Edinburgh Fringe 2010
Mould and Arrowsmith in 3D
Steve Mould and Gemma Arrowsmith
Genre: Comedy
Venue: Pleasance Courtyard (Baby Grand)
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Saving the world with geeks, ipads and avatars; plenty of comedy in this show from Mould and Arrowsmith.
Review
Mould and Arrowsmith bounce on stage with a cheery air and, despite taking a while to warm into their routine, establish a friendly rapport with the audience.
What follows is a mixture of live comedy and loose dialogue neatly tied together with multimedia presentations and pre-recorded films. In places we are directed to don our special glasses and enjoy ‘proper’ 3D (as opposed to ‘normal’ everyday 3D) a nice touch to involve the audience from the ‘off’.
I don’t want to give too much away but needless to say cutting-edge technology is gently and cheekily mocked; I particularly enjoyed the running joke about smug ipad users versus PCs, the use of email SPAM as a catalyst to things going awry and the optical illusion gag. Popular television shows and films are also utilised, including a brilliant ‘Weakest Link’ sketch and of course the use of Avatars to show off the comedians’ ‘techno-geek’ strengths.
However, the short videos are the ‘piece de resistance’ of this show; lovingly edited, the actors seem much more at ease working on camera and with the thoroughly enjoyable performance of Thom Nelstrop playing Steve Jobs, the Avatar plotline is satisfyingly weaved throughout the show.
My only gripe is that whilst the actors are affable, it seems to take them a while to really get the audience on-side and part of this comes down to eye contact both between themselves and us.
Overall though, this is an astonishingly technical show that builds to its exciting conclusion through gentle audience participation and charm – ultimately it is clever, funny and satisfying.
