You might have seen me in the 90's alongside Steve Newman and Tony Cox as a saxophonist, flautist and funny front man, imitating instruments and impersonating a couple of well-loved public figures with hilarious results. This show toured countrywide and had succesful runs at the Grahamstown Festival for 3 years in a row.
Now I return to the stage with a solo show, quite aptly titled "Don't Tune Me - I'll Tune You!" This is where I get to "show" off, combining all my talents as a comedian, musician, composer, sound therapist and wacky, walking windbag. In this highly entertaining show I am ‘the Marvelous Mouth’ imitating musical instruments, people, birds and animals. All these skills are put to good use in a dazzling array of music and comedy ‘tunes’.
The show is witty, gently satirical and sometimes thought provoking comedy, with various accents and characters, combined with music from the "Mouth" and real instruments in original ‘tunes’. A range of vocal gymnastics is woven together with a nifty technical device called the DD20 Loop Sampler. It’s a foot pedal which enables me to record or loop my voice live in front of the audience, adding layer after layer of bass, drums, guitar, trumpet etc., etc. All the sounds are produced by the " marvelous mouth". Basically I create my own backing band and then add on vocals and lyrics which contain silly and /or inspiring messages which are funny and potentially life changing to the listener.
Some tunes have no lyrics in them; instead they are melodic and haunting interwoven melodies from vocals, real sax and flute. Sax and flute are my real life instruments.
My show is suitable entertainment for any celebration or event, private or corporate and it appeals to all age groups. It is child friendly as well . Two popular sayings will endorse this show; “If music be the food of love, play on” and “Laughter is the best medicine”. So - “Don’t tune me – I’ll tune you!”
FOR BACKGROUND INFO SEE : ABOUT CHRIS
*A Hang is a metal “spaceship” which looks like two woks welded together and is actually a miniature Caribbean steel drum which is placed on your lap and played by hand. It has a beautiful, clear bell-like sound – almost like a cross between a guitar and harp.