A rotating cast of miscreants form the rogue’s gallery that passes for a cast, each bringing a unique talent to bare in front of an ever more shocked and shrieking (with laughter or approval) audience. From the famous Bath Boy with his tight, wet, denim acrobatics through to the corpulent showstopper in spandex, Le Gateau Chocolat – no two acts are the same or even remotely similar to anything you have seen.
One such act is Ursula Martinez and her ‘disappearing’ hanky. Part magic, part striptease and all entertainment. “There is a great complicity in the room between everybody,” she says of the atmosphere of the show. Having seen Ursula perform three times, I have seen her naked three times – which is more intimate than some relationships I have had – making for an interesting interview dynamic. She is a brassy, confident performer and her act is mesmerising; she might be the one taking her clothes off but she is also the one with all the power, remaining both hilarious and erotic. “I have always been a real clown and party entertainer, I would always be the first one at a party to pick up a guitar and play some songs or be ‘outrageous’ and show my tits or whatever. I thought I wanted to be an actress but I was terrible at auditions. It is hard enough for most actors to get work, so if you are terrible at auditions then you may as well forget it. So I lay in a hammock for about six years.”
In setting the stage of putting together this act, she admits, “It was born out of a drunken night back at my house with friends. We all got completely hammered and because I was at home I had my bits and pieces – my party tricks – I was able to bring this trick out and that costume out, and I had this trick which I did and because I was drunk I started taking my clothes off and doing the trick. In my hungover haze the next day I was recounting the night before and I thought there might be something in that and so it was born. So it was born almost fully formed into the world, some acts take many, many goes to refine, sometimes even years to get the there, this one was almost perfect from day one. It is a very simple idea, that was 12 years ago and it’s still going strong and I never would have imagined where it would take me. I have lost a few pairs of knickers along the way, that have been ‘souvenired’ by the audience, I like that phrase: ‘I have had some pants souvenired’. And I buy expensive underwear! The whole show is so beautiful curated to whip people up into a frenzy, by the time I come on, the audience is so up for it, the joy I get back from the faces looking up at me, I can guarantee I am finding the joy every time. The audience can see I am having such a great time, which is why it works”.
The show is about the personality of each performer: Captain Frodo, Frodo is his real name by the way, could be called just simple contortionist but that would be huge undersell. He first performed aged ten alongside his father, a magician, and the years of performance and showmanship shine brightly. He puts on a master class of physical comedy, as if the black and white films of Buster Keaton had come alive and actually were funny.
“I had been doing contortion stuff for a long time and you need to find your own angle on everything,” he says of his act. “Because of the stuff I have been given by nature, my act is a very visceral experience for people. People find it very challenging to watch. When you are doing it as a street show and people haven’t paid and are committed to sitting through something, then if what you do is too challenging to watch then they cover their kids’ eyes or walk away. So to develop a character that is a bit slapstick in they style of Chaplin, in that context if somebody gets a brick in the head it’s funny where as in real life it is a tragedy. So I have found a way to present something that by its very nature makes people uneasy and makes it palatable. If you can get the crowd on your side then they will go with you much further than they thought. When you do take the crowd with you, when they then give up their apprehension, their pleasure and excitement is shocking and exciting to them.
“There are people that disappear hankies or squeeze through tennis rackets or juggle knives better than us but the acts in this show transcend their talent so that it becomes about a story and a character, transporting the crowd to places they wouldn’t even have thought they would enjoy – it might have sounded vulgar or repulsive to them – but we change the rules to make it safe to enjoy.”
BY JACK FRANKLIN
