Centrestage will treat East London to the hilarious pairing of Ian Von Memerty and Gino Fabri on November 23, bringing their starkly contrasting alter egos back to the Guild Theatre for another round of madcap entertainment.
In their new show, Common and Class, Von Memerty’s supercilious and often condescending alter ego, Class, is forced to work with Fabri’s moronic and zany Common.
This starts a rivalry of sorts as the two take shots at each other, hurling merciless insults and bickering about their very evident differences.
This back-and-forth is the crux of the show, which presents itself as a medley of music, dance and hysterical comedy with a heavy dose of South African humour.
Class, representing all things classical, exudes elegance and chic in his stylish suit and dazzling tie, while Common is, for lack of a better word, common, with his terrible grammar, dof smirk and mismatched, eccentric outfits.
Taking the unwilling Class on a whirlwind of “surprise” acts, Common definitely gets an audience chuckling at his naivety and ludicrous ideas.
Forced to indulge in and perform Common’s “surprises”, Class ends up having to tackle anything from mime and drag to beat-boxing and dancing.
Evoking huge belly laughs, the duo thrust their hips in unison during the Time Warp and even attempt to execute the famous Dirty Dancing move to Time of my Life.
Class maintains his pompous manner for as long as he can, performing with great gusto and precision, while Common exhibits terrible mediocrity.
While the pair’s amusing guises deserve a laugh, they are both talented musicians. Von Memerty’s keyboard talents and Fabri’s guitar skills merit high praise indeed.
The two switch from Class’s preferred classical genre to Common’s rock and country favourites with ease, including Disney classics like Hakuna Matata and Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, as well as Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline and Survivor’s Eye of the Tiger.
Fabri’s epic drumming skills are also flighted...