Salvador Kent
Matt Klein serves up a perfect fever dream of midnight shenanigans in BOYOYOYOYOING, a totally unexpected late night Banshee’s Labyrinth slot which is achingly funny and completely ridiculous. Klein begins as a show girl with full strip-tease and I fully expect this to be the shtick for the next hour, but then a random guy from the audience named Tom is designated as Klein’s stepson, and the hour begins a series of twists and turns that are totally unexpected and brilliantly feverish.
Klein is a fantastic clown. His clown is an endurance bit – the same jokes are repeated over and over, even if they’re unfunny, and if they’re unfunny it makes the whole thing even funnier. There’s also a strangely poignant aux throughout the show, with atmospheric whistling and party striptease tracks giving the show a broad, American Western feel. Another thing that helps with this is the copious amounts of gun violence and stage blood. It’s done in a really slapstick way, and Klein is really not afraid of right on the edge humour, giving the whole hour a suitably off-kilt feel.
There’s a tendency in Klein, in my opinion, to undervalue his material — his breaks out of the clown are exactly the sort of thing that makes a late-night Banshees show so fun, but honestly he’s an astonishing performer – he ought to stick to his character, she’s great enough on her own.
It’s definitely a show with peaks and troughs. The stepson bit is fantastic clown, totally unexpected and absurd — the bit in the cave could maybe be slightly more laugh a minute, even though the Michael Jackson stuff is really stupid in a good way (I’m not elaborating on that). The pathos of the show, drawn from Klein’s own experience with stepparents is autobiography done right – to take something true to you and create something beautifully dumb about it.
This is prime wacko late-night shtick at Banshees Labirynth. It is a brilliantly conceived clown show smartly directed by Underground Monk Show’s Corey Podell. Go give Matt Klein your money right now! It’s a total riot.
Recommended Drink: Beer. Like 5-12 units of it. Minimum. (But I take my job very seriously and had only had 2. I’m also skint; is it almost September?)
You can (and should) catch Matt Klein: BOYOYOYOYOING in the Banshee’s Labyrinth Cinema Room at 00:35 until 31 August (55mins). It’s a free show so just show up, but the listing on the EdFringe website is here.
Tom Clayton
Isobel Jacob
Lola Rose Wood
