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Pros: With flair and his own special brand of pizzazz Steven Carne will have you laughing throughout the whole performance.
Cons: This show won’t suit all tastes as the humour is at times shocking. An homage to women has never been done quite like this. Steven Carne brings to life the famous and not so famous through his own version of drag and vaudeville-like comedy.
Summary
Rating
Good
Laptop Dancer is a one-man show that, befitting a Camden Fringe offering, is quite unlike any other. Steven Carne dedicates the entire performance to women, honouring them for how amazing they are. As a woman myself, the concept of a man dedicating his talent and time to creating a show just to say that women are awesome is definitely flattering. I ended up laughing and smiling throughout most of the show.
Carne is equipped with nothing more than some rather ‘well-loved’ costume bits and bobs and a screen on stage. A very simple set up, but there isn’t need to go all out when, like in this case, the content is good. Unfortunately there did seem to be some technical hiccups with queuing the music, which created a rather awkward feeling between performer and audience.
The show consists of Carne belting out classic songs from classy ladies such as Dinah Washington. Each song is accompanied by a costume change. Carne eventually ditches his initial costume, consisting of a t-shirt and shorts, for a black dress and sometimes a wig, many times not. He reminded us that during his usual tours he had the ‘works’, apparently meaning a full set and what I assumed was a full wardrobe. The singing was adequate, but most of my attention went into listening to the excellent lyrics. Sadly the combination of technical difficulties and the nonchalant cross-dressing took away from the overall performance.
This particular show ended with a special mention of the Save the NHS campaign, in which Carne performed his own endoscopy ‘live’ on stage while we watched the intrusive camera footage shown on the screen. This skit, while for a good cause, was simply too uncomfortable to watch, and I felt there could have been a better way to bring attention to the NHS. Even now, thinking about it makes me cringe.
Since this performance was a stripped down version of Carne’s usual show, I really wondered what the ‘full works’ version is like. I can only imagine it must add extra flair to what already is a funny, charming and very unique performance.
Written and performed by: Steven Carne
Booking Information: This show has now completed its run.
