L'homme le plus drôle du paysage circassien en tournée avec LA SOIRÉE!
Norwegian performer Captain Frodo back in Sydney for La Soiree
COMES a time in every young man's life when he realises that a simple straitjacket and chains are not enough. That it's time to take the plunge and put himself through a tennis racquet for our entertainment.For the Norwegian performer Captain Frodo, that moment came in his late teens.He'd been performing with his travelling magician father for many years and employing his double-jointed body to great effect as an escapologist. But people became less interested in the actual escape and more interested in the process - so he needed a prop that would really show off those skills.
"It came from wanting to squeeze through something that was small but recognisable, instead of squeezing through a hoop or something that was an unknown entity to audiences," he says. "A tennis racquet is something people have always had in their houses, so they know the size of it; that's how I settled on a tennis racquet."
And sure, it's not quite Angkor Wat or the Great Pyramids of Giza, but seeing the ridiculously rubbery Frodo do his thing is, well, it's something to wonder about.
You may well have seen Frodo do his thing as part of La Clique at the 2009 Sydney Festival. He returns to do it all again as part of La Soiree (pretty much the La Clique troupe, but with a new name) at the Opera House next month."It's kind of a greatest hits thing," Frodo promises.He, along with David O'Mer, aka Bathboy, and Hamish McCann and Dennis Lock, aka the English Gents, form the core of the extreme circus troupe, which has been travelling the world since 2004."Audiences will see a lot of new artists doing new material and old artists presenting new material and we've also put a call out for lots of local guests," says La Soiree's creative producer Brett Haylock.And, although he loves all his acts, Haylock is still blown away by Captain Frodo."What he delivers on stage where ever we're playing is completely astounding - it's not unusual to look up at the sound and lighting desk and see them doubled up in laughter," Haylock says.
The Studio, Opera House; January 6- February 12,
