Review: Shaboom!, Soho Theatre

In the time since the US comedian Doctor Brown produced his award winning show Befrdfgth well over a decade ago there’s been a sharp increase in the popularity of clowning. Many a comedian has headed over to France to be trained by the critically acclaimed Philippe Gaulier, and then produced a show which has contained a lot of physical comedy, slightly revolting messing about with food, minor nudity and some very strange examples of audience participation.

Hence I expected a mixture of the above from Shaboom! when performers Silky Shoemaker, Lex Vaughn and Paul Soileau came on to the stage fully made up in old fashioned clowning make up. Pleasingly, they’ve created a show which avoids the obvious tropes and instead presents a deeply absurd but also refreshingly original collection of sketches, the majority of which they mime to and so only occasionally speak (or sing) live. It’s a device which really allows them to concentrate on the physical side of their performances, which are full of very funny facial tics and grotesque bodily contortions.

The stage is covered in a huge selection of wigs and clothing, and in between each sketch the cast scramble about the room looking for the right attire for the next routine, sometimes crashing in to each other or stopping for a brief chat; and at first this is pretty amusing. But its repetitive nature and overly long nature means that when it takes place for the tenth time the sense of infectious fun fades and it’s a little disappointing that they spend so much of the show preparing for each vignette.

Some of the sketches are also slightly self-indulgent. Many start with a really great idea, like dogs discussing their bowel movements and the need to take probiotics, a forties style screwball comedy packed with mad dialogue, or a group of elderly (and thanks to some clever props) deeply weird looking women attempting to sell a product on a shopping channel. However, while a selection are perfectly timed, others go on for a little too long, or repeat the joke slightly too often.

Yet there are moments of inspired madness here the likes of which I’ve never seen before, and while the laughs may not be as frequent as I might have wished, when they come along they are notably big ones. All of which combined leads to a show which I was slightly frustrated by and subsequently, although part of me wants to give it a four star review, recommending it without any caveats, right now I can’t quite do that.

That’s largely because despite some sublime moments a couple of sketches don’t quite work, or they extend their premise to the point where you’ll have got the joke early on and it’s not really built upon. Even with some fantastic performances, as a whole it’s currently slightly uneven work. But I’m very glad to have seen it, as there is undoubtedly an enormous amount of promise shown here.

Written and performed by Silky Shoemaker, Lex Vaughn and Paul Soileau.

Shaboom! has completed its current run at Soho Theatre.