Brighton Spiegeltent: Bosco, 27 May 2023
John-Luke Roberts’ latest channelling of the surreally bizarre into classic you-had-to-be-there entertainment has found a spellbinding vehicle. Cabaret Impedimenta is a simple concept: a variety show of half a dozen acts, each with its own randomly selected impediment, the impediments compounding on top of each other as the evening progresses, resulting in a night of unpredictable mayhem, madness and boisterous unpredicatable laughter.
Of course there are more fine tweaks added to it, as you would expect from the ACMS (Alternative Comedy Memorial Society) alum Roberts. This is an interactive and partially improvised affair, meaning that rules are absolute and frequently without reason beyond the serious intention of ‘fun’.
Mark Wilcox’s ‘doctor’ cameo appearance as the second impediment of the night swaps out with an ‘audience impediment’ in which the packed Bosco audience are instructed to shout back any word uttered on stage beginning with a ‘B’ – breaking one of the first basics of the show’s structure almost immediately. We’ve lost our impediment constant, but no matter – who cares when everyone can now be a part of the show. At least once in each act’s performance a bell rings out and the lighting changes as all on stage (including the impediments) must stop and consider The Bell Of Death, with increased hilarity as the contrast between the performance’s mayhem and its sudden absence only increases with each act. Impediments are selected from a Wheel Of Impediments spun by the Impediminions, with an added clacking sound politely requested by our host and provided by the audience.
Impediments pile upon each other, with Victorian ghost twins contorting with benevolent mischief, scientists blowing up balloons and handing out flyers to their own show, and a clown slightly fixated on a fabric fish cluttering the stage and attention. And that’s only at the halfway point. It’s a marvel and a heralded achievement when each one of the professional cabaret acts reaches the end of their sets, with varying degrees of exasperation and forced adaptation. It’s unclear as to how much some of them actually researched the show they committed to, with the genuine acts of sabotage appearing to stun at points. Regardless, each act turned out an admirable showcase excerpt that will not doubt increase sales numbers of their solo fringe shows. The resulting madhouse melee from this anarchist comedy cocktail is a tableau worthy of Tiswas in its hayday.
There’s a certain leap of faith present to believe that sabotage and talent will combine to make a classic evening’s fun. But somehow – like a fabulous meal improvised by a skilled chef trapped in a storm shelter with only unlabelled tins for survival and strange things buried by fairytale creatures – something utterly and impressively unique results under pressure.
Brighton Fringe: Cabaret Impedimenta
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