Dogs.  Both the bane of performances ( a yapping terrier can break an audience’s concentration pretty quickly )  but also  a gift for  experienced performers. I remember seeing Paul Yeoman of the Crazy Idiots ( terrible name but a terrific group ) dressed as  the quintessential  bowler-hatted Englishman abroad  kneeling on all fours and  fighting for a baked potato skin with a dog to the horror/fascination/amusement of the audience. Paul won the fight (  a tug of war using teeth ) and then had to eat the skin -  half of which was covered in dog slobber.

Wurre Wurre from Antwerp used a real dog in one of their shows. Wurre Wurre are 2 men with a peculiar Belgian sense of humour. They had a dog who was very laid back in public and  they exploited this character trait  for  all it was worth. All three wore sunglasses, a nice detail being that as the sunglasses didn’t fit the dog comfortably the 2 performers wore sunglasses that didn’t fit them comfortably either. All three pairs were somewhat askew on the noses.

The dog set off followed by the 2 performers who mimicked everything the dog did – which wasn’t an awful lot but when done in triplicate became both extremely funny and extremely odd.