The lead actor in a ‘shambolic’ Willy Wonka-inspired 'experience' has lifted the lid on the disastrous event - which brought kids to tears and left parents furious.
Paul Connell, who played the part of ‘Wonka’, branded the £35 a head showcase an “absolute mess” after police were forced to break up angry crowds of visitors.
The event was staged at a site in Glasgow, where guests had been promised a “journey filled with wondrous creations and enchanting surprises”.
But when families arrived on Saturday morning (Feb 24), they were left fuming by the lacklustre set design at a "dirty" near-empty warehouse.
Paul Connell, who played the part of ‘Wonka’, branded the £35 a head showcase an “absolute mess” after police were forced to break up angry crowds of visitors.
The event was staged at a site in Glasgow, where guests had been promised a “journey filled with wondrous creations and enchanting surprises”.
But when families arrived on Saturday morning (Feb 24), they were left fuming by the lacklustre set design at a "dirty" near-empty warehouse.
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FunTranscript
00:00 Hello everyone, my name is Paul Connell and I was one of the actors employed to play Willy Wonka at the Wonka's Chocolate Experience fiasco that happened in Glasgow this weekend.
00:14 I'm going to be poking a little bit of fun at the event, but I wanted to say before I start that I feel for anyone who bought tickets to this event.
00:23 People who were expecting a magical chocolate experience and got me in a top hat in a dirty warehouse in Glasgow.
00:31 People who wanted Timothy Charlamagne and got Timothy Charlatan.
00:36 But I am going to tell my side of it as an actor who was employed at this event.
00:42 So the first red flag for me was when I was cast as Willy Wonka.
00:46 Anyone who looks at me and thinks Willy Wonka and not Oompa Loompa is out of their mind. I give off major Oompa Loompa energy.
00:54 But not like a good Oompa Loompa, not like one that's at the back during the dance numbers, like falling over like you're at a line dancing class on holiday.
01:07 But I got cast as the part on the Thursday and was told that I needed to learn the script for the Friday.
01:17 So I said no problem, send it over. The script was 15 pages, monologue pretty much of AI generated gibberish.
01:28 Which I will read some for you if you want. In fact, no, I don't even need to read it because I learnt it all and it was mad.
01:39 I've learnt all of it, that's all in there, that's in my brain.
01:43 So I'll give you one of the lines from the script. I'm not going to do the Willy Wonka voice because I think I've embarrassed myself enough over the last few days.
01:52 But one of my favourite lines was "There is a man who lives here, his name is not known, so we call him the unknown."
02:02 "The unknown is an evil chocolate maker who lives in the walls."
02:10 What? What is an evil chocolate maker for a start? Does he make evil chocolate or is he an evil man who makes chocolate?
02:23 And what do you mean he lives in the walls?
02:26 So I had to perform that line with gusto and validity and that was a challenge as an actor.
02:40 We were told on the experience to hand out a jelly bean, one jelly bean per child and a quarter of a cup of Tesco's own brand lemonade.
02:57 That was what the children got. No chocolate! There was no chocolate to be had at this chocolate factory.
03:04 Which I really think they missed a trick because if there's ever an event to sell chocolate, I'd say it was this one.
03:14 But no, they went with a single jelly bean and a quarter of a glass of lemonade.
03:20 We then, we turned up as a group of actors in the morning on the Saturday and saw what this was.
03:32 You could say it was a world of imagination in that you had to imagine it was not a dirty old warehouse.
03:41 But we walked around this place and saw just health and safety nightmare for a start.
03:50 We saw there was no special effects that was promised.
03:54 There was a thing that was supposed to be called the Twilight Tunnel, which was supposed to be a tunnel that everyone walked through that was dark.
04:03 There was supposed to be stars twinkling inside it and stuff like that, which I thought could have been quite cool.
04:08 What it was, was a bunch of checkered flags pinned to a wall with some mirrors that were found, I don't know where, probably the toilets.
04:25 So that was a letdown. Anyway, we all got together as actors and we were like,
04:32 "Look, it is unlikely that we're going to get paid for this event. However, they're going to put this event on with or without us.
04:44 And children are going to be coming through. Let's just stick around.
04:49 Let's do our best to make sure that the children have some kind of experience."
04:58 And all the actors who worked on it were very, very nice, lovely people.
05:05 So we stuck around. We did our best with what we had, which was very little.
05:15 Repeatedly as well, like the script, just to backtrack, the script had a moment where I was supposed to suck up the unknown with a giant vacuum cleaner.
05:27 And I asked about that and the people running the event were like, "We don't know what to do with that. Just improvise."
05:38 I can't improvise a vacuum cleaner. You either have a vacuum cleaner or you don't have a vacuum cleaner.
05:48 That's the two rules of having a vacuum cleaner. And we didn't have a vacuum cleaner.
05:54 So I made the creative decision to cut that right out of the script.
05:59 So I was told that I would, every 45 minutes, we'd get a 15-minute break.
06:07 That didn't happen. I was playing Willy Wonka for nearly four hours straight.
06:13 It got to the point where I didn't know where I ended and Wonka began.
06:17 We started to become one. I was just now just a crazy man in an old warehouse.
06:25 But I was given a lunch break. I went onto my lunch break.
06:29 I sat in my car, to be honest, and just stared into the void for a little while.
06:35 And then when I came back in, that's when things had got a little bit out of control.
06:43 Rightfully so, people were furious. There was shouting. There was people filming things on their phone.
06:50 There was things being broken, things being stolen, apparently.
06:55 I just walked into this after my lunch and was told to hide, which I was like, "What has happened?"
07:06 So I was interviewed on the news yesterday, which I was more than happy to do
07:12 because I thought this would be an opportunity for me to stick up for the group of actors who were also scammed by this event.
07:19 In the interview, I talked about how we'd turned up.
07:25 We'd worked out that we're probably not going to get paid for this event, but we'll stick around anyway
07:31 because we know that they're going to put it on without us.
07:34 Kids are coming through. Let's at least try and make something of a nice experience for the children and families who are coming through.
07:40 Then I said on the interview, "I feel like an idiot, to be honest. I feel like I've kind of been taken the mick out of."
07:47 I messaged all the actors and was like, "Don't worry. I've defended us on the news."
07:52 The news edited that interview, and what happened was, last night at 6 o'clock,
07:58 was the guy at the studio saying, "Okay, now let's speak to Paul Connell," one of the actors who was at the event.
08:05 It cuts to me going, "I feel like an idiot, to be honest," and back to the studio.
08:09 That was good. I would like to finish this video by saying that I hope that the people who went there did get something out of it,
08:17 other than one jelly bean and a quarter glass of lemonade.
08:22 I really hope that everyone gets the refunds that they deserve.
08:27 It was an absolute mess.
08:30 The fact that I was a part of it is one of the most embarrassing things that's ever happened to me.
08:39 Anyone who knows me would know. I've had a lot of embarrassing stuff happen to me.
08:47 All right, guys. Thank you very much. I'll be around.
08:51 Maybe, if I get desperate, you'll probably see me in a warehouse, in a production of Alice in Wonderville,
09:00 where I'm playing the mad hat wearer, and I'll be handing out half a biscuit and a quarter of a cup of tea to all the kids for the tea party.
09:10 Thank you very much, guys. See you next time.