Review – Gravity Boots: Dairy Maclary the Yoghurt Dog
I never know how to describe Gravity Boots to people. It’s like comedy, sort of. Sketch comedy, really, but it’s difficult to tell how much of the comedy is in the sketches and how much is in the improv and the absurdity.
The premise: James Lloyd-Smith and Michael Cleggett perform a series of sketches that they’ve written and developed over the course of a month, and those that do well are included as part of their main show. So, as you might expect, the quality and consistency of Dairy Maclary is highly volatile. Some sketches will absolutely kill – “The Inventors”, which they developed only a few months ago, became a mainstay of their Ed Fringe show – while others are perfectly silly but just don’t really go anywhere.
What makes it all work? Mike and Jimmy are completely in sync with one another. Some of their silliness is funny because the sketch concept itself is just a little bit brilliant, but mostly the hilarity comes from their absolute commitment to any idea that pops in their head. They have sketches about trees that may or may not be trying to murder the audience, or about Shakespearian tricksters who, speaking in mock iambic-pentameter, are trying to steal a sleeping boy’s soul. It’s not always immediately funny stuff – a lot of the time it’s just downright confusing – but if you can adjust your internal perspective a little bit then you’ll suddenly find yourself witnessing some of the most brilliantly ingenious comedy to come out of Adelaide.
[vimeo=http://vimeo.com/76213855]
