Clown is the hippest factor in comedy proper now, thanks in no small half to the American act Physician Brown, who launched its new wave by profitable the Edinburgh comedy award in 2012. Now depraved, now harmless, now delicate, now horny, Phil Burgers’ alter ego staked out a recent, stripped-back, non-gurny model of silent comedy, and influenced a technology. Now he’s again, together with his first solo present in a decade – a little bit older, a little bit greyer, if not as geriatric because the model of himself he affords up right here, swaddled in bathrobe and surgical socks, tapping his manner throughout the stage with a strolling stick.
The importance of these stylings takes time to disclose itself, after which pretty obliquely. For a lot of the hour, Beturns is a loosely related assemblage of playful clown routines, as Burgers invitations an viewers member to thrash his bottom with a rolled-up newspaper, and one other to wheel him across the stage on a swivel chair. Utilizing little greater than his expressive eyes and a collection of eloquent gestures, the Physician asserts complete if unpredictable management over the gang. He’ll seduce us with mimed sequences of throbbing hearts and hovering birds – then puncture proceedings with a sarcastic hand-clap, mocking our delight, or some barely acceptable rough-and-tumble with one other hapless volunteer.
Within the context of current clown-comedies as high-concept as Julia Masli’s ha ha ha ha ha ha ha and Frankie Thompson’s Catts, Burgers’ return can appear skinny. It’s very reliant on his personal allure, his openness to the second, his interactive devilry – that are exceptional qualities, thrilling to be within the room with. Few performers are as current – as alive – as this, and his impulsiveness, his blithe delinquency, triggers moments of giddy hilarity right here. However one or two riffs are eked out or revisited too many instances. And the narrative, supplied by a handful of cutaway scenes through which he raises a baby from infancy to maturity, is simply calmly – and belatedly – sketched in. The present can really feel underdeveloped, then, whilst, in Burgers’ arms, clown efficiency is elevated to a state of grubby grace.
