2012 Melbourne International Comedy Festival:
•Tie Her To The Tracks!
A Live Silent Film with Andrew McClelland, Asher Treleaven, Celia Pacquola, Adam McKenzie & Sammy J
Posted on 01 April 2012
So much comic talent is present in Tie Her To The Tracks!, all you would have to do is add Josh Earl and/or Michael Workman and you would get a hilarity chain reaction. The entire Melbourne Town Hall would melt down. No one knows the half-life of Gen-X or Gen-Y humour just yet. It could take years before gigglons and chortlinos have dispersed to a safe level.
Tie Her To The Tracks! is the brainchild of Andrew McClelland. This piece of light entertainment re-enacts the oeuvre of the silent melodrama. McClelland plays a male ingenue in need of employment, Celia Pacquola plays the savvy girl next-door, Asher Treleaven is our moustache twirling villain, Adam McKenzie is the narrator, and Sammy J provides original music and sound effects.
The show is a diverting thirty minutes with plenty of laughs. I desperately wished I could have lent McClelland my collection of silent era comedies. A closer depiction of that film style with fewer anachronisms I believe would have added to the comedy and given the work more weight. Other comedians, Jackie Chan for instance, have borrowed from works such as “One Week” and “Sherlock Jr” by Buster Keaton. The Artist won its Academy Awards including for Best Picture in part due to its loving attention to period detail. It did not need to mock the style in order to get the laughs.
In the end I would say the comedians pull this story off with aplomb. I particularly enjoyed Asher Treleaven’s devilish antics. McClelland should do this again as a full hour show and delve more deeply into the nascent possiblities he only touched upon here. Tie Her To The Tracks! has sparkle and charm.
Peace and kindness,
Katherine
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