“A titillating show for easily titillated people”
You could simply watch the audience during A Terrible Show For Terrible People and be greatly entertained by the full spectrum of what Bonnie He’s one woman performance elicits – nervous tittering, audible cringing behind hands, heads shaking in parental-style disappointment, shocked laughter and plenty of raucous cheering.
A Terrible Show is equal parts burlesque, pantomime and mime – a practically wordless array of absurd, blatantly sexual physical comedy. Pickles are used exactly how you would expect, bunches of flowers less so. However, despite the incessant sexual twist on every look, gesture and prop, the whole thing maintains a feeling of innocence – He emerges on stage accessorized with a Hello Kitty camera, a focal point of one particularly funny bit of audience participation (FYI, if you’re shy you may want to avert your eyes when He starts scanning the rows for who might be game), and there is more than one cheeky stripping routine but no flesh is ever on display. You could assume that the childlike petulance and unabashed glee juxtaposed with over-the-top suggestiveness is one giant comment on the stereotypes laden on Asian woman in pop culture. This certainly seems apparent at the start of the show, but such is the unpredictability of He’s performance that deeper thoughts are quickly replaced with sheer befuddlement.
Saying that it is somewhat a relief when the show is over is not a comment on its quality, but more incredulousness over the idea that anything could surpass the disturbing hilarity of the final ‘bit’. You will laugh, you will cringe, you will ultimately root for He’s character in her search for love. What you won’t do is forget this 50 minutes of supremely horny splendour any time soon.
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/terrible-show-for-terrible-people
