Review: All Wear Smiles at 'bowlers'

Dying seem the days of classic clowning in America. The street-mime or corner puppet shows of generations passed have transformed into the hot-ticket extravaganza circuses of Ringling and du Soleil.  Fortunately, the disciplined and skilled craftsmen of popular ("for the people") theatre have always been welcomed by the San Francisco Bay Area; from the Pickle Family of the 70s to the special engagement of world-renown Slava's Snowshow last spring.

Thusly, when two vaudevillian clowns in bowler hats trip out of their silent cinematic world and onto the stage of Berkeley Rep's Roda Theatre, a universal sparkle of childhood silliness emerges and is immediately embraced by the crowd.

Trey Lyford and Geoff Sobelle, the Drama Desk Award-winning duo of all wear bowlers, have created two goof-balls – Earnest and Wyatt – who do what any self-respective clown would when unexpectedly thrust before a live audience: entertain! With a flourish of slight-of-hand gimmicks, slapstick and ventriloquism, bowlers lends itself to the familiar frolics of comic-duos Laurel and Hardy, Penn and Teller, and even The Lion King's Timon and Pumbaa.  Lyford and Sobelle combine classic funnies with their own unique humor and style,splattered with clever tributes to the likes of Samuel Beckett, Dario Fo, and René Magritte.

In one of the most well-timed physical comedy routines today, Lyford and Sobelle open the show by running in and out of their film to our 3D world in a series of zany antics – which gets the audience rolling from then to the finale.

Sobelle stands out as the limber and loony Earnest.  Most of Sobelle's humor arises from his dexterity as an actor, magician, and stunt-man.  As the theatre falls apart around him, it's a miracle he remains in one piece after a precarious dance atop a ladder and catapulting himself across a slippery floor.  His running from one gag to another keeps us alert and easily amused.

Lyford shines as Wyatt, who first surfaces as Earnest's soft-spoken partner.  Later, Wyatt comes out of his shell in a scary/fun routine as a demon dummy.  His metamorphoses from a lovable fool to a tragic victim… and then to Godzilla… is absolutely side-splitting.  Between regurgitating eggs and reenacting newspaper headlines (in a witty nod to Augusto Boal), Lyford is a real treat.

A tasty ingredient to clowning is a healthy serving of audience interactivity, of which there is a heaping portion in bowlers… especially after the literal removal of a couple's seat from the house.  Laughs quickly swell into impressed bewilderment during a highly-calculated and strikingly-executed scene, when the two skilled men create a third (invisible) character betwixt them.

Word is the Berkeley Rep will give a gift to anyone who arrives to the show wearing a bowler hat.  But truly, anyone who attends this remarkable event leaves with the best gift of all – a smile and a safe trip from reality to carnival, and back!

all wear bowlers: starring Trey Lyford and Geoff Sobelle, at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre through December 23.  75mins, no intermission.  Tickets ($45-$61) available at 510-657-4929 and www.berkeleyrep.org.  Berkeley Repertory Theatre's Roda Theatre is located at 2015 Addison Street at Shattuck, Downtown Berkeley.