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Jarred Christmas

Named best compere at the 2010 Chortle Awards, at the third time of being nominated.

Jarred & Hobbit: The Big Beatbox Comedy Mess Around Gameshow Show

Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Kiwi comedian Jarred Christmas has again teamed up with the talented beatboxer Hobbit, this time for a ramshackle and fun live gameshow struggling under the weight of its timeslot.

I’ll cop to being part of the beatboxing backlash (just not a fan of that ugly blown-out close-mic’d sound), but Hobbit establishes his versatility early on, demonstrating a mastery of several musical styles plus animal noises and various other bits of live foley.

Taking suggestions from the audience, he uses a loop pedal to layer sounds and create relatively convincing pieces of improvised EDM, musicals etc. Between Hobbit and Christmas, there’s initially not as much harmony as you might expect, with Jarred’s input mainly consisting of drunk dad dancing and chanting the audience member’s name over the song, but later segments find better ways for the two to work together.

The Wheel Of Limited Fortune is where the gameshow aspect kicks in, although the structure of it is perhaps overly simplified. Jarred asks an audience member a single multiple-choice question. If they get it right, they spin the wheel to win one of their glittering prizes, including an egg slice, a rubber duck, a small jar of Chinese five spice (given some funny prominence as their grand prize) and three canned cocktails.

At 7pm, there’s still a clear divide between those in the crowd who have been drinking all day, and those who have recently got off work. The drinkers are having a wonderful time, quick to hoot and/or holler, and shouting out answers over the sober folk.

Christmas leverages the crowd well, making sure everyone gets a chance to play, but clearly the biggest issue here is the timeslot. A knockabout gameshow like this would play huge after 11pm with a raucous crowd; this version is only halfway there, even on a Friday night.

The music quiz – which involves guessing the name of a song from its beatboxed interpretation – suffers from the same issue. One team has the right balance and gets all the answers, with everyone else either too drunk or too sober to participate.

Their final section probably works the best, as they solicit random noises from the crowd to be remixed into a live track – a cacophony of screams and farting sounds. It’s all good fun, as advertised, and hopefully, next time will find the timeslot that will help fulfil its potential.

• Jarred & Hobbit: The Big Beatbox Comedy Mess Around Gameshow Show! is on at Laughing Horse @ The Counting House at 7pm.

Published: 14 Aug 2022

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