Education Quote by George Cole

There is a sly disarmament in George Cole framing his early performing as "showing off". It sounds like a confession, but it functions as a preemptive strike: if he owns the vanity first, nobody else gets to weaponize it. For an actor, especially one who came up when British performance culture prized restraint and “proper” seriousness, admitting a taste for attention is both honest and strategically modest. It turns ambition into a boyish impulse rather than a calculated career plan.

The list itself - plays, concerts, always - sketches a childhood where performance wasn’t a special occasion but a default setting. Cole isn’t mythologizing a tortured artist origin story; he’s describing repetition, comfort, muscle memory. The casual "you could say" invites the listener into complicity, making the vanity feel like a shared joke rather than a sin. That’s actorly charm in miniature: redirect scrutiny into rapport.

Subtextually, it also argues that theatricality can be a form of belonging. School stages are where kids rehearse identity with an audience that’s safely temporary. Calling it “showing off” keeps the sentiment from getting sentimental, but you can still hear what’s underneath: he found a place where attention had rules and applause was earned.

Context matters, too. Coming of age in mid-century Britain, with class pressures and cultural gatekeeping, “showing off” could be coded as cheeky social climbing. Cole’s line shrugs at that code - and, with a grin, refuses to apologize for wanting to be seen.