Let me start by saying that this is not, as I had first imagined, a children’s show. It is perfectly suitable for kids, but there is absolutely no age limit for this show. And it is still definitely a comedy show.
Raymond Crowe starts off his show with some of his own special shadow hand puppets (if you haven’t seen his “What a Wonderful World” routine on Youtube, I thoroughly recommend you do) which are great to watch… But after the third or fourth routine, you can see the patterns, and it ultimately loses some of its shine. Too much of a good thing, I would say.
If you attend the show, and you’re anywhere near the front, prepare to become part of the show; there is a lot of audience participation in this show, so don’t say you weren’t warned. He seems to have a firm grasp of the idea that you can make your volunteers do pretty much anything, once you’ve lured them up onstage. One man sitting next to me ended up doing a Hawaiian dance for two full minutes before he was shown back to his seat. The idea of using ventriloquism to control his volunteers’ voices was quite cleverly done, but it must be said that the highlight for me was the “magic”.
In most cases, magicians try to hide the secret of their tricks. In Raymond Crowe’s case, you could possibly guess how he’s doing it; but even if he just explained his methods for completing the trick this would make you applaud. What the man can do with a billiard ball is the evidence of so much spare time.
If I had one criticism, there were a few first-day glitches in the show, such as an arm not meant to be seen in one of the shadow puppet routines, and some microphone volume level issues. Wrinkles that would almost certainly be ironed out in the upcoming shows, but I just could not ignore some things which spoiled the illusion a bit. However something which I thought was quite humbling was at the end of the show, when he walked off the stage, into the audience and shook the hand of every audience member who had been to the show, speaking to anyone who wished to speak to him in the foyer afterwards (mind you, there were only about sixty of us).
All this adds up to a few simple facts. If you have seen some of Crowe’s work on Youtube or otherwise, and would like to see more, then you would be recommended to go see this show. Its not “rolling in the aisles” funny, but where the humour is less than you would get from a good stand-up comedian, there is more evidence of untold hours of practising ridiculous ideas and tricks purely for our entertainment and pleasure.
For full comedy details go to the Melbourne Comedy Festival website