‘At
a time when topical stand-up humor (sic) is a glut on the entertainment
market, [this pair] offer a reassuring reminder that there is still
such a thing as classic comedy. … one happy discovery of seeing the
show is that their brand of comedy is immune to age and time.‘ It
was said of the reunion show of Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca's at
Michael's Pub in New York in 1990. Still it could well be said of the
comedy duo Jennifer Carnovale(Chrysanthemum) and Madeleine Culp(Hydrangea), at the other end of the age scale, two ‘life coaches’
whose aim it is to assist their audience find inner peace and so much
more in ‘How to be a Cloud and Other Life Lessons’. This delightful pair performing at the Tap Gallery
on the sparest of sets makes for a rewarding change to the consistent
politically and socially topical comment that seems standard fare in
today’s comedy delivered to shock and perhaps incense. It will make you laugh, not all the time nor all at once but you will laugh.
They have opted to base their serialised skits on images that are so commonplace we don’t think of them as funny. According to Carnovale
they’re designed to ‘jog a memory that gels in some and causes them to
fall about. Not everyone gets it straight off you know, but then they
do.’
The
humour is as much in their reactions and their body language as the
words they speak which is as well because diction is at time muffled
which may have been the clouds. It’s the sort of humour which when
delivered in a natural style is apt to catch you unawares, sneaks up
and leaves you laughing when they and the other members of the audience
have moved on. The
skits themselves were snappily structured moving fluidly from one into
the next. The nature of the genre doesn’t tolerate holes and few were
evident even though it was the first run through sans dress rehearsal
and preview. One might expect an even tighter run by week’s end. The
contrast between the combative characters could also have been
heightened to underline their situations.
The two paired up in Drama at The McDonald College of the Performing Arts in Sydney. This is their first Sydney run after a short season in the Adelaide Fringe Festival. The two compose their own material with Three nights of HaHa and The Perfect Corner scheduled for later in the year. The
skits themselves are actually unrelated despite the bookend pair of
life coaches. This was the only point at which the thread became a
little frayed but a coherent line was then established with such
odd-ball duos as Janice and Janelle, dancers in ‘The Cloud’ course who
are challenged in their conflict resolution. There’s ‘Singin Sam’ and ‘Honkey Lou’ who like all kinds of ‘jerky’, God willin’. The
two most developed skits were probably predictably comments on the
respective styles of television news coverage and the standard types
that populate reality TV but even here the swipe, though telling,
wasn’t bitter. A very significant slab of content is based on
observation of television not life implying intentionally or otherwise
that they may have well become synonymous.
The
pair bought to mind the quirky humour of Pam Ayers but with the respite
of being shown the humour not having it related. They certainly covered
a multitude of characters and styles and perhaps the canvas was too
detailed for such a format. The bookend pieces that give the show its
name served least in terms of both humour and the structure. While
the significance of the two flower names drew a blank the symbol of the
fluffy indication of a future condensation was much closer to the mark.
How to be a Cloud and other life lessons Madeleine Culp and Jennifer Carnovale
VENUE: Tap Gallery Theatre, Level 1/ 278 Palmer Street Darlinghurst, Sydney DATES:
10th to the 22nd July 2007 TIMES: Tuesdays to Saturday 8pm, Sundays 5pm BOOKINGS:
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WEBSITE: www.myspace.com/carnovaleculp
‘At
a time when topical stand-up humor (sic) is a glut on the entertainment
market, [this pair] offer a reassuring reminder that there is still
such a thing as classic comedy. … one happy discovery of seeing the
show is that their brand of comedy is immune to age and time.‘ It
was said of the reunion show of Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca's at
Michael's Pub in New York in 1990. Still it could well be said of the
comedy duo Jennifer Carnovale (Chrysanthemum) and Madeleine Culp
(Hydrangea), at the other end of the age scale, two ‘life coaches’
whose aim it is to assist their audience find inner peace and so much
more in ‘How to be a Cloud and Other Life Lessons’. This delightful pair performing at the Tap Gallery
on the sparest of sets makes for a rewarding change to the consistent
politically and socially topical comment that seems standard fare in
today’s comedy delivered to shock and perhaps incense. It will make you laugh, not all the time nor all at once but you will laugh.
