Amazingly this would be the first show that we have ever covered at the Brighton Fringe. We had come down earlier in the day to get into a fringe mood – fish & chips on the beach, some cocktails and a tour of the local graffiti art quickly sorted that out!

As showtime approached we walked into The Werks and were instantly greeted by happy faces who sat us down and gave us a chainsaw to wave if we needed a drink (Genius!) We quickly performed our best Leatherface impression and waited for our show to be called.

Hattie Snooks takes to the stage with literally no energy at all, looks at the crowd and says “no, f*ck it” and walks back off. She returns clutching an oversized Buffy mug in both hands and now seems ready to begin.

The nods to the shows premise are all over the set, from the full size Yoda cut out (and fabulous matching slippers!), classic Avengers pajamas and the Sci-fi styling of the title cards – we were going to get our geek on.

“The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth” is not a stand up show or even a play, it is a one-woman musical. Our clown sets the scene as a lethargic singleton who has slightly given up on the real world in return for living vicariously through the universes created by sci-fi, fantasy and comic book writers.

The first song is a declaration of love dedicated to Lt Reginald Barclay of Star Trek: Next Gen & Voyager fame. The gag is fun, and the song enjoyable enough, but the character is so obscure that it is slightly lost on the audience of casuals. We stick with Star Trek as the subject matter but the game is seriously about to change in terms of the musical numbers.

Our clown has rewritten the Bare Naked Ladies classic ‘One Week‘ to explain pseudo sci-fi babble in TV shows! This is an incredible feat in itself but to watch it performed live is an absolute treat. At the end of this number the applause is heart-felt and automatic. This one song has got us all on board and we are coming along for the ride.

Hattie Snooks is a really interesting clown. Clearly talented – she can sing, she can write and many of her observations would be worthy of being fleshed out into full stand-up routines.

One of the most impressive aspects of her performance was her ability to stand in front of a very small audience and generate the energy in the room to perform numbers that would normally need to feed off a much larger crowd. Her final song ‘Casual‘ almost demands for people to clap along but in a room this small that isn’t always a guarantee and our clown didn’t skip a beat.

This was not a perfect show by any means but this dive into the lives of the Scoobies and the crews of both the Serenity and the Enterprise, as seen by our slightly broken hero, was highly enjoyable and I am really pleased we managed to get tickets.

I would genuinely like to see Hattie Snooks perform again. She is a brave performer and with her talent I am really intrigued to see what she will come up with next.

Shiny!

Clown Stars: * * * *

@ Werks 1 – Brighton Fringe, Brighton