You could say that Bone does what kids do with stories they hear or things they’ve been watching: he acts them out. “I’ve never grown up in that sense,” he says. Bruce Bane is his parody of a hardboiled gunslinger, his shows are narrative based performances of all the noir detective type tropes we are familiar with, rather than about any one film in particular. “It’s a difficult show to describe in one sense,” he says. “There’s a little bit of everything. Physical theatre, storytelling, slapstick, sweating, live music.”
Bone got into comedy performing with five minute skits when he was at uni, and developed his character, Bruce Bane, inspired by films he was watching at the time, classics like The Maltese Falcon and The Postman Always Rings Twice and Double Indemnity. Bone now brings his hybrid character to life night after night. “I use the language of cinema,” he says. “You can feel the smoky subway and the streets – we’ve all seen those type of movies; we’ve all got a loose knowledge of the visuals and the plot structures. It’s become an interesting language to play with. The audience knows where we are. Once we’re all on the same page we can start to have fun.” How much of his stuff is scripted? “It’s not scripted in the traditional sense,” he answers. “I’ll improvise bits as I go along and it’s subsequently written down. I’ll do it and then go back and think about it.”
The three shows are performed in sequence. Bone starts with Someone’s Gonna Play on Tuesdays (and Fridays), followed by The Beast Within on Wednesdays (and Sundays) then the third story in the trilogy, Welcome to Sunnyview on the Thursdays (and Sundays) and the cycle starts again the following week. Bruce Bane is fast becoming an international man of mystery offstage, too, having inspired a graphic novel, a social media presence and a radio production. Guitarist Ben Roe was initially reluctantly roped into the show. He is now an integral part of the performance and has been since 2009. It’s a bromance that works well; Bone uses Roe as a sounding board for his shows. “I test everything on him. He’s like the dramaturge.” Neither Bone nor Roe expected anything like the sort of success they’re enjoying now including winning comedy awards and touring the world.
What does Bone attribute his shows’ successes to? “It doesn’t take itself seriously; it’s fun. I don’t do flashy mime work; haven’t had any training as a mime. All I need is for the audience to understand what I’m doing, if I move my arm like this, how does that read?” Bone doesn’t only perform Bruce Bane, though, there is a supporting cast of up to eleven other characters he’s created. Bone’s become famous for his ability to deliver a colourful raft of distinct personalities and create a deeply familiar yet imaginary world on stage using nothing but himself and Roe. “It’s a very ‘tourable’ show, very portable,” he says with a laugh. “No fancy lights or anything. When we tell venues how little we require they rub their hands with glee.”
