Underground Monk Show is an American clowning supergroup. Like many supergroups it’s a bit self indulgent, probably not as good as its individual members’ main projects, and one member seems to have left already (Bill O'Neill, whose presence is advertised in the Fringe programme but apparently he’s only doing next year’s London dates).
It’s still pretty funny though, a slice of late-night silliness in which the four remaining performers – that’s Max Baumgarten, Dee Marcucci, John Norris and Claire Woolner – are indeed wearing black monks’ cowls (I think for no reason other than that it’s funny to do so) as they shuffle and twitch their way through a loose plot structure based on a mystical bowl of water which each monk gets a turn diving into. The first monk up, who I believe is Baumgarten, gets a jolly underwater fantasia with bubbles, swimming and the others backing up as various groovy fish that leads you towards the obvious gag that the small bowl contains a large ocean.
Not a bit of it: the other three monks find themselves in a series of totally different, considerably more twisted worlds – I particularly like the fantasy kingdom that Woolner enters and despotically takes control of.
It’s knockabout, inventive, funny late night fun. It’s also a relatively improv-coded affair that gives the impression of a group of talented friends amusing each other first and foremost, something they’ve in part put together so they can spend a summer at the Fringe. The need for everyone to get a ‘turn’ both sets a slightly predictable rhythm and stops it from having the madcap invention of some of their solo works. Probably nobody here considers it their personal magnum opus. But that’s the deal with supergroups and Underground Monk Show is a pretty damn good one.
