Image: via Laughing Stock Productions
The dynamic interplay between the skinny man and the purple puppet has yet to grow stale for their fans. A tent in the courtyard of the State Theatre Centre of WA is packed with an appreciative audience for an hour’s entertainment that leaps from an opening skit featuring the many features and uses of an iPhone, through various songs with clever lyrics, an outsized puppet rumble and audience interviews that take sudden turns to the strange.
Sammy J’s relentless impression of a flesh and blood muppet is off-putting to some, but this crowd loves his increasing levels of bewilderment as Randy plays on his colleague’s insecurities and self-doubts. This aspect of their relationship is wonderfully demonstrated through the unfolding of a phone call, through chat and song, taking us through Randy’s misadventures that eventually turn around to be revealed as a tragedy for Sammy J, conned through his good deed for his friend.
On a less personally humiliating level for either performer, a piece originally performed at the Sydney New Year’s Eve celebrations exhorts us to lower our expectations rather than attempt to improve ourselves through setting ambitious New Years resolutions. Through a catchy tune, lovely harmonies and syncopated thematic work, they make a persuasively memorable case.
Further lovely tunefulness emerges in a ditty about perspective, celebrating the most annoying behaviours and personality traits of the modern world, and reminding us that we will all be dead soon. Such philosophical whimsy is entirely absent from a rollicking ballad in which the relationship between Sammy J and Randy from a past life is explored, and many loose ends from their performance are knitted together in a fabulous patchwork of callbacks.
As well as songs, there are games. A round of “chebble”, where chess meets Scrabble, is a delightful farrago of bickering, as rules, sub-rules, clauses and a shared history of creating the most convoluted board game possible are called upon to adjudicate each and every move. The love of word play for performers and audience is further developed with a series of tongue twisters and puns.
With an educational slot on the nature of “upstaging” that leads to surreal puppet wrestling, and a recurring outbreak of welcoming jingle as latecomers enter, there is never a dull moment in this Evening with Sammy J and Randy. Fringe mayhem and solid comedy – a popular act that repays their fans’ dedication with quality entertainment.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
An Evening with Sammy J and Randy
The Gold Digger
Part of FringeWorld 2015
Presented by Laughing Stock Productions
Performed by Sammy J and Randy
17 – 21 February 2015
