“a fun afternoon of comedy and crazy storytelling that delighted child and adult alike“
Beth Spencer
4 talking desk lamps
La Mama
Melbourne
Jul 4 – Jul 7 2024
While Jon and Jero are known for their love of telling stories, when they took to the stage as part of the La Mama for Kids program during the school holidays, they had completely forgotten how to do so. Unable to bring a single story to mind, they had to seek ideas and
inspiration from the audience to fuel their tales of adventure.
Here began a mad capped journey involving dinosaurs, trampolines, pizza, stink bugs, and desk lamps (to name a few). Jon and Jero (aka John Walpole and Jeromaia Detto) cleverly utilised their well-established clown and improvisational skills to accept any offer the audience of young children (and their parents) threw at them. Incorporating clever educational elements on what makes a story and how to build characters, Jon and Jero created a very interactive and engaging experience for the children in the audience. This was particularly evident from the speed at which many of the children’s hands went up the minute they were given an opportunity to answer a question or offer a new story idea.
There was a lot the parents could enjoy in this show too. The occasional witty joke that perhaps passed over the heads of the younger audience members gave the parents a good chuckle, as well as seeing the giggles of their children when Jon and Jero expertly handled
the inevitable poo jokes and created many great moments of physical comedy. Underlying this show was a strong foundation in the techniques of improvisational comedy. Jon and Jero’s experience working together was evident as they tackled stories with multiple characters, and bringing themes and jokes from previous stories into later ones resulting in many a belly laugh.
Supporting Jon and Jero in creating their stories was the very impressive Isaac on keyboards who created a wonderfully improvised soundtrack to highlight the moods and elements of the stories as they unfolded. James provided lighting and sound to enhance the storytelling with a range of sound effects from frog noises to face slaps. Sometimes the lighting changes in the middle of some stories were slightly distracting, but on the whole the use of lighting to highlight key moments at the start of the show and to indicate the beginning and end of each story helped the young audience to understand the structure of the show.
All in all, Jon and Jero’s forgotten tales provided a fun afternoon of comedy and crazy storytelling that delighted child and adult alike.
Beth Spencer, Theatre Now
