Twonkey's Mumbo Jumbo Hotel

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The eponymous Mumbo Jumbo Hotel really is a beautiful thing: a tiny model constructed from absurdist incongruities, inhabited by mismatched dolls, and coherent only in the mind of Paul 'Twonkey' Vickers. There may be a story behind it—or within it—but for the duration of Vickers' performance, the audience aren't privy to such revelations. They don't have much time to wonder about it, though – they're too busy trying to figure out what to make of the show itself.

Twonkey's Mumbo Jumbo Hotel is the comedy equivalent of a Captain Beefheart album, and elicits roughly the same amount of laughs. This is more than a wilful, unfocused, failed attempt at surrealism; Vickers has a solid background in music, which is what makes the musical sections of the show so disappointing. Most of the songs, sung live with elaborate pre-recorded backing, are neither amusing nor creatively diverting, and no amount of imagery—the strangeness of which often seems desperate—can avoid the impression that they've been included to pad out an incomplete idea.

Vickers is also held back by a finite number of limbs, which makes the various props and puppets he brings into the narrative difficult to use effectively. He has more luck finding humour in the constraints of his ludicrously cramped performance space, but the intimacy with the audience it provides is often less than welcome.

There is hallucinatory imagination and undeniable bravery in Twonkey's Mumbo Jumbo Hotel. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of laughter.