Calypso Nights: Juan, Two? …Embrace The Smooth Absurdity Of Venezuelan DJ Juan – Perth Fringe Review

CASA MONDO, The Pleasure Garden, Perth Fringe World. Fri 29 Jan Juan Vesuvius, the outlandish Venezuelan DJ, is back at Fringe Perth in Calypso Nights: Juan, Two? Juan is created and played by New Zealander Barnie Duncan. There's no bro, beached as, fish ‘n’ chups here. Juan’s smooth, suave, sexy and sultry accent captivated my attention and my loins that it took me about 15 minutes into the show to connect the dots of corny and absurd information, jokes and one liners to realise I was being taken on a journey of musicology/geography/history/political lessons and tour of the Caribbean. Once I started paying attention to the information rather than the accent, I found it a bit odd, disjointed and just bizarre. The mashups of music, dance, narrative and chutney sometimes didn't make sense and found that I was laughing more at him, his silliness. But that is the beauty of this show... its ridiculously trivial, fun and carefree. Once I embraced it as that, the show became frivolously enjoyable and quite hilarious... and I learned few fun facts about the conception and progression to present day calypso music. Denise Brazil Image courtesy of Alex Hewitt