****
This year's Foster's Comedy Award shortlist is dominated by solo stand-ups, so it was good to see a token duo slip in there when nobody was looking. Max Olesker and Ivan Gonzalez have been delivering high energy cult hits on the Fringe for a few years now and they are also known for their involvement in The Wrestling, which may not have helped them pick up the nomination, but has certainly earnt them lots of Brownie points among the comedy fraternity.
M&I have frequently incorporated a narrative into their sketches – they've previously, for instance, done heists and Sherlock Holmes – and this year is no exception. Reunion finds the contrasting twosome – Max tall and lean, Ivan, short and chunky - playing an entire college of characters, from teachers to pupils as a class reconvenes a decade on from their A levels. We see them now and we also see them back in uniform, the flashbacks explaining the current dynamic.
The style and atmosphere falls somewhere between The League of Gentlemen and Pajama Men. Ivan plays various characters of various genders but mainly plays Brian, the allergy-suffering nerd who never got the girl at the end-of-term house party and is still dreaming of her ten years on. Max also switches effortlessly between roles, most notably conjuring up Alan Jones, another bullied boy who in the up-to-date scenes toys with a pistol with a Chekhovian flourish.
What the set-up lacks in originality it more than makes up for in skill and verve. The pace is dizzying. Scenes switch and change in a second, accents turn on a sixpence. There is some rap, a little light audience participation and a touch of low-level but scene-stealing puppetry as the action builds to the big showdown. Reunion is all about confronting your fears and making your dreams a reality, which has been something of a theme on the Fringe this year (along with internet porn and gout – this is the third show I saw which mentioned the latter*). As I write this review the Foster's panel is deciding on their 2013 winner. Could it be Max & Ivan? Who knows? Sometimes dreams do come true.
*Brett Goldstein & John Robins were the others
