I was very taken at Fringe World 2015 when I saw Wyatt Nixon-Lloyd: 200 Voicemails. It was about what Mr Nixon-Lloyd found when he retrieved several years of unheard voicemails from his phone. As someone who causes major commotions among friends when I deign to send text messages, and who’s received 45 ‘likes’ (and counting) when I announced last night I’d finally done a Facebook post from a handheld device, I could appreciate his disdain of telecommunications technology.
When I got home from Mr Nixon-Lloyd’s show, I made a note that he was: ‘Cute, cool, funny, but also a little vulnerable. Irresistible.’
He’s won me.
I saw one-tenth of the festival in 2015. Few performers had his energy. And how refreshing not to be bombarded with four-letter words. So the only time he used one, it made an impact.
He’s back in 2017 in Wyatt Nixon-Lloyd: Parallel Univers-ity. The blurb says: ‘In our one-hour course you’ll meet the versions of Wyatt that made different (better) decisions! Marvel at the alternate worlds where he went to Harvard or Hawaii or even SPACE!’
Some intriguing possibilities, which I’m confident he’ll exploit well.
The main publicity image is kind of a cross between the two opening titles of Doctor Who during Tom Baker’s era: a time tunnel and a journey through the stars, with the face of the title character in the middle.
I’m pleased he’s performing at The Flaming Locomotive, which is run by Allan Girod.
A year ago, I blogged that Allan had recently won two awards, and how I was present when he received both of them. You can now make that three awards, and yes, I was there to see him accept The Flaming Locomotive’s prize for Best New Program at Fringe World 2016. His vision, he’d told me, was to have a venue produced for artists by artists. He achieved that last year. This time, he’s added two performing spaces.
I’m interested in what both these artists will do next, but for the moment, you can see Wyatt Nixon-Lloyd: Parallel Univers-ity at the Flaming Locomotive AGWA Driver Room on Jan 24, 25, 27 and 28, with previews on Jan 20 and 21.
