What is the opposite of subtle? A thesaurus will give you antonyms like ‘obvious’, ‘loud’, ‘lucid’, ‘crass’. I would like to add to that list the Tom Collins Free Variety Hour. Despite having a two-man cast, this show crams an hour of your free time with comedy, contortionism, circus tricks, stripping, poor singing and audience participation.
It’s a little like sitting in your crazy aunt’s living room witnessing all the acts she did before she quit Broadway, with London Cabaret Award nominee Abigail Collins’ character Peggy Sued dancing around the cosy venue like the ultimate eccentric relative, calling on each member of the audience for blatant humiliation. She is every inch the loud, crass, in-your-face American whose jokes shoot out fast and smooth like a veteran performer, throwing her sexuality at the men in the room like an old rag and pulling out sharp quips like pints on tap.
Although his character is considerably closer to Earth, Collins’ counterpart Tom Balmont also throws in as many tricks and stunts as he can to hold the audience’s attention; twisting, grinding and shimmying his body through a small tennis racket, even opening his gullet to swallow a sword in the show’s finale.
This show has its share of dirty jokes, and the acts seem mismatched at best, but the pair have enough charm to pull loud laughs from every member of the audience willing to leave their dignity at the door. It’s definitely worth going to see if you’re near the Royal Mile late at night, and be sure to seat any male friends that you’d like taken down a notch right at the front!
