New Art Club - Big Bag of Boom

Tom Roden and Pete Shenton claim to have administered oral pleasure to reviewers, with mixed results, and it’s a mixed Big Bag of Boom they present here. A greatest hits medley of their 12-year career as a comedy duo working in interpretive dance, this is an hour of both their funniest routines and, according to Roden, “the experimental stuff that’s unintentionally funny”.

Two men in tight, shiny leotards are, of course, inherently amusing and there’s a significant degree of clowning to their accomplished shtick. But this show is more than just a gimmick – for all their lithe, impressive ease of movement, the back and forth banter between the pair has the effortlessness of a seasoned double act, contriving a genuine correspondence between two disparate art forms.

Framing routines by requesting the audience close their eyes and reopen them on command, facilitating some breakneck costume changes and daft visual gags, the show includes some truly memorable set-pieces: a fusion of pointed, aggressive poses with clicking voicework becomes a knockabout sporting contest; a culturally dubious, traditional Australian dance undergoes a change of emphasis when the Minogue sisters are evoked; and best of all, an IRA punishment beating is performed to the feelgood soundtrack of KC & The Sunshine Band’s Give It Up.

Still, the bitty format can’t help but frustrate. Routines begin echoing those that have come before, while emerging themes, such as Roden’s disgust at Shenton’s larky unprofessionalism, aren’t quite fully developed.