The sound of trumpets that you’d hear in a cartoon and fabulous filmic music, along with a convincing Charlie Chaplin as compere, got this show in the gloriously glamorous Spiegeltent off to great start. They say give a dog a good or bad name and it sticks, but the theory did not work here as the momentum quickly got lost.
What promised to be “A collection of internationally renowned circus cabaret artists ...” were more like side-shows of another era in keeping with the turn of century stalls in George Square Gardens with lots of hat juggling, contorting and sword swallowing with the apparent aid of the magic ingredient, Dr Bendini‘s snake oil.
Old-fashioned circus skills are wonderful, but today’s audiences look for more and are used to more sassiness, sophistication and originality. It felt like a rehearsal rather than a polished show and did not match up to the glamour of the venue. Each act was skilled, but not special, doing nothing new or amazing. Factor X was definitely missing.
The handsome wee clown with a bubble spouting umbrella looked as if he would add more magic but sadly the act didn’t come up to expectations though his flirting with a female ‘self’ in the form of a hat on a wire and his one arm through a dress sleeve was reasonably entertaining.
Hector Robertson’s clichéd Scot had some cumbersome dealings with the microphone in between his balancing everything on his chin, including the kitchen sink, but perpetuating a Buckfast drinking image is not helpful to an international audience.
There was a star in the show: Lisa Lottie. She was flirty, professional and glamorous as well as being a fantastic hula hooper. More like her could have made the show.
This should have been advertised as "Charlie Chaplin and friends", rather than as the daring high wire acts advertised in the Fringe brochure, which did not in fact appear.
Show run: August 03 -11
Tickets: £14 (£12)