This year's London Clown Festival, an annual event that previews shows that will be playing the Edinburgh Fringe, kicked off with a rather uneven two-hour cabaret that unfolded in typically riotous style at Soho Theatre's Upstairs space. The evening was hosted by the Establishment (Dan Lees and Neil Frost), adept goofballs who continually ask the audience if we think the show has started yet. Their rolling improv is properly nutty, as they decide on songs to sing, impersonations to perform, news headlines to read, games to play and audience members to play with.
The first act is Sarah Woolfenden, painted and dressed in white as she surreally wanders around the stage urging the audience to embrace the clown within. She then takes her place in the house band, alongside Lees, Tom Penn and Julie Nesher. Their music has a wonderfully bouncy rhythm to it, and Sarah provides all manner of noises, whistles and horns. They accompany most of the acts that follow, including Josh Glanc, who charges through his hilariously awkward material, singing a series of very similar songs while taking on audience members who challenge him. This makes his set feel somewhat tense, as if it is spiralling out of control, but his scrappy charm keeps us on his side.
Up next is the baddest man in Texas (Lil Wenker), a strutting Wild West drag king with a Groucho moustache and cigar, plus spoons on their ankles. With a flirtatious and very silly attitude, he uses his growly voice to get audience members to repeat key phrases that then play out in an epic story. It's utterly ridiculous, and very funny. And now it's Rob Duncan, who triumphantly introduces himself as having been crowned Printer of the Year, then launches into an absurd demonstration of performance printing. This involves two portable printers that spew out pages that feed into his punchlines, just like magic! Indeed, he even prints a rabbit from his hat.
Emerging on his own, the band's bassist Penn takes the stage dressed as a chef wearing a set of red curtains (complete with the rod), singing and dancing, before his manager-wife Nesher emerges perched on his back to take over the show. Their goofy act is packed with riotous sight gags as they dive into one random joke after another.
And finally we have Conchita and Lola, or Conchola, freaky flamenco-style black widows played by Paulina Lenoir and Patricia Langa. They speak in eerie unison, perhaps the least improvisational act of the night, as they recount the epic saga of their witchy lives and deaths. Their hyper-dramatic performance is hugely amusing, as they stare down the audience and perform their nutty choreography.
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