Delayed by a few months due to his broken foot – and with all that malarkey scampering around the theatre no wonder he broke it – Viggo Venn finally hits the stage running at the Royal and Derngate with his touring show British Comedian – a beautifully apt title as he’s neither British nor – if truth be told – a comedian. Unlike most of the other Viggistas in the audience, I didn’t see his Britain’s Got Talent appearances, but I have happy memories of being assaulted by him on a couple of Edinburgh Fringe stages over the past ten years and was excited to discover what perilously anarchical fun he had in store for us.
In many respects this was a theatre experience unlike others. First and foremost, the audience all seemed to be in on all the gags throughout the entire show – I felt like I was one of a handful of people who hadn’t read the script. Audience members of all ages constantly called out from the stalls (yes, no, shut up, go away, do it, don’t do it, and of course One More Time, etc). And it wasn’t like panto or stand-up, where there’s always a certain embarrassment at being picked on; here, if Viggo approached you, you leapt up and down and joined in as if you were being saved by Billy Graham. Very amusing indeed – but also fairly peculiar!
Viggo Venn is a master clown; of that there is no question. This is a totally anarchic, high energy performance of outrageous inventiveness and brilliant interaction with the audience. And Mr Venn cuts a truly engaging persona, with a most mischievous and expressive face topped off with hair that looks like he’s pushed his finger in the electric socket. A true Scandinavian, he only uses language when it is absolutely necessary; most of his comedy comes simply from his physical presence. Running around the stage whirling off Hi-Vis jackets to the tune of Daft Punk’s One More Time like there’s no tomorrow, tumbling off into the audience and insisting people at the front catch him next time (his pratfalls are extraordinary); constantly getting poor front row Paul to help him back onto the stage, which didn’t do Paul’s personal dignity any good. There really is no limit to what he might do.
During the course of the show – a little under an hour and a half without a break – Viggo becomes part of a wedding ceremony for two members of the audience, he helps save a drowning audience member on stage, he imitates audience members’ cars and his finale act is to blow up an enormous balloon and then get inside it. Nor is he alone; he is irregularly joined by a Vampire who revels in all things spooky (Steffen Hånes on deliciously stupid form) including becoming the least convincing bat in the history of stage puppetry (don’t look at me, look at the bat), because, well, why not?
For me the most enjoyable sequence was his homage to Eminem’s My Name Is… where members of the crowd speak their name into a microphone and Viggo gives a running commentary on that person’s character and behaviour. Doesn’t sound like much, but it works incredibly well.
If you don’t get this kind of humour, you simply don’t get it – and that’s that. I saw a few stony faced people in the audience, and I get where they’re coming from. The nature of the show means it’s very – and I mean very – repetitive, and my personal view is that I probably admire his act more than I enjoy it. But the vast majority of the audience were ecstatic, and my guess is that, from the length of the queue at the end to buy a Hi-Vis jacket and have him sign it, he’s doing exactly what his fan base want (and hopefully making a fortune from the merch.) There are just a few more dates in this delayed part of his UK tour, but I very much doubt Viggo Venn is going away any time soon!
Four They’re Jolly Good Fellows!