Posts tagged Kryztoff
RAW: Letter’s End By Wolfe Bowart – Playhouse Till 31st July – 5K
Jul 29th
Adelaide parents and grandparents gather up in haste those pre-teen young ones in your life and make for the Dunstan Playhouse to revel in Wolfe Bowart’s Letter’s End. In a world of 3D and other cinema graphics, it is rare to see a single performer amaze and dazzle without all that tech. Bowart achieves that in trumps.
Mops that growl, apples that can be eaten off paintings, eggs that bounce and then don’t, a mosquito that never says die, blooms that transform from dead sun flowers to red roses and so it goes on in a never ending menagerie of products from a brilliant imagination that has children shrieking in joy and adults gasping in admiration.
His crowd interactions are fun with his helper on stage on opening night so full of joy even before he got on stage that it was obvious the goodwill of the whole show had infected all in the audience.
To be sure, this is mime of the highest order, in the Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton class for the 21st century. The sheer brilliance of not only the acts but the timing and the successful pursuit of magic throughout leaves those attempting to fathom how it is done exhausted and unfulfilled.
Please get your (grand)children along to Letter’s End, it will be an experience they and you will remember for a very long time.
Kryztoff Rating 5K
RAW – The Mess at Mela
Mar 27th
Mela, Adelaide’s annual Indian cultural fest at Elder Park, ended in farce when headline closing act, internationally acclaim hip hop stars, Street Assassins, were threatened with arrest for daring to entertain the crowd. Microphones were removed, lights turned off, sound systems unplugged in the ensuing complete organisational shambles.
Mind you, problems were brewing a long way out when entertainment was suspended for over an hour around 7.30. (The Premier was blamed for this along with the late start to the formal dinner!) By around 9pm when things resumed, more than 50 performers were lined for their time on stage, many of whom had been due to perform up to 3 hours before and some, like the Street Assassins, never made it before the 10.30 curfew kicked in.
Full story in this week’s Kryztoff out on Thursday. Pics on Facebook by Monday.
RAW: Dr Brown Behaves
Mar 15th
This show is totally unique. With a crowd that was fully prepared to go wherever he would lead, Mr Brown took us to new levels or hilarity and awkwardness, engaging and involving every single audience member in weird and wonderful ways.
Words really can’t describe who Dr Brown is or what he does, he simply has to be seen to be believed.
If you missed him this festival, you must catch him when he returns. To miss this act is a sin.
An extraordinarily special physical comedian. Don’t think. Just sit back and roll with it.
Oh, and if you are going to sit in the front row, make sure you are both comfortable with your own sexuality and keen to try new things.
If this is Dr. Brown behaving, I can’t wait to see him misbehave!
Kryztoff Rating: 5K
>> Check out more interviews, videos, feature articles and polished previews in our latest Fringe Guide, http://www.kryztoff.com/fringe
RAW: Bart Freebairn – A Breathtakingly Magical Journey into the Ordinary
Mar 15th
Life doesn’t always turn out as we had wished as a kid. Which is probably a good thing as if it had most of us Gen Y guys would be either Transformers or Ninja Turtles and Prince Charles would be Camilla’s tampon. Realising that he had no magic powers of his own, Bart Freebairn seeks to find magic in the world around him, learning some harsh lessons about how the real world works along the way.
Incredibly thoughtful, often insightful and continuously witty, Bart’s show is not the joke-a-second gig that some look for. That didn’t worry me. His jokes are incredibly funny – well set up and nicely delivered; the narrative in between engaging and thoughtful. Taboo topics are tackled bravely and irreverently in a show that could best be summed up as a delightful deviation from the real world for a while.
Oh, and his show is opened by a real wizard.
Kryztoff Rating: 3.75K
>> Check out more interviews, videos, feature articles and polished previews in our latest Fringe Guide, http://www.kryztoff.com/fringe
RAW: Pony Club @ Tuxedo Cat
Mar 15th
What is the Pony Club?
Pony Club is a gig run by the incredible Hannah Gadsby in which a bunch of comedians run amuck for an hour of improvisation, singing, dancing, stand-up and impressions. Like a kind of wheels-fell-off theatre sports, this show had the audience literally crying with laughter.
Check out the final Pony Club line-up: Hannah Gadsby, Adam Hills, Amelia Jane Hunter, Damian Callinan, Deanne Smith, David Smiedt, Dave Bloustien, and Rebecca De Unamuno! All in the one improv show! All of these comedians were at the top of their game, revelling in this fantastic opportunity to just be silly.
For a great night out, make sure you catch a Pony Club at the next Fringe and please give a generous donation at the door. Pony Club – mad bang for your buck. Late night comedy at its finest!
Kryztoff Rating: 4.5K
>> Check out more interviews, videos, feature articles and polished previews in our latest Fringe Guide, http://www.kryztoff.com/fringe
RAW: Fear of a Brown Planet Returns @ Tuxedo Cat (Studio)
Mar 10th
There was a slight delay to the start of the show, a forgotten projector being the reason, but this just gave us even longer to enjoy the rooftop garden of the Tuxedo Cat Studio. On a side note, it’s sad that this little Adelaide gem is soon to be demolished.
Two Indian comedians , Nazeem Hussain and Aamer Rahman, take turns in performing an hour of side-splitting racist jokes. Cleverly used projections combining scenes from Star Trek contrasted with current affairs opened the show to set the scene that white people are a predominantly racist bunch.
The first half hour, was by far the funniest half. Nazeem showed a more light hearted side to racism, with a humorous taxi skit, and poked fun at himself and the one sidedness of Indian TV news when reporting on racism in Australia.
The second comedian, Aamer, wasn’t quite to the same high standards as Nazeem and the laughs seemed to die down a bit. However the audience was welcoming and energetic and happy to have a laugh at themselves.
Kryztoff Rating: 3.5K
>> Check out more interviews, videos, feature articles and polished previews in our latest Fringe Guide, http://www.kryztoff.com/fringe
RAW: Le Grand Macabre @ Adelaide Festival Centre
Mar 9th
György Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre is a very dark look at a modern, perverse, lost society in terminal decay about to be wiped out by Nekrotzar. It grotesquely, sarcastically takes a mocking, ironic look at mortality and death. Set on, inside and around a giant female body, complete with tongue movement, which adds to this bizarre opera, sure is a grand opening to this years Adelaide Festival.
The music score just adds to this insane artwork, opening to jarring car horns, yet so fitting, brought with enormous energy and force, conducted exemplary by Robert Houssart. The only critique on the music would be the pit not allowing the true sound of all instruments to carry to the audience.
The set piece, the crouching body, brilliantly built with arms, legs, buttocks which reveal inner organs and a moving head, is also used as a projection screen for video footage and lighting effects giving 3D a new or should we say true meaning.
The performers pull this 4 scene, anti-anti-opera, off in a way that makes it all seem real and a perfectly told drama, yet obviously enjoying themselves.
Kryztoff Rating: 4K
>> Check out more interviews, videos, feature articles and polished previews in our latest Fringe Guide, http://www.kryztoff.com/fringe
RAW: The Basie/Sinatra Show @ The Prom
Mar 7th
The Mike Stewart Big Band are as grand as they ever have been.
Seriously tight, the 17 piece-band plays some jazz classics from the Count Basie songbook. They are then joined by the swinging Luke Thompson, whose rehearsed vocals are simply Sinatra. Personal highlights included I Got The World On A String, Come Fly With Me and crowd sing-a-long I Did It My Way.
For many it was a nostalgic trip down memory lane at The Promethean, but for a few it was about discovering these golden oldie jazz tracks.
Not as cheesy as expected, but still a fantastic set.
Kryztoff Rating: 4K
>> Check out more interviews, videos, feature articles and polished previews in our latest Fringe Guide, http://www.kryztoff.com/fringe