Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Former collaborators for the now stratospheric Julia Masli, The Duncan Brothers are receding into darkness a little this year. At least on the strength of this show, Rob Duncan is becoming stranger and more unfocused. 

Deep in the stinking catacombs of the Banshee Labyrinth, he’s transformed into The Basement Child, a gangly oddball in a bloodstained smock and white leather cap. The back story is a little hazy, but we believe he’s been trapped here for 40 years by his father, Jonathan, devising Fringe shows for no one.

With that premise, he does very little. There’s no narrative or even logic to the show. Duncan improvises hesitantly around several objects: a bucket is worn on the head; a model baby is drowned in a glass of tap water; sometimes he climbs up on a small ledge at the back of the room. At one point he puts a red light in his mouth that makes his teeth glow, and sometimes he comes out of character to talk about his real-life career in the printer packaging industry. 

The bulk of the show is an ever-lengthening call-and-response routine that’s figured out in real time with the audience: ‘Who’s coming? JONATHAN. Who do we like? JOE. Why do we like him? KIND.’ etc etc.

The magic of clowning is that a lot of this noodling plays pretty well. The room is absolutely packed out, with people standing and sitting on the floor in the gangway. Hardly anyone is older than 22. It’s a very Fringey experience – genuine late-night weirdness taking place deep beneath the earth for a baying crowd.

As well as it goes in the room, The Basement Child feels unsatisfying compared to the compelling absurdity of Legs and Logs, his earlier shows with Masli and the other Duncan Brother, Andy.

The crowd’s energy is generated but not properly harnessed, and Duncan ends up spinning his wheels with chanting and aimless prop work until the hour has elapsed. 

He’s still one of my favourite presences in clowning, and for some of this young crowd, The Basement Child will be the ‘comedy can be anything’ moment they’ve been waiting for their entire lives, But Duncan is capable of a focus and impact that are missing from this one.

Review date: 16 Aug 2024
Reviewed by: Tim Harding
Reviewed at: PBH's Free Fringe @ Banshee Labyrinth