Wednesday August 20th 2025
John Norris' Fringe show, Mr Chonkers
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Liam Eunson
American absurdist John Norris is back at this year’s Fringe with his unique solo show, ‘Mr Chonkers’. Being a strange hour that makes you think “what just happened”, the comedic clown performance is both a celebration and a mockery of the performance arts, using his show to ‘practice’ to the audience his on stage abilities.
‘Mr Chonkers’ is a strange and absurd performance with John Norris oozing with silliness and stupidity, portraying a manic and confused artist that is trying to perfect both his theatre, magic and poetry abilities by taking the audience through a confusing journey of his “perfect showcase”.
The character Norris is able to portray makes you hope that this isn’t who he truly is, but in a good way. Sat in the strange but weirdly fitting venue, Summerhall’s Anatomy Lecture Theatre, the audience sat in a semi-circle of wooden pews that looked down on the performer, making you feel that we were truly analysing his ‘showcase’.
Explaining to the audience at the beginning that he has been practicing his art under the guidance of ‘Professor Chunt’ and is now ready to entertain, he used a strange opening act in the form of a manic and mute munk to give one of the audience members a bell, that he later explains should be rung when his performance needed stopped.
Heavily relying on audience participation, the show, as explained as a showcase, lets the audience both judge and be involved. Previewing his newly perfected skills, his perfect showcase was terrible but in a good way, that left you hoping the audience member in charge with the bell would ring it.
Leaving you wondering about his sanity, his absurd nature leaked into the crowd, encouraging people to get involved by banging the old theatre desks infront of them. Heavily relying on the audience, this worked perfectly, despite concerns that some audiences may not be as keen to get involved. Making every show different in some way, Norris’ audience engagement was top class.
His performance would require a trained psychologist to truly summarise the show as he manicly jumps from weird to weirder but with the impressive art of all the chaos tying together into the next segment. From an Italian boy with a love of magic and a mob boss father to Hugh Jackman, John Norris’ ‘perfect showcase’ is everything other than perfected but his depiction of this manic failing performer is top tier.
His repetition of the one scene he is showcasing did get dull but that is what made it work. The show wasn’t just a preview of this ‘perfect showcase’ but was a show of a bizarre, and incoherent at times, man who under the guidance of Professor Chunt, was trying to prove to the audience that he was ready to be an actor, which John Norris isn’t, he is a deranged absurdist clown whose show was all over the place but worked and connected despite the manics.
Directed by Corey Podell (Underground Monk Show, Venessa 5000), this chaos was connected to the next bit and then to the next, until the show was perfectly rounded off with, after much trial and error, a showcase that wasn’t deranged but classic theatre.
Using the anatomy lecture hall like a playground, he darts about the stage, staring at the audience and leaving awkward moments of incoherent noise. The audience is as much a part of the show as he is, making this portrayal of a showcase believable, that tells the story of a man who has finally perfected his work.
John Norris’ ‘Mr Chonkers’ is a complicated yet simple performance that provides an hour long of laughs and ‘what just happened’. His manic nature is the highlight of the show. With the show’s idea being a simple run through of performance arts he is attempting to perfect, this isn’t what the show is about, it is about him. The clever, but boring at times storyline only allowed his clown abilities to shine through, using the idea of a showcase to perform a perfectly strange show.
Sold-out for the remaining of this years fringe, performed at Summerhall – Anatomy Lecture Theatre
4/5, hilarious and weird performance but may not be up to everyone’s taste.
