Fraser Hooper will perform at the 2015 Auckland International Buskers Festival this weekend.
Fraser Hooper will perform at the 2015 Auckland International Buskers Festival this weekend.
Mime Fraser Hooper plans to pack a pretty big punch this Auckland Anniversary Weekend with his slapstick boxing show.
The London-born performer will be one of nine buskers - ranging from jugglers and dancers to contortionists, acrobats, fire eaters and more - to perform as part of the Auckland InternationalBuskers Festival at the waterfront from Friday to Monday.
Hooper's performance, inspired by his hero Charlie Chaplin, involves a pair of "massive" boxing gloves, a sampler for sound effects, and a lot of "gentle" audience participation.
Now a Wellingtonian, Hooper has toured the show for about four years. It's taken him all over the world, from Tokyo and Tasmania to Italy and Switzerland, and he even hopes to make it to Lapland, the northernmost region in Finland, later this year.
Clowning was a childhood dream for the veteran joker who has now been doing it for 25 years.
People heading down to the waterfront to see his 40-minute performances can expect a lot of mucking around, and plenty of fun, Mr Hooper said.
The Auckland International Buskers Festival this Anniversary Weekend will feature nine different acts from as far away as Spain, Mexico, the United States and Canada.
Festival spokeswoman Cara Cantwell said all acts were free to watch, but a donation for the performers would be appreciated - as that was how they made their living.
There are six sites at which the buskers can be seen from midday Friday - the Viaduct, Downtown (Lower Queen St), Princes Wharf, Karanga Plaza (Wynyard Quarter) and Queens Wharf. On Friday and Saturday, performances will be at Market Square in the Viaduct from 7.30pm.
For details of Hooper's performances and others, go to auckland buskersfestival.co.nz/programme (schedule subject to change).
