audacious excellence
Rob Copland’s “Gimme (One With Everything)” is a high-octane extravaganza of clowning and stand-up. I can guarantee you’ve not seen a show like this before.
From the outset, the tone is set with Rob cavorting around the venue, and then on stage, pulling up audience members to dance, spin and can-can with him. We’re then slammed into Rob’s world, complete with an existential crisis about his career and success (How’s it going? “We’re in a basement” he hisses at one point).
There are many threads in the show, and not all follow a narrative arc, but it’s befitting of the show that we twist and turn at breakneck speed along the way, and reflective of Rob’s mindset in the show. In addition to the recurring topic of success, and some pin-sharp observations about podcasters and Tiger Woods, we also weave around Rob’s school days, toxicity in the workplace, and the passage of time (e.g. when ‘the future’ creeps up on the ‘now’, and why all we can do is focus on the ‘now’). A personal highlight was the vocalisation of the punctuation, and the impassioned belief in the crowd achievements.
Throughout each segment, the motion never stops, with Rob pacing about the stage, and flirting with crowd at every opportunity, pouting and posing for emphasis, in a strangely endearing way. His microphone work is befitting a glam rock star, being swung and tossed in every direction, and caught every single time, revelling in the dramatic gap between the drop and the catch. The sheer physicality and effort in every movement – from perching on a stool, to miming kicking his own head in, is just phenomenal.
The climax of the show, is a ten minute period of silence. Yes, in a comedy show. Without spoiling what occurs in those ten minutes, we have some peak clowning, and tying in neatly some of the earlier threads. We have the audience entertained by balloons (which is deceptively simple but fantastically engaging), and pathos, and courageous/foolish audience spectacle. It left me speechless, and the perfect example of daring-do that comes all too rarely at the Fringe. This is no safe 50-55 minute club set. This is practically feral with ambition.
I adored this show and I’ve not stopped telling people about it since I saw it. Get down early to see this incredibly special and unique show. You will not regret it, and Rob deserves to be a roaring success for bringing this to dramatic fruition.
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/rob-copland-gimme-one-with-everything