Chatter | Spencer Novich
Image: Snap Factory
Great art happens when the artist is willing and able to externalise the most true and human parts of themselves on stage for an audience. Chatter is absurd, funny, confronting, and feels deeply real and undeniably honest. It is a compelling rollercoaster of an hour that loops through the silly and sad with a deft artistic hand and slick sound and lighting design. This solo work by Spencer Novich was performed at this year's Brisbane Festival, exploring chronic illness, the inner critic, and the choices we make, in a highly original way.
Image: Carrington Spires
Spencer Novich is a superb modern clown. He has a very warm and cheeky stage presence that he can flip with lightning speed into an incredible intensity. Without giving away the fun of it, Chatter features many hilarious clowning elements including classic clowning discovery, play and comic sound effects, as well as the less-than-classic use of a shock collar, modesty black balloons, and of course Spencer’s signature sound-bite mime/movement montages. In these sound-bite acts, literally every second or two a new sound effect or snippet of dialogue is brought alive by Spencer’s masterful larger than life physicality - impossible to look away from.
The styling of the show is super weird and captivating in its variety. Scenes include a combination of voiceless physical pieces, moments speaking directly to and interacting with the audience, as well as dialogue with a bodiless voice. There is a lot of surprise in the trajectory of the show as it moves from the hilarious to moments that are incredibly tense and raw, and spins back around again. Spencer manages to keep the hour feeling alive and somehow off-the-cuff, even when you know every moment is meticulously planned to maintain this balance between the serious content of the show and something that is enjoyable and engaging for audiences.
Spencer is masterful in his audience interaction in this show. It can be difficult to use the audience so much while maintaining control over the tone of the room. Here it doesn’t feel overbearing or unkind though, rather just a little tense in an exciting way, with the audience keen (or at the least, willing) to go along with it. Like all elements of Chatter, the audience work was seamlessly woven into the work, resulting in an incredibly tight and polished performance. The lighting by Marika Kent and sound design by Steve Toulmin (and there is a lot of light and sound design in this chaotic and chattery hour) is sharp, clear and really compliments the action on stage, making this one person show feel energetic and varied.
Chatter explores Spencer's personal confrontation with an adult chronic illness diagnosis, and what will happen next. He presents a complicated relationship with art, pain and living with the inescapable chatter of an anxious mind. Spencer presents a work that is both extremely personal and specific, while also being accessible and relatable to anyone challenged with life-changing choices they didn’t ask for (painfully universal). I only wish that I had been able to review this show at the start of its season, so I could have told everyone I know that they simply had to see it. I hope Spencer chooses to share it again.
Chatter played at West End Electric from 23-27 September 2025 as part of the 2025 Brisbane Festival.
Image: Hanjie Chow
