All very well being part of comedy’s current clown boom, you may think, but what are the career prospects? Just ask Luke Rollason, shock-haired standard bearer of that new wave, in the UK at least, who’s now also a star of the Disney+ superpower comedy Extraordinary. Is it his Disney connection that’s prompted this fairytale-themed fringe show? Perhaps – but it’s unlikely the House of Mouse will be sifting its content for movie ideas (The Fucking Ugly Duckling, indeed!) any time soon.
That section, a dumbshow of a baby duck whose ghastly fizzog frightens off all comers, recalls the work of Rollason’s hero Trygve Wakenshaw. Elsewhere, our host plays Rapunzel, toilet roll doubling for her long, long hair; Hansel and Gretel, marking their path not with stones but with toilet roll; and Snow White reading bedtime stories (not toilet roll!) to her seven little friends. Each of these unspools in dialogue with the audience, who are co-opted to co-narrate We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, rescue a flirtatious damsel from distress, or lob stray peas into Princess Rollason’s mouth.
