fringe: elixir

adelaide fringe: elixir
Elixir is what happens when you put three incredibly talented showmen together under one roof.

Cal Harris, Thomas Gorham and Rowan Thomas are talented acrobats and comedians, not to mention being collectively sexy as all hell.

I saw Elixir back in 2014 when it was just Harris and Gorham and loved it then, but I have to say that the refinements of the intervening years as well as the addition of Harris' former castmate Thomas from Alice In The Madhouse the previous year have both taken a show that was great and made it outstanding.

And I think I may have spotted their other castmate from Alice, Will Meager, in the audience at tonight's show (the Mad Hatter, Cheshire Cat and White Rabbit together again... is there any chance at all of a full on reunion?).

This is also the only show I've been too all Fringe long where you're encouraged to take photos during the performance (provided your flash is off and your phone is on silent... otherwise everybody DIES)... and I did get some excellent photos.

The story is much the same as the original show, "Professors" Harris, Gorham and Thomas are testing elixir compounds in the lab and they need to run some strength and agility tests... after which it's time for testing, and things get all little bit... funky. It was great see the level of polish and sophistication that they've given the show in the last three years... and it's been refined to a perfect little show.

Thomas is an outstanding addition, he's a natural clown, from his squeaky voice to his playing with the audience regularly, he had us all eating out of the palm of his hand. And I've seen a lot of acts use the big cyr wheel and spin and rotate, but Thomas is the only person I've ever seen use that giant metal hoop as a damn hula hoop! I'm not completely sure who was spinning who at certain points, but it definitely made an impression.

I swear that Harris gets sexier every time I see him... that body is amazing and he still has that face that switches between leading man and comedy relief at the drop of a hat. His ladder routine is still astounding and he's introduced whip cracking into his arsenal, which combined with his costume from the latter part of the show definitely makes an impression.

Gorham has introduced some breakdance elements that I don't remember from the previous show that are both amazing (even if Thomas does occasional steal all the attention) and work really well for his character at that moment.

The three of them manage to make the show both humorous and at times quite homoerotic (or at the very least homosensual) without relying exclusively on "dudes sometimes like other dudes, isn't that weird" style gags. And for which I give them another round of applause. Thomas, especially, flirted with, I think, three separate men in the audience during the show (sadly I wasn't one of them).

Elixir really does have a little bit of everything, and it's a show that it well worth seeing.

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