Fool Koller

Partway through Eric Koller's physical comedy show, the audience doesn't know whether to admire or fear the wide-mouthed Dutchman. As he dons a wooly rug and adopts the mannerisms of a dog, bounding into the audience and sniffing manically, the front row scatter to avoid a confrontation. It is a testament to Koller's abilities in mime and character mimicry that his representation of a dog is so disturbingly realistic that his audience is frozen in awe, disbelief and fear as they shriek like little children.

Make no mistake, this is a profoundly creepy act. At times, Koller's physical contortions and facial ticks rival those performed by the distinctly more two-dimensional Looney Tunes. While not all of his creations hit the mark—a bingo caller with a faulty microphone is hugely impressive yet lasts a painfully long five minutes—his inventiveness is mind-boggling. One feels that the biggest misjudgment here is some slightly adult material that neither enhances the act nor welcomes the sort of audience who would lap this stuff up. But this is by no means a show only kids can appreciate.

It is the finale of this hour of weird, wonderful and darned terrifying characters that really sells the show. With the aid of only ten bottles of water, Koller single-handedly creates a water and light display that is frankly astounding to experience. If it were not for the misjudgment in material and minor identity crisis, this show would be as close to perfect as the (rather niche) genre of physical comedy allows.