Presented by Slow Clap
@ Tuxedo Cat
SUNDAY 4th March (until March 17)

I’m not a fan of physical comedy. The sight of someone falling over does not make me giggle unless it’s happening at work or somewhere else where I’m equally starved for entertainment. I think it’s the fact that physical comedy so often tends to be either unoriginal or poorly executed. After seeing Dr Brown’s Befrdfgth, I’ve had to change my opinion.

The audience in Tuxedo Cat’s Yellow Room are talking loudly before the show begins. The 9:45pm start time means that the majority of them have a drink or two under their belts and it seems like it’d take a lot to stop them from chattering inanely to their neighbours. But no: all it takes is one look from Dr Brown. A peeking look from between the red curtains set up at the back of the small stage. Dr Brown spends the first ten minutes or so minutes behind this curtain and it’s a testament to his abilities that not once during this time did the audience get restless. Quite the opposite actually as the tension caused by Dr Brown’s actions as well as his interaction with the curtain were the cause of a lot of laughter. When Dr Brown moved out from behind the curtain the hilarity only escalated.

To describe the different elements of the show in detail would not only be time-consuming but would ruin the element of surprise inherently important to Dr Brown’s act. It is difficult to judge which parts of the show are always present and which are elements influenced by the audience or by what can be heard beyond the walls of the Yellow Room. Some things, however, must be consistent. Dr Brown, whose real name is Philip Burgers, has studied at elite French clown school Ecote Phillip Gaulier and he combines typically clownish facial expressions and movement with completely original ideas. Physicality, performance art and anti-humour are all utilised by Dr Brown to hilarious effect. Whether he’s looking disapprovingly at hecklers, getting an audience member to hold his eyes open or pretending to climb inside a bull, he manages to make the audience laugh. A lot. Oh, and he does all of this without uttering more than a word here or there. It’s very impressive stuff.

“You can get the fuck out now,” is the only real sentence that Dr Brown utters for the entire show. If I had followed this advice straight away perhaps I would have been left with a slightly more favourable overall impression of the show. There were moments in Dr Brown’s performance that dragged a little and there were a few jokes he returned to oftener than I would have liked but, overall, I was thoroughly impressed. Unfortunately, the segment after he had uttered those words seemed to drag a little. At first it was entertaining watching Dr Brown pull various audience members outside, haul their chairs away, steal their belongings and attempt to kick them as they exited. The audience’s refusal to comply quickly with his wishes meant that there was a lot of time spent on this section. However, there were definitely rewarding moments in it and I feel that it was partly the audience’s fault – their reluctance to leave – that caused this slight blemish on what was an otherwise entertaining and extraordinary show.

The end was not enough to mar the entire performance. The good points far outweigh the bad and I would highly recommend Dr Brown’s Befrdfgth to anyone who wants to see an original and unpredictable comedy. Be warned though, Dr Brown is a very friendly performer with an unusual idea of what is acceptable interaction between strangers. He may try to kiss you, get you to wave the hem of his robe around or climb over you. But, really, it’s things like that that make Befrdfgth so incredibly fun.