The comedians and the big shiny performance

Theatre
Dingle Bells Malcolm Smells
St James Cavalier

While traditional pantos target a more general audience and function as a feel-good show for the whole family; Dingle Bells Malcolm Smells, now in its second year of what will hopefully be many more Christmas editions, is geared towards a more distinctly adult audience – and just as well because its irreverently funny gags, constant innuendo, and blatant jibes at public figures and mockery of current affairs makes for great end-of-year entertainment.

Introducing the semi-stand-up, improve show with a rap song about how the evening was planned and yet unplanned was a good way to start the evening – implying that the performers didn’t take themselves too seriously. This year’s show was subtitled “The _____ and the Big Shiny _____!” – with gaps for audience members to fill in at random with an occupation and an object respectively.

The choice for the performance I attended ended up being called The Taxidermist and the Big Shiny Banana!, the entire concept of the performance relied on audience participation quite heavily. Basing their general script for the Taxidermist and the Banana plot line on a “theatresports” game – Paper Chases, in which members of the audience were given scraps of paper and asked to write random sentences before the start of the show, the two main performers, Chris Dingli and Malcolm Galea inserted these lines as part of the script for a couple of scenes – which they built as they went along.

What made the show work is the intensely strong dynamic between Mr Dingli and Mr Galea, who together with director Wesley Ellul, who also occasionally featured in the show, intervening in their discussions and giving them changes in direction, have a very real bond of friendship which is evident in their seamlessly smooth interactions and their ability to work so well with each other’s words.

Their description of their friendship formed a solid basis for the comedy as did the slides featuring raunchy Venn Diagrams and photoshopped pictures of Mr Galea’s family and wife Angele – who also featured as a guest actress and occasional musician.

Building on their tiff over Ms Galea from last year’s edition, they promised the audience section which guessed the correct word on the projection screen pizza and beer if they quarrelled over her again. True to their word, they delivered… because, you guessed it – they did quarrel. Their improvisational skills came to the fore in the scenes acted out with suggestions from the audience such as the guessing game where Mr Galea had to get Mr Dingli to guess that he was a “floating coffin sailor from Qormi” as well as the bit where they played a two-headed doctor where each head had to complete the same sentence, first taking it in turns to say one word at a time and then simultaneously.

The theme for this was chosen by yours truly in a fit of over-enthusiastic hilarity – “Birds” – in honour of the faux pas made by our Ms World contestant.

I must say they pulled it off brilliantly and the audience was awed by their intuitive alacrity and resourcefulness.

Their songs set to live guitar music about “Maltese Girls” and about “Members of the Audience”, though pre-prepared segments, went down very well for their incisive humour. Another excellent technique they used was the change in genres and acting styles according to suggestions from Mr Ellul and members of the audience, changing characterisation according to the instructions shouted – from Commedia Dell’Arte to Musical Theatre and Dr Who.

At the end of the show, Mr Galea and Mr Dingli realise that Ms Galea has been playing them off each other and the showdown that ensues culminates in a very unusual show of friendship – clearly the trigger for more fodder for next year’s show and something you have to experience for yourselves.

An absolute must-see of a show which gets a full thumbs up – very well done.