Kaput creates a reel-to-reel disaster

With the flick of a po’ boy cap, Kaput takes us warp speed back to the golden era of black and white silent films – the days of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Mabel Normand and Fatty Arbuckle.

Mime creator Tom Flanagan, who trained in the circus arts from the age of five, mixes Kaput’s 55-minute show with comedy, acrobatics and chaos – all without uttering a word.

Kaput tells the story of a bumbling, larger-than-life Mr. Fixit, who despite his best efforts at completing simple tasks produces a spiraling series of catastrophic events.

Funny, engaging and a dangerously clever show, reviewers have called it “elegant buffoonery at its finest” sandwiched in a large helping of heart-stopping acrobatics.

Flanagan’s entire life has led up to Kaput after his parents enrolled him at the Flying Fruit Fly Circus, Australia’s national youth circus that offers elite level training.

“I was hyperactive and there was a circus school around the corner. I trained daily and I’ve gone out with an amazing array of skills,” says Flanagan.

With his formidable bag of tricks, the slim, five-foot, four-inch clown-acrobat could have told any story. But he chose to salute the silent era stooges.

“I love vaudeville. I grew up in a large circus community and they’re a big audience of the silent film era. It’s their facial expressions and when you become silent, you are forced to communicate in other ways. Sometimes we talk too much. It makes things confusing and complex. Clowning is much more simple – black or white.”

His slapstick humour and acrobatic pratfalls have been deliberately woven together to attract as wide an audience as possible.

“I like to go to a party where Grandma is sitting in chair, Mom and Dad are around, and the kids and dogs are running around lighting firecrackers on the hill. Kaput is a family show everyone can enjoy. It’s a much fuller experience and I get to play to whole vast demographic of people.”

It took six months on and off to develop the show and he tours it for about nine months of the year.

“I’ve been thinking lately it keeps getting better. It keeps developing. It’s a wonderful world and I’m finally tweaking it. When you create a show, you use a broader palette. We say a show doesn’t get good until it’s had 100 performances. I’m a strong believer in not forcing it. I believe in letting it come out when it wants.”

Ultimately, Flanagan wants to ramp up the laughter quotient and enjoy the world.

“I just want to have fun and hope everyone else does too.”