The Mad & Ugly Show
Cocoloco @ Bosco Theater
7:00pm, Sun 15 Mar 2009
The show starts – we’re watching a video that you may have seen before on YouTube. I certainly had; it had done the rounds prior to the Fringe. And it’s a bloody funny clip and all, but…
Y’know, it’s four minutes long. And that’s one-fifteenth of the show. That cost 25 bucks to see.
I was paying more than a dollar to watch a YouTube video.
Eventually, a man and woman come onstage. They do something odd – appearing naked bar translucent body stockings, or the one instance where the bloke appeared, illuminated by bike lights, dragging a skateboard along with a piece of string tied to his cock, swearing in strangulated epithets.
Then they’d leave the stage, and another YouTube video would play. Animals mating. Camels making use of their tongues. Monkeys wanking.
It’s all very highbrow.
The last straw was an extended slideshow of the man and woman partaking in oddball behaviour. Ironic costumes. Pedestrian confrontations. Self indulgence.
For some reason, The Mad & Ugly Show reminded me of 2002’s Taboo, the main differences being that (a) I liked Taboo, and (2) Taboo had something to say. This show was immature and unwarranted self-congratulation; I felt I could almost hear the couple laughing and backslapping each other on another fleecing job well done out the back of the Bosco.
Anyone can piss away an hour looking at freakshow videos on YouTube – that’s just filler. Not that I’m saying I necessarily want to see more cock-stretching action, but… you know what I mean. Show me stuff I can’t see elsewhere. Make worthwhile use of the time. Give the audience a little credit. It’s not that much to ask.