Review: CHOIN, The Museum of Comedy
Luigi Russo
Mattia Sedda has a dream: to become a professional actor. All he needs to do is get an audition, so he’s pulling out all the stops: from dinosaurs to Batman, he does it all in this absurdist, solo clown show. The creation of this show was inspired by the way pigs are summoned in Sardinia, hence the name of the show being ‘Choin.’ The show is Mattia Sedda’s first solo show; it was first performed at Vaulty Towers in London last March.
The set is bare bones. Dramatic red curtains line the back wall of the theatre and are pulled back to frame the stage. There are some costumes hidden backstage and others are hidden beneath Sedda’s put together casual suit.
Clowning wise, Sedda’s performance style combines a mix of traditional clowning principles, such as the rule of three, the rule of seven, permission to laugh, the inner child etc. and more absurdist clowning, which at times looks borderline naturalistic, more towards the physical comedy side of things. The level of detail and amount of consideration that has gone into his technique, in addition to the contrast between these two aspects of his style, is what makes his clowning so hilarious.
There are points where he gets more serious, after all, this show is a clown show with real depth to it. It advocates for the weirdos of the world, the outsiders who are desperately trying to fit in and make it in the industries they’re fighting tooth and nail to get into. It advocates for the embracing of the unusual and uncannily bizarre and encourages those experiencing rejection to keep going and keep doing their thing anyway. It’s very satisfying to watch this clown learn how to embrace the person he is through the course of this show, to the extent that he encourages us all to summon him by chanting ‘choin’ whilst he recites a poem he’s written.
Sedda doesn’t need clown makeup to be funny, he’s utterly hilarious without it. There are points where he plays the sad clown, pretending to leave the stage only to return with a ‘just kidding’ look on his face. There are other moments where his clown will have a serious conversation about what it means to be an actor, followed by a demonstration of this involving the various roles he thinks he’d suit well, such as one of the dinosaurs from Jurassic Park. We are in tears of laughter watching him roar and pretend to eat the onstage microphone.
Arguably the funniest part of the show is the part which looks spontaneous and home made; Batman. Yes, there is audience participation, so if you’re sitting in the front rows, this is your official warning. Words cannot describe how funny it is to watch him invite someone in the audience to help him make a bat signal in the dark. The lights come up at the wrong moments so they have to be turned on and off over and over, he’s using the torch to create the bat signal so neither of them, nor us in the audience, can see them that well and when the bat signal finally summons his version of batman, what can only be described as the most home made batman mask ever conceived is revealed. It looks like a playboy bunny mask made out of sheer black tights was haphazardly altered to be more emo and cover more of Sedda’s face. He’s so unpredictable in the best way, throughout the whole forty-five minutes we are kept on our toes and we leave the venue wanting more.
This show is electric, bizarre, surprising and utterly side splitting. We aren’t quite sure what we just watched but we are certain that one of the great masters of clowning has made his presence known with this show.
***** Five stars
Reviewed by Megan O’Neil
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