A clown comedy about being a clown comic.
Multidisciplinary artist Claire Parry explores the absurdity of being an artist in the current landscape with absurdity, itself. Entering on a mimed bicycle and immediately thrusting herself into the audience’s space, this unhinged hour was an uncomfortable reflection of the artist life. What followed the awkward entrance was a packed hour of discomfort and evocative comedic reflection. The primary throughline of her proclamation of her own name, slowly morphed into a mush of sounds as the pressures of being exceptional and commercially viable compounded.
Lamenting she could not afford a van to move instruments, she mimed them all to great comedic effect. The absurdity continued through a series of interspersed song breaks about being an artist, filling notebooks with all her thoughts and dreams and creative hopes that all turned out to be filled with her name.
“Who is this show for?” Parry, herself, reflected about two thirds of the way through the show. The answer? Her fellow artists and those patrons that did not understand how dire the arts underfunding has become. Witty, engaging, and cringeworthy this not stand-up routine served as a funny but chilling reminder of the limiting nature of surviving in today’s art sector. A risky show that most people just won’t connect with but powerful for those who understood, Claire Parry bared it all in an imaginative array of ways from sonorous melody to crawling about the ground with doll hands.