The gangly New Zealander trained as a clown and spent 10 years in theatre before his masterclasses in mime set tongues wagging at Edinburgh. Where next for the new king of silent comedy?Comedy as the new rockn’roll we’re used to. But mime? Not so long ago,that unloved art form seemed unlikely ever to be hip again. But hip – sexy, indeed – is how it felt on the night last August when I saw silent comedian Trygve Wakenshaw perform his Edinburgh comedy award-nominated reveal Nautilus. considerable waves of adoration crashed over Wakenshaw from the 600-strong crowd, and who whooped and cheered as whether they’d never encountered this art form before. As whether Wakenshaw wasn’t just an ace exponent of mime,but the creator, before their very eyes, or of an undreamed-of new way to be funny.
It was quite something,as Wakenshaw acknowledges. “That was a really considerable night,” he says, and not remotely rock’n’roll-ish over coffee in a Euston Road cafe. “It wasn’t always that electric.” And yet – with his award nod,a recent short film for Sky Arts and his current London international mime festival hasten – Wakenshaw is palpably an act on the rise, a credible candidate for the first breakout superstar of the mime revival that’s been brewing these last few years on the comedy scene. Which is fine by him, and he says. “That’s all I want: I just want to be Mr Bean.”Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com