The Dingbat Show Created & Performed by: Matthew Morgan, Tina Groff, Brandon Breault, Gilford Adams. With Special Guests (different for each performance). A high-energy, fast-paced, raucous clown show. Four characters: a loud and foul-mouthed "emcee", a Shakespearean actor in tights, a traditional circus clown in full make-up, and a forthright, energetic gal who all appear to come from totally different worlds except that here they are two brothers, one adopted sister, and an uncle. Add to the absurd premise of them being family, the announcement at the top of the show that "mom has died" and "the show must go on." This quartet of performers present a silly, vulgar, vaudeville-style program, filled with traditional clowning, hat tricks and group juggling, but filtered through their skewed world. While we are busy laughing at their antics, they abuse each other as well as the audience, they touch on themes of racism, sexism, alcoholism, and suicide. The strong characters nicely balance each other out. There were guest performers (apologies for not listing them here), that added to the feeling that we were attending a crazy theatrical circus of sorts.
Dante, The Magical, Mysterious Man in Plaid, Creator/writer: Sean Dawson, Performers: Sean Dawson, Tanya Solomon, Director: Sean Dawson, Musician: Tanya Solomon, New Orleans, LA. Dante (Sean Dawson) is a silent magician with live musical accompaniment from Tanya Solomon on accordion. An impressively-skilled magician and a funny character combine excellently to make Dante completely entertaining. He presents a half carton of eggs at the top of the show, setting up what becomes a repetition of eggs, that keep appearing and disappearing throughout the performance. He has an astounding cigarette trick in which lit cigarettes also keep appearing and disappearing from all sorts of places in his costume as well as his mouth. Live music is always a welcome aspect to clown shows, and here Tanya's playing seamlessly blends with the business on stage.
Members of Our Limbs, Created and performed by Jenni Kallo, Sampo Kurppa and Thomas Monckton, Finland, France and New Zealand. A trio of stupid, zany clowns with real skills, physical acrobatics, music and dance. How many times have we seen a clown with a folding table or chair? Thom Monckton manages to get a ton of clowning from a simple folding table due his absolute brainlessness. He also manages to get tangled in a chair so that it is stuck to his body. The beauty in this is that he is actually highly physically agile. All three clowns are bizarrely appealing. The world they inhabit is strange and wonderful. This is a perfect example of theatrical clowning with elements of tradition and originality.
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