I love clowning. I studied it in university and have been obsessed with it ever since. I love how every clown has their own persona and how the genre is so varied! I think this year alone, I am set to see roughly 10 clown shows, so the bar is set really high.

One clown show I saw was “Time Travel Postman”. Now, before I go into any details, I would like to set the precedent for two things:

1. It was a preview night.
2. There was a technical fault with an air conditioning unit that caused quite a disturbance during the show.

The show’s premise is that a postman is travelling through time and space to deliver a package. We can see that he is missing out on family time to do his job as he receives several birthday cards in his mailbox throughout the show. The audience are invited to sing him happy birthday as he receives them. It is endearing and shows the struggle the postman goes through to make sure others get their special moments.

The show, however, has some weak spots. By choosing to go fully non-verbal, there are some limitations. Now, this is not necessarily a bad thing, but you have to be prepared that by doing a show at night, you are more of a risk of a slightly inebriated audience that will not understand what you want them to do. Finding a way other than a grunt and a minimal gesture to instruct the audience could really help this show develop.
There were some really funny moments in the show, but because of the confusion in each scene as to what the audience member needed to do to help, it caused the scenes to fall flat.

There is genuine promise to this show. However, I strongly feel that this is more of a work in progress than a finished piece. I would strongly encourage the team to use their Fringe run to really experiment with gestures to better aid the non-verbal element, really think about setting the world and the context for the audience, who know nothing of the show and its message, and try to raise the presence of The Postman. I get that he is more of a sweeter clown with a soft silly nature, but we really need to feel that clown energy and light radiating from him in the room, even in his softness.

⭐️⭐️