Jango jangles

Press, 10 February 1986, Page 4

Jango jangles

Jango Edwards, presented by the 1986 Festival of Fringe Theatre, at the Arts Centre Great Hall, Saturday, November 6, at 8 p.m. Reviewed by John Farnsworth.

Clowns come in all guises, from the lugubriously sad to the hyperactively happy. Jango Edwards is simply a brilliant fool with a dazzling and effortless ability to pull comedy out of thin air. Whether as a demonstration of a venerable art or as a wonderfully anarchic and liberating entertainment, his show was superb. For these reasons alone, it would have been hard to better as an introduction to a week of fringe festival theatre. Edwards is an American who performs in Amsterdam and to understandable acclaim at festivals throughout Europe. His humour is grounded in high-energy solo slapstick which mixes a seemingly crazed stream of inventiveness with som&' of the oldest and clowning routines.

There were whistling balloons, masks and painted faces, odd objects from his pockets, endless genuinely funny faces, strange hats, double takes, rude noises, harmless acts of self-mutilation, unpredictable escapades into the seated spectators before and during the show, and a profusion of other rapid-fire diversions. Working from a stage cluttered with props and ankle-deep in crumpled newsprint, he trampled joyfully over taboos aand conventions. Startled latecomers were abused, sprayed and pelted, and hapless “volunteers” dragged to the stage to assist delightedly either in meaningless card-tricks performed with frankfurters, or in an indescribable act with a condom.

The show was loosely shaped into sketches interspersed with songs to restrain the comic temperature — a largely successful formula, apart from one temporary drop in pace. Nonetheless, the 1 sketches clearly displayed “his mastery of comic de-

tail, ranging from the gentle mime of The Chef to the gum-chewing evangelist of the Church of Grin, and ending with a marvellously funny death-defying dive into a glass of water. Undoubtedly, this was a memorable performance for its wit, mania, invention and sheer generosity of spirit Edwards is performing again in Christchurch. Go to see him. Earlier, in the show’s first half, Minnie (Vivienne Thomas) and- the Monotones (Colin McCulloch and Murray Scott) sent up a medley of 1960 s songs. Reviving the nowfamiliar satire of smalltown Kiwis performing in the Big Smoke, they tunefully hammed their way through “Downtown,” Dinah Lee numbers, and other best-forgotten melodies. It is an act which needs development and they seemed restricted by the stereotypes they created for themselves. At times, they were saved from the monotony of their songs by their brightness and charm. *