Trygve Wakenshaw and Barnie Duncan throw everything they can think of at the wall to see what sticks with this one. And frankly, it is refreshing. And comical.
Unlike their other joint performance, Different Party, this one is more similar to a testing lab of multiple sketches they seemed to have planned the night before. The brilliance of the show comes from the simplicity of it: just Wakenshaw, Duncan, a hard floor and a handful of props. It lets them shine on their own terms.
What shines through is the raw talent they individually have. Wakenshaw’s classic mime skills and Duncan’s improvisation are on full display.
Even more compelling is how they use these individual talents to play off of one another; as if they are doing an intricate dance of the most ridiculous sketch your brain could conjure up. Their execution of the sketches, although rocky at times, seems to be the point of the show. They are two people doing what they love next to their best friend.
It echoes the activities of children, creating and choreographing the absurdity of acts otherwise deduced as inconceivable; such as contorting their bodies underneath a blanket to walk like they are a camel in a desert. Yet it is fully adult men, providing a gentle reminder to those watching that they were children once, too. And they still have that child in them.
Or perhaps it’s just two men with seriously odd dreams they wish to bring to life. Either way, it’s entertaining. It’s not the most beautiful, structured, or complex show of the Fringe, but it’s their own. And for Wakenshaw and Duncan, it is pretty damn good.
Hot Chips is running until 24 August at Big Belly at Underbelly, Cowgate.
Buy tickets here.
Image courtesy of Storytelling PR, provided to The Student to use as press material.