[2015038] Dr. Brown: Bexperiments…with Terry Nameo
Philip Burgers & Terry Nameo @ Tuxedo Cat – Perske Pavilion
9:45pm, Tue 17 Feb 2015
Dr Brown I know and love… and, more importantly, I already knew was in top form this year. But who was Terry Nameo? A neo-clowning guru? Brown’s sensei, or protégé? As Brown and Nameo walked among the crowd from the TuxCat box office to the Perske, an attempted chat with the pair didn’t really enlighten me at all… I decided that the best thing to do – as with all Dr Brown shows – was to go in without any preconceptions.
Just as well, really.
After casually wandering around the near-capacity crowd and misting us with water spray bottles, the two men met each other mid-stage and started greeting each other. The greetings became longer, wordier, and started to be accompanied by light touches: a shake of the hand, a brush of the shoulder. But the words soon became secondary, as the physical contact started to linger. A sense of longing developed.
And I was thinking: man, those boys have totally nailed physical expression. Everything about their movements started emitting love, and before long they were silently screaming lust… I felt like I was watching two lovers hook up for the first time.
…and then they leapt into a buttered-bread food fight (which just happened to engage the crowd). No biggie.
Brown sat with the audience and directed Nameo in an old man sketch… but the intent behind it was obtuse. In fact, the intent behind all of the show was murky.
That’s not to say it wasn’t funny: it certainly was. That’s not to say it wasn’t well performed: Nameo appeared to keep up with Brown’s exemplary clowning, and (as mentioned above) their general acting skills were quite astounding. But – as with all of Brown’s shows – there’s an element of “What are they doing?” incredulity onstage, where you can’t quite figure out whether the entire show is improvised or not. After all this time, I’m still left confused… amazed, and confused.
After the show, I hang around and say hello to Phil: he greeted me warmly and introduced me to Terry. I bit the bullet and asked them how much they were improvising: “It’s still forming,” they said. I told them that I’m amazed there’s a structure at all; they both smiled cheekily.
I liked that.
(38) Dr. Brown- Bexperiments…with Terry Nameo: Water spray, ice pants, and buttered bread… Normal Brown show, then. #ff2015 #ADLfringe
— Pete Muller (@festivalfreakAU) February 17, 2015