With Friends Like These…

Giggle and Hoot (and Friends) Live is a bit like Sarah K. Silverman - short and loud. Also like SKS, it’s oddly watchable, but only for brief periods. The producers must know this, so they’ve kept the show to a merciful one-hour-length. More on that point later.

I should state my interests. I’m not unbiased. I have been a fan of the owl’s work for a while and was looking forward to the show for two reasons. It would be Darth Baby’s first live show and I was interested to see how that would go down, plus I suspected that Jimmy Giggle might be a genuine “triple-threat” and wanted to see if he could deliver outside the safety of the pre-recorded television studio.

He can. Jimmy Giggle delivers a subtle and nuanced performance, at 400 decibels. He sings well, dances confidently and plays the guitar with flair. His trumpet cadenza in the fourth act is a triumph and one has to keep reminding oneself that it is achieved on a cardboard, cut-out trumpet. His puppetry with Gigglasaurus, in a witty tip-of-the-hat to Fred and Ginger, was a master class in physical comedy and he also carries the show with a modest grace and aplomb when it is only he and Hootabelle on stage.

And this leads me to one of a few problems with the show. As usual, Hootabelle is not the strongest cast member and the slightly egotistical way she delivers her material is designed to pull focus to her but achieves the opposite by being slightly repellent. It’s as if you are watching someone act, but can’t get past the fact that you are certain you wouldn’t like them in real-life. She is a charmless pink owl that has plumbed the depth of her character and really reached the limits of her potential.

The eponymous “Friends” weren’t charming either and I couldn’t wait for them to get off the stage. Lazytown was exactly that. In fact, so lazy, the real actors in the show didn’t bother to make an appearance and second-stringers were sent on. The female lead playing Stephanie resembled her in the way that a truck resembles a car. Same principal, but you wouldn’t confuse them.

Bananas in Pyjamas were confusing. They need to clarify the plot points and I could see that my theatre companion, Darth Baby, was equally mystified. He punched his Hoot pillow in frustration. I hear the TV show is being axed in any event, so good riddance. Stupid, clumsy bananas.

The same wouldn’t be said of the magnificent Hoot. I think he may have put on weight recently (hard to judge between stage and screen) but that doesn’t stop the original, blue night owl from bringing the funny. At his age he can’t be expected to do quite the physical work that J. Giggle can, and let’s face it, having the limitation of not actually being alive and needing to be operated from behind objects, does limit the stage mobility. But, one doesn’t notice those limitations at the time of the performance. And his eyelids are particularly good.

Now to the length – as mentioned, it was short. Good, because it was exactly the right length for Darth Baby. He sat transfixed for 56 minutes and the show was an hour. But, I want to know who I have to "take to dinner" to get in on the racket. For the adults in the audience (which make up at least half) the show works out to a dollar a minute. The concert hall at the Opera House was packed, and they were doing three shows a day. To quote J. Giggle. “Aww ha ha ha. That’s awesome.”