Review from: Circusstad Festival, Oude Luxor Theater, Rotterdam; 30th April 2025, 21.00
According to the promotional blurb, ‘Laser Kiwi makes a unique mix of circus, bizarre sketches and witty English-language stand-up comedy. Perfect for an evening full of laughter, existential insights and spectacle of the highest level… The trio consisting of brothers Zane and Degge Jarvie (New Zealand’s best jugglers) and Imogen Stone (a world-class aerial acrobat)’.
They promise the world record for upside down juggling, Jenga stunts, innovative aerial acrobatics, an abundance of olives plus a good dose of absurdity.
Last year’s review of the show in Edinburgh gives a fair account but here, in the large and plush Oude Luxor Theater, it is a Marmite show; whilst much of the audience clearly enjoy the show hugely – likely drawn to see it by the promise of self-deprecating and absurdist humour – others seem less impressed. Perhaps expectations in this grand theatre tonight are too high but, aside from a stunningly elegant and taut corde lisse act by Stone, the spectacle does not quite hit the heights anticipated in a large venue offering of a circus festival.
It is normal for circus, especially comedy circus, to use the power of three (two failed attempts lead to a triumph on the third) but there isn’t a clean finish to the upside-down ball bouncing tonight. Throwing an olive impaled on a cocktail stick into a martini balanced on a pole on the head, with a fresh olive at each attempt, takes so many attempts that it threatens to empty the jar, albeit primarily because one brother cracks endless jokes to distract his olive-tossing sibling. A pirouette holding a stack of jenga blocks also takes several attempts and Stone struggles to get into a handstand on two stacks of blocks.
For most of the audience, though, this matters not a jot as they’re here to see the human olive on a stick and other excellent silliness. The trio also join in the relaxed Late Night at the Opticum cabaret show where, in this more intimate venue, they indubitably shine.
Laser Kiwi: Zane Jarvie, Degge Jarvie and Imogen Stone
Light design: Dean Holdaway
Bookings: Gag Reflex
Image: Adin Meser
