As the Melbourne Fringe guide relates: “Pisca was born to be a duck. He’s just not very good at it”. A previous run of the show earned performer Cameron Taylor a Green Room Award nomination. In this return season we see that he’s very good at entertaining an audience in this mix of clowning, character comedy, and song.
Pisca projects a benign appearance in wispy feathers and a calming white and blue palette of makeup. This duckling has had a rough start to life, and, alone in the wild, danger is never far away. Yet, he seems keen to forget adversity and find the joy in life.
Pisca’s innocence allowed him to earn laughs from scenes involving say raunchy puppetry, or some quite silly physical comedy, where even an unconvincing fight scene became comedy gold.
Cameron’s vocals might remind us of iOTA in his take on Come back for me, and elsewhere he’s a smooth crooner, such as in a less-than-common take on Fly me to the moon.
The work is quite episodic, and we might quibble that at times we can only wonder who it is that Pisca is singing to. But resistance is futile – the charm of this little duckling quickly won us over, and the result was a memorable Fringe show with some delightfully fluffy moments. Take flight Fringe fans, you might quack up if you miss this highlight.
Pisca
The Old Ballroom – Trades Hall, Corner Lygon and Victoria Streets, Carlton
Performance: Saturday 21 September 2019 – 6:15pm
Season continues to 29 September 2019
Information and Bookings: www.melbournefringe.com.au
Image: Pisca – courtesy of Cameron Taylor
Review: Jason Whyte