Comedy Review: The Kagools: Cirque du Kagool, Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose, Edinburgh

It’s a great idea to create an interactive non-verbal sketch show which works equally well for children and adults.

The Kagools craft an interactive non-verbal sketch show which works equally well for children and adults

The Kagools: Cirque du Kagool, Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose, Edinburgh ***

And the Kagools have all the ingredients – silly costumes, an energetic soundtrack, an audio visual display on which they can project silly dance numbers.

But Cirque de Kagool, is oddly lacking in ideas. It’s a shame because the concept of a full circus, performed by two awkward women in outdoor wear, has such comic potential.

Part of the fun of the Kagools is that they are not very good at anything – so the two performers perform rubbish magic tricks, rubbish acrobatics and badly choreographed stage fights.

There’s very little narrative, and some rather tasteless visual gags involving gin, horror masks and waterboarding.

The Kagools make too little use of their audio visual screen, which could have been used to create something beautiful or spectacular but mostly shows them performing slapstick routines they could conceivably perform in real time.

What works best is the audience participation. Both adults and children love joining in with the orchestra, playing blow up instruments. A little girl is brought on to win a strong man competition and a young man has a splendid time pretending to be the ringmaster.

Until 26 August

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