley in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. local newspaper has over 141k weekly readers with over 56k Twitter followers as well more than 84k likes on Facebook. It also has more than 6.5million page views.