Lawrence Leung is a wonderfully effervescent and engaging performer and the clear highlight of our Fringe so far.
His show “Lawrence Leung learns to breakdance” deals with his efforts to be as cool as his older brother, thus confirming the theory that all comics would kinda like to be rock stars (and vice versa).
Of course one of the central premises of the show is therefore that Lawrence is himself not cool, even tho he pretty obviously is. Despite sleeping in a bunk bed til age 24 and being very good at a rubiks cube, being a stand up comic particularly one as charming and easy going as Leung has got to be a pretty cool thing to be. He manages to temporarily avoid this dichotomy by embarking on a somewhat Gorman-like quest towards his goal, doing some pretty silly things along the way particularly within the context of picking up girls, although his efforts to create a cool looking tee shirt are remarkably successful.
Leung is as pleasnt, cheerful and bouncy onstage as you like onstage but is held back from straying into childrens tv presenter territory by a keen sense of irony including winking acknoledgements of the comedt craft. The quest gives the show a nice clear structure and projected images are used to tell the story, genuinely adding to the laughs as Leung moves clicks through them with brilliant timing and asides.
There’s pretty much never a dull moment in this well paced show, building towards a superb finale in which our hapless (anti)hero and two equally cool-because-they-aren’t-cool mates enter a breakdance competition and end up showcasing their woeful but highly amusing abilties in front of a crowd of thousands to, as they say, hilarious effect.
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