(4 / 5)

I’ve been desperately missing Ed Fringe the last few weeks. I miss the volume of audience interaction, silliness, and side splitting that comes with highly insane productions that last all of 1 hour. I was therefore over the moon to spend 1 hour in the company of Moonlight Theater, and especially the Ping Pong Champ that is Don Toberman who left me gasping for air through laughter.

I’m not going to lie to you – I was sold on this production when it hit my inbox and I saw the title and a huge image of a very serious ping pong champ at the top of the email body. I somehow knew this would be completely bonkers and boy was I right.

Don Toberman: Ping Pong Champ, I’d love to tell you is what it says on the tin. But it is and so, so much more. Don Toberman is the world’s leading Ping Pong Champ and, tonight, he takes on his biggest challenge – a final against a whole audience. During this, there is improvisation, both from performers and the audience, curve balls (sometimes quite literally), at times too much flesh of Toberman on show, and silly but well thought out side-scenes for the half time show. It is not only well thought out but leaves bags of room to really pull on the comedy stylings of this whole team.

While the title would suggest this is a one man show, we have a whole group contributing to the narrative – firstly is the audience, where their own improvisation and random retorts could throw anyone off-piste but only seems to fuel the comedy; Toberman’s bodyguard who pops out from the curtain and unknown moments to check the scene and wave a little finger at us, eliciting actual belly laughs; the referee who later doubles as the half time update on the diving championships, swirling and climbing over another performer ungracefully to represent this winning “dive”; a black morph-suited person who acts as clean up and the replay of the ping pong strike; and finally Toberman who also comes on as a half time stripper who we are all given dollars to throw at. These well thought out characters add to the narrative so well, particularly when you think how can one ping pong game between Toberman and the audience last an hour and not get tedious. If we’re honest, even if this was the case, the movements, ideas and narrative is ever changing and, likely, we would never find ourselves in that position if that was all this production was because each one is more funnier than the last.

This production is almost satirical in its delivery. Moments of a small break where Toberman suddenly tries to promote a strange beer-like drink or the aforementioned diver championship are all hammed up to a point that is not only recognisable but so silly and laughable in being recognisable but in its delivery.

It is also a risky production – almost the entire production relies on heavy audience interaction. So if you don’t want to be picked on and you’re not ready to laugh until you sweat and cry, then this isn’t for you. But something really has to be said with how eager to be involved this audience was which I imagine made the performers happy and gave them material to riff from. It also really made us feel like the joint ping pong contenders we were meant to be together.

Don Toberman: Ping Pong Champ is absolutely hysterical. Well created and delivered, it is completely joyous, unhinged and stupid in the best way.