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Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
KASPER HAUSER
Verdict: funny, odd, and happy comedy
Edinburgh - Gilded Balloon Teviot Billiard Room - August 02
Kasper Hauser are four men in clown suits, two in green, two in white: Rob Baedeker, Dan Klein, James Reichmuth and John Reichmuth. James and John are twins and wear different colours so we can tell them apart. There's a tent on stage that fills with light, and suddenly, the peculiar quartet emerge.
What happens for the next 45 minutes is reasonably indescribable, but here goes. It's funny - very funny - and happily odd. It's fair to say that Kasper Hauser treads its own unbeaten path of comic genius.
They're rowing a boat, it's mime, but you see the boat. They don't see us, until people come in late and they stand and stare. Then it's back in the imaginary boat, for an argument about technique: 'There's no "me" in mime'.
Heavily bearded Dan Klein wants to play a woman next. Nothing ventured, he collects a wig from the tent and pitches his voice to falsetto. He may be the least likely woman ever to grace a stage, but he's suddenly Barbara, in the front of a car, with 9 year-old son Trevor ('The doctor said, the kid must be a fucking genius') in the back, and Barbara's new boyfriend Glen driving. Barbara calls 'Time Out' repeatedly on Trevor's vocabulary ('I don't give a flying fuck, suck my pussy'), and it's not long before they're flagged down by the police. Barbara encourages Trevor to show respect to the officer, without success ('Penis and masturbation'). But the cop sides with Trevor ('You can't put a police officer or a 9 year-old on time out'), and climbs in the back with him. We'd better leave it there.
There's an excellently offensive sketch about 2 men eyeing up a captive bear at a zoo ('little bears, you can get off with'), and other animals. Then the lads are a game show called 'Back to the 14th Century', in which contestants are given 30 seconds to telephone the 14th Century and offer advice. Recovering drug addict Gregory Packabo (Rob Baedeker) gives rapid advice on hygiene and bombs, oil, and how 'some of the Popes are evil'. He's judged to have described 4.5 major concepts and wins. The competition is slight: Blayne Condoza (Dan Klein), whose previous shows include 'Diving for Diamonds', and 'Bowling for Pussy'.
The boys are in an office where workplace politics are secondary to who can best imitate characters from The Lord of The Rings. There's a sublimely tasteless Sherlock Holmes sketch. A wholly clueless Holmes ('Albinos. Black as coal' / 'No, white' / 'Albinos. White as coal') attempts to solve the case of Mr Peabody's missing fiance, who was involved with tigers: '2 lions and a fat girl'.
Kasper Hauser invites suggestions from the audience, ('lemon squeezer', 'screwdriver') and expertly improvises a sketch. Suddenly they're in the 14th Century answering the phone ('Oh no, it's that man from the 20th Century again') and taking notes ('Flying machine - yes; flapping - no. What do you mean "Soak the beans"? We're not Medieval').
We're in a restaurant where everything on the menu is either a pony's head, or served in one, including Caesar Salad. For the finale, it's a prison visit, in which Sergeant Rusty Lee Baker conducts an unorthodox yoga class in California State Penitentiary.
Sadly for British audiences, Kasper Hauser are based in San Francisco. They are lawyers and psychiatrists, act in independent films, and perform sketch comedy regularly throughout the Bay Area.
Written, performed and directed by Kasper Hauser: Rob Baedeker, Dan Klein, James Reichmuth, John Reichmuth. Technical manager - Lauren.
END
John Park
reviewed Friday 23 August 02 / Gilded Balloon
Information on films by the cast of Kasper Hauser, such as Fishing With Ghandi (1998), Jane Austen's Mafia! (1998), Cow Monkey (2001), The Story of I (2002), can be found by searching International Movie Database using the names of the cast or titles of the films.
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012
www.fringereport.com
