Review by Eloise Robertson

Turret at Gilded Balloon Teviot

Leo Hincks’ is an undeniably impressive performer; his talent lies in his total commitment both to moments of sincerity and those of utter ridiculousness. In these moments of pure dedication – forming the middle segment of Emotional Cowboy – he embraced the role of performer spectacularly. Yet, he seemed plagued by a constant desire to pull himself out of the piece and communicate with the audience directly.

Once you’ve entered the meta universe of a clowning show, for the performer to include a version of himself – of Leo playing Leo – with a deeply Gen-Z faux-shyness, is not at all surprising. The discomfort, however, was that this Leo he portrayed felt rather too close to home, and not quite like a performance at all. Perhaps, of course, that was the point; a theatre kid’s first attempt at sincerity, at facing up to himself in his comedy, is not meant to be without awkwardness.

Playing around with sincerity in this way was an intelligent choice, and Leo deserves kudos for holding up a mirror between the long-time performer’s disconnect from sincerity our young generation’s very same discomfort. It was a show borne of the performance generation, with his persona certainly the result of a childhood where distributing his opinions and face to an anonymous crowd was perfectly normal.

In sharing his message and making us laugh, his ideas and talent were truly abundant. I only wish he’d had the confidence to commit to them fully: to begin the show in his mock-actor character, to resist pulling himself out to wink at the audience through his best moments, and to end the performance with sincerity via his Grandma’s loving voice.

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