Vitamin

Soho Theatre, London
July 7th – 12th, 2014
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by Ella Fitzsimmons

I met a friend of mine who normally lives abroad at the Soho Theatre bar before the Vitamin gig. We ended up being a big group of people – including a depressed vicar, a sales guy from New York who was deciding whether to live in Amsterdam, Rome or London and my friend’s brother-with-girlfriend (“Ella, can you be judgemental about her for me?”) – so I asked my friend how long he was in town for so we could catch up properly. “Oh, only for today; I planned being in London around this gig.”

That’s the sort of following Vitamin has. The stage name of Carlo Jacucci who teaches at Gaulier’s clown school in Paris, he’s a bit of a physical comedy legend in his own time. Few performers are lucky enough to be able to walk on to the stage to the sound of laughter, but Vitamin was miming to the converted. Luckily, for a new initiate, he really is very funny, especially in the completely silent parts of the show. While the rest of the audience seemed to really enjoy the bits he did with an audience member, I preferred the parts that were purely physical comedy; so well-choreographed that they seemed improvised and accidental. The part I’ll carry with me is Vitamin miming flying; so simple, but as if regular rules of gravity and space didn’t apply.

It’s immensely hard to explain, because it’s not about words, punchlines or pratfalls. And that’s magical.

His show is on for another few days. See it.