I’d had Slightly Fat Features described to me as both “cabaret” and as “variety” before I went – so I had no idea what to expect. I’ve seen the show now and I’m still not sure how to describe it.
This is a kid friendly show, providing the kids aren’t wimps and is signed. In fact, the signing support is pretty funny, especially with the recursive “Stop signing” joke which, of course, also gets translated into sign language.
There’s lots of juggling, some impressive stuff and one of my favourite bits in the show is when one performer is able to use his neck to pluck a flying tie from the air to put it on and another does the same with a lapel flower.
There’s a bullet catch scene but not as you would expect. There’s a lion taming scene too but it’s equally not as you would expect. There’s even elephant acrobatics. Just to be clear, there aren’t actually any animals in the show at all but Slightly Fat Features are able to compensate with some rolls of duct tape and costume.
There’s about a half dozen gents in Slightly Fat Features, one of them clearly has the role of the clown and so describing the whole thing as a modern day circus seems about right.
There is an element of audience interaction. One poor Joe found himself dragged from his comfy seat in Pleasance One and up onto the stage where he had to help with a diablo trick and then, worse, dance. As usual; the performers managed to pick someone from the audience who coped with the situation and put on a good show. I’m glad it wasn’t me.
I enjoyed the cabaret. If you’re milling around Pleasance just before dinner then grabbing tickets for Slightly Fat Features should be a no brainer. This is a physical comedy and you don’t often get to see that. Except that it’s a kids show, or rather it’s suitable for kids and doesn’t have Cirque du Soleil’s budget, and if you’re still tempted then you’ll likely enjoy the theatrics.