Curtain closes on Vaudevillians seniors entertainment troupe in Surrey
Published 10:30 am Thursday, April 23, 2026
Pat Trimble doesn’t want to hang up her tap shoes just yet, but time marches on.
“It’s difficult to quit when you have a passion for something,” laments the Surrey senior, a founding member of The Vaudevillians.
Launched in 2000, the seniors entertainment troupe has disbanded following the death of Dan Minor, its energetic artistic director, choreographer and accompanist. Minor died in hospital March 21, two weeks shy of his 86th birthday.
“Without Dan it is really difficult to carry on,” Trimble noted. “He was our everything.”
It’s been a fun 26-year run for The Vaudevillians, the legacy of which continues with a $127,000 bursary for college students in the performing arts.
The troupe often performed old-time music, dance and comedy bits for fellow seniors, and hosted an annual Bursary Show at Surrey Arts Centre to raise money for the Society for the Preservation of Vaudeville Bursary at Douglas College.
The bursary was established in honour of Trimble’s beloved husband, baritone-voiced show emcee “Diamond” Jim Trimble, who died in 2022.
The Trimbles were core members of The Vaudevillians along with Minor, who wasn’t involved at the start but got busier over the years.
“He kind of took over all these positions when people left for various reasons,” Trimble said. “His life was music, the arts, dancing, singing. He was always upbeat, and he loved it. He said to me once, ‘If I couldn’t be doing this, it wouldn’t be worth living.’”
At one point the Vaudevillians had two dozen golden-aged performers on stage for Bursary Shows, but in recent years the numbers dwindled to around 10 active members for rehearsals at Surrey Free Methodist Church on 96 Avenue.
“Sometimes we’d perform three times a month (at seniors residences),” Trimble recalled. “It’s sad that the group is no longer doing that, because it was such a rewarding experience to go and bring joy into these people’s lives, sometimes people who never get out of the residences. It was wonderful, and kept us active, too.”
Show highlights included dance duets featuring Trimble and Minor, who entered and won several Surrey Festival of Dance competitions starting in 2012.
“I’d heard of Dan before I ever met him,” Trimble recalled. “I knew who he was, then he showed up at a Vaudevillians rehearsal one day and joined in, in 2008, I think. He was really well known in the arts community for a long time, way back.”
While a funeral for Minor is in the works, the remaining Vaudevillians recently gathered in Fleetwood to pay tribute to their friend and musical leader.
“Everybody came,” Trimble said. “We spoke our thoughts about Dan, put up pictures and posters, the room was all decorated for lunch. I could really feel the love in the room, really special.”
One day, perhaps a Vaudevillians-like troupe for seniors will start again in Surrey.
“Hopefully that happens,” Trimble said, “but I, for one, am finished. I’m just finding it harder all the time. I broke my ankle a year and a half ago, and I didn’t know if I’d able to dance again, but I did get back and dance. Performing the shows wasn’t hard, it was carrying costumes, all the other stuff.
“When we lost Dan,” she added, “that sort of made it for sure, that we’re finished, and I know that several of the others are feeling the same way that I am. It’s been a good run.”