Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

A debut clowning show from American Miles Calderon and Sydney-based Levi Meltzer, Mr Cardboard is a journey into drab realms of imagination, styled after The Snowman, but consciously rejecting worlds of wonder in favour of a creepy trawl through piles of old cardboard.

Little Huxley is the protagonist, played by Meltzer in tight blue clothes with a cup strapped to his head and glistening Nutella smeared over his chops. Creeping around the yurt in darkness with a flickering candle, asking audiences to guess his age in an unsettling voice, he’s a deeply rotten, goblin-coded figure. 

Thankfully, his imaginary friend Mr Cardboard is a little more soulful, softly spoken with a nice Portuguese accent, he’s styled like a friendly pizzeria owner with very wide dungarees and a big smile.  The only unsettling thing about him is his unblinking, vibrating eyes. How does Calderon do that? It’s very weird once you notice it. *

Meltzer and Calderon’s clowning is satirising the idea of a land of imagination. Mr Cardboard’s party trick is to tear sheets of cardboard in inconclusive ways and then proclaim the results to be an elephant or a tree or what have you. It’s a way of pulling the audience in with the rhetoric of imagination, and then comedically pushing them away with ridiculous scraps of cardboard. 

There’s a certain kind of pathos in the paucity of Mr Cardboard’s imaginative materials, and the melancholy way he decorates his home, but I’ll confess in the final analysis that I was a little unmoved. 

Although there are some good clowning conceits in here, the pace gives too much leeway to each routine. It’s a problem you see everywhere in clowning: in trying to leave room for surprises and improvisation at every turn, the performers give each joke a propensity towards extension rather than concision, and the whole experience starts to drag. 

I’ve seen the pair do a guest spot in which they crammed half the show into a ten-minute slot, and the whole thing came alive. There are moments to enjoy here, and two talented performers who will make something special before too long.

• Note from the reviewer: I was alerted after publication to the fact that the performer has a condition called nystagmus that causes rapid involuntary movements of the eye. What I mistook as a performance choice is actually a symptom of this condition. I sincerely apologise for the wording of the article and for any upset caused, and wish to thank Miles for his patience while we resolved the issue. 

Review date: 21 Aug 2024
Reviewed by: Tim Harding
Reviewed at: Hoots @ Potterow