When Adrian "A.d." Pugh asked if he could ride a motorcycle across the stage of Britain’s Got Talent dressed as a pirate with a battery-powered chainsaw tucked into his scabbard, he was met with a reluctant yes.
The judges "couldn’t press the X buttons quick enough", the now Waitati-based chainsaw-carver said. "It was brilliant ..
. there was like smoke and they were all kind of totally flustered." "Simon Cowell said, ‘That’s probably the most stupid act I’ve ever seen in my life’.
" The former fire-juggler and circus performer, who now operates a Waitati-based chainsaw-carving business with his partner, still wants to make people laugh. His business, called Little Tree Garden Craft, has been fashioning timber garden frames for the past three years, while drawing upon the same skills to create chainsaw-carved sculptures — including a dolphin, whale’s tail and a hippo named Henrietta. Mr Pugh, also known as Capt’n Chainsaw, said before moving to Waitati he had spent 25 years in the United Kingdom working with the "Tree Pirates" — a "relatively infamous" chainsaw-carving team known for their massive multi-piece chainsaw-carved sculpture commissions.
Waitati-based chainsaw carver Adrian ‘‘A.d’’ Pugh poses with one of his creations Henrietta the Hippo in the waters of Blueskin Bay. PHOTO: GREGOR RICHARDSON In 2008, Mr Pugh featured on Britain’s Got Talent in full pirate garb and "hacked away" at watermelons with a chainsaw in front of Amanda Holden, Pi.
