[2015031] Discover Ben Target
Ben Target @ Tuxedo Cat – Perske Pavilion
7:15pm, Mon 16 Feb 2015
Even though the Fringe had only just started, there had been a bit of buzz around Ben Target; artist friends who were aware of my love of absurdist performances had already urged me to check him out. And I’d already been introduced to Target via a mutual friend whilst at the TuxCat one night… he’d appeared to be an interesting chap, quiet and very inwardly focussed.
It wasn’t just me feeling the buzz, though: the Perske was pleasingly packed for this performance, and – based on the laughs generated from Ben Target’s introductory battle with a ladder – they were here to relish the oddness.
And make no mistake: Ben Target brings some serious weirdness to the party.
Most of that weirdness comes in the contrast between his actions and his demeanour: Target leans heavily on audience engagement for his laughs, but he constantly holds them at arm’s length due to the blankness of his expression, which approaches affronted coldness. An example: he instructed a grinning orange-haired bloke in the crowd (i.e. me) to select a card, and presented a deck of cards held square, not fanned. I somehow thought that he meant that he wanted me to request a card, so I replied “I’ll have the King of Clubs, then.” There was no flicker in his expression, no quaver in his voice, as he expressed his disgust in my mistake; unflappable, he started flicking cards at me from the deck whilst addressing the rest of the audience. Faster and faster the cards came until the deck was exhausted, whereupon he moved onto his next bit.
Later in the show, he feigns an apology to me: he presents me with a flower. I thank him; he presents me with a small bunch of flowers. I thank him again… a bigger bunch is my reward, with increasingly large collections of flowers forthcoming. Eventually, I’m presented a (leaking) bag of cornflour… and I’m at a loss to explain why I was suddenly surrounded by all this crap.
A lot of Target’s bits seem opportunistic, leaning on the goodwill of the audience and the small collection of props that he’s brought with him; once again, I have no idea how scripted the performance was. I also have no idea why I found his blank expression so hilarious. I also have no idea what kind of mind can conjure humour from these trivialities. And I certainly have no idea why I find his web site so damn funny.
Ben Target is another one of those performers that the public will either Love (as in scream-it-from-the-rooftops) or Hate (as in this-isn’t-comedy-this-is-just-a-guy-doing-dumb-shit). As regular readers (ha!) might have guessed, I most definitely fall into the former category: Target has worked the minimalist form of (seemingly-)improvisational humour down to a fine art, and his equally-minimalist expressions helped conjure a delirious cycle of expectation and release within this purveyor. It’s a weirdly wonderful performance that absolutely worked for me.
(31) Discover Ben Target: Deliriously restrained weirdness. Like Dr Prof Neal on Mogadon. #ff2015 #ADLfringe
— Pete Muller (@festivalfreakAU) February 16, 2015