Gamarjobat

The last time they were here, they had the crowd in stitches from their rendition of the movie “Rocky” (theirs was entitled “Boxer”). Local funnyman Harith Iskandar even pointed out that their act was the “most entertaining show I have seen in years!”. That was a good two years ago though, and it’s high time that the Japanese comedy duo of Ketch! and Hiro-pon is re-introduced to Malaysia. Gamarjobat, which means “hello” in Georgian, is the union of solo pantomine artist Hiro-pon and street performer Ketch!. Formed in 1999, Gamarjobat has been steadily winning audiences worldwide with their brand of silent killer comedy – okay, so we made that term up. But in a nutshell, Gamarjobat performs their act without spoken word (but with loads of grunts and sound effects), using mime, sketches and physical comedy to deliver the message.

Dressed in identical suits and sporting red (Ketch!) and gold (Hiro-pon) mohawks, Gamarjobat has won several awards for their brand of comedy including the Dubble Act Award and The Tap Water Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Brighton Festival award for Best International Act. The United Kingdom loves them; Gamarjobat has appeared in shows like “Blue Peter”, “The Paul O’ Grady Show” and was recently on the show, “The Slammer” which is a quirky talent show set in a fictional prison. They won, of course. For their upcoming show, Gamarjobat will boldly take on the wild, wild West with their take on spaghetti Westerns. In between the fast-paced comedy, we are told to also expect a dash of romance and revenge (always a good combination, we think!). To open the show, the duo will perform first their signature sketches and physical comedy and will also experiment with some audience interaction with the help of a beat box! If you’ve never seen Gamarjobat live, this is your chance as of May 2009, the duo will be shipped to Broadway, New York City to perform at the New Victory Theatre for three weeks. Knowing how much talent the boys have, we’re pretty sure that worldwide fame will follow and then, who knows when they’ll be back? Don’t miss this, people!

Text Sarah Chan