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Throughout his career Wayne has appeared with many of the world's top entertainers including Shirley Bassey, Dean Martin and Engelbert Humperdinck in Las Vegas (and Detroit where he entertained an audience of 16,000 fans). His trademark is his ventriloquism routine which has been performed to audiences around the world - including an appearance before HM The Queen on The Royal Variety Show where he used Frank Bruno and Harry Carpenter as his assistants.
In 1996, amid rumours of cocaine addiction, AIDS or alcoholism, Wayne announced via tabloid front pages that he suffers from Multiple Sclerosis. There are over 100,000 suffers of the illness in the UK, yet, despite being confined to a wheelchair at 40 years old Wayne still captivates audiences around the world and regularly tours as a support act to the likes of Joe Pasquale and Freddie Starr.
Aside from a strict diet, remarkably Wayne takes no drugs or stimulants to help him cope with the MS. He says that the only effective drug is the buzz and adrenaline rush he gets from entertaining audiences in theatres around the world.
Wayne's 'triumph over adversity' after-dinner talk is a truly remarkable and inspirational yet humorous insight into his high-flying life in the 1990s. From the Ferraris & Porsches, regular Caribbean holidays, secluded country cottage and all the benefits of a showbiz lifestyle to coming to terms with his illness, undergoing a painful divorce and being confined to life in a wheelchair, before finally finding happiness and love for the second time with his wife Marianne. |
