Music banter all for the ‘Common’ good
Rip-roaring laughs in the script at the Guild Theatre
Former SA’s Got Talent judge Ian von Memerty and Gino Fabbri have teamed up for an outrageous comedy which will have East London folks rolling on the floor and rocking in the aisles. The Common and Class show comes to the Guild Theatre for a single performance next week Wednesday from 7.30pm.
The laugh-a-minute clash of cultures combines Fabbri’s dynamic drumming and guitarplaying with Memerty’s pyrotechnic piano-ism as they tackle everything from mime, drag, beat-boxing, singing, acting and joke-telling, moving from Rock to Rocky Horror, Boeremusiek to Broadway, and Country to Classical with equal dis-ease.
Common thinks Class “has a stick up his bottom”, and Class thinks working with Common is “like climbing Mount Everest naked carrying an angry yak on your back”.
The delights of country music are less than enthusiastically shared by Class as he is dragged kicking and screaming through cowboy land, whilst the finer expressions of classical music whistle past Common like a tumbleweed trundling through a deserted town.
The confusion of Memerty’s anally retentive Class being forced to work with the moronically enthusiastic Common is the backbone of a show which promises to delight with belly laugh after belly laugh.
The musical-comedy double act found its roots in pre-show change-room banter which grew ever more riotous each night whilst the two performed an Elton John tribute together at Theatre on the Bay in Cape Town at the beginning of the year.
Through the laughter and one-upmanship, they discovered a shared sense of humour, noting that Fabbri is actually quite a bit smarter than his stage characters presume, whilst Ian’s humour is a lot more ‘common’ than you would think.
Put these dichotomous elements together with a mutual love of accents and playing different characters, a shared spontaneous interactive wit, years of stage experience, oodles of musicality and a licence for each to go to places they have never been before, and an explosive recipe for entertainment is born.
Sparks fly, condescending hilarity ensues and all hell breaks loose as two of Port Elizabeth’s most beloved entertainers take merciless potshots at each other in the guise of their alter-egos.
This “Battle of the Ous” makes for one of the funniest shows you will ever see.
Common and Class will also appear at the East London Guild Theatre next week Wednesday. Tickets costs R160 each, or R140 for 8 or more, and can be purchased through Computicket. — DDR
...like climbing Mount Everest naked carrying angry yak on your back