WHATWHAT
DIRECTOR: Tara Notcutt
CAST: Rob van Vuuren
VENUE: Golden Arrow Theatre, Baxter
UNTIL: January 10
RATING: ****
ROB VAN Vuuren brings his not-inconsiderable physical theatre skills to bear in his latest stand-up comedy show. In so doing he blurs the lines nicely between the two otherwise very different niche performance styles, to good effect.
The show is pleasantly cohesive and slickly produced, though with clearly plenty of room for him to adlib... and he does.
He prances around the stage with abandon just as easily as he stands still and tells a joke, but all the while he has a nefarious little plan – a message he sums up neatly at the end. At 70 minutes it is just long enough to feel you have your money’s worth, but it doesn’t belabour the point.
Giving away the narrative rather gives the game away, so suffice it to say, there is a message and you will hear and understand it.
As for how he gets there – the Golden Arrow stage is starkly empty, and Van Vuuren’s only props are the two kiddies’ tutus which he uses as pompoms when he first bounds onto stage.
We know he can dance because of that Strictly Come Dancing win, but here he brilliantly sends up a couple of the more seriously artistic takes on dance as an artform.
He interacts with the audience, as a good stand-up readily does, and these jokes have been honed on his travels. He is funny, eliciting some hearty guffaws, occasional giggles when he’s being extra clever and mostly just lots of laughter.
The title whatwhat refers to that something indefinable that everyone finds funny. Van Vuuren explains the concept by bringing in both the way South Africans use the word – as a catch-all for something we cannot put our finger on – to the way other cultures in the world see it.
He touches on many subjects, people and assorted weirdnesses, always wandering back to the idea of “just what is the whatwhat that binds us”. Van Vuuren doesn’t emphasise what separates people, but rather what connects us. So, when he makes us laugh, it is laughing together, not at people.
That touchy-feely concept doesn’t mean he isn’t above being snarky or snippy or sarcastic or sharp. It is just that he is none of those things at the expense of someone’s dignity. Except maybe how he uses the term “spastic”. That was skating a bit close to not on. Still, that wasn’t in reference to a specific person.
Most specific references are self-referential when he isn’t talking about people we all know and love to poke fun at.
The PG 13 age restriction is because of the occasional swearing and sexual references. If you think you can answer the inevitable questions, and the child in question can handle the ribald comments, you’re the one paying for the ticket, but leaving the kids at home is the advised course of action.