“Doktor Kaboom occupies a place in the life of EdFringe like how Bismarck occupied a place in the realpolitik of 19th-century Europe.”
Editorial Rating: 7 out of 5 Stars (Outstanding)
There’s a rumour doing the rounds that Doktor Kaboom is planning an EdFringe27 show for adult audiences and my girls are not happy. Doktor Kaboom belongs to us, they insist, in that same howling protest voice they use when I turn off their Disney+ to catch the latest test match scores. Doktor Kaboom occupies a place in the life of EdFringe like how Bismarck occupied a place in the realpolitik of 19th-century Europe. The good Doktor’s strength of personality, his unshakable determination to outflank and outperform all other petty rivals, has delivered, year on year, a monumental show with some monumental messages. The Doktor is an institution in the way that Max Planck is an institute to which even my girls’ mighty professorial Grandad must attend when summoned to talk serious science.
He is missing out. This year’s edition of Doktor Kaboom is a noble vintage with the added pleasure of seeing the welcome return of the wheel of science, which was here last year, but not on stage. On the wheel are listed the demonstrations that have made the name Kaboom famous across continents and oceans and of interest to numerous security services and international watchdogs. Which will we see today? Let’s take a spin and find out.
In her EdFringe notebook, the one with Mary E. Brunkow and a group of happy auld mice on the cover, Daughter 1.0 (11 yrs) wrote: “Doktor kaboom and the wheel of Science was A-Mazing! I loved the vacum cannon and the hovercraft. But my favorite was Flour Power. For Obvious reasons. Flour Power was my favourite because of how much fire some flour and a candle can make. It’s incredible. Can’t wait to see this next year!”
In a letter to her Devonian (place and/or period) grandmother, Daughter 2.0 (8yrs) wrote: “Today I went to see docter Kaboom! It’s crazy fun and exciting. There are many experaments and One it called the hovercraft. its a table top with a shower curtin atached to it with holles and a hole in the table top were he puts the most powerful leaf blower money can bye and I Got to sit on the hovercraft and I squizzed the handdel and then got pushed to the other side of the room! I felt excited when on the hover craft and joyful.”
Only an Amazon-sized forest of bay trees could produce sufficient laurels for this show, which rests on not a single one. It’s not just the concept, or the performance, or the impact, or the lifetime’s worth of memories, or the did-he-really-just-do-thattery – it’s the consistency that makes this show such a family favourite. It’s like if The Almighty stepped out of Python’s ‘Holy Grail’, went back, bat in hand, to the crease and scored a century in under 70mins. The greatest Doktor since W.G. Grace continues to astound and astonish audiences with a show that is truly in a league of its own.
Come for the science. Stay for finely tuned spontaneity. Get your lab coats long enough to cover any Bundesflagge kilts you’ve slipped out past your valet on and go see this!
Get Your Coats On 
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