By BRUCE DENNILL
Conrad Koch and Chester Missing: Puppet Power / Pieter Toerien’s Montecasino Theatre, Fourways, Johannesburg
It’s a mark of success for a ventriloquist when his puppets become as well known – ore even more so – than the performer himself, and Chester Missing is probably the most famous inanimate object in South Africa. Among other things, the sassy, suited, silicon commentator is beloved of politicians, who are perhaps bemused by his bluntness and weirdly disinclined to hold the human operating the puppet responsible for his creation’s opinions.
Chester is the headliner in Puppet Power, but as with all Conrad Koch’s stage shows, he’s joined by a coterie of oddball characters who largely confine themselves to other niches, leaving the cutting political material to their notorious counterpart. That supporting cast includes Helen Zille (a clever quick change for Chester); Gunter, a German mosquito; Hilton – one of two puppets constructed from odds and ends rather than being high-concept creations; Gordon Ratsy, a bad-tempered chef and a brand new character; exasperated school teacher Mr Dixon and DJ Hoodie, the other made-on-the-move character, whose operation requires Koch’s whole body and considerable flexibility.
Politically, Koch is an astute, intelligent commentator. Where there is criticism of the status quo, it is doled out equally, with every political party and dubious leader getting an equivalent metaphorical kick in the pants. He stays up to date with current affairs, which is excellent for informed audiences but somewhat bewildering for those who only stream their media and haven’t head a newscast in a fortnight. The latter must be an ever more challenging scenario for comics keen on maintaining a satirical core to their sets.
The range of material across Koch’s puppet characters does mean there is something for everyone. Gunter has good line in Teutonic dad jokes; Hilton’s ridiculous laugh is as funny as the jokes he tells; Ratsy gives the audience permission to feel grumpy about annoying societal tropes, saying what many of us think so we don’t have to; Mr Dixon is an acerbic Boomer who is an excellent mechanism for audience interaction (and information gathering that allows for a fun finale) and DJ Hoodie is a wily way of adding musical punchlines to proceedings.
What and how audience members answer when prompted by Koch or his puppets can add a great deal of richness to individual show and a woman in the front row who had celebrated her birthday by washing her dog was a gift for the show’s improvised sections. As a ventriloquist, Koch, as himself, does relatively little speaking once the puppets are released from their suitcases, and some of these improvisations are quite caustic, in keeping with the characters’ personalities and letting Koch off the hook – or so it seems when he appears in the foyer afterwards, where he (the human behind the concepts, script and performance onstage) is cursorily greeted before Chester Missing (the puppet, who will be placed face down on a chair when Koch wants to give someone a hug) is enthusiastically engaged with. Such interactions mean the nuanced, conceptual entertainment continues after the show for those with an eye open for it…