Hackner is a Swedish clown

5 April 2012

I was told that Swedish clown Carl-Einar Hackner was going to put his hand in a blender last night. In fact he put his entire act in a blender, mixing magic with quirky songs to produce an easily digestible variety show that was both very modern and utterly traditional.

Hackner has been likened to Mr Bean but a better comparison is Tommy Cooper - if Tommy Cooper wore a sequinned Elvis jump suit rather than a Fez. Stumbling and mumbling, this striking Viking quickly wedged a baguette-sized harmonica in his mouth sideways. And that was just the warm-up.

What followed was beautifully stupid, ranging from slickly executed cup-ball illusions to new twists on the old magic ring routine and a sadistic bunny-roasting version of the rabbit-in-a-hat classic.

Rubber chickens, Jaggeresque lips and other joke-shop staples sustained the lunatic energy.

It was a shame that some closing parodic folk music slowed things just as Hackner should have built to a climax. He made amends, however, with an encore that was low on mystery, big on knives and ketchup-hued gore. Magnificent, mindless fun.

Until tomorrow, then 10-12 December (020 7482 4857, www.etceteratheatre.com).

Carl-Einar Hackner
Etcetera Theatre
Camden High Street, NW1 7BU

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in