[2015034] Come Heckle Joshua Ladgrove whilst he talks at you for 52 minutes in exchange for some of your money.
Joshua J. Ladgrove @ Tuxedo Cat – Rivers Studio
11:00pm, Mon 16 Feb 2015
Josh Ladgrove opens another show in his unplanned “Come Heckle…” series by stating that this would be a standup show… but also that his doesn’t “do” standup. That this show was going to be shit. That we were free to come and go as we wished. That comments from the audience (of which at least half were other artists) were welcome.
This resulted in a bit of a buoyant mood in the room, and Ladgrove moved into some readings from some old Bond novels before flirting with a few other bits. The comments from the audience started early – surpassed only in frequency by sound-bite heckles from Josh’s tech, Nathan – and at one point Tessa Waters suggested that Josh drop the accent from a character he was performing; “That’s pretty ironic, coming from you,” retorted Ladgrove.
As to be expected when I sit in the front row (which is often), I was dragged up onstage… to help simulate sex with Josh. After a brief discussion about my shoes (again, to be expected, and they facilitated a cunning callback later in the show), Josh hesitated a little before deciding that I’d be a woman in this mimed sexual act. “Fine,” I said, and lay on the stage with my legs in the air. As his comically exaggerated fucking commenced, he asked me to moan for him; “No fucking way,” I protested, “I’m not a moaner.” Again he asked me to moan: “I can’t do it realistically,” I complained again, laughing. There had been some laughs from the viewing crowd throughout, but as Josh abandoned the scene and directed me to sit back down, there were some protests from a few audience members… “That’s stage rape,” they said only half-jokingly. I tried to placate them – “I was willing, just not a moaner” – but it felt like there was a temporary rift between the audience and the stage.
After a few other experiments – and many more perfectly-timed “Fuck you!” heckles from Nathan’s soundboard – Ladgrove decided that the show was pretty much done. He attempted to leave the room, only to discover Dr Brown waiting just outside the Rivers Studio. “Are you doing a show?” said Brown… and so began the second “half”, a ridiculously experimental period that saw Josh trot out new characters and old, engage in a pool noodle battle with Dr Brown, and – responding to Brown’s goading – threaten a perform-til-you-drop session.
(credit to Shane Adamczak for the photo)
There’s little in the title that speaks with any real truth: 52 minutes became an hour-and-a-half, there was no cash exchange, and the heckles were more constructive criticism than anything. But as an opportunity to explore a less familiar medium, whilst in a fairly safe and forgiving space, this would have been invaluable to the performer. As an audience member, it was a creative and confusing maelstrom of ideas that felt like a lightning strike.
(34) Come Heckle Joshua Ladgrove…: 1st hour = Nathan. 2nd(ish) hour = Dr Brown. Sorry I can't moan! ;) #ff2015 #ADLfringe
— Pete Muller (@festivalfreakAU) February 16, 2015