Bubbling along on ‘the circuit’ for some time now has been a new kind of act; not quite standup, not quite monologue (or dialogue) and in which personality – an essential ingredient of standup – blends with acting and narrative skill. A theatre of mock illusion, dumb-show and flights of fancy (and fantasy). The coming master of the genre is Bristol’s own Jody Kamali who is currently working-up his forthcoming Edinburgh act.
Bounding on with considerable hauteur, the Master of Ceremonies of the improbable, ‘famous’ Gorbachov Circus of Wonder, Fernando, lacks nothing of self-belief; training then daring the audience to laugh with a flick of his special circus cloth, like a bullfighter goading his prey.
This creation of Latin extraction (?), with near perfect English pronunciation, has a story to tell of his running away to a life on the open road. Of his first test of suitability for circus life by ordeal in the ‘tank of sharks’ we learned much, thanks to a compliant member of the audience who dived in with, surprisingly, something approaching relish.
Occasionally things apparently go wrong in the act and we laugh as the mask drops and we see the desperate puppet master behind the scenes trying to keep the strings from tangling, but winking to the audience the while so as to prevent the clenching buttocks that accompanies real disaster. With utter conviction the ‘Man of Mystery’ does some thrillingly ordinary things with supermarket bags. And the Vampyre scoured the audience for a compliant virgin (with little luck), finally having to conscript a young man for blood-sucking duties – all wonderfully gruesome.
His dumb-show of the wooing and marriage to an ironing-board is undertaken with the guilelessness of Tommy Cooper and marks him out as a powerfully imaginative proponent of physical comedy. It’s novel and entertaining stuff that without much pre-festival buffing will be top-notch comedy fare.
Guesting at last night’s gig with comedy of the same genre was, Dead Ghost Star (Mr Dinner and Cheekykita), in a romp through the history of the universe, got up as space and time travellers. From the big bang through to human language and invention our guides, with some audience participation, showed us the earth and the stars in all their glory. Imagine a benign Stephen Merchant with a less than perfect grasp of his subject taking a class through the mysteries of the formation of the universe with a willing, but wayward and wilful assistant and you have a handle on Mr. Dinner
Lurking behind the various headgear of Cheekykita is a naughty schoolgirl, grown up precociously before the rest of her peers, given to tweaking the grown-ups and occasionally stamping a bossy foot and other grown-up things just to see how it feels, whilst rolling her eyes with a sly smile.
It’s witty, engaging and inventive and can’t fail to be a huge success. ★★★☆☆ Graham Wyles 11/06/15
