Content warning for show: Sexual assault mentioned.
We often use comedy as a coping mechanism to cover up darker aspects of reality that we would rather not confront. In his Fringe debut, Mario Adrion does this strikingly – not necessarily as a way to avoid dark topics, but as a means of relaying important messages to us.
Before this show, I had only seen snippets of comedy clips of Mario Adrion on various social media platforms. These mostly consisted of satirical cultural jokes, especially on his native country, Germany; so I went in expecting an hour of light-hearted mockery of the clash and peculiarities of different cultures. However, the performance was greatly different from what I was expecting, and Adrion makes this clear from the get-go: “This is not one of my usual shows; I will be getting a bit vulnerable today.”
Nonetheless, the performance opens with a playful, tongue-in-cheek opening, that does not make this immediately obvious, and only slowly builds up to get more serious as the hour continues. We are first greeted with a trailer-style opening video, that features Adrion in a selection of his best-looking model photos with German techno music and ironic commentary accompanying it. It immediately sets the scene for Adrion’s entrance; highlighting how hot and sexy and perfect of a person he is in a cockily self-depreciating way.
He then builds off the back of this introduction, by talking about the realisation he could profit off and receive validation through his looks, and how this led up to his modelling career. He brings us through his life via a series of meandering, interlinked stories; about his childhood in rural Germany, his stoic mother and “Nazi-ish” grandfather, his first girlfriend, all with an extremely likeable and engaging delivery that got the audience truly absorbed. His set was also littered with some very well-placed cultural quips and hilarious scenarios, with some cheekily sharp crowd work too.
Even as Adrion slowly brought us into the sadder, murkier terrain of male modelling, the room still was filled with laughter – every so often he introduced a “Hitler palette cleanser” to up the mood in his hilariously perverse German way. He eventually leaves us with a thought-provoking finish as he tackles the difficult topics of consent and manipulation, and lays his soul bare for everyone to see.
Mario Adrion: Live a Little is running until 30 August at Pleasance Courtyard. Buy tickets here.
Image provided by Pleasance Press Office for press use.
