Rob Auton @ Just the Tonic, The Caves
More puns than buns in Rob Auton's hair-raising show
The show opens much as a barbershop seance would; creepy ceremonial music marking the entrance of a man donning a tie and cape made of hair. It is Rob Auton, a man who can’t get his head around the subject of hair despite being overgrown in it. The Hair Show is the culmination of Auton researching and growing his for months.
It is also a piece that combs through the utility, social stigmas and stereotypes of this under-analysed mainstay of life. Important questions like ‘Is hair human garnish?’ and ‘How did my eyebrows know when to stop growing?’ suggests he has been so awash in self inquiry he's reached expert status. When jokes become tangled, Auton digresses to facial expressions and bangs out non sequiturs with his signature droll sense of humour – it is as dry as dandruff.
Disappointingly ‘politically correct,’ he veers away from discussing hair in the less physically apparent parts of the body. In the end an unexpected emotional twist has him likening hair with familial bonding, and a newfound personal belief system after battling the great stigma of his 'bushiness' from his family and society at large. It's weird and wacky but for a show only as skin deep as its topic, Auton delivers entertainment that flows as well as his mane in the breeze.
Rob Auton: The Hair Show, Just the Tonic at The Caves (The Fancy Room), until 26 Aug, 3.55pm, £5/PWYW