Fredy Beats’ Beatbox Comedy at Heldeke!

February is proving to be a fertile month for all sorts of comedy shows in Tallinn, as demonstrated by a weekend of English-language double-headers at Heldeke! this weekend. While the early shows will differ depending on whether you catch Friday’s newest production by improv troupe Green Light Comedy, or Saturday’s storytelling showcase Tell Me A Story: USA Edition, both are followed by Fredy Beats’ Beatbox Comedy, a high-energy, incredibly skillful mash-up of the artist’s varied talents for making sounds come out of his mouth, and his audience’s.

Hailing from the sunnier climes of Spain, Fredy brings subtropical style to the stage with a warm approach and fresher expectations of what an Estonian audience is capable of, though we did require a bit of initial training to ensure smooth flow of the performance. As Fredy points out early on, amongst comedians he’s the beatboxer, and to beatboxers he’s the comedian. I’d say he elevates both through the work he puts in – beatboxing is not a gag or prop (though he’s not averse to using either), but a narrative tool as necessary and effective to his performance as the way he occupies the physical space on and around the stage. He’s definitely got the attitude of someone who discovered performing early and has been thriving on the feedback ever since, now sharing with us the results of years spent making people laugh and gasp.

The structure of the show makes the most of Fredy’s instincts for hijinks and callbacks, as well as the truly stupendous amount of sounds he’s capable of producing. Audience interaction and crowd work played a significant part, interwoven delightfully with insights, anecdotes, and re-enactments from the life of a professional beatboxer. Fredy paints aural landscapes ranging from his own time in utero to the nightclubs of London, with interludes of physical comedy, song creation, and stage magic. Whether chatting directly with members of the audience, doing impressions of machines and animals alike, or getting the whole crowd involved in making sounds, Fredy is a welcoming, mischievous guide on our journey together.

If your only familiarity with beatboxing is through a screen, I can’t recommend enough going in for a live performance – and absent a beatboxing battle in the area, Fredy’s show is the finest opportunity around for a real-world experience. Informative without being pedantic, daring without being gratuitously edgelord, and just plain funny, this is a well-crafted gem of one man’s many talents, a complex layering of simple parts resulting in a symphony of entertainment.

Fredy Beats has two more performances at Heldeke! on Friday and Saturday, 07-08 February at 9pm. Get tickets to the earlier show too if you want to make a full evening of it, and keep an eye on the Heldeke! calendar for more opportunities to laugh, cry, and have fun making other sounds throughout February. 

Author: Laurie