| 19 August 2009
Pleasance Courtyard
5-30 August (ex. 17,24) 11.30
It is easy to see why children can become mesmerised by balloons, especially if they are ten times their normal size. In this show, Danny Schlesinger exhausts the comic potential of balloons, rolling them down his arm, balancing them on his nose and even constructing a giant balloon dog, Poppy, complete with balloon poo.
However, I couldn’t help feeling that he didn’t really progress beyond basic, and for many children, unimpressive tricks. Most children are aware that a balloon makes a farting noise when it is let off, and performed three times in a row it became slightly grating – raising only a faint murmur of amusement from the young audience. His tricks didn’t seem to require much skill or rehearsal, and the comedy was mainly tired farce (pretending to drop the balloon numerous times, or to be unable to hook his jacket through a large loophole, or that he was unable to spin a hula hoop round his waist).
Indeed there was little admiration for his stunts as many them were tricks that had already been mastered by children in the room– it offered scope only for children to laugh condescendingly as here was an adult who was less able than they were. That’s not to say that slapstick isn’t a well established form of humour, and it is upon this that much of circus amusement is based – the difference is, that I wasn’t impressed by Schlesinger’s skill. In fact, there is far more talent found for free among the street-performers.
Glancing round the room, it was clear that some children were in awe of everything that was done and were perched open-mouthed on the edge of their seats - however, for other children, there was definite restlessness and fiddling. At the very least, Schlesinger was harmless, clean-mouthed fun – but it is recommended for those under six only because any older than that and the kids will have seen it all before.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
