Still on the search for something my older kids would enjoy, today we braved the torrential rain and crossed the river of George Street to the Front Room at the Assembly Rooms. Nestled in a shipping container away from the storm, we found the show my kids had been looking for in the form of Jarred Christmas and Hobbit. Yes – those are the names they use in real life too.
The Mighty Kids Beatbox Comedy Show is a big mash up of Beatboxing with a lot of gags. It’s soon clear that the Beatboxing talent lies entirely with Hobbit whilst Jarred Christmas provides the comedy and interaction with the audience.
This show relies heavily on audience participation, but on the whole this was aimed at the droves of kids volunteering to help. One particularly sweet moment was when a little girl was given a theme tune to walk to, and after a short rehearsal, entered the stage area to the rapturous applause of the audience. I imagine this would’ve been a big esteem boost and she was clearly having a great time.
My kids also particularly enjoyed a variety of kids telling ‘knock knock’ jokes as part of a call and response section of the show. All of this was interspersed with beatboxing and the audience calling out.
My teen liked what he called ‘topical’ jokes referring to the weather such as Jared asking whether we had travelled on jet skis and pondering whether the shipping container would float away. Whilst obvious jokes (given the torrential rain), it was something that he understood and could laugh at. There was no risk of jokes going over the heads of the kids.
Whilst I didn’t find the jokes particularly funny – I was really impressed with the beatboxing. Hobbit is undeniably talented and the range of sounds he produced was just amazing. He showed how he can layer different noises using a loop machine and it was really cool to hear how it all went together. My favourite aspect of audience participation was when Jared asked various people to make noises – this ranged from a wee boy saying ‘bum’ to a teen having to mimic a ‘cat on a roller coaster who is having a great time but then is sick.’ Hobbit took all of these sounds, added some of his own, and layered the whole lot into a track.
There were a couple of aspects that I felt dragged a little – but my kids didn’t feel this in the slightest. I’ve definitely got ‘cool mum’ points for taking them, and I’ve learned how to perform a basic beatbox track. I’d call that winning.
After considering everyone’s input (I say 3, Ben says 3.5, and Katie says 5), we’re settling on 4 stars!
P.S. We were gifted press tickets in order to provide this review but all thoughts and opinion are entirely our own. You can buy tickets here.
Aug 7-11, 13-24. Assembly Rooms – Front Room. 15:50. Suitability 5+
