REVIEW: The Fat Guy Show @ Ottawa Fringe 2012

Christopher Bange’s one-man show, The Fat Guy Show is about a man who wants two things, to be a great magician, and to find love. Should you see it?

 

The Fat Guy Show has a lot going for it – unfortunately what could be a simple and funny magic/comedy hour is bogged down with a dramatic and romantic love twist. Right off the bat we get to meet Mr. Fuzzy, a fat guy who wants to be the world’s greatest magician. His magic is mediocre at best – but at least he’s funny and entertaining to watch. He also has a problem with himself – he figured that the reason he cannot be with any of the girls he wants to be is because he’s too fat. So, he loses weight, for love.

It’s a shame that a man decides he needs better health, not just to be able to survive and live a long and healthy life – but so he can get laid. And that’s what I felt the message of the play was – if you’re fat – lose weight – get laid. Spoiler alert, it made me happy when Mr. Fuzzy didn’t get laid at the end because it’s a really stupid concept.

The only times that this show shone was when Mr. Fuzzy was performing his  little magic tricks that were, basic but entertaining and funny in their delivery. At one point, Mr. Fuzzy brings a girl up on stage and they go on a summer full of dates – and on our night we were lucky to have a very willing, funny and witty audience member to go up alongside Mr. Fuzzy… she almost outshone him.

This is a play that tries too hard to be too many things, a musical, a magic show, a comedy hour, a drama, a parody… it should have picked one concept and stuck with it. Unfortunately The Fat Guy Show was not nearly as memorable as I wanted it to be and is stuck with a 2.

Allan’s Followup:

To start, when I saw this show, it was with an audience of four. Since there’s a large amount of interaction in the show, it’s not even fair to really review it based on that fact. The magic in the show is fun but pretty light, with the show instead favouring it’s narrative and mixing some clown/mime. (As far as the magic goes, I was actually much more impressed by Chris Bange when he performed at the Late Night Cabaret.)

The story was okay, and made heavy use of an audience volunteer as love interest. In our case, Lois, the only woman in the audience. It was cutesy and light and I think with a nice, full audience it would be a decent show, so low three.

- by Allan Mackey

 

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Matthew Champ

About Matthew Champ

Matthew Champ is the lead movie reviewer for Production Ottawa's Should You See It team, making sure that you know whether or not these movies or plays are worth spending your time or money on.

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