When Mat Ricardo first opens his show at The Voodoo Rooms he seems to be more a stand up comedian than a Vaudevillian. In fact initially, listening to his self-effacing chat about juggling, one wonders whether he really is a juggler, or whether it’s just material for his jokes. But ‘Vaudeville Schmuck’ quickly proves an all too appropriate title to Ricardo’s show which shows an increasingly involved penchant for the anachronistic.
Vaudeville Schmuck seems to work in phases – the humour largely disappears as the show gets underway, replaced with a host of juggling (not the slickest, it must be said) and an attitude that becomes increasingly earnest. By the end of the hour, as one listens to Ricardo rave about the Golden Age of entertainment (George Cole, Fred Astaire etc.), one realizes that his project is much grander than the mere one of making people laugh. He is trying to teach us, his ignorant audience, about his niche art form.
His shtick is the gentleman’s trick: hats, canes, cigar boxes – he twirls them and balances them and plays with them with a care that reflects what must be an obsessive passion. He seems aware that it is no longer possible to just play the dandy without explaining – hence the teaching. He uses a projector to show us pictures and videos, teaching us about Vaudeville theatre and setting us up for the grand finale of his evening.
It would do no good to spoil the climax, but let it be said that his attitude towards the audience is critical to the success of his final moments on stage.
Yet perhaps Ricardo could do more to make his show relevant as well as interesting. It seems curious to play the Vaudevillian when Vaudeville theatre died almost a hundred years ago. As Ricardo said himself, the cigar boxes are now produced by theatrical companies and made of reinforced wood. Where is the place for this kind of show in a world where the gentleman entertainer is speaking to people for whom canes are not fashionable accessories, but medical tools? What would a new version of Vaudeville look like?
If anyone gives off an air of committed intelligence it is Mat Ricardo, and I have no doubt that his answers to these questions will contribute to the changing face of his art form.
