Interview: The Kagools

Multi-award-winning physical comedy double-act The Kagools, who bring silent comedy to the stage, visit Arnolfini on Jan 25 as part of this year’s Slapstick Festival, with their new show Tutti. Here are both Kagools (actress, filmmaker and character comedian Claire Ford and actress, comedian and voice-over artist Nicola Wilkinson) to tell us more.

How did you arrive at performing wordless, physical comedy? 
We stumbled across the Kagool characters when performing sketch shows involving multiple characters. The audience loved The Kagools way more than the others, so we developed them further and never spoke again.

What pleasures and challenges does this particular medium hold?
One of the greatest pleasures of performing silent comedy is that almost everyone can enjoy it. It brings people together from all walks of life, all ages, all nationalities: that gives us a real buzz.
The main challenge is going to different venues with different layouts.  When there’s a large pillar holding up the ceiling at the front of the stage and visibility is restricted it can make for a tough show. Or when there’s a power cut and there’s a chance we might have to perform in darkness, it can get pretty hairy. Unfortunately that’s happened more than once!

Silent comedy must be a medium that travels well. Anywhere you tend to go down particularly well? (Norman Wisdom was massive in Albania apparently…)
We have been lucky enough to do shows in Australia, Vietnam, Singapore and Indonesia where we’ve gone down really well. We haven’t found a particular place to be more or less receptive, as we mainly work with facial expressions. However, we did find out that the word ‘kagool’ doesn’t travel outside the UK, so having to explain the concept has been unexpected. Nobody has a clue what it means. We plan to have a bash in China and Japan this year or next. Then Albania, seeing as there’s an opening…

How does Tutti differ from your first show Kagoolio?
We have a loose narrative in our shows, so each section does follow on but we enjoy having the freedom to see what happens because, yes, the audience plays a big part and we never know what they might do. That’s exciting. The formats of Kagoolio and Tutti are similar in that the characters’ relationship is the same, we use a large screen, which we interact with and there is almost always music. The themes we explore are different but the silliness is the same.

It must be exhausting touring such intense physical theatre. How do you keep things fresh every night?
Sounds simple but we keep things fresh by having fun. We love The Kagools and the joy it seems to bring to the audience. In turn, their energy feeds into our energy – and what happens then is anyone’s guess. It’s a privilege to have a room full of people to play with so we make the most of every moment.

How are you feeling about appearing at Slapstick?
We’re super excited about performing at Slapstick. We’ve wanted to be involved for years and we can’t wait to get there and have fun. It’s fantastic that the festival champions the style of comedy we’re into and the organisers clearly love the history and heritage of physical comedy. Quite frankly, who wouldn’t?

The Kagools perform at Arnolfini on Thursday, Jan 25 at 9pm as part of Slapstick 2018. They also appear at the Slapstick Silent Comedy Gala at Colston Hall on Friday, Jan 26. For more info, visit www.slapstick.org.uk/slapstick-2018-events, www.colstonhall.org/shows/the-kagools-tutti and www.colstonhall.org/shows/silent-comedy-gala
The Kagools appear as part of Slapstick’s UK City of Circus and Circus 250 strands.

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