By Narayan Saimbi
On June 27th, Kid Koala (real name, Eric San) put on his show The Storyville Mosquito at the Montreal International Jazz Festival. A show consisting of puppetry, DJing, a live band and cinematography. The aim is to perform and shoot a 2 hour film during this performance. In short, this show was phenomenal.
The Storyville Mosquito opens with Kid Koala introducing the concept of the show to the audience, as well as the crew that are helping bring this creative lovechild to life. Then the movie begins.
The performance follows a musical mosquito, who lands in a new city with the dream of becoming a star. Accompanied by his clarinet, and pieces such as “Chaux Business” and “Chaux Stopper”, the mosquito has high hopes and aspirations. In addition, the story simultaneously follows a mantis trying to keep a struggling restaurant from going under.
Throughout the show, Kid Koala utilises turntables, glockenspiels, soundboards, digital instruments and a string quartet to portray the emotions of the puppets in the story. By doing this, Kid Koala evokes a multitude of senses within the audience without using any dialogue (apart from an audience-mandated chant of “MOS-QUI-TO” at one point). This was incredibly impressive, doubled by the fact that a team of cinematographers were following the performance onstage throughout the entire show. The whole thing was perfectly coordinated and truly showcased the creative talent that Montreal has to offer.
After the show, I had a chance to look around the set and talk to the crew behind the performance. Assistant Puppeteer Elizee Millot was hired “straight out of school” for the production, and told me the crew started working on the sets in Montreal in 2018. Whilst COVID did halt production for some time, the team “started up again” in 2022 and the show has “toured internationally” ever since.
Kid Koala added to this, stating that he “loves this show” and highlighted the ease of finding creatives in Montreal. He stated that “everyone knew someone” who could offer their skills to the production. This deliberate inclusion of Montreal talent highlights the life and creativity of the city and adds to the appeal of The Storyville Mosquito. The continued utilisation of grassroots talent for this international show is a choice that is nothing short of brilliant.
Not only is the creative talent involved absolutely incredible, but the chemistry and coordination between the crew members cannot be manufactured. These people have shared lives and shared experiences, working together to put on this performance all over the world. Sometimes they are a million miles from home, but they all have one thing keeping them together. And for me, that is absolutely beautiful.
Unfortunately, Kid Koala has not yet announced a UK tour for this show. However, the artist is in the UK to perform the debut Gorillaz album in August, a project that he showcased his DJ skills for back in 2001. The Storyville Mosquito is next touring in Mexico starting October 30th, followed by the Ottawa tour in early December.
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