I’m afraid I don’t particularly trust shows with exceptionally long titles that are self-claimed ‘spectacular’. Silly and childish humour doesn’t appeal to everyone. So when I entered the room to see Marmaduke Spatula’s F*ckin’ Spectacular Cabaret of Sunshine Show and saw drawings of animals, poo, farts and penises, I was sceptical about the outcome of this show. Over the next hour, however, Seymour Mace won me over.
Mace enters onstage wearing some odd combination of clothes, or lack of clothes. He starts by singing a song that’s even longer than the title of the show, to wild enthusiasm from the crowd. He then hands out name cards to everyone in the room with their new alter-ego names – his is Marmaduke Spatula, others included Tom Scunt for example. Following are audience participation games with prizes to be won, sex faces, another song, a couple of awkward silences (on purpose), jokes about celebrities, jokes about religion, a lot, a LOT of swearing and a fantastic grand finale.
This show basically covers every topic you can possibly make fun of. It is childish and silly and some jokes don’t work as well on everyone. He’s loud, he’s crass, he’s chaotic, he doesn’t care about what anyone else thinks. What does work though is that Mace is having the time of his life – and that transfers to the audience. It was a full house and people were gasping for air between laughs. There are no puns, there are no clever jokes, Mace is just a natural clown.
With this show he invites the audience to live inside his head which, it would appear, is a very weird place- somewhat similar to living inside Beetlejuice’s head (except Mace is not a crazy, dead zombie character).
