Daniel Maseda @ Underbelly, Bristo Square

Clad in knitwear and slacks with a cartoonish shiner around his eye, Daniel Maseda brings his infuriatingly polite character to the Fringe’s stage. Beginning by heading in the direction of the stage frenetically, yet at a snail’s pace (bashing on the door, clanging the rail and pillars at the venue’s entrance, making it his mission to pass in front of every audience member in the room), the tone is set for both a frantic and bizarre hour ahead. 

Essentially a show exclusively of clowning crowd-work, “Be Good” with Paulette is a good deal of fun about nothing in particular. There are very few moments when the act isn’t weaving through the crowd, making up nicknames for his punters or asking for their permission to do something just a little odd. And when he does finally step on stage (roughly for five minutes across the whole hour) and the lights go down (yep, the house lights are on for the rest of it), the show becomes something else entirely – animalistic, aggressive, the latter of two literal wolves.

What’s impressive is that despite the amount of time spent speaking directly to individuals, the room manages to let go of that tension so often found in clown shows heavy on the audience interaction. Turns out being polite really does work in your favour. However, with this level of interaction across 60 minutes, audience fatigue does eventually come. Whether through overstimulation or tedium, it’s a little difficult to focus on our clown for all that time. Even a hint of an end goal or pockets of storyline might be worth it to keep the audience engaged for longer, or if not, give them a moment of relief from ‘doing the full Exorcist’ (head swivelling constantly to keep your eye on the performer).

Daniel Maseda’s creation is well worth a look, especially for the clown connoisseur, and it wears the feeling of a cult sellout on its knitted cardigan sleeve.

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"Be Good" with Paulette, until 24 Aug (not 11), Underbelly Bristo Square (Dexter), 10.15pm, £8.50-£12.50