Bent Into Shape
Sugar&Spice, Silo, until May 2, 1997
A troubled young astronaut, Lieutenant Nathaniel, blasts off to Venus to save Earth and mankind. A New York City mobster discovers too late that his arch-rival is his former lover, dressed in drag. The once-mighty Emperor Caesar, besotted with his donkey, spirals into madness as he loses his grip on the reins of power.
Confused? You won't be after a night in the company of Sugar&Spice, quite the most innovative duo comedy the New Zealand comedy stage has seen in years. Jonathan Brugh and Jason Hoyte (assisted off-stage by Michael Keating) are a seriously bent pair of performers, but their physical and hugely original style of comedy theatre certainly grows on you.
Best part was the mobster scene, which introduced such classic characters
as Dollface, Stumpy and Medium Joey to a story that got stranger and more
twisted as it went along.
Abridged
Reviewed by Rowan Wakefield, Herald, 1997
Sugar&Spice: LIVE!
Bats Theatre until May
...Duo Sugar and Spice also sail dangerous waters, but they came up smiling. Their forte is the comedy of the absurd, and it doesn't get any sillier than these guys.
The danger is having to rely on the audience to suspend their sense of logic and take that mad journey with you. There isn't room to ad-lib if things go wrong.
In fact, in one sketch things could have blown up in their faces. Their
skewering of United States' movie clichés in a sketch based on
a bomb disposal team was spot-on, and set the scene for a smorgasbord
of silliness.
Abridged
Reviewed by Mike Houlahan, Dominion, (1997??)
Sweet Giggles
Sugar&Spice, Bats Theatre, 1995
...Sugar&Spice
strut their hour upon the stage in a manic fashion which owes a little
to Shakespeare and a lot to psychotropic plants. But disregard that last
reference, it's a scurrilous rumour fostered by the press according to
Jason and Jon as they smear lipstick lopsidedly around their mouths and
laugh maniacally. Half the fun of Sugar&Spice is the rollercoaster
ride through their comic madness. You never know when the dips and screams
are coming.
Sugar&Spice are a kind of thinking person's Three Stooges except that
there are two...
Abridged
Reviewed by Andrew M. Bell, City Voice, 20th July, 1995
Sugar and Spice
Bats Theatre, 1995
Talented comic duo Jason Hoyte and Jonathan Brugh delighted audiences at Bats with their ability both as comedians and to test the stretch capacity of nylon Lycra to the limits. I simply marvelled at what was revealed... how could any one hide that enormous cucumber in red fishnets? They cavorted in truly amazing ways on a severely minimalist set adorned with ironing board and easel. All night ravels revelled in the improvised techno funk competition, and artists got a graphic description on how to throw together a masterpiece.
A Shakespearean ode on such things as saliva and nipples was beautifully enunciated in true classic style and accessorised with alarming foam rubber Elizabethan impediments. The need to 'shuffle off the mortal coil' took on new meaning.
Both actors had bodies like orgasmic rubber that shuddered, rippled and exploded with energy... and the facial expressions were priceless. The real awakening was a real send up for the Royal Ballet with its repetitious movements, over the top mime, crotch endangering leaps and explosive surprise ending...
Gamesmanship was thoroughly investigated too, along with demonic worship. Surprisingly no virgin could be found in the audience for sacrifice but a substitute was found. This was really "in your face" comedy, the sort that you don't feel quite safe in case they come and get you. Sugar&Spice hopefully will be back and well worth the effort to go and see for well crafted innovative comedy.
Reviewed by Deb Hope, Salient, 24 July 1995
Sugar and Spice
If there was anyone you knew that you could make a star, who would it be? High on my list would be Sugar&Spice, an Auckland comedy duo who will probably never get the recognition they deserve in this country but would go down like a house on fire somewhere like the Edinburgh festival.
They're unique, developing a brand of physical comedy like no other, their rubber bodies and elastic mouths likely to leave you in a perpetual laugh spasm throughout an entire programme. The comedy is absurd, almost surreal, with constant ludicrous movement with particular emphasis on the action in the groin and and behind area.
There are no punchlines, instead, a series of inane scenes which flow from one to another like the live theatre equivalent of an action packed video. It's not what they do that makes you laugh, it's the way they do it. A Mr Bean and a Charlie Chaplin if you will. Sugar&Spice are silent movies stars. Clad only in tights and underwear, they celebrate their own grubby grotesqueness, spending much of their time trying to better each other's ridiculousness.
They parody Shakespeare, sport, cooking and any other topic in which
they can find a glam dramatic move or scrotum reference. They could be
awful but they're not, they're too good for that. Their strange, excessive
and flamboyant style quickly turns your groans into great big belly laughs.
Abridged
Reviewed by Mark Amery, Dominion , 1995
Sugar and Spice: An Intoxicating Mixture
Sugar&Spice, Bats Theatre
It was a wise man who once said critics are people who can hold the map, but can't drive the car. Walking out of Bats last night, having spent a glorious hour lost in the dark with Sugar&Spice, was something of a humbling experience.
Whatever planet these guys beamed down form, they were obviously playing to sell-out crowds there. From an opening that makes the bible look a little heavy-handed to a finale that gracefully exposes the Grim Reaper's sensitive side, they concoct a cocktail of romantic comedy that leaves an audience intoxicated.
Whether laughing with "Juniper, Prince of the Creek" as he
confronts the horned beast or sucking back shooters with a seedy flatfoot
in a "Nu Yoik" bar, this show is pure entertainment - shaken,
not stirred.
In a twilight zone of hip humour, most mere mortals can only hope to pass
through, Sugar&Spice have set up camp.
The result is a brand of comedy that is at once both poignant and preposterous - delivered in person by two kiwis who obviously come from the kind of comic gene pool you can dive into without cracking your head on the bottom.
Anyone who likes their method spiced with madness or depravity sweetened with dramatic depth should head down to Courtenay Place ASAP, because this pair are the best thing to light up Bats since electricity.
Reviewed by Matt Johnson
ASB Bank International Laugh Festival
Downstage, Taki Rua and Bats Theatres
... Sugar&Spice return armed with a purple bean bag and a smoke
machine. Shakespeare's bastard great-grandsons, their unique brand of
physical comedy is truly in a league of its own. Equipped with their trademark
tight-restricted large genitalia, Agog gives us two techno-gay
boys, a long-lost Star Trek episode, and the Martin Scorsese
comedy that should have been. Every new show is becoming like an eagerly-awaited
new episode - may they run for many seasons.
Abridged
Reviewed by Mark Amery, Herald, 1997
Comedy Show Not A Moment Too Soon
Sugar&Spice, Bats Theatre, July 11
...Their hour on stage seemed to pass remarkably quickly with their dynamic movement and eccentric sketches.Some of their material was a bit abstract but they managed to hold my attention with their interspersion of physical comedy and manic action.
In probably the best tradition of Chaplin and Keaton, their silent "sport sketches" were outstanding. Their rapping to the tune of a popular sports magazine show showed up Kiwi sports culture at its worst. The Shakespeare section and scenes from an exorcism were weird, but the Jason and Jon Magic Show was brilliant - I'll never use dental floss again, and how big were those tights anyway?
Their Hudson and Halls - Keith Floyd cooking segment had me wondering
when they were going to say "Over here Clive" and they way Brugh
grimaced to Hoyte's narrative was amazing - he seems to have an Atkinsonesque
rubber face.
Abridged
Reviewed by Greg Stutchbury, Evening Post, 12 July
Cocaine Fiends: Sugar and Spice
Jon Brugh and Jason Hoyte are Sugar& Spice (respectively). They met in 1989, met up with fellow future comedian Brendhan Lovegrove and spent the next little while loose in Auckland City, surviving on their wits and living upstairs from a butcher's shop. Days were spent scrounging the odd stick of dope and making each other laugh, and nights were filled with illicit visits to city night-spots and drinking in the heady draught of life that served by youth.
"We were in Alfies one night to meet a guy who was going to sell us a 'bullet' (a small amount of marijuana)", says Brugh. "Jase and I were sitting at the bar. We looked around, and there were a lot of men wearing pink Lactose shirts and white shoes. They were sitting in each other's lap and everything. We got out of there quick smart."
After a while, their adventures and experiences ignited a creative spark that quickly flared. They started getting into theater, and after spotting Brugh in a performance of the very serious play 12 Angry Men, promoter Scott Blanks encouraged him (in a nice way) to consider comedy. Brugh took Hoyte along to his first ever rookie night at Kitty O'Brien's and Sugar&Spice was Born.
An early routine was the infamous Vegas, Vegas, where Sugar&Spice become a pair of tragic cocaine and booze-addled luvvies who spray white powder up their noses - and all over the audience - whilst telling each other how fabulous they are and the audience hideous lies about their long dead careers. The routine is a good example of how the duo work. "The first Vegas show was all improvised and it happened to go well on the night, so the characters stayed," says Hoyte. It's a high risk approach to performance that delivers a high return from the audience. Usually.
"We would find ourselves on stage dancing to a track sped to 45, wearing only tin foil underwear and covered in baby oil," says Brugh. "We're up there for 30 seconds and we realize that no one is laughing. Actually, that what we're doing isn't very funny.
Another time was at Wellington University, where the microphones didn't work, and we had to shout at the audience. It was a very biblical sketch where I sacrificed a virgin and got nailed to a cross on stage. We had to apologize to various Christian and women's groups on campus. They won't have us back."
Then there was the brilliant spandex era, where the two would cavort on stage wearing leotards playing air guitar to extravagant 80's stadium rock. It's all very physical and not a little camp: Sugar&Spice have erroneously developed a reputation amongst some fans as being a gay act. "People assume that because John wears a dress we must be rampant," says Hoyte. "But no, we aren't gay. Sometimes we need a female role, and we look around the duo, and realize there're no females here. So Jon has to wear a dress."
The show the pair are devising for '99 is a quick fire barrage approach, with lots of action, lots of scene changes and a complicatedly weaved storyline that they tell me is their "best work". But that's all they can tell me, because it hasn't been written yet. As well as the LAUGH! Festival, look out for them in the upcoming series of Pio and, great white TV gods willing, on their own show "sometime soon".
Stephen Adams, Lava Magazine, April 1999
Photographed by Mat Baker
