Comedy duo All Wear Bowlers are heading Down Under. Who are they? They are two men who model themselves on Laurel and Hardy, who put eggs in their mouths, play with the notion of time and space using film, and are very very funny. The two Americans have been working on their performances since 2000, and for the Sydney Festival will be visiting Australia for the first time.
Geoff Sobelle and Trey Lyford are experienced clowns, and create performances using silent film techniques, vaudeville style, Beckett philosophy, and their own particular spark. We spoke to Lyford in order to understand just what audiences can expect from the duo.
The pair were inspired by Laurel and Hardy routines, and incorporate silent films and slapstick into what they hope is a unique experience. Vaudeville is not something that audiences typically see as new or contemporary, but with the combination of the film and the live performance, Sobelle and Lyford hope to regenerate interest in vaudeville performances, and make people laugh out loud with their routines.
Lyford commented that one of the first problems they had was to come up with a way in which slapstick becomes a laugh-out-loud experience for audiences. How do you update slapstick? Lyford likened it to Australia’s Umbilical Brothers; the use of sound effects brought the old routines back to life, and for All Wear Bowlers, the use of video does the same thing. And the reason the video is so integrated into the performances is that they don’t want it to be just another feature of theatre – ‘We were feeling that often people were using video just as a backdrop or as a texture within a piece, and we really wanted it to be integral to the plot and integral to the story of these characters… It’s a delicate balance. Any time video is on stage, a live actor won’t be watched, so you have to be careful.’
The All Wear Bowlers act has been developed over the last five years. Sobelle didn’t join until 2003, but since then the duo have been taking off, working on the show intensively. The pair trained under New York residencies and workshopped with David Shiner, a Cirque du Soleil veteran. ‘That was essential for us to have a place to work, and a place to bounce ideas around, and we had a lot of work-in-progress showings which were helpful… [Working with Shriner] really helped develop the piece in a huge way…His main tenet was that you must draw from yourself in your own life if you’re going to make something that means anything… So that was a huge step for us.’
The journey has been long and arduous, but it pays off; the different reactions in different countries with different audiences and spaces makes the whole process very exciting. But it hasn’t been easy, with little funding from government grants. Despite the financial difficulties, All Wear Bowlers have toured internationally – a success wherever they go. Before Australia, it was Italy. ‘It’s funny, different cultures have different ways of responding to the work… That’s been really fun to kind of play around with and see how that changes things,’ Lyford said.
While the pair are touring this performance, they are already working on a new project, and are hoping to find the neceesary funding a lot easier due to the publicity they have received so far. But Sydney audiences are what All Wear Bowlers is focused on right now, and the duo have the chance to experience the laconic Australian brand of humour. Audiences will see two men prepared to be idiots on stage, the use of slapstick and video in a way that is quite innovative. And they couldn’t be more excited to share their work down under.
Those who can’t catch them at the Sydney Festival, can view a portion of their work on their website HERE. And if you like what you see, watch out for them at a Festival near you some time soon.
For more on the 2006 Sydney Festival, including a full program of events and artist information, visit the Festival website.
