What a gloriously zany, yet amazingly talented, group of entertainers!  A few black marks aside – especially the deafeningly loud and absolutely music-less pre-show music – this capacity crowd laughs and marvels throughout. 

From Canada, Compere Becky Hoops is in her Barbie persona this evening.  Decked out in a blonde wig, baby-pink dress and glitzy panties, with stiletto heeled pink shoes, the whole topped off with two very large balloons strategically placed, she is ditzy and clever.   It takes skill to get tangled up in hula hoops so convincingly and just to prove she can do it really, at the end of the evening the whole crew toss dozens of hoops at her: deftly she catches them all.  

Key to busking is audience participation.  Naturally there has to be a Ken where there is a Barbie and a very biddable young man is conjured up from the audience.  Re-garbed in a shiny satin shirt with “Ken” on the back he is inveigled in to various compromising positions and this he does with good humour and great enjoyment.  Perfect.   

From Mexico, Pancho Libre juggles, does stunning acrobatics at the top of a tall pole, spins around inside a huge wheel and amazes us.  He is not only an athlete of wonder but also clever and his modesty is appealing.  Bendy Em, contortionist from the UK and Australia, is very funny indeed.  She giggles delightfully and her UK deadpan sense of humour is quite a bonus for her as an entertainer. Sample: about to wedge herself in to a very small glass box “In Japan, this would be a 2-bedroom apartment.”  Her amazing dexterity is of the “ouch!” variety.

At the outset, Vinyl Burns comes over as a total idiot, somewhat of the Barrie Humphreys Australian Cultural Ambassador ilk.  He is irritating.  He is also totally crazy and unveils his many talents as the performance moves along.  He does great tricks with his unicycle, antenna/music stand, sheet music and guitar and the audience loves it, laps it up.  He can juggle with knives, perform sleight of hand, and is one clever ex-American, now New Zealand, performer.

Charming, loveable, unutterably sweet and funny without being in anyway vulgar, Eddy Eighty of Spain is the shining star of the troupe.  He can dance, he can mime, and he tells us about his father the seal-tamer meanwhile giving a fine seal impression.  He is Michael Jackson with three hats.  He is fabulous.

More performances this weekend at Fairfield Park, as part of the Buskers in Nelson Festival, and then Becky Hoops, Pancho Libre, Bendy Em, Vinyl Burns and Eddy Eighty move on to other New Zealand venues.  They are an excellently balanced troupe.

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