Comedy review: Max and Ivan Are … Con Artists Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33)

By Jay Richardson
Published on 10/08/2012 15:35

A WELL-EXECUTED “getting the gang back together for one last heist” romp, this latest Fringe caper is an absurd spoof of the likes of Ocean’s Eleven, The Italian Job and The Wild Geese.

RATING: * * *

Parodied to the point of parody by countless sketch ensembles, the genre is nevertheless given a proper assassination by the proficient Max Olesker and Iván Gonzalez, who revel in the eccentric characters their frenetic tale affords them.

With memories of their previous job, a botched assignment in Monaco, haunting each in flashback, Olesker’s East End geezer Jim reassembles his team, including camp cat burglar Graham, drunken buffer The Architect, fraternal Argentine mercenaries and glamorous hacker Lavinia. Their “mark” is a Russian oligarch-turned-philanthropist, and the con … well, the con is a compilation of clichés and cartoonish set-pieces whereby plot is strictly secondary to the duo’s portraits of their outsize fools.

As such, Con Artists lacks the requisite imagination to make it distinct. But Max and Ivan are a fondly accorded, attuned pair, accepting a little anarchy with a spot of audience direction, fully committing to some outrageous accents throughout this tyre-screeching, machine-gunning, laser-dodging escapade.

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