Review: A Circus Sized Game Show at The Pleasure Garden
Morgan James’ A Circus Sized Game Show at Lotterywest De Parel Spiegeltent at The Pleasure Garden
Tuesday, January 23, 2024
From the moment we entered the historic De Parel Spiegeltent, Morgan James set the tone for a high-energy interactive show for families. He greeted the audience members individually with friendly banter and practiced dad jokes that let us know what to expect from the experience. An award-winning Fringe veteran, Morgan James knows how to hype up the audience and make them laugh.
The concept of A Circus Sized Game Show is that it is a choose-your-own adventure setlist where audience participation determines the content of the show. He used a variety of devices, for example, inviting all the children to throw balls in moving targets to pick the next circus trick and mysterious cartoonish voting buttons. He also used a couple of running gags throughout, including a duck nemesis that was pitch-perfect primary school humour and a robot that would interrupt and direct him to do a “random” trick at hilariously inopportune moments.
While showcasing his juggling, he told a story from his childhood in Mandurah when he learned to juggle and how he went from being the weird kid at school to finding his people and living his dream. This could have been corny, but he handled it with humour, warmth and a light touch.
Morgan James is excellent at circus tricks, as he has shown in many shows for children and adults around Perth. But he really shines as an entertainer. Spinning multiple plates on sticks is a difficult thing to master, surely, but the way he played it for laughs and drama whipped the audience into screaming hysterics, which is arguably more impressive. He created the illusion of chaos in a tightly choreographed show where he was in complete control.
My pint-sized companion, who only stopped laughing when she was gasping in fear during the fire juggling, offered this review: “Overall, I would recommend it to kids who like seeing circus tricks and who like being weird.”
SAMANTHA ROSENFELD