Review – Oddacity

Odda­city prom­ised an “award-win­ning, best-of spec­tac­u­lar with a cast of inter­na­tion­al luminar­ies per­form­ing styl­ish acts”, under the beau­ti­ful sky­light in Bats’ Hey­day Dome.   I was­n’t sure what to expect, know­ing the theatre would­n’t suit aer­i­als or acro­bat­ics, but I hoped  for clowns.  I was not dis­ap­poin­ted in that sense.

Odda­city is usu­ally Sach­ie Mikawa, Trent Bau­mann, and Fraser Hoop­er, all accom­plished clowns with vari­ous tal­ents in music, jug­gling, and per­form­at­ive absurdity.  Hoop­er sadly could­n’t per­form on Sat­urday night, but in his place was Vinyl Burns, our very own Las Vegas show­man, and he was abso­lutely the right man to tag in.

Each per­former is seasoned and pol­ished, and with their own unique style.  Mikawa is a child­like doll of a clown, provid­ing a genu­inely inno­cent whimsy to her parts.  Wheth­er invit­ing an audi­ence mem­ber onstage to simply toast her birth­day, play­ing a little tune on her horn, or play­ing Lovely Assist­ant to Bau­mann in an inex­plic­able egg cos­tume, she’s 100% com­mit­ted to her per­sona, and it’s com­pletely charm­ing.

Bau­mann is a little jaded, slick, and sar­don­ic, jug­gling plastic bags and pour­ing water up one nos­tril and out the oth­er.  It’s weird and a little silly, but he’s smooth as silk even when the soundie messed up his cues a little.

Burns is a bril­liant char­ac­ter, and his diabolo jug­gling does­n’t miss a beat, even when it does.  Burns and Bau­mann both show off their bal­an­cing skills, and Burns’ is impress­ive, at one point bal­an­cing a stool on his chin while he played gui­tar to a loop track and nev­er drop­ping char­ac­ter at all.

We all loved the soft toy fight they instig­ated, we all clapped along and laughed through­out the per­form­ance, throw­ing the roses we’d been giv­en when the time came.  But rather than a full vari­ety show, it was more a tast­ing plat­ter, a bare 45 minutes to dip our toes in.  With the cal­ibre of the cast I’d hap­pily have stayed for more, and per­haps felt a little let down at the brev­ity of it.  But it will abso­lutely inspire me to check out more of Vinyl Burns’ shows – he’s loc­al, and a staple of our fest­iv­al sea­son, and he’s bloody bril­liant.

For a taste of tom­fool­ery and hijinks from inter­na­tion­ally recog­nised per­formers, Odda­city is on for two more nights at Bats, 9pm in the Hey­day Dome