After a seven-year hiatus from the Edinburgh Fringe, award-winning comedic mime extraordinaire Trygve Wakenshaw (pronounced Trig-Vee) made a triumphant return in 2024 with his brand-new show, Silly Little Things – and now it’s heading to Oxford as part of a UK tour running through May and June.
Ranked among the Top 5 best-reviewed comedy shows at the Fringe, this sold-out hit is at once subversive and sublime – a masterclass in mime from the New Zealand-born performer who has significantly shaped the modern clowning scene.
A graduate of the prestigious École Philippe Gaulier – the renowned Paris clown school whose alumni include Sacha Baron Cohen and Emma Thompson – Wakenshaw is celebrated for his unique blend of mime, physical theatre and cheeky idiocy.
Known for pushing boundaries and embracing eccentricity, his performances are described as mad, risqué and uniquely brilliant. In Silly Little Things, Wakenshaw builds an experimental playground where absurdity reigns and his boundless imagination takes centre stage.
Spinning ridiculous scenes from the smallest of comic ideas, he conjures slapstick brilliance and moments of surreal charm that embrace the very spirit of the Fringe: playful, evolving, and joyfully unexpected.
The show explores friendship and magic, and – as Wakenshaw puts it- “what more could we want, really?” Hollywood actor and magic enthusiast Neil Patrick Harris agrees: “Exquisite, uncanny physical performer in a silent show about a magician and his rabbit. Next level miming.”
Silly Little Things follows a string of international hits for Wakenshaw, whose earlier shows Squidboy, Kraken, and Nautilus sold out at festivals around the world. He also tours Different Party, a celebrated collaboration with best friend Barnie Duncan, and performs in the children’s show Monsterrr with Toboso Theatre.
Wakenshaw is currently based in Prague, where he performs regularly in Pluto as part of Laterna Magika at the Czech National Theatre. He also runs clowning workshops for locals and expats, encouraging participants to “be the most idiot version of themselves”.
As a founding member of Secret Theatre Prague, he stages bold, English-language productions in non-traditional venues – creating theatre experiences centred on intimacy, connection, and story.
He is also the CEO of Rucks’s Leather Interiors International s.r.o., a project aimed at bringing more physical comedy to Prague through performances and workshops. And yes- he occasionally posts on his fledgling Instagram vlog (though only two episodes exist… so far).
Following its acclaimed Edinburgh run, Silly Little Things now invites Oxford audiences to experience Wakenshaw’s beautifully strange, wordless world – a place of genius-level mime, big laughs, and unexpected heart.
