by **** (out of 5)
Two brothers. 1,000 banana slips in an hour or your money back guaranteed? One chaotically tricky masochistic clown show!
Directed by one of his Los Angeles clown collaborators in former Fringe winner Natalie Palamides, Bill O’Neill has his own eyes set on the prize, even it means sustaining several pratfalls, character and costume changes, twisted nipples and making a general mess of things onstage and in the audience. According to Mental Floss, the slippery dangerous of discarded banana peels pre-dates its symbolic significance in Vaudevillian antics. Playing both daredevils Kevin Calamity and his kid brother, Joey Insanity, O’Neill uses this iconic fruit skin to examine to what lengths we’ll go for glory, and what that means for masculinity. As a properly improper clown show, there’s also plenty of audience interaction. In the final act, O’Neill really earns that fourth star with some magical trickery in his comedic choices that you’ll never see coming.
Bill O’Neill: The Amazing Banana Brothers runs through Aug. 27 at Pleasance Courtyard Beside
