Cabaret Voltaire
Aug 15-25
20:00
I always enjoy visiting Cabaret Voltaire during the Fringe – their performance space possess great vibes – well lit, lovely brickwork & excellent acoustics always complement the performance. And so to Luke Chilton, towering above us on the high stage, & dolloping creamy funbursts all over us with a sorcerous smile & a burring voicetail.
His madcap debut show, Netflix & Chilton, is predominantly about his gap year in Thailand, but first came the formalities of his introducing himself & his comedy to the room. He had us from the off, I’d say, beginning with a feministic attack on men which was just sheer class. Yes – Luke’s comedy spin on the world was already opening the bubblewrap refreshing. His advice on handling bullying was superb, while the ‘racist’ stuff he probed – which not too many folk dare approach these days, but he is from SE London -, was done with a certain bonkosity that made it just about passable.
How can anything stressful happen in a place called Happy Pizza
To experience Luke is to watch him go to the buffet table at one of the cooler, bohemian weddings, with loads of varying plates of tasty food. He picks a titbit from each one & presents the composite to us all to have a nibble on. But then, quite surprisingly, came the K-hole.
I mean, it’s been quite a while since I was in one, being all mature & that these days, but when we got to the core of his show – his time in Thailand -, the material went all off-piste & dreamlike, completely shifting the experience from watching a very funny comedian strutting his stuff, to a surrealistic, dysto-delusional monologuing backpacking tapestry, from a man whose ingested a tad too much of the whatevers. But then, after a few minutes of this, there’s a sudden re-emergence into the bright lights of his golden comedy, & all is well in the world again.
The one thing that makes you good at fighting is being completely insane
There’s some great stuff in there, a good portion of which is homoerotic, including a section about kissing his grandad – that was absolutely hysterical. He’s definitely got the ‘it’ factor has Luke, & I await the full fruition of his art with enthusiasm.
Damo
themumble.uk 