Doktor Kaboom and the Wheel of Even More Science!

“This is a high-energy, purposeful show that for all the staging and kaboomery is ultimately a wonderful piece of auld-fashioned storytelling.”

The greatest feeling at Edinburgh Fringe is being there at the start of something big. I have a poster somewhere from when Bill Bailey was still small enough to be playing Pleasance Courtyard. The same air of excited anticipation can be felt anywhere near the orbit of Doktor Kaboom. Still only in its second year, this is a show that will (hopefully) become a Fringe staple an explosive mix of sound science, infotainment, madcap personality, and a makeshift hovercraft made out of an auld poker table ridden by a kid holding the most powerful electric leafblower money can buy.

We enter to see the titular Wheel of Even More Science which, like the senses, both opens and closes the spectrum of visible awesomeness. This will determine which experiments we’re going (and sadly not going) to get to see today. It’s the first of several madcap devices which bring order to the safety-conscious chaos hurtling from off the stage. Doktor Kaboom is the most serious funny person, possibly ever. He is a man on a mission with messages that need to be heard, especially by little ears.

First, he talks about self-esteem. The importance of visualising our goals and dreams as well as of sharing our problems before they make us buckle like an empty tin of paint full of steam. In an age when young people are deliberately bombarded with reasons to doubt themselves, reasons to give up or never try, it’s more than important that this essential scaffolding gets unboxed by an authority figure of such gravity. Ya?!

Second, Doktor Kaboom tells us and shows us how the scientific method works, how science is a team game, how science is about asking questions and showing our working out even if the answer is unexpected. For an extremely, atomic-level silly show – one that involves a catapult and many, many bananas – this is no mean feat of storytelling.

In her notebook, the one with a Dodge Tradesman Maxivan and a set of bongos on the cover, Daughter 1.0 (8 years) wrote: “I went to Doktor Kaboom and the wheel of even more sience! when I walked in I saw a masive wheel, a giant test tube and some red cups. We wanted to pick a thing to do and he would turn the wheel and sing “round and round she goes where she stops no body knows!” And witch ever thing it landed on we would do! the first we did a steam explosion then a hover craft, then a teenager in a bag and a vacume cleaner then, he did a banana catapult! I liked the bit where the hover craft flew across the Stage! I realy enjoyed it”

Daughter 2.0 (5 years) was the first child called up to participate. Obviously, it was the best part of the show almost as much for Doktor Kaboom’s patient, but Germanically firm, direction and encouragement as for Daughter 2.0’s innate talent and wonderfulness. Each of the children called up was given an experience they will never forget. It was a joy to behold. This is a high-energy, purposeful show that for all the staging and kaboomery is ultimately a wonderful piece of auld-fashioned storytelling.

Four years ago we awarded our first (and until now) only seven-star review. Like ‘Morgan & West: Unbelievable Science’ Doktor Kaboom is enlightening Scotland’s capital with a show that promotes learning for learning’s sake and which demonstrates that science done proper is really, really fun. To the mix he’s added an essential and urgent parabasis about how vulnerable our kids’ mental health is and what can be done to strengthen it.

Get your goggles, gloves, and labcoats on and go see this!