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.
In 2004, they built a 10m-tall scorpion which they took to Japan, as well as a 20-ton fire-breathing dragon with a 25m wing span that appeared at the Glastonbury Festival.
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, Piers Morgan and Simon Cowell.
When he decided to move to Waitati in 2021 with his partner, Mr Pugh said it felt a bit like being a “big fish in a small pond” and so they had emerged slowly in order not to be tall poppies.
Mr Pugh said he sourced his materials from a “huge library” courtesy of a local firewood company in Blueskin Bay, which he would select based on shape and size.
He would make his way from carving out the shape with a big fuel-powered chainsaw, down to light medium-sized and battery-powered saws to pick out the details. A carving bar, angle grinder, orbital sander and plumber’s blowtorch provided the finishing touches.
The sculptures contained hardly any metal, screws or nails and were held together with big wooden nails, he said
Henrietta the Hippo took about four days to complete, which was “quite fast”.
Mr Pugh said he had a lot of doubt about the sculpture as the wood had a bit of rot and he was not convinced it was the right shape.
The trick was to turn your mind off and “let the chainsaw create it”.
“You’ve really got to not try too hard and just sort of almost switch off and let the creature come out of the wood to you.”
While he could not help but be critical of his work, the reactions they had been getting had been “fab”, he said.
“Kids love it. They’re all over that hippo, they’re climbing all over it pulling its ears.
“That’s when I start to feel good about it, when people are reacting in a positive way.”
